Society's ChildS

Briefcase

NY state ethics agency launches probe of its OK to Cuomo's $5M book deal

cuomo ethic committee book profits
© Mary Altaffer; NY Post photo compositeThe New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted to open an independent investigation into its own practices involving former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's leadership book.
The board members of the embattled Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted unanimously Tuesday to launch an independent probe of its own internal operations โ€” including the circumstances surrounding its prior approval of disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $5.1 million coronavirus book deal.

JCOPE member David McNamara issued a proposed resolution on the controversial Cuomo book contract before the ethics board went into its non-public session.

Comment:


Wolf

Tax-avoiding, property-buying elites have caused the housing shortages that lie behind all our ailments, from inequality to ill health

elite wealth disparity
© Getty Images / hyejin kang
The revelations from the Pandora Papers have shown just how obscene it is when the world's super-rich, including politicians supposedly on the left, use offshore companies to buy huge tranches of our cities.

This week we have discovered yet more evidence of the wealthy getting wealthier by avoiding paying their fair share of tax by using offshore companies registered in various tax havens across the globe.

Thanks to the efforts of dozens of journalists and campaigners in bringing us the Pandora Papers, a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveal hidden riches, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's most rich and powerful - and greedy - people.

Crusader

Pope's Swiss Guards resign over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination

Swiss Guards
Three others suspended for not taking the jab.

Three Swiss Guards have resigned and three others have been suspended after refusing to comply with a Vatican mandate that they get the COVID-19 vaccination.

The Swiss Guards, colloquially known as the Pope's bodyguards, had previously been ordered "to protect their health and that of the others they come into contact with as part of their service" by getting the jab.

The mandate was part of a broader instruction to all Vatican employees to get the COVID shot or face losing their jobs.

"Besides the three guardsmen sent back to Switzerland, at least three others were suspended from active duty after they agreed to vaccinate but have yet to receive their jabs," reports RT.

The fact that there is no religious exemption against taking the vaccine within the Vatican tells you everything you need to know about the Vatican and the Pope.


Bad Guys

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib caught admitting she only wears mask for the camera

rashida tlaib
© Rumble
Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was caught on camera admitting that she only wears a mask for the cameras watching her.

"I'm just wearing it because I've got a Republican tracker here," she told a supporter on a visit to a Detroit community event on Monday.

Comment: See also:


Vader

L.A. to require COVID vaccine proof for indoor restaurants, gyms, malls in one of nation's strictest mandates

KTLA screenshot
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a sweeping mandate Wednesday requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter a wide variety of indoor venues.

Under the ordinance passed by the Los Angeles City Council earlier Wednesday, patrons aged 12 and older will have to show proof of full vaccination at indoor areas including restaurants, bars, gyms, movie theaters, convention centers, card rooms, museums, malls, play areas, spas, salons and indoor city facilities beginning Nov. 4.

It's one of the nation's strictest vaccine mandates, according to the Associated Press.

The city's ordinance expands on a countywide order that on Thursday will begin requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination at indoor bars, wineries, breweries, nightclubs, lounges and mega outdoor events.

Comment: See also:


Syringe

Federal public servants, RCMP and ALL air and rail travellers must be vaccinated by month's end, Trudeau says

Justin Trudeau
© Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian PressPrime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. The prime minister announced that public servants and the travelling public must be vaccinated by the end of the month.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled his government's mandatory vaccine policy today โ€” a mandate that will require public servants to either get their shots by month's end or be forced into an unpaid leave of absence.

All would-be travellers must also be fully vaccinated by Oct. 30 before boarding planes, trains or marine vessels.

To bolster stalled vaccination rates, the federal government will require all of its employees in the "core public administration" and the RCMP to be fully vaccinated or to apply for a medical or religious exemption by the end of the month.

Federal contractors, like cleaning staff, must also be fully vaccinated to gain access to government buildings. The estimated 267,000 employees covered by this policy must report their vaccination status by Oct. 29.

If employees still haven't had their shots or received some sort of accommodation under the Canadian Human Rights Act two weeks after that date, they will face "disciplinary action that could ultimately cost them their job," a senior government official said at a technical briefing with reporters ahead of Trudeau's announcement.

Comment: These are some of the harshest mandates seen so far, and have human rights abuses written all over them. Of course, they've stopped caring about that months if not years ago. And with covid-19 as a pretext, they can do anything they want.

See also: The Science Is Clear - The Case Against Mandating Vaccines: One Executive's POV


Eye 1

It's Greta Thunberg who seems to be at the helm in Germany. But that just signifies utopian promises, not REAL green progress

Supporters of the Greens party
© REUTERS/Christian MangSupporters of the Greens party react after the announcement of the first exit poll results on the general elections in Berlin, Germany, September 26, 2021.
German politics, in its entirety, appears to be a kind of frontispiece. A strange and largely nonsensical virtue signal that goes beyond even the normal politicking of other nations.

The true leader of Germany - and, it seems, of many other European nations - might be said to be young Greta Thunberg, who angrily scolds the frightened Eurocrats from her various 'concerned' media pulpits. See them scatter like frightened mice before her, their ties and pantsuits fluttering.

The recent elections in Germany have proven that environmental, or green, activism is on the rise. This might be largely because it's the only kind of oppositional social activism permitted or recognised by the Western media machine, where protesters won't find themselves persecuted by the ever-scrutinizing surveillance-state apparatus. And, of course, that alone proves it's no threat to the capitalist, industrial-distribution system.

But what exactly is the make-up of these European eco-parties? Why are they often called 'watermelons' - green on the outside and red within? Certainly, what you often see at green-party gatherings are flags and slogans unrelated to supposed 'green goals', but related instead to progressive social justice.

Cross

French Catholic church expresses 'shame' after report finds 330,000 children were abused

catholic bishops
© Eric Cabanis/AFP/Getty
The French Catholic church has expressed "shame" and pleaded for forgiveness, after a devastating report found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by clergy and lay members of church institutions over the past 70 years.

The publication of the landmark report on Thursday, France's first major reckoning with what the Catholic church accepted was "appalling" abuse, has shaken the country with its horrific findings of a "massive phenomenon" of sexual abusers of children operating for decades within the church and its associated institutions.

The two-and-a-half-year independent inquiry found that staggering numbers of children were subjected to sexual violence by priests and clergy while the crimes were covered up in a "systemic way" by a deliberate "veil of silence" in the church.

Snakes in Suits

Can he say it? Canada's Trudeau confuses internet with newest acronym for sexual minorities, 2SLGBTQQIA+

trudeau
© REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau sparked an online storm after he used an obscure acronym, 2SLGBTQQIA+, while commemorating missing and murdered members of ethnic and sexual minorities, prompting a collective head scratching.

"People across the country are lighting candles to honour Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people who are missing or have been murdered," Trudeau tweeted on Tuesday, urging an end to the "ongoing tragedy."

The message, however, appeared to be lost on a sizeable portion of netizens who struggled to decipher the cumbersome and seldom-used acronym - which stands for: Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual people, with a plus-sign added for good measure to cover any potentially overlooked groups.

NPC

'Woke' govt-funded London tour guide targets racist PLANTS, says botanical terms like 'native' & 'invasive' are offensive

london gardens racist
© art.tfl.gov.uk
A sightseeing pamphlet funded by Transport for London has claimed that the capital's gardens and green spaces are filled with colourful colonial legacies and that many terms in botany, like "exotic", are insulting and offensive.

The 'Art on the Underground' pamphlet guides visitors around the UK's capital city through green spaces in Brixton and South London, focusing on the "colonial connotations" of British gardens and horticulture.

The downloaded guide says it "addresses the legacies of the British empire" and looks "at gardens as places to consider injustice, oppression and colonial legacy" - rather than somewhere to simply enjoy plants and nature.


Comment: There is no subject or location safe from the social justice warrior.


According to the pamphlet, many common plants found in the UK have "colonial roots" and reflect "racial slurs." For example, the sightseeing map states that Wisteria's problematic history is related to John Reeve, an East India Company tea inspector, who brought the plant to England in 1812.