Society's ChildS


Dollars

Cash stash on Epstein evidence list raises questions

Steven Richards
Just the News
Sun, 02 Mar 2025 20:27 UTC
jeffery epstein bill clinton
Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Clinton in an undated photo
Was he was taking blackmail payments?

Cash totalling around $20,000 found in Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan and Virgin Islands homes raise new concerns about whether the late financier was paid as part of a sex-trafficking ring or as hush money for his bold name clientele.

An evidence log of the items the FBI seized from Epstein's Manhattan home and property in the Virgin Islands, released on Thursday for the first time by the Department of Justice, show that agents seized the cash, that had no known purpose.

Previously, members of Congress have raised questions about whether or not Epstein, whose airplane flight logs show had extensive connections with the American and foreign political classes, was engaged in a blackmailing scheme and whether he was working directly with any government. Epstein also hosted several famous players in finance and investment banking.

Comment: It's a long, sordid story. These are only bits and pieces:

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Brick Wall

Stryker Brigade Combat Team, additional troops, ordered to southern border

Nicholas Slayton
Task & Purpose
Sat, 01 Mar 2025 20:16 UTC
stryker teams secure southern border
© U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Andrew SveenAmerican soldiers look out across the Rio Grande River at Brownsville, Texas on Feb. 25, 2025.
The Pentagon is ordering thousands of additional U.S. Army soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border, including a Stryker Brigade Combat Team and helicopter support units, in the latest expansion of the border mission by the Trump administration.

Nearly 3,000 additional soldiers, mainly from the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat unit as well as an aviation battalion, will head to the southern border, the Department of Defense announced on Saturday afternoon. That includes 2,400 from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), 4th Infantry Division, as well as 500 soldiers from 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Stewart. The The additional combat troops are being sent "to reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States," a senior defense official said in the Pentagon's statement.

Comment: Yahoo! News adds:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the orders Friday, according to the officials. The troops are mostly from the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Stryker Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado. The officials told the paper that they will be joined by soldiers with specialties in public affairs, intelligence, and engineering.

The deployment of troops had been planned since early this year and the boost in soldiers comes despite a decrease in border crossings following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Last month, Hegseth visited the border with Mexico, saying that all options remain available as part of the crackdown. The orders of further troops to the border come amid a wider effort headed by the Department of Homeland Security to block undocumented migrants and drug smugglers from entering the U.S.

Thousands of troops are already part of the effort, mostly aiding U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to detect and detain migrants attempting to illegally cross the border.

Stryker vehicles weigh roughly 20 tons and can carry as many as 11 soldiers. They have been used in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Biden administration handed Stryker vehicles to Ukraine for use in its fight against Russia. Ukraine used the vehicles as they made their way into the Kursk region of Russia. On Saturday, it remained unclear if weapons would be mounted on the Strykers as part of the deployment to the border with Mexico, according to The Post.

The Strykers are likely to be moved to the border via rail and on trucks following previous discussions regarding a road march from Fort Carson, one of the officials told the paper. Army officials view it as an opportunity for U.S. troops to train with the vehicles during the deployment to the border. They're set to be transported to Arizona, but could also be sent to other states.

Trump has been a longtime supporter of deploying the U.S. military within the country as a show of force, both to curb migration and to clamp down on civil protests. During Trump's first stint in the White House, about 8,000 troops were sent to the border at a time. However, their job was restricted to laying out razor wire and helping CBP with logistics.


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Rocket

'Hugely proud': UK Paralympian becomes 1st disabled astronaut to be cleared for ISS mission

Harry Baker
Live Science
Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00 UTC
McFall
© ESA/NovespaceJohn McFall could become the first physically disabled astronaut in space after being cleared for a future mission on board the ISS.
Prospective ESA astronaut and former British Paralympian John McFall has passed the medical assessment needed for a long-term stay on the ISS. If selected for a future mission, he will become the first physically disabled person in space.

A former U.K. Paralympian has been given the green light to undertake a future mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which would make him the first person with a physical disability to travel to space.

John McFall, 43, is an orthopedic surgeon and former medal-winning Paralympic sprinter who has represented Great Britain at multiple competitions. He had his right leg amputated above the knee when he was 19 years old after a motorcycling accident. McFall joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2022 as part of the agency's "Fly!" program to assess the feasibility of someone with a prosthesis becoming an ISS crew member.

On Friday (Feb. 14), ESA announced in an online media briefing that McFall has passed the medical tests needed to undertake a long-term ISS mission and is now on the waiting list to travel to the space station.

McFall said that he was "hugely proud" to be cleared for a future ISS mission. "This is way bigger than me — this is a cultural shift," he said during the briefing.
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Bullseye

Fed employees getting new email demanding their accomplishments that's harder to wriggle out of

Chris Megerian, Adriana Gomez Licon and Matthew Lee
Associated Press
Fri, 28 Feb 2025 21:27 UTC
elon musk email job accomplishments
© Pool via APElon Musk speaks during a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025
Federal employees are starting to receive another email requiring them to explain their recent accomplishments, a renewed attempt by President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to demand answers from the government workforce.

Originally expected to go out Saturday, the new request began landing in the inboxes of some employees late Friday. The plan to send a second round of emails was initially disclosed by a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The first email, which was distributed a week ago, asked employees "what did you do last week?" and prompted them to list five tasks that they completed. Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has been empowered by Trump with a mission to downsize agencies and eliminate thousands of federal jobs, said anyone who didn't respond would be fired. Many agencies, meanwhile, told their workforces not to respond or issued conflicting guidance.

Comment: Musk gives his reasons for the email to fed employees:



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Wolf

Will New Yorkers get fooled again? Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launches NYC mayoral bid

Rachel Wolf
Fox News
Sat, 01 Mar 2025 21:11 UTC
Andrew Cuomo
© Mary Altaffer-Pool/Getty ImagesAndrew Cuomo, then New York governor, speaks during a press conference in New York on May 10, 2021.
He says the 'greatest city in the world' is 'in trouble'

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched his bid for New York City mayor with a video posted on his X account Saturday, a development that followed . months of speculation that he would launch a comeback after leaving office in August 2021.

In the announcement, Cuomo, who also previously served as the U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development, acknowledged that "the greatest city in the world" is facing several challenges, touching on rampant homelessness, "random violence," and other issues he believes are harming the Big Apple.

"We know that our New York City is in trouble," Cuomo says in the launch video. "You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person, or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you're walking down the subway."

Comment: Viewed objectively, Cuomo would be a terrible choice for mayor. But peoples' memories are short. How bad was he as governor? A (not so) short rundown: Surely there has to be somebody better for New York mayor than this loser.

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Broom

The Trump effect: Google has officially begun unwinding its DEI programs

David Spector
Fox News
Fri, 28 Feb 2025 20:45 UTC
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
© Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images / Getty ImagesGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai appears to have reversed his thinking on DEI.
Company had previously announced it was stepping back from DEI earlier this month

Google officially began the process of unwinding the company's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs on Friday, a source familiar with the company's decision-making told Fox News Digital.

The tech giant announced in a February company memo that they were discontinuing their diversity goals of hiring more employees from "underrepresented groups," and was analyzing whether their other initiatives were in compliance with President Donald Trump's executive orders targeting DEI in the public and private sector.

Google is now ending their "equity and inclusion employee trainings that the company previously conducted," per the source.

Comment: Good thing Google's giving up on DEI. In the larger view, it's caused nothing but internal trouble and turmoil. Not that many women are interested in computer engineering, and yes, Asians do dominate the field. For pointing that out, they fired an excellent employee, James Damore.

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Bullseye

Common sense: Iowa first state to remove gender identity protections from civil rights code

Misty Severi
Just the News
Sat, 01 Mar 2025 20:35 UTC
transgender protests iowa
© Charlie Neibergall / APProtesters fill the Iowa state Capitol to denounce a bill that would strip the state civil rights code of protections based on gender identity on Feb. 27, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa.
"I know this is a sensitive issue for some, many of whom have heard misinformation about what this bill does," Reynolds said. "The truth is that it simply brings Iowa in line with the federal Civil Rights Code, as well as most states."

Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday signed a bill into law that removes certain protections for transgender people from the state's civil rights code, which opponents claim will put transgender people at risk of discrimination.

The bill makes Iowa the first state to remove certain protections based on gender identity, but comes after Iowa Republicans passed legislation that bans transgender people from using bathrooms, or from playing on sport teams that do not match their biological sex, per the Associated Press. Republicans claimed that the move is to protect biological women.

Comment: Iowa's miniscule trans community predictably flipped out:
The Des Moines Register reports that over 2,500 people filled the Capitol, chanting and holding signs that called for lawmakers to reject a bill they claim will infringe on their civil rights.

Protesters chanted slogans including "Trans rights are human rights," "We're here, we're queer, we will not disappear" and "No hate in our state."

The bill would redefine "sex" and "gender" in Iowa law and eliminate the option for transgender individuals to update the sex on their birth certificate, even after undergoing sex-change surgery or related medical treatments.

As lawmakers voted on the measure, a spectator from the gallery shouted, "Hope you're proud of yourself," while another shouted, "Fascist scumbags, eat sh*t!"


Danny Carroll of the Christian organization The Family Leader told The Iowa Capital Dispatch that the measure was necessary due to the "unintended consequences" of adding gender identity to the state's civil rights code in 2007.

He pointed to court rulings that overturned a state law barring Medicaid coverage for gender-confirmation surgery and allowed transgender women access to women's shelters and correctional facilities.


"They probably did not anticipate the legal complaints that would be filed against businesses because they believe sex is limited to a man and a woman and they act accordingly," Carroll said.

"And finally, anticipating level of legal complaints filed against an employer because they want to conduct their business according to the traditional understanding of male or female."

"There's still many rights that are retained, all the rights and freedoms that we've already had."

The legislation is expected to easily pass the Iowa House and Senate and will consequently be sent to the desk of Gov. Kim Reynolds for signing.


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Cloud Precipitation

Heavy snow causes central New York state firehouse roof to collapse

Emilee Speck
New York Post
Wed, 26 Feb 2025 21:40 UTC
Barneveld Volunteer Fire Department roof collapse snow
© Barneveld Volunteer Fire DepartmentCollapsed roof at the Barneveld Volunteer Fire Department as the region received several feet of snow in the third week of February, 2025
Firefighters narrowly avoid injury

More than two dozen buildings, including the Barneveld Volunteer Fire Department, collapsed after parts of Central New York received several feet of snow last week.

A lake-effect snowstorm started Feb. 14 and did not let up until Feb. 19, piling feet of snow on roofs.

According to a news release, the main part of the Barneveld Firehouse in Oneida County collapsed on Feb. 22 after station members found structural damage and were trying to remove snow from the roof.

Video taken from across the street at Beaver Meadow Veterinary Clinic showed the moment the station building went down under the weight of snow.
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Attention

The monsters aren't just in history books. They live among us. They're everywhere

Jonathan Cook
Substack
Fri, 28 Feb 2025 16:24 UTC
Walter Salles' new film on the disappearances of regime critics in 1970s Brazil is a powerful reminder that the ghouls who defend the slaughter in Gaza are biding their time.
Fernanda Torres
© collider.com
Walter Salles' new film I'm Still Here, is amoving, true-story, Oscar-nominated portrait of a middle-class, leftwing family in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1970s struggling to come to terms with the father's disappearance - 25 years later confirmed as murder - by the Brazilian military dictatorship.

The mother and a teenage daughter spend time inside a regime torture camp too, before being released.

What struck me powerfully in the film was the endless supply of compliant regime officials who impassively, conscientiously carried out the abuse of men, women and children.

It was a reminder that plenty of these people live among us - and that they have been doing very little to hide who they are over the past 16 months.
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Bad Guys

Germany resumes Afghan flights after legacy parties survive election scare

Thomas Brooke
Remix News
Tue, 25 Feb 2025 13:07 UTC
migrant protest germany
The German government has resumed flights for Afghan refugees from Pakistan after a temporary suspension during the election campaign. On Tuesday, 155 Afghans arrived in Berlin, marking the first group to be transported since the election results secured power for the legacy parties CDU and SPD, who are expected to form a coalition government.

Flights for Afghan refugees were paused ahead of the election due to concerns over immigration and political optics. The decision followed a series of high-profile crimes committed by Afghan nationals, which fueled fears that further arrivals could strengthen the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) had officially cited logistical issues as the reason for canceling two charter flights in the weeks leading up to the election.
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