Society's ChildS


Toys

If Joker met Jordan Peterson

Dan Sanchez
Foundation for Economic Education
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 00:01 UTC
jordan peterson joker
What does it take to turn an ordinary person into a monster? To create a mass shooter, a terrorist, a Joker?

According to Joker himself, "One bad day."

That's how he tells his own story in Batman: The Killing Joke, a 1988 graphic novel by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. This classic origin story heavily influenced the controversial new Joker film.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
USA

America is a dictatorship by the rich - so why does no other writer refer to it as "the US regime"?

Eric Zuesse
Sott.net
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 06:03 UTC
prison cell
I was shocked to find that a Google search of the phrase "the U.S. regime" indicates that I am the only writer who refers to "the U.S. regime." Is the United States really more democratic than this description of the political reality in the UK (which doesn't appear to be at all democratic)? Apparently, the universal presupposition (other than by this writer) is that the mere formalisms of democracy assure that a government is democratic, and that therefore the U.S. is automatically a democracy — its Government is democratic (because its Constitution is), not a dictatorship. However, ever since the pathbreaking Gilens and Page study in 2014 (the first-ever scientific analysis of whether or not the U.S. is a democracy), that presupposition is clearly false regarding the U.S. Government. That study (superbly summarized here) showed the U.S. Government doesn't represent its nation's public, "the people." The opening three words of the document that is the very embodiment of this nation's formalisms, the U.S. Constitution, are "We the People ..." making unequivocally clear whom this nation's Government must represent and serve. However, the Gilens and Page study proves that the U.S. Constitution is fundamentally violated, in practice, by today's U.S. Government, which instead represents and serves only the few wealthiest: America's aristocracy. Furthermore, a study by Jason Barabas, published two years later, found that the situation has been getting worse — not better — ever since World War II ended in 1945. Moreover, even as early as 2005, Martin Gilens of Princeton was able to publish a paper documenting (just to use his own words, here):

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Books

Germany marks fall of Berlin Wall but forgets lessons if DDR says US 'socialist defector'

Victor Grossman
RT
Sat, 09 Nov 2019 11:02 UTC
Brandenburg
© Global Look Press / Jürgen SchwarzFILE PHOTO: Fireworks are seen at New Year's Eve celebration at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, on January 1,1990, less than a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Germany celebrating 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall is seen as a moment of unity. Yet, lessons East Germany once had to offer were cast aside, a US-born publicist and author, who defected to East Germany in 1952, said.

Following the fall of the wall, which was seen as the most vivid manifestation of Europe's division during the Cold War era, the Germans - and arguably the rest of the world with them - happily and unquestionably embraced the ideas of western capitalism in hopes it would offer a bright future for them.

Yet, the reality they found themselves in turned out to be much less secure, even if it made them a little bit wealthier, Victor Grossman, a US-born veteran journalist, who fled from McCarthyist persecution to East Germany in 1952, believes.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Boat

Meet 'Whaledimir', a 'spy beluga whale' for the Russian Navy


Sputnik News
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 22:19 UTC
Whaledimir, the beluga whale
© Sputnik News
'Whaledimir,' the beluga whale that made headlines in Norwegian media this spring amid speculation that he may be a super-secret 'spy whale' for the Russian Navy, appears to have made it into the news again.

Footage of a beluga whale playing rugby with a group of South African sailors near the Arctic Circle went viral this week, with the video viewed over 19.5 million times on Facebook, and millions of times more on Twitter and YouTube.


The fascinating clip shows the beluga bringing a rugby ball to the hands of a man onboard the small Gemini Craft boat, who then throws it, with the whale giving chase. The beluga is then seen picking up the ball in its mouth, swimming toward the boat, and handing the ball back to the men.

The footage, filmed aboard a South African marine research vessel outside Hammerfest, northern Norway, has led to the renewal of speculation in some quarters about whether the beluga was really Whaledimir, the alleged 'Russian spy whale' named after the Russian president.
Read More...
Star of David

Hypocrisy alert: IDF congratulates itself on Twitter for donating wigs to cancer victims while Israel blocks Gazans from treatment


Al Jazeera
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 21:29 UTC
IDF donate hair cancer
© Screengrab/Twitterhe Israeli army's post on soldiers donating their hair for cancer patients was described as insincere by critics
Social media users have called out the Israeli army for a Twitter post celebrating two female soldiers for cutting off their hair for a good cause.

The Israeli army said the pair donated their hair to make wigs for cancer patients, and described it as "a beautiful act of kindness". A picture of the two soldiers, identified as Noam and Inbal, shows them smiling and holding their freshly cut hair.

But critics pointed out the irony of the post, reminding the Israeli army that they regularly deny thousands of cancer patients from the Gaza Strip permission to travel for treatment.

"Nothing says kindness like forcing cancer patients to die in an open air prison in Gaza," Remi Kenazi, a Palestinian-American poet based in New York, responded on Twitter.

Comment: The only saving grace of the IDF's dismal public relations efforts on social media, is the rich fund of material it provides to mock and expose the racist Israeli regime.

Read More...
Pirates

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


The Connexion
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 18:37 UTC

Comment: This is completely outrageous.



'Punishing people for crime they have not committed is wrong', campaigner insists
adoptions children
A British businessman who lives in France is one of several people who regularly help women to flee the UK to give birth abroad and keep their babies.

Ian Josephs told Connexion he got involved after learning of a woman's case while he was a county councillor in Kent.

He receives several calls a day after women contact him through his website (forced-adoption.com). He gives advice and pays for the mothers to leave the UK.

They mainly travel to France or Spain. Ireland is another destination.

Mr Josephs, 87, said:
"Every woman should be given the chance to raise her child. While they are still pregnant, they can leave the country. The UK system is totally unfair: it is based on what may potentially happen in the future. In what other circumstances is someone judged for a crime they have not committed? People can't believe it if I say one reason given for a child to be removed is a potential future risk of emotional abuse. People say I may be helping people who go on to abuse a child but we are talking about predictions. The women cannot hide their birth in the new country and they enter into the system there. They don't go off the radar."



Comment: He is making this up, surely?


Comment: A SOTT commenter recently complained that we spend too much time publishing stories about 'social engineering' and its consequences in the UK.

Evidently, that country is 'further down the road' of said social engineering.

Here's the French TV documentary mentioned above:

Stolen Children of England, Part 1


Stolen Children of England, Part 2


And here's a talk about this abomination by the above-mentioned activist, Ian Josephs:


Check out Josephs' website, forced-adoption.com, where he lays out what has been happening in the UK for years, and what parents can do about it.

This madness was apparently started under the Blair regime and has now grown into a billion £ market. Ostensibly, it was done to 'protect' children from harmful family situations, but that was just the cover for something completely different. As Josephs explains in his video talk, the victims aren't necessarily the poorest - the fostering industry targets the most vulnerable.

In 2015, RT UK picked up the scent and published the following documentary, which tells the stories of many families' efforts - some successful, the vast majority not - to get their children back from the state and whichever strangers it sold them off to...




Read More...
Brick Wall

The Berlin Wall is a reminder of what happens after we 'smash capitalism'

Ryan McMaken
Mises Institute
Fri, 08 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Berlin Wall
© unknownThe Berlin Wall
This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Decades later, the wall remains a symbol of the violence employed by socialist states, and a reminder that the egalitarian workers' paradise of East Germany was so hated by its residents that the state had to build a wall to keep residents in.

It is ironic, then, that only a generation later, Americans are becoming increasingly enamored with socialism. According to a recent Gallup poll, 43 percent of Americans say socialism is a "good thing." It's unclear how many of those respondents can actually define socialism. Some believe socialism to simply be policies that promote equality. Others define it using the more historically orthodox view: government ownership of the means of production.

There is no doubt, however, that a vocal and not-insignificant minority — of the sort represented by Jacobin magazine, for example — advocates for the total destruction of capitalism.

When American democratic socialists who want to "smash capitalism" say they like "socialism," of course, they are likely to add that they don't want the sort of socialism they had in East Germany. They want kindly, happy, well-lit socialism. Not the gray, dour, socialism of the Eastern Bloc.
Read More...
Arrow Up

Videos: Morales condemns 'military dictatorship style' attack on TV, radio stations endangering journalists


RT
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 02:50 UTC
BolivianProtest
© Reuters/Carlos Garcia RawlinsProtest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales in La Paz, Bolivia, November 9, 2019.
Bolivian leader Evo Morales slammed attacks on state media that saw rioters forcing journalists to leave their offices unless they want them to be trashed. In a separate incident, a radio chief was tied to a tree.

Bolivia TV (BTV) and Patria Nueva (RPN) radio stations were forced to cut off their broadcasts after a rowdy crowd of 300 protesters descended on their HQ in La Paz, effectively placing it under siege on Saturday.

The demonstrators, reportedly enraged over the way the protests that have gripped the nation since mid-October are being portrayed by state media, demanded journalists vacate the premises if they do not want their offices to be raided. Forty employees of both BTV and RPN eventually caved in to the demands and left the building as they were heckled by chanting protesters.
Read More...
Arrow Up

Baghdad protests: 4 killed, 100 injured as fresh clashes with security forces intensify


RT
Sat, 09 Nov 2019 17:24 UTC
man injured protest
© Reuters/Alaa al-Marjani
At least four protesters were killed and scores injured in clashes with security forces in the capital as demonstrations over government corruption and failure to provide better living conditions for Iraqis seriously escalated.

The number of dead and injured on Saturday was reported by medical and security officials who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity. Three of the dead were shot, and the fourth died after being struck on the head with a tear gas canister.

Earlier Saturday, security forces using live ammunition cleared demonstrators from three of the main bridges over the Tigris, pushing protesters further back from the Green Zone which has been a focal point of the unrest since it kicked off a month ago. Some demonstrators reportedly threw molotov cocktails during the clashes.


Comment: See also:

Read More...
Attention

Hong Kong police and firefighters turn against each other under the stress of the protests


RT
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 19:47 UTC
protesters
© REUTERS / Kim Kyung-HoonPeople point at a riot police officer as he detains a protester at a shopping mall.
Months of disruptive protests are taking their toll on Hong Kong's public services, pitting those who are supposed to serve and protect against each other, as two incidents in the span of less than a week highlight.

The city's senior police and firefighter officials had to come up, twice lately, with joint statements on how their men should communicate better and not clash with each other.

The employees in both departments experience "tremendous stress upon working under such chaotic conditions," the latter of the statements read. It referred to the ongoing violent protests in Hong Kong which kicked off in the summer.

One of the incidents happened Saturday last week as Hong Kong police dispersed protesters on Connaught Road in Central district, according to local media. A tear gas canister fired by the officers accidentally hit a fire truck, which was called to the scene to douse fires that protesters often start with petrol bombs.
Read More...