Society's ChildS


Take 2

Abby Martin's new film: 'Gaza Fights for Freedom'

Miko Peled
MintPress News
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
mourners, dead baby
© Khalil Hamra/APMourners carry body of 14-month-old Seba Abu Arar during her funeral.
In her new documentary film, Gaza Fights for Freedom, journalist Abby Martin places the Gaza Strip under a microscope for the viewers to see. The result is an excellent movie that is difficult to watch, and disturbing at times, precisely because it presents a true, realistic view of life in Gaza. The movie shows how a small, courageous nation — locked up in the world's largest concentration camp, facing inexcusable, unjustifiable and unforgivable violence — refuses to give up on its hopes and dreams and continues to fight for life.

Nothing left but bones

Heroism and cliches aside, the conditions in the Gaza Strip are horrifying. As one father interviewed in the movie says: "We are alive only by name... Gaza is no longer Gaza; all that is left of it are bones." He may be referring to the distant past when the city of Gaza was one of the most important, prosperous and prestigious cities not only in Palestine but in the entire Middle East.

Perhaps what is most refreshing about Martin's work is that the voices one hears are clear, authentic, Gazan voices. She makes no attempt to create the artificial "balance" one too often has to endure in movies and reports about Palestine in general and Gaza in particular. As though the Israelis who kill and maim and keep 2.2 million civilians caged and under siege in the Gaza Strip have a right to be heard. As though an explanation or justification can be given to the sheer cruelty and brutality exercised by Israel.

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Attention

'Deep boiling anger': NBC/WSJ poll finds pessimistic America despite current economic satisfaction

Carry Dann
NBC News
Sun, 25 Aug 2019 09:00 UTC
rally and flag
© Stephen Lam/ReutersCounter-demonstrators and supporters of President Donald Trump fight for US rally flag.
The political and cultural upheaval of the last four years has divided the country on ever-hardening partisan and generational lines, but one feeling unites Americans as much as it did before the 2016 election.

They're still angry. And still unsettled about the future.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that — despite Americans' overall satisfaction with the state of the U.S. economy and their own personal finances — a majority say they are angry at the nation's political and financial establishment, anxious about its economic future, and pessimistic about the country they're leaving for the next generation.

"Four years ago, we uncovered a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system," said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, which conducted this survey in partnership with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. "Four years later, with a very different political leader in place, that anger remains at the same level."

The poll finds that 70 percent of Americans say they feel angry "because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington." Forty-three percent say that statement describes them "very well."
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Pirates

Russian envoy to UN: 3K Daesh fighters remain in Syria and a multitude of others


Sputnik
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 01:17 UTC
Daesh guy
© VOA
Russia estimates that some 3,000 individuals with links to the Daesh terror group and its affiliates still remain in Syria, but there are other terrorist groups operating in the country, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gennady Kuzmin said on Tuesday.

"Presently, the overall number of Islamic State[Daesh] members and their affiliates in Syria amounts to approximately 3,000 people", Kuzmin told a UN Security Council meeting. "Furthermore in Syria, there is a multitude of other terrorist groups that are present, the most combat-ready of which is still Jabhat al Nusra".

Kuzmin said that the ground in Syria remains fertile for further destabilization an announcement of a coalition draw-down.
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Pills

Mexican Navy seizes 52K pounds of fentanyl, destination US

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 19:30 UTC
Marina officers, cargo
© UnknownThe vessel was a several hundred-meter container ship flying a Danish flag, and according to its freight manifest, the fentanyl was identified as 'calcium chloride.'
According to a new report from Mexican newspaper Tabasco Hoy, the Mexican Navy intercepted 23,368 kilograms (51,517 pounds) of fentanyl at the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, the largest Mexican seaport and one of the largest harbors in the Pacific Ocean.

The Secretariat of the Navy said joint work between the Naval Unit of Port Protection No.63 and the Tenth Naval Zone and Customs at the port uncovered the illicit drug in a 40ft shipping container. Preliminary reports show the container wasn't entirely filled with fentanyl.

The vessel was a several hundred-meter container ship flying a Danish flag, in which according to its freight manifest, the fentanyl was identified as "Calcium Chloride."
Cartel routes
© Strategic forecasting, inc/www.stratfor.comCartel Routes
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Heart - Black

A betrayal of trust: Child molestation alleged in the Contra Costa CPS

Patrick Howley
Epoch Times
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 17:33 UTC
sad child
The Contra Costa County Department of Children and Family Services (CFS or CPS) in California appears to have a problem with the sexual abuse of children.

The Epoch Times interviewed whistleblower parents, children, and a mental health professional in the county who spoke of how they say children are being sexually abused in the system that is meant to protect them.

In July, a father-son duo named Simon Mendoza Chavez, 64, and Simon Magana Chavez, 31, in the Contra Costa County city of Antioch were arrested on charges of committing multiple crimes during their years-long tenure as foster parents, according to a little-publicized police department release.
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NPC

Too many white men! PHP Central Europe conference cancelled because not enough women applied to be speakers

Thomas Claburn
The Register
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 17:18 UTC
laptop
© CCO
Under the heading, "Diversity Matters!" the website for the PHP Central Europe developer conference (PHP.CE) says, "PHP Central Europe Conference is committed to creating a conference that is as inclusive as possible."

Over the weekend, organizers of the conference, which had been scheduled for October 4-6 in Dresden, Germany, ended the event evermore after two scheduled speakers issued public statements that they would not be attending this year, citing concerns about the lack of diversity.

PHP.CE on Saturday posted a note on its website, stating "The conference has been cancelled and won't be continued*. Sorry for the inconvenience."

The asterisk points to three online posts as the reason for the decision. The first, a July 17 Tweet from Karl Hughes, CTO of educational consultancy The Graide Network, chastises the conference for a speaker list made up entirely of white men.


Larry Garfield, director of developer experience at Platform.sh and someone who has personal experience with code of conduct controversies, raised the issue in a July 19 blog post. He said he had decided to skip PHP.CE this year because the speaker list didn't include a single woman.

Garfield expressed sympathy for the conference organizers, saying he knows it can be challenging to arrange a diverse, inclusive lineup at tech events. He said he had emailed two other conference speakers who, like him, had multiple speaking slots to gauge interest of giving their second slots away to female presenters.

Comment: The solution is obvious: quotas. Even if it means kidnapping and forcing 12-year-old, non-white, wheelchair-bound, transgendered non-coders to speak at the conference, diversity must be the goal. How can that not be clear to the alt-right who seemingly make up the vast majority of the human population? It is so obviously not cool to just let people be free to apply if they want to, regardless of the color of the skin or the gender they identify with. And it is certainly not cool to have technical standards for the quality of the presentations. That discriminates against everyone who doesn't have any technical expertise in the field, a blatant crime against humanity.

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Green Light

Choo choo! Russia's first unmanned train proves to be a success during Moscow test


RT
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 17:30 UTC
© Sputnik / Grigory Sysoyev"Lastochka" elecric train
A Russian Railways unmanned electric train has successfully completed testing after it managed to automatically brake in front of a mannequin.

The train "Lastochka 113" (Martlet) was test-launched at a railway test site in Moscow's Shcherbinka. The test involved using communication technology between the train and the tracks, technical vision tests, train self-regulation as well as driving in remote-controlled mode.

The train's "behavior" was also tested in an emergency situation when a mannequin was placed on the tracks in front of it. The machine successfully identified the hazard and stopped several meters in front of it.

"As of today, we switch to unmanned technologies. According to international standards, there are four levels of unmanned operation. We have currently tested the third level," the director general of Russian Railways, Oleg Belozerov, said.
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Cell Phone

Apple's cofounder Wozniak agrees with breaking up big tech: iPhone maker should have split its business 'long ago'

Isobel Asher Hamilton
Business Insider
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 17:05 UTC
Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has added his voice to the calls to break up big tech, and even said he wishes Apple had broken up its business.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Wozniak said that there is a tendency for big tech companies to abuse their monopoly power.

"I am really against monopoly powers being used in unfair antitrust manners, not opening up the world to equal competition, using your power in unfair ways, and I think that's happened a lot in big tech and they can get away with a lot of bad things," said Wozniak.

"A company that has a strong presence in one market using that presence to grow another market is sort of unfair," he said, adding that he's "pretty much in favour of looking into splitting up companies."

Comment: Wozniak neglected to mention the most dangerous big tech company of all: Google

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X

YouTube 'borderline content' crackdown hits UK shores, creators demand justice


RT
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 17:07 UTC
youtube prison
YouTube is cracking down on "borderline content" that doesn't quite break its rules, expanding an algorithm-tweak that prevents controversial material from gaining a US audience to the rest of the English-speaking world.

A recommendations tweak that cut the referral views of content that "brushes right up against our policy line" in half in the US over the past six months is being rolled out across the UK, Ireland, South Africa, and "other English-language markets," YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said in a quarterly letter to creators on Tuesday, patting herself on the back for what she claimed was the company's tolerance for non-mainstream views.


Comment: This woman is not right in the head.


"A commitment to openness is not easy," Wojcicki wrote, likely provoking a few spit-takes from readers.


Comment: Guess it must not be, given that you have totally failed in that commitment.


"It sometimes means leaving up content that is outside the mainstream, controversial or even offensive."


Comment: What world does she live in where doing so would be even slightly controversial? Oh yeah, Silicon Valley. The grand irony, of course, is that PC culture itself is outside the mainstream, but the PC minority has convinced itself that it is the mainstream.


But diversity of opinion "makes us a stronger and more informed society, even if we disagree with some of those views," she continued - begging the question of why YouTube feels compelled to deplatform so many outside-the-mainstream commentators even as its CEO has admitted in the past that "news or news commentary [is] a very small percentage of the number of views we have."


"Reducing the spread of borderline content" was one of "four Rs" Wojcicki claimed formed the company's framework for dealing with creators, accompanied by "remove content that violates our policy," "raise up authoritative voices," and "reward trusted, eligible creators."
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Star of David

'We are waiting for war': Lebanese say Israel has gone too far

Andre Vltchek
RT
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:00 UTC
UN soldier
© Andre VltchekIndonesian UN soldier in Lebanon
After the recent Israeli attacks against Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, the Middle East has found itself in the midst of undeclared war.

Almost everyone in Lebanon appears to agree. "This time Israel went too far. In just two days, it bombed three countries," I am told by a local UN staffer based in Beirut.

The same day, my local barber was talking like he saw it all, his voice full of sarcasm and determination:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing tough elections at home, while his wife is on trial for fraud. A bit of excitement during the evening news can only help his chances of regaining attention from his electorate. But we here have had enough; we are ready to fight for our countries."
But 'fighting for their countries' could prove lethal, as Netanyahu threatened to attack Lebanon as a whole, if Hezbollah decides to retaliate.
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