Society's ChildS


Books

Florida Representative introduces bill making it easier to ban books from schools

Renee Beninate
ABC3WearTV
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
child at library
Some lawmakers are working to make it easier to ban certain books in Florida public schools.

State Representative Mike Hill filed HB 855 in February. The bill was introduced to the House earlier this month.

Rep. Hill believes the bill is essential to protecting children from 'inappropriate' content at school.

"To remove pornography out of our public schools. It doesn't need to be there," said Rep. Hill.

The bill prohibits school employees from providing materials that could be 'harmful to students' or depict sex.

Comment: On the one hand, there IS material out there that children shouldn't be exposed to! At the same time, in this age of fake news and faux reality - one might ask how subject to abuse, in the form of ideological and cultural group-think, this type of legislation may become?

Read More...
Megaphone

Venezuela: Voices from on the ground vs. the media's spin circus

Paul Cochrane
Counterpunch
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 15:57 UTC
Juan Guaidó y Nicolás Maduro
© DesconocidoJuan Guaidó and Nicolás Maduro
British photojournalist Alan Gignoux and Venezuelan journalist-filmmaker Carolina Graterol, both based in London, went to Venezuela for a month to shoot a documentary for a major global TV channel. They talked with journalist Paul Cochrane about the mainstream media's portrayal of Venezuela compared to their experiences on the ground.
Paul Cochrane (PC): What were you doing in Venezuela, how long were you there and where did you go?

Alan Gignoux (AG): We went in June 2018 for a month to shoot a documentary; I can't disclose what channels it will be on right now, but it should be on air soon. We visited the capital Caracas, Mérida (in the Andes), Cumaná (on the coast), and Ciudad Guayana (near the mouth of the Orinoco river).

PC: How did being in Venezuela compare to what you were seeing in Western media?

Carolina Graterol (CG): I am a journalist, I have family in Venezuela, and I knew the reality was very different from what the media is portraying, but still I was surprised. The first thing we noticed was the lack of poverty. Alan wanted to film homeless and poor people on the streets. I saw three people sleeping rough just this morning in London, but in Venezuela, we couldn't find any, in big cities or towns. We wanted to interview them, but we couldn't find them. It is because of multi disciplinary programmes run by the government, with social services working to get children off the streets, or returned to their families. The programme has been going on for a long time but I hadn't realized how effective it was.
Read More...
2 + 2 = 4

Half of Americans now agree Trump is victim of a 'witch hunt'

Susan Page and Deborah Barfield Berry
Yahoo! News
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 10:33 UTC
Trump
© Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
Amid signs that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference may be near its conclusion, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds that trust in Mueller has eroded and half of Americans agree with President Donald Trump's contention that he has been the victim of a "witch hunt."

Support for the House of Representatives to seriously consider impeaching the president has dropped since last October by 10 percentage points, to 28 percent.

Despite that, the survey shows a nation that remains skeptical of Trump's honesty and deeply divided by his leadership. A 52 percent majority say they have little or no trust in the president's denials that his 2016 campaign colluded with Moscow in the election that put him in the Oval Office.
Read More...
2 + 2 = 4

How Belgian kids protesting 'climate change' turned me into a climate skeptic

Joris De Draeck
Fort Russ
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 10:35 UTC
climate change NWO
I need to break it to you. I have become a climate skeptic. I have been following the matter quite closely over the last long years.

It's the massive amount of media attention however which triggered me.

I can't help but think we are lied to again. Climate change is a hoax. It's not true. There is no correlation between the "human" excrement named CO2 and global warming. None. Although there is between all kinds of human excrement and "the environment"; the world we live in. This part I do not doubt: we are polluting our single stellar vessel but that's not discussed anywhere in mainstream. More on that later.

Comment: Also see: Why we should all be terrified of 'children's crusader' global warming activist Greta Thunberg

Read More...
Bacon

Trade War? 1 million pounds of smuggled Chinese pork seized in New Jersey over African swine fever fears


Sputnik
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 01:05 UTC
meat supermarket
© CC0
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials seized 1 million pounds of pork products at the Newark, New Jersey maritime point of entry Friday. The meat is believed to have been smuggled from China, where there is currently an outbreak of the African swine fever (ASF).

During a Friday news conference, officials announced the seizure of over 50 shipping containers containing pork products.

"Agriculture specialists made a critical interception of these prohibited animal products, and stopped them from entering the US before they could potentially cause grave damage," Troy Miller, director of CBP field operations for the cities of New York and Newark, announced, NewJersey.com reported.

Comment: The African swine fever outbreak has made its way to Europe. : The US' apparent concern is notable considering its own producers feed their swine a growth drug, Ractopamine, which is banned in almost 200 countries.

Read More...
Heart - Black

Ex-cop admits she was having sex while 3-yo daughter was dying in hot car


AP
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 01:59 UTC
Cassie Barker
© Justin Mitchell/The Sun Herald via APCassie Barker, an ex-Long Beach police officer, pleads guilty to manslaughter in Harrison County Circuit Court in Gulfport, Miss., on Monday, March 18, 2019. Barker tells a judge she had sex with a then-supervisor and then fell asleep in September 2016 while her 3-year-old daughter, Cheyenne Hyer, was dying in an overheated police car.
A former Mississippi Gulf Coast police officer told a judge Monday that she had sex with her supervisor and then fell asleep while her 3-year-old daughter was dying inside an overheated patrol car.

Cassie Barker pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter in a plea bargain after being indicted on a second-degree murder charge. The Sun Herald reports prosecutors recommend the 29-year-old Barker spend 20 years in prison. Harrison County Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois said he wanted more time to consider the case and would sentence the ex-Long Beach officer April 1.

Cheyenne Hyer died Sept. 30, 2016, after her mother left her strapped in a car seat for four hours while Barker was with her then-supervisor at his home. The car was running with the air conditioner turned on, but wasn't blowing cold air.

The girl was unresponsive when Barker returned. Authorities say Hyer's body temperature was 107 degrees when she arrived at a nearby hospital.

"I don't know what I could ever do to you that could be worse than what you've already experienced ... You will forever be entombed in a prison of your own mind," Bourgeois said to Barker.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Megaphone

'Angelic' terrorist? Tabloid reporting of Christchurch shooter slammed on social media


RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:37 UTC
Christchurch memorial
© Jorge Silva / ReutersMemorial tribute to victims of the Christchurch mosque attacks
A number of tabloid newspapers have been criticized for their coverage of Christchurch attacker Brenton Tarrant, which has been described as sympathetic and hypocritical. The outlets have been called out for fueling Islamophobia.

Daily Mirror

The UK Daily Mirror was slammed over its front page, which featured a photo of white supremacist Brenton Tarrant as a child and described him as an "angelic boy who grew into an evil far-right mass killer," sparking a deluge of anger across social media.


Comment: While reprehensible, tabloid reporting isn't much better than so-called 'reputable' mainstream websites. See also:

Read More...
Cult

Allison Mack in plea negotiations over Nxivm sex-slave cult charges

Elizabeth Rosner and Ruth Brown
Page Six
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 14:59 UTC
allison mack
"Smallville" star Allison Mack is now in plea negotiations with the government over her role in upstate sex-slave cult Nxivm, prosecutors revealed Monday.

Three high-ranking members of the group - Mack, Lauren Salzman and accountant Kathy Russell - are all actively engaged in discussions, a prosecutor said in Brooklyn federal court.

The revelation comes less than a week after Nxivm leader Keith Raniere was hit with child porn charges, and his co-founder, Lauren's mother, Nancy Salzman, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

If the three women take pleas, that will leave just Raniere and Nxivm's benefactor, Seagram liquor heir Clare Bronfman, to stand trial - with Mack and the others potentially acting as turncoat witnesses against them.

"I think at the end of the day it will be just Claire and Keith going to trial," Bronfman's attorney Mark Geragos said while discussing possible trial dates.

Comment:

Read More...
X

Colombian government abandons Venezuelan military deserters


teleSUR
Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Venezuelan military deserters
© Migracion ColombiaVenezuelan military deserters
"Most of us do not have relatives in Colombia, we were the breadwinner of our families in Venezuela and now we are here with nothing," lamented the ex-military officer.

A group of Venezuelan military deserters that fled to Colombia on February 23, reported on Saturday that Colombian authorities have abandoned them, and had given them a period of 4 days to leave the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camp where they were living near the border between Venezuela and Colombia.

They ask Venezuelan lawmaker Juan Guaido, who had unconstitutionally auto-proclaimed himself as "Interim president" of Venezuela, to help them.

"We are adrift; we do not have the support of anybody. We want Juan Guaido to come to talk to us face to face," said former Venezuelan Army's second ex-sergeant, Luis Gonzalez Hernandez, who acted as spokesperson for the group.

According to Gonzalez Hernandez, the evacuation from the shelter was demanded and prepared by the Colombian authorities in Villa del Rosario municipality, in the border city of Cucuta. In return, they were offered 350,000 Colombian pesos, a mattress, and a bedsheet for each one, he said.
Read More...
Attention

Sweden: First hijab-wearing MP proposes race-based nationwide register, met with outrage


RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 14:03 UTC
Gamla Stan
© Reuters/Ints KalninsGamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm
A Swedish lawmaker of Somalian origin has sparked outrage after she put forward the idea of establishing an "equality data" register that would collect information on people's race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

People in Sweden may, in the future, have to register on a special database called "equality data" where they would need to specify their race. That's at least according to a proposal put forward by Leila Ali Elmi, a lawmaker from the Green Party. The 30-year-old daughter of immigrants from Somalia who became the first Swedish MP to give a speech in a hijab, told local media that the initiative can tackle issues of discrimination more effectively.

The politician argued the country needs to collect data "instead of saying that racism does not exist and that Sweden is color-blind," adding that it was statistics that helped the nation to remedy the problem of gender inequality. "We know that racism exists and we know that discrimination exists, but we have no figures on it."

Ali Elmi said that she will "leave [it] for the experts" to decide on the eventual configuration of the system but added that it may also include mappings based on religion, ethnicity, disabilities and sexual orientation.
Read More...