Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

US sanctions against Venezuela forces Abby Martin's 'Empire Files' to shut down

The U.S. government is not only seeking to punish the Venezuelan government with its increasingly draconian sanctions, but is seeking as well to cripple the teleSUR media network, despite the fact that it is funded by several other countries.
Journalist Abby Martin interviews Venezuelan opposition protesters.
© FacebookJournalist Abby Martin interviews Venezuelan opposition protesters.
LOS ANGELES - Recent sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the Trump administration have forced the Empire Files program, hosted by American investigative journalist Abby Martin, to shut down. The decision to officially announce the show's end came after blocks on wire transfers originating in Venezuela and sent to the U.S. were recently imposed, thereby cutting off the show's primary source of funding. Issues with funding caused by the U.S.' Venezuela policy had, however, been a problem for some time, leading Martin and her staff to halt production in late May. While Martin and her team had hoped conditions would improve, the recent sanctions make that such a distant possibility that the decision to shut down the show was made on Wednesday.

Empire Files, which produces investigative journalism "from inside history's biggest empire," is funded by a contract with the teleSUR network, which receives the majority of its funding from Venezuela but is also funded by the states of Bolivia, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Cuba.

Comment:


Bulb

Nearly 60 percent of Americans favor improved relations with Russia over sanctions

Reagan and Gorbachev
© AP Photo / Bob Daugherty
Nearly 60 percent of Americans say it's more important to improve relations with Russia than it is to take "strong diplomatic and economic steps against Russia."

While perhaps it ought to be unremarkable that citizens of a nuclear armed power don't want to increase tensions with another nuclear armed power, Gallup notes that its poll was conducted "against a backdrop of concern about Russian interference in US elections."

Smoking

Fascist anti-smoking crusade continues: Sri Lanka stops cigarette sales in over 100 towns

Pack of cigarettes
© adaderana.lk
Over 100 towns across Sri Lanka have boycotted the sale of cigarettes with the aim of making the country tobacco-free, the Health Ministry said.

According to the ministry, the Public Health Inspectors Union launched several programmes across the country to educate locals on the ill effects of smoking and as a result, shop owners and businessmen in many towns stopped selling cigarettes.

Twenty-two towns in Jaffna, 17 towns in Matara and 16 towns in Kurunegala joined others in boycotting the sale of cigarettes. Currently, 107 towns are part of the drive, Xinhua news agency reported.

Comment: See also: The epidemic of junk science in tobacco smoking research


Play

Syrian army seizes large amount of Israeli-made weapons near occupied Golan Heights (VIDEO)

Israeli made weapons sized by Syrian army
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) seized a large amount of weapons near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights this week, state-owned Al-Ikhbariya reported on Wednesday.

According to the Al-Ikhbariya report, the Syrian Arab Army seized a large quantity of weapons inside the former rebel stronghold of Jabata Al-Khashab in the Al-Quneitra Governorate.

The Syrian Army reportedly seized this large weapons cache this week while combing through several buildings that were used by the jihadist rebels for storage in Jabata Al-Khashab.

Comment: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Reuters on August 23 that he hadn't given up hope that the US would recognize Tel Aviv's claims on the Golan Heights, which were seized from Syria during the Six-Day War.
"Would I give up on such a thing? No way," Netanyahu said.



Wolf

Latest internet scam: The rise of the #Resistance GoFundMe grifter

Lany Davis Michael cohen
Lanny Davis, lawyer of Michael Cohen, started a GoFundMe on his client's behalf the same day he entered his guilty plea
Hey, kid! Wanna get rich quick? Just stand up to the President!

The nearly $450,000 currently sitting in the GoFundMe account of Peter Strzok, the senior FBI official recently terminated for his textual indiscretions, is not a bad haul for one week's work. Strzok rose to fame for his steamy phone exchanges with fellow FBI higher-up Lisa Page, and their love affair became the object of scornful scrutiny in conservative media; Strzok's disdain for President Trump was seen to prove that the Russia investigation was launched on tainted pretenses. After a bizarre Congressional testimony and multiple semi-coherent Twitter broadsides by Trump, the FBI fired Strzok last week. But thanks to a quirk in the modern digital economy, rather than slink into obscurity, he immediately reaped a huge financial dividend.

The GoFundMe campaign appears to have been first promoted by Benjamin Wittes, head of the self-important website LawFare, who has come to function as a sort of conduit between Trump-antagonist security state officials and the wider anti-Trump population. His function is almost akin to a horse whisper; he drops regular cheeky hints about imminent bombshell developments vis-à-vis Russia for his fiendish Twitter following, who hang on his every word. Though the bombshells never seem to quite materialise, he always appears vaguely in the know, always gravely concerned about something, always on high alert.

Mr. Potato

Twitter users have meltdown over Russian-made telecom equipment installed in WH

Donald Trump
© Reuters / Leah MillisUS President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, US August 20, 2018.
Twitter has exploded after learning that the White House uses Russian-supplied equipment for encrypted communication between Moscow and Washington. The hotline, however, has been in use for more than half a century.

An article revealing the provenance of the direct line was published in Russian media on Thursday, stating that part of the state-owned tech company Rostec had developed an encrypted communication complex to connect Moscow and Washington.

Screenshots of an article that was apparently Google-translated from Russian into English were posted on Twitter by Olga Lautman, who calls herself a freelance investigative journalist. The post has attracted more than 100 comments and was retweeted around 800 times as of Thursday morning.

While some social media users sought confirmation or just could not believe the news, others rushed to say it was clearly evidence of the Kremlin at work in the heart of the US administration.

Comment: Trump Derangement Syndrome strikes again!


Handcuffs

Illegal immigrant confesses to killing missing Iowa jogger Mollie Tibbetts

Mollie Tibbetts
Mollie Tibbetts
A murder charge has been filed against a 24-year-old illegal alien in the case of missing Iowa jogger Mollie Tibbetts - a missing persons case that gripped the nation.

24-year-old Christian Rivera is charged with first-degree murder, officials announced Tuesday. Rivera is being held on a federal immigration detainer.

Officials say they identified Rivera through a resident's surveillance video system. They said the suspect was cooperative and explained to investigators what happened that day.

Rivera said he stopped his car and jogged alongside 20-year-old Tibbetts - at which point she clutched her cell phone and told Rivera to 'leave her alone or she would call the cops.'

Rivera went on to confess that when Tibbetts ran, he chased after her before he 'blacked out' and 'came to' in a corn field.


Comment: Yeah, right.


Officers say the alleged killer led them to her body in the corn field in Poweshiek County, her body coverd in corn stalks.

WATCH PRESS CONFERENCE IN FULL:


Comment: See also: Missing college student one of dozens to disappear this month in Iowa


Pineapple

Why Jamie Oliver shouldn't apologize to pc advocates

Jamie Oliver
Earlier this week, the Labour MP Dawn Butler 'called out' Jamie Oliver for 'appropriation'. His sin, according to the shadow minister for women and equalities, was to launch a product called Punchy Jerk Rice. 'I'm just wondering do you know what #Jamaican #jerk actually is?' she asked him on Twitter. 'It's not just a word you put before stuff to sell products... Your jerk rice is not OK. This appropriation from Jamaica needs to stop.

The notion that it is problematic for white people to 'appropriate' the culture of other ethnic groups has become widespread on the left. Three years ago, Erika Christakis, a Yale lecturer, sparked protests after she questioned official university guidance telling white students not to wear 'culturally insensitive' Halloween costumes, such as feathered headdresses. Student activists were so enraged by her description of American universities as places of 'censure and prohibition' - and her outrageous suggestion that there was nothing inherently racist about blond toddlers dressing up as African-American Disney characters - that she was forced to resign.

Comment: They are actually. See: The Resurgence of TERFs, Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists

Also see:


USA

The real American dream

Trump on trial
© AP Photo/ Dana Verkouteren
Just like when the medieval executioners tortured their prisoners to scream out for "mercy", so today two former aides of US President Donald Trump are put being on the rack to extract a begging response. If they finger the president, then maybe mercy will be shown to the prisoners.

Trump's former lawyer and his campaign manager are facing lengthy prison sentences for financial fraud and political campaign irregularities. Michael Cohen could get five years in jail, while Paul Manafort faces a soul-crushing 80 years behind bars. A de facto death sentence, given his age.

Comment:


Laptop

11-year-old demonstrates how easy it is to hack a state election replica website - in just under 10 minutes

child hacker
An 11-year-old was able to hack a replica government election website in under 10 minutes while dozens of other children did it in under 30 minutes.

At DEFCON 26, the world's largest hacking convention that recently took place in Las Vegas, an 11-year-old boy managed to hack a replica of the Florida state election website and change voting results in less than 10 minutes. Organizers of the event said that at least 30 children were able to hack similar replica websites in under a half hour, including an 11-year-old girl who completed the job in just under 15 minutes.

One of the attractions of the event was the "DEFCON Voting Machine Hacking Village," which allowed kids as young as 8 to take a shot at stealing a simulated election.

Nico Sell, co-founder of the non-profit r00tz Asylum, told the PBS NewsHour that these kids were able to hack sites that were exactly like those used for official elections in the United States.

Comment: Utterly hackable voting software? Maybe that's exactly how the establishment political class likes it.