Society's ChildS


Dollars

Family awarded $36M settlement after cop kills mom, shoots son age 5 over traffic ticket

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Korryn Gaines, son
© UnknownKorryn Gaines and son Kodi
The jury in the high profile police killing of Korryn Gaines has just reached their verdict in the wrongful death civil suit in Baltimore County. The Gaines family has been awarded a precedent-setting $36 million.

According to WBAL, after deliberating for about three hours, jurors ruled in favor of the Gaines family. Jurors ruled that Baltimore County police Officer Royce Ruby did not act reasonably in the fatal shooting of Gaines and the wounding of her son, Kodi, in August 2016.

"I don't know how anyone can just extinguish a life, then hide behind a badge," Korryn Gaines' mother said.

"This is a great day ... (the verdict) sends a great message on behalf of many who are victimized by police," said Ken Ravenell, attorney for Kodi Gaines.

"Korryn is smiling today. She got her day in court," said J. Wyndal Gordon, the attorney for the Gaines family.


Comment: See also:

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USA

American Olympian: 'I can't wait for the day we move past this'


RT
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 17:50 UTC
Chris Mazdzer
© KSNT NewsChris Mazdzer
Chris Mazdzer, the first American to win an Olympic medal in men's luge singles, says that the Olympic spirit can still bring people together from different countries despite existing tensions and controversies.

Mazdzer, who was 13th in both his previous Olympic appearances in Vancouver and Sochi, claimed a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, only losing out to David Gleirsche from Austria.

The American, however, made the headlines at the beginning of this week not only because of his medal, but also because of a story he revealed following his achievement. A fellow Russian luger, who's name Mazdzer did not reveal, offered him help before the Games by saying he could use his sled.

Talking in PyeongChang to RT's Ilya Petrenko, the American Olympian gave more details about the case, while also expressing hope that the Olympic spirit can still bring people and countries together.


Comment: Nice to hear some good news of good people doing good things.

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Calendar

Kosovo celebrates a decade of dependence and confusion


RT
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 23:26 UTC
Kacanik, Kosovo
© Ognen Teofilovski/ReutersKacanik, Kosovo
For all the talk by Western governments of sovereignty and 'rules-based world order,' the case of Kosovo is a haunting example of hypocrisy. Ten years after declaring independence, the troubled province is still a ward of the US.

A gilded statue of Bill Clinton adorns the main square in Pristina, the Kosovian capital. Nearby is a "Hillary" boutique, selling women's couture (no word on pantsuits). One Albanian town even erected a bust of Hillary Clinton in 2016, anticipating her foreordained presidency. George W. Bush also has a statue in Albania, after he visited in 2007 and pledged to support the Clintons' policy on the Albanian cause. Many children across the province are named Klinton, Tonibler, or Madeleine.

Why? Because in March 1999, US President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spearheaded a NATO war on what was then Yugoslavia. NATO was acting on behalf of the "Kosovo Liberation Army," an ethnic Albanian terrorist group fighting to separate Kosovo from Serbia. Though the war was intended to last no more than a few days, it wasn't until 78 days later that NATO occupied the province, under the guise of UN peacekeepers.

The US quickly built a massive military base in southeastern Kosovo, flattening two hills in the process. Camp Bondsteel occupies 955 acres (3.86 square kilometers) of land and can host up to 7,000 troops.

Comment: Is this any way for the USA to treat its 'Mini Me'?

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Syringe

With everyone doping at the Olympics, why is only Russia punished?

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 19:46 UTC
doping needle
Translated from Nova Resistencia.

At first, we will break some illusions: What they call "doping", that is, the use of substances or techniques currently considered illegal to increase the efficiency of the sportsman, is a widespread practice in extreme sports, therefore, also in Olympic sport .

In fact, "doping" despite being seen as morally reprehensible is much more present in the sports and entertainment industry than one dares to admit. These actors who earn 10-20kg in very few months to make a movie superhero? Have you noticed how there are even changes in the bone structure of your face, as in the chin, for example? Do you think this is what? Diet and training? The same applies to MMA fighters, Carnival goers, and the whole range of people who depend on the body to stand out in the society of the show, whether in sports or entertainment.

We are not making any moral condemnation here. We are just exposing the facts. Doping is omnipresent whether we like it or not.

Let's go to the Olympics. The Olympic Committee has, for some years now, put into practice a veritable fanatic, virulent and incessant persecution of the Russian athletes, doing what is possible and impossible to ban collectively the participation of Russians in competitions. Be they innocent or guilty.

Comment: See also:

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MIB

Where is the American outrage over the FBI spying on them?

Thomas J. Farnan
Townhall
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 20:02 UTC
Comey
© AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteFormer FBI director James Comey
Under the Constitution, there are three branches of government. The FBI is not one of them. Instead, the FBI was created to assist the president in his job to enforce laws. Members of the FBI are called "agents" because of their agency relationship with the president.

During World War II and then the Red Scare, the FBI's mission expanded to gather intelligence against spies. Here, too, the FBI was assisting the Commander in Chief. Even the word "intelligence" connotes this fact. The purpose was to help the president act intelligently against domestic threats.

The FBI's domestic intelligence gathering function caused understandable discomfort on the left. In 1970s apocrypha, President Nixon couldn't wait to get the goods on undesirables like the Smothers Brothers. Or so we were told by the Smothers Brothers, back when the FBI's mission creep cast it as the Gestapo.
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Colosseum

Ancient Rome's decline and today's United States - some eerie similarities

Joy Pullmann
The Federalist
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 19:20 UTC
Cicero
Cicero
Comparing the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" with the rise and now decline of the British and now American empires has been something of an intellectual parlor game for now more than 200 years. But it's fun to play because everybody has a slightly different collection of information and analysis to offer, and because people like predictions and patterns.

Consider the parallel "ages of man" dispute that has been going on for several thousand years - the ancient Greek poets Hesiod and Ovid offered theirs (they counted five and four, respectively), so did Shakespeare (he counted seven), and today we have generation-based theories such as William Strauss and Neil Howe's Fourth Turning.

I don't think any of us knows whether the United States has already passed peak awesome, and while my mind says Charles Murray is right that we've probably lost our country, my heart won't take that answer. I listened to the latest in our Hillsdale Western Heritage 101 lectures, on "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic" with Dr. Ken Calvert, with all this in mind. Of course, even studying this for years will not generate a crystal ball, but the lecture did generate some data points to fuel another dinner table discussion.
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Star of David

Israeli public and officials outraged: Swastikas painted on Polish embassy in Israel after PM's 'Jewish Holocaust perpetrators' remarks


RT
Sun, 18 Feb 2018 18:34 UTC
former Nazi Auschwitz death camp in Oswiecim, Poland
© Kacper Pempel / ReutersSurvivors and guests walk inside the barbed wire fences at the former Nazi Auschwitz death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2018.
Swastikas were painted on the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv a day after Poland's Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said there were Jewish perpetrators in the Holocaust, outraging the Israeli public and officials.

Swastikas and obscene anti-Polish slogans, which branded Poles as murderers and equals of the Nazis, were discovered at the entrance of the embassy building on Sunday. Israeli police said they have launched an investigation into the incident, Haaretz reported.

The President of the Conference of European Rabbis, Pinchas Goldschmidt, told Rutply news agency on Sunday that Morawiecki's remarks were "totally unacceptable." According to the Rabbi, calling "Jews 'perpetrators' of the Holocaust, these are words which undermine and are unacceptable to any person who knows history, who knows Europe and wants a better future."

"We did not expect the Polish Prime Minister to say such things," Goldschmidt said. "When politicians issue statements, there is usually a political need to issue those statements and there is definite a certain segment of the Polish population which feels the same way and that's something, this is a problem not for us, not only for us, but I think it is a problem for Poland."

Comment: See also: How Israel uses the holocaust to deflect from its own damning similarities with the Nazi regime

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Chess

Senate blocks immigration measure that doesn't include money for Trump's wall

Jordain Carney
The Hill
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 15:03 UTC
senate immigration vote
© Susan Walsh/AP
The Senate has blocked an immigration measure sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) that did not include money for President Trump's border wall.

The amendment fell in a 52-47 vote. It needed 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle set up for four different immigration measures the Senate will vote on Thursday.

Each of the four proposals appear to be short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
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Bizarro Earth

Thousands protest in Kiev demanding Poroshenko's impeachment in response to Saakashvili deportation


Sputnik
Sun, 18 Feb 2018 18:21 UTC
Kiev protest Poroshenko
© Reuters/ Gleb Garanich
Thousands of supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and an opposition figure in Ukraine, are holding a march in central Kiev demanding the impeachment of Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Sunday.

According to the assessments of police, which has been ensuring public security during the rally, the march has gathered several thousand individuals.

The rally was expected to start at noon local time (10:00 GMT), however it has been delayed by 50 minutes. The organizers of the march cited the delays of public transport operation in Ukraine, preventing the rally participants from arriving in central Kiev on time.

Comment: Sounds like the screws are being turned to oust Poroshenko. That Saakashvili is being held as some champion against oppressive corruption makes the situation in Ukraine all the more absurd.

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Light Sabers

S. Korea all smiles at Olympics, yet troops take part in massive SE Asia drills


RT
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 17:42 UTC
South Korean marines Cobra Gold 2018
© Athit Perawongmetha / ReutersSouth Korean marines participate in an amphibious assault exercise as part of the "Cobra Gold 2018" (CG18) joint military exercise at a military base in Chonburi province, Thailand, February 16, 2018.
South Korea has deployed hundreds of troops to Thailand to participate in the annual Asia-Pacific Cobra Gold military exercises, taking place between February 13 and 23, organized by the US and Thai militaries.

Exercise Cobra Gold was launched in 1981, with South Korea formally joining the drills in 2010. This year, a combat unit of over 430 South Korean sailors and marines participated, while the US deployed its largest ever force of 6,800 service personnel, reports ABC News.

Comment: Just as South Korea and North Korea are showing some signs of warming relations, the US steps in with more intimidation tactics aimed at North Korea.

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