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Pope Francis voices concern over 'hemorrhage' of priests and nuns from the church


Associated Press
Sat, 28 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Pope Francis
© L'Osservatore Romano/ AP
Pope Francis poses with bishops and cardinals at the Clementine Hall, at the Vatican Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017. Pope Francis says he’s concerned about the “hemorrhage” of priests and nuns from the Catholic church. Francis on Saturday told participants at a Vatican gathering to discuss religious life that loss of clergy weakens the church.
Pope Francis says he is concerned about what he calls a "hemorrhage" of priests and nuns from the Catholic church.

The pope on Saturday told participants at a Vatican gathering on religious life that the loss of clergy is weakening the church.

First among the factors he cited as causing nuns and priests to quit their vocations is a society that discourages lifelong commitments. Francis lamented that many conduct their lives based on "a la carte" choices.

For decades, the Catholic church in many developed countries has seen the number of priests and nuns on the decline.
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Clipboard

California campaign to secede starting to collect signatures needed for 'Calexit' vote


Yahoo! News
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 13:55 UTC
California flag
© AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON
Proponents of "California Nationhood," or Calexit, are pushing for independence on grounds the state is out of step with the rest of the US and could flourish on its own.
A campaign for California to secede from the rest of the country over Donald Trump's election is gaining momentum, with supporters allowed to start collecting signatures for the measure to be put to a vote.

California's Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave the green light on Thursday for proponents of "California Nationhood" -- also known as Calexit -- to start collecting the nearly 600,000 signatures needed for the measure to qualify on the November 2018 ballot.

The 585,407 signatures required by July 25 represent eight percent of registered voters in California -- the most populous state in the country with nearly 40 million residents and the world's sixth-largest economy.

Should the initiative make it on the ballot, a "Yes" vote would repeal clauses in the California Constitution "stating California is an inseparable part of the United States and that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land," a statement by Padilla's office said.

Voters would then need to decide in another referendum in 2019 whether California should become a separate country.
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Eye 2

Reports suggest Kurdish militias tortured children to extract ISIS confessions


RT
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 13:35 UTC
child soldier ISIS islamic state
© Jamal Saidi / Reuters
Child soldiers fighting for Islamic State
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) - who controls parts of northern Iraq - systematically tortured boys as young as 11 using beatings, electric shocks and rape threats, to force confessions of involvement with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) according a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"KRG authorities should ensure the wellbeing of children captured after living under ISIS and not mistreat them," Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at HRW said. "The brutal abuse of children produces false confessions, can cause lifelong suffering, and blurs the moral line between ISIS and its foes."

In December, HRW researchers visited Erbil, the unofficial capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where they spoke to 19 of at least 183 children, who are being held by Asayish, the KRG security force. Of those interviewed, 18 were Sunni Arabs, and all but one told researchers that they had suffered physical and mental abuse after being captured when KRG advanced on Nineveh, Salah al-Din, and Kirkuk in the past several months.
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Cult

'Sadistic rituals and sexual abuse' practiced at Germany's elite Pfullendorf military base


RT
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 13:34 UTC
German soldiers
© Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters
Recruits and service personnel have been subjected to humiliating acts, violent rituals and sexual abuse at an elite military base in southern Germany, according to a report first published by Der Spiegel daily and later confirmed by the German military.

"Sexual abuse and sadistic actions" were "common practice" during a medical training course named "Combat First Responder" which recruits from all military branches had to attend at the Pfullendorf military base in Baden-Wuertemberg, Der Spiegel reported citing an internal military investigation that was kept secret.

The investigation was triggered in October 2016 after a female officer addressed the German parliamentary commissioner for the army, Hans-Peter Bartels as well as the German Defense Minister, Ursula von der Leyen.

The female lieutenant complained that she had to go through various humiliating and degrading exercises and rituals during her medical training at the base. The recruits were forced to get naked in front of the fellow service members while other soldiers were filming them, she said at that time, according to Der Spiegel.

The soldiers attending the course also had to take part in "absolutely senseless and apparently sexually motivated medical exercises" that involved soldiers inserting roller bandages into their anuses. Both male and female recruits had to go through this. Such "drills" were also photographed, the officer added.

The officer's complaint prompted an internal investigation into the matter that confirmed all the officer's statements, Der Spiegel reports. The investigators also found that the violations at the base were not limited to degrading training exercises, but also included violent and humiliating rituals for new recruits.
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Quenelle - Golden

Counter color revolution: Popular "anti-Soros" movement launched in Macedonia

Whitney Webb
True Activist
Sun, 29 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Stop soros
A new global initiative called Stop Operation Soros (SOS) was recently launched in Macedonia to curb the influence of one of the US' most controversial billionaires.

Just a week after Hungary moved to counter the influence of the numerous organizations funded by globalist billionaire George Soros, a movement dedicated to mitigating Soros-funded efforts of political and social engineering emerged in Macedonia. Known as Stop Operation Soros (SOS), the initiative was founded by three top Macedonian journalists with the aim of "de-soros-itizing" the country. During a press conference, Nikola Srbov, columnist for pro-government new portal Kurir and SOS co-founder, argued that Soros had monopolized civil society and, through his organizations, was working to subvert and suppress dissenting views:
"We've witnessed the takeover of the entire civil sector and its abuse and instrumentalization to meet the goals of one political party. That is unacceptable and goes beyond the principles of civic organizing."
He added that
"The Open Society Foundation, operating under the Soros umbrella, used its funding and personnel to support violent processes in Macedonia. It has monopolized the civil society sector, pushing outside any organization which disagrees with the Soros ideology."

Comment: Morose Soros has been long due for a serious comeuppance. Nice to see that the world is catching on to his society-destroying games.

See also: Wayne Madsen: Soros on the ropes

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USA

Dehumanization: A pretext to war

Charles Eisenstein
Waking Times
Fri, 27 Jan 2017 00:15 UTC
nuclear blast
Their stupidity is amusing."

"Stopping Trump is essential. Anyone who says otherwise is either foolish or blinded by privilege."

"People should get hated for voting for Johnson because he is a moron."

"Are Trump supporters too dumb to know they're dumb?"

"Hillbots have complete inability to do anything except parrot their hero Shillary's endless lies"

"Anyone who votes for Killary has already been drugged and taken the stupid pill."

"They will never change."

"Disgusting, twisted human beings."

Anyone who reads Facebook or pretty much any political website is sure to see comments like these that dehumanize not only the opposing candidate, but the candidate's supporters too. This polarization and vitriol, unprecedented in my lifetime, has me more concerned than the prospect of an evil candidate winning. It is as if what is really going on here is a preparation for civil war.

Dehumanization is a predecessor of war. When you see your opponents as subhuman in their morals, conscience, or intelligence, then you will have to defeat them by force. Moral or rational persuasion won't do it. That is what the above-quoted comments imply.

Comment: For an in-depth discussion of the social and political divide in the US see: Behind the Headlines: Hating Trump: Why Is Trump So Polarizing?

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Dig

Besieged Gaza is turning to alternative farming

Mersiha Gadzo
Aljazzera.com
Sat, 28 Jan 2017 21:20 UTC
farming
© Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera
Said Salim Abu Nasser has grown 3,500 kg of organic produce without any soil
As fertile land shrinks and water crisis deepens, Palestinians are searching for different ways to feed their families.

January is usually a busy month for farmers in Gaza, as it marks the wheat planting season, but so far, Jaber Abu Rejela has had little work to do on his 80 dunams (8 hectares) of land in Abasan al-Kabira, near the Israeli border.

"I have nothing to do. I'm looking for ways out of this country because we have nothing else to do," Abu Rejela, 57, said wryly, noting that he was waiting for Israeli forces to spray pesticides over his farmland before planting, as the crops would be ruined if they were sprayed afterwards. The Red Cross told farmers that Israel would spray pesticides from mid-December to mid-January.

According to Adham Bassiouni, chairman of Gaza's Integrated Pest Management, most of the crops in more than 4,000 dunams of land near the border were damaged last year due to sprayed pesticides.


Comment: War crime? Israel uses aerial herbicide spraying to destroy Gaza crops

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People

Transgender crazy-making: Doctors urged not to call pregnant women 'expectant mothers'

Stephen Adams and Sanchez Manning
Daily Mail
Sun, 29 Jan 2017 18:35 UTC
Hayden Cross

Hayden Cross is putting gender surgery on hold to become the UK's first trans male to give birth

NHS doctors have been told not to call pregnant women 'expectant mothers' because it might offend transgender people, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The astonishing warning comes in official guidelines issued by the British Medical Association to its 160,000 members, which says mothers-to-be should be referred to as 'pregnant people' instead.

The controversial advice to doctors in hospitals and general practice comes just weeks after it emerged that a Briton who was born a girl but is changing to a man put his operation on hold to have a baby.

Four-months pregnant Hayden Cross, 20, is legally male and has had hormone treatment but not sex-change surgery.

There are no other known cases of a transitioning person becoming pregnant in the UK, but official figures show 775,000 women give birth in Britain every year.
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Sheriff

Police State: Woman walking near home stopped by cops, asked if she was in country "illegally" then detained when unable to produce ID

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 28 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Aravinda Pillalamarri, of Bel Air, Maryland
© WJZ-TV
Aravinda Pillalamarri, of Bel Air, Maryland, speaks to CBS Baltimore station WJZ-TV in an interview broadcast on Jan. 27, 2017.
In the wake of President Trump's announcement to withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities, places where federal immigration laws are not enforced, one story coming out of Bel Air, Maryland is getting national attention. Bel Air, MD is approximately 90 percent White, with a spattering of races and nationalities making up the remaining 10 percent. Resident Aravinda Pillalamarri, a naturalized U.S. citizen from India, says she found out the hard way how her neighbors feel about her presence in the neighborhood and how police treat people of color — in a modern day xenophobic police state.

"Ihre Papiere, Bitte!" That phrase often brought shudders to the people who heard it in the 1930s and '40s. It is German for "Your papers, please," and its sinister nostalgia is once again making a comeback.

Pillalamarri says she was simply enjoying a nice walk, just steps away from her home, when law enforcement officers arrived and began questioning her. When she explained that she lived nearby and was merely out for a walk, the officer on scene told her he'd received a call supposedly reporting a suspicious person. Pillalamarri replied to the officer with a question of her own, asking if it was a crime to be, "Walking while brown?"
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Heart - Black

Cop runs over teen boy and leaves him under running vehicle causing 3rd degree burns

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 29 Jan 2017 18:24 UTC
temple police
In a disturbing case out of Temple, Texas, attorneys on behalf of a teenager have filed an excessive force lawsuit against the Temple Police Department. The teen was run over by police and left trapped under the car as the heat from the engine burned him alive for 10 minutes.

According to the lawsuit, Kaylem Gonzalez, 15, was walking away from his home on January 14, 2015, when he was struck by a Temple police car. The officer in the car, according to the lawsuit, left him trapped under it, with the engine running.

For 10 minutes the 15-year-old boy was burned all over his body. He suffered multiple third-degree burns to his torso, thighs, and pelvis, including his genitals, caused by the hot engine.

"(The victim) was under the middle of the vehicle face up," the lawsuit petition says. "Emergency workers smelled the burning flesh, but no one made efforts to move the car or turn off the engine," the suit says. "He was unable to flee or do anything. He was being burned alive."
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