Society's ChildS


Light Saber

Mark Twain, a staunch opponent of imperialism

Philip Farruggio
OffGuardian
Sat, 10 Nov 2018 08:58 UTC
Mark Twain
Mark Twain AKA Samuel Clemens ( 1835-1910) best known for his literary works like Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, was also a man with deep rooted empathy for any underclass containing people of color. Few readers of his works realize that he was also a staunch opponent of imperialism, having been president of the Anti Imperialist League from 1901 to his death in 1910. Twain wrote about the treatment of the Chinese in San Francisco during the Civil War when he was a newspaper reporter.

In 1865 he astonished many passersby, even those who fought for the abolition of slavery years earlier, when he chose to walk arm in arm through the San Francisco streets with the editor of the recently established Afro American newspaper, the Elevator. Of course, one of his most famous quotes was on his definition of politics: "To protect us from the crooks and scoundrels".

He also said something that resonates so strongly today:
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really believe it."
We just had a mid-term election that broke the record for both voter turnout and money spent, a real conundrum to say the least. The Two Party/One Party 'food fight' did have one added caveat, something that got this writer to actually do something I never do, and that was to vote across the board in my state of Florida for all Democrats. Why? Well, as Bob Dylan sang so profoundly: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

Comment: Mark Twain was a man ahead of his time. See also: Mark Twain: The War Prayer

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Robot

UK unions sound alarm over talks to implant employees with microchips

Julia Kollewe
The Guardian
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 22:08 UTC
microchip humans
© James Brooks/Associated PressJowan Österlund from Biohax holds a microchip implant the size of a grain of rice between his thumb and forefinger.
Trades Union Congress concerned over tech being used to control and micromanage

Britain's biggest employer organisation and main trade union body have sounded the alarm over the prospect of British companies implanting staff with microchips to improve security.

UK firm BioTeq, which offers the implants to businesses and individuals, has already fitted 150 implants in the UK.

The tiny chips, implanted in the flesh between the thumb and forefinger, are similar to those for pets. They enable people to open their front door, access their office or start their car with a wave of their hand, and can also store medical data.

Comment: Herding the humans into a finer order of control. Expect the voluntary to morph into the mandatory within the next decade.

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Blackbox

Armageddon predicted, again, as Jews call for building 3rd Jerusalem temple


Sputnik
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 22:01 UTC
priest looking at jesus on cross
© AFP 2018 / ARIS MESSINIS
The first two Holy Temples of the Israeli city ceased to exist centuries ago, having been demolished at the hands of the Babylonians and later by the Romans. Despite multiple calls to rebuild the temple, they have remained largely unheard.

Biblical conspiracy theorists have voiced a warning that the erection of a third Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which religious activists have recently called for, inevitably carries Jesus Christ's imminent return.

Jewish eschatological teachings have it that the Holy Temple will rise up from the ground for the third time when Armageddon nears.

Comment: The biblical Armageddon predictions haven't panned out very well so far, though it does look like the planet has major changes, which will likely involve trials and tribulations, in store. Perhaps, rather than trying to predict some kind apocalypse, rapture, or waiting for a savior, people would be better served by working to improve their lives and the lives of people around them.

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Attention

Flashback Social Security inspector general: 6.5M people with active Social Security numbers are 112 or older

Jessica Chasmar
The Washington Times
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 18:56 UTC
social security card
© iStock
Agency urged to update its files

Roughly 6.5 million people with active Social Security numbers are age 112 and older, according to an audit by the Social Security Administration's inspector general.

The March 4 audit concluded that the administration "did not have controls in place to annotate death information" on the the main electronic file, called Numident, for Social Security numberholders who exceeded maximum reasonable life expectancies and were likely deceased.

"We obtained Numident data that identified approximately 6.5 million numberholders born before June 16, 1901 who did not have a date of death on their record," the report states.
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Colosseum

Book review of Joseph Tainter's 'Collapse of Complex Societies'

Anatoly Karlin
The UNZ Review
Sun, 28 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
collapse complex societies joesph tainter
TLDR: Joseph Tainter argues that the root cause of civilizational collapse is because of over-investment into and declining marginal returns on complexity. Societies invest in complexity to solve their problems and typically need to expend ever more organizational and physical energy to maintain that level of complexity; eventually, this expenditure undermines their material base, opens up a large potential gap where they could reap the exact same benefits but at a lower level of complexity (and cost), and the likelihood of collapse converges to one.

You can read excellent summaries of the book by Ugo Bardi, and Joseph Tainter himself.

Introduction

Ruins and relics of long dead civilizations, now overtaken by vines of verdant chaos, or buried under the shifting sands of time, hold a certain morbid fascination for us - these once great, hubristic and monumental societies that flourished and then collapsed, leaving only ruins and legends in their wake. We cannot help entertaining thoughts about the sustainability of own, global, industrial civilization; the "possibility that a civilization should die doubles our own mortality".

What is collapse? Tainter starts off by defining collapse - when an empire, chiefdom or tribe experiences a "significant loss of an established level of socio-political complexity", manifesting itself in decreases in vertical stratification, occupational specialization, regimentation, centralization, information and trade flows, literacy, artistic achievement, territorial extent and investment in the "epiphenomena of civilization" (palaces, granaries, temples, etc). He summarizes a large number of historic collapses - Harappa, the Western Chou, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mycenaean Greece, the Roman Empire and different American cultures.

Comment: As the author notes 'population collapse usually preceded socio-political collapse', yet he misses the social and environmental factors linked to the plagues and resulting population declines: More on systemic corruption and societal collapse:

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Bullseye

Busted!: Principal fired for running secret cryptocurrency mining scheme at school


RT
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 17:10 UTC
Cryptocurency
© Dado Ruvic/Reuters
A get rich quick scheme has spectacularly backfired on a headmaster and vice-principal as the pair have both been fired for racking up outrageous energy bills by using their school to run a secret cryptocurrency mining workshop.

Principal Lei Hua is said to have used eight school computers to run a clandestine Ethereum mining network in the Hunan province for close to a year, according to The South China Morning Post.

Hua's cryptocurrency plot was undertaken with help of a vice-principal, reported HK01 news. The coin mining occurred at Puman Middle School and it was foiled thanks to a plucky school manager who had been keeping an eye on bizarre energy increases at the property.
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USA

How the Disunited States of America can survive

Ilana Mercer
The Unz Review
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 15:46 UTC
USA flag schism
"We are one American nation. We must unite. We have to unify. We have to come together."

Every faction in our irreparably fractious and fragmented country calls for unity, following events that demonstrate just how disunited the United States of America is.

They all do it.

Calls for unity come loudest from the party of submissives-the GOP. The domineering party is less guilt-ridden about this elusive thing called "unity."
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Moon

Topless FEMEN protester throws herself at Trump


RT
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 15:33 UTC
FEMEN protester Trump
© Getty images
A bare-breasted FEMEN protester was tackled by police after she climbed over barricades and ran onto the road in front of US President Donald Trump's motorcade in Paris.

Some photos show that there were two half-naked women on the road as Trump's motorcade drove along the Champs Elysees in Paris. The US president was heading to a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.


Despite a massive police presence along the route to the Arc de Triomphe, the screaming protester managed to get in Trump's way and came within a few meters of the motorcade. Several officers had to intervene to remove the activist from the road.

Comment: It's not without irony that topless anti-Trump groupies outraged about his 'grab 'em by the p****' assertion about female groupies are now throwing themselves at him.

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People

They are coming: Migrant caravan continue their journey to US border


RT
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 12:19 UTC
Migrants
© Reuters / Hannah McKay
The Central American migrant caravan has just begun another leg of their journey to the US border hastily reinforced by the Army and Marine Corps. The migrants previously made a days-long stop in Mexico City.

The caravan, made up mostly of Hondurans, but also nationals of other Central American countries, is now on the move towards the United States border. Migrants resumed their march north on Saturday morning after spending almost a week in Mexico City.

A Ruptly video shows dozens of people waiting for trains in Mexico subway or boarding heavy trucks or buses somewhere outside the city. Others are seen using cars to continue their journey.

To get there, migrants will have to travel some 1,700 miles (2,735km) to the northwest, a much longer route than to the nearest US border crossing at McAllen, Texas, which many consider to be the safest option.
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Arrow Down

Creepy porn lawyer Avanetti releases out-of-context video of Tucker Carlson yelling at 'gay Latino man'


RT
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 14:43 UTC
tucker carlson
© Youtube / Michael AvenattiScreenshot from Michael Avenatti's video showing Fox News host Tucker Carlson trading verbal blows with an alleged Latino gay man at a Virginia County bar
Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti is accusing Fox News conservative host Tucker Carlson of assaulting a Latino man in a bar. Carlson says the man started it by calling his daughter a whore and a c*nt.

Avenatti has posted a video clip of the incident on Twitter, saying he is investigating "an alleged assault on a gay latino immigrant committed by T.Carlson and/or member of his inner circle" at a Virginia County club in October.


The video starts with the heated argument between Carlson, his entourage and a man seated at the bar already in full swing. "You need to get the f*ck out of here," Carlson can be heard saying repeatedly with the man responding: "I won't do that. I'm not going to get out of here." While Carlson's companions seem agitated, the Fox host himself maintains relative composure throughout the video and is not seen physically assaulting the other man.

After a bit of tense verbal back-and-forth, one of Carlson's support men grabs the alleged Latino immigrant, forcing him to stand up. As the situation escalates, calls can be heard in the background saying "there's no need for violence" and "guys, stop". The video, which is less than a minute long, cuts there.

Comment: It's knives out for Tucker Carlson, one of the few sane voices on Fox News these days. Curious that this comes just after the Antifa assault on Carlson's home, and threats made against him and his family for his alleged 'racism': Now this latest smear from the creepy porn lawyer. It's transparently designed to make Carlson look bad. But consider the fact that the video starts in the middle of the encounter, the alleged witnesses are unnamed, and Avanetti is ideologically motivated to lie. A picture sums it up best:
media lies
To get an idea of what the man is really like, just watch his interview with gay ex-liberal Dave Rubin:



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