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Cultural appropriation turns Halloween into a nightmare

Jonathan Turley
The Hill
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Cultural appropriation
Halloween is again upon us. Across the United States, the prospect of frightening images have some pledging to skip the holiday or closely shield their children. It is not the scary decorations or costumes but "cultural appropriation" that has triggered a tradition of recrimination and anger. Colleges and universities have warned students not to dress as Indian chiefs or Mexican bandits, while parents have publicly debated whether they can allow their children to dress as the Black Panther or Moana without being accused of cultural appropriation or racism.

"Cultural appropriation" has become a common term on campuses and is receiving broader meaning with each passing year. In Utah, a high school student was denounced for wearing a Chinese dress to her prom. White students wearing hoop earrings or dreadlocks have been denounced, while there have been protests over serving sushi at Oberlin College, holding yoga classes at the University of Ottawa or having a "Mexican food night" at Clemson University. The reason behind such limitless forms of cultural appropriation is its limitless meaning. Fordham University law professor Susan Scafidi has defined the term as encompassing the "unauthorized use of another culture's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols" and more.
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Heart - Black

German nurse admits to murdering at least 100 patients


The Guardian
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 10:10 UTC
Niels Hoegel
A former nurse has admitted to killing 100 patients in his care, on the first day of his trial in the biggest serial killing case in Germany's post-war history.

Niels Hoegel, 41, has already spent nearly a decade in prison on a life term for other patient deaths. He is accused of intentionally administering medical overdoses to victims so he could bring them back to life at the last moment.

As the proceedings opened in the northern city of Oldenburg, the presiding judge, Sebastian Buehrmann, asked whether the charges against him were accurate. Hoegel replied "yes".

Comment: The Epoch Times reports more on this serial killer's alleged motivations:
"The prosecutor's office assumes that he did this in order to create a life-threatening situation in order to demonstrate his resuscitation skills to colleagues and superiors," the indictment states, according to DW.

Prosecutors have alleged that his boredom may also have been a contributing factor in Hoegel committing the acts. [...]

In prior hearings, Hoegel is reportedly said to have been seeking a sense of euphoria after having resuscitated a patient from an emergency situation he himself created. But he would fall into a despondent state if he had failed, according to AFP.

During Hoegel's second trial, a court-appointed psychologist said that Hoegel had told her he had injected 90 patients with heart medication during his stint at Delmenhorst Hospital. Of these, 30 patients died although he was close to killing 60 more.


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Red Flag

'I've been used!' Kayne West says he's hanging up his political hat


RT
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 19:35 UTC
Trump Kanye
© Reuters / Andrew Kelly
After weeks of infamy as the most famous Black face of the conservative movement, Kanye West wants off the Trump train, claiming he's been "used" and blaming fellow controversy-courter Candace Owens for ideologically seducing him.

Owens unveiled the logo for her "Blexit" movement - as in a "black exit" from the Democratic party - at Saturday's Turning Points Young Black Leadership Summit, boasting that West had helped design the logo, which he now denies. Not only is he pulling out of any further involvement with the campaign, he says, but "I never wanted any association with Blexit."


The rapper claims to be washing his hands of politics, tweeting regret that "I've been used to spread messages I don't believe in." He pledged to focus on creative endeavors going forward, though some might say his Oval Office performance earlier this month, during which he hugged the President and called his Make America Great Again hat a "Superman cape," was pretty creative.
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People

Anchor baby population in U.S. exceeds one year of American births

John Binder
Breitbart
Thu, 28 Dec 2017 02:17 UTC
newborns
The number of United States-born children who were given birthright citizenship despite at least one of their parents being an illegal alien living in the country now outnumbers one year of all American births.

A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report reveals the booming number of U.S.-born children to illegal aliens who are given automatic citizenship, forever anchoring their families in the U.S.
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Cardboard Box

US midterm election has got America dancing the Monster Mash

James Howard Kunstler
Clusterfuck Nation
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
political divisiveness
The sad reality is that last week's Pittsburgh synagogue massacre is only the latest float in the long-running parade of ghastly homicidal spectacles rolling across this land and will be just as forgotten in one week as was last year's Las Vegas Mandalay Bay slaughter of 58 concert-goers plus over 800 wounded and injured, a US record for non-military acts of violence. The Pittsburgh shootings elbowed the mass pipe bomber, Cesar Sayoc, out of the news cycle - but then Sayoc didn't manage to actually hurt any of the high-profile figures he targeted with his mailings. What I wonder - and what the news media has so far failed to report - is just how incompetent a bomb-maker Sayoc was. Fake news meets fake bombs.

One of the strange side effects of an epic American political hysteria is this strange ADD-like inability of the public to focus on anything for more than a few moments, even the most arresting atrocities. The hysteria itself is too compelling, like the actions of a human limbic system driving the collective public psyche from fight to flight on the wild horses of pure emotion. Reason has been discarded by the wayside just as a super-drunk person will shed his clothing even on a freezing night. Total culture war now beats a path toward all-out civil war, with the looming mid-term election as a fulcrum of history.
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Arrow Down

The stock market has just reached a level of low not seen since 2009 - and it's far from over

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
stock market dip
We continue to see extremely wild swings on Wall Street. On Monday, at one point the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 352 points, and then later it was down 566 points. At the closing bell the Dow had officially lost 245 points, and all of this extreme volatility is making investors very nervous. Investors like markets that are predictable, because it is a whole lot easier to make money when things move in a predictable fashion. When things get crazy, a lot of investors pull their money out and wait until things settle down in the marketplace, and that definitely makes a lot of sense. Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty about where things are ultimately headed. Some experts believe that the bull market will resume after this "correction" is over, but others believe that a bear market has now begun. And as you will see below, the fact that the S&P 500 has now broken a major trendline that has not been broken since 2009 is strengthening the case of the latter group.

Many had anticipated that we may see a bounce on Monday, but instead we witnessed another very large decline. According to Zero Hedge, all of the major stock indexes are now officially in correction territory...
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Megaphone

'Violent revolution' may come to US if Democrats don't win midterm election - Actor, James Cromwell


RT
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 19:58 UTC
James Cromwell
© Reuters / Fred Prouser
James Cromwell
Actor James Cromwell has warned that a violent revolution could potentially be unleashed across the United States if the Democrats don't win back control from Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.

The actor, who played George H.W. Bush in Oliver Stone's 'W,' issued the drastic warning at the fourth annual Carney Awards where he was honored for his work as a character actor. Speaking to Variety before the event, the long-time liberal activist said he worried about the direction the US was heading politically, claiming that political violence could be the next step.

Cromwell, who has been arrested multiple times over the years for his political activism, argued that the US always had the potential to be a "turnkey, totalitarian state" and that all people needed was "an excuse" to turn nascent fascism into real fascism.
"If we don't stop [President Trump] now, then we will have a revolution for real. Then there will be blood in the streets."

Comment: Cromwell seems to be speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

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Star of David

Top Israeli Labor party leader skewered for calling on US Jews to move to Israel after Pittsburgh attack


RT
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 14:45 UTC
scene of the Pittsburgh shooting
© Reuters/ Cathal McNaughton
People at the scene of the Pittsburgh shooting.
The leader of Israel's Labor party Avi Gabbay has been slammed as "grossly inappropriate" after he called on US Jews to move to Israel following the Pittsburgh shooting last weekend which killed 11 in a synagogue.

While people expressed their condolences to the victims of Saturday's shooting in Pennsylvania, Gabbay thought of a different way of embracing them. He called on Jews in the US to "immigrate more and more to Israel, because this is their home."

The statement was met with outcry, with Deputy Minister Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, taking a swipe at the opposition leader.
Avi Gabbay said things that should not be said because he simply does not understand. Through his words he adds insult to injury.
The politician simply missed the point in the whole story, Oren argued.

Gabbaya's suggestion also received little praise from people on social media, who blasted him as "ignorant" and as someone championing the same causes of neo-Nazis.

Comment: Labor party leader Avi Gabbay isn't the only one to crudely politicize the horrific killings at Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue:

Twitter erupts over 'Christian Rabbi' who fails to name Pittsburgh victims, asks people to pray for GOP at Pence rally

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Megaphone

'I am not an agent': Florida based company sues DOJ over required FARA registration for broadcasting Radio Sputnik


RT
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 22:58 UTC
Radio Sputnik
© Nina Zotina / RIA Novosti
One of the companies that broadcasts Radio Sputnik in the US is suing the Department of Justice over the requirement to register as a foreign agent, saying the 1930s law does not apply to radio and television media.

RN Broadcasting LLC has filed a lawsuit over the DOJ's demand to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), due to being a broadcaster of Radio Sputnik.

"I am not an agent," owner of RM Broadcasting Arnold Ferolito told Sputnik on Monday. "I am not an agent of any government. I'm an independent businessman who has made a business transaction, period."

FARA simply does not apply to the radio and television broadcasting industry, Ferolito argued, adding that his business does not meet any of the requirements to register under the law.
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Chart Bar

With ranked choice voting, Maine gives 3rd parties a fighting chance in midterms


RT
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 21:53 UTC
Green Party supporter
© Reuters / Mike Segar
According to important people on television, voting for a third party is irresponsible and selfish. But this puerile belief no longer holds water in Maine, which is using ranked choice voting in November's midterm elections.

Polls show that a comfortable majority of Americans think that a viable third party is necessary to make their representative government actually represent their views. But ironically, those who vote their conscience are often demonized as purists who allow one of the "lesser of two evils" to triumph.
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