Society's ChildS


Cult

Cardi B and Candace Owens: Not just a Twitter spat, but a perfect microcosm of the culture war

Micah Curtis
RT
Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:26 UTC
Cardi B Candace Owens
© AFP / Christophe Archambault; Reuters / Lucas Jackson(L) Cardi B (R) Candace Owens
Two of America's most high-profile women have become embroiled in a war of words on Twitter with a fascinating subtext. The battle between Cardi B and Candace Owens seems to represent a much larger cultural conflict.

It's not uncommon to see political pundits and musicians argue. But the latest online spat runs much deeper than someone simply being out of touch with what is hip and new. Rather, it seems like we're looking at two public figures who represent very different ways to live life as a woman. I'm speaking, of course, of the war of words between right-wing political pundit Candace Owens and former stripper-turned-rapper Cardi B.

Comment:

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TV

Cable news ratings suffering 'Trump Slump' - CNN leads the way


VIP+
Wed, 10 Mar 2021 18:27 UTC
trump slump cable news networks cnn
© Chayne Gateley/VIP
His White House tenure may be over, but Donald Trump is sorely missed by cable news networks.

VIP has previously covered the initial ratings decline Fox News, MSNBC and, most of all, CNN, saw in President Biden's first week, as the nonstop controversies of the previous administration slowed down.

Our prediction that audiences would perk up for President Trump's second impeachment trial proved correct. But in the weeks after the trial ended, audiences for CNN have plummeted; MSNBC is seeing about half CNN's drop, while Fox News is down single digits. While the left-leaning networks may be losing steam without the ability to feed off of Trump being in office, conservative audiences have found new focal points for their concerns.
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Star of David

Labour women's candidate Izzy Lenga trained with Israeli army

Douglas Braff
The Electronic Intifada
Fri, 12 Mar 2021 00:00 UTC
Izzy Lenga
© Panorama/BBCCandidate for National Women's Committee Izzy Lenga • Lenga in Israeli army uniform
A pro-Israel activist running in a UK Labour Party election has trained with the Israeli army. Izzy Lenga is an officer in the Jewish Labour Movement, a pro-Israel lobby group. She is standing as a right-wing candidate in the election for Labour's new National Women's Committee, set to be held later this year.

The Electronic Intifada has obtained this photo of Lenga wearing an Israeli army uniform, wrapped in an Israeli flag and carrying an assault rifle - the type of weapon carried by Israeli occupation soldiers when they enforce Israel's military rule over Palestinians. Sources say that Lenga once "proudly" displayed the photo on her social media.

Israel experts Dena and Daniel Shunra told The Electronic Intifada that the uniform and epaulets visible in the photo suggest that Lenga took part in Marva, a paramilitary course overseen by the Israeli army.

Video on YouTube shows Marva recruits wearing the same white shoulder epaulets and carrying rifles marked with white tape in the same fashion as Lenga's.


Comment: Footage of Izzy Lenga from the National Union of Students conference in April 2016 denouncing NUS leadership as anti-Semitic:



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Arrow Up

Tens of thousands protest arrest of Bolivia's ex-president Anez over role in 2019 coup


RT
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:11 UTC
Rally Santa Cruz Bolivia
© Reuters/Lesly MoyanoDemonstrators attend a rally in Santa Cruz to protest against the detention of former interim President Jeanine Anez.
Huge crowds supporting Bolivia's ex-president, Jeanine Anez, took to the streets across the country late on Monday to protest her arrest for being involved in a 2019 coup that deposed long-time leader Evo Morales.

The largest group gathered in the country's financial capital, Santa Cruz, where the attendance was estimated at some 40,000.

One of the demonstrators told RT's Ruptly video agency:
"We are asking for the same justice for everyone. Just as they judge the transitional government [on Anez] that was constitutionally put in place, we demand that the government of Evo Morales and all his henchmen also go to jail."
A few hours before the rallies, Anez was transferred to a prison in La Paz. The conservative politician, who ruled Bolivia as interim president for a year, and several of her associates were detained during the weekend on accusations of sedition, terrorism and conspiracy over their coming to power in November 2019.
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Star of David

Capitol police officer suspended after anti-Semitic material found near work station

Jeff Mordock
The Washington Times
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 00:00 UTC
Protocols of Zion
© Zach Fisch"The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" inside the Longworth House Office building.
A U.S. Capitol Police officer was suspended Monday after anti-Semitic material was found near his work station, the department announced. The officer will be suspended pending an investigation by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility.

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said in a statement:
"We take all allegations of inappropriate behavior seriously. Once this matter was brought to my attention, I immediately ordered the officer to be suspended until the Office of Professional Responsibility can thoroughly investigate."
It is not known if the material actually belonged to the suspended officer, whose name has not been released.

A congressional aide noticed a printed copy of the Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion at a checkpoint inside the Longworth House Office Building Sunday evening, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the story. The aide photographed the copy and sent it to The Post.

Comment: Has reading become a thought crime?

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Binoculars

'Big Brother is watching you'? France to use 'smart' cameras to check how many transport passengers are wearing masks


RT
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 13:46 UTC
French security cams
© Reuters/Charles PlatiauSecurity cameras are seen across the street from France's Interior Ministry in Paris.
The French government has been accused of dystopian designs after authorizing the use of surveillance cameras to tally how many commuters are masking up.

A new decree has given public transport operators the power to use "intelligent video to measure the rate of mask-wearing on transport." France's data protection watchdog, CNIL, said the "smart" cameras will be used on buses, subways and trains to "observe" whether Covid-19 rules mandating facial coverings are being obeyed. However, the government claims that the cameras will only tabulate how many people are wearing masks, without identifying individuals.

Notably, a similar initiative was proposed back in December, but the government shelved the idea after CNIL said it risked "undermining the proper functioning of our democratic society" and that there was no clear legal framework under which it could be justified. The agency said that it decided to approve the surveillance program the second time around because the government had clearly stated its purpose and that the cameras will not "process biometric data" and therefore do not "constitute a facial recognition device."
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Bizarro Earth

Portland's mayor says public are 'sick and tired' of the nightly riots... he's done nothing to stop

Graham Dockery
RT
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:35 UTC
Ted Wheeler
© AFP/ Nathan HowardTed Wheeler wipes his eyes after exposure to tear gas at a riot in Portland, Oregon, July 22, 2020
Mayor Ted Wheeler appears to have finally worked out that the residents of Portland, Oregon might be losing patience with endless rioting and vandalism. If only he were in a position to do something about it.

Portland is a joke. The city has gone from being a byword for early-2010s hipsterism, replete with vegan bookstores and feminist interpretive dance studios, to a s**thole teeming with addicts and the homeless, where nihilist 'Antifa' rioters come out every night to smash windows, start fires, and assault police officers.

For nine months straight, the riots have been an almost nightly occurrence. In the past week alone, black-clad left-wingers set a federal courthouse on fire, vandalized downtown shopfronts, and pelted rocks and beer cans at police officers. Cops seized knives, hammers, and firearms.
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Bizarro Earth

Lockdowns were deemed bad for our mental health. Now the psycho-babble industry's inventing anxiety about a return to normal life

Frank Furedi
RT
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 22:06 UTC
face mask UK
© Getty Images / Dan KitwoodA woman wearing a face mask walks past St Paul's Cathedral on March 12, 2021 in London, United Kingdom.
Watch out, fellow Covid inmates - our long-awaited liberation from house arrest may apparently cause anxiety, stress and 'Reentry Syndrome'. Or is this all just another case of 'Makee-Uppee Syndrome'?

Why am I not surprised that mental health charities are now warning that the experience of coming out of the lockdown "could trigger anxiety for many"?

Because for decades and decades the mental health industry has worked overtime to convince us that just about anything in life can make us anxious and psychologically ill!

Throughout the lockdown, the mental health industry constantly warned us with catastrophic stories about the threat that the pandemic represented to our psychological well-being. Time and again, the public was told that massive resources would have to be mobilised to avert a mental health crisis. The Sunday Times conveyed a mood of panic when it published an alarmist narrative about the tortured life of lockdown teenagers facing deteriorating mental health.

Comment: Western culture seems determined to cause unnecessary suffering and drama at the expense of getting through everyday challenges. We've been conditioned to latch onto every minor difficulty as a threat to our identity, which has been molded to signify our existence. It's a warped worldview that eventually brings the actual decline of social connection and health out of largely minor but exacerbated issues.

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NPC

Woke Virginia teachers compile list of parents who question racial curriculum, plot retaliation

Luke Rosiak
The Daily Wire
Wed, 17 Mar 2021 17:13 UTC
school classroom
A group of current and former teachers and others in Loudoun County, Virginia, compiled a lengthy list of parents suspected of disagreeing with school system actions, including its teaching of controversial racial concepts — with a stated purpose in part to "infiltrate," use "hackers" to silence parents' communications, and "expose these people publicly."

Members of a 624-member private Facebook group called "Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County" named parents and plotted fundraising and other offline work. Some used pseudonyms, but The Daily Wire has identified them as a who's who of the affluent jurisdiction outside D.C., including school staff and elected officials.

The sheriff's criminal investigations division is reviewing the matter — but the group's activities might be no surprise to top law enforcement because the county's prosecutor, narrowly elected with the help of $845,000 in cash from George Soros, appears to be a member of the Facebook group.
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Briefcase

Texas AG Ken Paxton wipes out Griddy customers' electric bills totaling $29.1 million

Maria Halkias
The Dallas Morning News
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:55 UTC
griddy customer bill texas blackout blizzard
© Lola GomezDeAndré Upshaw shows a nearly $6,000 bill from Griddy for his 900-square-foot apartment in Dallas on Feb. 19, 2021
Customers who have already each paid thousands of dollars may also get some relief.

Griddy Energy customers are off the hook for their outrageous electric bills for February, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The attorney general's office sued Griddy under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act on behalf of 24,000 customers who have a cumulative $29.1 million in unpaid electric bills from the week of freezing temperatures in Texas last month.

The action Paxton took was to release Griddy's former customers from Griddy's bankruptcy, which it filed for Monday in Houston. Texas won't move forward with its state court lawsuit and investigation, and "Griddy will work with it in good faith to resolve these matters," the attorney general said.

Comment: Customers were happy with the Griddy set-up as it gave them fine control over their power consumption. Not having a cap on withdrawal for billing was an unfortunate oversight, as no one envisioned the sort of mayhem storm Uri generated. A good part of the blame must go to the ERCOT organization for allowing the situation to get out of control, plus the over-reliance on intermittant power sources such as wind.

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