Society's ChildS


Arrow Up

76% of early voters say YES to constitutional changes, which could keep Putin in power until 2036 - exit polls

Russian voting booth
© Sputnik / Artur Lebedev
More than three-quarters of those who have voted so far support Russia's constitutional amendments, according to exit polls. If passed, the changes could allow President Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036.

Conducted by VCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center) at 800 polling stations in 25 regions of Russia, 76 percent of those who replied said they voted to pass the amendments, with 23.6 percent voting against.

The proposed package of changes would make major alterations to the basic law. Included in the proposed constitution is the 'nullification' of President Putin's time served in office, opening up the possibility for him to serve two more terms and potentially remain as leader until 2036. However, most credible analysts think it's more about keeping his options open, and avoiding the 'lame duck' status, rather than remaining in power until he's 83.

Comment: Interestingly, there was a DDoS attack launched from the UK against the Russian Election commission during the vote.


Attention

Germany investigating 30,000 (!) suspects in pedophile probe

hand stop child
The cybercrime unit of the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia is investigating some 30,000 suspects in a massive online child abuse probe, officials said on Monday.

The state justice ministry said the extent of abuse taking place and being shared online was "deeply disturbing."

"I hadn't reckoned with the extent of child abuse on the internet," said state Justice Minister Peter Beisenbach.

Officers are investigating some 30,000 unknown suspects, the ministry said. "We want to drag perpetrators and supporters of child abuse out of the anonymity of the internet," said the ministry.

Those being investigated were suspected of sharing content that depicted fictitious or real acts of abuse. The investigation began last October with the arrest of a suspect in the Bergisch Gladbach municipality near Cologne.

The first offender, a 27-year-old soldier, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May and placed in a psychiatric facility for an indefinite period.

Comment: It's like this everywhere, hiding just beneath the surface of 'respectable' human society. If most people knew the truth, many would not be able to function.


Chess

'This is a period of insanity': Soviet grandmaster Anatoly Karpov on chess racism debate

Anatoly Karpov
© REUTERS / David MercadoRussian chess grandmaster and former world champion Anatoly Karpov
Soviet and Russian chess legend Anatoly Karpov has commented on the recent debate over racism in the game, which has caused outrage on social media, calling it 'a period of total insanity' which has nothing to do with chess.

"A period of total insanity has begun," the former world champion said. "What does it have in common with the centuries-old game?"

Last week, John Adams, an economist who represented the Australian Chess Federation in 2015, revealed he had been contacted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio station in Sydney to comment on the matter of racial controversy in chess, because white always moves first.


"I just received a phone call from an ABC Sydney based producer seeking a comment about the game of chess! The ABC have taken the view that chess is RACIST given that white always go first!" he wrote on Twitter after dismissing the request, sparking an online debate.

Pistol

Utopia: Gunshots interrupt interview inside activist-run CHAZ enclave in Seattle amid reports of 'active shooter'

CHAZ seattle shooting
© Twitter / Andy Ngô @MrAndyNgo
Several gunshots were heard during the taping of an interview inside the activist-held Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ/CHOP) in Seattle, Washington. The area has seen several shootings in recent weeks.

A video posted on social media shows an interview being conducted inside CHAZ. Suddenly, what appears to be gunfire is heard in the background. "That's not a firework," the person being interviewed says. Several people are then seen running down the street.

Reports indicated there is an "active shooter" in the area, and videos from the scene showed people hiding in panic. Some were even filmed arming themselves and going to search for the attacker.

Comment:


Syringe

Fracking 'powerhouse' Chesapeake Energy files for bankruptcy protection, $9 billion in debt

Fracking
© AP Photo/Ralph Wilson, FileChesapeake Energy, a shale drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, filed for bankruptcy protection June 28, 2020.
Chesapeake Energy, a shale drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Oklahoma City-based company said Sunday that it was a necessary decision given its debt. Its debt load is currently nearing $9 billion. It has entered a plan with lenders to cut $7 billion of its debt and said it will continue to operate as usual during the bankruptcy process.

The oil and gas company was a leader in the fracking boom, using unconventional techniques to extract oil and gas from the ground, a method that has come under scrutiny because of its environmental impact.

Other wildcatters followed in Chesapeake's path, racking up huge debts to find oil and gas in fields spanning New Mexico, Texas, the Dakotas and Pennsylvania. A reckoning is now coming due with those massive debts needing to be serviced by Chesapeake and those that followed its path.

Comment: RT reports:
A study released by the global accountancy firm Deloitte this month said that the US shale industry is entering a period of "great compression" and could face up to $300 billion in losses and a wave of bankruptcies due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 200 US oil producers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past five years.



TV

GOD TV is dead? Israel kicks US-based evangelical Christian channel off air

Friends of Zion sign in Jerusalem
© AFP / Thomas CoexFILE PHOTO. A woman walks past a poster on a street in downtown Jerusalem by the pro-Israel Christian evangelist group "Friends of Zion."
Israel has ordered US-based evangelical GOD TV off air, accusing the obviously religious broadcaster of concealing its missionary agenda which allegedly targeted the Jewish population of the country.

The seven-year broadcasting contract secured by GOD TV and Israel's main cable provider earlier this year proved to be very short-lived. The broadcaster's Israeli subsidiary, Shelanu TV, was taken off air after a review by the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, the regulator's chairman Asher Biton announced. The channel must now stop broadcasting in Israel within seven days.

The channel's license agreement stated "explicitly that the channel is intended for the Christian population," Biton explained, yet Shelanu TV was also allowed to "integrate several programs with content designated for Israel." After the oversight, however, the council concluded that the channel was not appealing to the Christian population in Israel but rather specifically to Jews, and that thus "the characterization of the channel that was submitted does not reflect its broadcasts."

The decision to silence the evangelical channel was welcomed by some Israeli hard-liners. International spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron and NYT contributor Yishai Fleisher, for instance, hailed the regulator's move, proclaiming that "Israel is Jewish" altogether and apparently 'forgetting' about non-Jewish citizens of the country.

Comment: Evangelicals in the U.S. really need to give up the illusion of the "special relationship" they think they have with Israel. The hard-line Israeli's are tolerant of Evangelicals because this tolerance gets them military support and billions in U.S. government handouts. If it wasn't for these handouts the Israeli's would treat Evangelicals just like Palestinians, as worthless subhumans.


USA

North Carolina Sheriffs: It's not our job to enforce the governor's 'mask orders' - they are 'not constitutional'

nc sheriffs
Do it yourself.

That's essentially the message that a group of sheriffs in North Carolina are sending to the governor over what they believe are unconstitutional mask orders.

Across the country, a number of governors have issued Executive Orders mandating the use of masks while in the public.

The majority of these orders specify that persons who cannot be a minimum of six feet apart and indoors must wear a mask or face a fine or imprisonment. No one disputes that the numbers of positive cases have grown recently, but there is dispute as to what those numbers really mean.

Some believe that the states and/or federal government is skewing the numbers.

One one side, some believe the numbers are worse than what we know of and we are not told the true amount for fear of sparking nationwide panic.

On the other side, some argue the actual number of infected persons is significantly lower than what is provided and that they are using antibody tests as positive cases. Those suggest that the numbers are inflated in order to keep the economy slowed or shut down in order for democrats to remain in power.

There is an old cop saying that pertains to these theories - in every story there are three sides, his side, her side, and the truth. This means that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of the two arguments, but we may never know.

Star of David

Paperless Palestinians held hostage in Gaza by Israeli bureaucracy

palestinian identification cards documents
© Mohammed Al-HajjarAn estimated 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza hold only temporary ID cards.
Khadija al-Najjar flipped through pictures of her children and grandchildren, growing more and more agitated.

Some of her children now live in Europe or North America. But Khadija, 72, cannot visit them. She does not hold and cannot obtain a Palestinian ID even to attempt to go and visit. Without one, she has no papers to allow her passage.

She is not alone. There are an estimated 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Authority's ministry for civil affairs office there, who share her predicament. Israel stopped distributing ID cards meant for residents of the coastal strip after 2007, when Hamas took sole control of Gaza from Fatah after winning the previous year's parliamentary elections.

Khadija and her husband, Muhammad Issa al-Najjar, live in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. Muhammad was born in 1945 in Masmiya al-Kabira, a Palestinian village in the then-Gaza district (now on the Israeli side of the boundary) that was forcibly depopulated and largely destroyed in the Nakba of 1948.

Handcuffs

Two men caught with nearly $4,500 worth of illegal fireworks in New York City

confiscated fireworks New York
Fire marshals arrested two men in Manhattan on Saturday as the crackdown on illegal fireworks continues, CBS New York reports.

Anthony Quezada, 28, and Hugo Figueroa, 30, were busted during a surveillance operation.

Investigators caught them with approximately $4,500 worth of illegal fireworks.

Comment: Two men were also arrested on June 23rd by FDNY Fire Marshals in Staten Island for having $6,000 worth of fireworks, two more men were arrested on the 25th for having $2,800 worth of fireworks, and 10 individuals were also arrested on the 25th for having a trove of fireworks and three alligator carcasses.


Briefcase

DHS admits 600,000 foreign H-1B Workers employed in American jobs

foreign workers US
© Associated Press/Altaf Qadri
U.S. employers keep roughly 600,000 foreign H-1B visa workers in jobs throughout the United States, according to an unprecedented report released by the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency.

The total number of resident H-1B workers has successfully been kept secret for decades, mainly because Fortune 500 companies do not want voters to recognize the massive outsourcing of jobs for themselves and their college graduate children.

But President Donald Trump has allowed his pro-reform deputies to release the data, likely to boost his June 22 reform plans.

The DHS agency studied the shifting number of H-1Bs working in 2018 and 2019. The resident population usually declines in September as the foreign workers go home or get green cards. For most of the year, the number of working H-1Bs was about 600,000, says the report, titled "H-1B Authorized-to-Work Population Estimate."

Comment: Nothing to see here but the greed of Big Business.