Society's ChildS


Airplane Paper

Unmaking affirmative action: Race-rigging college admissions is a zero-sum game

student backpack
On July 3, the Trump administration rescinded the Obama approach to race-based college admissions. This returns the U.S. to the philosophy of George W. Bush's White House, which argued that race should not be a significant factor. The Trump initiative may have no immediate impact since the Supreme Court upheld race-based admissions policies in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin in 2016. But an impact is surely coming. Consider that Justice Scalia died before he could vote against affirmative action in the Fisher case. Now Justice Kennedy is retiring and Trump's Supreme Court will certainly tilt against the policy with dissenters like Justices Roberts, Thomas, and Alito. Previously, Justice Thomas asserted that, "a State's use of race in higher education admissions decisions is categorically prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause." And Justice Roberts is on record as saying that "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Comment: The author's point is well taken. It seems that the intentions of affirmative action in college admissions is undergoing an existential crisis - just what are we trying to achieve here? While there is certainly some argument for allowing disadvantaged minorities a leg-up for access to higher education, abandoning a merit-based system in favor of ideological 'diversity' only serves to increase division to the point of ludicrosity.

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Handcuffs

Italian artist who painted Ahed Tamimi mural arrested in Israel

mural
© Wisam Hashlamoun / Global Look PressItalian artist Jorit Agoch paints a mural depicting Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi on July 25, 2018 in Bethlehem.
Israeli police have arrested the Italian graffiti artist who depicted Ahed Tamimi on a West Bank separation wall mural in Bethlehem, to coincide with the Palestinian teenage heroine's release from prison.

Agostino Chirwin, also known as 'Jorit Agoch,' wrote on his Instagram account "We are in prison from Israeli army. Who can help us please do it" on Saturday. He was detained with another Italian artist and a Palestinian, whose identities were not released, according to Reuters.

Earlier this week Chirwin, known for hyperrealistic murals of activists, painted a portrait of 17-year-old Tamimi on the wall that separates the West Bank and is regarded as a segregation barrier by Palestinians. The artist usually hides his identity with the help of a black cloth wrapped around his head but posts his murals on an Instagram account.

Laptop

Censoring conservatives: Rep. Gaetz files FEC complaint against Twitter over shadow bans

Rep. Matt Gaetz
Rep. Matt Gaetz
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Twitter after he discovered that his account was being shadowbanned - the practice of excluding or reducing the visibility of one's tweets from normal circulation on the platform.

Gaetz's decision comes after several weeks of conservative users proving that they've been subject to "Quality Filter Discrimination" (QFD) shadowbans, as well as a "glitch" reported by VICE that excluded user's names from auto-populating search results.

During an appearance with Fox's Tucker Carlson, Gaetz announced that he had filed the FEC complaint, which "gives his political rivals an unfair advantage," reports Cassandra Fairbanks of the Gateway Pundit.

Comment: Shadowbanning is an insidious form of censorship that is, more or less, invisible. It really just shows how duplicitous Twitter and other social media platforms really are. We suppose they won't be happy until they've effectively created an autonomous bubble populated by only those who share the same political views. What an exciting sounding platform.

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Megaphone

Catalonia's deposed President Puigdemont vows to continue struggle for independence

Puigdemont
After being released from detention in Germany on a Spanish arrest warrant, the deposed Catalonian President, Carles Puigdemont, announced that he was going to continue to pursue the cause of Catalonia's independence. Puigdemont made the statement at a joint press conference in Waterloo, the site of Napoleon's 1815 defeat, and from where the cause for Catalonia's independence will be orchestrated through a 'Republican Council', which he says that he is going to organize. Much of Puigdemont's political activism will take place from Belgium. He was released on bail after four months in detention, and a German court has ruled that he can't be extradited to Spain on charges of rebellion.

AFP reports:

Comment: It seems these calls for independence whether it be Brexit or a potential "Nordic Union" are really just attempts by citizens to claw back a modicum of control in their lives rather than be taken for a ride by a corrupt system. At the same time we see the BRICS nations teaming up and providing a glimpse of how voluntary cooperation between nations can be of a real benefit to everyone involved: Also check out SOTT radio's:


Jet3

Yemen: Saudi airstrikes on UNICEF water facility compounds cholera risk

bombed water facility
© Hani Mohammed/APRubble of the Alsonidar Group’s water pump and pipe factory after it was hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen.
Four Saudi warplanes launched airstrikes against the UNICEF-funded al Asayed Water Network, destroying water pumps, an electric generator, a nearby solar energy system, and a guard room. Much of the facility was destroyed in the attack, leaving thousands of residents of the Al Safra district of Yemen's Saada governorate, including internally displaced families, without clean drinking water.

Mohammed Kamel - an engineer with the National Foundation which operated the Water Network - said in a statement to MintPress:
Saudi airstrikes targeted the main well of the Water Network, as well as the pump room, generator and solar system. This water project was providing more than 25,000 people in Noshour district as well as the 20 villages around Noshour with clean drinking water. It was completed at a cost of $650,000"
MintPress News obtained the following photos showing the aftermath of the Saudi strike:
saudi Yemen destruction
© UnknownAftermath of Saudi strike.

Comment: Is there ANY action or reason so ideologically and geographically imperative that it is worth the life of one child? A thousand? A million? 8.6 million?


Target

TSA surveillance team, 'Quiet Skies', targets Americans on domestic flights without warrant

3 TSAagents
© SFGate
If you board late or change your appearance before a domestic flight, the TSA might have you followed, based on a new screening program, which many critics say wastes taxpayer's money, an investigation by the Boston Globe reveals.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) launched a covert civilian surveillance program called Quiet Skies across major US airports in March this year, the Boston Globe reported, after examining TSA internal documents and interviewing more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of the matter.

While the aim of the initiative is to "identify and provide enhanced screening to higher risk travelers" before they board aircraft, in reality TSA agents analyze everyday passenger behavior based on at least 15 rules, which include monitoring individual looks and behavior.

So, if somebody is "reversing or changing directions" and "stopping while in transit through the airport," or looks like having "changed appearance," then this person might be selected to have air marshals tag you along your route. Excessive fidgeting, perspiration, rapid eye blinking are just a few indicators which the federal agents are looking for.

Comment: Another layer of 'security' and another layer of privacy infringement. Pat downs, x-rays, facial recognition, personal items contraband, luggage searches, dog patrols, ID verifications, phone usage, bathroom watch...now 'sweat' and 'looks' monitors, people shadowing? The TSA is more threatening than the suspect.


Network

'Zuckerspy & Jack the Ripper' - Kim Dotcom declares 'Deep State social media meddles in US elections', not Russia

Kim Dotcom
© WikiMedia CommonsKim Dotcom
Kim Dotcom has slammed 'deep state' Facebook and Twitter for meddling in US elections, warning they do '100 times' more damage to democracy than all foreign meddlers combined.

"I wouldn't be concerned about Russian meddling in US elections," Dotcom wrote on Twitter. "Be concerned about Deep State social media companies like Facebook and Twitter meddling in US elections."

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Video

Actor from 'The Americans' and 'House of Cards' makes accurate film on breakaway republics of Ukraine, gets airtime on Fox, Sky in UK

Peter von Berg
Peter von Berg played Vasili Nikolaevich on 'The Americans'.
Political winds might well be changing if they are allowing honest portrayals of what is happening in Ukraine onto mainstream TV.

The film, now available on YouTube, is very well made with excellent production values. It consists of a series of interviews with residents of Donbas, from ordinary people, to an American volunteer soldier from Houston (Russell 'Texas' Bentley), to the Prime Minister (Zakharchenko). It includes an interesting segment with a parish priest, who talks about the spiritual aspect of the war.

Beer

Many hoppy returns: German beer producers running low on bottles as heatwave fuels demand

Bottles of beer
© Michael Dalder / ReutersThe bottling plant of the Bavarian Weihenstephan brewery in Freising, Berlin.
Increased beer production and a summer heatwave in Germany have created a bottle shortage problem for local producers, with some breweries even turning to social media to ask for help.

The problem is especially acute for independent, regional, family-run breweries like Fiege in the western German city of Bochum. The brewery's spokesperson told Deutsche Welle that Fiege normally bottles 100,000 to 120,000 beers a day, whereas this summer that figure is up to 150,000 to 160,000.

The struggling brewery has even launched an urgent appeal to consumers via Facebook.

"We need your help," the brewery wrote. "Although we regularly buy new empty bottles, they're becoming scarce in our bottling facility. So before you go on summer holidays, please bring your Moritz Fiege empties back to the shop. First the deposit, then the party!"

Evil Rays

Double standard: Reporters who interrupt Obama are racist, reporters who interrupt Trump are heroes

Trump press conference
© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty ImagesReporters ask questions during a press conference in Washington, DC
Hall of Fame conservative radio host Mark Levin is blowing the whistle on what he sees as a double standard over the Trump administration's move last week to bar a CNN White House reporter from an event after she shouted several questions at the president inside the Oval Office.

On his top-ranked radio show, Levin mocked media that has "circled the wagons" around CNN's Kaitlan Collins who asked Trump, sitting with European Union Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, about tapes the cable network had of the president allegedly talking with his former lawyer about payments to a Playboy model.

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