Society's ChildS


Cardboard Box

America last: After spending $640 million on migrants and billions abroad, FEMA suddenly 'broke'

Kamala
The Biden-Harris administration's 'America Last' policies have left the country vulnerable. Between draining the strategic petroleum reserve, sending hundreds of billions in cash and equipment to Ukraine (such as electrical transformers that are now needed for Hurricane Helene), and FEMA spending $640 million to help migrants, the agency tasked with emergency preparedness is now 'broke,' and doesn't have enough money to get through hurricane season which typically lasts through November.

According to AP,
The agency is being stretched as it works with states to assess damage from Hurricane Helene and delivers meals, water, generators and other critical supplies. The storm struck Florida last week, then plowed through several states in the Southeast, flooding towns and killing more than 160 people.

Mayorkas was not specific about how much additional money the agency may need, but his remarks on Air Force One underscored concerns voiced by President Joe Biden and some lawmakers earlier this week that Congress may need to pass a supplemental spending bill this fall to help states with recovery efforts.

Comment: More from people on the ground who are witnessing the government's egregious apathy first hand:






Vader

On the unjust and ridiculous conviction of C.J. Hopkins for likening Covid totalitarianism to Nazi Germany

C.J. Hopkins
Twice in August 2022 the American playwright, satirist and longtime Berlin resident C.J. Hopkins tweeted cover art from his book on The Rise of the New Normal Reich. This art featured an image of a Covid-era medical mask with a barely-visible white swastika superimposed upon it. In his first tweet, Hopkins wrote that "Masks are symbols of ideological conformity. That's all that they are, and that's all they ever were. Stop pretending that they were ever anything else or get used to wearing them." In his second tweet, Hopkins simply quoted Health Minister Karl Lauterbach's notorious statement that "Masks always send a signal".

Handcuffs

Helicopter pilot threatened with arrest for flying rescue missions in flood-ravaged NC

lake lure hurricane helene destruction
© Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty ImagesThe Rocky Broad River flows into Lake Lure, N.C., and overflows the town with debris from Chimney Rock after heavy rains from Hurricane Helene on Sept. 28, 2024.
A South Carolina pilot who flew stranded Hurricane Helene victims in flood-ravaged North Carolina to safety claims he was told he would be arrested if he continued the rescue missions.

Jordan Seidhom was flying victims out of the devastation over the weekend when local leaders told him there was a flight restriction on the area and that they would have to arrest him if he continued making flights.

"There were other victims. As we were flying out leaving the area, we spotted within 300, 400 yards of their location [people] were waving for help as my son and I were leaving," Seidhom told Queen City News.

Comment:




Eye 1

Vance's baby blues may have just flipped the left's most loyal demographic

vance
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
As a group, gay people may overwhelmingly hate Donald Trump. But they couldn't help but fall in love with JD Vance on the debate stage Tuesday night.

In the words of Gay America, he came out looking snatched.

Now, these poll numbers might be made up, but they're making fun of a very real phenomenon: Gay Twitter absolutely lost their minds for Vance last night. Some said he'd make a "hot AF VP" while others said he's "[g]iving the gays everything we want." Some speculated the "pink tie" was sending a signal, wink wink. What that signal is, I can't share here — but the consensus was overwhelmingly suggestive. As noted conservative activist (and gay man) Andy Ngo noted, "I was not expecting gay X responses to the VP debate to be so XXX."

Comment: We hope that this wild swing in points (if true) had something to do with the substance of his arguments as well!


X

Newsom outlaws voter ID rules in California

newsom
© Getty ImagesCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom
California governor Gavin Newsom has just signed a new law banning local governments from requiring residents to present identification to vote in elections.

The legislation - introduced by Sen. Dave Min (D-Orange County) - is a direct response to a ballot measure approved this year by voters in Huntington Beach which required people to show photo identification at the polls.
The Republican-led city, whose leaders often tussle with Sacramento Democrats, has maintained that its status as a charter city gives it home rule over elections administration.

But Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber aren't buying it: The officials sued Huntington Beach in April to invalidate the law, arguing it interferes with state voting rights protections.
- Politico
California is one of 14 states that does not require voter ID at the polls - so, if a person wants to operate a car, hop on a plane, or rent an apartment in California - you need ID. Voting? Not so much.

Comment: Newsom's strategy to add thousands of migrants to the voting roster without constitutional process is a violation of the the election process, a betrayal of legit California voters and ultimately all American citizens. Should his ploy be adopted by other states with migrant influx, these actions will impact large-scale the outcomes of federal, state and local elections.


Smoking

Best of the Web: Russian MPs to back groundbreaking smoking ban that would eliminate it entirely


Comment: Yes, it's still fascism, even when Russia does it.


Smoker
© Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov
The proposed law would prohibit the sale of nicotine and vaping products to teens in a bid to curb new addictions.

The head of Russia's parliament announced on Wednesday he expects MPs to support a bill to outlaw smoking and vaping for the next generation. It would mean that those born after 2009 will never be legally able to buy tobacco, to vape or use hookahs.

The draft law would make it illegal to sell cigarettes, vapes and similar goods to anyone born after December 31, 2009. The New People faction in the parliament, which penned the legislation, sent it to the cabinet on Wednesday.

State Duma Chair Vyacheslav Volodin backed the draft law during a parliament session later in the day.
"You say some people want to boost the budget [by taxing tobacco]. Trust me, nobody does. Everyone in this chamber will vote for and support your initiative," he promised.
The legislation tabled by the left-leaning New People faction means the legal smoking age will increase every year, eventually leading to a total prohibition for the entire population.

Comment: See also:


2 + 2 = 4

This is why the working class doesn't trust Western leftists anymore

FILE PHOTO. Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer
© Ian Forsyth/Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO. Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer
Summary

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is the perfect example of the greed that has corrupted parties that are supposed to represent the common voter

The scandal that has recently engulfed UK Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is not just about political corruption.

There have always been corrupt politicians - even amongst the leaders of social democratic parties - although it is impossible to imagine Jeremy Corbyn or Harold Wilson accepting tens of thousands of pounds' worth of designer label clothing, gifts and free luxury accommodation from a billionaire businessman.

There is something very contemporary about Starmer's rapacious greed, and it reveals a fundamental truth about modern social democratic parties in the West - namely that these parties have long ceased to represent the interests of the working class and ordinary citizens, and today simply do the bidding of the global elites that rule and control most Western countries.

That being the case, it is hardly surprising that these elites should shower copious benefits upon political leaders that so assiduously protect their massive wealth, social status and power.

This, of course, is not a peculiarly British phenomenon. In Australia, the fondness of Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for accepting corporate largesse is legendary - although the gifts regularly received by Albanese (including free tickets to football matches and Taylor Swift concerts) seem decidedly miserly compared to the bundle of upmarket loot recently collared by Starmer and his family.

Nor should it surprise anyone that these compliant political leaders should seek to ape the luxurious lifestyles of their masters - even when they cannot quite afford to do so.

How has this fundamental political transformation come about?

Essentially it has been driven by the rise of the global elites and the new economic world order that they have created since the 1980s.

Comment:
Is it possible that some of the instances that the author brings up are better explainable by approaches from the field of psychology?

What knowledge might help a person like Rosie Duffield, if she would have the time or be interested, to find out if it is safe to "return to the party in the future, when it again resembles the party I love, putting the needs of the many before the greed of the few."?
Did a person like Keir Starmer leave his ideals?

The questions are worth exploring, though it may take time, but there is much research out there that can be useful.

MindMatter has done several shows that explore the applications of psychology and the reasons why some people behave like Keir Starmer: On SOTT, there are more than 40 articles with Ponerology in the title, including: See also: The departure of Rosie Duffield from the British Labour Party may lead other people to reflect and ask questions. Here is a screenshot of a Tweet:
Rosie Duffield
© X.Com



Roses

The most precarious place in the world to be a child: Israel's year of war on children

Palestinians children at an UNRWA school
© Omar Ashtawy/APA ImagesPalestinians children at an UNRWA school in Deir al-Balah, September 9, 2024.
Israel's onslaught against the Palestinian people has systematically targeted children in both Gaza and the West Bank. The result is a war against an entire generation.

A year into the genocide in Gaza and the intensifying military and settler onslaught in the West Bank, children have been the most consistently targeted group by Israel in all of historic Palestine.

Every year at around this time, the new school year is well underway in the Gaza Strip and university students are starting their first semesters. But since October of last year, not only is there no more school, but all education in the Gaza Strip has been decimated. This is to say nothing of the systematic killing of children throughout the war — UN chief Antonio Guterres said Gaza had become a "graveyard for children" only a month into the genocidal war. Added to that are the long-term mental and health effects children will experience as a result of exposure to disease, chronic malnutrition, and relentless violence.

Light switch

Grid apocalypse hits Carolinas: 360 substations down, power restoration could take "months"

counties
© UnknownNorth Carolina Counties affected by Hurricane Helene
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), representing a district in the western portion of the state battered by Hurricane Helene, released a press release Sunday detailing the infrastructure devastation.
Edwards said power outages remain widespread in Western North Carolina as of Sunday. Fast-forward to Wednesday morning, Poweroutage.US data shows more than 400,000 residents are without power in the region.

Comment: The complexity of the situation in North Carolina is near-impossible to convey. First hand reports offer but a glimpse of what it will take to restore and revive this portion of the state to functional normalcy.


Dollars

New York Catholic diocese reaches $323 mln sex abuse settlement

Catholic diocese
© APThe Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre on New York’s Long Island
A Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York announced a new bankruptcy settlement on Thursday that would pay more than $323 million to about 530 sex abuse survivors who alleged they were abused by priests when they were children.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said earlier this year that it did not think a bankruptcy settlement would be possible, after abuse survivors rejected the diocese's previous $200 million settlement offer.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan, who is overseeing the case, said the deal represented "enormous progress" after the bankruptcy came "within a hair's breadth" of failure. Rockville Centre will contribute $234.8 million to a settlement fund, with four insurers contributing $85.3 million. The settlement will also receive funding from another insurer that is being liquidated in a separate insolvency proceeding and from attorneys representing abuse survivors.