Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

12 injured in South Carolina mall mass shooting, second incident in the US in just 5 days

Harriet Alexander
Daily Mail
Sat, 16 Apr 2022 21:57 UTC
police mass shooting
Members of law enforcement are seen on Saturday afternoon outside the Columbiana Centre mall in Columbia, South Carolina
Ten people were shot and two others injured in a shooting at a shopping mall in South Carolina's capital, which authorities say was not a random attack.

Three people who had firearms were initially detained in connection with the Saturday afternoon shooting at Columbiana Centre, said Columbia Police Chief W.H. 'Skip' Holbrook.

Jewayne M. Price, 22, has been charged with unlawful carrying of a pistol, but additional charges are forthcoming, authorities said.

Two additional males, who were not named, were also detained for questioning and were released from police custody after it was determined that they were not involved in the shooting.

Comment: This shooting appears to be either a disagreement that escalated, or gang warfare, whereas the mass shooting last week has been claimed to be a 'random' attack by a disturbed individual: 16 injured in New York subway shooting, 4 suspicious devices found

Since the contrived coronavirus crisis, the cumulative impact of the lockdowns, and the policies of the Biden administration, by most metrics the US has seen its already prolific crime rate soar: Also check out SOTT radio's:


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Info

Wife of Ukrainian opposition leader appeals to Britain


RT
Sat, 16 Apr 2022 13:41 UTC
Oksana Marchenko
© Oksana Marchenko / YouTube
Oksana Marchenko has suggested that Viktor Medvedchuk should be traded for two Brits captured in Ukraine.

Oksana Marchenko, the wife of arrested Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, has released a video proposing to swap her husband for two British fighters who reportedly surrendered to Russian and Donbass forces in Mariupol earlier this week.

Marchenko, a former TV presenter, recorded her message in both Russian and English and posted it on social media on Saturday, appealing to the families and friends of British nationals Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner.

Comment: More from RFE/RL:
A Ukrainian court has ordered that Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of a pro-Russian political party, be held without bail following his recapture by Ukrainian special forces on April 12.

In the April 16 Lychakiv court proceedings, prosecutors noted that Medvedchuk had been arrested and placed under house arrest on January 10 but was discovered to have escaped on February 26.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on April 12 posted a photo on Facebook of a disheveled Medvedchuk -- who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- in handcuffs as he announced his capture.
See also:

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Cassiopaea

'Magic mushrooms' for therapy? Veterans help sway conservatives


MyNorthwest
Sat, 16 Apr 2022 07:53 UTC
Matthew Butler
© AP Photo/Rick BowmerMatthew Butler, who spent 27 years in the Army, holds a 2014 photograph of himself during his last deployment in Kabul Afghanistan, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Sandy, Utah. Butler is now one of the military veterans in several U.S. states who are helping convince conservative lawmakers to take cautious steps toward allowing the therapeutic use of hallucinogenic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs. The therapeutic used of so-called magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs is making inroads in several U.S. states, including some with conservative leaders, as new research points to their therapeutic value and military veterans who have used them to treat post-traumatic stress disorder become advocates.
Matthew Butler spent 27 years in the Army, but it took a day in jail to convince him his post-traumatic stress disorder was out of control.

The recently retired Green Beret had already tried antidepressants, therapy and a support dog. But his arrest for punching a hole in his father's wall after his family tried to stage an intervention in Utah made it clear none of it was working.

Comment: While psychedelics have been lumped in with dangerous street drugs, they really are a different thing altogether and their healing potential is only just starting to be tapped. One hopes that the rigorous studies needed to maximize effective therapeutic use will be free of the unfair stigma they've been saddled with.

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Arrow Up

More escalations in online censorship

Caitlin Johnstone
caityjohnstone.medium.com
Fri, 15 Apr 2022 05:59 UTC
Google
© Shutterstock
YouTube has been deleting videos disputing the US government narrative about Russian war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine, validating concerns we've discussed previously that Silicon Valley platforms would begin censoring anyone who challenges the authorized version of events in this war.

"By the way, my video 'Bucha: More Lies' has been deleted [by] YouTube's censors," reads a recent tweet by Gonzalo Lira.

"My stream last night on RBN was censored on Youtube after debunking the Bucha Massacre narrative," Revolutionary Blackout Network reports.

It would seem that this clears up what YouTube meant when it said last month, "Our Community Guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events. We are now removing content about Russia's invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy."

There has as yet been no investigation into what happened in Bucha by any international body and there are plenty of arguments to be made questioning aspects of the Official Story that westerners are being aggressively force fed by the narrative control machine of the US-centralized empire. Which would mean that YouTube is defining "well-documented" as "unproven assertions by the US government."
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NPC

Billionaire-owned WaPo complains about billionaires owning social media

Allum Bokhari
Breitbart
Fri, 15 Apr 2022 05:46 UTC
Elon Musk
© AFP/Getty
The Washington Post, a newspaper owned by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, published an op-ed from former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao calling for regulations "to prevent rich people from controlling our channels of communication" — without a trace of irony.

Every major social media platform is already owned by billionaires, including the Saudi Arabian prince Al Waleed bin Talal, and this has been the case since the earliest years of those platforms.

It wasn't until self-declared free speech absolutist Elon Musk became the largest shareholder in Twitter that the outcry from regime elites, of which Pao's article is a part, started.

Pao is horrified by the prospect of Musk influencing Twitter, at once arguing that social media companies are "free to establish some limits" on speech (as Pao herself notoriously did as CEO of the previously free speech-friendly Reddit) while fretting that Musk will use his influence to relax those limits.
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People

Florida's Education Department rejects dozens of math textbooks containing CRT, other 'indoctrinating concepts'

Leonardo Briceno
The Post Millennial
Sun, 17 Apr 2022 07:01 UTC
Ron Desantis
Florida's Department of Education (DOE) has rejected 41 percent of the materials proposed for teaching mathematics in the upcoming 2022-2023 school year for kindergarten through 12th grade statewide, the DOE announced Friday.

The materials, the state's Education Department stated, had been rejected because of references to critical race theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics.

In a press release titled "Florida Rejects Publishers' Attempts to Indoctrinate Students," Florida's DOE stated that these materials were in line with Common Core principles that had been repudiated in prior years by the adoption of the state's Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.).

Florida has quickly responded to mounting concerns that public education has been used in the past to intentionally shape the thinking of impressionable young students. At the forefront of those concerns, critical race theory has become a lightning rod for concerned parents all across the United States.
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Arrow Down

California's vanished dream, by the numbers

Joel Kotkin
RealClear Investigations
Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
Venice Beach
© APVenice Beach: A jogger runs past a homeless encampment. California appears to be descending into something resembling modern-day feudalism.
Even today amid a mounting exodus among those who can afford it, and with its appeal diminished to businesses and newcomers, California, legendary state of American dreams, continues to inspire optimism among progressive boosters.

Laura Tyson, the longtime Democratic economist now at the University of California at Berkeley, praises the state for creating "the way forward" to a more enlightened "market capitalism." Like-minded analysts tout Silicon Valley's massive wealth generation as evidence of progressivism's promise. The Los Angeles Times suggested approvingly that the Biden administration's goal is to "make America California again." And, despite dark prospects in November's midterm elections, the President and his party still seem intent on proving it.

But most Californians, according to recent surveys, see things differently. They point to rising poverty and inequality, believe the state is in recession and that it is headed in the wrong direction. Parting with the state's cheerleaders, the New York Times' Ezra Klein, a reliable progressive and native Californian, says the Golden State's failures are "making liberals squirm."
Tyson/Klein
© Twitter/MSNBCLaura Tyson, Democrat luminary on 'Market capitalism
Ezra Klein, progressive journalist says the state's failures are making liberals squirm
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Stop

Serbs protest Belgrade's move against Russia


RT
Fri, 15 Apr 2022 22:20 UTC
Belgrade protest
© Sputnik/Aleksandar DjorovicBelgrade, April 15, 2022
Several thousand Serbs gathered on Friday evening in downtown Belgrade, carrying Russian flags and declaring the countries' "brothers forever." The rally, dubbed 'Not in My Name', protested last week's vote of the Serbian envoy to the UN to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, which President Aleksandar Vucic said came only after immense pressure from the West.

Protesters gathered around 7pm local time at the monument to Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor, and marched through downtown Belgrade to the Russian embassy chanting, "Serbs and Russians - brothers forever!" and "Kosovo is Serbia, Crimea is Russia!"

Officially, the rally was in protest of last week's vote at the UN General Assembly, when Serbia joined a total of 93 countries favoring Moscow's suspension from the UN Human Rights Council. Russia subsequently left the panel. Vucic appeared on national television after the vote and said his government originally intended to abstain, but was then subjected to "countless and difficult pressure."
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Light Saber

Musk responds to reports of Twitter's 'poison pill' tactic to foil his takeover bid


Truth Press
Fri, 15 Apr 2022 17:30 UTC
elon musk
Elon Musk
Twitter is reportedly considering a so-called "poison pill" tactic to thwart Elon Musk's effort to buy out the social media platform, prompting a critical response from the Tesla chief.

Cameron Winklevoss, founder of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, said in a tweet that "Twitter is considering a poison pill to thwart @elonmusk's offer," while two anonymous sources told The New York Times that Twitter's board is mulling the tactic, which is used to block hostile takeovers.

The poison pill method gives existing shareholders the right to buy additional shares at a discount, diluting outstanding stock and making a hostile takeover more financially challenging for the acquirer.

Responding to Winklevoss' tweet, Musk said a "poison pill" move could expose Twitter's board to "titanic" legal liability.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Twitter for comment but no response was received by the company.

Comment: The Prince may not have as much influence the media is portraying:
It has been revealed that the Saudi prince who publicly rejected Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter sold all his personal shares in 2019.

On Thursday, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud publicly rejected Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter for $43 billion.

The prince owns 95 percent of Kingdom Holdings Company, which continues to hold stock in Twitter, however, records show he sold all his personal shares in 2019.

Following Prince Alwaleed's rejection of Elon Musk's offer, Twitter user @zerohedge posted records appearing to show that the Saudi royal has not held any personal shares for years.

Also highlighted was the fact that the selling of Prince Alwaleed's stock took place shortly after he was released from detention in the Riyadh Ritz Carlton. According to The Guardian, he had spent nearly three months there as part of an "anti-corruption sweep."

At the time, The Guardian reported that many of the other detainees had been released after having "traded cash, real estate and other assets for their freedom."

Prince Alwaleed first purchased Twitter shares in 2011, before the social media company had gained much international traction.

In 2015, he and the KHC increased their ownership in Twitter to 5.2 percent.


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Laptop

Ex-CEO of Reddit Yishan Wong on why Elon Musk shouldn't buy Twitter

Yishan Wong
Twitter
Fri, 15 Apr 2022 14:24 UTC
elon musk
Elon Musk

Comment: Yishan Wong posted a long thread on Twitter giving a rather unique insider perspective on Big Tech social media platforms and why it's not in Musk's best interest to buy Twitter. The entire thread is republished below (with formatting edits). Original thread found here.


I've now been asked multiple times for my take on Elon's offer for Twitter.

So fine, this is what I think about that. I will assume the takeover succeeds, and he takes Twitter private. (I have little knowledge/insight into how actual takeover battles work or play out)

(long 🧵)

Comment: It's interesting to see an insider's take on the nature of social media and censorship. But questions still remain. Such as why is it that some of the information being censored is actually politically expedient for one side? (eg. the Hunter Biden Laptop story was 'debunked' as 'Russian disinformation,' and was aggressively censored on Twitter just before the election. Was this because some people might 'act badly' based on this information, like maybe vote for the 'wrong' candidate?)

It would be difficult to believe that no censorship decisions are made on social media platforms without some level of political influence. It would also be difficult to believe that there are no hands of the alphabet agencies pulling strings in some fashion (which the tech CEOs may or may not be aware of).

It would also be interesting to get some indication of what this 'bad human behavior' is that Wong uses as justification for censorship. Defending censorship of hot button topics because of how people might behave is a rather slippery slope towards authoritarianism.

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