Society's ChildS


Stock Down

British children living in poverty "rising continuously since 2011"

Sarah Marsh
Guardian
Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:01 UTC
poverty uk
© AlamyEven before the coronavirus, living standards had flatlined amid wage stagnation and austerity.
The proportion of children in Britain living in poverty risks hitting a record high in the next few years as incomes stagnate and benefit cuts continue to bite, a report has warned.

A study by the Resolution Foundation thinktank said UK households had experienced flatlining living standards due to a lack of economic and pay growth in the past two years. Average incomes will not rise materially over the next two years either, it said.

The bleak forecast will hit lower-income families harder, according to the report, and child poverty could exceed previous highs reached in the early 1990s. Deprived families will bear the brunt of weak pay and benefit cuts, the report said.

While weak productivity and pay freezes were holding back living standards for most people, government policy was also hitting more deprived groups. The report noted the final year of the benefit freeze, which will reduce working-age household incomes by £1.5bn, will start in April, while the impact of the two-child limit on benefits will grow over the remainder of this parliament.

Comment: The situation in the UK is dire, and government 'austerity' is only making life worse:

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Attention

America's number one problem is their government, according to national polls

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 23 Feb 2019 10:09 UTC
no to trump
On February 18th, Gallup bannered "Record High Name Government as Most Important Problem" and reported that, out of a list of 47 national "problems," the top ten that were selected (and the percentage of respondents who selected each) were:
  • The government/Poor leadership 35
  • Immigration 19
  • Healthcare 6
  • Race relations/Racism 5
  • Unifying the country 4
  • Poverty/Hunger/Homelessness 4
  • Environment/Pollution 3
  • Ethics/Moral/Religious/Family decline 3
  • Federal budget deficit/Federal debt 3
  • Economy in general 3
More than a third of Americans think that "The government/Poor leadership" is the "Top Problem" in America.

Comment: See also:

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X

Facebook promised a 'clear history' tool almost a year ago. Where is it?

Ryan Mac
BuzzFeed News
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 13:31 UTC
Last May, Facebook promised to create a "Clear History" function it said would give users more control over their data. Nine months later it's nowhere to be found and sources say it's a key example of the company's "reactionary" way of dealing with privacy concerns.
zuckerberg clear history
© Ben King / BuzzFeed News; Getty Images
Facebook spent most of 2018 embroiled in one scandal or another. But there was a point early on in the year when Mark Zuckerberg thought he could turn down the heat by offering a fix for the public's privacy concerns. It was just weeks after the news broke that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had surreptitiously obtained and employed the personal data of millions of people. And as the company headed into its annual F8 developers conference in May, the chief executive proposed a dramatic change ahead of a rehearsal for the keynote address: What if they announced a tool that let users clear web-browsing information that Facebook uses to target users with ads?

The suggestion caught people involved in the event's production, where planning begins at least six months in advance, off guard. "Clear History" didn't exist; it was barely an idea. But organizers still scrambled to build its announcement into Zuckerberg's F8 keynote address. They'd already scrapped plans to unveil Portal, a video calling device that Facebook's leadership thought might be seen as too invasive given the company's predicament.

It was a bold public relations play. And for those familiar with the origins of the Clear History announcement, it demonstrated not only Zuckerberg's unilateral power over product direction, but also Facebook's long history of prioritizing optics and convenience over substantive protections for the people who use it. Company sources who spoke to BuzzFeed News characterized Zuckerberg's proposal as "reactionary," a response intended to ease the negative attention on the company following the Cambridge Analytica firestorm. They also said it might explain why the Clear History tool, whose announcement was proposed on the fly by Zuckerberg, is still not available nearly a year after he introduced it on stage at F8.

Comment: While "clear history" sounds like a nice idea, that Facebook would actually delete the information it has already collected is naive. It might be 'deleted' in so far as you might not be able to access it anymore, but their whole model is based on the sale of information. They're not about to start removing their 'inventory' - ever. And that goes pretty much for all big tech.

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Post-It Note

Warren Buffet warns of upcoming "MEGACATASTROPHE" in his annual letter to shareholders

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Warren Buffet
Billionaire Warren Buffet has issued a warning that there is an upcoming "megacatastrophe" on the horizon. Buffet says that when this apocalyptic scenario plays out, our losses will be immeasurable.

In his annual letter, Buffet warned of a "megacatastrophe," which he said will cause unprecedented havoc not just to victims but to the financial world as well. "A major catastrophe that will dwarf hurricanes Katrina and Michael will occur - perhaps tomorrow, perhaps many decades from now," the Berkshire Hathaway CEO wrote. "'The Big One' may come from a traditional source, such as a hurricane or earthquake, or it may be a total surprise involving, say, a cyber attack having disastrous consequences beyond anything insurers now contemplate."

Comment: Elites like Buffet are quite often "in the know", but he isn't saying anything that a regular reader of this site doesn't know already.

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Red Flag

Best of the Web: Michigan transgender activist on trial for burning down own home in hoax 'hate crime' that killed five pets

Francis X. Donnelly
The Detroit News
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 18:10 UTC
Transgender activist Nikki Joly
Transgender activist Nikki Joly, right
When the home of Nikki Joly burned down in 2017, killing five pets, the FBI investigated it as a hate crime.

After all, the transgender man and gay rights activist had received threats after having a banner year in this conservative town.

In the prior six months, he helped open the city's first gay community center, organized the first gay festival and, after 18 years of failed attempts, helped lead a bruising battle for an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gays.

For his efforts, a local paper named him Citizen of the Year.

Comment: Another ideologically-possessed and pathological activist trying to hoax their way into the greater reaches of victimhood status. These people should be in institutions, not government.

Do not miss: The Jussie Smollett Hate-Crime Hoax is Nothing New in Trump's America

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No Entry

Backdoor censorship: YouTube starts demonetizing anti-vaccine videos

Jason Erickson
Natural Blaze
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
YouTube
As I recently reported, Facebook announced that it would begin exploring ways to fight anti-vaccine messaging after receiving a letter from Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Schiff and others of his ilk are doing their best to blame the measles outbreak in the U.S. on social media systems that offer anti-vaccine messaging in their "recommended reading and groups" areas.


Comment: From Russiagate to the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax - and now this, Adam Schiff can be relied upon to behave manipulatively and deceptively EVERY TIME.


In the above report about the letter that Schiff sent off to the heads of Facebook and Google, YouTube (owned by Google) was specifically mentioned as being illustrative of "the problem."

Comment: You Tube, like Google, Facebook and so many high tech and high profile companies are now mostly under the thumb of the most malevolent minds at the Pentagon, Big Pharma, the CIA, NSA, etc. Wholesale control over the minds, souls and bodies of the Western
world has become the sick order of the day.

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Star of David

Israel is concealing 300,000 documents involving Palestinian massacres


PressTV
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 11:30 UTC
Smoke crowd
© AFPIsraeli sound grenade attack
Israel has been hiding 300,000 documents about its massacres of Palestinians, thousands of them dating back to the 1800s, a report says.

According to the +972 Magazine, Israel's "State Archives" declassified secret documents last summer, but some 300,000 documents, which antedate the 1948 establishment of the regime, remained classified.

"The very existence of the 300,000 classified files-their names, dates, and origin within the state bureaucracy - had been kept a secret, until now. One-fifth of the files, deemed too sensitive still by the regime, were excluded from the disclosure," the report by Israeli Jewish journalist Asaf Shalev said.

"There were many people who were concerned about the opening of this catalog," Israel's "State Archivist" Yaacov Lozowick was quoted by the website as saying in a statement accompanying the release.

Some of the files, which were kept secret, reportedly date back to 1821, while 125 of them date back to the 19th century and nearly 2,000 papers predate the Nakba (Catastrophe Day). Files on the two most notorious Israeli massacres of Deir Yassin and Kafr Qasim are among the hidden documents, the website said.

Comment: See also:
65 years ago the green light for Zionism's ethnic cleansing of Palestine

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Brain

We must defend free thought

Claire Lehmann
Quillette
Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:01 UTC
tree in the wind
You probably have felt afraid to speak your mind freely at some point. Whether it is in a university class, a meeting at work, or amongst friends online, it's likely that you have remained silent when you have had ideas or opinions that haven't conformed to received wisdom.

This is not an unusual or maladaptive response. In fact, knowing when to stay quiet and knowing how to avoid conflict is a necessary and important part of being an adult. Most arguments are pointless and there is no reason to get into fights with people whom we otherwise want to cooperate with and build mutually beneficial relationships.

Nevertheless, I worry that intellectual self-policing is happening more and more often, particularly for those living in tight-knit and politically homogenous communities. In such environments, challenging the prevailing ideological orthodoxy - even if it's only to plead for more tolerance of diverse viewpoints - can lead to reputational damage, harassment, and, in some cases, career suicide.
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Laptop

Twitteratti perplexed by CIA's sudden fixation on Black Panther: 'Is this for real?'


RT
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 19:14 UTC
CIA headquarters
© Global Look Press
The CIA drew a hail of ridicule and incomprehension when it unexpectedly posted a Twitter thread dedicated to the hit superhero film Black Panther. Some Twitter users even suspected the spy agency had been hacked.

The Central Intelligence Agency's Twitter account launched into the bizarre thread during Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, quizzing their 2.5 million followers on all things Wakanda - the fictional, high-tech, African country in the Marvel movie.

The agency announced that they had enlisted the help of a mysterious "top CIA scientist" named "Rebecca" to discuss Wakanada's technological advances and the feasibility of translating them to real life.

Comment: The CIA seems to be a glutton for punishment. This is not the first time they and other Deep state outfits have received a merciless social media-thrashing.

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Dollar

UAE waives loan debt worth over $100 million for over 3,000 Emiratis


Gulf News Business
Sat, 23 Feb 2019 17:33 UTC
uae abu dhabi
© Global Look Press/Jochen Tack
The Debt Settlement Fund has announced that Dh361 million worth of loans of 3,310 Emiratis have been waived off in cooperation with 13 banks.

Jaber Mohammad Ganem Al Suwaidi, general-director of the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi and chairman of the Supreme Committee of the Debt Settlement Fund, said that the gesture is part of the UAE leadership's keenness to ensure a decent life for all Emiratis and the highest possible level of social stability.

The national banks that waived the debts included Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, RAKBANK, Al Hilal Bank, Union National Bank, Noor Bank, Emirates Islamic, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Sharjah Islamic Bank, and Arab Bank for Investment & Foreign Trade (Al Masraf).

Al Suwaidi noted that the initiative is especially important as it coincides with the 'Year of Tolerance' announced by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, pointing out that it aims to make tolerance a sustainable institutional work expressed through practical initiatives.

Comment: Periodic debt relief helped economies like in ancient Mesopotamia. Perhaps more nations should look to the UAE for an example to follow. See: Everything You Thought You Knew About Western Civilization Is Wrong: A Review of Michael Hudson's New Book, And Forgive Them Their Debts
"Mesopotamian societies were not interested in equality," he told me, "but they were civilized. And they possessed the financial sophistication to understand that, since interest on loans increases exponentially, while economic growth at best follows an S-curve. This means that debtors will, if not protected by a central authority, end up becoming permanent bondservants to their creditors. So Mesopotamian kings regularly rescued debtors who were getting crushed by their debts. They knew that they needed to do this. Again and again, century after century, they proclaimed Clean Slate Amnesties."

Hudson also writes: "By liberating distressed individuals who had fallen into debt bondage, and returning to cultivators the lands they had forfeited for debt or sold under economic duress, these royal acts maintained a free peasantry willing to fight for its land and work on public building projects and canals.... By clearing away the buildup of personal debts, rulers saved society from the social chaos that would have resulted from personal insolvency, debt bondage, and military defection" (p. 3).


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