Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Christmas Tree

Time to decriminalize cannabis & create a regulated market for marijuana - German police group


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 16:11 UTC
Cannabis
© Nancy Honey / Getty
A German police officers group has called for the decriminalization of cannabis, arguing that "there has never been a society without drug use in human history, you just have to accept that."

Head of the Association of German Detectives (BDK) André Schulz spoke out in favor of ending the "arbitrary" ban on cannabis and creating a regulated market for marijuana.

"The prohibition of cannabis has historically been arbitrary and until today neither intelligent nor purposeful," Schulz wrote in the German newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost.

Comment: See also: San Francisco to expunge thousands of marijuana convictions which will "right so many wrongs"

      Read More...
Attention

British court rules against extradition of hacker Lauri Love to US


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:45 UTC
Laurie Love
© Tolga Akmen / Gloval Look Press
The UK's Lord Chief Justice says that British 'hacker' Lauri Love should not be extradited to the US to stand trial. He has been accused of hacking the secure networks of the Federal Reserve, NASA and the FBI.

An order to extradite him should be quashed, the Lord Chief Justice added. The court erupted in applause when the judgment was handed down.

Love, who suffers from Asperger syndrome, eczema, asthma, and depression, had his appeal case heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in November.
      Read More...
Chart Pie

China: America's excessive sorghum 'dumping' is ruining farmers' livelihoods


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:35 UTC
Taiwan farming
© Pichi Chuang / Reuters
A farmer sets off firecrackers to scare off birds in a sorghum field in Kinmen county, Taiwan
US President Donald Trump is not the only one unhappy about US-China trade. A Beijing investigation into US agricultural exports to China has found that America is dumping its produce.

Chinese authorities announced Sunday they would check US subsidies on the export of sorghum, a crop used to feed livestock and make a liquor known as maotai that is very popular with Chinese drinkers

According to China's Commerce Ministry, a preliminary investigation revealed "extensive dumping" of sorghum, causing "material injury" to Chinese farmers.

"The surging amount of imports from the US since 2013 has dragged down market prices, damaging China's grain sorghum sector," Wang Hejun, the head of the ministry's trade remedy and investigation bureau, said in a separate statement, as quoted by Bloomberg.
      Read More...
Heart - Black

Nomadland: Many older Americans are living a desperate life in RVs

Richard Eisenberg
Market Watch
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 07:48 UTC
Many older Americans are living a desperate, nomadic life
© Getty
In her powerful new book, "Nomadland," award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are - as the subtitle says - "surviving America in the twenty-first century." Not quite homeless, they are "houseless," living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits.

The "workamper" jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon's "CamperForce," seasonal employees who can walk the equivalent of 15 miles a day during Christmas season pulling items off warehouse shelves and then returning to frigid campgrounds at night. Living on less than $1,000 a month, in certain cases, some have no hot showers. As Bruder writes, these are "people who never imagined being nomads." Many saw their savings wiped out during the Great Recession or were foreclosure victims and, writes Bruder, "felt they'd spent too long losing a rigged game." Some were laid off from high-paying professional jobs. Few have chosen this life. Few think they can find a way out of it. They're downwardly mobile older Americans in mobile homes.

Comment: America's failing infrastructure: Three fatal AMTRAK crashes in 49 days

      Read More...
Take 2

'The Rope': Daredevil's spine-chilling tightrope stunt above violent waves hits dramatic snag (VIDEO)


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 13:04 UTC
The rope
Heartstopping, newly-released drone footage shows the moment a daredevil slackliner lost his footing on a highwire suspended above jagged rocks and crashing waves, at an infamous Portuguese surfing spot.

A group of highliners, known as Western Riders, connected a wire between two cliffs in Nazaré, Portugal - the location of the biggest wave ever surfed, according to the Guinness World Records.

Brazilian highliner Emerson Machado pulled off the elaborate stunt as monster waves crashed beneath him.
      Read More...
Laptop

'Truth about Tech': Former social media execs launch campaign against 'erosive' social networks


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:24 UTC
facebook
© Jaap Arriens / Global Look Press
Ex-Silicon Valley executives, who helped to build Google and Facebook into the tech giants they are today, are joining forces to challenge the companies' "erosive" effect on society and create a cultural awakening.

The Center for Humane Technology - co-founded by Tristan Harris - a former design ethicist at Google, is working with non-profit Common Sense Media to launch its Truth about Tech campaign.

The center's supporters also include Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook operations manager; Lynn Fox, a former Apple and Google communications executive; Dave Morin, a former Facebook executive; Justin Rosenstein, who created Facebook's Like button and Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook.

The group claims that "our society is being hijacked by technology" and the tech giants are profiting from the problem. "We can't expect attention-extraction companies like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter to change, because it's against their business model," the campaigners say, pointing out that "our attention is massively profitable."
      Read More...
Folder

USA Gymnastics pedophile doctor Nassar receives additional 125yr prison sentence on top of his previous 175yr sentence


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:14 UTC
Larry Nassar
© Rebecca Cook / Reuters
Larry Nassar
Former USA Gymnastics doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar has been sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in prison, following on from his earlier sentence of up to 175 years.

Nassar has been accused of sexually abusing 265 women throughout his career. Some 140 of the accusations stem from his 20-year career as the doctor for the US gymnastics team.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Attention

"Cycle mob" ride wrong way down NYC street attack drivers who confront them (VIDEO)

Wale Aliyu
NBC News
Sat, 03 Feb 2018 18:25 UTC
cycle mob us police
A roving mob of bicyclists rode the wrong way down Manhattan streets and attacked drivers who confronted them. Dashcam video shows them surrounding one Uber driver's car. Wale Aliyu reports.

A mob of dozens of bicyclists roamed through the streets of Manhattan against traffic and attacked drivers who confronted them, witnesses say, and police say an officer was injured after being hit by a driver trying to chase down the unruly group.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

America's failing infrastructure: Three fatal AMTRAK crashes in 49 days

Thomas Lifson
American Thinker
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 12:00 UTC
Crash scene via Lexington Sheriff
© Lexington Sheriff
Crash scene
Horrible news from South Carolina this morning. If America is going to have a passenger rail system, we have to do much better than this. Via The State:
A crash involving an Amtrak passenger train and a freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, left at least two people dead and more than 50 injured.

Pine Ridge train incident update: @CountyLex confirms two fatalities, more than 50 injured transported to the hospital. Shelter for passengers open at Pine Ridge Middle School. Media update @SCEMD at 6:30 a.m. #alert

- SCEMD (@SCEMD) February 4, 2018

Comment: See: Also check out SOTT radio's : Behind the Headlines: Babylon, Ancient Rome and the American Empire

      Read More...
Eye 1

Selling off a nation: Britain's first 'no win no fee' "private police force"

Holly Christodoulou
The Sun
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 10:25 UTC
Britain's first 'private police force' has 100 per cent conviction rate
© Georgie Gillard/Daily Mail
A PRIVATE police force probing hundreds of crimes including murder and rape has a 100 per cent conviction rate.

The firm - Britain's first - has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals and is led by former Scotland Yard senior officers.

TM Eye is now believed to bring more private convictions than any other organisation except for the RSPCA, Daily Mail reports.

The company has a service called "My Local Bobby", which costs wealthy homeowners around £200 a month and involves a guard patrolling their streets.

Comment: For the most part, this was never necessary before, so why now? If the police were receiving adequate funding and were run by an honest, sane, government, there'd be no need for private policing. However, as with the NHS, the UK pathocrats are looking to privatise every social service in order to reap the benefits for themselves and their industry friends. Though their catastrophic track record when privatising public services paints a bleak picture for Britain:

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts