Society's ChildS

People

The best and worst countries for making friends

best countries making friends
The UK has slipped downwards in the world rankings for friendliness to expat families.

In a ranking of 65 countries around the world for "Ease of Settling In," the UK ranked 44th. When it came to the "Finding Friends" category, the country ranked a paltry 49th.

In the same index back in 2016 (of 67 countries in total) the UK ranked 43rd for Finding Friends, illustrating a notable drop in this year's table.

Here's an overview of the index:

Hourglass

Johnny Hallyday: French 'Elvis Presley' dead at age 74

Johnny Hallyday
© AFP/Getty ImagesHallyday broke from France's classic "chanson" tradition in the 1950s, starting singing rock and roll in French
France's biggest rock star Johnny Hallyday has died after a battle with lung cancer. He was 74.

The singer sold about 100 million records and starred in a number of films in a career that began in 1960.

He was made a Chevalier of the Legion D'Honneur by President Jacques Chirac in 1997.

The French simply called him "Our Johnny". However, outside the Francophone zone, Hallyday was virtually unknown.

Blackbox

Pop star Pink is raising her children to be gender-neutral

pink gender neutral
© Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Pop star Pink says she is raising her children to be gender-neutral because her family lives in a "label-less household."

The singer, who is 38 and married to motorcycle racer Carey Hart, 42, told the U.K.'s The People she does not want her children defined by their gender. Pink said she is delighted her 6-year-old daughter Willow told her she wants to marry an African woman when she grows up.

"We are a very label-less household," Pink, whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore, explained, "Last week Willow told me she is going to marry an African woman. I was like: 'Great, can you teach me how to make African food?'"

"And she's like: 'Sure mama, and we are going to live with you while our house is getting ready,'" Pink continued. "I was like 'what the f**k, who are you? Who is paying for this by the way?'"

The performer of international hit "Get the Party Started," Pink is a champion of the new gender ideology that does not acknowledge the science of two biological sexes - male and female.


Comment: A very dangerous new ideology that has no business being forced on young children who have just barely begun to understand what sex and gender mean. See: Camille Paglia: Transgender propagandists committing child abuse against gender-confused children


Comment: Yep. F**k it. That seems to be the typical response to everything nowadays - including raising your children.


Snakes in Suits

Corporate Power and the death of Democracy

we the corporations
Corporate Power is the Fusion of the Corporation and the State

The rise of Corporate Power was the fall of democracy. Over the long haul, US politics has revolved around a deep tension between democracy and an unrelenting drive for plunder, power and empire. Granted that our democracy has been seriously flawed and only rarely revolutionary, yet the democratic movements are the source of every good thing America has ever stood for.

Since the mid-1970s, when the corporations fused with the state, a new imperial order emerged that killed what remained of representative democracy. Not only would corporations exercise public authority as only government once had, but government would coordinate and serve corporate activity. Power and profits became one and the same. Corporate power has replaced democracy with oligarchy and justice with a vast militarized penal system. Instead of innovative production, they plunder people and planet.


To achieve this new order, elections and the economy had to be drained of any remaining democratic content. Both Democrats and Republicans were eager to have at it.

By the 1990s "Third Way" Democrats like Bill Clinton abandoned what was left of the New Deal to try to outdo the Republicans as the party of Wall Street. The Republicans pioneered election fraud on a national scale in 2000, 2004, and 2016; a lesson the Democrats learned all too well by the 2016 Primary. Neither major party wants election reform since free and fair elections would threaten the system itself.

Comment: See also:


Fire

Israeli soldiers harass Palestinian elementary school teachers and students in Hebron (VIDEO)

Israel military harass Palestinian
Screen shot of footage from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
Some children in Hebron have difficulty getting in and out of the school because of an Israeli military post and gate about 30 yards from their classrooms. During October and November 2017 the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem found four instances where Palestinian students and teachers at the Ziad Hamuda Elementary School were stopped, searched, and abused on their commutes. In at least one incident clashes broke out near the school with children filmed by field researchers fleeing from white plumes of tear gas.

"Occasionally, and unpredictably, soldiers stationed on the scene conduct random searches of passersby," B'Tselem said in a statement today. Some students told the group they were stuck by soldiers when attempting to enter school, adding that a settler stood nearby recording the children on his phone.

Comment: This is nothing but bullying; the Israeli soldiers nothing but kids with guns picking on defenseless citizens for no other reason than because they can. It's psychopathic.

See also:


USA

Video: Chris Hedges on the American Empire's descent into dystopia

For money Mr. Fish
In a powerful speech delivered at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, N.Y., Chris Hedges analyzes fascism and empire in the Trump age.

The Truthdig columnist begins by enumerating the many factors that are currently contributing to the United States' demise politically, socially and environmentally. He then adds, "Overseeing [America's] descent at the highest level of state and federal government is a motley collection of imbeciles, con artists, thieves, opportunists and war-mongering generals, and yes, I am also speaking about the Democratic Party."

Stormtrooper

Cop forces K9 to maul unarmed elderly woman for no reason

K9 to maul 60-year-old Wendy Tucker
A police officer has been suspended without pay and now stands indicted on charges of official misconduct after forcing his K9 to maul 60-year-old Wendy Tucker. After a long battle for its release, the dashcam video of the incident has finally been made public. It is nothing short of horrifying.

On January 29, 2014, Tuckerton police Cpl. Justin Cherry and another officer responded to a residence where Wendy Tucker was reported as an unwelcome guest. After agreeing to leave, Tucker said she would take the bus home due to the fact that her license was suspended. But shortly afterward, Cpl. Cherry observed Tucker driving and attempted to pull over her vehicle.

Asserting that she was distrustful of the Tuckerton police officers, Tucker did not immediately pull over and instead drove to the municipal complex in Barnegat before stopping her car in the parking lot. While in the custody of Barnegat police, Tucker remained sitting in her vehicle when Cherry and other officers dislocated her left arm by roughly pulling Tucker out of the car and throwing her to the ground.

Magnify

Military services failed to report hundreds of criminal service member fingerprint records to FBI

Mourners Holocombe Family
© Eric Gay/APMourners arrive at a funeral for members of the Holcombe family who were killed when an Air Force veteran with a violent history opened fire at the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, killing 26.
One month after an Air Force veteran with a history of violence killed 26 churchgoers in Sutherland, Texas, the Pentagon inspector general released a study showing that the military services failed to submit required fingerprint data to the FBI's national database in hundreds of cases where service members had been convicted of violent crimes.

The requirements to send fingerprint records and final disposition reports of court-martialed service members were not followed in as many as one-fourth of the relevant cases, the watchdog said in a review begun in February.

During the two years reviewed, 2015 and 2016, the services' law enforcement arms were supposed to submit 2,502 fingerprint cards to the FBI, but 601 (24 percent) were not, auditors found. And only 780 (31 percent) of the required final disposition reports were received by the FBI's national Criminal Justice Information Service.

Comment: See also:


Mail

Open letter from Susiya, West Bank: Save our village from Israeli bulldozers

Palestinian protest Susiya village West Bank
© Allison DegerPalestinians from Susiya lead protest against the upcoming demolition of their village.
As I write this letter, our village, Susiya, located in the south Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank of Palestine, is in immediate threat of demolition. The only way to stop the demolition is through international pressure.

On 22 November 2017 the Israeli State Attorney's Office announced that within 15 days they plan to demolish 20 buildings, which represent one-fifth of our village. This will violate the fundamental human rights of around 100 villagers, half of them children. The 20 buildings are our homes and also provide shelter for our animals. The timing of the demolition - in the middle of winter - could not be more devastating. It will leave us vulnerable and exposed to freezing rain and harsh winds. Our health clinic which provides health services for around 500 people from our own and surrounding communities, is among the buildings they plan to demolish. The Israeli authorities also want to demolish our village council which provides services for 350 local residents.

Susiya West Bank village map
© OCHASusiya: A community at imminent risk of forced displacement.
In 2012 we commissioned a master plan for our village, which was rejected several times by the Israeli authorities. The rejection prevents us from building houses together with the necessary infrastructure such as running water, electricity and paved roads to create a sustainable life in our village. It leaves us no choice but to remain on our land living in tents, under very difficult conditions, forbidden from building or repairing anything, in order to protect our land from the threat of annexation by the surrounding settlements. In the Israeli government's recent response it was agreed to examine the legal principle of the planning issue. Yet despite the potential to develop a master plan for the village, the government states that it will demolish the 20 buildings immediately. And as we know from past experience, if they come to demolish once, nothing will prevent them coming back and trying to demolish the rest of our village.

Comment: For the attention of Jared Kushner.

Undisclosed before UN vote: Jared Kushner led a foundation that funded illegal Israeli settlements


Stormtrooper

DC officer who shot Terrence Sterling was 'unjustified'

police Terrence Sterling
© OfficialDCPolice / YouTube
After an officer was cleared of criminal charges for shooting unarmed motorist Terrence Sterling, investigators determined that he did not follow protocol and should be fired. The decision could affect a pending lawsuit against Washington, DC.

A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Internal Review Board found that Officer Brian Trainer, 27, was "unjustified" when he shot Sterling last September, Police Chief Peter Newsham told Fox News Tuesday.

The MPD Use of Force Review Board determined that Trainer violated department rules and recommended that he should be terminated from the force. The board's investigation does not determine if Trainer should be held criminally responsible.