Society's ChildS


Cross

German judge removes cross from courtroom during trial of Afghan migrant, faces backlash

Judge
A Bavarian judge who ordered the crucifix to be removed from the courtroom during the trial of an Afghan migrant has faced a backlash. The defendant says he does not mind being tried under the cross.

Klaus-Juergen Schmid, a judge in the Bavarian town of Miesbach, has ordered a crucifix to be removed from the courtroom during the trial of a 21-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker accused of making death threats to another Afghan who converted to Christianity.

Initially reported last week, the story received wider coverage later with people on social media weighing in. Shortly after the case was made public, Schmid began receiving "angry emails" accusing him of removing a symbol of Germany's "cultural and religious sovereignty."

"The blood shed by the hands of the defendant will be partly due to you," the judge quoted one of the comments as saying. This is despite the judge's claim that he imposed the maximum penalty on the defendant.

USA

Poll: 80 Percent of Americans want merit-based legal immigration, not chain migration

US citizenship pledge
© Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images
The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with President Trump's pro-American immigration agenda, saying that legal immigration to the U.S. should be based on skills and merit, rather than the current system based on family ties.

In a new Harvard-Harris poll, nearly 80 percent of Americans said they believe "immigration priority for those coming to the U.S. should be based on a person's ability to contribute to America as measured by their education and skills-and not based on a person having relatives in the U.S."

Currently, the legal immigration system to the U.S. prioritizes foreign nationals who have foreign relatives already living in the country. This process is commonly referred to as "chain migration." As Breitbart News reported, chain migration has imported more than nine million foreign nationals to the U.S. since 2005 and is on-track to bring at least eight million new foreign voters to the U.S. in the next two decades.

Black Cat 2

Anti-Semitic Tirade on Western Pro-Kremlin Site Betrays Ignorance of Russia

putin jews
Putin being shown around Moscow's new $50 million Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
An outrageous anti-Semitic tirade on an American 'pro-Russia' blog-site proves that the inability to properly understand Russia often extends to westerners who think they are 'supporting' the country.

Since its inception, there have been numerous reasons to laugh at 'Russia Insider' (henceforth RI). There's the way it brazenly steals content from professional news outlets and repackages it, with a twist. Not to mention the pseudo-messianic zeal of its founders, displayed in its initial fundraising videos. But it's definitely not funny anymore.

In the beginning, RI seemed semi-promising, and many gave it the benefit of the doubt. Because, given the Putin-derangement virus which has infected western media, there are very few outlets these days for journalists and commentators willing to be balanced in their coverage of Russia. Indeed, those perceived as "Russia versteher" (even if that usually means simply realistic and honest in their coverage) are more-or-less blacklisted in the mainstream press. Something I have first-hand experience of.

Cell Phone

James Woods lays into Jeff Sessions and 'missing' FBI text messages on Twitter

James Woods Jeff Sessions
It is obvious to anyone paying attention that Jeff Sessions has no control over the Justice Department.

Jeff Sessions has pretty much surrendered the DOJ to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein thanked Sessions for the exchange of power by appointing Special Counsel Robert Mueller to carry out a coup d'etat.

AG Sessions has the ability to unrecuse himself and end this Mueller witch hunt once and for all but he continues to sit on the sidelines as Americans watch Mueller take scalps.

Cardboard Box

Opiate Express: Illegal Chinese-made drugs entering US via regular mail

opioid fentanyl
© Caro / Sorge / Global Look Press
The highly addictive drug known as opioid fentanyl is arriving in the US via the postal service from China, according to the findings of a congressional report released Wednesday.

Compounding the epidemic of opioid usage in the United States, which President Trump has declared a national public health emergency, a year-long probe by a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs investigations subcommittee discovered a gap in the mail service that allows Americans to purchase the drug easily over the internet.

Shipments of opioid fentanyl, which caused more than 20,000 deaths in the US in 2016 due to overdoses, are sent from laboratories in China to individuals who "consume them or to middlemen who dilute them for resale," Reuters reports.

The probe did not mention the names of the suspected labs.

Attention

Raqqa Syria: Ten thousand bodies discovered in several mass graves

handsand
© Unknown
A Syrian official said on Tuesday that several mass graves with 10,000 bodies, including one with 4,000, have been found in Raqqa city in Northeastern Syria.

The Arabic-language al-Watan daily quoted General Director of the Syrian Forensic Medicine Zaher Hajo as reporting that based on intelligence 10,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves in Raqqa. He further told al-Watan that 4,000 bodies were buried in one single grave, adding that the discovered graves are located in the regions that are under the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Thursday that the humanitarian situation in Syria's Raqqa was close to a disaster, though everyone was putting the best face on matters.

"The humanitarian situation in Raqqa is awful, but everyone is playing it cool. Our American colleagues leveled the city to the ground as they were fighting ISIL there, and currently the whole city is rigged with explosives, full of corpses of killed people, lacking water, electricity and any medical facilities. Nothing is going on, the city is not being restored, people cannot come back, living in awful unbelievable conditions in refugee camps," the diplomat stressed.

Bizarro Earth

Sick society: Study finds cuckolding can be 'positive experience' for couples

cuckolding
In our current political climate, the term "cuck" -- short for "cuckservative" -- has become an insult of the so-called alt-right, aimed at men they view as spineless and emasculated. The slur has its roots in the concept of cuckolding, or having an adulterous partner.

But, according to a recent study by David Ley, Justin Lehmiller and the writer Dan Savage, acting on cuckolding fantasies can be a largely positive experience for many couples, and hardly a sign of weakness.

References to cuckolding appear in literature as early as the 13th century, usually in the form of male characters who fear that their child has been sired by another man during an act of infidelity. Today, however, cuckolding has become fetishized into a powerful sexual fantasy for some men, who get aroused by the idea of their romantic partner engaging in sexual activity with someone else. Women also share this fantasy, but less so than men.

Comment: In a monogamous, loving relationship, what man would want the woman he loves to be with a different man? And what woman would be on board with doing that? It's only in a disturbed society that this kind of sexual fetishization is normalized and seen as beneficial.


Bulb

Patriarch of Russian Orthodox Church seeks special status for large families

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia
© Sergey Pyatakov / SputnikPatriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill has urged senators to provide special status for multi-child families in Russia, questioning why this can't be done when preferences are being given to sexual minorities in the West.

"The Church has supported and will support any positive changes in legislation aimed at maintaining maternity and childhood and, especially, to overcome such a terrible phenomenon as orphanage with living parents," the Patriarch said during an appearance at the Russia Federal Council on Thursday.

According to the Patriarch, it was also "important" to back the calls from families with three or more underage children for "the adoption of a law regulating their status."

Comment: This is a pretty interesting proposition and shows the Patriarch understands the fundamental motivations of feminism toward breaking up the family better than even many of its Western adherents. More than that, he understands the important role families have in the health of a society.


USA

NeverTrumpers' vexing question: What to make of Trump successes?

Donald Trump
The start of President Trump's second year in office has given Republicans and conservatives an opportunity to review a solid list of achievements: corporate and individual tax cuts; economic growth; wage growth; a conservative Supreme Court justice; a record number of circuit court confirmations; deregulation; the defeat of ISIS and more. Each is a development worth celebrating, either by the standards of conservatism, or the general welfare, or both.

But for NeverTrump conservatives, the list presents a challenge. Many support the actions, like cutting taxes and reducing regulation, on Trump's list. Yet some have also staked their credibility and prestige on declaring Trump's election an unmitigated, historic disaster that will lead to an autocratic, dystopian future. Many want to force Trump out of office, either by impeachment, the 25th Amendment, or, at latest, defeat in 2020.

So how to deal with the current good news?

Comment: Getting rid of Trump will not fix or solve any real problems, but these NeverTrumpers are too blinded by liberal ideological talking points and trivialities to see that they're just pawns in a much bigger game.


Footprints

Head of Italy's ultra-nationalist Lega Nord party Matteo Salvini vows to kick out 100k migrants per year if elected PM

Matteo Salvini
© / @salviniofficial / FacebookThe head of Italy’s ultra-nationalist Lega Nord party Matteo Salvini
The head of Italy's ultra-nationalist Lega Nord party has promised to clean up the "mess" and kick hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants out of the country if he is elected prime minister in the upcoming general election.

The 2018 Italian general election is due to take place on March 4, after the country's Parliament was dissolved by President Sergio Mattarella in late December. The leader of Italy's traditional far-right 'Lega Nord' party hopes that his 'Italians first' slogan will sway enough voters to land him in office. Salvini is betting on Italians' anti-migrant sentiments to bring him to power as part of a center-right alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy!).

"In Italy, there are too many illegal immigrants who go around making a mess, I cannot take it anymore," Salvini told the host of Dimartedì political talk show that aired on La7 news channel. "There are those who use the aircraft to bring immigrants to Italy. I would use them to bring them back home."