Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

Russian journalists attacked while covering Portland protests: US law enforcement hit them & broke camera, colleague says


RT
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 19:43 UTC
Federal law enforcement officers
© REUTERS / Caitlin OchsFederal law enforcement officers
A Russian TV crew covering ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon has apparently been assaulted by law enforcement officers cracking down on the demonstrators.

Two Russian journalists were hurt while reporting from the scene of an intense confrontation in front of the federal court in Portland, according to a Sputnik correspondent covering the same events. Vyacheslav Arkhipov, a cameraman with a Russian Channel One, was hit with a baton and thrown to the ground. His camera was smashed by an officer.

His colleague, Yulia Olkhovskaya, was targeted while filming the protest with her phone. An officer took the device and the helmet she was wearing and pushed her to the ground, the reporter said.

A senior official from Channel One said the two were not seriously hurt in the incident, but the damage to their equipment appeared significant.

Comment: The Kremlin's press secretary, Dmirty Peskov, called the attack "outrageous" while demanding that US authorities take measures to protect the security of Russian journalists working in the US. They are unfortunately finding out that freedom of press in the US isn't what it used to be.

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Hammer

Oakland city leaders reject additional police department cuts: mayor casts tie-breaking vote

Elissa Harrington
KTVU
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 19:13 UTC
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
© Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times Via Getty ImagesOakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
Oakland City Council rejects proposal for deeper police budget cuts

The Oakland city council rejected deeper cuts to the police department, where Mayor Libby Schaaf cast the deciding vote - only hours after her home was vandalized.

"Any further cuts, real cuts will require significant reductions to our widely recognized inadequate 911 response, elimination of current police service as well as further strain of what is a well-documented understaffed police force," Schaaf said.

The Tuesday night meeting included hours of public comment with many supporting cuts to the police department.

Comment: You don't suppose this little incident reported by RT had anything to do with her vote maybe? The 'woke' continue to turn on their 'allies'.
Protesters have vandalized the home of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, splattering it with red paint and graffiti while pelting the house with fireworks. The mayor's office said the attack was meant to "terrorize" and "intimidate."


"An attack at the home of a publicly elected official does not advance democracy," the mayor's office said in a statement, noting that "vandals shot projectiles at the mayor's home, set off fireworks and graffitied her home with paint."
This attack, designed to intimidate the mayor and strike fear into her family, will not stop her from advocating for the policies she believes are in the best long-term interests of her beloved hometown. Like all Oaklanders, she supports passionate protest but does not support tactics meant to harm and terrorize others.
Oakland Police are now investigating the incident, the aftermath of which was seen in photos shared on social media.


Though the mayor has come out in favor of the BLM movement - approving of a massive street mural created to celebrate the group and forcefully speaking out against police brutality on a number of occasions in recent weeks - her not-radical-enough stance on police funding is at odds with activists' growing calls to slash department budgets or abolish them outright.


The city voted to divert more than $14 million from the Oakland Police Department budget last month, however activists and some city council members have demanded more, with two local lawmakers proposing a whopping $150 million cut in a recent budget amendment.

Schaaf ultimately provided the tie-breaking vote to shoot down the larger cut on Tuesday night, arguing it would "further impair what is already sub-standard police 911 response" and "strain Oakland's under-staffed police force."


It is not the first time anti-police brutality demonstrators descended on Schaaf's private residence. In June, some 1,000 marchers staged a protest in her Fruitvale neighborhood, calling on the mayor to defund the OPD, among other things. Following the action, the mayor's office issued a statement in support of the protesters, arguing that the "outrage across America right now needs to be heard."
It's not like Schaaf hasn't tried hard to establish her liberal cred:

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Fire

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough calls Portland protests 'peaceful' despite footage of escalating violence


RT
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 16:57 UTC
Portland riots
© Reuters/Caitlin OchsPortland riots recorded on cameras
Joe Scarborough has called protests in Portland "peaceful for the most part," less than a day after the mayor was tear-gassed in the face amid escalating violence following more than two months of demonstrations.

On his Morning Joe show Thursday, Scarborough railed against the deployment of federal agents to the city of Portland, saying they have launched "deeply disturbing attacks" against "peaceful protests, for the most part."

The MSNBC host has no doubt seen footage of federal agents arresting protesters and proceeding to throw them into unmarked vans - but perhaps he missed the videos of demonstrators growing increasingly violent after more than 50 nights of raging protests.
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Briefcase

Judge unseals Ghislaine Maxwell documents, delays release pending appeal

Rebecca Rosenberg
New York Post
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 18:59 UTC
Ghislaine Maxwell
© Jane Rosenberg | ReutersGhislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing where she was denied bail for her role aiding Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and eventually abuse of minor girls, in Manhattan Federal Court, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S. July 14, 2020 in this courtroom sketch.
A federal judge Thursday unsealed a trove of records related to the sex life of longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell — but quickly granted her legal team a stay on the release so they can appeal.

After Judge Loretta Preska delivered the ruling via video hearing in the case, she granted Maxwell's lawyer Lauren Menninger one week to file an emergency motion with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the decision.

Maxwell, who has been fighting the release, was not on the call.

Comment: Yet the judge in the case is sending mixed signals with regard to Maxwell:

Judge orders 'destruction' of Guiffre's evidence against Jeffrey Epstein

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Mr. Potato

Portland mayor cheers protesters & joins them to face tear gas, gets calls to resign anyway


RT
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 18:27 UTC
Portland's Mayor Ted Wheeler
© REUTERS / Caitlin OchsPortland's Mayor Ted Wheeler attends a protest rally.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler failed to win over a crowd of angry anti-police protesters despite rooting for their cause. But rather than seeing him as an ally against federal agents, some said he's part of the problem and has to go.

Nightly protests in Portland focused around a downtown federal courthouse have been raging for over 50 nights. The confrontations regularly escalate into rioting, and have become more volatile since the Trump administration deployed additional federal law enforcement agents to the city last week. Mayor Wheeler, who has been sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter cause, criticized the federal agents for using controversial tactics in their crackdown.

On Wednesday night, the mayor appeared before an angry crowd of around 2,000 demonstrators, who gathered behind a large fence erected around the courthouse to keep them away from the building. The reception was lukewarm at best from the start. Some people shouted, "Quit your job" as he walked towards the center of the rally, while one protester emptied a bag of trash under his feet.

Comment: Trying to appease the mob only makes things worse.

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SOTT Logo

Americans tune in to 'cancel culture' — and don't like what they see

Ryan Lizza
Politico
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 16:39 UTC
Trump Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore
© Alex Brandon/AP PhotoSupporters listen to President Donald Trump deliver a Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore during which he decried cancel culture as a political weapon of the left.
One of the few things that Barack Obama and Donald Trump agree on is cancel culture.

In the last year, as numerous public figures have become the targets of online campaigns by social media swarms, the former and current president have spoken out against the practice. "That's not activism," Obama said last November. "That's not bringing about change. If all you're doing is casting stones, you're probably not going to get that far. That's easy to do."

In a Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore, Trump said, "We want free and open debate, not speech codes and cancel culture. We embrace tolerance, not prejudice." Speaking of the left, he added that "one of their political weapons is 'cancel culture' — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America." (One commentator quickly pointed out that Trump has long been one of the most enthusiastic practitioners of cancel culture.)

We were curious how much this debate over cancel culture — which has quickly morphed from a Twitter obsession for elite journalists to a campaign rallying cry for Trump — has permeated the public consciousness. We asked our polling partner, Morning Consult, to field some questions in our weekly survey and one surprising finding is the number of Americans who now agree with Obama and Trump and want to cancel cancel culture — or at least its worst aspects.
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Sheeple

Twitter ban of QAnon conspiracy theorists only makes them stronger, & the censorship won't stop there

Helen Buyniski
RT
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 17:44 UTC
trump rally qanon teeshirt
© Reuters / Leah Millis
Twitter's threat to shadowban accounts and hashtags linked to the pro-Trump 'QAnon' psy-op has merely validated followers' persecution complex and brought them attention - while putting others who buck the establishment on notice.

When the social media giant announced it was "cracking down" on QAnon on Tuesday, barring Q-related topics from trending, blocking URLs associated with the conspiracy theory (really an ecosystem of interlinked conspiracy theories, centered around the cryptic disclosures of a supposedly high-ranking government employee going by the moniker Q), and banning Q-promoting accounts that have violated other Twitter rules, it gave QAnon followers the validation they craved.

Comment:

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Bad Guys

Geraldo Rivera: Trump 'brave' for sending good wishes to accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell

Graig Graziosi
The Independent
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 17:21 UTC
Geraldo Rivera
© Theo Wargo/Getty ImagesGeraldo Rivera
'For this judge to chicken out and not give this defendant bail, I think is copping out to the mob,' Mr Rivera said.

Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera defended Donald Trump's well-wishes to alleged child sex trafficker and Jeffery Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell on Twitter Wednesday.

During Mr Trump's coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday, he was asked about Ms Maxwell and offered his sympathies to her.

"I don't know, I haven't really been following it too much," Mr Trump said. "I just wish her well, frankly."

Mr Trump went on to say he'd met her numerous times over the years, especially when he was living in Palm Beach, Florida.

"But I wish her well, whatever it is," Mr Trump said.

Ms Maxwell is facing federal charges for allegedly helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse girls.

Comment: Rivera is right, in that Maxwell is entitled to presumption of innocence and a fair trial. Unfortunately for Ms. Maxwell, the mountain of evidence against her is going to make that a difficult proposition. She has been named by too many of Epstein's victims as the one who lured them into danger.

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X

Red Bull is right: Standing up to racism doesn't mean you have to pander to the woke mob

Micah Curtis
RT
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 16:56 UTC
racist map
'Racist' map.
The CEOs who leaked a "racist" map used at an internal Red Bull presentation have been fired. Quite right, too. While the map was wrong, people don't want woke politics forced down their throat.

Back in February, a "racist" slide at a Red Bull company presentation was leaked to the public. There was a long silence over the matter, until recently when it was revealed that the executive responsible had been fired.

However, in an interesting twist, it looks like Red Bull has fired a pair of senior woke employees. As in two of its CEOs. Aside from being the ones who leaked the image to the press, they've been pushing for more diversity in the company. Austrian leadership showed little interest.

Let's be honest about something: this may be one of the smartest business moves that a company has made in years. It's not exactly a massive revelation that racism is an evil thing that everyone hates. Well, except people who are actually racist, but I wouldn't describe them as rational members of society. But the biggest detriment to business in the modern day isn't "racist" maps. It's woke politics that no one is interested in.

When Gillette released its 'The Best Men Can Be' ad, there was massive backlash and the company lost billions of dollars. It later said it's "worth it." I have a feeling any employees who lost money over that bungle don't share the same sentiment.

Marvel Comics has continuously pandered to the woke, and lost massive sales. Captain America, written by America-hating Ta-Nehisi Coates, can't even ship 30,000 comics. For the uninitiated, those are abysmal numbers for such a popular character. EA Games' Battlefield series suffered substantial losses because of similar pushing of woke politics.

Comment: What a concept! If woke employees and CEOs are destroying a business from within, fire them.

One of the ironies of this situation is that the allegedly racist map was actually poking fun at American exceptionalism and ignorance.

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Pistol

St. Louis prosecutor's office busted altering evidence; reassembled non-operable McCloskey pistol to classify as lethal


Zero Hedge
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 16:49 UTC
McCloskey
© Reuters / Lawrence BryantPatricia McCloskey and her husband Mark aim guns at protesters as they enter their gated community during a demonstration against St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson.
The pistol Patricia McCloskey waved at protesters who broke down a gate to trespass on their private street was a non-operable 'prop' used during a lawsuit they were involved in, so a member of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's staff ordered the crime lab to disassemble and reassemble the gun - allowing them to classify it as "capable of lethal use" in charging documents filed Monday, according to KSDK5.
In Missouri, police and prosecutors must prove that a weapon is "readily" capable of lethal use when it is used in the type of crime with which the McCloskeys have been charged.

Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley ordered crime lab staff members to field strip the handgun and found it had been assembled incorrectly. Specifically, the firing pin spring was put in front of the firing pin, which was backward, and made the gun incapable of firing, according to documents obtained by 5 On Your Side.

Firearms experts then put the gun back together in the correct order and test-fired it, finding that it worked, according to the documents. -KSDK5
According to the report, crime lab workers photographed the disassembly and reassembly of the pistol.

The McCloskeys attorney, Joel Schwartz, told KSDK that the St. Louis couple intentionally misplaced the firing pin on the gun, rendering it inoperable. They turned the pistol in to their former attorney Al Watkins following the incident last month.

Comment: The woke mob demands total obedience. Anything less and you must be destroyed. See also:

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