Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Married Arkansas high school teacher slept with 4 students, 2 in same day

Jessie Lorene Goline
An Arkansas teacher allegedly had sex with four students, two on the same day, according to a court filing.

Jessie Lorene Goline, an art teacher at Marked Tree High School in northeast Arkansas, allegedly had sexual relationships with four students, three who attended Marked Tree School District and one from East Poinsett County School District, according to an affidavit obtained by Arkansas Online.

Goline, 25, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree sexual assault, Arkansas State Police said. One student was younger than 18 at the time, Arkansas Online reported.

On one of the occasions between January and April 2016, Goline drove a student to her apartment, where they had sex before going back to school. Later that day, Goline brought another student to her apartment, where they had sex, Arkansas Online reported.

Comment: More details on this case:
According to KAIT8-TV, "The court documents stated that she began by sending texts to the students 'which became more and more sexual in nature.'"

The television station added of the allegations, "Yet another victim said Goline sent him sexually explicit text messages, including a photo of herself in a thong. He said Goline 'texted him that she would like to have sex with him but he was too young.'"

KAIT-TV reports that Marked Tree police "began investigating Goline in April when a parent threatened to come to the school and 'do bodily harm' to her. The parent also reportedly said Goline was having sex with multiple students."

School administrators became involved, and Goline "came into the office and started crying," according to the television station, citing a court affidavit in the case.

She's accused of telling the principal: "I'm not going to lose my husband" and admitting of the acts with students, "We had sex."

In one case, Goline allegedly said she thought the student was older than he really was, reported The New York Post.
There have been several similar cases recently:
Loryn Barclay, a former substitute teacher at a Missouri High School, was accused of having sexual contact multiple times with a 17-year-old boy.

Shawnetta Reece, a gym teacher from Georgia, was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

Tracy Miller, a West Virginia teacher, was accused of sending nude photos to students.

Nataly Lopez, a 27-year-old former substitute teacher at a middle school in New Jersey, was accused of having sexual contact with a student.

Lindsey Jarvis, a 27-year-old middle school teacher's aide, was accused of the rape and sodomy of a student who was under the age of 16. Jarvis was arrested in Fayette County, Kentucky, on June 16.

Then there's Laura Ramos. She is a 31-year-old Connecticut high school teacher who is accused of having sex with a special education student. And there's Tiffany Geliga.



Bullseye

Flashback Actor Tim Allen: The Clintons are 'like herpes'

Bill and Hillary Clinton
Tim Allen isn't a typical "Hollywood liberal," which the comedian demonstrated by joking at the Clintons' expense in a new interview, comparing them to herpes.

Allen sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss how his ABC sitcom "Last Man Standing" has recently become highly political. He explained that the "right-leaning character" he plays on the show is actually "milder" than he is, adding, "You wouldn't want to hear what I have to say."

The popular comedian saved his sharpest barbs for the Clintons, and defended his show's decision to be critical of Hillary Clinton and ignore Trump. "We're not sure he's going to last," Allen said.

"Whereas the Clintons are like herpes: Just when you think they're gone, they show up again."

Comment: Even more of a true statement now that Killary has lost the election, but still hasn't gone away.


Mr. Potato

Bimbo Bono: U2 delayed new album because Trump disrupted the 'moral arc of the universe'

Bono U2
© SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images
In January, U2 founding guitarist The Edge revealed that "Songs of Experience," the band's follow-up to its platinum-selling 2014 album "Songs of Innocence," was delayed because of Trump's election. Now Bono says "there's a couple of reasons why we delayed Songs of Experience. One personal, one political."

"The world around us was certainly changing out of all recognition, we nearly lost the European Union, something that has helped keep the peace in our region for nearly 70 years," Bono told Rolling Stone of the United Kingdom's vote last year for independence from the European Union. "Globalization replaced with localization is somewhat understandable, but the return of hard right views is not to be tolerated. If Marie La Pen had been elected president of France, the whole idea of a European Union would have been vulnerable."

"You've had the same sort of disaffection in the United States with the rise of a new kind of constituency, people on the both left and right who have lost faith in political process, the body politic, in political institutions," the Grammy-winner told the outlet. "These sentiments are easily played and manipulated by the likes of Donald Trump."

Bono said Trump's election marked, "for the first time in many years, maybe in our lifetime, the moral arc of the universe, as Dr. King used to call it, was not bending in the direction of fairness, equality and justice for all."

Comment: What universe does Bono live in?? Because the moral arc of the THIS universe has most certainly NOT been moving in the direction of 'fairness, equality and justice for all' for a very long time, if it ever was. Just ask MLK or the people in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, etc.


Star of David

Palestinian rights groups file 700-page dossier to ICC on Israeli apartheid and other human rights violations - DETAILS

Israeli wall
© Ammar Awad / Reuters
Palestinian human rights lawyers and activists on Wednesday handed a 700-page dossier to the International Criminal Court alleging that Israeli authorities are responsible for crimes including apartheid and persecution in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The documents are an attempt to provide evidence for an ongoing preliminary probe opened in 2015 by prosecutors at the global court into crimes committed on Palestinian territories.

The so-called preliminary examination aims to establish if there are sufficient grounds for opening a full-scale investigation into alleged crimes by Israel, but also by Palestinians, during and since the 2014 Gaza conflict.

Shawan Jabarin, director of Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, said in a statement that the dossier includes evidence that Israel forcibly removes Palestinians from the territories and replaces them with Israeli settlers.

Comment: How long will the "preliminary examination" last? Seeing as how Israel has gotten away with murder for 70 years or so, we'd guess at least another 70.

Ali Abunimah at Electronic Intifada has more background on the report, and the types of crimes that justify an investigation by the ICC:
Death threats and harassment

Kiswanson and other human rights investigators affiliated with Al-Haq have been the targets of a long-running campaign of harassment and death threats that a veteran Israeli analyst has tied to Israeli government "black ops."

Al-Haq believes the threats are tied to Kiswanson's work preparing the dossiers for the international court. The government of the Netherlands, where the court is based, has said that a criminal investigation has been opened into the threats.

"Israeli Jewish domination"

According to a statement from Al-Haq, the latest file "addresses Israel's endeavor to enlarge its territory and ensure Israeli Jewish domination therein by altering the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territory."

Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said that Israel's transfer of settlers into occupied Palestinian land "constitutes a unique war crime in that is coupled with the confiscation of massive tracts of Palestinian land, the extensive destruction of Palestinian property and the tearing apart of the Palestinian social fabric and way of life."

Although Israel's violations in the occupied West Bank can be looked at separately from those in Gaza, Issam Younis, director of the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, explained how they are linked: "The isolation of Gaza, in addition to the regular, full-scale military assaults, ultimately enables Israel to consolidate its control over the whole occupied Palestinian territory and deny Palestinians their internationally recognized right to self-determination." ...

Sham self-investigations

Last month, two human rights groups concluded that Israel's own system for investigating alleged crimes against Palestinians by its forces is a sham.

Hundreds of cases, including the notorious killings of four boys playing football on a beach in July 2014, have not resulted in any accountability for the perpetrators.

In May 2016, B'Tselem announced it would no longer cooperate with Israeli military investigations of killings and other attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"We will no longer aid a system that whitewashes investigations and serves as a fig leaf for the occupation," the Israeli human rights group's director explained.

When it comes to crimes like apartheid and settler colonization, Israel would obviously do nothing to investigate and punish itself - since these crimes are planned and executed by the state itself.

But even in situations where Israel recognizes - at least on paper - that a certain act is a crime, there has been zero accountability.

This should be an important factor in the prosecutors' decisions because according to its founding statute, the International Criminal Court only steps in when national judicial authorities are unwilling or unable to carry out genuine proceedings.

Villages face destruction

Whether the court acts is not just a matter of accounting for the past, but of stopping ongoing crimes.

This month, B'Tselem warned top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Avigdor Lieberman and the military chief of staff, that they would be personally liable for war crimes if they proceed with the apparently imminent destruction of Khan al-Ahmar and Susiya, two communities in the West Bank.

"The demolition of entire communities in the occupied territories is virtually unprecedented since 1967," B'Tselem said.

Robert Piper, the top UN humanitarian aid official in Palestine, tweeted, "All eyes on the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar at risk of forcible transfers by Israeli authorities over the coming days."

He inadvertently identified a problem in which the UN plays a major part: the so-called international community stands on the sidelines and just watches as Israel commits crimes daily.
For more on the situation in Palestine, see our interview with Robert Fantina on Behind the Headlines: The Truth About Israel and Palestine.


Bullseye

Mel Brooks: 'We have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy'

Mel Brooks
Comedy legend Mel Brooks is speaking out about political correctness and how it is leading to the "death of comedy." Best known for his politically incorrect comedies like "Blazing Saddles" and "The Producers," Brooks has always taken risks with his writing by satirizing racism.

Brooks, who said he could find humor in almost anything, warned on Thursday that political correctness is strangling comedians from being able to perform and said there only a handful of subjects he personally wouldn't make fun of.

Question

Why are traditional values considered white supremacy?

Stephen Colbert
Does the political left -- which dominates the mainstream media, Hollywood, academia and the Democratic Party -- really believe its ubiquitous charges of racism against conservatives, or are they a sick ploy to discredit, ruin and defeat its political opponents?

During President Obama's tenure, a conservative could hardly oppose Obama on policy grounds without being accused of racism. It didn't matter that conservatives had fought Hillary Clinton's health care plan in the '90s because they opposed socialized medicine. It didn't matter that they had opposed Bill Clinton's tax hikes. Their opposition to Obamacare and Obama's proposed tax increases had to be motivated by race.

Arrow Down

'Women have quarter of a brain and don't deserve to drive', unhinged Saudi cleric claims

Sheikh Saad Al-Hijri
© أخبار اليو / YouTubeSheikh Saad Al-Hijri
A Saudi cleric has been slated for saying that women don't deserve to drive because they only have a quarter of a brain. Sheikh Saad Al-Hijri was also banned from performing his religious duties because of his outrageous comments.

Al-Hijri made his brain-numbing remarks at a lecture aptly titled, "The evils of women driving." Women are banned from driving altogether in the notoriously conservative country, with many jailed for attempting to.

According to the cleric, women only have half a brain to begin with, but, when they attempt to factor shopping into their feeble minds, that halves again and they "end up with only a quarter," as cited by the Jerusalem Post.

Comment: See also: Saudi police investigate online video of woman driving a car


Heart - Black

Lesbian couple sentenced to 20 years in prison for abusing son so badly he had two strokes

rachel stevens
A lesbian couple arrested and convicted of beating and torturing their five-year-old boy so badly that he had two strokes from years of beatings has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Police in Muskogee, OK, arrested the boy's mother, Rachel Stevens, 28, and his "stepmother," Kayla Jones, 25, last year for what doctors said appeared to be months of vicious child abuse.

Police became involved after the child was transferred from a Muskogee, Oklahoma, clinic to St. John Medical Center in Tulsa because of lesions on his face and after a series of seizures. But when he got to Tulsa, doctors became suspicious over his injuries and determined that he was abused and not just suffering some sort of ailment as claimed by the lesbian couple.

Heart - Black

Refugee from Syria sentenced in Estonia to 10 years in prison for setting wife on fire to "teach her a lesson"

Tallin Estonia
Peter Seyfferth / Global Look Press
A court in Estonia has sentenced a Syrian refugee to 10 years' imprisonment for setting fire to his wife in front of their young daughter, as well as subjecting her to months of abuse.

On Friday, Judge Merle Parts pronounced her sentence on 20-year-old Kovan Mohammad at the Harju County Court. Mohammed, who arrived in Estonia with his family from Greece last year, had been charged with assault causing severe bodily harm, as well as physically abusing his 22-year-old wife throughout their relationship.

On March 7, wanting to teach his wife a "lesson," Mohammed used gasoline to set her alight in front of their young daughter at their apartment in the Lasnamäe district of Tallinn, local media reports. After calling an ambulance herself, the wife had to spend five months in hospital and go through six operations, as well as spending two months in a coma. Nearly 70 percent of her body was covered in burns.

Mohammed pleaded guilty to putting his wife through physical abuse, including hitting her with a wooden slat, but claimed the incident on March 7 was an accident. However, the court heard he took the time to go out and buy gasoline and also watched videos of burnings over the internet, as well as searching for the best ways to punish a woman. He was found guilty of both charges, but his lawyer Alar Neiland says he intends to appeal.

Mohammed's wife, who was released from hospital in August, has now moved into a new apartment with their child.

Bullseye

John Pilger ~ Commodified and market-tested: The killing of history

One of the most hyped "events" of American television, The Vietnam War, has started on the PBS network. The directors are Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Acclaimed for his documentaries on the Civil War, the Great Depression and the history of jazz, Burns says of his Vietnam films, "They will inspire our country to begin to talk and think about the Vietnam war in an entirely new way".

lone survivor in Hanoi
© John Pilger 1975The lone survivor of an all-women anti-aircraft battery near Hanoi. Most were teenagers.
In a society often bereft of historical memory and in thrall to the propaganda of its "exceptionalism", Burns' "entirely new" Vietnam war is presented as "epic, historic work". Its lavish advertising campaign promotes its biggest backer, Bank of America, which in 1971 was burned down by students in Santa Barbara, California, as a symbol of the hated war in Vietnam.

Burns says he is grateful to "the entire Bank of America family" which "has long supported our country's veterans". Bank of America was a corporate prop to an invasion that killed perhaps as many as four million Vietnamese and ravaged and poisoned a once bountiful land. More than 58,000 American soldiers were killed, and around the same number are estimated to have taken their own lives.

I watched the first episode in New York. It leaves you in no doubt of its intentions right from the start. The narrator says the war "was begun in good faith by decent people out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence and Cold War misunderstandings".