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NFL: Now officially the least popular pro sports league in the U.S.

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 21:03 UTC
nfl protest sign
While mainstream media outlets like the New York Times have continued to assert that the dip in NFL ratings that began last season is in no way connected to the controversy surrounding players kneeling during the National Anthem, yet another poll has reaffirmed what many football fans have suspected for weeks: The protests have transformed the NFL into the least popular professional sports league in America.

From the end of August to the end of September, the favorable ratings for the NFL have dropped from 57% to 44%, and it has the highest unfavorable rating - 40 percent - of any big sport, according to the Winston Group survey provided exclusively to Secrets.

Worse for football, which was already seeing lower TV ratings and empty stadium seats, the month of protests and calls from President Trump for fans to boycott the league or "walk out" of games if they see players taking a knee has apparently turned off men aged 34-54 - one of the league's most important demographics and a troubling sign that the league isn't in touch with its fans. The Winston Poll from the Washington-based Winston Group found that the attitude of those fans went from an August rating of 73 percent favorable and 19 percent unfavorable to 42 percent favorable and 47 percent unfavorable, a remarkable turn against the sport.
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Ambulance

Two soldiers dead, 6 injured in accident at Fort Jackson


Global Defense News
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 21:00 UTC
fort jackson
Two soldiers died and six more were injured, two critically, in what's being called an accident at Fort Jackson, the U.S. Army's largest training installation.

The Friday afternoon incident involved a military vehicle and a troop formation, according to garrison public affairs officer Pat Jones, who said the injured soldiers were immediately evacuated to an off-post hospital.

The incident occurred in the training areas of Fort Jackson, rather than the public areas, according to public affairs officer Mike Pond.

A military vehicle struck the soldiers while they were in formation, according to The Associated Press. No details were given about the type of vehicle involved.

The cause of the accident is being investigated by Fort Jackson officials, said Jones, adding if there was criminal activity or intent to harm that will be determined by the investigation.
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Star of David

What's behind American support for Israel: Religious fanaticism

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:57 UTC
religious fanaticism
© NYTimes
The Capture Rapture
A poll from Bloomberg Politics contains a finding that, if you really think about it, is quite remarkable. Almost half of all Americans want to support Israel even if its interests diverge from the interests of their own country. Only a minority of Americans (47 percent) say that their country should pursue their own interests over supporting Israel's when the two choices collide. It's the ultimate violation of George Washington's 1796 Farewell Address warning that "nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded. ... The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave."
Poll Israeli vs US interests
© Bloomberg Politics Poll
It is inconceivable that a substantial portion of Americans would want to support any other foreign country even where doing so was contrary to U.S. interests. Only Israel commands anything near that level of devoted, self-sacrificing fervor on the part of Americans. So it's certainly worth asking what accounts for this bizarre aspect of American public opinion.

The answer should make everyone quite uncomfortable: it's religious fanaticism.

Comment: Reminder this poll was taken in 2015. Likely not a lot has changed, in fact, the glazed-eye policies and automatic deference to Israel has grown.

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Bomb

Bomb scare: Lausanne train station evacuated


RT
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 01:48 UTC
Lausanne trainstation
© Wikipedia file photo
Lausanne, Switzerland rail station
The central station of Lausanne, Switzerland was briefly shut down over a bomb scare, as a "suspicious package" was found at the scene, prompting disruption in train traffic. The threat turned out to be a false alarm.

The suspicious object was discovered at the Lausanne central station on Sunday afternoon, Swiss media report. "It's an abandoned suitcase," Tribune de Geneve newspaper cited Christian Bourquenoud, spokesman for the Vaudoise police, as saying.

The premises of the train station have been cordoned off by the police and bomb disposal teams arrived at the scene to check the package. All train traffic has been suspended, and an adjacent metro station was also closed.

The abandoned luggage was busted open with a water cannon by a bomb squad, which discovered nothing in it but personal belongings of a traveler who lost it. Following the operation, the cordons were lifted and railway traffic returned to normal.
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No Entry

Houston, TX: School sued for expelling student sitting during pledge of allegiance


RT
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 23:03 UTC
USflag strip
© YouTube
A 17-year student was suspended from her school in Houston, Texas, on Monday for not standing for the pledge of allegiance. Now, her family is suing the school district and the principal for violating her First Amendment rights.

India Landry was in the principal's office at Windfern High School and refused to stand when the pledge of allegiance was played on the school intercom. "And then the pledge came on, and they both stood, and then I didn't," Landry told KHOU. "[The principal] asked me to, and I said I wouldn't. And then she said 'Well, you're kicked out of here.'"

"I don't think that the flag is what it says it's for, for liberty and justice and all that," Landry said. "It's not obviously what's going on in America today. The other woman said this isn't the NFL, you won't do this here," Landry told The New York Daily News.

Her attorney Randall Kallinen, who specializes in civil rights cases, reportedly filed a lawsuit against the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District and Landry's high school principal on Saturday.

"Students cannot be instantly expelled except for being a danger," he said, as cited by The New York Daily News. "The only danger appeared to be that her sitting whipped Principal Strother into a political frenzy."

Comment: Constitutional rights outrank the dutiful Pledge of Allegiance. Perhaps those that insist that it is the other way around need a short history lesson. If it is about respect and disrespect, they have that backwards as well.

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Light Saber

Gideon Levy: Palestinians have right and duty to resist Israeli occupation

Gideon Levy
Haaretz
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 19:12 UTC
Palestinians march near seperation wall
© AFP 2017/ ABBAS MOMANI
Imagine you're the Palestinians. Perhaps residents of East Jerusalem. Forty-seven difficult years are behind you; a big, depressing darkness lies ahead. The Israeli tyranny that dooms your fate declares arrogantly that everything will stay like this forever. Your city will remain under occupation "for ever and ever." The defense minister, second in importance in the government that subjugates you, says a Palestinian state will never be established.

Imagine you're Palestinian and your children are in danger. Two days ago, the occupation forces killed another child because "he lit a firebomb." The words "Death to Arabs" were sprayed near your home. Everywhere you turn, a soldier or Border Police officer may shout at you. Every night, your home may be invaded brutally. You will never be treated like human beings. They'll destroy, humiliate, intimidate, perhaps even arrest you, possibly without trial.

There are close to 500 administrative detainees, a record number in recent years. If one of your dear ones is arrested, you will have difficulty visiting him. If you succeed, you'll get half an hour's conversation through a glass window. If your dear one is an administrative detainee, you will never know when he'll be released. But these are trivia you grew accustomed to long ago.
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Attention

Rapist and child-abuser awarded joint custody of his 12-year-old victim's child

Natasha Salmon
Independent / Yahoo News
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 19:00 UTC
Christopher Mirasolo
© Michigan Department of Corrections
A man who raped a 12-year-old has been awarded joint custody of her child despite being convicted of her rape and another sexual assault on a child.

The convicted rapist assaulted the girl nine years ago and she subsequently became pregnant.

A judge has given Christopher Mirasolo, 27, parenting time and joint legal custody of the eight-year-old boy after a paternity test found he was the father.

Since his conviction for the rape in 2008, Mirasolo, from Brown City, Michigan, has been convicted of another child sex assault, for which he served four years in prison.

As reported by The Detroit News, the victim is now 21-years-old and her attorney, Rebecca Kiessling, is seeking protection under the federal Rape Survivor Child Custody Act to halt his access.
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Music

One of world's longest pianos finds a grand stage in New Zealand


The Guardian
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 18:40 UTC
Adrian Mann Alexander Piano
© Adrian Mann
Adrian Mann with his 5.7m-long piano in Dunedin, New Zealand.
One of the world's longest pianos has found a new home in the deep south of New Zealand after the fire brigade were called on to help shift the behemoth into place.

Adrian Mann began building the 5.7 metre piano as an "obsessive" high school student in a farm shed in Timaru, a small town on the east coast of the South Island.

Now aged 28 and working full-time as a piano builder, Mann's keyboard has been played by some of New Zealand's best concert pianists, and was once installed in the Otago Museum foyer in the hope Elton John would play it when he gave a concert in Dunedin.


Comment: Recorded in Hamilton at Creative Waikato, Alexandra Street:



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Info

Greek sympathies lie with Russia: Poll finds Greek society more trusting of Putin than Merkel or Trump


The Duran
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 17:01 UTC
Greek flag
Greek society is particularly positive about Russia and President Vladimir Putin, who is trusted more than other world leaders, but still prefers Europe, a fresh poll revealed on Sunday.

According to a study of public opinion conducted by a group of sociologists at the University of Macedonia for the Kathimerini newspaper, 57.3 percent of Greeks adhere to a positive attitude toward Russia, and 67 percent - toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For comparison, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is treated positively by 40.5 percent of respondents, and US President Donald Trump - by only 16.5 percent. As for the negative opinion, 25 percent of those questioned dislike Putin, 56 percent have negative attitude toward Merkel, and 73 percent of Greeks dislike Trump. When asked "whom of the world leaders do you trust the most", Putin's share accounted for 41.5 percent of the answers, Merkel's - 27.5 percent, and only 5 percent of respondents said they trusted Trump.
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Ambulance

California on verge of statewide Hepatitis A epidemic as disease spreads throughout homeless populations

Chriss W. Street
Breitbart
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
san diego hepatitis A
© Gregory Bull / AP
The California hepatitis A outbreak is on the verge of reaching statewide epidemic status, as cases have spread through homeless tent cities from San Diego north to Sacramento.

California health officials have reported that at least 569 people have been infected with the hepatitis A liver disease and 17 have died since a San Diego County outbreak was first identified in November. Cases have migrated north to homeless populations in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Sacramento over the last 11 months.

Although local and state authorities have tried to underplay the risks and severity of the outbreak, the most recent annual totals for cases of hepatitis A in the United States was 1,390 in 2015, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). California only reported 179 cases during the same year.

The highly-contagious hepatitis A outbreak may have taken root because of the City of San Diego's efforts in the run-up to Major League Baseball's All-Star Game held at Petco Park in July 2016 to push the homeless, and the rampant drug and prostitution trade among them, out of the downtown tourist venues. Those effort included locking public bathrooms and essentially relocating the homeless to the congested tent city encampments that stretch for blocks east of downtown near freeway onramps.
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