Society's ChildS


Star of David

Best of the Web: 42 acts of vandalism in 1.5 years: Jewish cemeteries are being systematically desecrated in Alsace, France, but not a SINGLE arrest has been made

Saskya Vandoorne & Melissa Bell
CNN
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 22:07 UTC

Comment: This one's from CNN, so we've commented heavily on it, BUT we are at least grateful that they have reported on the phenomenon at all...


Castaner cemetery strasbourg
French Interior Minister Castaner visiting one of dozens of Jewish cemeteries desecrated in northeastern France in the last 18 months
Westhoffen, France - Guillaume Debré didn't know how to break it to his young daughters and has yet to show them a photograph of the swastika. "They are markings on sacred stones, that spell out hate and in this country, we understand what that means and what it can lead to," he says.

"To my daughters it's just a peaceful area where their family comes from. It's difficult for them to understand that their family, that their grave has become a target of hate."

But in early December, that is exactly what happened in the small village of Westhoffen in the Bas-Rhin region of Alsace, in eastern France. No one knows exactly when swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti were spray-painted onto 107 tombstones in the village's ancient Jewish cemetery -- the 42nd anti-Semitic attack in the region in just 18 months.

French authorities are taking the matter extremely seriously. France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner visited Westhoffen the day after the swastikas were discovered and French President Emmanuel Macron paid his respects at the cemetery of Quatzenheim after it was desecrated earlier this year. And yet, no one has been caught.


Comment: That is bizarre. We're not exactly talking about complex detective work here. When something has occurred 42 times in one small area over 1.5 years - that's an average of one incident every fortnight - and it's so important for the authorities that they send the president to the aftermath of several of them, then surely they'd have caught at least some of the culprits by now??


Comment: An international white supremacy movement that can send agents into a tight-knit locality in rural northeastern France, commit hundreds of acts of terror - undetected - on a weekly basis systematically for years under the noses of extra-vigilant locals and extra-well-funded state security forces??

If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

See also: Scapegoating Yellow Vests? Macron Moves to Outlaw Criticism of 'Zionism' as 'Anti-Semitism Wave' Hits France

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Airplane

'Dark patterns': How travel and online retail sites influence your spending decisions

Chris Baraniuk
BBC
Thu, 12 Dec 2019 20:29 UTC
airport holiday travel
If you've wondered whether there were actually 30 people trying to book the same flight as you, you're not alone. The numbers may not be all they seem.

Ophir Harpaz just wanted to get a good deal on a flight to London. She was on travel website OneTravel, scouring various options for her trip. As she browsed, she noticed a seemingly helpful prompt: "38 people are looking at this flight". A nudge that implied the flight might soon get booked up, or perhaps that the price of a seat would rise as they became scarcer.

Except it wasn't a true statement. As Harpaz looked at that number, "38 people", she began to feel sceptical. Were 38 people really looking at that budget flight to London at the same exact moment?
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Red Flag

Security engineer says Google fired her for trying to notify co-workers of right to organize

April Glaser
NBC News
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 20:31 UTC
google
© David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Google has fired a security engineer who updated a company tool to notify co-workers of their right to organize, spurring a labor complaint and adding to recent scrutiny of how the company has handled unionization efforts.

Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: "Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities."

Spiers was placed on administrative leave the week of Thanksgiving, the same week the company fired four other employees who claim Google has been engaged in illegal efforts to discourage workers engaged in organizing employees. She was fired Friday.

"We dismissed an employee who abused privileged access to modify an internal security tool," a Google spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that it was "a serious violation."
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Stormtrooper

UN peacekeepers fathered 'hundreds' of children while serving in Haiti - including with children who sold sex for food, report finds

Chris Dyer
Daily Mail
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 22:28 UTC
un_haiti
A soldier of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) peacekeeping contingent walking past a pig while patrolling in the Cite Soleil slum of Port-au-Prince in 2014 in a file image
  • UN peacekeepers fathered hundreds of babies with Haitian women, a report said
  • A study by the University of Birmingham found girls as young as 11 were 'traded'
  • After their children were born, the young mothers were 'left to a life of poverty'
  • Academic said it was impossible to know exactly how many wereimpregnated
Peacekeepers of the United Nations had 'hundreds' of babies with women in Haiti before abandoning the young mothers, a new report has claimed.

The study into the UN mission in the disaster-hit Caribbean country said girls as young as 11 were left pregnant after being sexually abused.

Some of the girls were traded for 'a few coins' in order to get food and would have sex with the peacekeepers so they could survive, the British academic-led study found.

After their children were born, the young mothers were left to a life of poverty, according to the Times.

Comment: Peacekeepers? More like predators.

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Snakes in Suits

Whistleblower claims that LDS Church stockpiled $100 billion in charitable donations, dodged taxes

Paul Glader
Religion Unplugged
Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:40 UTC
Temple Square
© Temple Square in Salt Lake City
A whistleblower complaint filed at the Internal Revenue Service in November by a knowledgeable church member alleges that a non-profit supporting organization controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used member tithes to amass more than $100 billion in a set of investment funds and the Church misled members about uses of the money.

The complaint may be the most important look at LDS finances in decades, a window into one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the United States and the world. Details of the IRS filing reveal financial assets largely hidden from the church's membership (often known as "Mormons") and the public view.

The 74-page document filed with the IRS and obtained by Religion Unplugged shows that Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc. (EPA) owned assets under management grew to more than $100 billion from $10 billion in the past 22 years, fueled by a mix of investment strategy and tithe money from church members.
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Bizarro Earth

Mother says dressing like her six-year-old daughter makes her feel young

Jo Tweedy
Daily Mail
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:05 UTC
mother dresses like daughter
A mother has revealed how she dresses herself and her daughter in identical clothes when they go out together - because she says it makes her feel young again.Mother-of-one Melissa Hardy, from Southport, Merseyside, explains that she grew envious of her daughter Elizabeth's colourful wardrobe a couple of years ago and decided to try and emulate the youngster's style. What began as buying a few outfits that were similar to ones her daughter owned has now escalated into the duo going 'matchy matchy' whenever they can.

The business owner said that while she never imagined it would turn into a regular thing, little Elizabeth loved it so much that the mum-and-daughter duo rarely step out with differenc now 'twin' together all the time.

Comment: It wasn't all that long ago that children aspired to emulate adults. This is natural and fundamental to growing up. In these backward times, however, we see this repeating pattern of adults emulating children and looking to children for direction.

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Bullseye

Slovakian Jewish cemetery: Almost 60 graves vandalized 'worse than during WWII'


RT
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 15:10 UTC
Jewishcemetary
© Facebook/Namestovo Jewish cemeteryNamestovo Jewish Cemetary
At least 59 tombstones were overturned and smashed into pieces by unknown vandals at a Jewish cemetery in Slovakia. Caretakers of the graveyard said they had never seen such a vicious attack, even under Nazi occupation.

The incident occurred at the Jewish cemetery in the northern Slovak town of Namestovo. The destruction was noticed on Monday and it was not immediately clear when the destructive spree itself occurred.
Graves
© Facebook/Namestovo Jewish cemetery
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Bad Guys

Kentucky Gov. Beshear to restore voting rights to over 100,000 former felons

Dareh Gregorian
NBC News
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 18:53 UTC
Beshear
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced in his inaugural address Tuesday that he'll sign an executive order this week restoring voting rights to more than 100,000 people who've been convicted of felonies.

"My faith teaches me to treat others with dignity and respect. My faith also teaches me forgiveness," Beshear said in a speech outside the state Capitol in Frankfort.

"That's why on Thursday I will sign an executive order restoring voting rights to over a hundred thousand men and women who have done wrong in the past but are doing right now. They deserve to participate in our great democracy," the Democrat declared.

"By taking this step, by restoring these voting rights, we declare that everyone counts in Kentucky. We all matter."
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Yellow Vest

Dutch farmers, construction workers protest insane environmental policies driving them out of business

Mike Corder
AP
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
dutch farmer protest
From border crossings in the east to a steel factory in the west, Dutch farmers and construction workers protested Wednesday against the government pollution policies they say are driving them out of business.

Farmers took to the roads in their tractors, blocking a major highway at the border with Germany. They also parked in the center of The Hague and in front of the entrance to a steel mill near the North Sea coast, Dutch police and media reported.

The Dutch protests are part of a wave of demonstrations in Europe that also includes unions in France who are upset over French President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plans. Also Wednesday, opponents of legislation in Poland that would give the government the power to fire or fine judges are expected to take to the streets.

Comment: Protests against government mandated eco-insanity are erupting throughout Europe: See also: RT provides some tweets showing footage of the protest:









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X

Bronx girl seen kidnapped in video admits it was a hoax

Edgar Sandoval
New York Times
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 17:43 UTC
Karol Sanchez
© Dennis A. Clark
The grainy black and white video showed a nightmarish scene in the Bronx.

A mother and her 16-year-old daughter were walking down a quiet street on Monday night when two men appeared and dragged the teenager into a vehicle.

New Yorkers were captivated for hours by the news on Tuesday, after an Amber Alert had been issued and video of the kidnapping spread online.

At first, there was good news: The girl, Karol Sanchez, had been found, unharmed.

Hours later, more disconcerting information surfaced: Karol confessed that it was all a hoax that stemmed from her difficult relationship with her mother, according to two police officials.

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