Society's ChildS


Fire

Protesters set government building on fire in eastern Libya


Reuters
Sun, 13 Sep 2020 07:14 UTC
Protest fire
© Hakeam el-Yamany via APProtesters set fire to tires, September 10, 2020, Benghazi, Libya
Protesters set fire to the government's headquarters in the Libyan city of Benghazi, as rare demonstrations over living conditions and corruption continued in the east of the country for a third day.

The protests late on Saturday also erupted in Al-Bayda, where the government was previously based, in Sabha in the south, and for the first time in Al-Marj, a stronghold of eastern based commander Khalifa Haftar, witnesses said.

Libya has been split into rival camps with parallel institutions in the east and west since 2014. Eastern Libya and much of the south is controlled by Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), which is aligned with a government and a rump parliament also based in the east.

A 14-month offensive by the LNA to take control of the capital, Tripoli, from the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) crumbled in June, weakening Haftar.

Several hundred protesters turned out in the eastern towns to demonstrate against the political elite and over deteriorating living conditions that include lengthy power cuts and a severe banking crisis.

Comment: No rest for Libya as leadership resigns and protesters react:
An interim government in eastern Libya resigned on Sunday amid street protests that erupted across the divided country over dire living conditions, officials said.

Prime Minister Abdallah al-Thani submitted the resignation of his government to Aguila Saleh, speaker of the eastern-based House of Representatives. Abdallah Abaihig, a spokesman for the parliament, confirmed the government's resignation, saying lawmakers would review it in their next meeting. No date set for the session.

The parliament on Friday accused the Central Bank and government in the capital of Tripoli of "plundering" the country and neglecting the east, in apparent efforts to deflect blame for the deterioration of public services.

The U.N. Support Mission in Libya, or UNSMIL, said at least one civilian was reportedly killed and three others were wounded.


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Wolf

Blocking emergency room, wishing death on ambushed officers: The final straw in BLM's PR suicide?

Tony Cox
RT
Sun, 13 Sep 2020 18:06 UTC
BLM hospital officers shot ambulance
© Jason Armond / Los Angeles TimesBLM protesters converged on the area surrounding St. Francis Medical Center attempting to block the ambulances taking two sheriff’s deputies to be treated after being shot.
Black Lives Matter may finally have found its bridge too far - the point of absurdity and overreaching vileness that finally destroys support for the "Marxist" political movement in all but the most extreme reaches of the left.

BLM has offered up many self-fails in recent weeks, the sort of anecdotes that stick in the minds of observers and turn the tide of public opinion against a cause that millions of Americans were eager to support initially. Even more than the group's nonsensical demands -- such as defunding police departments and "remaking" the US political system - its tactics are making it impossible for politically independent Americans to support.

Those tactics have included spreading false rumors about an Aug. 10 police shooting in Chicago, then racing downtown to loot the city's most posh retailers, then defending the theft as "reparations." Then there was the mob attack on a white motorist in Portland, who was pulled from his truck and brutally beaten before being left motionless in the street, and the torching of black-owned businesses around the nation.
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Dollars

Oracle last company standing as TikTok rejects Microsoft buyout offer


The Indian Express
Sun, 13 Sep 2020 17:52 UTC
oracle buy tiktok
TikTok and the White House declined to comment Sunday. Oracle didn't return a request for comment but has previously declined comment.

The owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle over Microsoft as the American tech partner that could help keep the popular video-sharing app running in the US, according to a source familiar with the deal who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid to acquire TikTok's US operations was rejected, removing the tech giant from the running a week before President Donald Trump promises to follow through with a plan to ban the Chinese-owned app in the US over spying concerns.

TikTok and the White House declined to comment Sunday. Oracle didn't return a request for comment but has previously declined comment.

Walmart, which had planned to partner with Microsoft on the acquisition, said Sunday it "continues to have an interest in a TikTok investment" and is talking about it with ByteDance and other parties.

Comment:

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Binoculars

Unrest continues in Belarus with arrests, scuffles after women's march meets police cordon in Minsk


RT
Sat, 12 Sep 2020 17:34 UTC
belarus police protest
© Reuters / Tut.By
Numerous protesters were detained in Minsk on Saturday after police moved to disperse an all-female march - police had previously taken a softer approach to these events than other mass protests in the crisis-hit country.

The woman were demanding President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation, as the fall out continues from last month's disputed election.

The protest began peacefully at Svoboda (Freedom) Square on Saturday afternoon, RT's Murad Gazdiev reported from the scene, noting a "festive" atmosphere there. The area is the location of the rebuilt historic town hall of Minsk, which is now a museum.


Footage showed several hundred demonstrators gathering to chant slogans and make noise with pots and bottles. Police trucks soon arrived, and men wearing khaki uniforms without insignias demanded that the crowd disperse. The women refused to obey and, shortly afterwards, the arrests began.

The protesters locked arms to form "human chains" and chanted "shame" at the police. Some scuffled with the troops and tried to remove balaclavas from their heads. Photos and videos from the scene showed the officers grabbing some of the women by the hair and bundling them into prison vans.

Comment: According to TASS, police detained some 250 protesters: "All of them used flags and other symbolics, which had not been registered in accordance with the established procedure, and various posters, including insulting ones."

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NPC

If you think pedo-bait Cuties is acceptable but Orcs are racist and cartoons sexist, you've lost touch with reality

Micah Curtis
RT
Mon, 14 Sep 2020 17:29 UTC
cuties projekt
© Netflix; wikipedia(L) Cuties (2020) Dir: Maïmouna Doucouré; (R) Projekt Melody
With film critics and the left defending Cuties, it's clear selective outrage is alive and kicking. Orcs are apparently racist and virtual cartoon strippers are sexist, but children twerking is absolutely fine...

Selective outrage is not new, either in society or in politics. Some would say that if you want to see a hypocrite, you need only look in the mirror.

However, there will never be any progress if we can't acknowledge selective outrage when we see it. One commonality that I've noticed as the months have gone by is that the modern left likes to pick and choose what it finds offensive, without any sort of sense of what actually can do damage.

Some months ago, I wrote about an article from Wired that put forward the puzzling view that the virtual cam girl Projekt Melody was by its nature sexist, as were the people who watch it.

A little while later, I began to see selective outrage about orcs in fiction - that somehow these monsters were some sort of a commentary on racial issues, or something along those lines. Never mind that these creatures were created simply to be the 'bad guys'.

Comment: See also:

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Play

Video of man named 'Ali' sucker-punching Swedish woman prompts calls for vigilante groups to hunt down perpetrator


RT
Mon, 14 Sep 2020 17:07 UTC
sweden punch
© Twitter / @SamnyttSimon
Video of a violent and unprovoked attack by a man on a woman in Malmo, while his accomplice howls with laughter in the background, has caused outrage in Sweden.

The video purports to show a 20-year-old man, named in the Swedish media as 'Ali', striking an unsuspecting woman as she walks past.

Warning: This footage contains scenes that some viewers may find distressing.


The video was widely shared online over the weekend, but it remains unclear when the brutal assault took place. The Instagram account @ALIBALOTELLII is tagged in the video but has subsequently been deactivated.

The perpetrator's accomplice, who filmed the incident, shrieks with laughter as the woman struggles to regain consciousness on the ground. Malmo police have yet to make a statement in response to the footage.
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Bulb

Trump wants Joe Rogan to host 4-hour presidential debate, while critics predict Biden will skip out entirely


RT
Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:25 UTC
Joe Rogan
© Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Podcaster Joe Rogan has offered to host a presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and the president is already throwing his support behind the idea.

"On my podcast with @joerogan he offered to moderate a debate between @JoeBiden and @realDonaldTrump," tweeted UFC fighter Tim Kennedy, adding that the hypothetical event would be four hours with no live audience.

"Who wants this?" Kennedy asked, to which Trump replied, "I do!"
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Gear

'Rule by experts' is tyranny shrouded in science

Tabitha Alloway
Foundation for Economic Education
Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:01 UTC
tyson dawkins
© Wikimedia Commons-BDEngler CC BY-SA 3.0
"You don't need a mask."

"Everyone needs to wear a mask."

"Asymptomatic spreaders are the real problem."

"No wait, it doesn't look like asymptomatic carriers are spreading it."

"Coronavirus will spread at protests... unless they're protests over the death of George Floyd."
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Candle

Best of the Web: All of the bad news in 2020 is causing a shockingly high number of Americans to 'seriously consider' suicide

Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
cliff face
This is a very difficult article for me to write, but I definitely need to write it. All over the country, people are considering suicide because of all the bad things that have happened this year, and things are only going to get even more challenging in 2021 and beyond. This greatly grieves me, because suicide is never the answer to anything, and I wish that I could sit down individually with every person that is considering suicide and get them to understand this. Our lives are meant to be lived with purpose, passion and great joy, and that doesn't change when times get very difficult. In fact, when challenging times come that is when bright lights are needed the most.

Personally, even though I am constantly writing about all of the hard things that are going on in the world, I am not down, I am not depressed, and I am not on any pills. Instead, I am incredibly thankful for the gift of each new day, and there is no other time in all of human history that I would rather be living than right now.

But if you allow your life to be defined by the system that the global elite have established, and if you are living for what you can get from that system, then the years ahead are going to be exceedingly difficult for you because that system is failing.
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Robot

The dystopian age of the mask

Thomas Crew
The Critic
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:01 UTC
mask scifi dystopia


How Ernst Jünger predicted the ubiquity of masks

Huxley's Brave New World (1932) has Alphas, Betas, and Epsilon Semi-Morons - genetically engineered classes with uniform clothing and uniform opinions. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948) has the Thought Police and Newspeak. While Zamyatin's We (1921) has numbers instead of people - D-503, I-330, O-90: vowels for females, consonants for males.

If there is a single defining characteristic of dystopian literature, it is the eradication of all individuality. "Self-consciousness", Zamyatin writes, "is just a disease". For this reason, dystopias are invariably told by tormented outsiders: those who are well aware of the commodity-like standardisation of their fellow humans, yet either fear the consequences of speaking out or resent their own sense of self. After all, "no offence is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behaviour", as Huxley writes.

Given their tyrannical preoccupation with uniformity, it is little wonder that, as a literary form, dystopias emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century. The totalitarian regimes of Russia and Germany as well as their technocratic Western counterparts, inspired by the likes of F. W. Taylor and Henry Ford, were central sources of inspiration. For all their apparent differences, these competing ideologies are united by the utopian attempt to redraw not just society, but the human being himself. The increasing power of science and technology gave rise to the idea that nature itself, in all its messy complexity, could be finally put straight.

Comment: See also:

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