Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

Poll of US military shows troops fear new major war is on the horizon, list Russia & China as top threats


RT
Thu, 18 Oct 2018 17:21 UTC
amircan soldiers mosel
© Reuters / Alaa Al-MarjaniAmerican soldiers are seen at the U.S. army base in Qayyara, south of Mosul October 25, 2016.
Almost half of military service members believe that the US will be dragged into a new war within the next 12 months, according to a Military Times poll, with Russia and China topping the list of likely nemeses.

Around 46 percent of troops who responded to the anonymous survey of currently serving Military Times readers said they thought the US would be fighting yet another war within the next year - an unsettling increase from the mere five percent who made similar predictions in a poll conducted last year.

When asked about specific threats, the survey's 900 participants singled out Russia and China. Around 71 percent said that Russia was a significant threat, up 18 percent from last year's survey. China finished close behind, with 68 percent of service members describing Beijing as their primary concern - an increase of 24 points from last year. Cyber terrorism came out on top, with 89 percent listing it as the greatest threat to US national security.
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Sheriff

Florida cops struggle to stop armed looters as hurricane Michael death toll reaches 33


RT
Thu, 18 Oct 2018 14:33 UTC
Hurricane Michael aftermath Florida
© Reuters / Terray Sylvester
Leaving a trail of devastation and a rising death toll across the southern coast of US, hurricane Michael has created a fertile ground for armed looters who, despite police efforts, continue to ransack homes and businesses.

A week after the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record slammed the Gulf of Mexico coast, authorities are still unable to fully restore power to affected areas or to manage looters who have been pillaging destroyed buildings. The problem is the most severe along the Florida panhandle, particularly in the cities of Panama City and Mexico Beach which suffered the worst from Michael, a Category 4 storm.
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Attention

Still no accountability after UBC #MeToo scandal ruined professor's career and reputation with false sexual assault allegations

Jonathan Kay
Quillette
Wed, 17 Oct 2018 14:31 UTC
steven galloway
Three years ago, the University of British Columbia suspended novelist Steven Galloway, who then chaired UBC's creative writing program, following explosive allegations that he had sexually assaulted a UBC student. In response, a group of Canadian writers signed on to a movement called UBC Accountable, which highlighted the lack of due process in the proceedings against Galloway. While some members of the Canadian literary community vilified #ubcaccountable as an insult to rape victims, the movement was vindicated when the full facts of Galloway's case became widely known.

Specifically, an internal investigation by a retired provincial supreme court judge concluded that Galloway hadn't sexually assaulted anyone. Her report, whose contents were detailed in an exhaustive Quillette investigative report, suggested that the principal complainants were either confused or malicious fantabulists. Earlier this year, the Vancouver-based university was required to pay Galloway $167,000 in the wake of statements by UBC officials that violated the former professor's privacy rights and, as Galloway argued, caused "irreparable reputational damage and financial loss." Yet despite all this, the university still hasn't fulfilled the main demand of UBC Accountable, which was to "establish an independent investigation into how this matter has been handled by the Creative Writing Program, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and the senior administration at UBC."
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Magnify

'Believe women'? Terrible college case reminds us of the importance of due process and evidence

David French
National Review
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 14:17 UTC
believe women
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstWomen with “Believe” and other words written on their hands outside the U.S. Supreme Court after the vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, October 6, 2018
Through much of the last month, the American people have been treated to a version of the emotional and ideological argument that's dominated the American academy for much of the last ten years. The argument goes something like this: Women rarely lie about rape. Thus, the failure of criminal or civil justice systems to achieve overwhelming rates of conviction or impose liability at the rates of predation means that fundamental reform is mandatory.

Consequently, we must make it easier for women to bring claims, protect them from the rigors of proving claims, and utilize decision-makers trained to understand and respond to the unique trauma of victims. Moreover, when considering sexual-assault claims outside of courts, understand that due process is less important when a man's liberty isn't at stake. After all, a campus court isn't a criminal trial. It's an evaluation of academic suitability.

The result of this argument has been wholesale national reform - part of it mandated by the Obama administration's Department of Education, and part of it willingly undertaken by colleges themselves - that has caused universities to lower burdens of proof, channel serious claims into summary proceedings, restrict the ability to cross-examine witnesses, and even limit access to evidence in an effort to streamline the process of punishing sex offenders.

It's been a disaster.
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Handcuffs

Ex-USA Gymnastics president arrested for 'tampering with Nassar evidence'


RT
Thu, 18 Oct 2018 13:51 UTC
Steve Penny
© REUTERS/ Leah Millis
The former head of USA Gymnastics Steve Penny has been arrested for allegedly tampering with evidence related to the notorious Larry Nassar sexual abuse case.

Penny was detained on a warrant after a Texas grand jury alleged that he had removed documents related to Nassar's illegal actions from Karolyi Ranch - the training center of USA Gymnastics.

The indictment states that Penny ordered the papers - whose whereabouts are still unknown - to be replaced after learning that investigators intended to check the ranch, which was being operated by USA Gymnastics.

"The indictment further alleges that the removal of the documents was done for the purpose of impairing the ongoing investigation by destroying or hiding the documents," the US Marshals said in a press release.
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Snowflake

Think university professors are liberal? Try school administrators

Dr. Samuel J. Abrams
NY Times
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 18:16 UTC
student message board
© Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated PressA student writes on a message board at Texas A&M in College Station, TX
I received a disconcerting email this year from a senior staff member in the Office of Diversity and Campus Engagement at Sarah Lawrence College, where I teach. The email was soliciting ideas from the Sarah Lawrence community for a conference, open to all of us, titled "Our Liberation Summit." The conference would touch on such progressive topics as liberation spaces on campus, Black Lives Matter and justice for women as well as for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and allied people.

As a conservative-leaning professor who has long promoted a diversity of viewpoints among my (very liberal) faculty colleagues and in my classes, I was taken aback by the college's sponsorship of such a politically lopsided event. The email also piqued my interest in what sorts of other nonacademic events were being organized by the school's administrative staff members.

I soon learned that the Office of Student Affairs, which oversees a wide array of issues including student diversity and residence life, was organizing many overtly progressive events - programs with names like "Stay Healthy, Stay Woke," "Microaggressions" and "Understanding White Privilege" - without offering any programming that offered a meaningful ideological alternative. These events were conducted outside the classroom, in the students' social and recreational spaces.
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Quenelle

BDS supporters come out fighting after Israeli court attempts to silence them

Ed Sykes
The Canary
Thu, 18 Oct 2018 11:39 UTC
Justine Sachs Nadia Abu-Shanab
Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab
Apartheid Israel has long sought to criminalise boycotts against its occupation of Palestine. In 2011, Amnesty International called its new anti-boycott law "a blatant attempt to stifle peaceful dissent and campaigning by attacking the right to freedom of expression". And now, an Israeli court has ruled against two Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) supporters for their role in getting a concert cancelled.

But Israel is probably wishing it hadn't tried to silence these campaigners. Because they've come out fighting.

High-profile BDS success and backlash from occupation-defenders

In late 2017, New Zealand-based campaigners Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab (of Jewish and Palestinian descent respectively) asked singer Lorde to cancel a concert in Israel out of respect for the non-violent BDS movement.
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Snakes in Suits

Facebook's getting sued for 'inflating' ad watch times by up to 900% to keep advertisers


RT
Thu, 18 Oct 2018 11:01 UTC
Facebook
© Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Facebook hid a flaw in its video-advertising metrics that overestimated viewer engagement for more than a year in an effort to entice and keep advertisers on its platform, according to a lawsuit filed by a group of advertisers.

The group of ad buyers has filed a fraud complaint alleging the social media giant hid the "irregularities" in its video metrics for over a year, misleading advertisers into believing that people were spending considerably more time watching their ads than they actually were.

The complaint builds on the lawsuit they filed in late 2016 in California federal court alleging Facebook engaged in unfair business conduct when it released false metrics that overestimated the amount of time spent watching video ads, in some cases inflating viewing time by 900 percent.
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Cell Phone

Behavior modification: Dating apps think your preferences are racist, try to force changes

Josh Magness
The Kansas City Star
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 12:49 UTC
iPhone cell phone
© U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Christopher M. Gaylord, 5th Mobile Public Affairs DetachmentA study from Cornell University found that dating apps — like Tinder and Grindr — can help reinforce the biases or “sexual racism” of users depending on its algorithm. The researchers offered ways to fight back against it. Sgt. Christopher M. Gaylord.
Dating applications can allow users to fall into their own racial biases while searching for a partner, a new study says.

But in their study, researchers from schools like Cornell University say the "sexual racism" that plagues apps like Grindr, Tinder and Bumble can be stamped out with a few simple changes. The end goal, the study says, is to promote more diverse pairings on the dating sites.


Comment: And why is that, exactly? How is dating preference an issue of any importance whatsoever? Why would it ever be a worthy goal of changing who one is attracted to?


Jevan Hutson, lead author of the study, said in a press release from Cornell University that "it's really an unprecedented time for dating and meeting online" - which requires a more thorough look at how we can prevent discrimination on these dating apps.

Comment: This article has an unstated, and ridiculous, assumption that people should be dating outside their own race and that dating within their own race is inherently racist. It's a bold claim, and the article fails to establish that "sexual racism" is even real. Is genetic mixing the ultimate goal here? If so, why? Or is it simply 'because racism bad' and 'we don't want people to have their feelings hurt', with no thought given to the implications. The science of why people are attracted to who they're attracted to is far from settled, so to begin trying to mess with that, to make people behave in a way they consider 'right', is pure folly. Here's a radical idea - leave people the hell alone and let them date who they want to date. Some people date outside their in-group, some don't. Neither of these options is wrong.

See also:

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Question

London's 'victim commissioner' slams police for collecting data from alleged rape victims


RT
Wed, 17 Oct 2018 18:51 UTC
man touching woman
© Getty
The gathering of intrusive data from possible rape victims, by police, is unlawful and could prevent them from reporting the crime, London's victims' commissioner has stated. A complainant told RT the process is 'violating.'

Claire Waxman, the capital's first victims' commissioner, stated in a letter to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), that victims were being told that their cases would be dropped unless they gave police access to intimate information and personal items, reported the Guardian.

Alleged victims routinely signed consent forms that would provide defence lawyers, along with alleged attackers access to intimate details of the complainants lives, details which could then be revealed in court.

Comment: Making a claim in and of itself does not automatically prove someone to be a victim, and this is why collecting information is needed.

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