Society's ChildS


Chart Pie

Poll: 79% of French think Islamic veil opposes their values

Abdelhamid Kaddour
Voice of Europe
Mon, 14 May 2018 19:28 UTC
Muslim women in Paris
© zoetnet / Flickr.comMuslim women in Paris
An overwhelming majority of French do not think that the hijab belongs in French society, according to a poll by Marianne le Mag magazine.

A total of 79% consider the Islamic veil as being the "opposite of the French civic values".

When asked about the Islamic veil worn by muslim woman, Emmanuel Macron, the French president said it is "the opposite of the French civic values", in a TV interview on April 15th.


His statement sparked a huge controversy in France, where the largest Islamic community in Europe lives, and any public debate related to Islam leads generally to trouble (as we reported here, with the French author, Eric Zemmour, being fined when he talked of "an Islamic invasion in France").
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Butterfly

Russia Insider chats with Sarah Abdallah, the girl the BBC loves to hate

Daniele Pozzati
Russia Insider
Mon, 14 May 2018 18:28 UTC
Note from the editor: Is she real or is she an irresistible propaganda concoction? The Guardian's former Middle East editor speculated in an April article investigating her that she is "mysterious and possibly fictitious".

We've made it clear here at RI that as long as someone is doing serious journalism, we don't care if they are using an avatar or not. We regularly publish SyrianGirl, who is real, although accused of being a bot, (we've met her), and Sophie Mangal (who apparently is not, but she does good work).

Whoever she is, she's very bright and interesting and very good at making the BBC look very dumb. Regular contributor Daniele Pozzati catches up with the lovely Sarah.

sarah abdallah4
The BBC described Sarah Abdallah as "one of the most influential Twitter users commenting on (...) the conflict in Syria", and her follower count, now in excess of 134K, as "comparable to BBC journalists who regularly report on Syria".

Not fond of such competition, the BBC dismissed Sarah and other Twitter users who challenge mainstream narratives as "online activists pushing conspiracy theories".

Comment: Let's not forget about Ian56, Syrian Girl and Citizen Halo (just to name a few). They must be doing something right if the mainstream media went as far as to smear them for simply opposing the 'official' narrative. See also: Syrian Crisis Shows US Empire Losing Hegemony as Western Mainstream Media Losing Grip Over Narrative

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Camcorder

Woman accuses cop of racism, police counter with bodycam footage that reveals otherwise


Conservative Fighters
Tue, 15 May 2018 19:03 UTC
Dawn Hilton-Williams
A South Carolina woman named Dawn Hilton-Williams posted a video to Facebook Live on April 27 in which she accuses a Virginia cop who pulled her over for a speeding violation of being a "racist." In the tearful rant, which soon went viral, Hilton-Williams describes the interaction as a lynching and invokes the name of Sandra Bland, a black woman who killed herself in her jail cell after a traffic stop.


Comment: Suicide seems unlikely, though the circumstances surrounding Sandra Bland's death were highly dubious.


"I was just bullied by a racist cop," claims Hilton-Williams in the 11-minute video. "This is where we got lynched. This is where we got lynched, even in today's day."

She continues: "I mean pulling you out of a car doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you are African-American and you get pulled out of the car you get shot or you get tased, or you get Sandra Bland-ed. ... I said 'I'm not putting my signature on that ticket.' He said 'if you don't sign this ticket, then I'm going to pull you out of the car and I'll arrest you, and I'll impound the car.'"

After the video was posted, many concerned citizens called the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office with questions and outrage. This prompted the sheriff's office to release the full video of the traffic stop, which paints a very different picture than what Hilton-Williams' describes. Contrary to the woman's claim, the deputy never threatened to "pull" her out of her car when she refused to sign the summons and there are no references or innuendos to race or racial antipathy.
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Handcuffs

Bail set for Boston firefighter charged with child rape


7 News Boston
Mon, 14 May 2018 18:44 UTC
Samuel Perez Rosado
Samuel Perez Rosado leaves court in handcuffs.
A Boston firefighter accused of sexually assaulting a minor last week has been ordered held on $50,000 cash bail.

Firefighter Samuel Perez Rosado, 38, who works at the Engine 10/Tower Ladder 3 company, was arrested while on duty Sunday after police say he had sexual intercourse with a child between the ages of 12 and 16 this past Friday, according to court paperwork.

Perez Rosado has been working for the department for between five and six years and is currently on administrative leave, fire officials said.

He was arraigned Monday in South Boston District Court on charges of rape of a child and assault and battery, a spokesman for the Suffolk DA's office said.
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Stock Up

Renting a two-bedroom home in the US is unaffordable for most


Investment Watch Blog
Mon, 14 May 2018 18:22 UTC
hourly wage two bedroom home
Affordable housing is already a hot button political issue. Housing advocates have long pointed out the lack of affordable options in big cities with booming tech sectors, like San Francisco, but where does that leave the rest of the country? We wanted to find out, so we created a new map that illustrates how much an average worker would need to earn to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment in each state.

We found the data for our map through the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), an organization focused on creating public policies that help poor Americans afford decent homes. The organization analyzed the combination of an average worker's wage and the cost of housing to determine which states have the worst housing problems, keeping in mind that people should not spend more than 30% of their income on housing. We developed an intuitive, color-coded map highlighting how much money you need to earn to afford a two-bedroom home, revealing the places with the biggest problems in housing affordability.
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Black Cat

Shady lawyer Avenatti threatens news site for reporting allegations about his past misconduct

Ryan Saavedra
The Daily Caller
Mon, 14 May 2018 17:49 UTC
Michael Avenatti
© Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesMichael Avenatti
Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing porn star Stormy Daniels, threatened to sue a news organization and individual journalists on Monday after they reported on his alleged past shady business dealings and connections.

Avenatti threatened The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) and individual journalists at the news organization after they reported:
Avenatti's past is littered with lawsuits, jilted business partners and bankruptcy filings. People who have worked with the lawyer described him to TheDCNF as ruthless, greedy and unbothered by ethical questions.
In an email, Avenatti accused the DCNF of being part of a conspiracy theory that involved President Donald Trump directing them to write false and defamatory statements about him.
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Wolf

With the spotlight on lawyer Avenatti, his own dodgy past is emerging

Peter Hasson & Joe Simonson
The Daily Caller
Tue, 15 May 2018 17:26 UTC
Michael Avenatti
© Reuters/Lucas JacksonMichael Avenatti, lawyer for adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, speaks to media outside federal court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 16, 2018.
Much of the developments surrounding Stormy Daniel's lawsuit again President Donald Trump have focused on the business dealings of attorney Michael Cohen, but an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation reveals that Daniel's counsel, Michael Avenatti, has his own questionable history.

Avenatti's past is littered with lawsuits, jilted business partners and bankruptcy filings. People who have worked with the lawyer described him to TheDCNF as ruthless, greedy and unbothered by ethical questions.

Dillanos Coffee CEO David Morris claimed last Tuesday that Avenatti never paid him for over $160,000 worth of coffee that Dillanos supplied to Avenatti's company. "So @StormyDaniels hot shot lawyer Michael owes my small company @Dillanos $160,179 for coffee," Morris wrote on Twitter. "He talks a big talk about integrity. We trusted him."

Comment: Stormy's suit seems to be just another stop on Avenatti's quest for fame and fortune. She appears to have made an ill-judged pick for a lawyer.

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Pistol

Deep state terror cell? Man claiming to be federal agent found in hotel with weapons arsenal and psych meds

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 14 May 2018 17:15 UTC
waikiki hotel rifles drugs
After a man's social media posts were flagged by the FBI, a tip to the Honolulu Police resulted in officers finding a large cache of loaded weapons during a welfare check at his hotel room.

Hawaii News Now reported that the FBI alerted local authorities to "suspicious" social media posts in which a person was claiming to be a federal agent. The specific contents of the messages or how the FBI was initially alerted has not been made public.

In an email regarding the incident, the Honolulu Police Department stated:
"HPD officers responded to a report of a suspicious male in Waikiki yesterday. The male was located and taken to a hospital for evaluation, where he remains. No charges have been filed at this time.

Investigators recovered the man's belongings, which included firearms and knives. HPD and FBI investigators are continuing to work on this case, and no further information is being released at this time."
Strangely, the 38-year-old man reportedly told law enforcement that he was on a mission hunting terrorist cells, according to Hawaii News Now.

Comment: Presumably these men really believed they were on "secret government missions". If so, it begs the question as to why. Are they really? Have the been led to believe so? Or is it just something 'in the air'? And how many dead 'mass shooters' and 'terrorists' have had similar beliefs, and for similar reasons?

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Heart - Black

Willful blindness: People delude themselves to justify persecution of Julian Assange

Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00 UTC
twitter caroline goode julian assange
"I'll tell you what else is dying - common decency, respect, compassion, consideration for others, dignity, honesty, integrity, positive patriotism, credibility, kindness, manners, social norms and mores," tweeted a former Detective Superintendent of London's Metropolitan Police Service in response to a news story about a White House official making light of Senator John McCain's death.

"We must never normalise hatred. Love conquers all," she added.

A few days later, this same law enforcement official tweeted the following at Julian Assange's mother, who was expressing concern for her son's declining health and isolation in an Ecuadorian embassy:
"I don't know what he's told his old Mum, but he can leave any time he chooses. Tell him to come on out. Btw, how did you let your baby boy be the smelly kid in class?"

Comment: Persecution of Assange proves him right

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Star of David

SOTT Focus: Killing Gaza - a documentary

Chris Hedges
Truthdig
Sun, 13 May 2018 16:52 UTC
gaza deaths cartoon
© Mr. Fish
Israel's blockade of Gaza-where trapped Palestinians for the past seven weeks have held nonviolent protests along the border fence with Israel, resulting in scores of dead and some 6,000 wounded by Israeli troops -- is one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. Yet the horror that is Gaza, where 2 million people live under an Israeli siege without adequate food, housing, work, water and electricity, where the Israeli military routinely uses indiscriminate and disproportionate violence to wound and murder, and where almost no one can escape, is rarely documented. Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen's powerful new film, Killing Gaza offers an unflinching and moving portrait of a people largely abandoned by the outside world, struggling to endure.

Killing Gaza will be released Tuesday, to coincide with what Palestinians call Nakba Day -- "nakba" means catastrophe in Arabic-commemorating the 70th anniversary of the forced removal of some 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 by the Haganah, Jewish paramilitary forces, from their homes in modern-day Israel. The release of the documentary also coincides with the Trump administration's opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
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