Society's ChildS


Airplane

Russian gun activist Maria Butina released from prison, to return to Moscow


RT
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:13 UTC
Maria Butina
© Global Look Press/Russian Embassy in the USAMaria Butina
Maria Butina is finally coming back home, after spending over a year behind bars in a bizarre case of anti-Russian hysteria that saw the gun rights activist libeled in the media and locked up as an "unregistered foreign agent."

She is expected to leave a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida and transfer to a migrant center in Miami on Friday, Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov confirmed. The same day Butina would board a plane to Moscow set to touch down in the Russian capital on Saturday morning.

Butina was sentenced by a US federal judge for 18 months in April after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent without registration. Antonov said that he hopes Butina's belated homecoming would "put an end to the most difficult period in her life," and wished the 30-year-old reunite with her family and loved ones as soon as possible.

Comment: See also:

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Dollar

Ex-Trump admin. student loan official says system is 'fundamentally broken', calls for debt forgiveness


RT
Thu, 24 Oct 2019 21:17 UTC
Student loan protesters
© Global Look/Marshall Mantel
A Trump administration student loan official has left his post, blasting a "broken" loan system and calling for college debt forgiveness. Though it's is a popular progressive view, he's planning to run for office as Republican.

A. Wayne Johnson stepped down from his post at the Office of Federal Student Aid on Thursday, offering a blistering critique of a system that has saddled the average borrower with tens of thousands of dollars in debt that cannot be canceled or, increasingly, repaid. Americans owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, and 40 percent of them are expected to default on it by 2023. Johnson told the Wall Street Journal:
"When ... somebody has $40,000 in student loan debt and, because of forbearances or deferments and the accrual of interest, they wind up with $120,000, you have to step back and say this is fundamentally broken. The time has come for us to end and stop this insanity."
Johnson wants to replace the existing system with a $50,000 credit for students looking to attend college, a credit that does not require repayment. For those already encumbered by debt, he'd forgive $50,000 of it, which would cancel out the balances of some 37 million borrowers. Those who've already repaid the money would receive a $50,000 tax credit. If that sounds like a campaign promise, Johnson is running for the Georgia Senate seat that will be left vacant at the end of the year when Republican Johnny Isakson retires.

Comment: See also:

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People 2

Police commander and his wife arrested, ran a child sex ring

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Cynthia Perkins and Dennis Perkins
© TheFreeThoughtProject.comCynthia Perkins and Dennis Perkins
A high level Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office deputy — who commanded the SWAT team — has been arrested this week for unspeakable crimes against children. Dennis Perkins, 44, and and his wife Cynthia Perkins, 34, are accused of multiple counts of child rape and the production of child pornography, among other disturbing charges.

On Wednesday, the couple was arrested after a months-long criminal probe headed up by the Louisiana Attorney General's Office. After the arrest, footage of the alleged child rapist was posted to Twitter, showing him being led into prison in shackles.
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Eye 1

Punishing Assange sends 'we will get you' warning to other journalists, Roger Waters tells RT


RT
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 17:01 UTC
Assange protester
© Hannah Mckay / ReutersA protester wears a Julian Assange mask outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London, June 14, 2019.
British rock legend and Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters told RT that by going after WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange governments want to scare off journalists and whistleblowers from exposing the truth.

Those persecuting Assange are "applying the heaviest possible penalty they can on him for stepping out of line and doing his job as a journalist," Waters told RT's Afshin Rattansi on his show Going Underground.
They're clearly trying as hard as they can to kill him... Julian Assange is becoming a warning to other journalists that if you tell the truth - particularly to power - 'we will get you.'

Comment: See also: Don't railroad Assange to Virginia

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Arrow Down

Chinese team disqualified for 'extensive cheating' at Military World Games

Ben Westcott
CNN
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 17:42 UTC
China flag
© AFP 2015/ Mark RALSTON
A Chinese team has been kicked out of its own Military World Games after other countries alerted judges to "extensive cheating" by the hosts.

Originally the Chinese athletes had taken the first, second and fourth places in the women's middle-distance orienteering competition, as well as second place in the men's, during the race on Sunday, according to a statement by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).

But after a complaint by six European countries, including Russia and France, judges discovered that Chinese runners had been assisted by local spectators. This included onlookers placing markings and preparing special paths in the terrain for Chinese athletes, which only those competitors were aware of.
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Handcuffs

US charges six investment bankers over insider trading scheme

Chris Prentice
Reuters
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 17:33 UTC
wall street
U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday they had charged six members of an insider trading ring who worked for firms including Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N), Moelis and Centerview Partners and allegedly booked tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has arrested three members of the international ring and unsealed four separate indictments in recent days.

The bankers and others all booked trading profits off nonpublic information related to deals including acquisitions, the prosecutors said in a statement.
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Bullseye

It's 'unthinkable & absurd' to jail Catalan pro-independence leaders, former UN special rapporteur tells RT


RT
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 17:37 UTC
catalan protest
© Jon Nazca / Reuters
The prosecution of Catalan pro-independence politicians by Spain violates European law and is simply "absurd," a former high-ranking democracy and human rights expert at the UN has told RT.

"Political prisoners in Spain... It's absolutely unthinkable!" Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, who served as the UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, said in an interview with Rafael Correa on RT Spanish.

He branded the jailing of the leaders of the Catalan independence movement "absurd," especially since the "Catalans have been protesting for many years in a peaceful, democratic fashion."

Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia voted in favor of independence in October 2017. Madrid called the vote illegal and sent in a massive police force to disrupt the referendum.
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NPC

Postmodern hysteria: GQ magazine's 'new masculinity' is men in make-up and dresses


RT
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 17:33 UTC
male feminist
© Elva Etienne Getty Images
I'm not sure who asked it to, but GQ magazine has used its November issue to redefine the modern man. It's put a bunch of men in make-up and dresses and called it the 'new masculinity.'

GQ stands for 'Gentlemen's Quarterly' but 'gentlemen' are a toxic brand in the post-Weinstein world, and just don't sell as many overpriced clothes, watches, and aftershave as they used to. Hence why GQ appears to be trying to distance itself from the gender that's been buying it for decades.

GQ is only adding to the confusion because this 'new masculinity' looks a lot like old 'femininity'. And frankly speaking, if anyone at GQ thinks men in make-up is new, then they should go and watch some heavy metal from the 1980s.

GQ editor Will Welch has this message for all those men out there who didn't even know that they needed redefining. He says 'new masculinity' is "very simple. It's I know who I am, and I respect who you are."
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NPC

Programming is complete: More than half of Americans want government-imposed press restrictions & curbs on free speech


RT
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 17:27 UTC
sjw protest
© Global Look / Michael Candelori
Some Americans are having second thoughts about the First Amendment, a new survey has found. Over half are calling for it to be rewritten, and some 61 percent believe there should be limits on freedom of speech.

The First Amendment, which guarantees Americans freedom of speech, should be overhauled to reflect current cultural norms, according to 51 percent of the respondents to a survey published on Wednesday by the Campaign for Free Speech. The campaign is hoping to call attention to the dire state of Americans' preeminent civil right with the poll, which breaks down opposition along gender, race, class, and educational lines.

The younger respondents were, the more they supported overhauling the law to restrict speech. However, college graduates were the least likely of all educational groupings to support the restrictions, indicating that the increasingly regulated speech environment at American universities may be backfiring in some cases and producing adults who cherish their rights because they know what it's like to be deprived of them.
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Bulb

Bright idea! School sees behavior changes, grade improvements after complete ban on cell phones

Abbie Wightwick
Wales Online
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 17:20 UTC
Ysgol John Bright Headteacher Ann Webb
Ysgol John Bright Headteacher Ann Webb
A school said its total ban on pupils using mobile phones has improved exam results and behaviour. The ban, which has been running for a year, has "made a massive difference" said Ann Webb, headteacher at Ysgol John Bright, in Llandudno .

The strict rule applies at any time during the school day, even during breaks or at lunchtime. Staff are also asked not to use mobile phones in front of pupils. Mrs Webb said pupils are now more sociable and concentrate better in lessons. And she claimed that the ban, which was introduced in 2018, helped pupils get better GCSE and A level results this summer.

At GCSE level, the school saw a 10% improvement on last year's results with nearly a quarter of pupils getting five A* or A grades. At A-level 79 per cent of students achieved A* to C grades with 62 per cent getting at least one A and 11 per cent three As.
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