Society's ChildS


Quenelle

Thousands protest throughout Japan against relocation of US military base in Okinawa


RT
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 14:31 UTC
protests japan US military base
Thousands of people encircled Japan's parliament to protest against the relocation of a US military base on Okinawa island. At the same time more students marched through the streets objecting the government's plan to allow Japanese military to fight overseas.

The protesters, holding signs reading "No" or "Protect Henoko" and chanting "Don't build the base" staged a rally against the Japan's government intention to relocate the functioning US marine base Futenma, stationed in a densely populated area of Ginowan, to a facility in Henoko, also on Okinawa.

Over 28,000 people joined the rally, according to Kyodo news agency. Opposition rallies were also held in the cities of Toyama, Okayama, Sapporo, Nagoya and Osaka.

Comment: The Japanese have had more than enough of the US military presence:

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Dollars

Daesh has 'fallen on hard times': Bankrupt jihadists accept only dollars


Sputnik
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 16:36 UTC
jihadi dollars
© twitter.comDaesh Dollar Days
While a growing number of countries around the world are actively looking to ditch the dollar for mutual trade, due to its precarious financial condition one very unexpected group is now insisting on dollar only payments, according to a report by AP.

The jihadist militant group seems to be experiencing grave financial difficulties: it is having trouble meeting its expenses due to Russian airstrikes ruining its oil infrastructure and low oil prices, forcing the group to cut salaries in half and start accepting only US dollars for payments, according to AP report.

The long-cherished dream of Daesh to have its own gold, silver and copper-backed currency seems to be forgotten thing of the past. The Islamist group is apparently suffering from a shortage of cash, the agency reports citing some residents escaping from Raqqa, the group's stronghold in Syria.

It has reportedly cut salaries by half across its self-declared caliphate and has urged the residents of Raqqa to pay for "taxes" and utility fees, such as water and electricity, in black-market American dollars. Reports also suggest that the militants are now releasing detainees for a cut-rate price of $500 each. There are shortages of necessities, electricity is rationed and prices for basic commodities are spiraling out of reach.

Comment: Economic resources are shrinking for IS/Daesh as countries shut down its many sources of funds. Its faux economy is based on extortion, robberies, ransom and smuggling, embezzlement, taxation of territories under their military control, and devalued oil. Without any real and long-lasting, productive and positive means of legitimate income, IS/Daesh is dependent and self-defeating. It has to continue all the above to remain viable -- a closed and dwindling economic loop.

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Георгиевская ленточка

Ancient dream come true: South Ossetia to hold referendum on joining Russia


RT
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 03:37 UTC
tibilov putin
© Alexei Druzhinin / SputnikArchive: Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, at a meeting with President of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov, 12 May 2012.
South Ossetia's president said the small country wants to hold a referendum of "special form" to join Russia as one of its regions. The move is to help unite the once separated Ossetian people and safeguard it from various threats for decades to come.

President of South Ossetia, Leonid Tibilov, said in his address to the republic's parliament on Friday that a roadmap for the referendum would be worked out within a year.

"We are worried by the worsening situation in the world, events in Ukraine, Syria and the entire Middle East as well as NATO's move towards Russia's borders, and also by militarist anti-Russian and anti-Ossetian rhetoric of our southern neighbors," Tibilov was quoted as saying by TASS.

The leader also said it is South Ossetia's "ancient dream" to reunite with Russia and the separated Ossetian people. Tibilov referred to North Ossetia, which is part of the Russian Federation.

Comment: Long-suffering patience and hardship pays off. South Ossetia will no doubt be safer reintegrated with the Russian Federation. For the low-down on the 2008 Georgian war: Remembering the 08.08.08 Georgia war: Forerunner to today's proxy war against Russia via Ukraine

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2 + 2 = 4

Anti-bullying program is the most effective in the world because it targets bystanders

Lisa Winter
A-Plus
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 00:53 UTC
Finland cracked the code.

Bullying girls
© PeopleImages / iStock
Nearly 1 in 4 students will experience it to an unhealthy degree and become victims of bullying. As kids and teens who get bullied are up to 9 times more likely to commit suicide than those who aren't, schools are taking steps to rein in this harmful practice.

A new study published in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology has found the KiVa International program from Finland to be among the most successful against bullying. This is likely due to its unique approach of targeting not the bully nor the victim — but the bystander.

Comment: While it's good to see anti-bullying programs working to help kids be more empathetic, it's a shame we live in a world where they need to be implemented in the first place. For more information, see:

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Snakes in Suits

They must be joking: Fortune magazine names Monsanto one of world's most admired companies

John vibes
True Activist
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 01:00 UTC
Monsanto
In a list released this week by Fortune Magazine, Monsanto was named one of the world's most admired companies. Monsanto was honored as No. 1 in its industry sector, biotechnology, although they have very little competition in that market, and the list was decided by dubious means.

According to Business Wire, the honor that Monsanto received was decided by company surveys and peer ratings from senior executives, directors and analysts, in other words, it was based on the opinions of people within the industry, and within the company.

Monsanto Chairman and CEO, Hugh Grant, said in a statement that this is the third year that they were named as the top of their sector by Fortune.

Comment: The idea that the editors of this magazine could even consider Monsanto as admirable, given the devastation this corporate monstrosity has brought to bear on the world highlights their level of ponerization.

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Pirates

Beauty to die for: Skull style and corpse chic in fashion design, imagery and branding

Jacque Lynn Foltyn
Scan
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 21:50 UTC
death fashon

Comment: The culture of death is prevalent in the fashion world. Where violence and dehumanization are glamorized in photo shoots. This trend has been going on for years and is so disturbing, it has caused outrage.


Introduction

Is fashion something to die for? If one examines the content of fashion magazines, websites, videos, blogs, and fashion itself, the answer is a resounding "yes". Death is a fashion star, used to sell clothing, accessories, brands, celebrity, magazines, style-based television programming and websites, and cross-media collaborative efforts. From Alexander McQueen and Ralph Lauren to Target and H&M, skulls, crossbones, and skeleton motifs have taken over fashion. Death is the darling of not only the fashion set but also of the masses - and their dogs, who wear skull bedecked cardigans and collars and lounge on skeleton embossed beds. In mainstream fashion and lifestyle magazines, models, actors, stylists, and socialites not only model skull style, they model 'death' itself, in gruesome pantomimes of murder, suicide, and eco-disaster. These "corpse chic" (Foltyn, 2008b, 2009) narratives are 'ripped from the headlines', but are also inspired by literature, music, cinema, and true-crime television genres; they are the basis for photos shoots for the reality TV program America's Top Model. In the twenty-first century, and in more ways than one, fashion, to paraphrase Karl Lagerfeld, is not only "ephemeral" and "unfair"; it is "dangerous" (2006).
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Attention

Another one? Mysterious snipers spotted in Kiev during new Maidan

Ollie Richardson (translator)
Fort Russ
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 00:47 UTC
kiev snipers
In Ukraine, people are actively discussing the information on the unknown sniper groups who arrived in the center of Kiev.
On the Ukrainian social networks there were photos of unknown snipers taken by witnesses in the center of Kiev.

The photos were published on Sunday morning outside the walls of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. There were men dressed in strange uniforms.

The people of Kiev, with a disturbing sense of humor, asked each other, not "musicians" again? Since the riots on the Maidan, they are sometimes called snipers because of the similarity between the cases of the rifles and the protective cases of musical instruments.

"These musicians like to play at the funeral of a new 'heavenly thousand'", — said opponents of the Maidan.

As a reminder, "a Third Maidan", organized by the so-called Revolutionary right-wing forces (RPS), is ongoing in the centre of the Ukrainian capital.

Comment: Will this 'Maidan' fizzle out without U.S. State Department support and cookies? Just more of the same? Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

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Handcuffs

Egyptian author publishes book with sex and drug references, gets two years in jail

Ruth Michaelson
The Guardian
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:29 UTC
Naji court case
© Ramy Yaacoub/APAhmed Naji, centre with head bowed, at the court hearing in Cairo on Saturday.
The Egyptian author Ahmed Naji has been given a two-year prison sentence for "violating public modesty" after publishing a book with references to sex and drugs.

Ramy Yaacoub, a political analyst and friend of the defendant, tweeted a picture of Naji bowing his head in the darkened courtroom as his case was fought. The ruling was initially overturned in January, but after an appeal by the prosecution the case returned to court and Naji was given the maximum possible sentence on Saturday.

An Egyptian citizen brought charges against the author after an excerpt of his novel The Guide for Using Life was published in the magazine Akhbar al-Adab. The editor of the magazine, Tarek El Taher, was also given a fine equivalent to £885.
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Newspaper

Malcolm X remembered 50 years after his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom


Democracy Now
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 20:32 UTC
Malcolm X
© cbsnews.com
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century. He was shot dead as he spoke before a packed audience at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on February 21, 1965. Malcolm X had just taken the stage when shots rang out riddling his body with bullets. He was 39 years old. Details of his assassination remain disputed to this day. We air highlights from his speeches, "By Any Means Necessary" and "The Ballot or the Bullet." We also speak with journalist Herb Boyd, who along with Malcolm X's daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, co-edited The Diary of Malcolm X: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, 1964.

Comment: Malcolm X: Capitalism is cowardly and like a vulture, 'can only suck the blood of the helpless'
Malcolm X, unlike Martin Luther King Jr., did not believe America had a conscience. For him there was no great tension between the lofty ideals of the nation - which he said were a sham - and the failure to deliver justice to blacks. He, perhaps better than King, understood the inner workings of empire. He had no hope that those who managed empire would ever get in touch with their better selves to build a country free of exploitation and injustice. He argued that from the arrival of the first slave ship to the appearance of our vast archipelago of prisons and our squalid, urban internal colonies where the poor are trapped and abused, the American empire was unrelentingly hostile to those Frantz Fanon called "the wretched of the earth." This, Malcolm knew, would not change until the empire was destroyed.

"It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck," Malcolm said. "Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it's more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody's blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It's only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely."


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Ambulance

Man arrested for unpaid ambulance bill dies in police custody; case highlights illegitimacy of Utah's 'justice courts'

William N. Grigg
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 19:52 UTC
Rex Iverson
Bear River, Utah resident Rex Iverson, 45, died in the Box Elder County Jail on January 23 after being incarcerated for his failure to pay an ambulance bill. A deputy arrested him on a $350 bench warrant issued by the justice court on December 29. He was found unresponsive in his cell by a detention deputy a few hours after being arrested.

"We go to great lengths to never arrest anybody on these warrants," Box Elder County Chief Deputy Sheriff Dale Ward told the Ogden Standard-Examiner. "The reason we do that is we don't want to run a debtors' prison. There is no reason for someone to be rotting in jail on a bad debt."

Over the past three years, reports the Standard-Examiner, thirteen people have been arrested and jailed on civil bench warrants of the kind that resulted in Iverson's fatal incarceration. Roughly half of those arrests arose from civil judgments obtained by government agencies, the rest from private debts. Apart from Iverson, all of those thus imprisoned were released within 12 hours after posting bail or making a promise to appear in court.
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