Society's ChildS


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Greening the planet: Glencore cobalt mine in DR Congo collapses, killing 43 miners


Al Jazeera
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 21:40 UTC
Two galleries collapsed in an open-pit mine owned by Swiss mining giant Glencore, killing artisanal miners.
glencore
The number of artisanal miners killed by a landslide at a copper and cobalt mine owned by Swiss-based mining giant Glencore in southern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 43 and could climb further as the search for missing workers continues, local officials have said.

The accident occurred on Thursday in the Kolwezi area of Lualaba province when two galleries caved in at the KOV open-pit mine operated by the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC), a subsidiary of Glencore.

The original death toll was estimated at 36 but rose through Thursday evening and into Friday as more bodies were uncovered, the officials told Reuters news agency.

"We think that other bodies are still under the rubble," said Joseph Yav Katshung, the director of cabinet for the governor of Lualaba, Richard Muyej.

Comment: Artisanal miners.

That's right up there with 'extraordinary rendition'.

It's slave labor. And their deaths are the ugly reality beneath all the idealistic nonsense about saving the planet by running everything on batteries...

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Cut

Leaders of Evangelical Covenant Church expel Minnesota church, defrock pastors for violating ban on same-sex marriage


Associated Press
Sat, 29 Jun 2019 23:27 UTC
Evangelical Covenant Church Minnesota
© AP Photo/Jeff BaenenFirst Covenant Church is shown June 29, 2019, in downtown Minneapolis. Leaders of the Evangelical Covenant Church voted June 28, to expel First Covenant and defrock its lead pastor, the Rev. Dan Collison, for permitting gay marriage. First Covenant was a founding member of the 134-year-old denomination.
Leaders of the Evangelical Covenant Church voted to defrock a Minneapolis pastor and expel his church for permitting gay marriage.

The Rev. Dan Collison had his credentials removed by a 77% vote at the Evangelical Covenant Church's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday night.

Leaders also voted to expel Collison's First Covenant Church, a founding member of the 134-year-old denomination.

Collison, who became a pastor at First Covenant in downtown Minneapolis in 2009, told the Star Tribune he was "not surprised" but "saddened" after he was voted out.

"I feel grounded in the path we have chosen. I feel grateful for the pastors and churches who stood up for us. I feel compassion to those caught in the middle," Collison said.

The ECC says First Covenant is free to keep operating as a church and can keep its church building. First Covenant says Collison will continue serving as lead pastor.

Comment: 'The Overhauling of Straight America' - A 1987 blueprint for transforming social values

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Dollars

Broke Gen X to inherit cost of Gen Z's unrealistic dreams

Karol Markowicz
NY Post
Sat, 29 Jun 2019 19:43 UTC
piggy bank
© Shutterstock / pathdoc
As Democratic candidate after Democratic candidate continues to find things to make "free," there's the inevitable question of who will pay for it. Free health care, free college, reparations for African Americans, back taxes for married gay people, canceling student loans - there are few proposals among the Democratic presidential field that don't involve someone paying up.

While the candidates defer to a generic "the rich" or "the millionaires and billionaires," it's actually Generation X, currently around 40- to 54-years-old, who is poised to pick up the tab for all the "free" stuff.

Every proposal to make something "free" will involve plans to raise taxes and is aimed directly at the pockets of that generation. With the boomer generation largely retired, it's Generation X who will see their taxes spike if plans to cancel all student loans or create Medicare for All see fruition.

In a time of obsessive "fairness," this seems pretty unfair.
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Attention

Tucker Carlson: The Democratic Party has broken from reality, doesn't care what is true

Tucker Carlson
Fox News
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
Tucker Carlson
© Fox NewsTucker Carlson
The Democratic Party went completely insane on Wednesday. That's been happening for a while, of course -- insanity is a process.

But Wednesday night at the first Democratic primary debate of the 2020 season, they made it official. Elite Democrats have permanently broken with reality. They no longer care about what's true, what's possible, even what's real. They live in a kind of dream-state, a place of fantasy punctuated by howls of self-righteousness.

Julian Castro was an actual cabinet secretary in the Obama administration. It was only a couple of years ago. He explained at the debate that men who get pregnant have the moral right to taxpayer-funded abortions. I'm not joking.

Julian Castro, Democratic presidential candidate:
I don't believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice ... And you know, what that means is that just because a woman or let's also not forget someone in the trans-community. A trans-female is poor. It doesn't mean they shouldn't have the right to exercise that right to choose.
And so they cheered. Behold, late empire liberalism in full flower. Who exactly is the constituency for Castro's idea? Men dressed as women who get pregnant -- that's the constituency.

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Star of David

Israel: New rules - shoot protesters while they rest

Maureen Clare Murphy
The Electronic Intifada
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
Israeli snipers
© Cpl. Eden Briand, IDF Spokesperson's UnitIsraeli snipers
Shooting "key instigators" during unarmed protests in Gaza when they're resting. Opening fire on teenagers attempting to make their way to pray in Jerusalem when they pose no danger. This is the routine, unjustified and criminal use of live fire against Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces.

An Israeli military document states that snipers are permitted to shoot Palestinians who it determines to be "key instigators" or "key rioters" during Great March of Return protests in Gaza. The military defines "key instigators" as individuals who "direct or order activities" during the protest, such as "tactical placement" and setting tires on fire. "Key rioters" are defined as those whose behavior "provide the conditions for which mass breach or infiltration" into Israel from Gaza may occur.

The Israeli military document claims that snipers are permitted to "shoot a key instigator" as he "temporarily moves away from the crowd or rests before continuing his activity." The document presents such actions as an example of "restraint" and suggests that such precautions reduce the risk of "hitting someone else."
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Bullseye

Flashback Australian court rules marine scientist's sacking by James Cook University over climate change research critique is 'unlawful'

Talissa Siganto and Tim Swanston
ABC News
Tue, 16 Apr 2019 18:38 UTC
Peter ridd james cook university climate change
© Peter Ridd/FacebookProfessor Peter Ridd was dismissed by JCU last year after receiving several warnings.
A marine scientist was unlawfully sacked by James Cook University (JCU) in north Queensland for criticising his colleagues' research on the impacts of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef, the Federal Circuit Court of Australia has ruled.

Peter Ridd was dismissed by James Cook University (JCU) last year after being issued with a number of warnings for comments he made about a lead coral researcher and for telling Sky TV that organisations like the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) could "no longer be trusted".

Court documents said Dr Ridd described his colleague in an email as "not having any clue about the weather", and that he "will give the normal doom science about the Great Barrier Reef".

Dr Ridd said in another email that JCU, along with other universities, were "Orwellian in nature".

Comment: From earlier reporting on Professor Ridd in 2018:
JCU argues the sacking of Peter Ridd had nothing to do with his questioning of the science of climate change or the decline of the Great Barrier Reef, but rather the manner in which he made his arguments.

"Peter has always been allowed to conduct himself in relation to what our expectations of academic freedom are, it's the fact that he has broken the code of conduct on many occasions," said Professor Gordon.

Peter Ridd received an official warning in 2016 for critical comments he made about a colleague in an email he sent to a journalist.

But he was charged with the sackable offence of "serious misconduct" last August, after he told Sky TV that "scientific organisations like the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the ARC Centre for Coral Reef Studies can no longer be trusted".

Peter Ridd still stands by his statement.

"There's no doubt that what I said was a robust thing, and it would have upset people - I don't dispute that - but the thing is, if you say something important it's likely to upset people," he told 7.30.


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House

Priorities: Swedish youths facing housing shortage - migrants given preference instead

Chris Tomlinson
Breitbart
Sat, 29 Jun 2019 17:44 UTC
swedish refugees
© David Ramos/Getty Images
A survey from the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning has shown that while young people are struggling to find homes, half of the local governments give new migrants priority.

The survey, which saw data gathered from 290 Swedish municipalities, highlighted the fact that young Swedes are having an increasingly difficult time finding housing with 230 saying they had a shortage for young people, Nyheter Idag reports.

Fewer municipalities, 221, said they had a shortage of housing for new migrants, and 135 said they had given preference to new migrants for housing, compared to just 12 who said they had given young people priority for homes in their areas.

The National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning wrote that the figures were "alarmingly high, and they show a very strained situation for young people in the housing market".

One municipality defended the move to prioritise new migrants, saying, "It would be desirable for the newly arrived to get leases first, so that they don't have to move around" and claiming that it would also aid in integration.
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Airplane

Prosecutors expand Boeing probe to 787 Dreamliner amid concerns of shoddy workmanship and cost cutting throughout the company


RT
Sat, 29 Jun 2019 15:41 UTC
boeing dreamliner
Federal prosecutors are expanding their Boeing probe, investigating charges the 787 Dreamliner's manufacture was plagued with the same incompetence that dogged the doomed 737 MAX and resulted in hundreds of deaths.

The US Department of Justice has requested records related to 787 Dreamliner production at Boeing's South Carolina plant, where two sources who spoke to the Seattle Times said there have been allegations of "shoddy work." A third source confirmed individual employees at the Charleston plant had received subpoenas earlier this month from the "same group" of prosecutors conducting the ongoing probe into the 737 MAX.

Boeing is in the hot seat over alleged poor quality workmanship and cutting corners at the South Carolina plant. Prosecutors are likely concerned with whether "broad cultural problems" pervade the entire company, including pressure to OK shoddy work in order to deliver planes on time, one source told the Seattle Times. The South Carolina plant manufactured 45 percent of Boeing's 787s last year, but its supersize -10 model is built exclusively there.

Comment: See also:

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Candle

9/11 first responder Luis Alvarez dies from Ground Zero-related cancer


RT
Sat, 29 Jun 2019 16:21 UTC
9/11 responder Luis Alvarez
© Zach Gibson/Getty9/11 responder Luis Alvarez testifies during a House Judiciary Committee, June 11, 2019
Luis Alvarez, a former New York Police Department detective, has died of cancer caused by exposure to toxic air at Ground Zero. Alvarez campaigned to extend compensation for thousands suffering from 9/11 related health issues.

Alvarez had spoken at a congressional hearing to extend the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) and its funding just weeks before he died. Many paid tribute to the 53-year-old former detective on social media, thanking him for his bravery and work to extend the fund, which covers medical costs of 9/11 first responders and volunteers.

Thousands of first responders and others who rushed to help save people in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks were exposed to a "witches brew" toxic dust of hazardous materials, including asbestos, lead, and concrete particles released from the falling buildings.

Emergency workers spent weeks sorting through the rubble and were told by New York and federal officials that it was safe. This was not the case and, as of March 2019, there have been 2,335 deaths attributed to 9/11 related illnesses, almost as many as the 2,996 people who died in the attacks.

The World Trade Center Health Program reports over 95,000 people suffering from health problems related to 9/11, with up to 900 new cases being identified each month, 18 years after the attacks took place.

Comment: See also: Jon Stewart lashes out at near-empty congress hearing on healthcare for 9/11 first responders: "You should be ashamed of yourselves" - UPDATE

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Heart - Black

Women beaten, shaved & paraded as 'punishment' for resisting rape gang in Indian village


RT
Sat, 29 Jun 2019 16:46 UTC
indian women beaten
© ANI
Two women were beaten and had their heads shaved as retribution for reportedly resisting an attempted rape by a government official and his friends in Bihar, India. They were then paraded through the village by their attackers.

Seven men barged into the house of a 48-year-old woman and her 19-year-old daughter in Bhagwanpur, in the Vaishali district of Bihar, and allegedly tried to rape the teenager, the Hindustan Times reports.

"Around 6.30 pm, half a dozen armed men forcibly entered my house and attempted to rape me. When my mother tried to save me, they started beating us," the young woman told police.
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