Society's ChildS


Russian Flag

Russia's Constitutional Court: Authorities can't ban protests by simply citing lack of security plan from organizers


RT
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 17:40 UTC
police and protesters
© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich
Russia's Constitutional Court ruled that local authorities may not ban public events on erroneous security grounds. The ruling said it is their job to ensure safety by deploying police, medics, and firefighters as necessary.

The Russian law regulating public gatherings has come under criticism from opposition activists who say it's too restrictive and gives the authorities undue leeway to ban protests that it doesn't want to take place. The Tuesday ruling closed a loophole that could be used to deny permission for rallies and demonstrations.

The court was reviewing a complaint by a public activist whose applications for two public gatherings were rejected without consideration in 2018 by the city council of Irkutsk. The city said the organizer failed to explain how he intends to ensure the safety of the participants. The forms only listed the phone numbers of city services that could be called in case of emergency.
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NPC

Campus food service worker hit with bias complaint after saying 'hello' to student in Japanese

Christian Schneider
The College Fix
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:27 UTC
queer power
U. of Minnesota student complained of 'microaggressions' and 'implicit bias'

During the fall 2018 semester at the University of Minnesota, an Asian-American student stopped by one of the restaurants in the Coffman Memorial Union to pick up a snack.

At the register, a food service worker said something the student didn't understand. When the student said they didn't get it, the woman at the register said she was saying "hello" in Japanese, and asked where the student was from.

"Wisconsin," the student replied.

The cashier laughed and told the student to have a nice day, but the student did not find much humor in the experience. The student reported the cashier to the campus Bias Response and Referral Network, claiming "these type of microaggressions occur too often on campus" and "this implicit bias needs to be addressed."

The bias team then referred the incident to dining services and referred the complaining student to the campus "Ethical Advocate Program" in case they "want to talk further about the experience."

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Airplane

Boeing gets ZERO orders first day at Le Bourget as European rival Airbus steals Paris Air Show

Darryl Coote
UPI
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:22 UTC
Beriev BE 200
© Eco Clement/UPIA Russian Beriev BE 200 amphibious aircraft performs a demonstration flight on the opening day of the 54th International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget
Airbus began the first day of the International 53rd Paris Air Show unveiling a new commercial jet while announcing it had secured orders for over 100 planes while its main competitor, Boeing, left essentially empty-handed.

At Le Bourget Airport in the French capital on Monday, Airbus unveiled a new version of its A321, boasting a range 15 percent farther than its predecessor.

The new A321XLR is a director competitor to the Boeing 737, which its latest generations -- the MAX 8 and MAX 9 -- have been grounded following two fatal plane crashes in Indonesia last October and Ethiopia in March.

"The A321XLR is the next evolutionary step from the A321LR, which responds to market needs for even more range and payload, creating more value for the airlines," the company said in a media release.
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Briefcase

Lawyers for families of Sandy Hook massacre say Alex Jones sent them child pornography

Chris Perez
The New York Post
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 18:02 UTC
Alex Jones
Conspiracy theorist and "Infowars" radio host Alex Jones has been accused of sending child pornography to the lawyers of the Sandy Hook families - just days after he claimed to be the target of a malware attack that left kiddie porn on his servers.

The Connecticut law firm Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder - which represents the families of eight victims from the 2012 shooting in Newtown - filed court documents Monday, stating that they had received electronic files from Jones that contained x-rated files and contacted the FBI as a result.

"The FBI advised counsel that its review located numerous additional illegal images, which had apparently been sent to InfoWars email addresses," the court documents stated.

Jones apparently knew the filing was coming, with him posting a rant video over the weekend titled "Alex Jones Responds to Sandy Hook Child Porn Set Up."

Naming Sandy Hook lawyer Chris Mattei specifically, the native Texan said: "You're trying to set me up with child porn, I'm going to get your ass!"
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Bullseye

British hacker Lauri Love: Chances of Assange receiving a fair trial in America are 'effectively nil'


RT
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 12:51 UTC
Lauri Love discusses Assange case
Love estimates that Assange’s chances of also successfully beating his extradition case are strong, given the overwhelming public support he has in the UK.
British 'hacker' Lauri Love, who won his fight against US extradition in the UK, says the chances of Julian Assange receiving a fair trial in America are "effectively nil."

Speaking to RT UK about the WikiLeaks co-founder's US extradition hearing, which has been delayed until February 2020, Love said he is facing an uphill battle to "take back the narrative" that's been spread to the American public.

Love, 34, once faced US extradition to stand trial for allegedly hacking thousands of secure networks in the Federal Reserve, NASA and the FBI. The extradition order was quashed in 2018 by the UK's Lord Chief Justice as it would not be in the "interests of justice" for a number of reasons, including the "high risk" that Love would harm himself.

Love estimates that Assange's chances of also successfully beating his extradition case are strong, given the overwhelming public support he has in the UK. However, if the journalist loses his legal battle and is sent across the Atlantic, Love warns that he's unlikely to fare well under the US justice system.

Comment: 'Assange extradition should be warning to liberals who believe in American democracy' - Zizek
"It's always an ominous signal when measures against a threatened individual are done in such a directly brutal way that this very brutality means something," he said.
"What is going on now with Assange should be a warning to all those liberals who still believe in some kind of a genetic, almost priority, American liberal democracy."


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Clipboard

Details about the life of Dallas courthouse shooter released

Dana Branham & Cassandra Jaramillo
Dallas News
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 13:12 UTC
Brian Clyde
Brian Clyde is seen in two photos posted to his Facebook page, most recently in the one (right) posted May 8, 2019
The 22-year-old man who opened fire Monday morning on the Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas had shared images and a video of weapons on social media in recent days.

Brian Isaack Clyde, who authorities confirmed was the gunman, served in the Army for two years. Soldiers who served with Clyde said he came from a family of military veterans and often participated in war re-enactments.

But in 2017, Clyde felt the military wasn't for him as he struggled with training and tests in preparation for possible deployment, they said.

Clyde was photographed with a large knife and multiple high-capacity magazines fastened to a belt as he opened fire on the federal building before 9 a.m. Monday.

Federal authorities leading the investigation have not offered a motive for his attack, which ended when he was fatally wounded during an exchange of gunfire.
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Eye 1

No sleep for 42 hours: Russian journalist Golunov recalls ordeal in prison under bogus charges


RT
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 11:01 UTC
Golunov
© Sputnik / Evgeny OdinokovIvan Golunov during a court appearance.
After journalist Ivan Golunov was detained by Moscow police on bogus drug charges, he spent hours demanding a lawyer, but instead was kept awake for hours and harassed by cops, he told RT.

The detention of Golunov last week, and his release days later amid a public outcry, was one of the biggest stories for the Russian journalistic community in recent history. Charged with dealing drugs, he was fully cleared and is now a witness in a law enforcement probe against narcotic police officers, whom he accused of framing him and abusing him while in custody.

In an interview with RT, the investigative journalist said cops were apparently expecting him to fold and admit to a crime he did not commit, but he stood up to them.

Comment: Obviously, like everywhere, Russia still has its problems with corruption but once this case came to light it was swiftly dealt with, the same can't be said for the US where police officers routinely get away with murder:

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Airplane

Violent turbulence sends airline passengers crashing into ceiling in dramatic video


RT
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 16:01 UTC
Passenger plane
© Wikipedia
Passengers on a Bulgarian airline were torn from their seats by violent in-flight turbulence and sent crashing into the cabin ceiling - and one another - leaving ten with injuries. The terrifying moment was caught on camera.

The flight, headed for Basel, Switzerland from Kosovo's Pristina, encountered severe turbulence about 30 minutes into its journey, causing a rapid drop in altitude that sent passengers airborne. One unfortunate witness captured the chaos on film.

"I think I was unconscious for a brief moment," passenger Idriz Brahimj, 51, told Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten. Brahimj, who suffered a concussion in the mayhem, said he only remembers the screams of his fellow commuters as he slammed his head on the ceiling of the aircraft, a Boeing 737-300.


Comment: A lot of extreme turbulence is being reported of late. From Fasten your seat belt - severe turbulence is on the rise:
"It is predicted there will be more and more incidents of severe clear-air turbulence, which typically comes out of the blue with no warning, occurring in the near future as climate change takes its effect in the stratosphere," Dr Paul Williams, a Royal Society research fellow at Reading University, said last week.
Has something changed in the stratosphere? and Temperatures have dropped to -91°C (-131,8°F) in the stratosphere! See also:

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Stock Up

Best of the Web: The American Dream is Alive And Well... in China

Ellen Brown
Web of Debt
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 21:26 UTC
wuhan houses china
Wuhan, in the Hubei province of central China, is home to 10 million people - many of whom live in these colourful houses away from the high-rise city centre and factories
Home ownership has been called "the quintessential American dream." Yet today less than 65% of American homes are owner-occupied, and more than 50% of the equity in those homes is owned by the banks. Compare China, where, despite facing one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world, a whopping 90% of families can afford to own their homes.

Over the last decade, American wages have stagnated and U.S. productivity has consistently been outpaced by China's. The U.S. government has responded by engaging in a trade war and imposing stiff tariffs in order to penalize China for what the White House deems unfair trade practices. China's industries are said to be propped up by the state and to have significantly lower labor costs, allowing them to dump cheap products on the U.S. market, causing prices to fall and forcing U.S. companies out of business. The message to middle America is that Chinese labor costs are low because their workers are being exploited in slave-like conditions at poverty-level wages.

But if that's true, how is it that the great majority of Chinese families own homes? According to a March 2016 article in Forbes:
... 90% of families in the country own their home, giving China one of the highest home ownership rates in the world. What's more is that 80% of these homes are owned outright, without mortgages or any other liens. On top of this, north of 20% of urban households own more than one home.
Due to their communist legacy, what Chinese buyers get for their money is not actually ownership in perpetuity but a long-term leasehold, and the quality of the construction may be poor. But the question posed here is, how can Chinese families afford the price tag for these homes, in a country where the average income is only one-seventh that in the United States?
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Red Flag

Teen Vogue promotes prostitution as a legitimate work option for young girls


RT
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 21:24 UTC
sex worker
© AFP / Valery Hache
Teen Vogue is facing backlash for "promoting prostitution" after publishing an article which advertises sex work as "real work" to its audience, which is made up mostly of girls between the ages of 12 and 18.

The article, headlined "Why Sex Work Is Real Work" was originally published in April, but has received renewed attention and criticism after the magazine decided to promote it again on Twitter this week.

In the piece, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng argues for the decriminalization of sex work across the world, citing global efforts to ensure better labor rights for the women involved. The continued criminalization of sex work is "a form of violence by governments and contributes to the high level of stigma and discrimination" around prostitution, she argues.

Comment: The relentless push to sexualize children is mind boggling:

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