Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Austrian court convicts mystery former colonel of 'spying for Russia' - then sets him free


RT
Tue, 09 Jun 2020 14:28 UTC
austrian flag
© REUTERS/Vincent Kessler
A year after the "Ibiza Affair" brought down a government in Vienna, Austria has sentenced an unnamed retired Army colonel to three years in prison on charges of being a spy for Russia.

Peter Egger, a spokesman for the court in Salzburg, confirmed the sentence to reporters on Tuesday, but did not disclose the officer's identity. The colonel was first arrested in 2018, with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz personally alleging that the accused had spied for Russia for at least 25 years, since 1992. Later Egger disclosed that the defendant was actually released on parole, after the 18 months served in pre-trial confinement counted towards his sentence.

This might change if the prosecutors appeal the sentence, Egger added. They have three days to do so.

Vienna initially said the case was brought to its attention by a "friendly" intelligence agency of another country, later revealed to be Britain.
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Dominoes

Navy orders removal of Confederate flag; Army bases may be renamed

Christen McCurdy
UPI
Tue, 09 Jun 2020 14:26 UTC
confederate flag burning
© Tasos Katopodis/UPI
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday announced Tuesday that he has directed staff to begin preparing an order that would prohibit the Confederate battle flag from all public spaces and work areas aboard Navy installations, ships, aircraft and submarines.

Also on Tuesday, Army leadership expressed an openness to renaming posts named in honor of the Confederacy.

"The order is meant to ensure unit cohesion, preserve good order and discipline, and uphold the Navy's core values of honor, courage and commitment," Gilday wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

On Monday an Army official told POLITICO that the service is "open" to renaming the service's 10 bases and facilities that are named after Confederate leaders, and Tuesday Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley endorsed efforts to "explore the issue" of renaming those 10 bases.
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Chess

De Blasio: NYC will paint, rename streets to honor Black Lives Matter

Julia Marsh and Natalie Musumeci
NY Post
Tue, 09 Jun 2020 14:22 UTC
black lives matter
The city will paint its roadways and rename streets in each borough to honor the Black Lives Matter movement, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

"It's time to do something officially representing this city to recognize the power of the fundamental idea of Black Lives Matter, the idea that so much of American history has wrongly renounced, but now must be affirmed," de Blasio said during his daily City Hall press briefing as he was surrounded by a group of social justice activists.

The mayor said that the city proposal calls for the Big Apple to "name streets in each borough, and to paint the words on the streets of this city in each borough at a crucial location, one of which will be here near City Hall."

De Blasio said his administration will work with city leaders, advocates and the City Council to identify the four other locations in the Big Apple to support the movement.
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Stock Down

"This is just the start": US bankruptcies soar 48% in May, most since financial crisis

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 08 Jun 2020 17:30 UTC
conversation from liquidity to solvency graph
One month ago, when showing the uncanny correlation between defaults and the unemployment rates, we predicted that the number of Chapter 11 filings that is about to flood the US will be nothing short of biblical.

All that was missing was a catalyst, one which according to Bloomberg arrived in late May as retail landlords started sending out thousands of default notices to tenants, who in turn experienced a collapse in foot traffic, sales and cash flow due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and were simply unable to pay their debt obligations.

According to Bloomberg, restaurants, department stores, apparel merchants and specialty chains have been receiving notices from landlords - some of whom have gone as long as three months without receiving rent.

Comment: See also:

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No Entry

WHO walks back comments on asymptomatic coronavirus spread, says much is still unknown

Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | Jasmine Kim | William Feuer
CNBC
Tue, 09 Jun 2020 18:45 UTC
The WHO
© Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
The World Health Organization walked back comments made Monday when one of its top scientists said transmission of the coronavirus by people who never developed symptoms is "very rare," which drew skepticism from physicians and others across social media.

That admission sent shock waves throughout the world, much of which has been locked down for months for fear of spreading the virus by people who show no signs of illness.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said Tuesday that asymptomatic spread is a "really complex question" and much is still unknown. "We don't actually have that answer yet," she said.

"I was responding to a question at the press conference. I wasn't stating a policy of WHO or anything like that. I was just trying to articulate what we know," she said on a live Q&A streamed across multiple social media platforms. "And in that, I used the phrase 'very rare,' and I think that that's misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. I was referring to a small subset of studies."

Comment: Guess she didn't get the memo! See also:

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Wall Street

Corporate donations tracker: Here are the companies giving millions to anti-racism efforts

Isabel Togoh
Forbes
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 04:23 UTC
Some of America's biggest companies are responding to public pressure to donate to anti-racism campaigns and publicly stand by the black community following the death of George Floyd in police custody.

Tim Cook
© Getty ImagesApple CEO Tim Cook said the company is donating an undisclosed amount to the Equal Justice Initiative
  • Home Depot has contributed $1 million to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
  • Gaming companies have joined donation efforts to anti-racism organizations: EA has pledged $1 million to groups including the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund; Square Enix has donated $250,000 and is matching employee donations to Black Lives Matter; Ubisoft has contributed $100,000 to the NAACP and BLM.
  • Minnetonka-based United Health Group is donating $5 million to the YMCA Equity Innovation Center of Excellence and another $5 million, as well as 25,000 hours of employee volunteer time, to help rebuild businesses in Twin Cities neighbourhoods affected by riots.
  • Facebook pledged $10 million to organizations campaigning for racial justice, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday.
  • Apple CEO Tim Cook announced unknown donations would be made by the company to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, "a non-profit committed to challenging racial injustice."
  • Chipmaker Intel is donating $1 million to community efforts fighting racial injustice including Black Lives Matter and the Centre for Policing Equity, CEO Bob Swan told employees.
  • Beauty company Glossier has committed $500,000 to Black Lives Matter and another $500,000 to support black-owned, CEO Emily Weiss announced on Sunday.
  • Other beauty companies have made smaller donations to anti-racism efforts, including DECIEM, which pledged $100,000 to the NAACP and BLM, SheaMoisture which pledged a further $100,000 to activists fighting for social change, and Sunday Riley, which is donating $50,000 to the NAACP. e.l.f. Beauty is donating $25,000 to Color of Change.
  • Fitness company Peloton is donating $500,000 to the NAACP's legal defense fund, CEO John Foley said.
  • Levi's is donating $100,000 to the ACLU and a further $100,000 to the mass incarceration campaign group Live Free USA, the company announced on Monday.
  • Clothing retailer Banana Republic has donated $250,000 to the NAACP and EmbraceRace.

Comment: See also:

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Sheriff

Speaking of priviledge: LAPD slam city council over private security details amid budget cut

Natalie Brunell
Spectrum News 1
Tue, 09 Jun 2020 07:27 UTC
LAPD squad car
While LA City Council President Nury Martinez was filing a motion last week seeking to cut $150 million from the LAPD budget, she had an LAPD unit standing watch outside her home providing her family with a private security detail since April.

The round-the-clock protection unit, often staffed by two officers, infuriated some members of the police force when Martinez introduced the motion, which reads in part:

"We need a vision for our city that says 'there is going to be justice.' American society is founded on a racial hierarchy, one that is born out of slavery, followed by Jim Crow segregation and corporate abuse of labor. As such, police departments are asked to enforce a system of laws that are designed to reinforce and maintain economic and racial inequality."

Comment: What all these people advocating for the defunding, or even abolition, of the police force is that this will overwhelmingly affect the poorer sections of society. Those who can afford private security, or are deemed important enough to get police protection through tax payer dollars from the police, obviously don't care if the police are removed. For everyone else, this scenario is a nightmare.

See also:

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Eye 1

Suddenly, public health officials say social justice matters more than social distance

Dan Diamond
Politico
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:20 UTC
black lives protest
Raymond Ahner/The Photo Access/Cover Images via AP
For months, public health experts have urged Americans to take every precaution to stop the spread of Covid-19 — stay at home, steer clear of friends and extended family, and absolutely avoid large gatherings.

Now some of those experts are broadcasting a new message: It's time to get out of the house and join the mass protests against racism.

"We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus," Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, tweeted on Tuesday. "In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus."

"The injustice that's evident to everyone right now needs to be addressed," Abraar Karan, a Brigham and Women's Hospital physician who's exhorted coronavirus experts to amplify the protests' anti-racist message, told me. "While I have voiced concerns that protests risk creating more outbreaks, the status quo wasn't going to stop #covid19 either," he wrote on Twitter this week.

It's a message echoed by media outlets and some of the most prominent public health experts in America, like former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden, who loudly warned against efforts to rush reopening but is now supportive of mass protests. Their claim: If we don't address racial inequality, it'll be that much harder to fight Covid-19. There's also evidence that the virus doesn't spread easily outdoors, especially if people wear masks.
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Attention

Antifa domestic terrorists take over 6 square block section in Seattle - set up security watch - call for armed volunteers

Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Tue, 09 Jun 2020 15:30 UTC
free capitol hill zone seattle
Free Capitol Hill zone in Seattle, Washington.

This is your future with no police.

Democrats want to defund the police. But don't worry Antifa will defend you — for a price.

Comment: This is not going to end well. How can it end with anything other than a standoff between the revolutionary LARPers and the Feds?

See also:

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Brick Wall

No, Sweden has not changed its mind about lockdown


Spiked
Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:01 UTC
anders tegnell
Our fanatically pro-lockdown media keep spreading fake news about Sweden.

Sweden's chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has admitted to making some mistakes over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. His acknowledgement that Sweden's death toll was 'too high' has been seized on by our fervently pro-lockdown media as a sign that Sweden's more relaxed strategy has failed.

'Sweden's controversial decision not to impose a strict lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic led to too many deaths', reports the BBC. 'Swedish expert admits country should have had tighter coronavirus controls', says the Financial Times - a newspaper recently criticised for its botched and misleading graphs of Covid deaths. Tegnell's words were framed in a similar way by reports from Sky News, the Telegraph, and many others.

Comment: See also:

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