Welcome to Sott.net
Sat, 18 Jan 2020
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Bomb

Roadside bomb kills two US soldiers in Afghanistan - Taliban claims responsibility


RFE/RL
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 19:51 UTC
kabul us troops
© AP Photo / Mohammad Anwar Danishyar
Two U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded when the army vehicle they were traveling in struck a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, the NATO press office said in a statement.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the January 11 attack, saying it occurred in the southern Kandahar Province, where U.S. and Romanian forces are stationed. NATO confirmed the incident took place in Kandahar.

The U.S. soldiers were conducting operations as part of NATO's Resolute Support Mission. They are the first U.S. military members to be killed in Afghanistan in 2020.

Last year, 20 U.S. service members died in combat-related incidents in the war-torn country.

The U.S. Department of Defense will not release the names of the soldiers killed until 24 hours after their relatives have been notified.

There are currently around 12,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, down from a peak of roughly 100,000 in 2011.

Comment: This may be the same blast, or a separate one, since no casualties were reported:
A bomb explosion has hit a military vehicle carrying Romanian troops in the Dand district of Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, a source said Saturday.

"A bomb went off on Romanian troops in the Haqdad Karez area of Dand district this morning, but no casualties were reported", the source told reporters.

Sources say the vehicle was damaged in the blast, and the area was blocked by foreign forces afterward.

The Taliban has taken responsibility for the incident, claiming, however, that the blast killed all the soldiers in the vehicle.

"A militant tank was completely destroyed in a powerful mine explosion this morning near the airport in Krow Shelley, in the Dand district of Kandahar Province, and killed all foreign soldiers who were in the tank", Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.


      Read More...
People 2

Political correctness vs customer base: UK computer retailer with 87.5% male buyers forced to pull ad that featured only men

Sophia Narwitz
RT
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 19:34 UTC
tech ad
© PC Specialist / Youtube
A PC Specialist ad has been pulled in the UK for "harmful gender stereotypes," after a handful of politically correct whiners reported it to the Advertising Standards Authority for showing just three men and zero women.

Following the implementation of new guidelines less than a year ago, marketing within the United Kingdom is coming under scrutiny from the weakest in society's rank who choose to take offense at nearly everything. The victim this time being a PC retailer who was simply trying to market to their core demographic, but ran into the other kind of PC - political correctness.


After receiving a mere eight complaints, the company was forced to pull a recent ad in which three ethnically diverse men are seen making music, gaming, and coding. According to those taking offense, the advert pushed the notion that only men are interested in fancy tech.

The absurdity of the situation revolving around the current marketing rules is that companies are being stripped of their creative freedom, all to provide comfort to people who choose to play victim. Browsing the stories behind various banned ads shows that often they're canceled because of just a handful of complaints. The offended are quite literally being empowered, and now we must all conform to their will or suffer the consequences. Creative expression be damned.
      Read More...
Hammer

Anti-Jordan Peterson professor accused of abuse of power by former colleague, students

Anna Slatz
The Post Millennial
Sun, 12 Jan 2020 18:39 UTC
jordan peterson
On January 7th, The Post Millennial reported that a Professor at the University of Calgary tweeted about failing students if they cited Jordan Peterson. Ted McCoy, chair of the Law and Society program at the UoC, apologized shortly after his tweet went viral, asserting that the flippant comment was "a joke" and insisting that he did "take seriously ... students' right to free expression."

In wake of the social media fallout, sources from within the University of Calgary have come forward to The Post Millennial to assert that McCoy's comments were anything but a joke. The identities of those who spoke out are being protected for their safety due to their proximity to McCoy.

"He absolutely was not kidding. He absolutely does penalize students for holding divergent views." Said one source, a former professor at the University of Calgary and current professor at another institution.

"He literally tells students to not read Quillette," the source revealed, drawing from discussions had with McCoy's students, "He's walked into class and expressed how disappointed he was in the amount of conservative ideas being expressed."

The source noted that students often came to her with complaints about McCoy's in-class political proselytizing, fearing poor grades because of their ideological differences.

"Students have just learned to shut-up and parrot whatever he wants to hear." The source revealed that McCoy was the only professor teaching a mandatory capstone exit course required for some students' successful degree completion in the Law and Society program.

Comment: Professor vows to fail students if they cite Jordan Peterson

      Read More...
Broom

New Indian citizenship law fulfills wishes of Mahatma Gandhi & other freedom fighters - PM Modi


RT
Sun, 12 Jan 2020 07:21 UTC
Gandhi
© Money Sharma / AFP
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures beside a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi on October 2, 2019.
The new citizenship law aimed at helping religious minorities that come to India from Muslim-majority states is in line with the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and other independence heroes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

"I repeat again, Citizenship Act is not to revoke anyone's citizenship, but it is to give citizenship," Modi said on Sunday at a rally at Belur Math Monastery in the state of West Bengal, bordering Bangladesh.
After independence, Mahatma Gandhi and other big leaders of that time all believed that India should give citizenship to persecuted religious minorities of Pakistan.

Comment: See also: Gandhi was a racist who forced young girls to sleep in bed with him

      Read More...
Rocket

CNN video of US airbase ruins: 'Unimaginable damage' from Iranian attack

Joaquin Flores
FRN
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
Arwa Damon
© CNN.com
CNN correspondent Arwa Damon on Al-Assad Air Base in Baghdad
In an exclusive report from the al-Assad airbase where the US soldiers were based in Iraq, CNN described the extent of the damage to the base as unimaginable.

The hosts exclaims incredulity that no U.S servicemen were injured. FRN previously ran video appearing to demonstrate that U.S soldiers were at the base. Iranian domestic media reported between a dozen to eighty killed and injured U.S solders.

The U.S anti-air defenses were entirely useless against the Iranian missiles. 100% of the launched missiles penetrated U.S defenses, with high accuracy.

This demonstration of force and the U.S inability to stop these next-generation Iranian missiles may serve well for western audiences, inculcated from early childhood into believing the mythology of an invincible U.S.

      Read More...
Airplane

Mea Culpa moment on Iran's shoot down for alt-media, this author included

Andrew Korybko
OneWorld
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
UAI-752
© Unknown
UAI-752 wreckage
This is one of those extremely rare times that I'm writing an article in the first-person in order to take responsibility for (mostly) getting my analysis about UIA-752's downing wrong, explain the flawed thought process that went into yesterday's piece on the topic, and challenge all of my Alt-Media peers -- both fellow analysts and casual commentators alike -- to also take responsibility for their words over the past few days if they too were ultimately proven wrong by the latest twist in this tragedy.

There's No Shame In Being Wrong

Let me dispel all ambiguities right off the bat -- I was wrong in comparing UIA-752 to MH-17 in yesterday's analysis, and I take full responsibility for my inaccurate portrayal of what ultimately turned out to be the tragic reality, namely that Iran just admitted that it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet due to human error. I hold my audience in high regard and always challenge them to hold others to account whenever they're wrong about something significant, so true to my mission of restoring credibility to the Alt-Media Community, I'm explaining my flawed thought process that went into yesterday's piece on the topic.
      Read More...
Car Black

Tesla, the 'serial killer'

Eric
EricPetersAuto
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 17:49 UTC
Accident involving Tesla
© EricPetersAuto
Tesla may have just killed its 14th victim; there are at least 13 confirmed kills so far - as the result of Autopilot. Excluding auto-immolation.

This qualifies Tesla for serial killerhood.

But no FBI investigation - or even a recall.

Instead, an "advisory" from the National Highway Traffic Safety (sic) Administration that drivers of Autopiloted Teslas must always "keep their hands on the steering wheel and pay attention at all times" - which is right up there with Don't Squeeze the Charmin.

What is the point of Autopilot and "autonomous" - automated - cars if you have to pay any attention at all?

If, on the other hand, it is necessary for them to pay attention - which NHTSA concedes by warning of its necessity - then Autopilot is inherently dangerous precisely because it is inevitable that people won't pay attention. Do the passengers on a cruise ship go below to check whether the ship is taking on water? Are they expected to visit the bridge, to make sure the ship is headed in the right direction? That the captain isn't drunk or asleep on the sofa? The whole point of being a passenger is to not have to pay attention - whether you're a passenger on a cruise ship or a passenger in an Autopiloted/automated car.

But Tesla gets away with building cars designed to encourage drivers to become passengers; to take their hands off the wheel - and their eyes off the road - and then blames the driver when the car drives itself into something.

Or someone.
      Read More...
Sheriff

Just MSM facts please! Response to Facebook's 'media literacy' claim is just a cover for thought-police

Helen Buyniski
RT
Thu, 09 Jan 2020 20:51 UTC
FlagFacebk
© Communications Studies/Unknown
Facebook doubled down on its refusal to fact-check political ads or limit advertisers' voter-targeting ability, eliciting wails of anguish from politicos who talk of "media literacy" yet desperately want people's thoughts policed.

The social media behemoth has announced that it will continue to allow political ads to target users based on specific attributes ("microtargeting") and exempt these ads from fact-checking, two controversial practices that have been the subject of much pearl-clutching as the 2020 US presidential election approaches.

While Facebook had briefly thought of limiting microtargeting, it explained in a blog post on Thursday that talking with political campaigns, NGOs, and other groups that use the technique had convinced the company that it was necessary. Instead, Facebook has opted for "expanded transparency," allowing users to learn about what ads are targeting them and why. A feature allowing the user to see fewer political ads will be introduced in the summer, Facebook promised.

Critics exploded. The Federal Election Commission's Ellen Weintraub accused Facebook of "hurting democracy" and placing its profit margins above "protect[ing] the democracies that have nurtured its existence."

Comment: Facebook is a self-made gatekeeper, and as such, a useable tool. Does it truly have 'freedom of speech' as its hard red line while deciding what limits to set or who and what it chooses to micro-target? If not, mission creep will eventually and ultimately assure there will be no questions, no rebukes and no wrinkles in the fabric of control. 'Freedom' will be just another word we aren't allowed to use - and that includes Facebook.

      Read More...
Pistol

RT Editor-in-Chief Simonyan: Ruptly video agency's cameraman and Al-Dijla correspondent killed in Iraq


Sputnik
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 18:22 UTC
Margaret Simonyan/Basra Iraq
© AP/Alexander Zemilanichenko RIA Novosti/Essam al-Sudani
Margaret Simonyan, head of Russian television channel RT • Iraqis protest in Basra, Iraq
On Friday, two reporters were shot dead in Basra, Iraq by unidentified armed men after filming protests in the country, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory.

Ruptly stringer cameraman Saaf Ghali has been killed in Iraq, according to Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.

The operator was killed after filming a demonstration in Iraq related to the ongoing US-Iran tensions, Teller Report stated. Margarita Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel:
"In Iraq, unknown armed people killed our stringer cameraman Saaf Ghali. Saaf actively filmed materials for our Ruptly video agency in the region. We will do everything to help his family."
Ghali was said to film around 30 pieces for Ruptly, a video agency that is a project of RT, while also working for a local TV station Al-Dijla.

It was earlier reported by France 24, citing a statement from the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), that Ghali was killed late on Friday in the country's southern city of Basra after filming anti-government protests. He and 37-year-old correspondent Ahmad Abdessamad, who both worked for Al-Dijla, were reportedly shot while sitting in a car near a police station in Basra when they were approached by unidentified men who opened fire on them.
      Read More...
Pistol

Battle over the Second Amendment is unfolding across America as the sanctuary city movement grows

Derrick Broze
The Mind Unleashed
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 12:56 UTC
Person aiming gun
© Business Insider
As Virginia's new Democratic legislature promises gun control measures, the wives of National Guardsman are warning that impending gun legislation threatens to turn neighbor against neighbor.

As the 2020 Virginia legislative session began, Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and fellow Democrats continued their push for new gun control bills. In the months since a May 2019 shooting left 12 people dead and four others injured at a Virginia Beach municipal building, Democratic politicians have repeatedly expressed their desire to implement new restrictions such as universal background checks, a ban on certain weapons, and controversial red flag laws.

However, the calls for gun restrictions have not been welcomed by all Virginians. Instead, the push for more gun control has sparked a movement that has expanded across Virginia and continues to grow in other states including California, Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida.
      Read More...
SOTT.NET
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts