Society's ChildS


Hotdog

Australia opens probe into secret torture & slaughter of hundreds of racehorses for human and pet food

horse
© Reuters / Clodagh Kilcoyne
Queensland state authorities are investigating the shocking slaughter of some 500 retired racehorses a month at an abattoir where the creatures are allegedly tortured before they're turned into meat for animals and humans.

Now those authorities have opened an investigation into Meramist, one of just two facilities in Australia licensed to produce and export horse meat for human consumption, state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Tuesday, reiterating that she was "sickened and appalled" by what she saw.

"Animal welfare is everybody's responsibility and my government will not stand for cruelty to animals," Palaszczuk told reporters, pointing out that Queensland has the strictest laws against animal cruelty in the country. The Queensland Racing Integrity Commission will oversee the probe, and a separate investigation conducted by Biosecurity Queensland was launched on Friday after the ABC program aired.

Comment: More reason to, where possible, shop local and get to know your supplier:


Fire

Is democracy a dying species?

riot
© PixabayHow does a democracy that has spawned within itself a powerful and implacable enemy deal with it?
What happens when democracy fails to deliver? What happens when people give up on democracy?

What happens when a majority or militant minority decide that the constitutional rights of free speech, free elections, peaceful assembly and petition are inadequate and take to the streets to force democracy to submit to their demands?

Our world may be about to find out.

Chile is the most stable and prosperous country in Latin America.

Yet when its capital, Santiago, recently raised subway fares by 5%, thousands poured into the streets. Rioting, looting, arson followed. The Metro system was utterly trashed. Police were assaulted. People died. The rioting spread to six other cities. Troops were called out.

Comment: See also: World in Flames: Why Are Protests Raging Around The Globe?

Any political system whose people have not been immunized to the ponerization process will eventually become corrupted: Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes

For more, check out SOTT radio's:


Magic Wand

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg invited to speak in B.C. legislature

Greta Thunberg
© Dave Chidley / THE CANADIAN PRESSSwedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at a rally at the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton, on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019.
Thunberg spoke outside Alberta's legislature last Friday before a crowd of thousands, while a group of oil and gas supporters held a smaller counter rally nearby

The leader of British Columbia's Green party says he has invited climate change activist Greta Thunberg to speak in the provincial legislature.

Andrew Weaver says he extended an invitation to the 16-year-old Swede, who will visit Vancouver Friday to take part in what organizers say is a post-election climate strike.

Weaver says he has spoken to Speaker Darryl Plecas and he has agreed to allow her to address the legislature if Thunberg is willing.

Comment: Act like adults by giving in to the demands of teenagers lead by an autistic teen with mental problems. Makes sense.

See also:


Brick Wall

Craig Murray: Assange in court

assange
© Flickr/Cancillería del EcuadorJulian Assange at the Embassy of Ecuador, London
I was deeply shaken while witnessing yesterday's events in Westminster Magistrates Court. Every decision was railroaded through over the scarcely heard arguments and objections of Assange's legal team, by a magistrate who barely pretended to be listening.

Before I get on to the blatant lack of fair process, the first thing I must note was Julian's condition. I was badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated ageing. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight.

But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both. I will come to the important content of his statement at the end of proceedings in due course, but his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought.

Comment: Anyone who thought Assange would receive any semblance of a fair trial should be disabused of that notion by now. What is surprising is that they aren't even bothering to uphold the charade. Keep this in mind any time talks about the US being a "free country".

See also:


Cupcake Pink

Pampered protests: Policing 'Extinction Rebellion' costs £37 million, more than TWICE annual budget for combating violent crime in London

police XR protest extinction
Policing the Extinction Rebellion protests has cost Scotland Yard £37million so far this year and has caused other investigations to be closed down. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said on Tuesday that the cost of the two-week protest action this month had cost £21million, a bill set to rise by several million pounds.

This included £3.5million for overtime, just under £6million for officers who were drafted in from 38 other forces in England and Wales, and £11.8million staffing costs.

Protest action by Extinction Rebellion (XR) in April cost the Met £16million, meaning the bill so far this year is £37million - more than twice the annual budget of its Violent Crime Taskforce. The annual budget for its Violent Crime Taskforce is £15million.

Comment: When instructed to, London police crack down hard on protests, to the point of killing passers-by.


Megaphone

Best of the Web: Steven Crowder exposes how Tulsi Gabbard's videos were suppressed on YouTube while she was trending over Hillary Clinton feud

Tulsi Gabbard
© Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call
Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard's YouTube videos were being suppressed in search results in the United States while she was trending, causing her videos and channel to show up below videos about her from other pages when her name is searched, according to comedian Steven Crowder.

Crowder posted tweets showing that on Oct. 18, as Gabbard was trending on Google and social media for her response to allegations by Hillary Clinton that she was a Russian asset, her search results on YouTube in the United States buried Gabbard's own content on the platform.

Comment: Here's Crowder giving the details:




People 2

When the ideologues come for the kids

gender kids drawing graffiti
© Mesamong/Getty Images
Like any religion, wokeness understands the need to convert children. The old Jesuit motto (sometimes attributed to Voltaire) was, after all, "Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man." And so I was moved but not particularly surprised by George Packer's tale of a progressive school banishing separate restrooms for boys and girls because this reinforces the gender binary. The school did not inform parents of this, of course:
Parents only heard about it when children started arriving home desperate to get to the bathroom after holding it in all day. Girls told their parents mortifying stories of having a boy kick open their stall door. Boys described being afraid to use the urinals. Our son reported that his classmates, without any collective decision, had simply gone back to the old system, regardless of the new signage: Boys were using the former boys' rooms, girls the former girls' rooms. This return to the familiar was what politicians call a "commonsense solution." It was also kind of heartbreaking.

Comment: See also:


Extinguisher

If Donald Trump is impeached his supporters will lose faith in the political system and all hell will likely break loose in America

the capitol
Most Americans don't realize it yet, but in just a few weeks we will witness one of the most critical moments in American history. Right now the Democrats in the House of Representatives are drafting articles of impeachment, and it is expected that there will be a vote by the end of this year. If President Trump is impeached by the House, that will set off a chain of events that nobody is going to be able to control, and if the U.S. Senate ultimately decides to remove Trump from office, all hell will break loose in America. There are tens of millions of very loyal Trump supporters in this country, and many of them are extremely passionate. Simply impeaching Trump would represent a "breaking point" for many of them, and if Trump is actually removed from office by a Republican-controlled Senate it is inevitable that we would see a very frightening explosion of righteous anger, and at that point there wouldn't be much of anything that could be done to calm them down. A large percentage of the population would instantly lose all the faith they ever had in our political system, and unfortunately there would be widespread civil unrest in the streets.

Comment: Even if Congress does, somehow, sensibly back down from this particular battle - there are yet other groups and interests that will continue to try and destroy Trump. If such a thing should occur, the warning given in the article would then be proven to have been absolutely valid.


Stock Down

Are we 'sleepwalking' into the next financial crisis? RT's Boom Bust explores fiat v crypto

dollar
© Reuters / Gary Cameron
Bitcoin proponents have been lately voicing alarms after the US Federal Reserve printed more money in a single month than bitcoin's entire market cap of nearly $149 billion.

Since mid-September, the Fed has injected $210 billion into the economy, insisting the move is not a return to quantitative easing.

Meanwhile, the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King said at an IMF meeting that by "sticking to the new orthodoxy of monetary policy and pretending that we have made the banking system safe, we are sleepwalking towards that crisis." He has also warned of devastating consequences.

Comment: See also:


Megaphone

Farmers roll out hundreds of tractors in German cities protesting new eco-rules

Farmers
© Thilo Schmuelgen / ReutersFarmers arrive to protest against the German agriculture policy in Bonn, Germany, October 22, 2019.
Disgruntled farmers blocked traffic by driving tractors through German cities in protest of new environmental regulations aimed at protecting birds and insects.

The protests took place in 17 cities across Germany, with the largest rally held in the western city of Bonn, where the Agriculture Ministry HQ is located. Angry farmers rolled out around 1,000 tractors onto the streets, blocking several major roads and bridges.

Tractors drove through other cities as well. Around 200 of them rolled past the iconic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Comment: Rather than abdicate all responsibility and punish farmers - who are already suffering due to big business and global competition - perhaps the German government could instead commission research into less harmful and optimal methods? Because if they can't provide a viable alternative, how do they expect farmers to comply?