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Parallels between 1930s Germany and Israel today

Uri Avnery
AntiWar.com
Sat, 21 May 2016 00:00 UTC
General Ya’ir Golan, the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army

General Ya’ir Golan, the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army
"Please don't write about Ya'ir Golan!" a friend begged me, "Anything a leftist like you writes will only harm him!"

So I abstained for some weeks. But I can't keep quiet any longer.

General Ya'ir Golan, the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, made a speech on Holocaust Memorial Day. Wearing his uniform, he read a prepared, well-considered text that triggered an uproar which has not yet died down.

Dozens of articles have been published in its wake, some condemning him, some lauding him. Seems that nobody could stay indifferent.

The main sentence was: "If there is something that frightens me about the memories of the Holocaust, it is the knowledge of the awful processes which happened in Europe in general, and in Germany in particular, 70, 80, 90 years ago, and finding traces of them here in our midst, today, in 2016."

All hell broke loose. What!!! Traces of Nazism in Israel? A resemblance between what the Nazis did to us with what we are doing to the Palestinians?

Comment: Israel is on the precipice of self-destruction with its oppression of Palestinians, covert and overt aggression towards other countries in the Middle East, and the death of whatever soul it has left to it as a nation. Individuals like General Ya'ir Golan, and the author of the article, and others understand that the situation is untenable and may be giving the last gasps of warning, conscience and rationality that Israel may ever see.

Further reading:

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Hourglass

Utah teen in critical condition after long-time friend stabs him with sword during sleepover

Katie McKellar
KSL
Sat, 21 May 2016 19:00 UTC
Sword
© Global News
A 17-year-old is in critical condition after police say his friend stabbed him with a sword during a sleepover early Saturday morning.

"It was a tragic, very uncommon and strange event," Unified Police Lt. Lex Bell said, but he added that it could have had a deadly ending if it weren't for the aid of several firefighters who helped an officer subdue a violent suspect.

Bell said it happened just before 6 a.m. when police were dispatched to a home near 7000 West and Long Ridge Drive.

He said the victim was laying in his bed when his longtime friend, also 17, took a sword from the victim's blade collection and ran it through his abdomen. Police aren't sure if the victim was awake when it happened, Bell said.

"The question of the day is: Why did this happen? The two had been friends for years, as I understand it," the lieutenant said. The victim's parents ran into the room when they heard a commotion.

"When the father gets in the room, the suspect is trying to get another weapon to stab the victim again, it sounds like," Bell said. "So the father grabbed him and there was a physical altercation." The mother called 911, and an officer arrived minutes later and ran inside, the lieutenant said.

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Alarm Clock

Shocking! 15-year-old girl has sex with 25 'willing' boys in Florida high school bathroom

Victor Skinner
EAG News
Fri, 20 May 2016 21:48 UTC
South Fort Myers High School
© WZVN
South Fort Myers High School

Comment: Children and young adults are being sexualized very early in life. Sexual imagery is everywhere and beamed into households every night. It's tragic to witness the continuing decay of our society because of the depraved leadership of psychopaths.

See also:

South Fort Myers High School officials believe as many as 25 boys had "inappropriate activity" with a 15-year-old female student inside of a bathroom on campus Tuesday.

Students told NBC 2 the incident occurred in a girl's bathroom after classes ended and involved the school's football team.

"A bunch of football players went into a room with a girl and had sex with her, and a bunch of the football players were suspended," student Alex Bailey said. "So we might not have a football team this year."


Comment: Not having a football team is the least of the problem.


Students contend participants recorded the encounter.

Principal Melissa Layner learned of the incident and contacted Lee County Sheriff's deputy Jarrod Cantrell, the school's resource officer. Cantrell recovered surveillance video from the school hallway showing "25 male students go inside the restroom over the time-frame of a female being inside the restroom," according to a police report cited by the News-Press.

Layner said the female student "confirmed she had sex with a number of willing males."

Officials contacted the special victims unit and the Florida Abuse Hotline, took sworn statements from students, and confiscated a student cell phone. District spokeswoman Amity Chandler said students were involved in an "inappropriate activity" and were disciplined, but refused to provide details, the News-Press reports.
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Eye 1

British marines charged and sentenced for torturing subordinate


PressTV
Mon, 23 May 2016 20:09 UTC
Royal Marine Ian Tennet

Royal Marine Ian Tennet, at a martial court in Portsmouth.
Four British Royal Marines have been charged with subjecting a colleague to a brutal initiation ceremony involving "waterboarding" and other forms of torture.

Royal Marine Ian Tennet, Lance Corporal Scott Simm, and James Taylor, a lance corporal in the Royal Marines Reserves and Former Marine Ryan Logan were charged with the ill-treatment of Carlo Nicholson (pictured below), a subordinate.
Carlo Nicholson
Tennet was sentenced to 11 months in jail while his two accomplices were given eight months each.
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Heart - Black

Twisting young minds: Lego joins the toymaker violent 'arms race'


RT
Mon, 23 May 2016 18:15 UTC
lego violence
© Tyrone Siu / Reuters
Toy Lego characters depicting a scene of protesters confronting riot police are seen on a table outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong
There's a new "arms race" gripping the globe, but this time happening in the world of toys, according to New Zealand researchers.

The beloved and iconic Lego brand has increased the amount of pieces depicting violent weapons in bid to boost sales, according to a study by NZ's University of Canterbury.

The interlocking brick manufacturer has released more than 12,000 sets since 1949, but the first weapons didn't appear until 1978.

Back then, they were tiny axes made for a medieval castle set, but since then "violence in Lego products has increased significantly," found research published in the Public Library of Science journal.

"This increase is not in line with their policy that 'Lego products aim to discourage pretend violence as a primary play incentive'. The violence in Lego products seems to have gone beyond just enriching game play," writes the study's authors.

"To catch the attention of their customers, toy manufacturers are locked in a metaphorical arms race for exciting new products," added the authors. "In this race they do not only compete with other toy manufacturers but also with television and video games, which have become more violent over the years."

Comment: The fact that toy manufacturers must resort to using violence to capture the attention of young children speaks volumes about the moral degradation of society.

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Quenelle - Golden

The mental disease of late-stage capitalism

Joe Brewer
medium.com
Tue, 12 Apr 2016 17:21 UTC
late-stage capitalism

You are “supposed” to feel shame when it’s not your fault.
I've been talking with a lot of my friends recently — in private where they felt comfortable letting their guard down — about the dirty little secret no one is supposed to talk about.

The shame people feel when they can't find a job...

...or pay their bills.

...or go to the dentist.

...or that they have to move back in with their parents.

...or they can't afford to have children.

We are supposed to pretend, in this stupendously individualist culture, that it is our fault. The buck stops here. I am responsible for my failings in life.

Comment: Free-market capitalism: Reducing humans to cash cows
Far from protecting her own citizens' property and economic interests, however, the domestic activities of the US increasingly reveal finely honed mechanisms resulting in asset seizure and transfer of wealth. In order to accomplish these aims, certain established checks and balances have been nullified or bought off...

There is a quasi- religious aspect to the worship of the free market. The free market, we are told, will inherently provide for the crème de la crème to rise to its proper altitude. The invisible hand of the free market will enable only the best products to succeed. And the devotees will tell you that this is in everyone's best interest.

However, consumerism has a dark side. Where everything is commodified, everything becomes gauged by its monetary value alone. Other considerations—truth, beauty and emotional attachment come to mind—may suffer under a bottom line valuation system.


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Eye 2

Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood: Hollywood is in the grip of powerful pedophiles

Jason Guerrasio
Business Insider
Mon, 23 May 2016 16:13 UTC
elijah wood

Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood has been in the entertainment business most of his life. Starting out doing local modeling and commercial work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he quickly moved out to Los Angeles with his family as an eight-year-old in the mid-1980s, where he got work on the Paula Abdul music video "Forever Your Girl" and gained acclaim in the 1990s movie "Avalon."

Though it seems like a glamorous way to be brought up, Wood, 35, is revealing for the first time that Hollywood is dealing with a child sexual abuse epidemic. In a revealing piece on the "Lord of the Rings" star for The Sunday Times, Wood is quoted saying child actors are regularly "preyed upon" by "vipers" in Hollywood.

Wood told the Times he "never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on," because his mother, Debra, protected him from interacting with people who could take advantage of him. But he did note, "I've been led down dark paths to realize that these things are probably still happening."

Wood is not the first former child star over the years to make this claim. In 2011, Corey Feldman told ABC's "Nightline" that he has been a victim of sexual abuse by men in Hollywood.

"I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia," he said. "That's the biggest problem for children in this industry... It's the big secret."

Comment: From London, to Washington DC, Tel Aviv and Hollywood - pedophiles in very high places are regularly discussed and exposed, but rarely do we ever see action taken by law enforcement.

Men Who Hate Women: The Franklin Scandal and the Truth About Our Leaders

Pedophiles run the government and nobody gives a damn!

UK 'Establishment': Unmasking psychopathic faces - Pedophilia and murder in VERY high places

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USA

Baltimore officer Edward Nero acquitted of all charges in Freddie Gray case

Justin Fenton and Kevin Rector
Baltimore Sun
Mon, 23 May 2016 15:36 UTC
officer Edward Nero
© Baltimore Sun
Officer Edward Nero found not guilty on all four charges related to the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams on Monday acquitted Officer Edward Nero of all counts for his role in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.

The judgment, following a five-day bench trial, is the first in the closely-watched case. Nero, 30, faced four misdemeanor charges of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of misconduct in office.

Prosecutors had argued that Nero committed an assault by detaining Gray without justification, while the reckless endangerment charge related to Nero's role in putting Gray into an arrest wagon without buckling a seat belt. In closing arguments Thursday, Williams had skeptically questioned prosecutors about their theory of assault, which legal experts said was unprecedented.

Comment: Video evidence, eyewitness testimonies...none of it matters. The police abuse and murder with impunity.

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Binoculars

The human cost of cheap highs: A journey into Newcastle - Britain's most addicted city

Adam Lusher
The Independent
Mon, 23 May 2016 14:31 UTC
legal high
© RDImages/Epics/Getty Images
By 2015 the Newcastle office of a national drugs agency was reporting a higher ambulance call-out rate for NPS-related incidents than anywhere else in the country'
Described by some as being more addictive than heroin, legal highs are not going to be legal much longer. And amid warnings a Government ban will only make things worse, Adam Lusher travels to Newcastle - the epicentre of Britain's growing addiction

James is pacing the room. He's agitated and suffering withdrawal symptoms from the newest drug in town that can turn him into "a bomb ready to detonate".

"It's called 'Insane'," he says. "Everyone's on it, and it's knocking everyone daft. Everybody's like a zombie in the town."

He's talking about the latest legal high - of many - to hit the streets of Newcastle. Because Newcastle seems to have become the epicentre of Britain's legal high problem.

Comment: 'Addict' Britain is worldwide hub for sale of legal highs

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Arrow Down

Ugly face of US military: Rapes just keep happening in Japan


RT
Mon, 23 May 2016 10:17 UTC
japan protests Us military base
© Kyodo / Reuters
The only case that we've ever heard about was when somebody was able to win a court case, basically within the last 15 years was only my case. So what happens to the rest of the victims, asked Catherine Jane Fisher, rape survivor and women's rights activist.

Japanese protesters rallied on Friday after an American military worker confessed to killing a young Japanese woman. The former US marine is under arrest over the murder on Okinawa Island. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also expressed his outrage about the incident.

RT: A large amount of people took to the streets to protest in Okinawa lately. How can you describe people's feelings?

Catherine Jane Fisher: At the moment everybody is really outraged about what has happened. This young woman should never have died. It's stunningly clear that these rapes and murders have been happening for over 70 years. The death of this woman is a responsibility of the Japanese government.

RT: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he is outraged at the murder of a 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro. What do you make of that? Do you think that some measures are going to be implemented any time soon?

CJF: I think that the same rhetoric has been happening for the last 70 years, when the Japanese prime minister would come out, and the US military or government official would come out, and they will say the same thing over and over again: "We are angry about what has happened and this will never happen again!" But it has happened again. Now Ms. Rina Shimabukurois dead, and that is just the same thing that keeps on happening every time.

Comment: The US military's treatment of the women of Okinawa is representative of America's culture of rape, where the system protects the predators and further victimizes the abused.

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