Society's ChildS


Attention

Pakistani lawyers storm cardiac hospital, clash with riot police & doctors, leaving 3 patients dead


RT
Thu, 12 Dec 2019 04:10 UTC
Pakistan
© Reuters / Mohsin RazaA lawyer throws an object towards police near a vehicle set on fire outside the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore, Pakistan December 11, 2019.
At least 3 patients were killed after scores of lawyers clad in business suits besieged a hospital in Pakistan, storming the building and attacking staff and patients alike. The crowd was eventually dispersed by police tear gas.

The angry mob descended upon the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore on Wednesday, attacking just about everyone in sight as the lawyers ransacked hospital wards, which forced staff to leave patients unattended, some in critical condition.

The number killed in the brawl could increase from the three officially acknowledged casualties - with Pakistan's Young Doctors Association claiming that up to 12 people might have lost their lives.
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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Andre Vltchek: I Never Saw a World So Fragmented!

Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
protestors
It is amazing how easily, without resistance, the Western empire is managing to destroy "rebellious" countries that are standing in its way.

I work in all corners of the planet, wherever Kafkaesque "conflicts" get ignited by Washington, London or Paris.

What I see and describe are not only those horrors which are taking place all around me; horrors that are ruining human lives, destroying villages, cities and entire countries. What I try to grasp is that on the television screens and on the pages of newspapers and the internet, the monstrous crimes against humanity somehow get covered (described), but the information becomes twisted and manipulated to such an extent, that readers and viewers in all parts of the world end up knowing close to nothing about their own suffering, and/or of the suffering of the other.

For instance, in 2015 and in 2019, I tried to sit down and reason with the Hong Kong rioters. It was a truly revealing experience! They knew nothing, absolutely zero about the crimes the West has been committing in places such as Afghanistan, Syria or Libya. When I tried to explain to them, how many Latin American democracies Washington had overthrown, they thought I was a lunatic. How could the good, tender, 'democratic' West murder millions, and bathe entire continents in blood? That is not what they were taught at their universities. That is not what the BBC, CNN or even the China Morning Post said and wrote.

Look, I am serious. I showed them photos from Afghanistan and Syria; photos stored in my phone. They must have understood that this was original, first hand stuff. Still, they looked, but their brains were not capable of processing what they were being shown. Images and words; these people were conditioned not to comprehend certain types of information.

But this is not only happening in Hong Kong, a former British colony.
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Smiley

#fridgegate: All the best reactions to British PM Boris Johnson hiding from questions in a fridge

Mia Jankowicz
The New European
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 15:45 UTC
Boris Johnson ducking into a milk storage unit has been gleefully mocked on social media
© ITVBoris Johnson ducking into a milk storage unit has been gleefully mocked on social media.
Nobody woke up this morning expecting to tweet about the prime minister leaping into a milk fridge, but thanks to Boris Johnson's cowardice around journalists we now have the hashtag #fridgegate with less than 24 hours before the nation goes to the polls.

Boris Johnson had been hoping for some positive press from his latest stunt, assisting on a milk round - but that all unravelled when his aide swore at the Good Morning Britain team on live television and the PM ducked into a nearby milk refrigerator in efforts to get away.

Twitter did what it does best and roundly mocked the prime minister.

CityMetric editor Jonn Elledge kicked things off by saying: "A senior Tory source tells me that, outside the liberal metropolitan bubble, the people of Britain hide in fridges all the time."

Jeremy Corbyn, campaigning in Middlesbrough, had his say - pointing out that he wasn't participating in staged photo-ops, nor hiding in fridges - and even did a passable impression of Johnson.


Comment: Two months ago at the Tory party conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised UK's Good Morning Britain viewers that he would appear on the show to be interviewed by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. During the last day of campaigning for the party leaders ahead of the general election, correspondent Jonathan Swain attempted to talk to Boris:


It wasn't the first time the PM had avoided potentially awkward interviews during the election campaign. Here's what BBC presenter Andrew Neil had to say about Bojo's avoidance of his show:


'Where's the grilling you gave Corbyn?' UK TV breakfast show hosts slammed online for giving BoJo easy ride with 'cosy chat'

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Take 2

Anti-Assad propaganda film 'For Sama' is beautifully made and very deceptive

Rick Sterling
Dissident Voice
Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
For Sama
The documentary movie "For Sama" has won a host of awards in Europe and North America. Its producers and protagonists, Syrians Waad Kateab and her husband Dr. Hamza Kateab plus English film-maker Edward Watts, have received gushing praise. And the awards will probably keep coming.

Unfortunately, behind a human interest story, the movie "For Sama" is propaganda: biased, misleading, and politically partisan.

Hiding Basic Facts about Aleppo

"For Sama" is a full length documentary with a moving personal story. It combines a story of young love and the birth of a child - Sama - in the midst of war. That makes it compelling and personal. But the movie fundamentally distorts the reality of east Aleppo in the years 2012 - 2016. While the personal narrative may be true, the context and environment is distorted and hidden. The viewer will have no idea of the reality:

* Most residents of east Aleppo did not want the militants to take over their neighborhoods. The short video, Nine Days from my Window, shows the takeover in one neighborhood. Many civilians fled the east side of Aleppo after the "rebels" took over. Those who stayed on were mostly militants (and families) plus those who had nowhere else to go or thought they could wait it out.

Comment: If this film reminds you of the propaganda piece about the White Helmets that Hollywood was championing some months ago, that it because it is probably paid for by the same Western interests for the same purpose of deceiving the Western public into demonizing the legitimate and democratically elected government of Syria.

See also:

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Propaganda

The woke mainstream media are apologists for far-left authoritarian rule and the Security State

William L. Anderson
Mises Institute
Mon, 09 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
the new york times
In an earlier article, I looked at the rise of "Woke Capitalism" and the challenges that this development presents for a free society (or, to be accurate, a somewhat free society). For the time being we probably do not need to worry about the establishment of the People's Republic of Google, but a much greater problem than left-wing business corporations has invaded our body politic: The Woke Mainstream Media.

It is one thing for Nike to discontinue a line of sneakers because the Betsy Ross flag offended someone or for PayPal to refuse to serve as a pay conduit for a conservative organization. One may decry the narrow-minded thinking from company executives, but they are private outfits that have — and should have — the privilege of refusing to do business with certain people — and if they make a bad economic choice, the company will pay financially. And, as I pointed out in the article, corporations are not governments, which really can kill and cage people who are helpless against state-sponsored predations.

Private sector Wokeness is not limited to profit-making businesses, however, as the giants of American media now are subscribing to the same hard-left political and social theories, and this development has become a much greater problem to American society and American liberty because of the symbiotic relationship between media and government. While Google's squelching of libertarian speech within its ranks might make it unpopular with libertarians, nonetheless, the company has taken no one's freedom away.

#woke
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Yellow Vest

France's nationwide strikes enter 7th day, protesters not ready to back down in the face of Macron's controversial pension reform


RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 17:03 UTC
Edouard Philippe
© Reuters / Vincent KesslerStriking French rail workers watch as PM Edouard Philippe outlines pension reform plans
With mass protests against Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plan entering their seventh day, French workers and unions signaled that they are not ready to back down in their efforts to have the new scheme completely scrapped.

In a much-anticipated speech on Wednesday, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe resisted protesters' demands and said he was "totally determined" to implement the "fair" plan which would replace a fragmented, but generous, system of more than 42 separate state pensions with a new universal points-based scheme.

What's in the plan?

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Ambulance

Scores of wounded from attack near US Bagram AFB in Afghanistan


CBS News
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:15 UTC
Baghram bombing
© Mohammad Ismail/ReutersAfghan security forces take position at the site of an attack in a U.S. military air base in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, on December 11, 2019.
A powerful suicide bombing targeted an under-construction medical facility on Wednesday near Bagram Air Base, the main American base north of the Afghan capital, the U.S. military said. Two civilians were killed and more than 70 people wounded.

The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attack and Afghan officials said all the insurgents were killed. The Bagram airfield was not in danger, said Colonel Sonny Leggett. The facility is being rebuilt to help the Afghan people who live in the area, the U.S. military said.

The Taliban statement denied any civilian casualties and claimed the attackers had managed to enter the Bagram base, even penetrating barracks used by coalition forces.

Outside the sprawling base, several homes, mostly belonging to poor Afghans, were destroyed. A large mosque in the area was also badly damaged.

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Light Saber

The trouble is not with the Jews, but with my accusers - Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek
RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:08 UTC
zizek article independent headline
© Screenshot/The Independent
My latest article for the Independent provoked a wide campaign against me all around the world, so I wrote a reply. The paper rejected the publication of it even as one of the readers' responses to my text on their website.

My text on the Independent website is followed by over 50 responses, mostly brutal attacks on me.

I am grateful to RT for their readiness to make my reply available to the public.

I began my comment for Independent with a reference to Sartre's claim that being attacked from both sides is a sign that maybe you are on the right path, and reactions to it seem to confirm Sartre's lesson. Ferocious attacks on me go up to proclaiming me "a philosophical mastermind of European anti-Semitism" - nothing new in this, years ago I was already attacked as proposing a new holocaust.

Comment: RT follows up:
Are you allowed to criticize Israel in UK media anymore?

[...]

In a recent article for the Independent, Zizek criticized Israel for its aggressive settlement policies in the occupied West Bank, and argued that such criticism of Israeli policies does not make someone an anti-Semite.

Within the text, the philosopher used a very inconsiderate turn of phrase - "the trouble with Jews." Immediately, a crowd of outraged commenters rose up, and fully proving Zizek's point, the paper removed the offending phrase and replaced it with "the trouble with the settlement project."

Zizek himself admits it was a poor choice of words, but when he asked the Independent to run a follow-up explanation, the paper refused - and RT is the only outlet that gave Zizek the floor.
"I was wrong, I committed an unpardonable mistake in using the phrase 'the trouble with Jews'... which effectively can be understood as implying that some 'trouble' pertains to the very identity of being a Jew."
[...]

The words were taken out of context, he says. In the original, they followed a reference to French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who said modern Jews had chosen "the path of rooting" - and "the Jews" Zizek refers to are those trying to "root" on occupied land.

Zizek believes it's part of a wider campaign against left-wing politicians and intellectuals to equate any criticism of Israel, as a state, to anti-Semitism.

[...]

Refusing to give Zizek the right to respond to his critics, the Independent cited election coverage crunch and how the debate would be a "tricky space" to wade into. Far from letting Zizek run a follow-up piece, the philosopher was even barred from posting a retort to the many "brutal attacks" he says were launched against him in the paper's comment section.

Spearheading the outrage against Zizek and his piece was Honest Reporting - an organization that, characteristically, conflates anti-Semitism and dislike of Israeli policies, and routinely criticizes media outlets for failing to adhere to the Israeli government narrative on settlements, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinians and other points.


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Card - VISA

Is online banking leaving the poor behind?


RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 18:33 UTC
online banking graphic
© Pixabay
The global banking sector has been experiencing a major shakeup lately, with banks cutting jobs and closing branches to save money.

Boom Bust is joined by Bartlett Naylor, financial advocate at Public Citizen, to discuss the future of the online banking trend.

He says there were about 80,000 bank branches in the US before the financial crisis of 2008 and that number is slowly falling by 2-3 percent every year.

Comment:

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Bad Guys

Absolute power: How WADA became the judge, jury and executioner of world sports


RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 18:51 UTC
wada
© Reuters / Christinne Muschi
Russia's four-year sporting ban has demonstrated the extent of the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) ability to decide the fate of entire nations in the world of sport. How did a single bureaucracy gain such absolute power?

Earlier this week, WADA banned Russia from hosting or competing in international sporting events for four years, over alleged manipulation of data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory. The ban covers next summer's Olympics in Japan and the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It will affect thousands of professional athletes who never took any banned substances and only dreamed to win in a jersey with the Russian flag while their national anthem plays.

Russians will still be able to compete at international sports events as neutrals, but only if they get WADA approval - meaning that they now have to prove their innocence. Moscow called the WADA decision politically motivated "collective punishment" and is now preparing to challenge it at the top sports court.

How was one single entity allowed to accumulate such power, defining the fate of entire nations in the world of sports, without an external system of checks and balances?
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