Society's ChildS


Eye 1

Horrible stories emerge of sex slaves & child abuse at the hands of ISIS jihadis

Yazidi sect
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border in 2014. About half of the 6,500 Yazidis kidnapped by IS are still missing
Marwa Khedr was just ten years old when Islamic State jihadis swept into her village in the Sinjar region of Iraq and rounded up all the families at gunpoint.

The men were buried alive in a mass grave, while the women and children were taken to a nearby town in the north of the country, where they were divided up by age.

The most prized, taken off by senior IS figures, were those aged between ten and 20.

This petrified group included Marwa, a member of the Yazidi persecuted minority religion. She had turned ten shortly before the appalling events in August 2014.

Pirates

'Welcome to Sweden!' Muslim woman in hijab chosen for Swedish municipality's welcome sign

muslim women billboard sweden
© Facebook / Mikael Svensson"Welcome home ISIS!"
A Swedish municipality is facing backlash after selecting a local Muslim woman wearing a headscarf to be the 'poster girl' for its roadside 'welcome' sign. Her past ties to a controversial local imam were also discovered.

The image of Suzan Hindi, a local Muslim woman in her early 40s wearing a blue headscarf, now welcomes motorists entering Gavle, a coastal municipality in Sweden about 100km north of Stockholm. The photo is occasionally shown on a digital board along with the message: "Welcome to Gavle!"


Comment: It's not just that many of Sweden's Muslims ideologically supported ISIS, many of them travelled there to fight FOR ISIS. And then the Swedish government welcomed the surviving members 'home'. That digital billboard may as well say "Welcome home, ISIS!"


Brick Wall

Trump's failing. Don't ask me to lie about it

trump wall cartoon
© Unknown
For decades, voters have been lied to by politicians promising to crack down on immigration. We vote and we vote and we vote, and nothing ever changes. Wage-lowering, culture-destroying policies manage to appear in every bill Congress passes.

We finally got sick of it and voted for Trump. He promised to build a wall, deport illegal aliens and end the anchor baby scam. No matter how much the establishment screamed at him, he never backed down.

To call Trump's promise to build a wall his "central campaign promise" routinizes it. That promise was indispensable to his election in a way that no other president's campaign promises ever were.

Trump had none of the qualities voters typically look for in a president. He hadn't been vice president, a U.S. senator or governor of California. There was little about his character to inspire a nation.

Trump's mandate on immigration was the loudest bell ever to be rung in American politics.

While I admire people's loyalty to the first presidential candidate to speak honestly about America's problems, what if they're being loyal to a false front?

Comment: In re-posting this, we're not necessarily saying we think there should be a 'big beautiful wall' along the US southern border. We're interested because Coulter likely has her finger on the pulse of why Americans held their noses and voted for Trump: The Wall.

So, assuming she's correct, does no wall mean no Trump re-election in 2020?


Arrow Down

Social credit crackdown: Millions of Chinese banned from flights and trains

china subway
China has banned millions of people from any number of activities for being labeled as 'untrustworthy' on the country's Orwellian social credit system.

Banned from things such as air and train travel, blacklisted individuals are being punished in a broad effort to boost "trustworthiness" among the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens tracked by the massive system - which assigns both positive and negative scores to various metrics, reports SCMP.

People with great social credit will get "green channel" benefits while those who violate laws will be punished with restrictions and penalties.

Hangzhou, the capital city of China's Zhejiang province, rolled out its social credit system earlier last year, rewarding "pro-social behaviors" such as blood donations, healthy lifestyles, and volunteer work while punishing those who violate traffic laws, smoke and drink, and speak poorly about government.

Human rights advocates have voiced concerns that the social credit system does not take into account individual circumstances, and has unfairly labeled people and companies as untrustworthy.

Comment:


Info

Second billionaire charged in connection to prostitution ring, warrant for his arrest issued

John Childs
© Patrick McMullan
The billionaire founder of a Boston-based equity firm joins Patriots owner Robert Kraft as one of the ultra-rich caught up in the months-long police probe of Florida massage parlors, authorities said.

John Childs, 77 - of J.W. Childs Associates - is wanted on a solicitation of prostitution charge, according to a warrant for his arrest obtained by TCPalm.com. He has not been arrested.

Childs firmly denied any involvement in the ring.

"The accusation of solicitation of prostitution is totally false. I have retained a lawyer," he told Bloomberg News. "I have received no contact by the police department about this charge," he said.

Childs, who lives seasonally in Indian River Shores and lives part-time in Boston, has donated to several Republican politicians and groups - including former US House Speaker Paul Ryan, 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Club for Growth, TCPalm.com reported.

Family

Opposing Israeli brutality in Occupied Palestine makes you human, not antisemitic

Jeremy Corbyn
© Dan KitwoodJeremy Corbyn
Writing columns often involves difficult choices. What you write about reflects your opinions and priorities. Every time I sit down at my laptop to construct a column I agonise over what to write about from a huge list of worthy topics and current affairs issues.

Today I simply cannot ignore the corrosive effect of the very powerful and well financed pro-Israel lobby which is at the heart of the concerted campaigns of vilification against Jeremy Corbyn over the last four years and is responsible for the ridiculous association of Corbyn and socialists within the Labour Party with anti-Semitism.

Every newspaper, news bulletin, political TV show and newspaper review segment on Sky News, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and other mainstream outlets associates Corbyn, his Labour Party leadership and rifts within the Labour Party with anti-Semitism. It is sickeningly inaccurate, bereft of evidence, informed by political bile and promoted by imbeciles with an agenda. That agenda is not to oppose anti-Semitism, racism or Islamophobia but to fuel popular belief that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and a racist. The idea that a man whose whole adult life has been devoted to politically campaigning against racism, Semitism, injustice and inequality is actually a racist and anti-Semite is so pathetically untrue that the only way it can gain a morsel of traction and credibility is through a powerful and deceitful campaign of lies and distortions via the mainstream media and paid for idiots and bought off lackeys.

Comment:


Cheese

Best of the Web: Where are the 'empty shelves'? US journalist Max Blumenthal discovers well-stocked supermarkets in Caracas

venezuela blumenthal food shortages
© Youtube / Grayzone ProjectMax Blumenthal goes shopping in Venezuela
Corporate media grieve for the barren shelves and empty bellies in Venezuela, but are the alleged food shortages real? After touring a supermarket in Caracas, Max Blumenthal found plenty to buy - even craft beer.

"Grocery shelves lie empty as food becomes increasingly scarce" in Venezuela, the UK Independent weeps. The country's shops remain open but "sparsely stocked," The Guardian laments. Even "basic commodities" such as toothbrushes aren't available for purchase, CNN bemoans. "Hungry" Venezuelans must choose between "torture or starvation," Bloomberg grimly concludes. Mainstream media coverage of Venezuela gives the impression that President Nicolas Maduro is slowly starving his own people - a narrative which, as journalist Max Blumenthal found after surveying a massive supermarket in Caracas, is wildly deceptive.

Comment:


Stock Down

Global sovereign debt to jump to $50 trillion

Global debt
© Getty
Another jump in borrowing by governments will take the global mountain of sovereign debt to $50 trillion this year, ratings agency S&P Global forecast on Thursday.

The firm predicted sovereigns will borrow an equivalent of $7.78 trillion this year, which would be up 3.2 percent on 2018.

"Some 70 percent, or $5.5 trillion, of sovereigns' gross borrowing will be to refinance maturing long-term debt, resulting in an estimated net borrowing requirement of about $2.3 trillion, or 2.6 percent of the GDP of rated sovereigns," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Karen Vartapetov.

Comment: See also:


Stop

Microsoft's staff protest Pentagon contract for augmented reality tech 'designed to kill people'

girl Hololens
© AFP/Justin Sullivan
Dozens of Microsoft employees have demanded the company pull out of a contract with the US military to provide augmented reality technology, stating that they refuse to be complicit in "warfare and oppression."

Microsoft workers released a letter on Friday addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, in which they voiced opposition to the $479 million contract that aims to equip the US Army with up to 100,000 augmented reality headsets to be used in combat and for training. The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) will be based on a preexisting Microsoft technology called HoloLens. Released in March 2016, HoloLens is capable of interposing digital images on whatever its wearer sees.

Signed by more than 50 employees, the letter states that the IVAS contract marks the first time that Microsoft has "crossed the line into weapons development."

"The application of HoloLens within the IVAS system is designed to help people kill," they wrote. "It will be deployed on the battlefield, and works by turning warfare into a simulated 'video game,' further distancing soldiers from the grim stakes of war and the reality of bloodshed."

Comment: More from Common Dreams:
"As employees and shareholders we do not want to become war profiteers."
"Intent to harm is not an acceptable use of our technology."

Smith's suggestion that workers who find a project "unethical" find a different project to work on is problematic, the workers explain:
There are many engineers who contributed to HoloLens before this contract even existed, believing it would be used to help architects and engineers build buildings and cars, to help teach people how to perform surgery or play the piano, to push the boundaries of gaming, and to connect with the Mars Rover (RIP). These engineers have now lost their ability to make decisions about what they work on, instead finding themselves implicated as war profiteers.
[...]
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to do more. But implicit in that statement, we believe it is also Microsoft's mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to do good. We also need to be mindful of who we're empowering and what we're empowering them to do. Extending this core mission to encompass warfare and disempower Microsoft employees, is disingenuous, as "every person" also means empowering us. As employees and shareholders we do not want to become war profiteers. To that end, we believe that Microsoft must stop in its activities to empower the U.S. Army's ability to cause harm and violence.
In addition to ending the IVAS contract, the workers demand that Microsoft:
  • Cease developing any and all weapons technologies, and draft a public-facing acceptable use policy clarifying this commitment; and
  • Appoint an independent, external ethics review board with the power to enforce and publicly validate compliance with its acceptable use policy.
See also:


Fish

Putin orders immediate response to help 100 orcas and belugas held in cramped 'whale prison'

whale tale
© Reuters/John Gress file photo
Belugas and orcas being kept in a "whale prison" are still waiting to be freed months after their unfit habitat was discovered by Russian authorities. President Vladimir Putin has ordered that the case be resolved by March 1.

Ninety belugas and 11 orcas held in tiny enclosures on Russia's Pacific Coast are still awaiting rescue after investigators learned about their inhumane conditions in November. As a result, the operators of the "prison," the Center for the Adaptation of Marine Mammals, located in a bay near the city of Nakhodka, have come under investigation - a process that has left the whales in limbo.

The whales were allegedly caught for educational and cultural purposes, but campaigners suspect these particular animals are due to be sold later to Chinese amusement parks.

Russian law does not explicitly prohibit the capture and selling of whales.

A video published by Ruptly shows more than six beluga whales crammed into a small pen. The whales are seen narrowly avoiding one another as they attempt to swim around their submerged "prison cell." Several whales have allegedly died in the enclosures.