Society's ChildS


Bad Guys

Biden avoids embarrassment in New Hampshire primary with write-in campaign win

Joe Biden, Dean Phillips
President Joe Biden has prevailed in New Hampshire's unsanctioned 2024 Democratic primary after a campaign by his supporters to write his name on ballots in the state.

Biden, an incumbent president who has more primary challengers than former President Donald Trump, was projected to win the Democratic nominating contest shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. ET, according to the Associated Press on Tuesday.

With 85% of the ballots in, Biden had tallied at least a third of the votes, while another third were write-in votes that had yet to be processed. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and author Marianne Williamson received 20% and 5% of the vote, respectively.

The White House and Biden's campaign have tiptoed around the prospect of a political embarrassment for the president in New Hampshire after he pressed the Democratic National Committee to demote the Granite State on his party's primary calendar despite a state law that its nominating contest be the first in the nation. There was also a late push to write in "ceasefire" instead of "Biden" in protest of his response to the Israel-Gaza war after Hama's Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were in Virginia on Tuesday contending Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, were undermining freedoms, most notably regarding abortion after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Comment: Biden won without any real effort on his part and with people having to write his name on the ballot. Impressive, or is it?


Bulb

A primer for Americans and preppers facing an uncertain future

don't tread on me
This article contains excerpts from Alt-Market's survival newsletter - The Wild Bunch Dispatch

The average patriot (or prepper) is usually a middle class conservative or libertarian with a tendency towards independent thinking and some experience with economic struggle in their past. Most of us have made something of ourselves from very little, or, we had parents that made something of themselves from very little and we watched as children while they climbed their way up the ladder through hard work and merit.

Our philosphy is based on experience and a willingness to look beyond the veil. Most of the western public is bombarded with endless messaging about how stable and safe and "prosperous" our society is. We are constantly slapped in the face with propaganda telling us that patriots are not only crazy, but also dangerous. We are the bumbling bad guys in every film and TV show. We're the "extremists" that refuse to accept that the system works, and if we would just stop trying to be independent from the system, we will find safety and happiness.

Comment: Listen to James Corbett discuss the work of Derrick Broze whose new Greater Reset conference also addresses preparation for the coming times:
Derrick Broze of The Conscious Resistance Network joins James Corbett to discuss The Greater Reset 5: Manifestation, the latest edition of the ongoing series of solutions-focused workshop/conferences seeking to empower people on their quest to build the parallel systems of the future.

From workshops and presentations on permaculture and parallel networks to taking back our tech and building community (including a virtual presentation from James Corbett), this conference offers something for every stripe of #SolutionsWatch-er, both in person and in a free livestream.

Sources, shownotes and links - as well as audio versions and download options - can be found here. Previous episodes of #SolutionsWatch can be found here and here.




Stop

'Heinous act of terrorism' - Kremlin condemns deadly Ukrainian attack on Donetsk

wrecked cars
© Sputnik/Victoria VelenskayaThe body of the seller who died as a result of the shelling
AFU market in the Kirovsky district of Donetsk
Russia will continue its military operation against Kiev to prevent further strikes on civilians, Dmitry Peskov has said...

The Ukrainian shelling of the Russian city of Donetsk on Sunday that killed at least 27 civilians was a "heinous act of terrorism," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He vowed that Moscow will do everything possible to prevent such attacks from happening again.

The Ukrainian strike, which also injured 25 people, many of them seriously, hit a busy local market and shops. The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier called the attack "barbaric" and suggested it was carried out with Western support.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Peskov condemned the shelling and said the high death toll was caused by Kiev's use of "indiscriminate weapons." Russian President Vladimir Putin has been fully briefed and local authorities are taking all the necessary measures, the spokesman added.

Comment: Just to be clear...
Moscow's military does not target civilian infrastructure and residential areas, unlike Ukrainian forces, Dmitry Peskov has said.

Russian missile strikes on Kiev and Kharkov on Tuesday morning were not retaliation for the recent Ukrainian attack on a busy market in Donetsk, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

His statement came after the Russian Defense Ministry reported carrying out a large series of high-precision missile strikes on military targets in Ukraine, particularly sites producing rockets and other munitions.

Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday, however, that residential buildings in Kharkov and Kiev had sustained damage and that several dozen people had been injured in the attacks. The Ukrainian military also claimed to have shot down 21 out of 41 missiles fired by Russia. However, it was unclear where those projectiles landed and if they could have been the cause of the damage sustained in residential areas in the two Ukrainian cities.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov stated that the Russian attack was not a response to Kiev's assault on Donetsk, stressing that it was only part of Moscow's ongoing operation. He also insisted:
"Russian forces do not target social infrastructure, residential areas or civilians, unlike the Kiev regime. This is what fundamentally distinguishes our military from the military of the Kiev regime."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned Sunday's attack on Donetsk but refused to assign blame, instead calling for a general cessation of any hostilities toward civilians and civilian infrastructure.



Star of David

Israeli army gassed my son 'like Auschwitz,' mother of slain Israeli soldier says

protest
© UnknownIsraelis protest War in Gaza
An outraged Israeli mom has sparked an uproar after accusing the Israeli army of deliberately gassing her son to death while he was being held in a Gaza tunnel. Now she says the Israeli military had her son's gravestone removed after her critical message went viral. His killing follows a pattern of Israeli military attacks on Israeli captives in Gaza, raising questions about the existence of a friendly fire policy to prevent prisoner swaps.

The mother of a now-dead Israeli soldier captured by Hamas militants on October 7 says it was the Israeli military, not Palestinian resistance fighters, who killed her son. In a recently-published post on Facebook, Israeli mother Maayan Sherman wrote that her son Ron was "indeed murdered - not by Hamas," but in circumstances more akin to "Auschwitz and the showers."

The killing of her son, she wrote:
"Was caused not from accidental gunfire, nor from crossfire, but from premeditated murder - bombing with poison gas. Ron was kidnapped because of the criminal negligence of all the senior officials of the army and this damned government, who gave an order to eliminate him in order to settle a score with some terrorist from Jabalya."

Comment: The ultimate betrayal: Victimized to death by one's own country.


Bullseye

Newly-elected Pennsylvania school board rejects cancel culture, reclaims Indigenous mascot

pennsylvania school board reclaim native mascot image
© Jennifer HenkelFrom left, Joe Wilson, Bill Hall, Jennifer Henkel, Jeremy Nash and Nathan Henkel were all elected to the Southern York County (Penn.) School District school board in Nov. 2023 — running on pro-Native American platforms. They voted in January 2024 to reclaim a local high school's Native American logo and mascot.
A Pennsylvania community reclaimed its local Indigenous history and a school's popular tribesman mascot last week, just two months after five new school committee members won elections and ran on pro-Native American platforms.

The Southern York County School District (SYCSD) school board voted 7-2 on Thursday to allow Susquehannock High School to bring back its traditional Warriors logo.

"This vote was the Lexington & Concord moment in the effort to defeat cancel culture," Native American activist and historian Andre Billeaudeuax told Fox News Digital, after lobbying on behalf of the traditional image that pays homage to the Indigenous Susquehannock people.

All seven votes in favor of the logo came from members who were elected since a previous board voted to remove the logo back in 2021.

Comment: The devolution of an iconic image into its current bland inoffensiveness. Nothing is too trivial to be spared from woke ruin:
washington redskins logo history
© NFL



Star of David

21 Israeli troops killed while planting explosives for controlled demolition of Gaza neighborhood

demolition gaza al-Maghazi Refugee Camp idf
© Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty ImagesA view of demolition at al-Maghazi Refugee Camp after Israeli forces withdrew area in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Jan. 16, 2024.
Israeli military forces suffered their single largest known loss of troops on Monday when 21 reserve soldiers died as they tried to rig two buildings in southern Gaza with mines to perform a controlled demolition. According to the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, Hamas commandos fired a rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG, at an Israeli tank that was deployed to protect the soldiers rigging the buildings with bombs, causing a chain reaction that led to the structures collapsing on top of the Israeli soldiers.

"At around 4 p.m., an RPG was fired by gunmen at a tank securing the forces, and simultaneously, an explosion occurred in two two-story buildings. The buildings collapsed due to this explosion, while most of the forces were inside and near them," said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson. "One of the missiles apparently hit a mine, which exploded and caused the buildings to collapse with the soldiers inside them."

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released a statement Tuesday describing an attack that was consistent with the time and nature of the Israeli military's description. While the IDF statement was unclear about the exact cause of the explosion inside the buildings, the Qassam Brigades said its operatives "targeted" the structure, leading to the "explosion of the [IDF's] ammunition and engineering equipment," "completely blowing [it] up."

Sherlock

Explosion & major fires at food plant in Italy, shopping centre in Serbia, gas supplier in Mongolia, factory in Kazakhstan

fire serbia
© FOTO TANJUG/ OMK MUP REPUBLIKE SRBIJE/bs
The fire that broke out in the Chinese shopping center in Block 70 has started to spread, and according to the latest information, helicopters extinguish it.

In the course of live phone-in news report on TV Prva, new explosions were heard.

The head of the Department for Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Luka Čaušić, told TV Prva that the fire was reported at 6:57 a.m. and that the teams arrived in just a few minutes, but that the fire had already flared up.

Comment: Yesterday in Mongolia:


Italy's food plant fire on the 22nd of January - which was, notably, known for not using pesticides:
Overview of the Incident

Planet Farms experienced a fire at its Cavenago plant on January 22, 2024. The facility sustained substantial damage as a result of the fire, including the collapse of the warehouse roof.

Details on the Fire's Outbreak

According to initial reports, the fire started around 6.00 AM. Investigations are focusing on a potential malfunction in the air conditioning system, which may have ignited insulation panels. The presence of plastic materials on the roof contributed to the spread and intensity of the fire, leading to considerable damage to the structure as reported by Wired reporters.


Footage:



Response Efforts to the Fire

The team at Planet Farms informed Vertical Farm Daily that the cause of the fire that occurred on their premises is still unknown as investigations are ongoing. However, they confirmed that the fire had been brought under control and no employees or individuals were injured during the incident.

Despite this setback, Planet Farms' development and expansion plans remain on track, with construction of the next-generation plant in Cirimido already well underway. This new plant will be twice the size of the one located in Cavenago, and progress is at an advanced stage.
Kazakhstan:
Fire breaks out at furniture factory in Astana, no casualties reported

A furniture factory caught a fire in Astana last night, Kazinform News Agency reports citing the local emergencies authorities.

The fire broke out on January 23, at 09:20pm, on 31/11C Dukenuly Street.
astana fire
Upon arrival within six minutes, the firefighting brigade saw furniture blanks, plastic and rubber products burning on the area of 1,200 square meters.

The fire was isolated at 10:40 pm and extinguished at 11:11 pm.

No victims or injuries were reported.

93 firefighters, as well as employees of the Emergency Medicine Center were involved in fire extinguishing.
Two others from this month that have not yet been documented on SOTT:
  • 3rd January: 50,000 chickens die during huge fire at farm in Netherlands.
  • 6th January: Huge fire at food processing plant, Finland.



Yellow Vest

France's farmers block roads amid popular ongoing protests, Germany's railway workers begin longest strike action ever

france farmer
Protesting farmers blocked roads across France on Wednesday to press the government to ease its drive for lower consumer prices and loosen environmental regulations.

Many farmers struggle financially and say their livelihoods are threatened as food retailers are increasing pressure to bring down prices after a period of high inflation.


Comment: Supermarkets have been caught artificially raising their prices for a variety of goods, meanwhile they're refusing to pay producers the cost of production.

In addition, without subsidies a significant number of Europe's farmers would go out of business, however this is largely down to government incompetence and corruption; such as the anti-Russia sanctions restricting access to affordable fuel and fertilizer, alongside strict regulations that aren't applicable to goods imported from other countries.



Comment: Just 10 days ago a number of other EU countries saw major protests from their farmers: 30,000 attend 7th day of farmer protests in Germany, truckers & farmers protest for 5th day in Romania

And Germany's transport workers are set to begin their second strike action of the month:
Much of Germany is expected to grind to a halt on Wednesday when train drivers begin a six-day strike - the longest industrial action in the national railway's history.

The strike, which will start at 2am on Wednesday for passenger trains and on Tuesday evening for freight, is taking place amid tensions and scenes of unrest across the country.

Farmers supported by transport companies have blocked thoroughfares in towns and cities with their tractors, ostensibly over government proposals to phase out subsidies on fuel, while an estimated 1 million people have taken to the streets to campaign against the far right after revelations members of the AfD discussed plans for the mass expulsion of foreigners and German passport holders with a migrant background.


Rather than 1 million 'far right protesters', other news outlets have them at tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands, but, obviously the propaganda media's agenda is to emphasise and encourage people to think these protests are much bigger and more influential.

Meanwhile they fail to mention that Germany's farmer protest enjoyed the support of at least 69% of the population - which is significantly higher than those supporting the 'anti far-right' protests.


The GDL trade union, which includes train drivers and other rail workers, has said it was forced into the strike, which is set to continue until 2pm on Monday, after bosses at Deutsche Bahn (DB), the national rail operator, "tried to trick" the workers over their demands for improved pay and conditions.

DB has accused GDL, which has about 40,000 members, of "holding the country hostage", insisting its demands would increase the company's wage bill by 50%.

Neither side in the railway dispute has sat together around a negotiating table since November and the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said it would "not be appropriate" for him to involve himself in labour disputes when called on to arbitrate.

But the deadlock in talks has only deepened disgruntlement at Germany's leadership, on top of a cost of living crisis that critics have said is fuelling the rise of the AfD as key regional elections loom in the autumn.


Lost of factors are contributing the rise of populist parties, and it's primarily due to the overwhelming incompetence and corruption of the ruling parties.


Industry bosses have estimated that the strike will cost Europe's biggest economy, which recently fell into recession, about €100m (£85m) a day and warned of the reputational damage the strike would do to German business. Industry is already under strain over supply chain issues linked to the Red Sea attacks on shipping, with some companies having had to reduce production.


Germany's economy slipped into recession well before the Houthis intervened to stop the genocide. Economic issues are largely tied to the backfiring sanctions and the nefarious green agenda.


Six out of 10 of Europe's freight corridors go through Germany, so a considerable knock-on effect across mainland Europe is also inevitable, not to mention the effect on continental train connections.

Earlier this month DB failed in its attempts to get a court to halt the strikes.

GDL is calling for a reduction in employees' working week from 38 to 35 hours with no drop in pay. It also wants an extra €550 a month for workers plus an inflation compensation package to be renegotiated after 12 months.

DB has offered workers an average 4.8% pay increase starting from August, and an additional 5% from spring 2025. An inflation compensation package would be paid for a fixed period of 32 months.

It said that from 2026, employees would have the chance to reduce working time from the average 38 hours a week to 37, with extra pay for those who stuck to their current working week. DB has said further cuts in working time would exacerbate an already extremely burdensome worker shortage.

Environmentalist groups have expressed concern about the impact of the strike on CO2 emissions as well as consumers' long-term trust in rail travel.


Germany's support for the Gaza genocide is resulting in many times more CO2 emissions; but we've not heard much from the environmentalists in that regard.


Domestic flight routes by the national carrier Lufthansa have been increased to plug the gap, and car hire companies have reported a massive increase in bookings as people look for alternative ways to travel.

Germans who cannot work from home are legally obliged to make their own alternative travel arrangements.

DB is under considerable strain because of a sustained poor record on punctuality and reliability due to what it puts down to long-term underfunding in infrastructure and a labour shortage.

Gitta Connemann, the chair of MIT, the business wing of the conservative CDU/CSU parties, has called for changes to laws governing strikes in areas of critical infrastructure.

"Strikes are a part of free collective bargaining, and an expression of democracy, but in this case it is not only affecting railway employees, but millions of people from commuters to travellers, businesses, the economy, here and elsewhere in Europe," she told the broadcaster DLF.

"We need industrial action laws like other countries have to ensure that critical infrastructure isn't threatened in this way."

DB has an unusual ownership structure: it was privatised in the 1990s after German reunification but remains in government hands, with the state its sole shareholder. Claus Weselsky, the head of GDL, who is on the verge of retirement, said the government's decision to privatise was to blame for a lot of its current woes.
Footage from the protests in France over the past few days:







War Whore

Public face call-up if we go to war, military chief warns

Challenger 2 tank
© Corporal Rebecca Brown, RLC/ArmyA Challenger 2 tank on Lulworth Range in Dorset. The Army has has problems with recruitment.
The British public will be called up to fight if the UK goes to war because the military is too small, the head of the Army is to warn.

General Sir Patrick Sanders will stress the need for the Government to "mobilise the nation" in the event of war with Russia in a speech on Wednesday.

With the British Army being reduced to its smallest size for centuries, The Telegraph understands Gen Sir Patrick, who has been openly critical of troop cuts, wants British men and women to be prepared for a call-up if Nato goes to war with Putin.

Comment: Looks like they're trying to drum up more grist for the war mill. Maybe recruitment numbers are down because more people are becoming aware of the fact that they're just signing up to die for useless wars.

See also:


Bad Guys

Journalist captures horrific moment Palestinian man in group waving white flag is shot dead in Gaza

palestine
© ITV News
A Palestinian man walking in a group waving a white flag was shot dead in Gaza by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), ITV News is reporting.

A cameraman working for the media outlet was filming scenes in Gaza when the incident occurred.

The footage shows a group of men walking on a footpath close to a combat zone.

They have their hands up and are visibly waving a white flag, the international symbol of a truce.

ITV News said the men were unarmed.

Comment: Truly tragic.