Society's ChildS


Star of David

'Trump's July 4th gift to Netanyahu': Israel demolishes homes outside Jerusalem

Allison Deger
Mondoweiss
Fri, 06 Jul 2018 12:03 UTC
West Bank Israel home demolition
© Shadi Hatem/APA ImagesIsraeli policemen scuffle with Palestinian demonstrators in the Bedouin village of al-Khan al-Ahmar east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on July 4, 2018.
Israel forces arrived this morning to two Palestinian-Bedouin villages and began razing buildings in preparation for taking over the land, alarming human rights groups who say such a move would effectively cut the West Bank into two.

The villages Khan al-Ahmar, and Abu Nuwar are home to just around 2,000 Bedouins, but the impact of their removal would be lasting, making a Palestinian state no longer possible, advocates of the two-state solution warned.

Today, bulldozers demolished nine homes and three farm buildings in Abu Nuwar and clashed with Bedouin residents in Khan al-Ahmar. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society Israeli police injured 35, of whom 4 were hospitalized. Founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi Arik Ascherman posted a video of the encounter on social media, writing, "You can see some of the violence at the end of this video. My battery died, and I didn't get the worst of it. The police were swinging wildly and kicking viciously, until their commanding officer got a hold of them."
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Mr. Potato

D'oh Scarborough: 'I firmly believe' Putin has something on Trump

William Steakin
IJR
Tue, 03 Jul 2018 22:55 UTC
Joe Scarborough
"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday that he "firmly" believes Russian President Vladimir Putin "has something" on President Donald Trump that is causing the president to be hesitant to criticize the Kremlin leader.

"There's been a concern that [Trump] would never criticize Vladimir Putin. There's been a concern, obviously through this investigation, that Vladimir Putin must have something on Donald Trump," the MSNBC host said. "I firmly believe he does have something on Donald Trump, and that's why he's never criticized Putin."

The MSNBC host then went after the president for using his first term to make moves that would seemingly benefit Putin by "attacking NATO allies, trying to withdraw troops - talking about withdrawing troops from Europe, talking about withdrawing our commitment to NATO, talking secretly to Vladimir Putin at the G20 last year - I mean, the list is endless."

"If there is a conspiracy, this conspiracy seems to be in plain sight," he added.

Comment: It's okay Joe, you're not the only one suffering from delusions: US Senate: Russia meddled in 2016 election because we don't care about facts

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Pirates

Best of the Web: Crime wave in Sweden: Government's immigration policy blamed for gang shootings, rapes and no-go zones


RT
Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:34 UTC
Sweden crime
© File photo: Fredrik Sandberg / ReutersFiremen in the suburb of Rinkeby
Swedish authorities held an emergency meeting this week to discuss the recent spate of gang shootings that have plagued Sweden's cities and made crime a major issue ahead of elections in September.

The centre-left government in Stockholm has been facing a backlash over the recent crime wave - and the elephant in the room is migration.

1. Gang violence on the rise

A record-high number of people (43) were killed in shootings in Sweden in 2017 - up massively from just eight in 2006. Sweden's Justice Minister Morgan Johansson acknowledged to news agency TT that there had been "a lot of shootings and deaths in a short time."

Comment: A country can take immigration as long as immigrants integrate well enough to their host culture. However, even then there is a limit. It was extremely naïve - at best, criminal at worst - to think that a quarter-million people - mostly Muslim - could simply walk into the country and there would be social harmony. For an enlightening take on the immigration issue in Europe, see:

The Scourge of Modern 'Liberalism' in France

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Clipboard

Vasily Livanov MBE: An open letter to the people of Britain

Vasily Livanov
Off Guardian
Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:46 UTC
This open letter, from iconic Russsian actor Vasily Livanov MBE, was first sent to The Guardian. They declined to publish it, we did not.
Vasily Livanov
As with many of my compatriots, there are many things about Britain and the British people that I admire. As someone whose whole life has been linked with literature, cinema and theatre, I have the greatest appreciation for English literature and the arts, for its writers and playwrights, actors and directors. As someone who had the good fortune to have played the iconic Englishman Sherlock Holmes in a very successful Soviet film series, I was honoured to have been awarded an MBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. I am grateful for a chance to have been part of the mutually enriching cultural kinship and synergy of our two countries. As someone who has lived a long life, I vividly remember the years of WWII when the Soviet Union and Britain were staunch and proud allies in the fight against Nazism.
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Rose

French architects list the top 5 most beautiful Moscow Metro stations


RT
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 15:41 UTC
Moscow Metro
© Grigory Dukor / ReutersPeople walk inside Komsomolskaya metro station in Moscow
Widely considered one the of the world's most beautiful underground networks, the Moscow Metro has become one of the major tourist attractions, and even inspired a group of French architects, the city authorities revealed.

Urban designers coming from France to support their team at the 2018 World Cup told Moscow authorities that they were so impressed by the aesthetic of the Russian capital's ornate metro system they made their own urban architecture guide of the network, with a list of the five most beautiful stations.

Comment: Stark contrast to San Francisco's metro... so take your pick - junkies or yoga?



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2 + 2 = 4

The illusion of Ocasio-Cortez: New faces won't mend a corrupt political system

Teodrose Fikre
The Ghion Journal
Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:23 UTC
Ocasio-Cortez
I'll admit, for a minute I fell for it again. Watching a young, telegenic woman take on and defeat an entrenched politician produced a temporary moment of euphoria mixed with schadenfreude. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's unbelievable knockout of Democratic party boss Joe Crowley almost made me believe that these two equally bankrupt political parties can be fixed from within. The feeling proved to be short-lived; no person is more powerful than the institution they are desperate to join.

I am no longer the naive loyalist who believed that a little known Senator from Illinois would deliver the change we have been waiting for. As much as I want to root for Alexandria, I know that in the end she too will be co-opted by the DNC and party leaders. The problem in DC are not the candidates but the system as a whole. A government hijacked by two mafia parties will not allow true change agents to survive let alone prosper. In this paradigm, even the most well-intentioned of people will end up conforming to the norm and have zero chance of transforming our broken state of politics.

Comment:

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Pistol

Kalashnikov legal team proposes 10 shotguns and rifles per citizen limit in new Russian Law on Weapons


RT
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 10:21 UTC
Kalashnikov
© ReutersAlexey Krivoruchko, CEO of Kalashnikov Group, poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi
Lawyers for Russian firearms producer Kalashnikov have prepared amendments to the national legislation liberalizing the purchase and ownership of firearms and introducing rules regulating gunsmithing, according to reports.

Kommersant newspaper reported on Thursday that it had managed to acquire and study the reworked draft of the Law on Weapons prepared by Kalashnikov's legal team. The changes include an increase in the maximum quantity of guns of one type (shotguns and rifles) allowed for possession by one person from current five to ten.
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Book 2

Episcopal Church considers using gender-neutral language to describe God in its book of prayers

Jana J. Pruet
The Blaze
Wed, 04 Jul 2018 09:56 UTC
priest bible
© Getty ImagesThe Episcopal Church will consider adding gender-neutral language to its Book of Common Prayer at its convention in Austin.
The Episcopal Church will consider whether to add gender-neutral language regarding God to its Book of Common Prayer at its 79th General Convention, which starts Thursday in Austin, Texas.

The debate is centered on making sure that the faith's prayer book is clear that God, the supreme being, is genderless. The proposed changes will be considered at the eight-day convention, the Washington Post reported.

The church has always addressed God through the use of masculine terms such as Him, Father, and King, among others.

In the New Testament, Jesus taught his disciples to pray using male pronouns.

"And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth," Jesus said in Luke 11:2.

Comment: See also:

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Heart - Black

Iraq war veteran: Prevent suicides by stopping US immoral, illegal wars across the globe


RT
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 10:03 UTC
Veterans Arlington cemetary
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2016.
Moral injury is the real reason why US veterans are committing suicide, as they realize all the horrors of war and innocent people killed were for nothing but US corporate interests, US Iraq war veteran Vince Emanuele told RT.

Dozens of US veterans gathered for a march in front of the New Orleans VA hospital on July 1, to raise awareness for the high rates of veteran suicides across the nation. The demonstrators were wearing 'dead masks' to represent the high cost of war.

Last month, US Department of Veterans Affairs released a report stating that the average number of veterans who die by suicide daily is 20.

RT spoke to US Iraq war veteran and activist Vince Emanuele who shared his view on the matter. He believes that the US government is not doing everything possible to prevent more veteran suicides.


Comment: Twenty veterans committing suicide every day is an outrageous number.

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Cult

Senator Bob Corker: Trump supporters are like cultists

Cal Thomas
Townhall
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 09:35 UTC
Donald Trump
© AP / Charlie Neibergall
Bob Corker, the outgoing Republican senator from Tennessee, recently compared supporters of President Trump to members of a cult. The Washington Post quoted Corker as saying: "It's becoming a cultish thing, isn't it? It's not a good place for any party to end up with a cult-like situation as it relates to a president that happens to be of -- purportedly -- of the same party."

Purportedly? It would be nice to know what the Republican Party stands for these days, especially when it comes to spending and debt, but I will leave that for another day.

The Post story says "...the Republican Party appears united now not by fealty to ideas or policies but to a man, who defied the odds to win the presidency and who has magnetically drawn the party's power base to himself."

Doesn't that reasoning also describe the rise to power of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton -- the former this country's first African-American president, the latter the former governor of a Southern state with a great gift of gab, though personally flawed in ways similar to President Trump? Why did the media not label Clinton followers cultists? Why weren't people who appeared to worship President Obama regarded as blind followers of a cult-like leader? Answer: because they are Democrats, and the standards are different for Democrats.

Corker is right about how the GOP focused less on ideas and more on winning, but that could describe both parties at varying points in history.

Comment: Pretty much everything the left goes around accusing everyone of they are guilty of themselves. Either you end up having enough and #WalkAway or become ideologically possessed. There is no middle ground... that would be too 'rational' and you'd probably be called a Nazi for it.

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