Society's Child

Creeping surveillance state: NY to test facial recognition cameras at "crossing points"

Kevin Collier
Vocativ
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 14:18 UTC

New York will soon test facial recognition technology around Manhattan.

In a 35-minute speech detailing a landmark $100 billion investment into state infrastructure, largely focused on New York City and Long Island, Governor Andrew Cuomo made a number of promises that would thrill New Yorkers, like the promise of a renovated Penn Station, called Penn-Farley, a direct train from there to LaGuardia Airport, and the completion of the long-awaited Second Avenue Line. Oh, and facial recognition cameras around the city, he said:

"At each crossing, and at structurally sensitive points on bridges and tunnels, advanced cameras and sensors will be installed to read license plates and test emerging facial recognition software and equipment."

Comment: This increasing surveillance apparatus isn't going to stop state-sponsored terror nor will it do anything to stop lone wolves determined to cause harm, but it will be a very effective tool to scare people into being accepting of their fate as modern slaves.

Ave! New book marks Vladimir Putin's ascent to 'global cultural phenomenon'

Alec Luhn
The Guardian
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 11:58 UTC

What can you get the man who has everything? In the case of Vladimir Putin, a pro-Kremlin website has decided the appropriate gift is a book of pop culture depictions of the Russian president, who celebrates his 64th birthday on Friday.

The book, In the Lead Role: Putin in Contemporary Culture, is 288 glossy pages of Putin in magazines and books, television and film, graffiti, sculpture, music and consumer goods. There are numerous photographs of public stunts in support of Putin, such as Russians holding letters reading "Happy birthday Vladimir", and the "I Will Rip It for Putin" rally at which young women tore off sleeveless undershirts with the president's face pictured in pink.

Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, T-shirts and iPhone cases featuring Putin's image have become popular, found at any airport and in a new chain of army stores.

Comment: Alec, decorum, please! Since Crimea acceded to Russia in 2014...

'In the Lead Role: Putin in Contemporary Culture', by Viktor Levanov

Viktor Levanov, editor of the pro-Kremlin news site Gosindex, told journalists at a photo studio in downtown Moscow that the birthday book was meant to look at how Putin had "stepped outside the boundaries of personality and became a worldwide cultural phenomenon".

Comment: That's probably as close as the Guardian can come to wishing Putin a happy birthday. They HAVE to vilify him, but in the process they can't help but notice that the man is GLOBALLY POPULAR.

Police chief fired for no clear cause - after stopping the immoral 'war on drugs' in his city

Claire Bernish
Free Thought Project
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 21:34 UTC

Police Chief Leonard Campanello has been called a hero, a savior, and an innovator for opposing the war on drugs — implementing a program to assist addicts in his town — instead of arresting them and ruining their lives.

But he was just fired — under exceedingly vague circumstances.

"The war on drugs is over," Campanello previously declared in an interview. "And we lost. There is no way we can arrest our way out of this. We've been trying that for 50 years. We've been fighting it for 50 years, and the only thing that has happened is heroin has become cheaper and more people are dying."

Gloucester experienced an epidemic of heroin overdoses and addiction was rampant, until the chief came up with a spontaneous plan — allow anyone with a heroin addiction to walk into the police station, drugs and paraphernalia in hand, and assist them in getting help. No arrest necessary.

"If you are a user of opiates or heroin, let us help you," Campanello implored in a post to Facebook following news of yet another heroin overdose. "We know you do not want this addiction. We have resources here in the City that can and will make a difference in your life. Do not become a statistic."

Comment: One wonders perhaps whose local profits were being cut into by the police chief's program.

"McDonald's, Hands Off My Buns": Employees protest sexual harassment in more than 30 American states

RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:26 UTC

Female workers at McDonald's are sick of being treated like meat. They are accusing the Golden Arches of not protecting employees against sexual harassment. Backed by the minimum wage campaign "Fight for $15," workers are taking to the streets to demand better treatment.

McDonald's claims to have a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, but over a dozen sexual harassment complaints against the fast food giant paint a different story. In the past month alone, 15 different sexual harassment complaints have been filled with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against McDonald's.

Comment: McDonald's has 1.9 million employees...should this be an advertisement for how good the company's zero tolerance policy is?

As a result, workers in 30 US cities joined in a lunchtime protest to draw attention to what some believe is a widespread problem. Protesters held demonstrations outside of the restaurant, where they held up signs reading, "McDonald's, Hands Off My Buns," and "McDonald's, Put Some Respect in My Check."

German far-right leader likens societies with migrants to 'compost heaps', sez Merkel is a poor leader because she has no kids

RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:22 UTC

The head of Germany's anti-immigration AfD party Frauke Petry has compared a society incorporating migrants to a "compost heap," triggering a barrage of criticism from the country's politicians.

Taking a stand against the idea that migrants make societies more diverse, leader of German anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Frauke Petry said: "What should we make of the campaign 'Germany is Colorful'? A compost heap is colorful, too," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Petry made the comments while giving a speech in Stuttgart, southwest Germany on Monday.

She harshly criticized the statements made by other politicians who said migrants made the country more "colorful." Blasting the notion of a "colorful" Germany she argued for a more "homogenous" nation instead.

CIA claims ability to predict 'societal instability' anywhere, just days before it happens

RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:18 UTC

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan Gary Cameron/Reuters

"Three to five days" is all the time the CIA needs to predict the "development of social unrest" in many cases, the agency's newest office deputy director says. Open source data and deep learning algorithms are behind the forecasts built for policymakers.

Out of the Directorate for Digital Innovation, the CIA's first new official division in over a half-century, comes a whole new kind of secretive data gathering.

In less than a year since its opening, the office has "significantly improved its 'anticipatory intelligence," according to NextGov, which co-hosted an event featuring the CIA's Deputy Director for Digital Innovation, Andrew Hallman, at a conference earlier this week.

Comment: Total information awareness? Or supreme wishful thinking?

Police killing of a black man you never heard of before: Perry Jones, 19

Katherine Reed
ExtraNewsfeed
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC

Every time a black person gets killed by a cop in America, I think about Perry Jones.

He was 19 years old and apparently homeless when he climbed onto the roof of a barbecue shack in Columbus, Georgia, shimmied down the chimney and hacked some meat out of a freezer with a cleaver. When he climbed up and out onto the roof of the restaurant, it was surrounded by cops — nine, by one officer's count.

A sergeant who was an excellent shot and had recently won a sharpshooting competition took a bead on Perry Jones and killed him as he stood up there on the roof — no more than eight feet from the ground.

The next day, it was my job as the morning police reporter for the Columbus Ledger to write about what had happened. All these years later, I still remember feeling shocked when the police department's internal affairs department quickly declared the shooting justified. I'm not sure Perry Jones had even been buried.

The NAACP was also shocked. How, the organization asked at a news conference, could the police have possibly determined in such a short time that the shooting was justified? The organization demanded an inquest into the young man's death.

The coroner, a guy named Don Kilgore (can't make this stuff up), agreed to perform an inquest if the family agreed.

Listening to a Trump supporter I know

David A Hill Jr
ExtraNewsfeed
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC

I talked at length with a Trump supporter I grew up around. I wanted to understand. I respected her growing up. I wanted to know why a person as kind and compassionate as I remember her is voting for someone like Donald Trump.

She was a family friend, a good person. In rural Ohio, everything was tight. Money, jobs. If you really needed quick cash, she'd put you to work doing landscaping. She'd pay fairly and reliably for the area.

She's voting for Donald Trump. I disagree with her choice, but I understand why she rejects Clinton so fiercely, and why she's been swept up in Donald Trump's particular brand of right-wing populism. I feel that on the left, it's increasingly easy to ignore these people, to disregard them, to write them off as racists, bigots, or uneducated. I think that's a loss for everyone involved, and that sometimes listening can help you to at least understand why a person is making the choices they make, so you can work on the root causes. For her, the root cause isn't racism. In fact, I remember her as one of the only people in the area who proudly hired black workers, in a place where that was a huge issue. She fought over that choice.

But that's enough background. Let me relay a bit of what she told me.

Comment: Michael Krieger had this to say about the above article:

The more deeply I think about this election, the more I agree that the above sentiments motivate Trump voters far more than feelings of racism or hate. As I noted in a piece published a few weeks ago, The Status Quo vs. Donald Trump:
This isn't about me. This is about the American voter, and the more time passes, the more I understand the motivations of the vast majority of Trump supporters. It isn't xenophobia or racism, it's a vote against the status quo and the way they've strip mined and destroyed this country. It's a FU vote and a major gamble, but it's not as irrational or hateful as you might think.
This doesn't mean that Trump won't betray his supporters and prove to be the Republican version of Barack Obama, but it does mean that the dominant media narrative characterizing Trump supporters as a bunch of racist, uneducated brutes is pretty much just dishonest, elitist propaganda.

Hacking group Fancy Bears releases emails claiming cover-up of US athletes' drug tests

RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 21:39 UTC

The hacking group Fancy Bears, as part of its so-called #OpOlympics, has released emails between US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) employees that it says proves that American athletes have taken banned substances.

On Thursday, Fancy Bears released email correspondence between USADA science director Dr. Matthew Fedoruk and Dana Leenheer, Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) & Drug Reference Specialist. The hacking group claimed that the exchange"reveals that USADA covers up many athletes using prohibited substances. As evidence, see the table containing the data of more than 200 American athletes who have USADA and other organizations' permission to take banned drugs."

Comment: See also:

Ya think? Exposed British doper Bradley Wiggins' doctor says therapeutic use exemption looks very suspicious

'Fancy Bears' release more athletes' names in WADA hack

Grandmother's Halloween display depicts real-life horrors, shootings and Flint water crisis

Benjamin Raven
M Live
Tue, 04 Oct 2016 23:37 UTC

Grandmother Haddon's real life Halloween display

© Tanya Moutzalias / MLive Detroit
"We need to come together, if we don't this scene in my yard is going to be reality every day," said Larethia Haddon of the message her unique halloween display depicts in her front yard of the Bagley neighborhood on Detroit's west side Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Haddon said her grandkids helped her come up with display that illustrates their own fears and the real horrors of life. The display includes a messages of police shootings, the Flint water crisis, senseless killings and child predators.

As Halloween approaches, hair-raising yard displays can often cause people to stop, gawk and whip out their cellphones.

Larethia Haddon is well aware of that, and is using it to shine some light on real-life horrors, rather than typical Halloween themes.

In her yard at the corner of Mendota and Santa Maria avenues in Detroit, there are six dummies portraying police shootings, slain children, the Flint water crisis, and other horrors.

Comment:

well you sure don't have to think about anything so what would you call it

cracker

Greek acting gods have a joke “Sapiens is wise, because they know, that we know better what to do with their will, than they do.” Vicious foreign...

Orwik

Jut for laffs here's George Carlin doing a spoof as the Architect in the Matrix: [Link] * BTW, this just came out today: Leonard Cohen - Puppets...

parzival

.. .. Is the Brits' Prince Pedo ok? [Link]

Jibrish

.. .. jUS Con gress shid show [Link] Let's go pfhizer [Link]

Jibrish

Society's Child

Creeping surveillance state: NY to test facial recognition cameras at "crossing points"

Ave! New book marks Vladimir Putin's ascent to 'global cultural phenomenon'

Police chief fired for no clear cause - after stopping the immoral 'war on drugs' in his city

"McDonald's, Hands Off My Buns": Employees protest sexual harassment in more than 30 American states

German far-right leader likens societies with migrants to 'compost heaps', sez Merkel is a poor leader because she has no kids

CIA claims ability to predict 'societal instability' anywhere, just days before it happens

Police killing of a black man you never heard of before: Perry Jones, 19

Listening to a Trump supporter I know

Hacking group Fancy Bears releases emails claiming cover-up of US athletes' drug tests

Grandmother's Halloween display depicts real-life horrors, shootings and Flint water crisis

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