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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Attention

UK prison officers union leader calls for strike: 'My members have excrement & urine thrown at them'

prison protest
© Darren Staples / Reuters
Prison officers protest over violence and safety concerns outside Leicester Prison, September 14, 2018.
A Prison Officers union leader has called on all staff at jails in the UK to walk out in protest of the "unprecedented" levels of violence being perpetrated against them, saying he's fed up at hearing of members being "attacked."

Prison Officers Association (POA) General Secretary Steve Gillan made the demand of all members in England and Wales on Friday to go on protest at 7am, "until instructed otherwise."

Gillan told the Mirror that his members had every right to stage a mass walkout under health and safety legislation, saying that he was fed up at the acts of violence his members had to endure, including having "excrement and urine thrown at them."

"Under legislation the government and employer have a duty of care toward my members, and I'm fed up of hearing of my members receiving smashed eye sockets, broken arms, broken legs, broken jaws, being attacked, spat on, having excrement and urine thrown at them, and enough is enough now," he said.

"We need ministers to start taking control of what's going on."

Bad Guys

Gaza Health Ministry reports 2 Palestinians killed, 12 injured in clashes on Gaza border

Palestinian protesters
© AP Photo / Adel Hana
Palestinian protesters run to cover from teargas fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes with Israeli troops along Gaza's border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, April 6, 2018
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 12 people have been injured following clashes at the Israeli border.

Earlier in the day, the ministry said that two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, had been killed.

The teenager was killed in northern Gaza, east of Jabalia, while the second Palestinian was shot in southern Gaza near Khan Yunis.

Comment: See also:


Question

Vehement racism or PC insanity? Met policeman under investigation for using the term 'whiter than white'

New Scotland Yard
© Luke MacGregor / Reuters
A sign is seen outside New Scotland Yard in central London.
A senior London Metropolitan police officer could face being sacked for using alleged racist language after telling colleagues they need to be "whiter than white" while carrying out inquiries - words of a racist or PC gone mad?

The detective superintendent, who works in the Met's anti-corruption, faces the possibility of an internal investigation for gross misconduct for a phrase the Plain English Campaign characterizes as meaning "morally beyond reproach."

According to the Evening Standard, the Met received a complaint after the briefing led by the senior Scotland Yard officer in question, who have since passed it to the police watchdog for investigation.

While the Independent Office for Police Conduct investigates the complaint, the officer will be on restricted duties - an inquiry that could take up to 12 months to complete. The highly respected officer denies any wrongdoing and is said to be cooperating fully with the investigation.

Heart - Black

Traumatizing children: Police to fire blanks during active shooter drill at Pennsylvania high school

active shooter drill school

The high school drill was similar to one held at Salisbury, Maryland, in 2013, pictured above.
Active shooter training will be conducted Thursday at Bethel Park High School, and students will be exposed to the sound of gunfire, according to a letter to parents.

The A.L.I.C.E. Drill, conducted by school police and a trained A.L.I.C.E. team, will be a scenario including an alleged shooter in the school.

A.L.I.C.E. stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

During the drill, police will fire blanks in hallways to expose everyone to the sound of gunfire in the building. The blanks will not be fired at anyone.

Comment: More worrying is the fact that 'drills' often predate or coincide with actual events:


UFO

Social stigma about unexplained phenomena is holding humanity back

International Space Station
© NASA
International Space Station
Like most other biological systems on this planet, humans are largely motivated by self-preservation and conflict avoidance.

As a species, we tend to avoid associating ourselves with anything that will isolate us from the larger group or make us sound strange, or that might draw negative attention from our peers.

And when left unaddressed, it exerts a chilling influence over society and across generations. This is true whether we are trying to find the cause for diseases, reasons for environmental change, or primers for global conflict.

Throughout history, there are times when we, as a society, found it more convenient and socially acceptable to ignore uncomfortable topics. The results were often catastrophic both to our moral fiber and the health of our species. Stigma regarding certain psychological conditions once led to a life sentence in an asylum and forced lobotomies simply because stigma prevented families having a conversation about mental illness.

Attention

Dalai Lama says 'Europe belongs to Europeans', refugees should return home and rebuild their own countries

Dalai Lama
© Johan Nilsson/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The Dalai Lama has told a press conference in Sweden that "Europe belongs to the Europeans", asserting that refugees should be repatriated so they can rebuild their homelands.

Speaking in the multicultural city of Malmö, where nearly half of residents are of foreign background, with Iraqis making up the largest single group, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism said Sweden is seen as "a peaceful, generally prosperous country" with a relatively small gap between rich and poor.

"Spontaneously", reports Norrköpings Tidningar, the Dalai Lama then "moved on to talk about one of the biggest issues in the Swedish election - the reception of refugees".

Noting that a large number of immigrants have settled in Europe from the Middle East and elsewhere, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual leader said it was good for nations to help "a refugee really facing danger against their life".

Comment: Interesting, given the Dalai Lama's role as a political chess piece in the West's decades-long effort to smear China.


HRC Red

Integration failure: Report finds 51% Vienna pupils don't speak German at home

Migrant children
© Michaela Rehle / Reuters
Migrant children pose before passing the Austrian-German border in Achleiten, Austria, October 29, 2015.
More than half of students at Viennese schools use their native language, rather than German, at home and as they go about their everyday activities, according to a new integration report released by the Austrian government.

The 8th annual report, prepared by an independent expert council, has found that the Austrian government's efforts to encourage those with migrant background to learn German have largely fallen flat. The reluctance or inability of migrants, many of whom have arrived into the country in the recent years, is showing more clearly in the country's capital, Vienna, where 51.2 percent of schoolchildren now interact in a language other than German.

Pistol

Nevada sociology professor shoots himself on campus to protest President Trump


Comment: What can we say about this. Words fail us.


College of Southern Nevada gun
The latest school shooting to occur didn't happen on some high school campus in the suburbs by an angry teen brandishing an AR, but was carried out by a crazed Trump-hating sociology professor who says he wanted to make a shocking political statement.

Contrary to what it may at first appear, this story is not from The Onion, but a bizarre and all too real event which sent students scrambling as they heard a shot ring out in the bathroom of a campus building. And we're quite sure the students who actually rushed to the wounded professor's aid to save his life once they realized what had happened aren't fully appreciative of his "political message".

Mark J. Bird, a 69-year old longtime sociology professor at the College of Southern Nevada shot himself in the bathroom of a campus building where he works, and is now facing felony gun charges after the August 28 incident, revealed for the first time this week based on a police report.

Police confirm in their court report that the professor "had shot himself in protest of President Donald Trump".

Comment: Trump Derangement Syndrome is reaching new levels of mentally-unhinged absurdity.


Megaphone

What about your workers? Amazon's Bezos gets flack for $2bn fund to help homeless & children

Jeff Bezos
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Jeff Bezos, president and CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, September 13, 2018.
Amazon CEO and world's richest man Jeff Bezos has invoked Twitter wrath for seemingly an all-around commendable cause - setting up a charity fund to fight homelessness and create a preschool network for the underprivileged.

The so-called Day One Fund will be multi-billionaire businessman's most significant foray into philanthropy to date. The 2$ billion pledged by Bezos will be used to finance two separate funds to be created. The first one, "The Day 1 Families Fund" will provide grants to organizations and groups that help accommodate homeless families, while "The Day 1 Academies Fund" will run a network of Montessori-based nurseries in impoverished communities. Bezos was previously criticized for giving relatively little to charity.


Comment: Bezos' new "philanthropist" bent would probably be a bit more authentic if he actually took care of the dire working conditions that lead to homelessness. See also:


Mr. Potato

Petrov & Boshirov may have been mocked on Twitter, but Salisbury's self-esteem is the biggest victim

Salisbury Cathedral
© Toby Melville / Reuters
Salisbury Cathedral, 13 Sept 2018
RT's interview with the two Russian men accused of being behind the Skripal poisoning has revealed a Twitter widely cynical about both their innocence, and Salisbury's claims to be an international tourist hotspot.

Whatever your views on the Skripal poisoning and the guilt or innocence of suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, few could argue it has been a bad day for the self-esteem of Salisbury and its much-admired cathedral. The majority on social media clearly think the town is awful and certainly not worth a 3,000-mile round trip.

But with the optimism of knowing God is on its side, and the 'no publicity is bad publicity' mantra ringing in its ears, Salisbury Cathedral itself is not wasting its new-found notoriety. It sent out a promotional tweet detailing the mighty 123-meter erection which apparently attracted Petrov and Boshirov in the first place.

Comment: See also: