Society's ChildS


Yellow Vest

Police fire tear gas & water cannon as mass anti-govt protests in Colombia's capital turn violent

bogota protests
© Reuters / Luisa Gonzalez 793
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in cities across Colombia in a mass strike against the government of President Ivan Duque. While largely peaceful, clashes with riot police broke out as some of the protests dispersed.

Sparked by general dissatisfaction with government policies, including a recent proposal to cut pensions, some 207,000 Colombians joined the massive demonstrations on Thursday, according to Interior Minister Nancy Patricia Gutierrez.

With protesters chanting anti-Duque slogans and carrying bright banners and national flags, the marches mostly took place without incident. However, as the event in Bogota came to a close, people described as "hooligans" by some witnesses initiated confrontations with police, prompting them to respond with tear gas, water cannon and billy clubs. Some of the clashes were captured on video.

A demonstration in the city of Cali that drew over 20,000 protesters also ended in minor clashes near a local university, after which the city government declared a temporary curfew.

NPC

'Tell Me Why': Microsoft's inclusivity initiative is a lazy marketing gimmick

Tell Me Why
Screenshot from 'Tell Me Why' official announcement trailer
As part of its 'Gaming is for Everyone' initiative, Microsoft and Dontnod announced 'Tell Me Why,' boasting that it is the 1st game from a major studio to ever feature a trans lead. This is due to its female-to-male protagonist.

Both companies are marketing it as hard as they can to a woke crowd that will suck it up because 'gender benders' are currently en vogue. Websites such as Mashable are already touting it as a "significant step forward" for representation. Never mind the fact that we don't yet know how well the character will be written and no gameplay has been shown.


Pirates

Ukraine detains suspected ISIS leader - second one in a week

ISIS
An elite Ukrainian police unit has apprehended a suspected 30-year-old member of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv.

The Russian citizen was detained based on an Interpol notice related to murder and was hiding in Ukraine to evade arrest, the National Police said in a statement on November 21.

The unnamed suspect was born in the easternmost Ukrainian region of Luhansk but had lived in Russia for an extended period.

"According to reports, the detainee is a member of the terrorist radical organization Islamic State and even the leader of one of its groups," the police said.

"By ethnicity, he is Daghestani, but was born in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. He lived in Russia for a long time. He was hiding in the territory of our country in order to avoid responsibility for murder."

Comment: See our comment in this article on the guy arrested last week: What RFE/RL doesn't - and never will - say is that there's a reason ISIS has a foothold in Ukraine. They are partners of sorts with the neo-Nazis there in their war against Russia. For just a peak into this relationship, see: The rank-and-file losers in ISIS and the Bandera-inspired nazi groups may not realize it, but they have the same masters.


Bullseye

Best of the Web: Caitlin Johnstone: Bitter, joyless told-you-sos - notes from the edge of the narrative matrix

assange arrest
Julian Assange
Real change won't come until people rise up. People won't rise up as long as they're successfully propagandized. People will remain successfully propagandized until they evolve minds which can't be manipulated. Our world will change when our relationship with narrative changes.

It only takes a rudimentary understanding of human psychology to manipulate someone. Bernays was recruited by the US government to study the science of modern propaganda in 1917. This science has been in research and development for over a century. Don't underestimate its power.

The "Epstein didn't kill himself" thing is an interesting example of a grassroots, populist narrative control campaign. By that I mean that people wanted it to remain a high-profile feature in the news, and they knew the mass media wouldn't do that for them, so they've collectively forced it into mainstream attention and held it there by sheer collaborative force of will.

Smoking

New York City set to ban flavored e-cigarettes

Packages of Juul mint flavored e-cigarettes
© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesPackages of Juul mint flavored e-cigarettes are displayed at San Rafael Smokeshop on Nov. 7, 2019, in San Rafael, Calif.
The New York City Council is expected to approve a ban on flavored e-cigarettes when it votes on the issue next Tuesday.

The impending ban, which 30 of the council's 51 members have signed onto as co-sponsors, would prohibit sales of flavored e-cigarettes, including mint and menthol.

It's the latest move in a series of steps that cities and states have taken to crack down on flavored vaping products. San Francisco voters passed a referendum last year to ban flavored products, and on Wednesday, Massachusetts legislatures voted to ban flavors in the state. If that bill is signed into law, Massachusetts will become the first state to prohibit all flavored e-cigarette products.

State attorney generals have also taken aim at the e-cigarette company Juul, which dominates the e-cigarette market, controlling nearly three-quarters of market sales.

Handcuffs

Hidden camera found in boy's bathroom at elementary school, food worker arrested

A food worker at a Texas elementary school has been arrested after allegedly placing a small hidden camera inside a boy's bathroom.

Scott Gelardi
A food worker at a Texas elementary school has been arrested after allegedly placing a small hidden camera inside a boy's bathroom.

Scott Gelardi, a 42-year-old contract Aramark food worker at Northside Elementary School in El Campo, Texas, was arrested as he arrived to work on Tuesday morning after a police investigation using school video surveillance footage identified Gelardi as the suspect.

The El Campo Independent School District said that maintenance workers found the hidden camera while carrying out routine maintenance to the building and, according to ABC News' Houston station KTRK, the camera allegedly contained video and photos of unknown students in the bathroom.

Cow

A taste of fascism: New York City public schools ban all processed meat

kids eating hotdogs
© Air Force Medical Service
While most children love hot dogs and bologna sandwiches, they won't be getting them if they attend public schools in New York City, Tree Hugger reports:
New York City council is taking students' health seriously. Earlier this year, mayor Bill de Blasio announced the introduction of Meatless Mondays, when all meals served in 1,700 schools would be vegetarian in an effort to improve nutrition and curb emissions. Now, the city has gone one step further and passed a law banning processed meats from schools, although the start date has yet to be determined.

Comment: Indeed, the journey toward tyranny undoubtedly starts with small steps, like banning meat. But if you think these bureaucrats will stop there, you've got another thing coming. The bottom line is that these people are idiots, making decisions that are nothing more than virtue signalling that directly effect the health of children. Social engineering based on propaganda and political correctness can only ever lead to disaster. One weeps for these children's future.


Marijuana

Weed stocks rise after House committee votes to legalize marijuana nationwide

Weed
© Pixabay
Marijuana companies have climbed in value by anywhere from 8% to 15%.

Cannabis industry shares are soaring after a key U.S. congressional committee overwhelmingly approved a bill that would comprehensively end the federal prohibition of cannabis, clearing the way for a full floor vote in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed HR 3884 — the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act by a 24-10 vote.

As a result, Reuters reports that marijuana companies including Canopy Growth, Aurora Cannabis, Aphria Inc., and Tilray Inc. have climbed in value by anywhere between 8% and 15%.

Garrett Nelson, a senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, told the news agency:
"We think federal legalization would be a big positive for investor sentiment surrounding cannabis equities, which have been battered by oversupply and a steep price decline for the underlying commodity since becoming legal in Canada."

Comment: For more on the tenuous legal status of marijuana and CBD, see:

Objective:Health #35 - Organic Hemp Farming and More with Dave & Erica of Highlander CBD Farms


Fire

Student leftist has violent hissy fit over 'All Lives Matter' sign

video still assault CSU
A video out of California State University shows a man being assaulted by a leftist who proceeds to have a violent hissy fit over his "All Lives Matter" sign.

The man calmly stands next to the leftist with his handwritten sign, before she almost immediately snatches it from him and goes into a meltdown, screaming, "Get the fuck out of here!"


Comment: College campuses are an unending dumpster fire of partisan political confrontations and the violence is only escalating. Wherever this is heading, it doesn't look good.

See also:


Green Light

Chicago rigged traffic lights to collect millions of dollars in fines from red light cameras

traffic light
It appears as though someone figured out that red light cameras could rack up tons more in fines if the number of times a light changes to red increases. This has led to nefariously shorter green lights in certain areas of Chicago.

Intersections where drivers are issued hundreds of thousands of dollars in tickets have been unfairly racked up, according to ABC's investigative reporting team. The team timed traffic lights at intersections where cameras were present and found that drivers had less time to legally get through intersections in directions where cameras where watching.

In once case, yellow and green lights were only 20 seconds - combined.

The city - which has been in a perpetual state of financial peril thanks to horrifying mismanagement of its pension liabilities - took in $35 million from the city's 300 red light cameras so far in 2019.

Kevin O'Malley, managing deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, said: "We believe it improves traffic safety which in the end saves injuries and saves lives."

But on a tip from a group opposing the cameras, the ABC team decided to conduct their own investigation. Mark Wallace of Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras (CARLC) said: "The question is why is a green light shorter where the red light camera is at the very same intersection."