Society's ChildS


Dollar

Bill Gates: Taxes could be higher but policies like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's are 'crazy'

Nilay Patel
The Verge
Wed, 13 Feb 2019 10:57 UTC
Bill Gates
© Jack Taylor/Getty Images
Bill Gates thinks taxes can be higher.

Speaking on The Vergecast this week, Gates said that while marginal tax rates in the United States can be "more progressive" - higher, in other words - there are now some politicians who are "so extreme" that their proposals would lead to wealthy people hiding income and stashing it offshore. That's a clear reference to new members of Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who had just suggested a new top tax rate of 70 percentin the week before Gates sat for this interview.

Gates also said that the world's wealthiest people only have a "rounding error" worth of actual income compared to their wealth - they don't have a lot of salary, but instead sell stocks and other assets to raise cash, which isn't taxed as income anyway. The top 400 earners in the US are only paying something like a 20 percent tax rate, he pointed out. "It has nothing to do with the 39.6 percent marginal ordinary income rate. So it's a misfocus. If you focus on that, you're missing the picture."
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Propaganda

Latest NY Times pro-Israel piece is a bizarre attempt to connect Al-Qaeda, Palestinian rights and Africa

James North
Mondoweiss
Sun, 10 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Netanyahu red carpet
Israel's propaganda apparatus, Hasbara Central, must be delighted with a bizarre, convoluted article in today's New York Times that used tortuous logic to:

* Dishonestly try to connect 2 recent terrorist attacks in Africa to Al-Qaeda, the organization once headed by Osama bin Laden

* In passing, try to tarnish genuine Palestinian grievances by saying that Al-Qaeda agrees with those grievances

* Somehow use the fake Al-Qaeda connection to endorse Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to improve Israel's diplomatic standing in Africa

You have to read the Times article - which is bylined Dionne Searcey, David M. Halbfinger and Rukmini Callimachi, and datelined Dakar, Senegal- a couple of times to appreciate just how dishonest it is. Let's start with actual facts: two different groups of gunmen in Africa, in Kenya and across the continent in Mali, carried out terrorist attacks last month. Plenty of experts could have explained how both groups emerged due to conditions in their own countries, but the Times never contacted them.
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TV

Russian YouTube viewers struck by Siege of Leningrad horrors as told by 88yo WWII veteran


RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 13:11 UTC
Leningrad horrors
© RIA Novosti archive / Vsevolod Tarasevich; Instagram / sergei_berezovskiy_istorii
A Siege of Leningrad survivor has stirred Russian YouTube with vivid stories of streets lined with corpses and people being so starved they resorted to eating jellied leather belts as he revisited his childhood war experience.

Sergey Berezovsky was an 11-year-old boy when the Nazis and their Finnish allies shut down Leningrad, the former imperial capital and the second largest city in USSR back in September 1941. The blockade which lasted 872 days was one of the longest and bloodiest in history as up to 1.5 million people died from hunger, cold, illnesses and injuries from bombings.

Leningrad in 1942
© Photograph photocopy of Leningrad in 1942 Sputnik

Comment: To get some greater sense of how tragic and impactful the Siege of Leningrad was and is for the Russian people, see:

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Broom

Triggered: Bloomingdale's apologizes for and pulls 'Fake News' shirt from store shelves

Nicole Darrah
Fox News
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Bloomingdale's
© iStockA "fake news" shirt being sold by Bloomingdale's has been removed from the store's selling floor.
Bloomingdales apologized on Monday for selling a "fake news" shirt in stores and confirmed the item was removed from the department store's selling floor.

"Hey @Bloomingdales, this isn't funny or fashionable," Allison Kaden, a reporter for WPIX, tweeted on Sunday alongside a photo of the clothing item. "It further delegitimizes hard working journalists who bring REAL news to their communities."


Comment: There it is: no one's even allowed to call attention to the fact that much of the news as promulgated by the corporate media is, indeed, fake news,

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Red Flag

The NHS stockpiles body bags in case of a no-deal Brexit


RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 22:18 UTC
body bag protest
© REUTERS/Neil HallFILE PHOTO: Protesters wearing bodybags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, June 6, 2013
A health minister's letter aimed at reassuring people that the UK is all set for a no-deal Brexit, reveals that the NHS is stockpiling body bags. It's prompted Twitter to utilize some dark humor.

The morbid course of action was disclosed by ITV's Robert Peston, who released extracts from Health Minister Stephen Hammond's letter via social media, in which he insists "the government is preparing for all exit scenarios."

In his letter, Hammond singles out body bags as "essential products" that come to the UK from or through the EU, which are being stockpiled to mitigate against severe disruption to the NHS.

The Tory MP for Wimbledon also lists a number of medical products, consumables and equipment, including medicines, vaccines and blood products that are being amassed to cope with a no-deal Brexit scenario.
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Megaphone

'It was his right to protest, now he has no livelihood' - Father of Yellow Vest whose hand was blown off speaks out


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:29 UTC
Sebastien Maillet
© REUTERS/GONZALO FUENTESSebastien Maillet shortly after sustaining his injury on Saturday in Paris.
The father of the Yellow Vest protester who had his hand blown off by a gas grenade in Paris on Saturday says he plans a lawsuit, while his comrade says it is symbolic that the injury took place outside the National Assembly.

"He has no hand left below the wrist," Bernard Maillet, father of Sebastien Maillet, told RT during an interview in its Paris studio, adding that his son also sustained an eye injury and does not fully remember the traumatic incident.

"We plan to lodge a complaint, and we will see what happens from there," he said.

An activist who goes under the name Boudjema, and who was protesting alongside Maillet, said that the injury - one of hundreds sustained since the protests began in November - "concerns all the Yellow Vests."

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

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NPC

Leftist Twitter gets its feelings hurt (again) over Esquire feature on Trump-supporting white teen during Black History Month


RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 21:11 UTC
Esquire tweet
© Twitter / Esquire
Esquire magazine has stepped on something of a cultural landmine with its latest feature piece, detailing the life of a young white, middle-class teenage boy. Both the timing and the article's subject have irked many on Twitter.

The piece in question, titled "The Life of an American Boy at 17," covers the trials and tribulations of a 17-year-old High School student named Ryan Morgan from West Bent, Wisconsin. It is just part one of a four-part series called, "Growing Up in America Today."

In the piece Morgan recounts his day-to-day life in similar fashion to the 1992 Susan Orleans piece, "The American Man, Aged 10," upon which it was based, though this time the subject matter is a teenage Trump supporter, surrounded by high schoolers who are predominantly anti-Trump despite Wisconsin being a red state.

"Everyone hates me because I support Trump?" Ryan says in the piece. "I couldn't debate anyone without being shut down and called names. Like, what did I do wrong?"
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Attention

Florida school hires combat veteran armed with an assault rifle to prevent mass shootings

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 20:54 UTC
School resource officer
© Tiffany Tompkins/Bradenton Herald
Just south of Tampa, Fla., students at the Manatee School for the Arts (MSA) roam the hallways past an armed combat veteran who is constantly looking out for threats. By the end of February, another one will be manning a guard shack at at the school's entrance.

39-year-old Harold Verdecia, a former infantryman in the US army who completed tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, patrols the hallways of Manatee strapped with a 9mm Glock 19X and a Kel-Tec "Bullpup" rifle, according to the Herald Tribune.
Verdecia isn't there to get to know the kids, break up fights or do the typical community-policing that school resource officers typically do, said MSA Principal Bill Jones.

Verdecia has one job: Stop an active shooter. -Herald Tribune
"When seconds count, (Palmetto police) are only a few minutes away," says Principal Jones - who has gamed out the nightmare school shooter scenario in exacting detail. He's also justified Verdecia's use of a semi-automatic rifle instead of just a handgun.
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Laptop

It isn't your imagination: Statistics show Twitter treats conservatives more harshly than liberals

Richard Hanania, Ph.D.
Quillette
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 20:43 UTC
twitter office
© Kevin Krejci
This is a response to "Who Controls the Platform?"-a multi-part Quillette series authored by social-media insiders. Submissions related to this series may be directed to pitch@quillette.com.

Many conservatives believe that social media companies are biased against their views. This includes Donald Trump, who last year accused Twitter of "shadow banning" Republicans, and promised to "look into this discriminatory and illegal practice." A few months later, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made a categorical denial of any bias while testifying before Congress:
Let me be clear about one important and foundational fact: Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules. We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially.
Recently, Mr. Dorsey appeared on two different podcasts, on which he similarly denied any bias against the right.

Not everyone is convinced. A June, 2018 Pew poll found that 72% of Americans believe that social media companies censor views they don't like, with members of the public being four times more likely to report a belief that such institutions favor liberals over conservatives than the opposite. Podcasters Joe Rogan and Sam Harris both received backlash from their respective audiences for not pressing Dorsey hard enough on the censorship issue.

Comment: This short list is only of famous people, many of whom had their accounts restored after a public outcry. How many have had their account suspended or banned who don't have such support?

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Shoe

No one knows the reason why human feet keep washing ashore in the Pacific Northwest

Greg Norman
Fox News
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 20:44 UTC
Shoe
© CTV News/You Tube
Is it the work of an organized crime ring? Are they remnants from bodies that have floated across the Pacific Ocean following a tsunami more than a decade ago? Perhaps a serial killer with a particularly twisted signature is on the loose in the Pacific Northwest?

Speculation surged once again Tuesday following Monday's announcement by Canadian authorities that a human foot had washed ashore in Vancouver -- the 15th such occurrence in British Columbia in just over a decade. The grisly phenomenon has captivated the minds of the public and media for years, with theories of the feets' origins ranging from natural disasters to something more sinister.

"There's someone doing this all right. Think about it, if they tied a chain around someone's ankle and threw them overboard, the foot would just pop off," a man who made one of the morbid discoveries told The Guardian in 2008. "Maybe they got a lot of bodies stored up in a container and they got washed out. We don't know. There's a lot of stuff goes on over there."

One theory, the Toronto Star has previously reported on, links the feet washing ashore to missing bodies from a plane crash that happened near Quadra Island in the Vancouver area in 2005. Another, The Guardian says, ties them to human remains that have - with the help of ocean currents - drifted across the Pacific following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

Comment: See also:

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