World News Thread

[N.E. Brigand]

It is possible that the raid was not entirely unrelated. The linked article did mention that Tate's social media posts helped confirm that he was in Romania to be arrested. Whether or not it was specifically that pizza box.

I had thought this was hilarious when I had no idea who Tate was except a dude who challenged a girl to a dick measuring contest and lost. Now that it turns out that he is a sex trafficker and possibly a rapist, it's no longer funny. I just hope they lock him up before he can hurt someone else.

Eta: more news sources are repeating the pizza version. According to them, Romanian police had an outstanding warrant for Tate but didn't know for sure if he was in the country. They were watching his social media, and the pizza boxed him.

Elon Musk has said that one of his goals for purchasing Twitter was to combat sexual predation, and just a month after he lets Tate return to that platform, Tate's use of Twitter (allegedly) helps legal authorities confirm his location. Maybe Musk is playing twelve-dimensional chess?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Or maybe not.

[RoseMorninStar]

Elon Musk has said that one of his goals for purchasing Twitter was to combat sexual predation, and just a month after he lets Tate return to that platform, Tate's use of Twitter (allegedly) helps legal authorities confirm his location. Maybe Musk is playing twelve-dimensional chess?

Or maybe not.

Yeah, I'm thinking not.

I don't think Musk is devoid of all intelligence, but I think his 'brilliance' (*cough*) lies in being able to spot talent/potential and use it to his advantage/take credit for the work/brilliance of others. He is able to do this in part because it seems his comfort level with risk is nearly boundless. People remember what works and, until Twitter, tended to forget things that didn't.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It is possible that the raid was not entirely unrelated. The linked article did mention that Tate's social media posts helped confirm that he was in Romania to be arrested. Whether or not it was specifically that pizza box.

Screen_Shot_2022-12-29_at_23.56.47.png

I had thought this was hilarious when I had no idea who Tate was except a dude who challenged a girl to a dick measuring contest and lost. Now that it turns out that he is a sex trafficker and possibly a rapist, it's no longer funny. I just hope they lock him up before he can hurt someone else.

Eta: more news sources are repeating the pizza version. According to them, Romanian police had an outstanding warrant for Tate but didn't know for sure if he was in the country. They were watching his social media, and the pizza boxed him.

It's a nice story, but of course it is not true (probably).

[Frelga]

The only bit of real information in all this is the quote from the Romanian source, cited in Substack, cited in the tweet thread. While it doesn't confirm the pizza story but it doesn't refute it either.

Sources close to the investigation stated, for Gândul , that shortly after the completion of the computer expertise, the authorities waited for the right moment to catch the Tate brothers, who were always out of the country.

After seeing, including on social networks, that they were together in Romania, the DIICOT prosecutors mobilized the special troops of the Gendarmerie and descended, by force, on their villa in Pipera, but also on other addresses.

Clearly the Romanian authorities were prepared to move in, meaning a lot of paperwork and legwork had been done.

The Substack points out that Tate made other posts from Romania, but those were of places where he had been.

It doesn't seem too farfetched to surmise that the timestamped video of the place where Tate was right then, in the bathrobe, indicating that he was planning to stay put, contributed to the decision to move then and there.

So my guess is that it wasn't "Oh, he's in the country, look at the pizza" which the police must have known, but "looks like he'll be at home long enough for us to get there."

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

I guess you missed this part, from the AP article, in which the spokesperson for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT categorically denied that it is true:

Bolla, from DIICOT, refuted widespread claims in the media that an address brandished on a pizza box that featured in a video posted by Andrew Tate on Twitter earlier this week led authorities to his arrest. She said the claims are “funny, but no.”

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is exactly why I never believed the pizza box story.

[Frelga]

Not the folklorized version, no. As I said above, there must have been a lot of work done that couldn't have happened if the police didn't even know Tate was in the country. But unless there was some connection, as I also said above, then it's a heck of a coincidence.

The alternative, less legend-worthy version, is that Tate knew he was about to be arrested and attacked Greta to make it look like he is being persecuted by the elite world order, or the lizard people, or whoever these people believe persecutes them.

The conspiracy theory has, indeed, been taken up by, big surprise, Musk and Putin's apologists like Michael Tracy. But I don't think Tate was smart enough to think of that.

Or dumb enough to just wait to be arrested, for that matter. Maybe he started driving off, but his Bugatti ran out of gas.

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[Eldy]

Andrew Tate keeps loosing to Greta(s):



(The pizza box thing seemed a bit too silly to be true, but truth shouldn't prevent us from appreciating life's little cosmic ironies.)

[RoseMorninStar]

(For anyone who may not get the reference, it's from Game of Thrones)

[Frelga]

Not the least plausible explanation.
@Kalkalate

My favorite theory is that someone tipped Tate that GRETA was going after him, and being Tate he assumed they were talking about Greta Thunberg, which was why he made that initial tweet calling her out lmao

[River]

The pizza box story has taken on a life of its own. It's a hilarious series of coincidences: idiot misogynist goes after a known female climate activist on Twitter, she whacks him in the manhood, he responds by doxxing himself, and next thing you know he's arrested for human trafficking in the Balkans. The legends write themselves, which may not be fair to the Romanian police...though I bet they're getting a giggle out of it. He had more than two dozen cars and not only did he fail to flee but now the whole world believes he was caught stuffing himself with pizza...

[RoseMorninStar]

It is a story that has taken on a life of it's own; not just an idiot misogynist (and a very outspoken one at that) but (seemingly) a corrupt lech who traffics in human beings. It's a story hope-filled as we enter a New Year... bad guy (hopefully) brought to justice. Now, can Greta work on another one? (Ahem)

In other world news I'm kinda ashamed to just now be realizing how bad the impact of the floods have been in Pakistan. I knew they had terrible floods this year but, the scale of the impact is awful. Pakistan only generates about 1% carbon emissions but is likely to be the 8th most likely affected country.

[Eldy]

I'm reading a BBC article about the flooding now. I'm not great at staying on top of the news these days, and the severity of them had passed me by, too.

In unrelated world news:

Former Pope Benedict XVI dies in Vatican monastery aged 95 - CNN

[RoseMorninStar]

Barbara Walters passed too.


Meanwhile.. the Tate memes overfloweth and they are hilarious.

[Frelga]

In Brasil, Bolsonaro's thugs are breaking into government buildings, to the cheers of the US insurgents.

[N.E. Brigand]

Maybe Steve Bannon and Jason Miller can be prosecuted for their roles in two different attempted coups. They've been advising Bolsonaro's people.

[N.E. Brigand]

Here is video apparently showing Bolsonaro's supporters attacking a mounted policeman and his horse, knocking the policeman to the ground where he is beaten.

[Eldy]

Do we know why they didn't do this before Lula's inauguration a week ago? Were they waiting for there to be less of a security presence? It was reportedly planned enough that people were bused in in an organized fashion.

[Eldy]

The ol' switcheroo.



(The cheering is in a video that for some reason isn't appearing as part of the embed, but can be seen if you click through to view the tweet on Twitter.)