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

Society's Child
Map

Brick Wall

New Mexico begins work on border wall replacement with diverted defense funds

Bob Price
Breitbart
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 08:37 UTC
Trump border wall
© AP File Photo/Gregory Bull
Construction crews in New Mexico began work on a 46-mile stretch of replacement border walls. The project is reportedly funded with Department of Defense resources diverted by the Trump Administration under a national emergency declaration.

The construction company set forth on a contract to replace a 46-mile section of border fencing with a taller bollard wall. The project is running from Columbus, New Mexico, to Santa Teresa along the border that separates the state from Chihuahua, Mexico, KVIA, ABC7 reported.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned a lower court's ruling that blocked the use of diverted funds, Breitbart News' Joel Pollak reported in July. The ruling freed approximately $2.5 billion for construction.
      Read More...
Black Magic

Early Epstein accuser recounts bizarre sexual abuse ignored by FBI & NYPD

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 08:37 UTC
Annie Farmer
© Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
Annie Farmer had troubling encounters with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell when she was 16.
Jeffrey Epstein's tremendous wealth and power allowed him to continuously prey on young women for decades - even while serving a 13-month stint in a Florida jail for pedophilia.

According to multiple accounts, Epstein had a network of girls recruiting other victims for his sexual appetite, all under the direction of his long-time 'Madam' and partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell - who remains uncharged and has denied any wrongdoing.
      Read More...
Family

Socialization isn't responsible for greater male violence

Alex Mackiel
Quillette
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 07:25 UTC
storks fighting
Earlier this year, Dr. Julia Shaw wrote an article for Psychology Today entitled, "Why Are We Not Outraged that Prisons Are Filled with Men?" in which she argues that there is something "pernicious" and deeply wrong with a system that incarcerates men at far higher rates than women. "Prison," she explains, "has always been an almost entirely male structure. It's hard. It's cold. It's unempathetic. It's punitive. Practically every descriptor we use for prison prides itself in its masculinity."


Shaw says the heavily disproportionate incarceration reflects a lack of faith in men, who are then adversely affected by the experience of prison and the social stigma they are forced to carry upon release. And "what leads us to blindly accept that our prisons are full of men?" she asks.
I think it's because we accept as dogma that men are naturally more criminal — particularly more violent — than women, thus they deserve to be incarcerated at higher rates. It's about time we question this assumption.
As Shaw points out, men are overrepresented in prisons because they commit more crime than women and because, according to the FBI's statistics, they do so in nearly every category of violent crime. This is especially true when it comes to homicide. The statistics Dr. Shaw herself cites in her article bear this out:
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Study on Homicide in 2013, an astonishing 95 percent of homicide perpetrators and 79 percent of homicide victims were male.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
V

New poll shows 70% of Americans are 'angry' at our political system for only serving insiders with money and power

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
politics and money
"A deep and boiling anger" is the sentiment behind a recent poll conducted this month, showing just how utterly pissed off Americans are with their government. Despite Americans being pitted against each other with divisive partisan tactics rammed down their throats on a daily basis by the political establishment and the media, this recent poll shows they agree on one thing — the government serves the connected elite and no one else.

This latest poll, conducted by NBC News/Wall Street Journal paints a picture of an angry America. But these Americans aren't angry at one another, they are angry at the political and financial establishment that continues to fleece them in the name of "Freedom."

This anger doesn't stem from Trump either as it's been there since before him.

"Four years ago, we uncovered a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system," said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, which conducted this survey in partnership with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. "Four years later, with a very different political leader in place, that anger remains at the same level."

As NBC points out, the poll finds that 70 percent of Americans say they feel angry "because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington." Forty-three percent say that statement describes them "very well."
      Read More...
Eye 1

Uh-oh! Silicon Valley is developing its own version of a Chinese-style social credit system

Mike Elgan
Fast Company
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
social credit
In China, scoring citizens' behavior is official government policy. U.S. companies are increasingly doing something similar, outside the law.

Have you heard about China's social credit system? It's a technology-enabled, surveillance-based nationwide program designed to nudge citizens toward better behavior. The ultimate goal is to "allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step," according to the Chinese government.

In place since 2014, the social credit system is a work in progress that could evolve by next year into a single, nationwide point system for all Chinese citizens, akin to a financial credit score. It aims to punish for transgressions that can include membership in or support for the Falun Gong or Tibetan Buddhism, failure to pay debts, excessive video gaming, criticizing the government, late payments, failing to sweep the sidewalk in front of your store or house, smoking or playing loud music on trains, jaywalking, and other actions deemed illegal or unacceptable by the Chinese government.

It can also award points for charitable donations or even taking one's own parents to the doctor.

Punishments can be harsh, including bans on leaving the country, using public transportation, checking into hotels, hiring for high-visibility jobs, or acceptance of children to private schools. It can also result in slower internet connections and social stigmatization in the form of registration on a public blacklist.

Comment: Putting aside Silicon Valley's ties to the Pentagon and Department of Defense for a just a moment, most of the companies coming out of this culturally myopic region are now so politicized that one has to think twice about publicly stating one's views or opinions, no matter how reasonable they may seem to many - out of fear of being identified and labeled in some egregious manner.

      Read More...
Document

Divorce filing: Wife says Democrat consultant had affair with Ilhan Omar

Joshua Caplan
Breittbart
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 14:17 UTC
ilhan omar
© Win McNamee/Getty Images; Tim Mynett/Instagram
The wife of a Democrat consultant alleges her husband engaged in an extramarital affair with freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in recent months, according to a report.

The New York Post, citing divorce filings obtained by the newspaper, reports Dr. Beth Jordan Mynett said her husband Tim Mynett admitted to having an affair with Omar in April. Dr. Mynett also alleges her spouse dropped a "shocking declaration of love" for the far-left lawmaker and dumped her soon after, state filings submitted to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on Tuesday.

"The parties physically separated on or about April 7, 2019, when Defendant told Plaintiff that he was romantically involved with and in love with another woman, Ilhan Omar," the documents read.

Despite her husband's alleged actions, Dr. Mynett says she told him she was "willing to fight for the marriage," but she claims the political consultant told her their relationship was done. The couple married in 2012 and have a 13-year-old son together.

Omar has dished out roughly $230,000 in campaign funds in consulting fees and travel expenses to Mynett's E Street Group since 2018.
      Read More...
X

Man spends 82 days in jail after cops mistake honey for liquid meth


azfamily.com
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
man jailed for 82 days
A Maryland man spent nearly three months in jail after police arrested him at an airport, accusing him of smuggling liquid meth. The "drugs" turned out to be honey.

Leon Haughton said he bought three bottles of honey from a roadside stand while visiting relatives in Jamaica last Christmas. When he tried to bring the honey into the U.S., things got a little sticky.

Haughton said K-9 officers began sniffing him at a security checkpoint in Baltimore's international airport. Then, Customs and Border Protection agents detained him and seized his three bottles of honey.

CBP said police arrested Haughton on felony drug charges after the honey tested positive in a field test for methamphetamine.

Comment: How in the hell does it take police almost two and a half months to determine the facts about the honey!? Mr. Haughton would do well to find himself a good lawyer!

      Read More...
Heart - Black

Pittance: Purdue Pharma offers $10-12 billion to settle opioid lawsuits

Laura Strickler
NBC News
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 19:32 UTC
oxycontin purdue pharma lawsuite, opiod crisis

“The Sackler family built a multibillion-dollar drug empire based on addiction.”
The maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, and its owners, the Sackler family, are offering to settle more than 2,000 lawsuits against the company for $10 billion to $12 billion. The potential deal was part of confidential conversations and discussed by Purdue's lawyers at a meeting in Cleveland last Tuesday, Aug. 20, according to two people familiar with the mediation.

Brought by states, cities and counties, the lawsuits — some of which have been combined into one massive case — allege the company and the Sackler family are responsible for starting and sustaining the opioid crisis.

At least 10 state attorneys general and the plaintiffs' attorneys gathered in Cleveland, where David Sackler represented the Sackler family, according to two people familiar with the meeting. David Sackler, who was a board member of the company, has recently been the de facto family spokesperson.

The lawsuits that Purdue and the Sacklers are seeking to settle allege that their company's sales practices were deceptive and at least partly responsible for the opioid crisis, which claimed more than 400,000 lives from 19 c99 to 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some of the lawsuits also allege that after 2007 the Sackler family drained the company of money to enrich themselves.

"The Sackler family built a multibillion-dollar drug empire based on addiction," New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in May when his state joined others in suing the Sackler family and their company. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey was the first to name family members in her suit in January.

Comment: More on the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma's role in creating an epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands:

      Read More...
Attention

Beto O'Rourke: White supremacy is 'manifest in every part of American life'

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
O'Rourke
© Joel Pollak/Breitbart News
Beto O'Rourke at College of Charleston
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) told an outdoor gathering at the College of Charleston on Monday evening that white supremacy was "manifest in every part of American life."

O'Rourke described a country founded on white supremacy, and said that the country was projecting its racism onto would-be migrants being detained on the border.

The Democratic presidential hopeful, who is trailing badly in the polls, recited a litany of claims — many of them debunked, such as the Charleston "very fine people" hoax — accusing President Donald Trump of fomenting racism in the country.

He also accused Trump, whom he likened to a fascist dictator, of "stochastic terrorism," alleging that Trump was making provocative statements to encourage individuals, indirectly, to launch white supremacist attacks like the recent mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.

O'Rourke also called for a complete ban on so-called "assault weapons," and a national buyback of AR-15 rifles and other legal weapons currently owned by Americans.
      Read More...
X

Pure façade: US still buys 'Made in Russia' goods in spite of sanctions

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 19:16 UTC
Cartoon
© Sputnik International/Podvitskit Sputniknews
Taking care of business
Although many people expected a sharp decline in Russia-US trade amid the increase in bilateral tensions between the countries, businesses, against all the odds, seem to have ignored this and maintained economic ties.

Relations between Washington and Moscow have been declining for the last five years due to a number of disagreements on international issues, with the latest US moves being aimed at sanctioning the Russian gas export project Nord Stream 2. Despite this, however, trade between the US and Russia has been reasonably stable since 2015.

Carl Fey, a professor of international trade at the School of Business at Aalto University, said:
"For the first half of 2019 the US imported $10.5 billion and exported $3.3 billion [worth of goods] according to the US census data. Despite current challenges, many in the US and Russia also realise that there is a difference between what a government does and the views of individual people."
In light of the negative pressure from anti-Russian sanctions imposed by many Western governments, the role of export-supporting projects like "Made in Russia" by the Russian Export Centre (REC) has significantly increased. While REC is helping Russian companies that work in the non-resource export sector enter foreign markets, the program "Made in Russia" is working towards promoting an image of reliability and quality when it comes to products made in Russia. The latter is achieved via the voluntary certification of goods being exported by companies in accordance with global standards.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts