Society's ChildS


Cross

Forgiveness? Forget about it

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Sat, 06 Oct 2018 09:11 UTC
pope carries baby
Journalist David Sirota has just published an excellent op-ed titled "America's new aristocracy lives in an accountability-free zone", which begins with the observation that "Enron executives were among the last politically connected criminals to face any serious consequences for institutionalized fraud." Sirota goes on to remind readers how there was never any attempt by either mainstream political party to bring accountability to anyone responsible for monstrous offenses ranging from the disastrous invasion of Iraq to the ecocidal manipulations of fossil fuel plutocrats to the Wall Street plundering which led to the 2008 global financial crisis.

Sirota's argument is solid: there is an aristocratic class which has successfully neutered all the institutional mechanisms which were meant to protect the powerless from the powerful. The government is bought and owned by the plutocrats and so is the media, as the continued forgiveness of unforgivable transgressions which those institutions have been bestowing upon the aristocracy clearly reflects. This means that the only thing left protecting the populace from the powerful is the populace itself.


Comment: See also:

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Sherlock

Dead man found tied to a bed with shot wound on road in Saudi Arabia


RT
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 21:58 UTC
abha migrant gun bed road
© Fahad Alhazmi / YouTube
A bizarre incident has occurred in Saudi Arabia, in which a dead body tied to a bed was discovered in the middle of a road. The victim, who turned out to be an illegal migrant, had been gunned down, according to local police.

Motorists made the chilling discovery 11 km away from the southern Saudi city of Abha late on Thursday. The dead body, wrapped in a blanket, was lying on a cast iron bed without mattress right in the middle of the road, footage from the scene shows.

The dead man was reportedly tied to the bed with a rope.

On Friday, the police said that the deceased man was identified as an illegal migrant in his 20s. The man had died from a rifle-caliber gunshot wound, forensic examination has shown.

Comment: Abhorrent behaviour seems to be the norm in the despotic state of Saudi Arabia:

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Attention

London "Tube Pusher" pushes man towards oncoming train, another onto train tracks


Sputnik
Sat, 06 Oct 2018 08:50 UTC
man push train platform
© AP Photo / British Transport Police
In what a London transport official described as an "extremely rare" incident, a 46-year-old man pushed Sir Robert Malpas, 91, onto tracks shortly after an unsuccessful attempt on another tube passenger.

The British Transport Police has released a clip purportedly showing two murder attempts on the London Underground.

In the first incident, CCTV footage shows a man pushing a senior citizen onto the train tracks at Marble Arch station. He was hauled up to safety by a quick-thinking bystander, who suffered a head burn from the electrified track in the process.
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Snowflake

'Women are the n-word of the world': Twitter unrelenting in takedown of Bette Midler for terrible comparison


RT
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 00:38 UTC
bette midler
© Mike Coppola / GETTY IMAGES / AFP
Actress and singer Bette Midler has been verbally flayed online after an ill-judged hot take stating: "Women are the n-word of the world."

Midler, 72, is widely known as both an environmental and civil rights activist as well as a self-declared ally of marginalized groups in society. However, her past good behavior did not spare her from the baying Twitter mob Thursday night.

Midler initially defended the tweet by drawing attention to the cause-du-jour, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, while also claiming she was invoking the sentiments of Yoko Ono, who infamously penned a song with her late husband John Lennon called 'Woman is the N***er of the world', in 1972.

It wasn't long before the tidal wave of backlash forced her into an embarrassing climbdown mere hours later in which she deleted the offending tweets and apologized.

Once again, however, backlash was immediate, intense and unrelenting. She was then accused of 'whitesplaining' as a means of damage limitation.
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Sherlock

Interpol director missing, France launches an investigation


RT
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 00:31 UTC
Meng Hongwei
© Zhang Xuefei/Global Look Press
Meng Hongwei, the director of Interpol, is reportedly missing. His wife last had contact with him before he went to China about a week ago.

Interpol, an organization that is supposed to be capable of locating anyone anywhere in the world, is missing its own director. Chinese politician Meng Hongwei, head of Interpol since 2016, fell off the radar in late September, and the French police have reportedly started looking for him.

Meng and his family reside in Lyon, France, the seat of Interpol headquarters. His wife reported him missing after he took a trip to China on September 29, and hasn't been heard from since.
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Ambulance

Car drives into cafe in Berlin, injuring at least 5


RT
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 17:10 UTC
berlin car crash
© Pawel Kopczinsky / Reuters
Five people have been injured after a car dove into a café in Charlottenburg in western Berlin, local media reported. The police said the driver apparently lost control of the vehicle due to health problems.

The car, an Audi, skidded off the road and ran into the café wall at high speed, according to eyewitnesses. Four pedestrians and the driver, who was trapped inside the vehicle, were injured in the incident.

It happened shortly after midday local time. Rescuers say the impact of the vehicle may have compromised the structural integrity of the building, which will have to be checked for safety.

Two of the people hurt were taken to hospital.
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Snowflake Cold

'Eat snow & pray': Helicopter pilot rescued after four nights stranded in Russia's coldest region


RT
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 19:35 UTC
Mountains in Yakutia.
© WikipediaMountains in Yakutia, including the Chersky ridge.
A helicopter pilot has survived four days on a snowy mountain without food or water, jogging around the ruined helicopter wreckage, doing pushups, and eating snow to stay alive in Russia's coldest region.

Alexander Novoseltsev was flying his Robinson helicopter from Srednekolymsk, a town in the north east of Russia, to Yakutsk, the capital of Russia's Sakha Republic - notorious for its cold temperatures, when he crashed on a snowy mountain.

Novoseltsev was midway into his trip, flying near the Chersky ridge - which he later described as a "death trap", when a snow shower started and he crashed into a gorge.

What followed were days of staving off death against all odds. Novoseltsev immediately sent an SOS signal. "My clothes is thin, I'm freezing. The gorge is narrow. It will be hard to land MI-8 [helicopter] here," he wrote, providing his location. Then, all Novoseltsev could do was wait for rescue crews in temperatures as low as minus 5 degrees celsius (−5°C).

Although rescue teams were sent straight away, their efforts were hampered by bad weather. The crash happened on September 29, and the next day, rescuers approached the foot of the 2,400 meter (7,874 ft) tall mountain. They had a further 1,600 meters (5,250 ft) to climb before they would reach the marooned helicopter pilot. Then neither the crew nor the rescue helicopter could go up because of the blizzard.
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Toys

SOTT Focus: Make America Great Again? Things Not Looking Good For The 'Internet Generation'

Corey Schink
Sott.net
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 21:05 UTC
French students cell phones
© Alamy Stock Photo
"The American University is in the grip of mass hysteria." This is how Heather MacDonald begins her lecture 'The Diversity Delusion'. I think we can all agree that this is the case. It doesn't help that teachers are being fired for not giving students partial credit for no work done. When well-off and coddled students claim to be 'fearful for their lives' due to being 'surrounded by oppressors, transphobes and racists,' and when young doctors protest over 'fact-based' medicine, we can probably agree that we are in a pretty bad spot. But, as I recently found out, it appears things are only going to get worse.

I came across a book by Jean M. Twenge called the iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. This book - chock full of statistics, graphs and charts - provides a shocking picture of the generation that is now moving through universities and colleges, and it is not looking pretty.
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Bullseye

Jury finds Chicago police officer guilty of murder in Laquan McDonald 2014 fatal shooting


RT
Sat, 06 Oct 2018 10:41 UTC
Laquan McDonald
© ReutersA police image shows Laquan McDonald collapsing after being shot.
A Chicago jury has found former police officer Jason Van Dyke guilty of murder for the fatal 2014 shooting of a black teenager. The shooting ignited widespread protests and fanned racial tensions in the already violent city.

The jury found Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder, making him the first Chicago police officer to be found guilty of murder while on duty in almost 50 years. Van Dyke was originally charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery, and official misconduct, for his role in the shooting dead of black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014.

Van Dyke shot McDonald from ten feet away, after McDonald disobeyed commands to drop the folding knife he was carrying. Van Dyke fired 16 shots at McDonald, with a grand jury adding one count of aggravated battery for each bullet fired. He was found guilty of all 16 counts of aggravated battery, but cleared of official misconduct.

In the aftermath of McDonald's death, three other police officers - including Van Dyke's partner on the night - were charged last year with attempting to cover up the shooting, to which they pleaded not guilty.
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Attention

Leicester, UK: Police officer deliberately run over by car in city center


RT
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 18:36 UTC
UK police
© AI Project / Reuters
An armed police officer is in hospital with head injuries after he was "deliberately driven at" in Leicester city center, a senior police chief has stated.

Leicestershire Police told LeicesterLive that there was an incident in Belvoir Street at around 3am Friday, and the road has been cordoned off since around 3.30am. Forensic officers examining the area and local businesses have been told to remain shut.

Leicestershire Police's Deputy Chief Constable Rob Nixon tweeted:
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