Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 29 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Mr. Potato

Barbra Streisand says Trump is 'making her fat' (and other celebrity midterm declarations)

Barbra Streisand
© Reuters
With midterm elections drawing ever nearer, Hollywood celebrities are getting their hopes up for a 'blue wave' to sweep the US - and it's safe to say many of them will be apoplectic with rage if the Democrats don't deliver.

While one could heatedly debate the merits and failures of Trump's presidency so far, there is no denying that the president has been hugely successful in one particular area: Driving some liberal celebrities completely off the deep end and into crazytown.

Jet5

Russian military: Over 120 civilians killed by US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria in 1 month

Civilian deaths in Syria
© Reuters / Omar Sanadiki; (R) Reuters / Charles Platiau
Scores of civilians have been killed in the past month as a result of indiscriminate US-led coalition strikes in eastern Syria, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The ministry issued the sobering statement during a Wednesday briefing.
More than 120 civilians have died over the past month alone as the result of airstrikes on Syrian settlements in eastern Syria.
It added that Kurdish fighters sometimes come under the coalition's fire. "Low effectiveness" and the "nonselective character" of coalition strikes are to blame for the death toll. What's even more concerning is that the bombardment is being done with the use of "munition banned by international conventions."

Civilian casualties aside, Washington's "poor" strategy - as well as that of its allies - only let Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) reclaim some of the territories lost earlier, the Russian military noted. This includes Hajin, As-Susah, As Safana and Al Marashda. Meanwhile, the terrorists are still being supplied with modern weapons, the MoD said, without pinning blame directly on the US-led coalition. The routes for such supplies are being tracked down and investigated.


Dig

Drug traffickers use tunnels to smuggle wares into US

Tunnel stuff
© Unknown
At the same time a new high-tech tunnel has been discovered nearly ready for transport of people and contraband from Mexico into California, a caravan of some 7,000 migrants from Central America is making its way across Mexico toward the Texas border, believing that President Trump "has to let us in." Who convinced these people America "has to" let them in? News today reports the president has ordered some 5,000 active duty military personnel to the border to work with Customs and Border Patrol officials if necessary.

A massive and highly sophisticated cross-border underground tunnel was recently discovered near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., situated along the porous U.S.-Mexico border, sparking alarm among America's border control and immigration agencies responsible for policing the southern border.

The tunnel began in a home in Jacume, Mexico, which is less than 100 yards from the U.S. border, and was likely designed to transport drugs and other illegal contraband into the United States, Border Patrol officials stated.

"Sophisticated tunnels take a lot of time and money to make," Border Patrol Agent Tekae Michael told The Los Angeles Times, noting that such tunnels are common in the area. "When we find them, they're a pretty big deal."

The discovery once again underscores the harsh reality of America's immigration crisis, as illegal aliens and illegal contraband continue to flood across the southern border.

Attention

Anger at the media spreads into local communities

FakeNewsShirt
© AP/Jim Mone
Seen at a rally by President Trump in Rochester, Minnesota, October 4, 2018.
The hostility she's felt from the public recently wasn't necessarily the last straw in television news photographer Lori Bentley-Law's decision to quit the business after 24 years, but it was one of them.

Bentley-Law's recent blog post explaining why she was leaving Los Angeles' KNBC-TV hit home for many colleagues. While President Donald Trump's attacks on the media are usually centered on national outlets like CNN and The New York Times, the attitudes unleashed have filtered down to journalists on the street covering news in local communities across the country.

When a president describes the press as enemies of the people, "attitudes shift and the field crews get the brunt of the abuse," she wrote. "And it's not just from one side. We get it all the way around, pretty much on a daily basis."
Sign Fakenews CNN...
© AP/Paul Sancya
Trump rally Washington Township, Michigan, April 28, 2018.

Comment: Unfortunately fake news doesn't translate to fake attacks. The angst of the public is taken out on accessible targets - the crews assigned to the stories, the expendable and replaceable - never the decision makers.


Lemon

CNN's Don Lemon: 'We have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat is white men'

CNN's Don Lemon
© Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
CNN's Don Lemon
Demonstrating a complete failure to grasp the concept of irony, CNN's Don Lemon urged Americans not to "demonize" each other, and in the same breath called white men "the biggest terror threat in this country."

Speaking with co-host Chris Cuomo on Monday night, Lemon discussed a fatal shooting of two black people in a grocery store in Kentucky, a raft of pipe bombs mailed to Democratic figures, and Saturday's shooting dead of 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The Kentucky and Pittsburgh shooters were white males, while Cesar Sayoc, the mailbomb suspect arrested in Florida last Friday, has identified in the past as Native American.

Lemon's initial message was one of tolerance and openness. "I keep trying to point out to people and not to demonize any one group or any one ethnicity," he told viewers.

Then, as if completely forgetting the last sentence, Lemon switched to what sounded a lot like open racism.


Red Flag

'This country is for white people only': Family subjected to racist abuse while visiting Wellington, New Zealand

Racist abuse in New Zealand
© Global Look Press / Danita Delimont
White & Colored segregation signs at a US National Historic Site.
A Filipino family on holiday in New Zealand has been subjected to a racist tirade from an angry woman who declared that her country was "for white people only." A video of the rant has since gone viral, sparking public outrage.

Krizia Egipto and her family were shopping in Wellington when they were approached by the angry woman who told them they "weren't welcome here."

"The lady said, 'Don't come back here any more. This is only for white people. This country is for white people only,'" Egipto wrote in a Facebook post which has since gone viral.

Egipto and her family left the store where the initial altercation took place, but the woman approached them again elsewhere in the city. The 18-year-old then began to record the woman on her phone - a video that has now been watched over 57,000 times.

In the footage, the woman can be heard telling Egipto to "go home. You have a country."


Black Cat

Thought control wars: UK universities are struggling to deal with 'toxic' trans rights row

Prof Rosa Freedman transgender rights
© Linda Nylind for the Guardian
Prof Rosa Freedman says Reading University has been 'faultless' in supporting her, while others fear being seen as illiberal.
Abuse on campus, fear of speaking up - feminist academics say some universities aren't protecting them

Last Tuesday morning, an angry student shouted at Prof Rosa Freedman outside the students' union at Reading University. She was a "transphobic Nazi who should get raped", he yelled.

Freedman packed up and went home. She felt shaken and, "for the first time on campus, afraid of physical violence".

The abuse didn't come out of the blue. Freedman, professor of law, conflict and global development at the university, is one of a number of feminist academics expressing concerns about proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act that would make it easier for trans people to have their preferred gender legally recognised. Freedman says she has been treated like a "pariah" by some academics, students and trans activists as a result.

Comment: The voice of reason has no place in a mad society.


Fish

Russian Navy frogmen break world record with 416m dive

russian dive record
Three Pacific Fleet frogmen broke the Russian Navy's diving record and brandished the national flag as they descended 416 meters into the Sea of Japan during a thrilling underwater rescue training exercise.

The experienced divers had to spend three days in a compression chamber before they could begin the journey into the dark void using a diving bell, operating from the Igor Belousov navy rescue ship, the Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.

During their mission, the frogmen surveyed the area and practiced connecting oxygen lines to a submarine model. The men also unfurled the Russian flag to celebrate their record-breaking dive.

Comment: Russia is proving itself as one of the world leaders in everything from technology to agriculture to diplomacy:


Bomb

'Terrorist probe opened' as 1 killed & 3 injured at local FSB HQ in northern Russian province

bombing FSB arkhangelsk
© Sputnik / Vladimir Trephilov; (L) Ruptly; (C) Sputnik / Vladimir Trephilov (R) vk.com / Мария Вавилина
FSB HQ, Arkhangelsk
A blast has occurred at the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in the northern city of Arkhangelsk. The suspected perpetrator has succumbed to injuries and three more people are in the hospital.

Local Governor Igor Orlov told reporters that an unknown device went off and its type is being determined. He also elaborated on the number of casualties.

"Three are in hospital. There is one dead, the person is being identified," Orlov said.

Heart - Black

Circus horror: Watch as lioness attacks 4 year old girl during show

lion attack child circus

Screenshot from a YouTube video of the incident.
A traveling circus performance in Russia was interrupted in a horrible way after a lioness suddenly attacked a 4-year-old girl through the fence around the arena.

The terrifying incident, which was caught on video, happened in Uspenskoye, a town of some 12,000 residents, located in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia. The footage, filmed by one of the spectators, shows the lioness lying on the floor after instructions from the tamer. She then suddenly rushes across the arena and reaches out at a small girl standing with her back to the animal at the first row of seats. Cries of horror are heard as circus workers rush to save the child.

The girl, with claw and bite wounds on her face and chest, was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery. According to medics, her life is not in danger, but she is to be transferred to the regional capital, where a better child trauma center will continue her treatment.

Comment: Those who visit circuses that beat animals into submission to be used for entertainment shouldn't be surprised to find that the animal is still actually wild. Although it does seem that animals are going on the attack more frequently these days: