Society's ChildS


Chess

'The war isn't over': Lt. Col. Stu Scheller announces discharge from the Marine Corps, his planned media blitz

Kristina Wong
Breitbart
Mon, 27 Dec 2021 23:02 UTC
Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller
© Stuart Scheller/ FacebookLt. Col. Stuart Scheller
The Marine lieutenant colonel who demanded accountability from senior military leaders for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan has announced that he has been officially discharged from the Marine Corps and is planning to go on a media blitz.

Former Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller wrote on his Facebook page on December 23: "Out of respect to my senior leaders, I haven't done a single interview since this began. But now it's my turn. My television media blitz starts with Tucker Carlson on 4 January."

He said he would write a post a day up to the January 4 interview and evoked George Washington's first major victory in the American Revolutionary War on December 26, 1776.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Children's social care system 'unfit for purpose' in England

Helen Pidd
The Gaurdian
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 22:47 UTC
Anne Longfield
© Rex/ShutterstockAnne Longfield: ‘Often, we may as well be handing over children directly to ruthless gangs and criminals.’
The children's social care system in England is unfit for purpose and often puts vulnerable teenagers in greater danger, according to the former children's commissioner.

Anne Longfield now runs the Commission on Young Lives, which warns in a report that the children's social care system is "handing over" some vulnerable teenagers to criminals and abusers by moving them "out of area" to live in dangerous unregulated accommodation that is sometimes targeted by criminals.

In London, where there is a particular shortage of care places for teenagers, thousands of children in the past year have been placed outside their local borough, according to data from 22 out of 32 London boroughs gathered via freedom of information (FoI) requests.

At least 1,516 looked-after children from London spent some or all of their time in placements outside the capital in 2020-21, the data shows.
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Attention

Agriculture Secretary warns of food crisis before being removed


Daily FT
Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:22 UTC
Jayasinghe
© UnknownAgriculture Secretary Senior Professor Udith K. Jayasinghe
Agriculture Secretary Senior Prof. Udith K. Jayasinghe yesterday warned of an imminent food crisis before he was removed from his post. Authorities may have to impose further food rations and seek foreign aid to help feed the most needy, he told reporters.
"We may have to borrow grains, such as corn, from friendly countries and think of rationing food so that mothers and the sick can be fed. Others may have to make sacrifices."
But within hours, Jayasinghe was replaced by another official, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office announced, without saying why he was sacked.

Food shortages have been worsened by the Government's ban on agrochemical imports, which was lifted last month after widespread crop failures and intense farmer protests.

Sri Lanka's inflation hit a record 11.1% in November, official figures showed Wednesday, as authorities warned a worsening economic crisis could prompt further food rationing.

The island's tourism-dependent economy was hammered by the pandemic and the Government imposed a broad import ban to shore up foreign exchange reserves, triggering shortages of essential goods. Supermarkets have for months been rationing milk powder, sugar, lentils and other essentials as commercial banks ran out of dollars to pay for imports.

Comment: Slaying the messenger doesn't change what is.

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Star of David

Israel to ease entry for Palestinian-Americans, officials say

Jacob Magid
The Times of Israel
Sun, 26 Dec 2021 04:44 UTC
Ben Gurion Airport
© Tomer Neuberg/FLASH90Ben Gurion International Airport
Interior Ministry authorities have notified their US counterparts last week that Israel will ease restrictions on the entry of American citizens of Palestinian descent at Ben Gurion Airport, addressing a key stumbling block in Israel's effort to be included in the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), a senior Israeli official confirmed to The Times of Israel.

While no official entry ban exists for Palestinian Americans at Ben Gurion Airport, in practice many are denied and others endure long, invasive security examinations by the Shin Bet security service upon arrival. The policy has left Palestinian Americans with little option but to travel to Amman and try to enter the West Bank through the Israeli-controlled Allenby Crossing.

US authorities have long raised the treatment of such travelers in negotiations with Israel over the latter's effort to be added to the VWP, which would allow Israeli citizens to enter the US without a visa.

Comment: The changes do not contain nor address Israeli quid pro quo for Palestinian Americans entering Israel (Palestine). Biden could at least extract this price for his acquiescence.

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Attention

Alexa told a child to try a dangerous stunt because that's what the search engine said

Lance Ulanoff
techradar.com
Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:00 UTC
child and alexa
© Shutterstock
It can be hard to keep children entertained in the week between Christmas and New Year's. So, it's not surprising that a 10-year-old in the UK turned to Amazon's Alexa digital assistant for some fresh ideas after her family finished their list of fun physical challenges.

In this case, according to a report from the BBC, Alexa found her what's known as "the penny challenge," a viral stunt where people plug a phone charger partially into a wall outlet and then touch a penny to the exposed prongs. Alexa apparently described to the young girl just how the challenge works.

Instead of following Alexa's guidance, the child's mother, Kristin Livdahl, who overheard the suggestion, shouted a quick, "No!" and the crisis was averted. However, Livdahl told the BBC that her daughter was too smart to follow that advice, anyway.

They also alerted Amazon, which has already updated Alexa so this kind of bad idea doesn't issue from the system's digital lips again.

In a statement given to the BBC, Amazon said,
"Customer trust is at the center of everything we do and Alexa is designed to provide accurate, relevant, and helpful information to customers. As soon as we became aware of this error, we took swift action to fix it."
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Megaphone

Florida Surgeon General: Biden admin 'actively preventing the effective distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments' in US

Hank Berrien
Daily Wire
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 20:02 UTC
monoclonal antibody
On Tuesday, Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladopo sent a searing letter to the Biden administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, accusing the Biden administration of "actively preventing the effective distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S."

Ladopo pointed out that in August, Florida GOP governor Ron DeSantis had "announced a rapid increase in the availability of monoclonal antibody therapy treatments across the state," adding, "In a matter of weeks, the state had 25 monoclonal antibody sites up and running - leading the nation in widespread early COVID-19 treatment availability."

"By mid-September, the State of Florida provided this life-saving treatment to nearly 100,000 patients," he continued. "These sites served 5,000 patients a day at the peak and nearly 30,000 per week. Florida pioneered monoclonal antibodies as a statewide solution to prevent severe illness and reduce the strain of COVID-19 on the state's hospital systems."
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Red Flag

Judge rules against soldiers' lawsuit challenging military vaccine mandate


RT
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 19:59 UTC
soldier vaccine
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
A US federal judge has ruled against the Oklahoma government and a group of soldiers in a lawsuit challenging the military's vaccination requirements, denying a requested pause on the policy for National Guard troops in the state.

US District Judge Stephen Friot said he would not grant a temporary injunction against the mandate in a decision on Tuesday, arguing that the state's case was "without merit."

"The vaccine mandate to which the governor objects is ... intended to protect service members from the virus, which has, in less than two years, killed more Americans than have been killed in action in all of the wars the United States has ever fought," the judge said.
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Info

How convenient: Maxwell trial may be delayed due to Omicron fears, says Judge

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
The Post Millennial
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 07:11 UTC
ghislaine maxwell
Manhattan federal court Judge Alison Nathan said on Tuesday that the recent spike in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant could disrupt the trial of Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

"We are seeing an astronomical spike in the number of COVID-positive cases in New York City over the last one to two weeks due to the Omicron variant," said Judge Nathan, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"And we now face a high and escalating risk that jurors or trial participants may need to quarantine, thus disrupting trial, putting at risk our ability to complete this trial."

Comment: See also:

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X

Video shows cops kick mom and child from NYC restaurant over vaccine mandate

Joe Tacopino
New York Post
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 02:10 UTC
mother child ejected restaurant vaccine
© TwitterA mother and her child were forced to leave a restaurant, as officers from the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group can be seen surrounding the table during a protest at the Queens Centre Mall.
A video posted on social media shows a mother and her child being kicked out of a Queens Applebee's by a contingent of NYPD cops.

The officers from the NYPD's Strategic Response Group can be seen surrounding the table during a protest at the Queens Centre Mall on Dec 15.

"Unless you have vaccination cards, you have to exit the restaurant," an officer could be heard saying in the video.

Comment: See also:

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Propaganda

Is the Saker is a Covid propagandist?

Marko Marjanović
Anti-Empire
Mon, 27 Dec 2021 08:39 UTC
covid coronavirus illustration graphic
Slavsquat has an interesting piece on what he deems "the Russophile media". The critique I have of it is that it mentions Saker, but the Birdman isn't and can never be a part of anything deemed "Russophile". Kremlinophile? Sure. Russophile? Not in a million years.

In a piece The Saker blog vs the anti-COVID crusaders (Saker rant) — which was laughably published with commenting disabled — Birdman wrote thus:
My bet is that in 1-2 years the anti-vaxx hysteria will die down again, and that the majority of those who now say "never! never! over my dead body!" will quietly get vaxxed, and the few who won't will have a self-inflicted and rather shitty life which, of course, is their right!
Take a deep breath and consider what is written here. Saker understands that efforts are underway to make the lives of the unvaccinated "shitty" and he furthermore expects these measures to stay in place for many years. He doesn't find any problem with this. In fact, he finds that those whose lives will be made "shitty" deserve it and only have themselves to blame. Their lives will be "shitty" but that will have been wholly "self-inflicted". Not only does he support the repression against the uninjected, he actually blames the uninjected for it and for all that it shall entail for them.

Now consider that in Russia 55 percent of the adult population is uninjected. (35 percent took the "vaccine" while it was still fully voluntary. Another 10 percent have followed involuntarily since coercion has started.) And consider also that the state in Russia is doing everything it can to make the lives of the unvaccinated "shitty". Also consider that in Russia, there are still nearly 900,000 surviving World War II veterans. Easily 600,000 of them are uninjected. (Russia does not publish the figure for vaccinations per age, but two months ago Sobyanin was whining that only one-third of those above 60 had subjected themselves to S protein+chimpvirus injections.)

Comment: The Saker, while adept in political analysis, won't go there when it comes to covid. Anyone who questions the narrative is, in his book, a "covid-dissident" or "anti-vaxxer".

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