Society's ChildS

Attention

Planned Parenthood staff admits to supplying aborted baby parts to 'for-profit brokers'

planned parenthood
© Lucas Jackson/ReutersA Planned Parenthood building in New York on Aug. 31, 2015.
The first day of court proceedings on Sept. 3 from Planned Parenthood's lawsuit against the Center for Medical Progress started with Planned Parenthood staffers taking the stand in San Francisco and admitting to providing fetal tissues in exchange for money, reported the CMP website.

The defense team presented undercover investigation videos showing top executives and clinicians from Planned Parenthood brokering in aborted baby parts.

Court proceedings are underway to decide if the defendants should face a criminal trial.

"Planned Parenthood abortion providers appeared under oath in court today and admitted supplying the body parts of children in the womb to for-profit brokers like StemExpress," David Daleiden, a defendant in the case and one of the key investigators who exposed the alleged dealings of Planned Parenthood, stated in a press release.

Daleiden, who is also the founder of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), a group of citizen journalists "dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances," is facing 14 counts of felony invasion of privacy along with fellow investigator, Sandra Merritt, according to The Federalist.

Comment: See also:


Arrow Down

GNA spokesman: Haftar forces suffer losses as GNA troops advance south of Tripoli

libyan national army tripoli
© Associated Press/Esam Omran Al-FetoriMembers of Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Khalifa Haftar, get ready before heading out of Benghazi to reinforce the troops advancing to Tripoli, in Benghazi, Libya April 13, 2019
The troops of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) have made advances south of the city of Tripoli, making the Libyan National Army (LNA) loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar suffer losses, GNA military spokesman, Muhammad Kanunu said on Monday.

"The forces of the Government of National Accord are making advances in all directions to the south of Tripoli supported by the Libyan Air Forces," the spokesman said adding that the troops loyal to Haftar suffered serious defeat.

Comment: Given that it's the West-backed GNA making the statement, it might be prudent to wait until there is further reporting before taking it on.


Red Flag

Baltimore on track for record homicides as city descends into chaos

police line
So here we go again, another depressing story from Baltimore City, a region that is imploding on itself and suffering from a murders crisis, opioid epidemic, a wide gap in wealth/health/education inequalities, and deindustrialization.

In this report, we're only going to focus on the murder crisis and gently touch on the opioid epidemic (because they go hand in hand), however, please search our archives for other stories on Baltimore, because the implosion there is what will be coming to many other inner cities across the country in the 2020s.

With that being said, Baltimore City could be on track to surpass last year's 309 homicides, and if current trends persist, there is a chance that homicides could hit a record high, which means the city could see 342, a level that was previously set in 2015 and 2017.
"Baltimore is on course to reach more than 300 homicides for the fifth year in a row, with 232 killings through Wednesday compared to 199 at the same time last year," The Baltimore Sun said.

Eye 1

Philosopher Slavoj Zizek warns linking human brains to computers could lead to 'totalitarian mind control'

zizek
Linking human consciousness to a computer cloud with the capability of reading everyone's thoughts simultaneously could lead to "totalitarian mind control," warns philosopher Slavoj Zizek.

With fears growing that artificial intelligence will eventually dominate and maybe even exterminate humanity, Zizek, the senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, is sounding the alarm.

Zizek pointed out that MIT has already developed a "helmet" that can read your thoughts and reproduce them in writing or an artificial voice.

While such technology appears harmless if it is voluntary, Zizek asks what would happen if it was deployed "without you knowing it?"

Info

Suicide rates climbing and most pronounced in rural America

Suicide Rates in US
© The Ohio State UniversitySuicide rates are climbing, and the burden is highest in rural America, according to a new analysis by Ohio State researchers.
Suicide is becoming more common in America, an increase most pronounced in rural areas, new research has found.

The study, which appears online today (Sept. 6, 2019) in the journal JAMA Network Open, also highlights a cluster of factors, including lack of insurance and the prevalence of gun shops, that are associated with high suicide rates.

Researchers at The Ohio State University evaluated national suicide data from 1999 to 2016, and provided a county-by-county national picture of the suicide toll among adults. Suicide rates jumped 41 percent, from a median of 15 per 100,000 county residents in the first part of the study to 21.2 per 100,000 in the last three years of the analysis. Suicide rates were highest in less-populous counties and in areas where people have lower incomes and fewer resources. From 2014 through 2016, suicide rates were 17.6 per 100,000 in large metropolitan counties compared with 22 per 100,000 in rural counties.

In urban areas, counties with more gun shops tended to have higher suicide rates. Counties with the highest suicide rates were mostly in Western states, including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming; in Appalachian states including Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia; and in the Ozarks, including Arkansas and Missouri.

Dollar

Hey, Zuck! Can you spare a buck? Facebook fails to pay $50 fine in Russia

Mark Zuckerberg
© Reuters / Leah MillisFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Social media giant Facebook, with a market value of over $500 billion, failed to comply with a Russian court's order to pay a fine of 3,000 rubles ($46) over its non-compliance with national law.

A decision on a fine was issued by the Russian court on April 12; it came into force on June 25, and the company had 60 days to voluntarily pay the fine.

Russian privacy laws, which came into force in 2015, require foreign online service providers to store Russian users' personal data on servers located within the country's borders. Facebook has so far failed to comply.

"Now that the deadline has passed, the bailiffs will take charge. It's not clear yet how to get the money while the company has no assets in Russia, with the closest infrastructure located in Eastern Europe," sources familiar with the situation told Kommersant daily.

Life Preserver

The end is nigh: Scottish cops blasted for panic-inducing 'preparedness bag' tweet

Bug out Bag
© Twitter / Police Scotland
Police Scotland are under fire for a worrying tweet advising citizens to prepare a grab bag with emergency supplies for immediate use, sparking wild speculation, meme-making and understandable concern among the masses.

"September is preparedness month. Emergencies can happen at any time and it's recommended to have a #GrabBag ready containing essential items including medication, copies of important documents, food/water, torch, radio and other personal items," the police tweeted as part of their '30 days 30 ways' campaign.

The anxiety-inducing advice proposed packing a bag with food, water, and medication, as well as a pen and notepad, phone charger, whistle, and first aid kit. However, a Sunday morning may not have been the best time to urge people to prepare for some undisclosed disaster headed their way, judging by the reactions online, most of which centered around a single theme: "Do they know something we don't?"

"What emergencies do you envisage? Brexit? War? Civil disturbance? Flood? Pestilence? Nuclear accident? Martial Law?"wrote one user, while another offered a variety of betting odds on what the impending doom might be: "Asteroid 4/1 Tsunami 8/1 Nuclear war 14/1 Alien invasion 22/1 Zombie Apocalypse 33/1 No deal Brexit 1000/1."

Attention

Are college and university professors tyrants? Just ask conservative students

college students food
© Tulane Public Relations, CC BY-NC
Droves of open-minded students are often won over to the progressive narrative because they're browbeat with it for four consecutive years and never exposed to alternative arguments.

Now comes more bad news โ€” the vast majority of students who might be willing to speak up to defend conservative, Constitutional and pro-free market principles don't dare lest their grades be docked.

One thousand current college students from across the nation who self-identify as Republican or Republican-leaning were recently asked: "Have you ever withheld your political views in class for fear that your grades would suffer?"

Nearly three-quarters of the students who took part in The College Fix/College Pulse online poll said yes โ€” they've stayed silent. Specifically, 73 percent of students who identity as "strong Republican" reported they had, 71 percent of students who identify as "weak Republican" said yes, and even 70 percent of Republican-leaning independents reported they've kept quiet, too.

Comment: The problem starts early culminating in the manufacture of bogus 'educators':

Liberal madness and ideological indoctrination: Inside a public school social justice factory


Dominoes

Opposition parties score big wins in closely-watched Moscow elections

election
© RIA Novosti / Maxim Blinov
The ruling United Russia party suffered a blow from three opposition parties whose candidates claimed nearly half of Moscow City Council's seats during a contentious vote in the metropolis of 12 million people.

With all the votes counted, United Russia managed to retain a slim majority in the 45-member city council, but its share dropped to 25. The Communists, their longtime competitors, came second and won a remarkable 13 seats, up from just five in 2014.

Yabloko, Russia's oldest liberal party, took four seats while the center-left Fair Russia won three. United Russia, whose candidates were formally running as independents, lost nearly a third of districts to their opposition rivals. The voter turnout was slightly above 21 percent.

The Moscow vote follows opposition rallies which sprang up after election officials disqualified numerous liberal candidates, citing failure to collect enough signatures of genuine voters.Almost every weekend, since late July, tens of thousands joined authorized and unauthorized protests, some of which ended up in scuffles with police.

Russian Flag

Russia boosts gas supplies to Europe while transit deal with Ukraine in limbo

pipe
© Global Look Press / Patrick Pleul
Russian energy major Gazprom plans to pump twice as much gas into European storage than last year, while Moscow and Kiev have not still agreed on the terms of a new transit contract.

Gazprom is planning to supply more than 11 billion cubic meters to storage facilities in Europe, the head of the company, Alexey Miller, told Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on Monday.

"This is twice as much as last year's level," Miller pointed out. "We see that our European partners are pumping gas at high speed, and our Ukrainian colleagues are trying to do the same."

The rush to stock up gas comes as the current 10-year transit contract is to expire on December 31, the head of Gazprom explained. Earlier this year, Moscow offered Kiev to extend the agreement for 12 months, but didn't receive any response form the Ukrainian side.