Society's ChildS


Binoculars

Best of the Web: FBI cover-up suggests anti-Trump motive behind Las Vegas massacre

Jan Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 04 Apr 2018 14:31 UTC
paddock vegas
It has been more than six months since the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history killed 59 and injured 851, when Stephen Paddock allegedly opened fire on a crowded country music festival in Las Vegas, yet the American public has few answers as to a motive for the massacre or whether others were involved in the planning or operationalizing of the attack.

It is important to point out that TFTP is not attempting to paint this shooting in any political light. We are merely reporting on alternative information for the sole purpose of seeking truth. Moreover, TFTP is not attempting to stereotype any group by reporting this information. This information is being presented from a politically neutral position.

Since the attack on Oct. 1, 2017, there has been a consistent lack of transparency that has raised questions as to whether some type of cover-up was ongoing. Legitimate inquiry into the attacks has reportedly been shut down at the highest levels, and high-ranking FBI officials in Washington are involved in a cover-up.

The FBI's "official" narrative goes something like this: Paddock was a mysterious lone wolf gunman. He was a mystery man and habitual gambler who snapped, bought guns, and shot up a music festival - and no one knows why.

This massive cover-up involves the FBI attempting to hide the fact that they have evidence that the election of President Trump was a catalyst for the radicalization of Paddock - and that other persons of interest could potentially be involved in the massacre.

Comment: See also:

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Light Sabers

China will defend its interests 'at any cost' as Trump threatens $100bn more in tariffs


RT
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 14:26 UTC
US imports
© Aly Song / ReutersImports from the US are seen at a supermarket in Shanghai, April 3, 2018
Responding to Donald Trump's threat to impose an additional $100 billion in tariffs on China, Beijing said it did not want a trade war, but was not afraid to "follow suit to the end" to protect its core economic interests.

"The Chinese position has been made very clear," according to a Friday statement by a spokesman for the ministry of commerce. Beijing doesn't seek to engage in an economic conflict, but in the worst-case scenario, it is "not afraid to fight a trade war."

China "will follow suit to the end" should Washington disrespect its opposition to American "unilateralism and trade protectionism." Beijing would defend the country's interests "at any cost" and won't hesitate to take counter measures.

China also slammed Washington's unilateralism which, it says, undermines global free trade. Meanwhile, the Chinese economy will carry on with reforms and will continue to open up to the world in order to "safeguard the multilateral trading system" and promote the liberalization of global trade and investment, the ministry stated.
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Dollars

Swiss people to vote on Sovereign Money Initiative in June 2018


Vollgeld-Initiative
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 14:12 UTC
Swiss francs
The Swiss Federal Council has just announced the date of the referendum on the Sovereign Money Initiative (or "Vollgeld-Initiative" in German) will be 10th June 2018. Swiss voters will be asked who should be allowed to create new Swiss francs: UBS, Credit Suisse and other private commercial banks or the Swiss National Bank which is obliged to act in the interest of Switzerland as a whole.

The announcement from the Swiss Federal Council can be viewed in German or French or Italian here.

The arbitrary way in which commercial banks can create money leads to credit bubbles, an unstable financial system and excessive indebtedness according to well-known scientists and economists. Electronic money brought into existence by commercial banks is displacing cash more and more: currently only 10 per cent of the money in circulation in Switzerland - namely the coins and banknotes - is brought into existence by the Swiss National Bank.
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House

Sergei Skripal's pets found dead after investigators seal off home


RT
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 11:28 UTC
Home of former double agent Sergei Skripal
© Hannah McKay / ReutersPolice guard the cordoned-off area around the home of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, April 3, 2018
The mystery surrounding the poisoning of Sergei Skripal has deepened after British officials confirmed the deaths of his pets. A cat and two guinea pigs died after investigators sealed off the ex-double agent's home.

Russia's UN envoy has called for an explanation of the animals' deaths. Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia became seriously ill on March 4 after being exposed to a nerve agent and his home was sealed off by investigators days later.
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Bizarro Earth

Down social constructionism's epistemic rabbit-hole

Kåre Fog
Quillette
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 11:03 UTC
Peter L. Berger
The popularisation of 'social constructionism' is widely agreed to be traceable to the publication of The Social Construction of Reality by the sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in 1966. In subsequent years, this concept attracted a large number of young, mostly left-leaning academics to the humanities departments of French universities, where social construction became an ideological tool useful to those engaged in the Parisian youth rebellion of 1968. From there, it spread rapidly though humanities departments in Europe and America, and into the social sciences.

The changes in intellectual thinking that this development catalysed reverberate across the West's academic institutions to this day. What transpired in the late sixties was nothing short of a cultural revolution, riding a wave of academic trends referred to as 'social constructionism,' 'postmodernism,' and 'poststructuralism,' although it never became entirely clear if or how these concepts differ from one another. While foreign to some, social constructionist jargon is now routinely invoked by the young academics who successfully conquered the humanities over the ensuing 40 years.

Comment:

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Snakes in Suits

Australian Police charge Mauritius Commonwealth Games delegate with sexual assault on 26yo female athlete


RT
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 11:07 UTC
Commonwealth Games
© David Gray / Reuters
Australian police have charged Mauritius 2018 Commonwealth Games chef de mission Kaysee Teeroovengadum with sexual assault following allegations made by a female athlete.

Teeroovengadum quit on the eve of the Games amid accusations of "inappropriate touching" made by the athlete, which allegedly took place in the Games' Athletes' Village.

"Police will allege the 52-year-old Mauritian man assaulted a 26-year-old woman in Southport on March 29," a Queensland Police statement, issued Thursday, read.
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People 2

Russian civil servants' careers now depend on internet feedback from citizens


RT
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 10:23 UTC
Civil servant
© Moskva city news agencyReceptionist in the Multi-functional Service Center.
The Russian government has changed the assessment criteria for civil servants - now their careers will depend on feedback from ordinary citizens, as well as their reactions to reviews posted on the internet.

The order, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and published on the government's website on Friday, details the rules by which the work of heads of regional branches of various state agencies can be assessed by ordinary citizens. The document also describes how the assessments can impact the officials' careers, including "the early dismissal of such heads of agencies from their posts."

There are two main components: the citizen evaluations of their work, and their handling of reviews posted on Gosuslugi - a site allowing communication with various state and municipal bodies and agencies.

The program will be funded as part of the 'Information Society' state program, according to the order.
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Bad Guys

French and Malian troops kill dozens of US-backed ISIS insurgents in Mali


Reuters
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 12:00 UTC
Soldiers of the Operation Barkhane, a French counter-terrorism operation
© Daphné Benoit, AFPSoldiers of the Operation Barkhane, a French counter-terrorism operation in Africa's Sahel region have dinner with French defence minister Florence Parly as they celebrate New Year's eve, on December 31, 2017.
French and Malian troops killed about 30 Islamist insurgents during a gunbattle in a region near the border with Niger, where Islamic State are known to be active, the French army said on Thursday.

West Africa's arid Sahel region has seen a rise in violence by militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, that is drawing an increasingly aggressive response from countries including France and the United States.

It was a Mali-based al Qaeda affiliate, Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), that claimed responsibility for a March 2 assault on the French Embassy and army headquarters in Burkina Faso's capital that killed eight people.

Comment: Macron's France has become increasingly involved in the Western war of terror:

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Stock Down

Americans can no longer afford mobile-homes


Stock Board Asset
Wed, 04 Apr 2018 20:57 UTC
mobile home fire
A little over a month ago, after we first brought the market's attention to the crisis quietly unfolding in consumer debt, Business Insider has finally caught up, acknowledging that "lower-income consumers and younger borrowers with substantial student debt moving at a slower pace than more affluent and established participants." In other words, Bussiness Insider describes the economy as running at 'two speeds,' and mentions an ominous warning sign that lower-income consumers are entirely tapped out.

Without consumption, the US economy would collapse. Consumption accounts for about 70 percent of US GDP. Further, there are some 95 million Americans out of the labor force. The rosy narratives of how millennials and low-income consumers are propping up the economy are starting to fade, as Business Insider through a new UBS report -provides the knowledge that the "mobile-home market is showing signs of stress."

According to the consumer research desk at UBS, Americans can no longer afford mobile-homes, as the delinquency rate on these tiny trailers has soared two percentage points, over the past year. In fact, what is even more mindboggling, is the 30-day-plus delinquency level is now about five percent, not seen since the first quarter of 2005 or a few years after the dot-com bubble.

Comment: Are Trump's tax cuts too little too late? The economic downward spiral continues and there may not be much anyone can do. See also:

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Sheeple

Best of the Web: Israel kills Palestinians and the Western liberal sham of 'humanitarian intervention' is laid bare

Mehdi Hasan
The Intercept
Mon, 02 Apr 2018 15:55 UTC
Israeli troops
© Majdi Mohammed/APIsraeli troops fire teargas at protesters during a clashes following a protest to mark the Land Day, in the village of Qusra, near the West Bank City of Nablus, Friday, March 30, 2018.
"If the concept of intervention is driven by universal human rights, why is it - from the people who identify themselves as liberal interventionists - why do we never hear a peep, a word, about intervening to protect the Palestinians?"

That was the question I put to the French philosopher, author, and champion of liberal (or humanitarian) interventionism, Bernard-Henri Lévy, on my Al Jazeera English interview show "Head to Head" in 2013.

The usually silver-tongued Levy struggled to answer the question. The situation in Palestine is "not the same" as in Syria and "you have not all the good on one side and all the bad on the other side," said Levy, who once remarked in reference to the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, that he had "never seen such a democratic army, which asks itself so many moral questions."

I couldn't help but be reminded of my exchange with the man known as "BHL" this past weekend, as I watched horrific images of unarmed Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border being shot in the back by the "democratic army" of Israel. How many "moral questions" did those Israeli snipers ask themselves, I wondered, before they gunned down Gazan refugees for daring to demand a return to their homes inside the Green Line?
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