Society's Child
They're older, and Donald Trump is in the White House, but not much else has changed.
And Roseanne's television resurrection couldn't have come at a better time. Plenty are keen to hear more from the woman who mercilessly mocked the snooty sisterhood in her first iteration as "America's bourgeois nightmare".
Speaking to John Lahr for his profile of her in The New Yorker in July 1995, Barr aimed both barrels at Hollywood women such as Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon and Jodie Foster, saying they were "talented but f..kin' deluded".
Alabama governor defends Confederate monuments, says call for removal 'Politically correct nonsense'

A covered confederate monument in Linn Park, Birmingham, Alabama.
"Up in Washington they always know better...politically correct nonsense I say," runs the ad. "When special interests wanted to tear down our historical monuments, I said no!"
Last May, Ivey signed the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, legislation that blocked local governments from removing monuments or renaming public schools that have existed for more than 40 years.
OPCW head: UN security team shot at in Syria's Douma delaying arrival of chemical weapons inspectors
The UN team had reportedly arrived in the town to see if it was safe enough to start investigating an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian government. When they were shot at, they decided to withdraw from the city, according to Uzumcu.
Earlier, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari stated the UN security team had traveled to the Syrian town of Douma on April 17 ahead of a planned visit by the international chemical weapons experts on April 18 to look into the suspected chemical weapons attack.
Comment: Random violence - or a concerted effort on the part of the White Helmets, head-choppers and Western powers to keep the UN security team and OPCW from getting to the bottom of the "chemical attack" in Douma?

Russian law requires all social networks to move data on Russian users to Russia. Facebook is also obliged to remove all prohibited information.
The law requires all social networks to move data on Russian users to Russia. Facebook is also obliged to remove all prohibited information, according to the head of Russian internet watchdog Roskomnadzor, Aleksandr Zharov.
"If none of [the steps are taken by Facebook] or some of this is not fulfilled, or the Russian state is not informed of the intention to do so, then obviously there will be a question of blocking," Zharov told Izvestia daily.
The professional network website LinkedIn has already been banned in Russia for refusing to comply. The popular messenger Telegram was blocked in Russia after refusing to provide Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) with keys to decrypt its messages.
The opinion in DC federal court outlines how judges may step in to disclose grand jury matters, especially after enough time has passed and when the public has an interest in them.
Though Chief Judge Beryl Howell's opinion Monday deals with secret legal proceedings from 20 years ago, it could offer a road map for making court records in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation public eventually.
"The district court is notably absent from this list of the persons bound by" rules governing grand jury secrecy, Howell wrote.
Howell also oversees proceedings related to the grand jury assembled by Mueller.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is seen during his visit to Lockheed Martin, April 6, 2018.
The administration is expected to provide a set of guidelines which will "speed up the approval of arms exports" to certain allies, Reuters has reported. Those allies are thought to include NATO member states, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, as well as Japan and South Korea.
The initiative will also call for members of Trump's White House cabinet to act as "closers" to seal major arms deals, sources said. Top government officials will also be sent to promote American weapons at international air shows and arms expos.
Comment: The defense contractors are popping the champagne corks.
- The Trump administration is turning the State Department into a global weapons dealer
- War is good for business: US military operations overseas lead resurgence of global arms sales
- War is a racket: Companies profiting the most from war
- Human Rights Watch calls on US, France and UK to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia due to "unlawful civilian deaths" in Yemen
Russia and Syria have been in the dock and apparently found guilty, but as ever the burden of proof lies with those making the accusations to show the certain evidence they have to back up their claims. However, the only thing that can be said with absolute certainty, regardless of which of these versions is correct, is that those who have made the accusations have not shown anything like the evidence needed to substantiate their claims.
Indeed, the biggest connection between the two events is not the "Who Dunnit" aspect, but rather the fact that guilt has been assigned and reprisals taken prior to the results of the investigations, and therefore before facts could be established with any certainty. Legally, morally and logically this is obvious nonsense, and it is a testament to the decline of educational standards in the West, and the triumph of emotional arguments over ones which appeal to facts and logic, that there are many who appear simply unable to grasp these very basic concepts.
Regarding the Skripal case, there are a mountain of unanswered questions and a multitude of inconsistencies. Yet it is not even this which makes the case so odd. Rather, it is the fact that whenever a question is answered - for example, the medical condition of the Skripals - it merely seems to throw up even more questions, inconsistencies and oddities.
Comment: Another question for the OPCW: which samples, specifically, contained which substances? Was A-234 found in the blood samples, on the door? Both? Where were the "pure" traces found?

Palestinians attend the funeral ceremony of Marwan Kadeh, who was murdered by Israeli soldiers during "Great March of Return" near Gaza-Israel border, at Al-Taqwa Mosque in Khoza'a town of Khan Yunis, Gaza on 9 April, 2018.
Medics at the scene in the Rafah area said it was caused by an Israeli tank shell.
But an Israeli military spokesman said the army was not involved. "We have no knowledge of any Israeli strike in the area," he said.
Local residents at the hospital morgue identified the four dead men as members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. Islamic Jihad did not immediately confirm the men were members.
The allegation came from Yury Chaika on Wednesday during a report to a joint bicameral session of the Russian parliament. He reiterated a claim previously suggested by some officials in his department, that Berezovsky's death in Britain in March 2013 was the result of foul play.
Addressing lawmakers, Chaika claimed that Berezovsky was part of a conspiracy involving the British government to kill his confidante Aleksandr Litvinenko with radioactive polonium, which London used to accuse Russia of murder.
It was the financial heist of the century. The looting of Soviet Russia's wealth by a group of well-connected oligarchs in the 1990s enriched a tiny few, but impoverished vast swathes of the country's population. The foundations for this massive, reverse-Robin-Hood redistribution of wealth were laid with Gorbachev's 'restructuring' economic reforms of the late 80s. However, the process reached its peak under Boris Yeltsin.
State assets were handed out like confetti to members of Yeltsin's inner circle. By 1996 the Russian people, who had seen their living standards plummet following the end of communism, had had enough. Yeltsin's popularity was down to single-figure ratings - with the Communists riding high in the polls. So the President's oligarch friends - and their Western allies - worked together to make sure the election went the 'right' way.
Comment:
- UK government has issued warrants for seizure of Russian capital "of dubious origin"
- George Galloway: UK crackdown on rich Russians is 'politically driven by Cold War mentality'
- London's lucrative ties to Russia may stymie sanctions debate
- The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchs: How Putin neutralized the despoilers of Russia











Comment: More libtard snowflake-y nonsense. "If I don't see it, it didn't happen" is the logic of a child.