Society's ChildS


Star of David

Cognitive dissonance: Watch what happens when AIPAC attendees slam Trump's racist comments then learn they were said by Netanyahu

zionism is racism
On Monday, thousands of supporters of Israel filed into the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, to watch the Republican presidential candidates address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most influential arm of the Israel lobby.

The line to get in spanned an entire block and wrapped around the corner, and was the scene of confrontations between conference attendees and an assortment of protesters, some chanting against Israel, others against AIPAC and almost everyone against Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner whose big speech was just hours away.

It was the perfect opportunity to engage with Israel's most politically active supporters, so I pulled out my camera phone and began asking what they thought of Trump.

Most respondents expressed extremely negative views about the candidate, slamming his racism, xenophobia and incitement to violence.

So I decided to conduct an experiment to test for consistency by attributing racist statements made by Israeli leaders to Trump and asking respondents what they thought of such language.

Comment: What a fine example of how many so-called liberal Jews in the US simply cannot or will not see beyond their own incredibly ingrained biases and programming when it comes to being presented with any negative information regarding Israel, or its leaders. Zionists, in general, will resort to nearly any type of mental gymnastics, justifications, emotionalism, eye-rolling etc. rather than address the possibility that there is something very very wrong occurring in the imploding 'land of the chosen'.


Eye 1

With Brazil at a critical point, who has time for the Olympics?

Brazil Olympics
© AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the steelworker-turned-president of a booming Brazil, broke into tears when Rio de Janeiro was named to host the 2016 Olympics.

Today, with Brazil immersed in twin political and economic crises, few seem to be thinking about the opening ceremony in Maracana Stadium in 134 days.

Current President Dilma Rousseff is fighting for her political life amid a deep recession, impeachment proceedings, mass protests and a corruption scandal in which the once high-flying Lula, her predecessor and mentor, faces charges.

The plot of the country's political thriller is moving so fast the Brazilian media have barely had time to cover preparations for South America's first Olympics, beyond an outbreak of the Zika virus, blamed for causing brain damage in unborn babies.

It is hard to even predict who will be president of Brazil when the Olympic flame is lit in the legendary Maracana on August 5.

Robot

Mirroring our hateful society, Microsoft's new Twitter-bot goes full-on Nazi in a matter of 24 hours

tay tweet
Anytime there's a new development in robotics or artificial intelligence, popular culture almost instantly regurgitates the Skynet Terminator narrative. To wit, when Anti-Media reported on a new robot getting pushed around by its handlers, even we couldn't resist alluding to the coming robot apocalypse. The machine uprising is so ingrained in our psyche that we may actually manufacture the very nightmare we fear.

The newest chapter in the uncanny valley of relationships between humans and robots involves a chatterbot, an AI speech program, whose substrate of choice (or Microsoft's choice) is social media. Its name is Tay, a Twitter bot owned and developed by Microsoft. The purpose of Tay is to foster "conversational understanding." Unfortunately, this understanding quickly turned into trolling, and within 24 hours Tay went full Nazi, spewing racist, anti-semitic and misogynistic tweets.

Newspaper

Hawaii passes resolution moving towards decriminalization of all drugs

hawaii coastline
Following Portugal's model, Hawai'i could become the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize all drugs — including cocaine and even heroin.

"[D]espite a longstanding policy that enforces illicit drug prohibition and imposes some of the world's harshest penalties for drug possession and sales, illicit drug use in the United States has been increasing," states a resolution that passed, amended by the Hawai'i House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

Now that it's been approved, the study's findings will be due later this year,"no later than 20 days prior" to the convening of the legislature's 2017 session.

Comment: The War on Drugs is an abject failure and has left ruined lives and broken families in its wake. Don't double down if a policy is ineffective. Try something new.

Ten Years Ago Portugal Legalized All Drugs -- What Happened Next?


Cell Phone

Dumb law: "Burner phones" may require verifiable ID if California bill passes

Mobile phones
© Paulo Whitaker / Reuters
Burner phones, beloved by criminals and TV writers everywhere, could be a thing of the past if a new bill by California lawmakers passes.

The proposed law would require prepaid phone customers to register their personal details before purchasing a burner phone or SIM card.

The Closing of Prepaid Mobile Device Security Gap bill, introduced by Jonestown massacre survivor State Rep Jackie Speier, could make it harder for those hoping to communicate anonymously.

Retailers would be required to verify those details at purchase and keep a record of the details gathered.

Comment: A ridiculous piece of legislation, and it'll prove to be mostly ineffective. Anyone can buy a phone and resell it in a multitude of ways (including Craigslist, eBay, local newspaper, swap shops, etc) and sign up for service online with no ID verification required. All a person usually needs to sign up for phone service online is a working phone, an email address, and a credit card or debit card. Furthermore, most phones support WiFi, so nothing stops people from buying a used phone and using in WiFi-only mode with a variety of openly available instant messaging, chat, and voice chat phone apps in conjunction with open public WiFi hotspots.


No Entry

U.K.: City council launches campaign to stop people giving to the homeless; backlash ensues

begging sign nottingham
A local city council in the U.K. is facing severe backlash as a result of a vile campaign demonizing homelessness. Nottinghamshire City Council's #givesmart campaign was launched in March, with the aim of urging the public not to give money to people begging on the streets. Concerned that money given to those begging is used to feed addictions, the council claims to have launched the campaign to encourage the public to give their cash to homeless charities, instead.

Nottingham's council implemented the campaign by displaying a number of large posters throughout the city that contain bigoted and hateful slogans. Claiming "beggars are not what they seem," they portray a young man in a hat and photographs of cans of 'strong' lager. They contain slogans stating, "Begging: Watch Your Money Go To A Fraud," or "Begging: Watch your money go up in smoke," and even "Begging funds the misuse of drugs."

Comment: Looks like Nottingham took a page out of the Dallas P.D.'s playbook with the same result. Newsflash: Normal people react to the sight of people struggling!

Dallas PD warns people against giving money to the homeless; tactic backfires tremendously


Pistol

NYPD cop kills excited family pet in cold blood as child watches

cops_dogs
© petadviser.com
Excited by activity outside the apartment, Spike rushed out, wagging his tail eagerly to greet whoever stood on the other side of the door — and was promptly executed by an NYPD officer wielding his gun.

Graphic video of the February 13th slaughter of Yvonne Rosado's beloved pit bull has now been released — and it is nothing short of outrageous.

"He was a big Snuffleupagus — a gentle giant," Rosado described Spike to the New York Daily News. "He was a member of the family ... He would wag his tail, letting everyone know he was friendly."

Immediately before the inexplicable shooting, Rosado had been dancing with her dog — a weekly ritual in which Spike stood on his hind legs so she could hold his paws.

2 + 2 = 4

Ohio parents irate over police brutality school assignment that paints police in a bad light

Parents are raising issues with homework for middle schoolers in Hamilton City Schools that many think paints police in a bad light and skews the debate about police brutality.
Police brutality assignment
© NBC

Comment: Reality is a bit too unsettling for these parents. They should be outraged at the blatant brutality, not a teacher raising awareness of it.


The assignment, titled "Vocabulary - Police Brutality Day 4," was handed out to students at Wilson Middle School and included several new words for students to learn: brutality, merely prosecuted, excessive and minority, NBC 4reports.

According to the assignment, "The numbers don't lie; minority people (more so black than Hispanic) experience more violent arrests from police officers than do white people. "The unfortunate thing is that most police officers aren't prosecuted in cases of brutality against them; these cases rarely make it to court and the officers are acquitted of any crime," it reads.

The assignment also offered the author's, presumably the teacher's, commentary on their distorted perception of police brutality. "I don't understand how some people can use such excessive force against another person; that person has to have a lot of anger built up," the assignment read. "I have always tried to be aware of racism; every day, I merely try to be a good person and do the best I can to be fair and open minded."

Concerned parents discussed the assignment on Facebook, flagging the attention of local news outlets and district superintendent Tony Orr, who told KFOR the teacher was attempting to engage students in "critical thinking" about current events.

Orr then rambled on with a politically correct statement about assignment development and other issues that have little relevance to parents' concerns about how police brutality was portrayed by the teacher.

"We have a teacher who is given a topic, and we will continue to work will all our teachers to make sure that that yes, we want a higher level thinking - we want our kids to read and write critically, but in doing that we also need to develop our lesson plans accordingly," he said.

Alarm Clock

Taxi driver who drove Bakraouis to airport now fears for his life - more details

marco
Mostafa Beggar (left), the manager at Transports Figorifiques, with Marco, a taxi driver who helped victims at the scene of terror attacks
The taxi driver who drove the Brussels suicide bombers to the airport is now in hiding and fears for his life, friends say.

Brahim El Bakraoui and two other men ordered a taxi to take them from their hide out in the Schaerbeek district to Zaventem airport on Tuesday morning, before they committed one of the worst terrorist atrocities in Belgium's history.


Comment: The taxi driver, Kim Sengupta (of Moroccan descent), has apparently identified the other two men as Brahim's brother Khalid and Faycal Cheffou (the hatted man in the CCTV footage), who has been arrested and charged with "terrorist murders".


As soon as the driver heard about the attacks, he drove straight to a police station in central Brussels to tell the authorities every detail he could remember about the three men, including their hideout, a 5th floor apartment in Rue Max Roos.


Comment: After receiving the tip from Sengupta, police reportedly raided the apartment (No 4), where they found "an Isis flag, a bomb packed with nails and screws, detonators and enough chemicals to make 15kg of Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), the explosive used in last November's Paris attacks."


But now the driver fears reprisals from Isis and their sympathisers for handing over such crucial information to the police.

Comment: Latest news: 5 new arrests in Brussels. Further reading: Miraculous passports and trashed laptops: What do 9/11 and the Belgian bombings have in common?


Black Cat 2

Paranoid Banks: US man's payment denied because of his dog's 'terrorist' name

dog walker
© Robert Galbraith / Reuters
Sometimes terrorists move on all fours. That's what Chase Bank apparently decided when it wouldn't clear a payment for a disabled man's dog walker. It was the dog's name that led to the payment being bounced and the Treasury Department being involved.

The nine-year-old service pitbull mongrel acts as a companion and friend to Bruce Francis of San Francisco, who has a rare form of MS and gets around by wheelchair.

According to Fox, Francis was doing his routine payment to his dog walker earlier in March, by using his online account with Chase Bank. He had filled in his dog's name into the memo line of the form. But the dog walker told Francis he hadn't got the check.