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Crusader

German far-right leader likens societies with migrants to 'compost heaps', sez Merkel is a poor leader because she has no kids


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:22 UTC
Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
© Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
The head of Germany's anti-immigration AfD party Frauke Petry has compared a society incorporating migrants to a "compost heap," triggering a barrage of criticism from the country's politicians.

Taking a stand against the idea that migrants make societies more diverse, leader of German anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Frauke Petry said: "What should we make of the campaign 'Germany is Colorful'? A compost heap is colorful, too," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Petry made the comments while giving a speech in Stuttgart, southwest Germany on Monday.

She harshly criticized the statements made by other politicians who said migrants made the country more "colorful." Blasting the notion of a "colorful" Germany she argued for a more "homogenous" nation instead.
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Cult

CIA claims ability to predict 'societal instability' anywhere, just days before it happens


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:18 UTC
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan Gary Cameron/Reuters
© CIA Director John Brennan, Gary Cameron/Reuters
"Three to five days" is all the time the CIA needs to predict the "development of social unrest" in many cases, the agency's newest office deputy director says. Open source data and deep learning algorithms are behind the forecasts built for policymakers.

Out of the Directorate for Digital Innovation, the CIA's first new official division in over a half-century, comes a whole new kind of secretive data gathering.

In less than a year since its opening, the office has "significantly improved its 'anticipatory intelligence," according to NextGov, which co-hosted an event featuring the CIA's Deputy Director for Digital Innovation, Andrew Hallman, at a conference earlier this week.

Comment: Total information awareness? Or supreme wishful thinking?

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USA

Police killing of a black man you never heard of before: Perry Jones, 19

Katherine Reed
ExtraNewsfeed
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
blacks killed
Every time a black person gets killed by a cop in America, I think about Perry Jones.

He was 19 years old and apparently homeless when he climbed onto the roof of a barbecue shack in Columbus, Georgia, shimmied down the chimney and hacked some meat out of a freezer with a cleaver. When he climbed up and out onto the roof of the restaurant, it was surrounded by cops — nine, by one officer's count.

A sergeant who was an excellent shot and had recently won a sharpshooting competition took a bead on Perry Jones and killed him as he stood up there on the roof — no more than eight feet from the ground.

The next day, it was my job as the morning police reporter for the Columbus Ledger to write about what had happened. All these years later, I still remember feeling shocked when the police department's internal affairs department quickly declared the shooting justified. I'm not sure Perry Jones had even been buried.

The NAACP was also shocked. How, the organization asked at a news conference, could the police have possibly determined in such a short time that the shooting was justified? The organization demanded an inquest into the young man's death.

The coroner, a guy named Don Kilgore (can't make this stuff up), agreed to perform an inquest if the family agreed.
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Family

Listening to a Trump supporter I know

David A Hill Jr
ExtraNewsfeed
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
populism
I talked at length with a Trump supporter I grew up around. I wanted to understand. I respected her growing up. I wanted to know why a person as kind and compassionate as I remember her is voting for someone like Donald Trump.

She was a family friend, a good person. In rural Ohio, everything was tight. Money, jobs. If you really needed quick cash, she'd put you to work doing landscaping. She'd pay fairly and reliably for the area.

She's voting for Donald Trump. I disagree with her choice, but I understand why she rejects Clinton so fiercely, and why she's been swept up in Donald Trump's particular brand of right-wing populism. I feel that on the left, it's increasingly easy to ignore these people, to disregard them, to write them off as racists, bigots, or uneducated. I think that's a loss for everyone involved, and that sometimes listening can help you to at least understand why a person is making the choices they make, so you can work on the root causes. For her, the root cause isn't racism. In fact, I remember her as one of the only people in the area who proudly hired black workers, in a place where that was a huge issue. She fought over that choice.

But that's enough background. Let me relay a bit of what she told me.

Comment: Michael Krieger had this to say about the above article:
The more deeply I think about this election, the more I agree that the above sentiments motivate Trump voters far more than feelings of racism or hate. As I noted in a piece published a few weeks ago, The Status Quo vs. Donald Trump:
This isn't about me. This is about the American voter, and the more time passes, the more I understand the motivations of the vast majority of Trump supporters. It isn't xenophobia or racism, it's a vote against the status quo and the way they've strip mined and destroyed this country. It's a FU vote and a major gamble, but it's not as irrational or hateful as you might think.
This doesn't mean that Trump won't betray his supporters and prove to be the Republican version of Barack Obama, but it does mean that the dominant media narrative characterizing Trump supporters as a bunch of racist, uneducated brutes is pretty much just dishonest, elitist propaganda.


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Attention

Hacking group Fancy Bears releases emails claiming cover-up of US athletes' drug tests


RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 21:39 UTC
Fancy Bears
© Richard Heathcote / Reuters
The United States of America Olympic team enters Maracana during the opening ceremony.
The hacking group Fancy Bears, as part of its so-called #OpOlympics, has released emails between US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) employees that it says proves that American athletes have taken banned substances.

On Thursday, Fancy Bears released email correspondence between USADA science director Dr. Matthew Fedoruk and Dana Leenheer, Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) & Drug Reference Specialist. The hacking group claimed that the exchange"reveals that USADA covers up many athletes using prohibited substances. As evidence, see the table containing the data of more than 200 American athletes who have USADA and other organizations' permission to take banned drugs."

Comment: See also:
  • Ya think? Exposed British doper Bradley Wiggins' doctor says therapeutic use exemption looks very suspicious

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Pumpkin 2

Grandmother's Halloween display depicts real-life horrors, shootings and Flint water crisis

Benjamin Raven
M Live
Tue, 04 Oct 2016 23:37 UTC
Grandmother Haddon's real life Halloween display
© Tanya Moutzalias / MLive Detroit
"We need to come together, if we don't this scene in my yard is going to be reality every day," said Larethia Haddon of the message her unique halloween display depicts in her front yard of the Bagley neighborhood on Detroit's west side Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Haddon said her grandkids helped her come up with display that illustrates their own fears and the real horrors of life. The display includes a messages of police shootings, the Flint water crisis, senseless killings and child predators.
As Halloween approaches, hair-raising yard displays can often cause people to stop, gawk and whip out their cellphones.

Larethia Haddon is well aware of that, and is using it to shine some light on real-life horrors, rather than typical Halloween themes.

In her yard at the corner of Mendota and Santa Maria avenues in Detroit, there are six dummies portraying police shootings, slain children, the Flint water crisis, and other horrors.

Comment:


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Gold Seal

Massive banner of 'Putin as peacemaker' unfurled from New York City bridge


Sputnik
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 21:54 UTC
Putin flag in New York
© REUTERS/ Brendan McDermid
A massive banner praising Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "peacemaker" was hung from the Manhattan Bridge on Thursday afternoon.

At around 1:45 p.m., a 20 foot by 30 foot banner, featuring a photo of Putin with Russian and Syrian flags as the background was hung over the Brooklyn side of the bridge. Over an hour later, at around 3 p.m., the banner was removed by city officials, but not before plenty of onlookers grabbed photos to post on social media.

Comment: Good to see that at least some people are aware and awake!

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Display

Dark side of blogebrity: Saudi teen arrested for flirtation online with American woman


Sputnik
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 07:07 UTC
Abu Sin and Christina
© www.independent.co.uk
Christina and Abu Sin
A Saudi Arabian teenager has been arrested for unethical behavior after his video chats with a young American woman went viral. Over the course of several months, 19-year old Saudi-YouTuber Abu Sin chatted animatedly with American vlogger Christina Crockett, although he hardly spoke any English and she does not understand Arabic.

Abu Sin's vibrant personality compensated for a lack of verbal interaction, and the two seemed to be on the same charming wavelength. The language barrier that pushed them to find alternative ways of communication only added to the fun, and goofy videos of their "conversations" went viral as soon as they were uploaded on YouTube. The couple immediately gained thousands of followers, but Abu Sin's fame came back to bite him. As he became popular, Saudi police claimed to receive complaints from vigilant citizens in the kingdom who, apparently, have nothing better to do than watch Americans and Saudis talk on YouTube. On Sunday, the teen was taken into custody in Riyadh. His arrest was recorded on camera.


Comment: An example of the unfortunate byproduct of living under such regimes as in Saudi Arabia where the consequences outweigh the "crime" and religious precepts are intertwined with civil societal control to the point of indistinguishable infraction.

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Bomb

Istanbul blast injures ten


RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 13:09 UTC
istanbul blast
© twitter
An explosion near a police station in Istanbul has injured ten people, according to the city's governor. He says a motorcycle bomb caused the blast. The city's governor, Vasip Şahin, said on Twitter the explosion injured 5 people. He also stated that the blast was caused by a motorcycle bomb. Earlier reports suggested a car was blown up. Media also said one of those injured sustained serious wounds.

Istanbul blast
© www.middleeasteye.net
The blast took place in Istanbul's Yenibosna neighborhood in the Turkish capital's European part. The explosion is said to have been so strong that it was heard at Ataturk airport, some five kilometers away, media reported, citing witnesses. Bomb disposal squads and emergency crews were dispatched to the scene.

The area was immediately cordoned off by police to prevent the possibility of another explosion, Turkish Milliyet reported. The explosive device was reportedly detonated via remote control. After examining a CCTV camera, police have identified a suspect, who fled the site immediately after the attack.

The blast damaged several vehicles and also shattered glass in the buildings nearby, images from the scene showed. The police station in question is in the Yenibosna, or "New Bosnia" neighborhood, just east of Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport.

Comment:



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Card - VISA

Fired Pentagon adviser charges $3k to govt credit card at strip clubs, DOD averages 5000 charges $1M+ per year


RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:52 UTC
General Ron Lewis
© OSD Deputy Secretary of Defense / Flickr
Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter speaks with Regional East deputy commander Brigadier General Ron Lewis.
A two-star general who was previously fired from a top post at the Pentagon and demoted in rank misused his government credit card at strip clubs and had "inappropriate interactions" with female subordinates, a Defense Department report has concluded. Misuse of government credit cards at strip clubs and casinos has been an ongoing problem for the Pentagon. Department of Defense employees, both civilian and military, racked up 5,000 charges at casinos and strip clubs totaling more than $1 million over the course of a year.

Now it appears that such charges extend all the way up the chain of command to almost the very top: Major General Ron Lewis, the former senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Lewis was fired from his post in November after the DOD announced he was under investigation for undefined "misconduct allegations." He was transferred to serve as a special assistant to Lieutenant General James McConville, the Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel matters, and demoted in rank to a two-star general.

We have now learned what that misconduct was: Accusations that Lewis "misused his government travel charge card for personal expenses; made false official statements regarding his government travel card misuse; and engaged in other inappropriate behavior," Kathie Scarrah, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General (IG),told AP.


Comment: US tax dollars at work (and play). Outrageous.

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