Society's ChildS


Stock Down

Self-checkout machines face ban in California with new bill aimed at curbing theft

Elaine Mallon
Washington Examiner
Wed, 08 May 2024 17:18 UTC
slef check out ban california
© Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesSenate Bill 1446 would "prohibit a grocery or retail drug establishment from providing a self-service checkout option for customers unless specified conditions are met," according to a summary of the proposed legislation.
A new California bill has the potential to ban self-checkout options in grocery stores in an attempt to curb retail theft.

Senate Bill 1446, introduced by Democratic state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, would "prohibit a grocery or retail drug establishment from providing a self-service checkout option" unless conditions such as ensuring that no more than two self-service checkout stations are monitored by one employee are met, according to a summary of the proposed legislation.

The bill also mandates that stores access how using artificial intelligence or other technology may cut jobs and "significantly affects the essential job functions of its employees."

Smallwood-Cuevas said self-checkouts are responsible for $10 billion in losses and cause 16 times more losses than check-outs done with a cashier.

Comment: More indictment of the mis-guided Proposition 47:

Read More...
Cardboard Box

Brazen election interference: Illinois Democrats retroactively change law to knock out Republican challengers

Mark Glennon
Wirepoints
Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00 UTC
Pritzker
Pritzker
As an alternative to a primary election, Illinois law allowed for a party to get its candidates on the ballot for General Assembly spots by party slating procedure, along with collection of a requisite number of public signatures on nominating positions. A number of Republican challengers have been proceeding accordingly.

But over the course of just 30 hours on the first days of this month, the Democratic supermajority changed the law to retroactively disallow that procedure, thereby barring challengers from the November ballot as Republican party candidates.

The new law almost certainly gives Democrats a win in races in which Republicans did not run a candidate in the primary and could result in dozens of unopposed races.

Comment: Meanwhile, in Michigan:
Senator Jim Runestad has taken the internet by storm after issuing a stark warning about a new bill in Michigan that should infuriate every American. Runestad warned that SB 603, being pushed by Democrats, will essentially codify election fraud — for good. On 𝕏, he wrote: "Michigan Democrats are terrified Biden will implode and drag them down. So today, they bet the bank and went all out to codify election fraud into state statute with SB 603." "SB603 Repeals current law that gives authority to bipartisan county Boards of Canvassers to investigate fraud and other wrongdoing including ballot tampering during recounts." In short, you cannot investigate election fraud. You can only investigate election "errors." And if you try to claim fraud, they can use new powers introduced by the bill to penalize you because you're engaging in "election interference." This bill is an absolute nightmare.


Read More...
Star of David

Top US pro-Jewish organization shows it isn't what it claims to be

Bradley Blankenship
RT
Thu, 09 May 2024 16:39 UTC
Jonathan A. Greenblatt ADL anti defamation league
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League's CEO has made outlandish and harmful claims about students protesting the Israeli war effort in Gaza

As students at top universities in the US protest against the Israeli war effort in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injury to over 70,000 more, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been working overtime to sanitize Israel's image - and to make outrageous claims about protesters.

The ADL describes itself as an anti-hate organization with a mission "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all." Its CEO and director, Jonathan Greenblatt, recently said live on MSNBC that "Iran has their military proxies like Hezbollah, and Iran has their campus proxies like these groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine,[and] Jewish Voice for Peace." He also told Forbes during an interview that he'd "really like the FBI to investigate these groups" for their supposed "elevation of Hamas propaganda."

Comment: Greenblatt is indeed dangerous, as are the fanatical rank-and-file members the ADL commands.

Read More...
Map

California mocked over high-speed rail bridge to nowhere

Rich Calder
The New York Post
Sun, 05 May 2024 16:35 UTC
CA High-Speed Rail
© CA High-Speed RailFresno River ViaductA California agency is getting ripped for celebrating this high speed rail bridge — part of an $11 billion project that is reportedly in danger of being canceled.
California is taking of heat for celebrating the completion of an high-speed rail bridge that clearly goes nowhere — part of an $100 billion boondoggle project.

Critics — including Tesla founder Elon Musk and Dogecoin creator Billy Markus — are ripping the California High Speed Rail Authority after it boasted about the completion of a "Fresno River Viaduct," a mere sliver of the state's long-delayed, bullet-train project attempting to link San Francisco to Los Angeles

"This is the most remarkable human achievement ever," joked Markus, the creator of the jokey cryptocurrency, on X Friday.

"1600 feet of high speed rail after 9 years and 11 billion dollars it takes about 5 minutes to walk 1600 feet so a high speed rail for that is a really big deal," added Markus, who also goes by "Shibetoshi Nakamoto."

"California is so competent."
Read More...
Syringe

Best of the Web: AstraZeneca says it will withdraw Covid-19 vaccine globally... BECAUSE IT CAUSES BLOOD CLOTS


The Times of India
Wed, 08 May 2024 09:47 UTC

Comment: We told you so...


AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca on Tuesday announced that it has started the global withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine, days after the UK pharmaceutical company admitted that its vaccine has the potential to cause a rare side effect called Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS).


Comment: That's blood clots, by the way, which is why people learned to call these shots 'the clotshot'.


The company said the withdrawal was due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic.

According to media reports, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker had previously admitted in court documents that the vaccine causes side effects such as blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

The company also said its decision to remove the vaccine Vaxzevria's marketing authorizations within Europe, noting that this oversupply has resulted in a decrease in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being produced or distributed.

Comment: Seems the world is catching up with the fact that the Covid vaccines have been (and will continue to) wreak havoc on the health of many millions of individuals.

The reason for pulling the clot-shot: a "surplus of available updated vaccines" - sounds like a lot of BS amid fears that greater awareness of vaccine injury, and the ensuing lawsuits, will continue to mount.

Read More...
Popcorn

Russia warns citizens about travel to Mexico after US claims it's trying to stop them crossing over illegally into US


RT
Thu, 09 May 2024 13:53 UTC
migrants riot texas border eagle pass national guard
© James Breeden for New York Post / MegaFILE: A group of over 100 migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally rush a border fence on Thursday, March 21, 2024.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned Russian citizens to calculate the risk involved in traveling to Mexico after the authorities in the Central American nation began refusing entry to more Russian travelers.

Early last year, Russia's ambassador to Mexico, Andrey Troyanovsky, said that there had been an increase in the number of Russians being denied entry to Mexico. Troyanovsky suggested at the time that the increase may be linked to Mexican authorities attempting to reduce the number of migrants coming to their country in order to enter the US illegally.

Comment: The West and its allies continue their descent into farce.

Read More...
Footprints

New Jersey is nowhere near the border, but is still forced to shell out billions due to illegal immigration

Jason Hopkins
The Daily Caller
Wed, 08 May 2024 19:12 UTC
protsts illegal immigrants new jersey
© REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
A report conducted by a New Jersey lawmaker found that illegal immigrants are costing taxpayers well over $7 billion per year.

New Jersey Republican assemblyman Paul Kanitra released the "Report on the Cost of Illegal Aliens to New Jerseyans" on Tuesday, which gives a comprehensive breakdown of how many illegal immigrants are residing in the state, its costs to taxpayers, and the current state of the border crisis. The report called for a number of enforcement measures and the abolishment of incentives that attract illegal immigration to the state.

Kanitra's office estimated that, as of April 2024, there were roughly 894,000 illegal immigrants in New Jersey. Out of a state of just under 10 million, this would equate to nearly 1-in-1o New Jersey residents being an unlawful immigrant.
Read More...
Attention

New 'guide' teaches UK MPs to spot 'conspiracy theories'

Kit Knightly
Off-Guardian
Wed, 08 May 2024 17:32 UTC
Westminster UK
© Off-Guardian
The British government has issued a new guidebook to all sitting MPs to help them spot "conspiracy theories".

Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt MP, who commissioned the guide, has warned that:
The proliferation of conspiracy theories across the UK is deeply disturbing. They are deliberate campaigns to spread disinformation and fear [...] If they go unchallenged we risk the public being conned and their wellbeing potentially damaged. These campaigns are also a threat to the health of our democracy. It is essential that we give the public and their representatives the tools they need to combat this phenomenon."
And claimed the aim of the new guide was to:
protect the public from the damaging effects of misinformation and safeguard the integrity of our democratic process,"
Which sounds just lovely, doesn't it?

Oh, and just in case any of you are still caught up in the party politics illusion, the guide has full cross-party support, the Shadow Leader of the House called it "a must-read".

The report was co-written by "experts" representing several non-governmental organisations, and fact-checkers including:
  • FullFact - funded by (among others) Google, Facebook and the Open Society Foundation.
  • The Institute for Strategic Dialogue - funded by (among others) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Facebook, over a dozen national governments and the UN.
  • Global Network on Extremism and Technology - The academic research arm of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a thinktank "designed to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms"...and which is funded by (among others) Facebook, Amazon, Youtube and Microsoft.
In short, it's all a rather incestuous funding pool of the same handful of tech giants and billionaires paying "experts" to tell them what they want to hear.
Read More...
Magnify

Massive fire breaks out at electric vehicle charging station factory in Italy


Indian Express
Wed, 08 May 2024 16:44 UTC
Alpitronic
Alpitronic factory fire in Italy
The viral video shows a large area of the factory under fire, creating a scary situation in the neighbourhood.

A massive fire broke out at an Alpitronic factory in the Piani industrial area of Italy on Wednesday. The viral video shows black smoke spreading across the sky.

The video was shared by an X handle @volcaholic. The handle shared that the factory specialises in manufacturing charging stations for electric cars. In the video, one can see a large area of the factory under fire.

"As a precaution, the airspace over Bolzano has been closed, and residents are advised by the Municipality to keep their windows closed. Firefighters from Bolzano and neighbouring areas, along with technicians from the Environment Agency, are working to control the situation," the handle wrote.

Comment: Whilst there have been a number of suspect fires around the world of late, considering the problems with electric vehicles bursting into flames, this fire may have a more mundane explanation.

Notably, the UK has issued new safety guidelines with regards to enclosed car parks, electric vehicles and charging stations, which resulted in an EV driver being refused entry to a hospital carpark:
In a statement issued to the BBC, Alder Hey hospital said following advice from Merseyside Fire and Rescue it had "temporarily restricted the parking of electric vehicles in one of our smaller car parks while we upgrade its fire sprinkler system."

"Electric vehicles are still able to park in our main Hospital car park", it continued, pointing out it also had 14 spaces with EV charging points.


Read More...
Gavel

Let Israel's leaders get arrested for war crimes

Gideon Levy
Haaretz
Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00 UTC
gaza genocide
All decent Israelis must ask themselves the following questions: Is their country committing war crimes in Gaza? If so, how should they be stopped?

How should the culprits be punished? Who can punish them? Is it reasonable for crimes to go unprosecuted and criminals to be exculpated?

One may, of course, reply in the negative to the first question - Israel is not committing any war crimes in Gaza - thereby rendering the rest of the questions superfluous.

But how can one answer in the negative in the face of the facts and the situation in Gaza:

about 35,000 people killed and another 10,000 missing, about two-thirds of them innocent civilians, according to the Israel Defense Forces;

Comment: At least one pundit in Israeli media is saying what needs to be said.

Read More...