Society's ChildS


Star of David

Palestinian olive harvest, Israeli propaganda

Ramona Wadi
Middle East Monitor
Thu, 07 Nov 2019 02:20 UTC
Palestinian woman olives
© Reuters archiveThe olive harvest is a means to make a living and a way to protect Palestinian land.
The olive harvest in Palestine is an annual reminder of Israeli settler vandalism and violence. In 2018, the Israeli NGO B'Tselem reported on the extensive damage inflicted upon the olive groves, with one Palestinian farmer explaining that, "It looked like the trees had been slaughtered." Meanwhile, the discrepancies regarding freedom of movement - unrestricted access for Israeli settlers juxtaposed against coordinated days for Palestinians to harvest - once again forces Palestinians into a silence which is not of their own making.

Knowing that filing complaints to the Israeli authorities yields no results, Palestinian farmers are forced to choose silence and a smaller harvest. "I only had three coordinated days left and I preferred to harvest the remaining trees," explained one.

Israel's military Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) would have the entire world believe otherwise. However, its latest propaganda video exposes two realities which the Israeli state has no intention of reversing: the ongoing restrictions on Palestinian movement, and settler violence as a complementary measure to the colonial state's dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Comment:



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Attention

Bot attack? 'Thousands' of newly-created generic Twitter accounts defend Bolivian 'right-wing coup'


RT
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 09:52 UTC
Bolivianflagwavers
© Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez
Evo Morales' resignation has apparently sparked an information battle on social media, with one journalist alleging that countless Twitter bots are spreading right-wing talking points about Bolivia's recent political upheaval.

"There are thousands of what are obviously bot accounts trolling anyone who tweets about the right-wing coup in Bolivia... There's a big operation going on here," tweeted Ben Norton, a journalist and assistant editor of the Grayzone Project. He noted that the accounts have formulaic handles consisting of a common name followed by a series of numbers. Screenshots show anti-Morales messages being posted by new accounts with only a handful of tweets.
Incredibly, his observation was bombarded by denials... from generic Twitter accounts created in November.

Comment: Will Twitter shut these fake accounts down? Not until sufficient damage is done.

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Sheriff

Swedish police reveal latest move to crack down on gang crime


The Local, Sweden
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:24 UTC
malmo police sweden
© Johan Nilsson/TTPolice investigating after a shooting in Malmö on Saturday.
Swedish police are assigning a special detail after a recent spate of shootings and explosions, which saw a 15-year-old boy shot dead in Malmö two days ago.

Mats Löfving, head of the police's national operations department Noa, on Sunday ordered police to treat the wave of violent crime in recent weeks as a so-called "special national incident".

This means creating a temporary task force that is given increased powers, access to resources and focuses only on the incident. Löfving appointed Stefan Hector, who led the police units that worked during the terror attack on Drottninggatan in Stockholm in 2017, to command the detail.

The focus is on "serious organized crime that culminates in homicides with shootings and the use of explosives", said Noa in a statement. More was to be revealed at a press conference on Monday.

The decision comes after a 15-year-old boy was shot dead in Malmö's Möllevångtorget square on Saturday evening, one of the busiest times of the week for the area's many bars and restaurants.

But it also follows an unprecedented increase in the use of explosives in Sweden, which has seen the national bomb squad called out to around 100 blasts this year - more than double of last year.

Comment: Sweden may still be idyllic when compared to other regions on the planet, but there's enough going on there to make one wonder just what is going on:

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Dollar

Fukushima to be reborn as $2.7bn wind and solar power hub

Shiko Ueda and Suguru Kurimoto
Asian Review
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 17:16 UTC
solar panels
© Pexels
Japan's northeastern prefecture of Fukushima, devastated during the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster, is looking to transform itself into a renewable energy hub, Nikkei has learned.

A plan is under way to develop 11 solar power plants and 10 wind power plants in the prefecture, on farmlands that cannot be cultivated anymore and mountainous areas from where population outflows continue.

The total cost is expected to be in the ballpark of 300 billion yen, or $2.75 billion, until the fiscal year ending in March 2024.

The government-owned Development Bank of Japan and private lender Mizuho Bank are among a group of financiers that have prepared a line of credit to support part of the construction cost.

The power generation available is estimated to be about 600 megawatts, or equivalent to two-thirds of a nuclear power plant. The produced electricity will be sent to the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The plan also envisions the construction of an 80-km wide grid within Fukushima to connect the generated power with the power transmission network of Tokyo Electric Power Co. That part of the project is expected to cost 29 billion yen.

Comment: Higher costs, less energy, more waste. Now that's progress.

For more on the myth of renewables:

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Airplane

Plane slides off icy runway at Chicago O'Hare Airport


RT
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 16:12 UTC
Plane window
© REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Terrified passengers could only hold on for dear life as their American Eagle flight touched down on the icy runway at Chicago's O'Hare Airport Monday morning before sliding off the tarmac amid blizzard-like conditions.

Miraculously, no one among the 38 passengers and three crew members was injured in the incident, and everyone on board was evacuated safely.
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Attention

Former Marine wanted in fatal shooting of Virginia man

Morgan Winsor
ABC News
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 04:40 UTC
Former Marine
A former Marine is wanted in the murder of his mother's boyfriend.

Rodney Brown, 54, was shot and killed on Saturday just before noon at his home in Hardy, Virginia, about 9 miles southeast of Roanoke. The following day, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office named Michael Alexander Brown, the son of Rodney Brown's live-in girlfriend, the suspect in his killing.

Michael Alexander Brown, 22, was serving as a combat engineer for the United States Marine Corps until around Oct. 18, when he deserted his post at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He has been seen in and around Virginia's Franklin County in the past two weeks, according to the sheriff's office.
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Vinyl

Extinction Rebellion releases music video showing Parliament burning, Downing Street flooded and MPs wearing gas masks

Jemma Carr
Daily Mail
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 14:10 UTC
XR song
Various mock clips are shown, including the houses of commons set on fire. A banner titled 'commons climate debate' appears with the words: 'Government benches mostly empty for debate inspired by schoolchildren's climate strike'
Extinction Rebellion is aiming to scoop the coveted Christmas number one slot with its debut song about climate change.


Comment: How much of all this dramatic posturing by certain members of the XR is for the "love of earth and humanity", and how much is it for a few bucks?

Climate activists including Extinction Rebellion to receive £500,000 from US philanthropists


The protest group has teamed up with four-man rock band The Jade Assembly to produce "Time for Change" which urges listeners to 'act now' on climate change 'before we're all dead'.

The track's video features footage from XR protests across the globe over the past six months, with a prominent focus on London.

The three-minute video starts with words flashing up reading 'this is not a drill' and 'act now'.

A mock news report then appears on a television which says: 'Breaking news, government declares: "Everything is fine".'

It then shows a doctored video of former Prime Minister Theresa May addressing the commons with a 'breaking news' banner underneath with the words: 'Government agrees to do absolutely nothing to avert environmental catastrophe.'

Mrs May can then be seen wearing a white pollution mask as two members of the cabinet behind her wear gas masks.

Various mock clips are then shown, including a flooded Downing Street and the houses of commons set on fire.

Comment: Through the choice of images for their song's video, Extinction Rebellion is making clear that their overall intention is destruction!

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Eye 1

Flashback Best of the Web: Medical Kidnapping is a Terrible Problem in the United Kingdom

Christina England
medicalkidnap.com
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:01 UTC
forced adoption protest england
Protesting forced adoption in the UK. Image from Facebook page 'Never Give Up'
In the UK, there has been a steady increase in the number of children taken into care for many years. Sadly, however, many of these children may have been needlessly taken away from loving families, families who are innocent of any wrongdoing.

One case to have hit the headlines recently is the case of Kerry McDougall. In April 2015, Mrs. McDougall, a 22 year-old woman with moderate learning difficulties, gave birth to a third child in Ireland, after having her first two children forcibly removed from her care because social workers believed that she was "too dumb" to be a mother.

The Mirror, reporting on the story, wrote:
"In 2010 Fife social workers shocked Britain by ruling Kerry, who used to have a cleft palate and has moderate learning difficulties, was unfit to wed or be a mum.

But Kerry and Mark defied them, marrying and fleeing to Ireland when she became pregnant with her first son.

They had another boy there and she and Mark were deemed fit parents by Irish social services, who removed their sons from their register.

But when the couple returned to Fife thinking they had proved themselves, their boys were handed to a foster family.

Close to tears, Kerry said: "I can't describe what it feels like to have your children taken away, screaming for you."

Comment: Apart from a smattering of media reports and TV mentions of this abominable practice in recent years, there is very little public-available information about it. Which is apparently by design: it's illegal for the victims to talk about what has happened to them.

See also: British State Has Stolen Thousands of Children From Families it Deems 'Potential Risk' - Hundreds of Pregnant Women Fleeing UK Shores

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Megaphone

Australia: 'Free Assange' protester scales Parliament demanding Wikileaks founder's release

Tom Stayner
SBS News
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 05:36 UTC
protester scales parliament assange
© AAPThe man shouted "Free Julian Assange" from the top of Parliament House.


A man demanding the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested after scaling the face of Parliament House.

A man has scaled Parliament House shouting "free Julian Assange" as he grasped the coat of arms before being arrested by police.

Former Wikileaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange remains behind bars in a London prison, fighting extradition to the United States.

The protester yelled "whistleblowers are not criminals" and "bring Julian home" in his attempt to draw public attention to the publisher's case.

Comment: The fact that Julian Assange is being murdered in slow motion by his captors is a massive scar on the facade of 'freedom' anywhere on the planet. Unfortunately, demonstrations like this generally do little to institute change.

See also:

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Red Flag

Think your DNA profile is private? A Florida judge just said otherwise

Kashmir Hill and Heather Murphy
The New York Times
Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:01 UTC
dna detective investigation flow chart
© Dion MBD


Privacy experts say a warrant granted in Florida could set a precedent, opening up all consumer DNA sites to law enforcement agencies across the country.

For police officers around the country, the genetic profiles that 20 million people have uploaded to consumer DNA sites represent a tantalizing resource that could be used to solve cases both new and cold. But for years, the vast majority of the data have been off limits to investigators. The two largest sites, Ancestry.com and 23andMe, have long pledged to keep their users' genetic information private, and a smaller one, GEDmatch, severely restricted police access to its records this year.

Last week, however, a Florida detective announced at a police convention that he had obtained a warrant to penetrate GEDmatch and search its full database of nearly one million users. Legal experts said that this appeared to be the first time a judge had approved such a warrant, and that the development could have profound implications for genetic privacy.

Comment: In a sense, we've all seen this coming for a long time. One can only assume that a time will come in the future, when the technology has advanced to great degree, where user-uploaded DNA information is no longer needed, and something as mundane as your home appliances capture your DNA which is easily accessed by law enforcement or other authorities. But in the meantime, this precedent is disturbing for everyone - not just those who have willingly uploaded their information.

See also:

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