Society's ChildS


Eye 2

Ex-NXIVM cult member testifies Seagram's heiress Clare Bronfman funneled illegal donations to win Clinton's favor

Emily Saul and Max Jaeger
NY Post
Mon, 13 May 2019 19:10 UTC
Clare Bronfman
© APClare Bronfman
Seagram's heiress and accused Nxivm benefactor Clare Bronfman tried to buy influence for the alleged sex cult by illegally raising money for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, a former group member testified in court Monday.

Bronfman funneled thousands of dollars into Clinton's campaign coffers - far in excess of legal limits to contributions - to "curry favor" with the powerhouse political family, according to Mark Vicente, a documentary filmmaker and former member of the Nxivm group that is accused of keeping women as sex slaves.

"Clare Bronfman approached other people and said she would like to make a campaign contribution but she couldn't make it above a certain amount," Vicente testified in Brooklyn federal court Monday.

"I wrote a check. She paid me back."
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Red Flag

Best of the Web: Chris Hedges on America's cultural schizophrenia: 'Media shift to feelings over facts is tearing US apart'


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 19:04 UTC
magazine stand
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
Over the past several decades, US news media have shifted towards advocacy and emotional appeals, according to a RAND Corporation study. This is sowing discord in American society, award-winning journalist Chris Hedges tells RT.

The study, released by RAND earlier this week, cautiously argues that between 1987 and 2017, news content has shifted from event- and context-based reporting to coverage that is "more subjective, relies more heavily on argumentation and advocacy, and includes more emotional appeals."


Comment: See: You don't say! US journalism has become 'more subjective' according to RAND study


While prime-time cable news shows and online journalism lead the way in this shift, it has been noticed in print journalism as well, the government-funded think tank concluded. This is contributing to what RAND termed "Truth Decay," described as a shift away from facts and analysis in public discourse.

"Cable news networks - CNN, MSNBC, Fox - have given up on journalism," Hedges told RT, commenting on the RAND report. "They replaced it with reality-show news programs centered around [US President] Donald Trump and his tweets and the Russiagate. There has been a complete walking away from journalism."
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Network

Clean & honest broker lacking colonial baggage: Russia investing in Africa's huge energy potential

Vanand Meliksetian
Oilprice.com
Tue, 14 May 2019 18:57 UTC
playing soccer
© Reuters / Siphiwe Sibeko
Africa's economic potential is enormous: the continent contains significant mineral and energy deposits, a young and growing population, and an underdeveloped energy sector desperately in need of investment.

Approximately 640 million people, or two-thirds of the entire populace, don't have access to electricity. According to the African Development Bank, energy poverty reduces GDP growth by four percent every year. Russia's energy industry, in comparison, is booming. Its state-run nuclear energy company Rosatom has an order book of 34 reactors in 12 countries worth $300 billion. Recently, Moscow has set its eyes on Africa where most states have either already struck a deal with the Kremlin or are considering one.
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Chess

Countdown to zero: Russia continues dumping US debt


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 18:42 UTC
uncle sam
© Reuters / Brendan McDermid
Foreign investors have accelerated the reduction of US debt securities, selling $21.7 billion of their holdings in March, according to data released on Wednesday by the US Treasury Department.

Russia, which is no longer a leading creditor of the US, after an unprecedented dumping of the US Treasury bonds in April and May, has slashed its stockpile by almost $800 million in March to $13.716 billion.

Russia has cut nearly 85 percent of its US Treasury holdings from $96.9 billion in January 2018. The drop is even more significant from 2012, when Russia held over $170 billion in US debt bonds.

The largest US creditor China sold $20.45 billion in Treasuries in March, the most since October 2016, following $1.08 billion in purchases the month before.
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Recycle

Found: 977,000 shoes, 373,000 toothbrushes on Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Ben Smee
The Guardian
Thu, 16 May 2019 09:23 UTC
Plastic waste on Cocos Island
© Jennifer Lavers
On the beaches of the tiny Cocos (Keeling) Islands, population 600, marine scientists found 977,000 shoes and 373,000 toothbrushes.

A comprehensive survey of debris on the islands - among the most remote places on Earth, in the Indian Ocean - has found a staggering amount of rubbish washed ashore. This included 414m pieces of plastic, weighing 238 tonnes.

The study, published in the journal Nature, concluded the volume of debris points to the exponential increase of global plastic polluting the world's oceans and "highlights a worrying trend in the production and discharge of single-use products".

The lead author, Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania's Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, said remote islands without large populations were the most effective indicator of the amount of plastic debris floating in the oceans.

"Islands such as these are like canaries in a coal mine and it's increasingly urgent that we act on the warnings they are giving us. Plastic pollution is now ubiquitous in our oceans, and remote islands are an ideal place to get an objective view of the volume of plastic debris now circling the globe," Lavers said.
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Stock Down

The burden of Trump's trade war will fall on US businesses & consumers according to analyst


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 17:41 UTC
chess pawns us china trade war tariffs
© Getty Images
As the US and China continue to exchange blows in an ongoing trade battle, Professor Richard Wolff talks to RT's Boom Bust about the possible outcomes of the skirmish.

"It is already costing jobs, it is already costing money, it is now costing huge losses in stock markets and the irony of it all is that it's mostly political theater," the analyst said, discussing the impasse caused by the trade war sparked by US President Donald Trump.

"Mr Trump has initiated a massive tax on Americans. Tariff is just a word for a particular kind of tax," Wolff said, stressing that the president is taxing goods and services that come into the US.

Comment:

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Doberman

Warning issued after multiple dogs found killed, tortured in Franklin County, Vermont

Ross Ketschke
WPTZ
Tue, 14 May 2019 23:59 UTC
Dogs tortured, killed in Vermot
© WPTZ
Police have issued a warning to pet owners in Franklin County after multiple dogs have been found tortured and killed.

Sheldon Animal Control Officer Nicole Michel said she has been called to six incidents since the beginning of May.

"I really have no words for someone who could do something so heartless, so cruel," she said. "Dogs are our family."

According to Michel, some of the animals were found abandoned on the side of the road, suffocated with a plastic bag over their face. Another was found fatally shot and tied to a tree along a popular trail.
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Arrow Up

Going 'green' bites even deeper: Airline ticket prices rising as new aviation fuel tax looms


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 16:44 UTC
Russian passenger jet
© Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
The European Commission is considering aviation fuel tax that is supposed to reduce carbon emissions by 11 percent and have a "negligible" impact on jobs and the economy. But experts say that it will have far-reaching effects.

According to a leaked EC report, taxing aviation kerosene sold in Europe would cut aviation emissions by 16.4 million metric tons of CO2 a year. It said that applying a tax of €330 per 1,000 liters of kerosene (which is the EU's minimum excise duty rate for the fuel) would result in a ticket price increase of 10 percent and an 11 percent decrease in passenger numbers. It would also lead to an 11 percent fall in carbon emissions.

Comment: The tax works nicely in the direction of AOC's Soros-sponsored Green New Deal, not to mention clamping down on freedom of movement in general.

The 10 most insane requirements of the Far Left's Green New Deal
  • Eliminate air travel. GND calls for building out "highspeed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary." Good luck Hawaii! California's high-speed boondoggle is already in $100 billion dollars of debt, and looks to be one of the state's biggest fiscal disasters ever. Amtrak runs billions of dollars in the red (though, as we'll see, trains will also be phased out). Imagine growing that business model out to every state in America?
US residents will soon require passports to travel domestically
At the time of writing, according to the Department of Homeland Security's website, only 27 US states are compliant with the Real ID Act.

Many are listed as being under review.

The legislation, which was established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, makes it harder to obtain a driver's license with counterfeit records.

US congress passed the act 10 years ago, but it wasn't enforced until 2013.

By October 2020 the entire country will need to meet the revised standards, or face strict travel limitations.

The US Department of State recommends allowing up to six weeks for passports to be completed and returned, although people can pay for a faster turn-around of 21 days.


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Cross

Kremlin responds to protests: Church won't be 'part of bigger construction project'


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 16:49 UTC
protest
© AFP / Alexei Vladykin
After days of angry protests, dozens of arrests and scuffles with riot police, the Kremlin has reassured people no major construction will be taking place in a park in the Siberian city of Ekaterinburg.

After speaking to the company in charge, the president's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that nothing but the reconstructed historic church will be erected in the park.

"The information that the church will be part of big construction plans and that there will be other buildings and centres, is not correct," he said, adding that the works would only involve the renovation of the church.

The city government plans to rebuild St. Catherine's Cathedral, which was demolished in 1930 by the communists. But the decision has been met with protests from citizens, who wish to keep one of the city's few green spaces untouched.
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Russian Flag

Hungary to turn to Russian gas supplies if Exxon refuses to invest in Black Sea mega-project


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 16:39 UTC
budapest
© Getty Images / Westend61
Budapest will resume massive purchases of Russian natural gas if US oil giant Exxon Mobil doesn't invest in a vast Black Sea offshore project, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

The top official warned that Hungary may sign another deal with Russia if Exxon fails to resolve the issue by September.

"Exxon Mobil can be the game changer in the energy supply of Europe," Szijjarto said in an interview with Reuters. "But they should finally make their final investment decision."

The project is focused on gas deposits in the Romanian part of the Black Sea, which represent great potential for diversification of energy supplies for Central and Eastern Europe, according to London-based consultancy Deloitte. Once tapped, the reserves could reportedly generate $26 billion in revenue for the Romanian exchequer over the next two decades.
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