Society's ChildS


Extinguisher

British govt report on Grenfell tower fire pins tragedy on... the firemen

Robert Booth
The Guardian
Tue, 29 Oct 2019 10:54 UTC
grenfell firefighters
British govt: "It's their fault"
The London fire brigade's readiness for the Grenfell Tower fire was "gravely inadequate" and fewer people would have died if it had been better prepared, a long-awaited public inquiry report into the disaster that killed 72 people has concluded.

The report into the biggest single loss of life in London since the second world war also ruled that the building had been refurbished in breach of safety regulations and that contrary to the evidence so far of the cladding panel manufacturer, Arconic, "the principal reason why the flames spread so rapidly up the building" was its aluminium composite panels and the "melting and dripping of burning polyethylene".

The retired high court judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick, who led the inquiry, found that despite senior officers knowing about the risk of cladding fires from high rise blazes abroad, the "preparation and planning for a fire such as Grenfell" by the London fire brigade (LFB) fell far short of what should have been expected.

Comment: Whew, the British govt sure knows how to rig an inquiry so that it comes out smelling like roses.

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Pyramid

GDPR after one year: Astronomical costs to meet EU's epically-failing 'data protection' compliance - Small & medium businesses shutting in droves

Alec Stapp
Truth on the Market
Fri, 24 May 2019 10:24 UTC

Comment: The following analysis was done in May this year. Since then, the costs have continued skyrocketing...


gdpr
"Lock it all down. We need to remind these euro-peons who's boss."
GDPR is officially one year old. How have the first 12 months gone? As you can see from the mix of data and anecdotes below, it appears that compliance costs have been astronomical; individual "data rights" have led to unintended consequences; "privacy protection" seems to have undermined market competition; and there have been large unseen — but not unmeasurable! — costs in forgone startup investment. So, all-in-all, about what we expected.

GDPR cases and fines

Here is the latest data on cases and fines released by the European Data Protection Board:
  • €55,955,871 in fines
    • €50 million of which was a single fine on Google
  • 281,088 total cases
    • 144,376 complaints
    • 89,271 data breach notifications
    • 47,441 other
  • 37.0% ongoing
  • 62.9% closed
  • 0.1% appealed

Comment: Google and other big corps are happy to pay the fines. But ALL small and medium businesses across the EU are currently undergoing 'compliance procedures' - audits, effectively, carried out by nominally independent agencies like accounting firms. These companies cannot afford the fines, so they're having to pay for their files being scrutinized for compliance on customers' data protection. The smallest firms are paying around 1,000 euros each...


Unintended consequences of new data privacy rights

GDPR can be thought of as a privacy "bill of rights." Many of these new rights have come with unintended consequences. If your account gets hacked, the hacker can use the right of access to get all of your data. The right to be forgotten is in conflict with the public's right to know a bad actor's history (and many of them are using the right to memory hole their misdeeds). The right to data portability creates another attack vector for hackers to exploit. And the right to opt-out of data collection creates a free-rider problem where users who opt-in subsidize the privacy of those who opt-out.

Comment: Hundreds if not thousands more will be added to that list by the time this bloodbath is through. Great governance there, EU. No wonder you're so popular in Europe...

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Handcuffs

Putin orders introduction of criminal punishment for online drugs propaganda


RT
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 14:54 UTC
syringes
© Sputnik / Vladimir Trefilov
Using the internet to promote drugs and persuade people to take prohibited substances will become a criminal offense in Russia under new amendments to legislation ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

The amendments also cover mood-altering synthetic cannabinoids such as Spice. Russia's consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, had earlier said these substances caused over 110 deaths in the country between 2016 and 2018.

Putin has endorsed the proposed law, which would ban the publication of information on ways of cooking and distributing psychoactive substances on the internet. He has also instructed the Interior Ministry to increase the number of police officers involved in tackling the illegal drug trade, both on the internet and offline.

Comment: See also:

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Propaganda

'Consent should be continuous: Liberal professor implies not asking during sex is rape


RT
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 19:23 UTC
Protest
© Global Look / Christian Spicker
For Georgetown Law professor Preston Mitchum, a long history of stamping all men as sexist is not egregious or woke enough. According to his implication, "most men" (especially heterosexuals) are also unknowingly rapists.

On his personal website, Mitchum describes himself as an "unapologetically Black and queer civil rights advocate, activist, writer, and professor." Although he graduated from Kent State University with a BA in Political Science, he seems to have recently taken up an interest in the psychology of sex and intimate relationships.

In one of his all-time worst takes, Mitchum recently tweeted that any man who doesn't regularly check for the continuation of consent during sexual intercourse is "selfish, likely violated consent, and bad at sex."

As an adjunct professor of law, it's disappointing that Mitchum didn't elaborate on the exact legal conditions that men must meet in order to protect themselves from becoming accidental rapists. For instance, at what interval should men be checking for their partner's sustained consent? It's a detail that seems as important as his assertion is ridiculous.
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Padlock

Journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, imprisoned for treason without trial, recounts his time in Ukrainian prison

Eva Bartlett
MintPress News
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Kirill Vyshinsky
© Zenit-ka.ruKirill Vyshinsky covering Ukraine's Maidan protests in 2014
In November 2018, I became aware of the case of Kirill Vyshinsky, a Ukrainian-Russian journalist and editor imprisoned in Ukraine without trial since May 2018, accused of high treason.

Soon after, I interviewed Vyshinsky via email. He described his arrest and the accusations against him as politically-motivated, "an attempt by the Ukrainian authorities to bolster the declining popularity of [then] President [Petro] Poroshenko in this election year."


Vyshinsky noted that his arrest was advancing the incessant anti-Russian hysteria now prevalent among Ukrainian authorities, as he holds dual Ukrainian and Russian citizenship. He noted that the charges against him, which pertain to a number of articles he published in 2014 (none of them authored by Vyshinsky), became of interest to Ukrainian authorities and intelligence services four years after they were published. To Vyshinsky, this supports the notion that neither the articles nor their editor were a security threat to Ukraine, instead, he says, they were a political card to be played.

Comment: See also:

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Cult

Democrat congresswoman Katie Hill resigns after being caught on wife-sharing website, smoking bong with female staffer during threesomes

Sean Moran
Breitbart
Sun, 27 Oct 2019 17:49 UTC

Comment: Where to start with this one? She was co-chair of the 'LGBT Caucus Committee', yet has a Nazi-era Iron Cross tattooed right next to her privates...


katie hill predator democrat
© Zach Gibson/Getty ImageRep. Katie Hill (D-CA)
Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) will resign from Congress after reports suggested that she had inappropriate relationships with staffers in her congressional office and campaign, according to a report on Sunday.

Politico reported Sunday that Rep. Hill, an openly bisexual member of Congress, will resign from Congress by the end of the week, according to two Democrat sources.

The House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into Hill's reportedly improper sexual relationship with a male congressional staffer, a claim she has denied.

The House adopted new ethics rules this year banning romantic relationships between lawmakers and their staffers, in response to the #metoo movement.

Comment: From RT, noting the media rush to defend Hill:
Democratic congresswoman Katie Hill has resigned, after explicit evidence emerged that she'd had affairs with multiple staffers, but the spin machine is working overtime to portray her as an innocent victim of "revenge porn."

Hill announced her resignation on Sunday, just four days after the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into whether she had a sexual relationship with her legislative director, Graham Kelly. The openly bisexual congresswoman has admitted to a relationship with a female campaign staffer - that affair began before she was elected, and is technically legal. And to hear the media tell it, Hill has done nothing wrong.



[...]

Hill holds a special place in history as the first woman to be investigated by the Ethics Committee for an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. The new rule was passed in the wake of #MeToo, and it's unlikely members of the House had women in mind when they imagined what unethical behavior would look like. But with the rule now in place, it would be regressive and positively anti-feminist to hold women to a lower standard of behavior than men.

Republicans have delighted in pointing out that Hill was a prominent voice opposing the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. But Democrats have tried to turn that around, reminding the GOP that several women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual harassment and that at least Hill's trysts were consensual.
Tom Fitton and others comment on the contrast with regard to Rep.Ihlan Omar's messy personal life:





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Shoe

USA Powerlifting bans trans women from competing as women

Matt Couch
The DC Patriot
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 00:01 UTC
powerlifting
In a story that shouldn't be that hard to figure out, men shouldn't be competitive in women's sports. In fact they shouldn't be allowed to compete as women at all.

It's literally the epitome of a 7th grader playing on a 3rd grade sports team.

The folks at USA Powerlifting get that and have imposed a ban on all trans women trying to compete as women, you know because they're not women.

Comment: Nice that someone is still acknowledging the obvious.

See also:

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Bullseye

Coach and Olympian: Allowing trans women to compete against biological women ruins sports

Vicki Huber
The College Fix
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 17:55 UTC
athletes
Editor's note: Current high school track coach and former Olympic runner Vicki Huber (sister of College Fix editor Dave Huber) weighs in on the growing trend among schools to allow transgender women to compete against biological women.

Call it nerdy, but my best memories of high school are the ones of times spent with my running club. The Delaware Sports Club met twice a week at a local track, as well as on weekends for longer runs. This club was not exclusive, as we were a group of anywhere from 30 to 100 people depending on the night, ages ranging from 14 to 80. We ran a lot, we laughed a lot, but the best part was getting to know so many people who shared my love of running.

One of the advantages of running with the club was that I got to train with boys and men. Even though our coach divided us into groups according to ability, that did sometimes mean that boys and girls, women and men, would be grouped together.

When it got closer to important races, many times my coach would have me run a workout with the older guys in their twenties who were very good runners - he wanted me to be pushed harder than the other women could push me.
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Pistol

84 year-old arrested for arson and shooting at mosque in France - 2 people injured - Suspect said he did it 'to avenge Notre Dame fire'

Amanda Woods
New York Post
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 17:50 UTC
Mosque at Bayonne
Mosque at Bayonne
An 84-year-old man torched the entrance to a French mosque and opened fire on two worshipers because he wanted to "avenge the destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral," according to new reports.

Claude Sinké, who ran for local office in 2015 under the banner of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, poured gasoline on a Bayonne mosque's front door and set it on fire Monday, ABC News reported.

"The suspect threw an incendiary device at the mosque and then drove away," local police union official Patrice Peyruqueou told The Telegraph. "He was apparently trying to set fire to the mosque when two worshipers intervened and he shot them."

The shooting victims were two men, 74 and 78. Sinké also allegedly poured gasoline on the younger victim's car and set it ablaze as he sat inside, according to ABC.

Both are hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Comment: It's pretty much 'common knowledge' in France that radical Muslims torched Notre Dame. We're not saying we think that that was the case, but that it is what is commonly believed by people in France.

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Arrow Down

Family facing $2,500/day fines for firewood charity that delivers wood to the sick and elderly

Matt Agorist
Free Thought Project
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Firewood police
In the land of the free, stacking firewood on your own property can and will lead to your extortion by government bureaucrats. You can be fined exorbitant amounts of money for this firewood even if you are collecting it to donate it to elderly, sick and struggling people to stay warm during the harsh winter. As TFTP has reported, if you refuse to pay these fines, you can and will be kidnapped. Or, if you resist this kidnapping, you may even be killed.

Shane McDaniel runs a charity on his own private property that collects downed trees from the local area and then cuts and splits it into firewood which is then delivered to those in need by volunteers. McDaniel has been doing this for years and was even featured on a local news show last year called Eric's Heroes which earned him the nickname "Robinwood."

McDaniel and his sons do most of the work and it takes them months of hard labor to get it all done.

"I couldn't even tell you (how much)," McDaniel said. "I've gone through more chainsaw blades than I have in a lifetime. But it took about 8-months of hard work; it's about 40 cords that we did, starting in March and finishing in September."
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