Society's ChildS


Blue Planet

The Republic of Ireland: a model for the world?

George Callaghan
The Duran
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 17:42 UTC
Ireland parliament
Republic of Ireland's Leinster House in Dublin Ireland
The Irish political system often produces coalition governments. But we do not lack for stability and continuity despite that.

Democracy, a written constitution, a superb human rights record, prosperity, strong economic growth, a clean environment and an enviable educational system: the Republic of Ireland has it all. In almost a century of independence our state has achieved more than many thought possible. It begs the question: is the Irish model one which most of the world should strive to emulate?

The attitudinal revolution has been staggering in a quarter of a century. Cast your mind back to the early 1990s. We were still governed by state of emergency legislation. Drug gangs wreaked havoc in Dublin. Homosexualism was illegal. Contraception was severely restricted. Unwed mothers were widely castigated and politicians still feared a lash of the crozier. Child abuse in the Catholic Church was widespread but no one dared tackle it. Misogynistic, ultramontane, incense waggers and wankers weaved their wicked magic over our body politic and our bodies. Our economy was the weakest in Western Europe. Erin was the sick man of Europe. Unemployment was obstinately high. Almost half of all youngsters departed our shores. The Northern Conflict raged on partly thanks to a jaw dropping axis [of] Colonel Gaddafi and certain Irish-Americans. The republican movement and its loyalist counterparts engaged in their cruel and barbaric attempt to destroy freedom. The Crown Forces and the Irish security forces gallantly battled against the ghouls.
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Briefcase

Families of workers killed in Afghanistan suing US military contractors for funding terrorism by bribing Taliban militants


RT
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 01:25 UTC
Construction site in Mazar-i-Sharif Afghanistan
© AFP / Farshad UsyanA construction site in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan
Bribes paid by international military contractors in Afghanistan were used by the Taliban to fund attacks on companies that didn't make the payments, according to a lawsuit filed by families of those injured or killed as a result.

"Large corporations that had lucrative businesses in Afghanistan" paid off the Taliban through a series of subcontractors, bribing the Afghan militants in order to save money on security, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court by the families of 143 US soldiers and contractors injured and killed during the longest war in American history. The 288-page civil suit alleges the Taliban then used the money to finance acts of terrorism against companies that didn't bribe them, detailing the grisly circumstances that led to the deaths and injuries of the victims.

An employee of the US Embassy in Kabul referred to the payments as "organized crime," according to the suit, which seeks unspecified relief for their families under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Comment:

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Question

A big and bizarre drone mystery is unfolding in rural Colorado

Tyler Rogoway
The Drive
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:11 UTC
drones colorado
The sparse expanses of Northeast Colorado have become ground zero for a bizarre mystery surrounding sightings of nighttime coordinated flights of groups of drones. From roughly 7 pm to 10 pm every night last week, an estimated 17 drones with six-foot spans have flown "grid patterns" over Phillips County and near its border with neighboring Yuma County, according to Phillips County Sheriff Thomas Elliott. The drones operate at a few hundred feet in the air and were brightly lit with strobing colored and white lights, leaving local residents and those driving through the area baffled.

The Denver Post was first to report on the string of strange sightings. Local law enforcement, the FAA, DEA, U.S. Army, and the Air Force have said they have no idea what these aircraft are or who they belong to.

The Denver Post writes:

Comment: Mysterious drones flying nighttime patterns over northeast Colorado leave local law enforcement stumped

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Book 2

Jordan Peterson finds an unlikely readership in China, even after censors stripped away entire sections of his book

Nathan Vanderklippe
The Globe and Mail
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 13:24 UTC
jordan peterson
© Mark Sommerfeld/The New York Times News ServiceJordan Peterson, a University of Toronto psychology professor turned influential YouTube philosopher, at home in Toronto, May 2, 2018.
The censors have gouged out Jordan Peterson's criticism of Mao Zedong and Communism, but his latest book has nonetheless arrived in China where it has established a foothold on the country's bestseller lists after its publication in Mandarin this fall.

Mr. Peterson, the controversial Canadian psychologist whose work has been favoured by right-leaning groups, does not make for an obvious fit in China. In 12 Rules for Life, he peppers his writing with biblical references and faults China and other countries for using Marxist ideology to devastating effect, subjecting people to "oppression rivalling that still operative in North Korea, the last classic communist holdout" and Mao Zedong of perpetrating "bottomless horrors."

But Mr. Peterson has nonetheless found an audience in the world's most populous country where, long before the local release of 12 Rules in late November, volunteers had translated more than 100 of his videos and published reviews of his writing.

Some in China have found in Mr. Peterson a coveted riposte to what they see as a preachy - and, for Beijing, hostile - form of Western liberalism, one embodied by people such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Comment: See also:

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MIB

Happy Kwanzaa! The holiday brought to you by the FBI

Ann Coulter
anncoulter.com
Wed, 25 Dec 2019 10:07 UTC
kwanzaa Maulana Karenga
Maulana Karenga marks 'Kwanzaa' with his 'people'
Kwanzaa, celebrated exclusively by white liberals, is a fake holiday invented in 1966 by black radical/FBI stooge Ron Karenga -- aka Dr. Maulana Karenga, founder of United Slaves, the violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural gibberish that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga's United Slaves.

In what was ultimately a foolish gambit, during the madness of the '60s, the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the group, the better. (It's the same function MSNBC serves today.)

By that criterion, Karenga's United Slaves was perfect.

Comment:
kwanzaa
Merry, er, Happy Kwanzaa! Brought to you by the FBI...
If you're thinking that that candelabrum looks rather like the Jewish Menorah, that's because it kind of is.

The Jewish liberal magazine Forward did a special ('The Secret Jewish History of Kwanzaa') on this FBI-created sect a few years ago...
Fifty years ago, at the inaugural celebration of Kwanzaa, 60 black Americans gathered in a California living room to celebrate their distant African past.

It was 1966. They wore dashikis and hand-woven headwear. A troupe of musicians played drums. Men and women bowed to each other and poured libations to the ancestors. Later, someone switched on the stereo and turned up the music of James Brown and Curtis Mayfield as the crowd danced.

But the central ritual of the entire evening — the ceremony everyone had come for — involved lighting a modified Hanukkah menorah.

It is just one of many connections between the harvest-themed celebration of African-American heritage and the Jewish festival of lights.

The very first Kwanzaa candelabrum was made by altering a Jewish menorah; celebrants held joint Kwanzaa-Hanukkah celebrations regularly in the early years and when critics attacked the newly-formed black holiday they also leveled criticism at Hanukkah. Detractors saw both festivals as multicultural and "politically correct" incursions on their white Christian holiday season.

Kwanzaa, an annual weeklong holiday that starts on December 26, was born in the political ferment of the 1960s as part of a newly-energized and Africa-focused black consciousness. Maulana Karenga, a prominent black nationalist and then-doctoral student created the holiday. Early enthusiasts wanted to distance themselves from Christmas and Christianity, which some saw as a white religion.

In Hanukkah, each candle on the candelabra represents a day of the holiday; in Kwanzaa, each stands for a life principle. [...]

And while joint Kwanzaa-Christmas events were rare at first, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah events were more common.

According to Keith Mayes, a professor of African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota and author of Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition, confusion sometimes arose from linking Kwanzaa and Christmas, but "Kwanzaa and Hanukkah went together more smoothly."

"Joint Kwanzaa and Hanukkah celebrations bridged the divide between African-Americans and Jews, allowing both groups to share in the memory of suffering," Mayes wrote in his book which chronicled the inaugural ceremony and the formative years of the holiday.


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Stock Down

UK economy faces weakest growth since second world war

Richard Partington
The Guardian
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 07:00 UTC
high street
© Murdo MacLeod/The GuardianAs consumer spending stalled, thousands of high street jobs have been lost this year.
The British economy is on track for the weakest year outside a recession since the second world war, as political turmoil and Brexit uncertainty dragged down growth, a Guardian analysis reveals.

At the end of a turbulent year and following Boris Johnson's election victory, surveys of business activity suggest economic growth in the final three months of 2019 has essentially stalled. The jobs market is showing signs of stress and public borrowing is steadily rising again after a decade of improvement.

The Bank of England has downgraded its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by only 0.1% in the fourth quarter as high street spending stalled and business investment was kept on hold before the election and amid Brexit uncertainty. Economic growth for 2019 as a whole is forecast to be just 1%, the weakest expansion outside a recession for more than half a century.

Comment: All signs are pointing to a global economy whose diagnosis, as it stands, is terminal: The global economy is sick and it has nothing to do with the trade war

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Bad Guys

Daesh beheads 11 Nigerian Christians in barbaric 'revenge for Baghdadi's death'


Sputnik
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 21:58 UTC
ISIS
© Flickr / Day Donaldson
The Islamic terrorist group Daesh announced that it had killed 11 Christians in Nigeria's northeastern Borno State one day after Christmas as an act of revenge for the death of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Footage of the executions, which was published by Amaq, a propaganda outlet linked to Daesh, shows 11 blindfolded men being lined up in an outdoor location.

"This is a message to Christians all over the world," a masked man is heard saying in the video. One of the blindfolded captives in the video is shot, while the rest are beheaded. The victims are believed to have been captured by Daesh in recent weeks.

Comment: Using Al-Baghdadi as reason for the attack is bizarre considering how he was a US stooge, he's been 'killed' on more than one occasion, with these deaths stretching as far back as 2017, but also because his most recent 'death' was months ago; moreover, what do this Christian group have to do with it? And so, if anything, this attack was more than likely yet another move to promote animosity between the two religions in the region, as the Nigerian President alludes to in his statement.

See also:

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Cell Phone

Oops for Google Apps? Huawei seeks an alliance with other Chinese firms to push US giant out of Asia


RT
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 03:18 UTC
samsung phone
© Reuters / Michael Dalder
Chinese giants Huawei and Oppo plan to create an alternative to Google mobile services and seek cooperation with Indian developers. Their success may spell an end to Android's market domination in Asia, and possibly beyond.

For now, the global dominance of the Google-owned Android mobile operating system (OS) may seem to be without challenge. It comfortably holds a share amounting to a whopping 76 percent of the mobile OS market worldwide. But clouds are already gathering over the US company and, if it gets shoved out of a massive segment of the market, it will only have itself to blame.

Google's positions are about to be challenged by none other than China's Huawei - a telecommunications giant and smartphone manufacturer which has recently become a target of constant US pressure. The company, which once used Google's Android itself on its smartphones, was forced to develop an alternative after the US tech titan rushed to comply with Washington's sanctions in May and became one of the first American companies to cut Huawei off from its services.

Comment: See also:

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Bacon n Eggs

One-time vegan influencer is now a hunter-gatherer teaching people skills to catch wild game for themselves

Lee Brown
New York Post
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 01:34 UTC
Daniel Vitalis vegan carnivore
Daniel Vitalis
A zealous vegan who became an influencer in the raw-food movement has made a drastic change to his lifestyle — becoming an internet-famous hunter-gatherer teaching people to kill animals for food.

Daniel Vitalis, 42, gave up meat as a teenager and was vegan for 10 years, becoming a popular speaker espousing the extreme diet.

He dumped veganism five years ago, however, after reading a book that convinced him animal foods were crucial for a healthy diet — telling The Boston Globe that the switch came in the middle of a vegan speaking tour.
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Stock Down

The global economy is sick and it has nothing to do with the trade war

Jeffrey Snider
RealClearMarkets
Fri, 20 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
Earth
© NASA
The World Trade Organization (WTO) reported that for the first time since 2009 global trade volumes have declined. During the third quarter of this year, the gross number of goods sent abroad from one country to another were fewer than the amount of those traded during the third quarter of last year. Though the negative was small, they always are to start with, it's never a good thing when fewer goods are moved around.

Despite worldwide population expansion and the presumed gain of wealthier economies due to a boom everyone had been talking about, the WTO says that trade volumes peaked during that last third quarter. According to the same data, total trade values, that is, the monetary value of goods being traded factoring prices and currency translation, peaked the quarter before.

You may remember the second quarter of 2018. Central bankers remained in their full glory talking about the resurrected global recovery which they would use to return their policies to or near normal. It was a good time to be one for the first time in a long time. They made full use of the trend - as a means to dismiss the more and more frequent warning signs.

Comment: See also:

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