Society's Child

Israeli gov strikes deal with settlers of illegal West Bank by moving them to 'unclaimed' land on same hill

RT
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 06:36 UTC

Residents of a controversial Israeli outpost built on Palestinian land and ruled illegal by the Supreme Court have agreed to be given new homes in another plot of land on the same West Bank hill. Hardline critics denounced it as a "capitulation" and an "expulsion of Jews."

Authorities have narrowly avoided a confrontation with the residents of Amona, who two years ago were given until December 25 to leave the outpost after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that setting up the settlement on private Palestinian land illegal.

The settlers rejected the previous relocation terms and showed no signs of complying with the ruling, so the Border Force, supervised by the IDF, was preparing to remove them by force.

However, under the deal reached early on Sunday after night-long negotiations, 24 of Amona's 40 families agreed to be moved into mobile homes on another plot of land on the same hillside.

This plot is claimed by the Israeli government under the Absentees' Property Law.

Comment: This one relocation of settlers is, in the vast scheme of criminal Israeli land-grabbing and colonization, a drop in the bucket.And the exception, not the rule; which is that of Palestinian deprivation and subjugation.

See: Expel and exploit: Israel's practice and process of taking over rural Palestinian land and using it for illegal settlements

Berlin outraged as German-funded school in Turkey 'bans mention of Christmas' or so media reports

RT
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 05:11 UTC

Berlin says it'd raise a "completely unacceptable" issue with Ankara after reports emerged that teachers at elite gymnasium in Istanbul, co-funded by the German government, were ordered to stop telling students anything about Christmas rites. The school denies the accusation.

"It is a great pity that the good tradition of the intercultural exchange in the pre-Christmas period was suspended at a school with a long history of German-Turkish tradition," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, referring to the claims by German teachers in the prestigious Lisesi High School, which is supported by the German government. The teachers said that they were reprimanded by the school's Turkish administration for bringing up Christmas-related topics in class.

The email, sent by the German staff of the school, who are subordinate to the Turkish administration, was seen by DPA news agency. It says that "it ensues from the notice of the Turkish administration, that from now on nothing should be told, worked on as well as sung, about the Christmas traditions and the Christian festival in the classroom."

The email was sent by the German administration to teachers, employed at the school at the expense of the German authorities, upon a meeting called on by their Turkish superiors. At the meeting the teachers were warned against disseminating "the rumors" among the students with their unauthorized Christmas-themed teaching.

Shortly after the memo was leaked to the media, the incident threatened to spiral into a full-fledged diplomatic row as the school's conduct caused a stir in the German media and provoked sharp criticism from an array of high-ranking officials.

Comment: This 'media lie' syndrome of creating a false cause to initiate, increase, exacerbate an effect, is cropping up in many countries where Western influence and purposes cross paths with a rebellious nature or political endgames. Purposeful divisiveness is a tool of manipulation and control, mass-produced courtesy of MSM.

War on Christmas escalates as FFRF atheists threaten lawsuit for a nativity scene

Ken Klukowski
Breitbart
Sun, 18 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC

Militant atheists at the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) are threatening to sue St. Bernard, Ohio, over the city's Nativity scene — a Christmas display depicting the scene of Jesus's birth in Bethlehem in the Holy Land. If FFRF follows through and files in federal court, that case could result in a historic restoration of religious liberty nationwide.

St. Bernard is a suburb of Cincinnati. For many years, the city has displayed a crèche — i.e., a Nativity scene — during the Christmas season. It is accompanied by non-biblical seasonal holiday displays as well, making this outdoor crèche similar to the one the Supreme Court upheld in its 1984 case Lynch v. Donnelly.

However, in 1989, the Supreme Court moved to the left on this issue, holding by a narrow 5-4 vote in County of Allegheny v. ACLU Greater Pittsburgh Chapter that a crèche erected on the grand staircase of a Pittsburgh courthouse violated the Constitution's Establishment Clause (which provides that Congress cannot establish a religion, a rule the Court in 1947 extended to state and local governments). In Allegheny, the justices voted 6-3 to allow a menorah and Christmas tree in the park outside the courthouse.

That case was strongly denounced by originalists and conservatives because it invented a brand new standard called the "endorsement test" for the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. Under this new rule, any government action involving faith or religion is unconstitutional if some "reasonable observer" would believe the government was endorsing religion.

Comment: Open-minded, unprejudiced, unbiased...the definition of 'tolerant' is not applicable to this group of 'unfortunate' atheists who live in this horribly non-customized world. We are becoming a people of narrowing foci, unable to allow for differentiation and choice, provoking increasing societal battlegrounds where none should exist. The penalty: more definitions, more laws, more tests begetting more definitions, more laws... The prognosis: Societal rigor mortis, a state accommodating complete control by the PTB.

Cop nearly kills handcuffed boy by shoving him through window - loses only 5 days vacation

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 20:09 UTC

© Michael Schwartz /for New York Daily News
The Rev. Al Sharpton shows some of Payne's 50 stitches at the National Action Network in New York in this 2014 file photo.

Video footage has emerged of NYPD Sgt. Eliezer Pabon suddenly shoving a handcuffed 14-year-old boy against a plate glass window, which shattered and almost killed him. Javier Payne had to undergo 4 hours of surgery to remove shards of glass from his lung and near his heart.

After finding Sgt. Pabon guilty of excessive use of force, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Trials Nancy Ryan docked the Bronx cop a mere five days of vacation. The punishment was far less than the 30 days lost vacation the NYPD suggested when it filed administrative charges against Pabon.

The lame excuse for discipline is even more outrageous when compared to a punishment handed down to another Bronx officer, Joseph Spina, who was docked eight vacation days for saying he wouldn't have voted for mayor Bill de Blasio. That incident was caught on film when Spina gave a driver a summons.

With the two punishments, New York City's police accountability system is showing just how flawed and subjective it can be.

Deadly duty: 107 reporters killed in Syria since conflict began

RT
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 20:02 UTC

damaged buildings in the government controlled area of Aleppo

Syria was the deadliest country for journalists in 2016, according to a report. At least 14 journalists were killed there in the line of duty this year alone, bringing the total number of war reporters who have died since the conflict broke out to at least 107.

According to the report by international press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), deaths in combat or crossfire reached their highest number since 2013, as conflicts in the Middle East showed no sign of ending.

Journalists sent into the thick of the action appear to be at high risk of not only losing their lives, but of being kidnapped and executed by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other terrorist groups.

"Islamic State is responsible for the disappearance of at least 11 journalists since 2013. They are feared dead, but do not appear in CPJ's data on killed journalists because their fate cannot be confirmed," the report said. It added that the two professions that proved to be the most dangerous in 2016 were those of photographer and cameraman.

The most vulnerable victims of the Syrian war - the children of Aleppo tell their stories

Sputnik
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 20:26 UTC

In the past few days, the weather in Aleppo has been cold but sunny, temperatures hitting highs of 12° Celsius and lows of 7° over the weekend. In the daytime, the temperature in the city's ruined buildings is lower than in its streets. Schools have yet to be rebuilt, and the streets are filled with children. The arrival of a news correspondent generates interest, and the children enthusiastically answered questions from a Sputnik Arabic correspondent.

Fatima, a resident of the al-Shiar district, formerly controlled by militants, told Sputnik that more than anything, she wished "for the suffering to end." Before the city was engulfed in battle, Fatima attended school with her friends, and dreamt of the future. But with the arrival of the terrorists, her dreams collapsed, her school turned into a pile of rubble.

Fatima, her family, and the entire district faced a shortage of food and medicine throughout the years of occupation. Any actions to resist the occupying militants were punished mercilessly, she said.

Sputnik met Mahmud, a frail boy with hungry eyes, in another part of the city.

Together with his younger brothers, the boy is looking for any part time work he can find to contribute to the household budget. His father lost his job, a loaf of bread costs 800 Syrian pounds (about $4 US), and a small cylinder of gas 25,000 pounds (about $110).

Many of the city's children have been put to work in dangerous occupations - in quarries, bakeries, and the shoe industry, to try to support their families, putting their health at risk and becoming vulnerable to exploitation. But they have had little choice; Aleppo's children have grown up fast.

Despite media freak-out, data shows fake news sites have little impact

Peter Hasson
The Daily Caller
Sun, 18 Dec 2016 09:51 UTC

Despite a media blitz portraying fake news sites as having a real impact in national politics — and even capable of affecting the outcome of a presidential election — fake news sites struggle to reach any sort of real audience.

Fake news site DenverGuardian.com, subject of coverage from the New York Times and the Washington Post, is ranked 91,688 in web traffic in the U.S., according to web analytics firm Alexa. To put that number in perspective: the site supposedly impacting the national political scene is more than 84,000 slots behind the website for a Virginia community college.

On Sunday, the New York Times devoted front-page coverage to a site called the "Patriot News Agency." The Times' story emphasized the fact that "operators of Patriot News had an explicitly partisan motivation: getting Mr. Trump elected."

But "Patriot News Agency" is even less popular than the "Denver Guardian," ranking in at 184,898 in the country, according to Alexa. The site's Facebook page has 113 total likes at this time.

Comment: See also:

Duped by CIA propaganda: Misguided celebrities attack Trump over violence in Aleppo

Jerome Hudson
Breitbart
Fri, 16 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC

Celebrities rushed to social media this week to condemn the carnage Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has inflicted on his own people in Aleppo — and some in Hollywood also attacked President-elect Donald Trump over the tragedy.

Leading the charge to tie Trump to Assad's atrocities in Syria, Spotlight actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted a Huffington Post article: "As He Slaughters Civilians In Aleppo, Bashar Assad Prepares To Make Nice With Donald Trump."

Comment: Paul Craig Roberts put it very succinctly when he recently said:

Trump's critics on the left and right and among the liberals and progressives have stupidly played into the CIA's hands. I tried to warn them not to judge Trump by the past associations of his appointees as no change was possible without strong knowledgeable appointees. Those who romanticize Bernie Sanders are out to lunch. A person as weak as Sanders proved to be, completely collapsing in the face of his stolen presidential nomination by Hillary, could not possibly have prevailed over the powerful oligarchic groups that rule America. When we finally get a president-elect strong enough to bring change from the top down, the leftwing-liberal-progressive elements join the CIA in denouncing him!

World Health Organization: Russia's 'generous support' to Syrian citizens 'impressive'

Sputnik
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 19:02 UTC

Syrian residents fleeing the violence, queue as they board a bus at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, in the village of Aziza on the southwestern outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on December 9, 2016

© AFP 2016/ George OURFALIAN
Syrian residents fleeing the violence, queue as they board a bus at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, in the village of Aziza on the southwestern outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on December 9, 2016

Russia provided generous support to Syrian citizens at a time when they needed it most, Elizabeth Hoff, the World Health Organization representative in Damascus said on Monday.

"I was impressed with the generosity and support provided by Russia at a time when [Syrian citizens] needed it most," Hoff told RIA Novosti.

The representative noted that several thousand people in East Aleppo still need to be evacuated which could take a few days.

Comment: Russia delivered over 40 metric tonnes (40 US tons) of gifts to the children of Syria gathered in Russia within the Children of Russia to the Children of Syria campaign, to the Hmeimim airbase, Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

"Backpacks with candy, crafts and stationery have been collected by... cadets, pupils of Ministry of Defense boarding school and ordinary students from Tula, Moscow, Vladimir, Vologda, Tver, Kaluga, Kostroma and other regions," the ministry said.

Personnel of the the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation at the Hmeimim airbase are passing gifts to the children in all government-controlled regions of the country.

Russia has been providing consistent humanitarian aid to Syrians who have been gravely affected by the civil war in the country.

The hopeless Afghan struggle to save boy sex slaves

Anuj Chopra
AFP
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 17:47 UTC

An Afghan boy, who was held as a child sex slave, sits at a restaurant.

Quivering with quiet rage, Shirin holds a photo of his teenage brother-in-law, who now lives as the plaything of policemen, just one victim of a hidden epidemic of kidnappings of young boys for institutionalized sexual slavery in Afghanistan.

Shirin is among 13 families AFP traced and interviewed across three Afghan provinces who said their children were taken for the pervasive practice of "bacha bazi", or pedophilic exploitation, in Western-backed security forces.

Their testimonies shine a rare spotlight on the anguished, solitary struggles to free sons, nephews and cousins from a tradition of culturally-sanctioned enslavement and rape.

I most certainly would not park my arse on a plane full of vaccinated people and have them infect me with their mutated virus. Whilst my...

Winternights3

What a shitty way to die.

Buffalo_Ken

To follow up on slbeaudry's ( I know there is a way to mention somebody's "name" formally in grey when adding a new comment - versus responding...

Buffalo_Ken

Eh. I was always warned to steer clear if they have little ones. That may provoke attacks. But... Illegal wildlife feeding? Lmao. 🤣 They will...

slbeaudry

I know several folks who are planning to fly for winter holidays in the next few months. All I can say is good luck.

ReRan

Society's Child

Israeli gov strikes deal with settlers of illegal West Bank by moving them to 'unclaimed' land on same hill

Berlin outraged as German-funded school in Turkey 'bans mention of Christmas' or so media reports

War on Christmas escalates as FFRF atheists threaten lawsuit for a nativity scene

Cop nearly kills handcuffed boy by shoving him through window - loses only 5 days vacation

Deadly duty: 107 reporters killed in Syria since conflict began

The most vulnerable victims of the Syrian war - the children of Aleppo tell their stories

Despite media freak-out, data shows fake news sites have little impact

Duped by CIA propaganda: Misguided celebrities attack Trump over violence in Aleppo

World Health Organization: Russia's 'generous support' to Syrian citizens 'impressive'

The hopeless Afghan struggle to save boy sex slaves

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