Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

The West oppressed the third world for so long that it has became the third world itself

Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
homeless on street
Many have already noticed: The US really, really doesn't feel like the world leader, or even as a 'first world country'. Of course, I write that sarcastically, as I detest expressions like 'first world', and the 'third world'. But readers know what I mean.

Bridges, subways, inner cities, everything is crumbling, falling apart. When I used to live in New York City, more than two decades ago, returning from Japan was shocking: the US felt like a poor, deprived country, full of problems, misery, of confused and depressed people, homeless individuals; in short - desperados. Now, I feel the same when I land in the US after spending some time in China.

And it gets much worse. What the West used to accuse the Soviet Union of, is now actually clearly detectable in the United States and the United Kingdom themselves: surveillance is at every step, these days; in New York, London, Sydney, and even in the countryside. Every move a person makes, every purchase, every computer click, is registered; somewhere, somehow. And this monitoring is, mostly, not even illegal.

Speech is controlled by political correctness. Someone behind the scenes decides what is acceptable and what is not, what is desirable or not, and even what is permissible. You make one 'mistake' and you are out; from the teaching positions at the universities, or from the media outlets.

In such conditions, humor cannot thrive, and satire dies. It is not unlike religious fundamentalism: you get destroyed if you 'offend'. In such circumstances, writers cannot write ground-breaking novels, because true novels offend by definition, and always push the boundaries. As a result, almost nobody reads novels, anymore.
Read More...
Chalkboard

Best of the Web: University of Alaska study 'definitively' concludes that fire could NOT have caused the World Trade Center Building 7 collapse on 9/11

Phillip Schneider
Waking Times
Thu, 05 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
WTC building 7
On September 3rd, the University of Alaska Fairbanks released a study on their analysis of the infamous Twin Towers collapse. In it, they found that the third tower's collapse was, "caused not by fire but rather by the near-simultaneous failure of every column in the building."

On September 11th, 2001, World Trade Center Building 7 collapsed in on itself at free fall speed, falling over 100 feet in less than 10 seconds. After the event, the New York City government cleaned up the debris before a full forensic investigation could be done.

This information and more has prompted many family members of victims, architects, engineers, and everyday people to be skeptical of the official narrative surrounding 9/11, that three buildings fell that day based solely on the impact of Al-Qaeda's hijacked planes.

The report, lead by Dr. J. Leroy Hulsey and funded by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, is currently in draft form until its public comment period ends on November 1st. The final report is expected to be released before the end of the year.
"The principal conclusion of our study is that fire did not cause the collapse of WTC 7 on 9/11, contrary to the conclusions of NIST and private engineering firms that studied the collapse." - Dr. J. Leroy Hulsey

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Bullseye

ThinkProgress shutting down - ultra-leftist news outlet can't find a buyer

Sam Stein and Gideon Resnick
The Daily Beast
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 20:41 UTC
thinkprogress closed
© The Gateway Pundit
ThinkProgress, the influential news site that rose to prominence in the shadow of the Bush administration and helped define progressivism during the Obama years, is shutting down.

The outlet, which served as an editorially independent project of the Democratic Party think tank Center for American Progress, will stop current operations on Friday and be converted into a site where CAP scholars can post. Top officials at CAP had been searching for a buyer to take over ThinkProgress, which has run deficits for years, and according to sources there were potentially three serious buyers in the mix recently. But in a statement to staff, Navin Nayak, the executive director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said the site was ultimately unable to secure a patron.

"Given that we could find no new publisher, we have no other real option but to fold the ThinkProgress website back into CAP's broader online presence with a focus on analysis of policy, politics, and news events through the lens of existing CAP and CAP Action staff experts," said Nayak. "Conversations on how to do so are just beginning, but we will seek to reinvent it as a different platform for progressive change."

Comment: The Center for American Progress has been the source of a lot of mischief. From the Gateway Pundit:
Top Liberal Propaganda Hate-Site 'Think Progress' Has Closed Its Doors — Ran Deficits for Years

They were looking for a buyer but nobody would bite. Far left Think Progress website shut its doors on Friday.

Think Progress was a top far left news outlet but they were a direct competitor with ABC, NBC, Washington Post, New York Times, CBS, NPR, PBS, and most mainstream news outlets in America.

The Gateway Pundit has covered Think Progress for years.

The Gateway Pundit, with all of our wonderful readers, passed Think Progress months ago in website traffic despite all of the big money that propped up the far left website.


Read More...
Microscope 1

Vanished! Scientists bewildered as underwater observatory disappears in the Baltic Sea


RT
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 13:35 UTC
Underwater lab
© Research Dive Center of the CAU
German authorities are investigating the mysterious and seemingly inexplicable disappearance of the €300,000 ($330,000) Boknis Eck underwater observatory from the Baltic Sea.

The sheer size and weight of the subsea station, which consisted of two racks, one weighing 250kg (550lbs) and the other 100kg, anchored at a depth of 22 meters (72 feet) has ruled out a massive storm, heavy currents or large sea creatures as the culprits behind the observatory's disappearance.

On August 21 at roughly 8:15pm local time, transmissions from the station stopped dead. Divers dispatched to investigate discovered that the entire structure had simply vanished leaving only a shredded transmission cable behind.
missing observatory Baltic
The Boknis Eck Observatory was located 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) off shore in a restricted area that prohibited civilian or commercial traffic from entering.
Read More...
Attention

Florida is one of eight states investigating Facebook for possible antitrust violations

Lawrence Mower
Tampa Bay Times
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
facebook
© seoheronews.com
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has joined seven other states and the District of Columbia investigating Facebook for possible antitrust violations.

The news came in a Friday morning news release from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the bipartisan investigation into the social media giant.

The attorneys general are investigating "Facebook's dominance in the industry and the potential anti-competitive conduct stemming from that dominance," James said in a statement.
"Even the largest social media platform in the world must follow the law and respect consumers. I am proud to be leading a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in investigating whether Facebook has stifled competition and put users at risk. We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook's actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers' choices, or increased the price of advertising."
James said the attorneys general of Florida, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia were assisting the investigation.
Read More...
Dollars

Department of Motor Vehicles sells your data to private investigators

Joseph Cox
Vice.com
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 09:09 UTC
Driver's license mockup
© Unknown
You gave them your data in exchange for a driver's license. DMVs are making tens of millions of dollars selling it, documents obtained by Motherboard show.

Departments of Motor Vehicles in states around the country are taking drivers' personal information and selling it to thousands of businesses, including private investigators who spy on people for a profit, Motherboard has learned. DMVs sell the data for an array of approved purposes, such as to insurance or tow companies, but some of them have sold to more nefarious businesses as well. Multiple states have made tens of millions of dollars a year selling data.

Motherboard has obtained hundreds of pages of documents from DMVs through public records requests that lay out the practice. Members of the public may not be aware that when they provide their name, address, and in some cases other personal information to the DMV for the purposes of getting a driver's license or registering a vehicle, the DMV often then turns around and offers that information for sale.
Read More...
Clipboard

US judge decrees terror watchlist violates constitutional rights

Matthew Barakat
The Seattle Times
Wed, 04 Sep 2019 04:15 UTC
Gadeir Abbas
© AP/Alex BrandonAttorney Gadeir Abbas at a CAIR conference in 2017
The government's watchlist of more than 1 million people identified as "known or suspected terrorists" violates the constitutional rights of those placed on it, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga grants summary judgment to nearly two dozen Muslim U.S. citizens who had challenged the watchlist with the help of a Muslim civil-rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR]. But the judge is seeking additional legal briefs before deciding what remedy to impose.

The plaintiffs said they were wrongly placed on the list and that the government's process for adding names is overbroad and riddled with errors.

The watchlist is disseminated to a variety of governmental departments, foreign governments and police agencies.

The FBI declined comment on the ruling Wednesday. In court, the FBI's lawyers argued that the difficulties suffered by the plaintiffs pale in comparison to the government's interests in combatting terrorism.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Candle

'Icon of liberation' v 'dictator': Zimbabwe's ex-leader Robert Mugabe dies at 95


RT
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 17:04 UTC
Robert Mugabe
© Reuters / Siphiwe Sibeko
Zimbabwe's former ruler for 37 years, Robert Mugabe, died on Friday. Praised as "hero", he led the nation to independence and became its first elected leader, but was later forced out amid economic collapse.

Mugabe passed away in a hospital in Singapore. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa quickly hailed him as "an icon of liberation" who fought for the "empowerment of his people." Mugabe's contribution to Africa "will never be forgotten," he said.

The late politician was also called "the fearless pan-African liberation fighter" by officials in neighboring South Africa. The country's leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, said Mugabe's quest to rid Zimbabwe of colonialism "inspired our own struggle against apartheid."

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Mugabe for fostering friendly ties with Moscow, while Beijing said he "defended the sovereignty" of his nation.
Read More...
Pistol

Shots fired: San Francisco leaders declares NRA 'domestic terrorists'

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 16:46 UTC
nra ad
© Reuters / Lucas Jackson
The San Francisco, California supervisors declaring the National Rifle Association a "domestic terrorist organization" seems like virtue-signaling, but it may well be a major escalation in the culture war already shaking the US.

The NRA uses its wealth and strength to "incite gun owners to acts of violence," declared the resolution adopted Tuesday by the all-Democrat panel, urging the city not to do business with anyone associated with the organization.


Comment: Dems want to allow any foreigner to live in the US, even those with violent records, and in the same breath want to take away American citizens' rights to protect themselves. The Left's logic is downright befuddling.


It also accused the NRA of spreading "propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence," and promoting "extremist positions, in defiance of the views of a majority of its membership and the public."

Democrats used to accuse President Donald Trump of lying when he said they were out to take away Americans' guns. Now they are falling over themselves to prove him right.
Read More...
Arrow Down

At least 10 people killed in South Africa's wave of riots and violence against foreign nationals


RT
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 12:47 UTC
Riots South Africa Sep 2019
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that at least 10 people had been killed in a recent wave of rioting and violence directed at foreign nationals.

In a televised address on Thursday, the president gave an estimated death toll for the violence that has gripped parts of the country since Sunday, in which foreign workers have been targeted and dozens of shops looted or destroyed.

"We know that at least 10 people have been killed in the violence. Two of whom were foreign nationals," Ramaphosa said. "Over the past few days our country has been deeply traumatized and troubled by acts of violence and criminality directed against foreign nationals and our own citizens."

He assured that "the violence has largely subsided" while praising police and security agencies for their swift response. In Johannesburg and other nearby cities, police presence has been ramped up to deal with the unrest.

Comment: See also:

Read More...