Society's ChildS


Sheriff

Soldiers stand guard on Europe's streets, critics claim that weakens them in war

Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 14:28 UTC
Belgian soldier Brussels
© Virginia Mayo/APA Belgian soldier adjusts his face mask as he patrols outside the prime minister’s office in Brussels in June.
Green army trucks are rumbling across the cobbled streets of Brussels. Stiff-spined soldiers are patrolling the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Italian troops are guarding the Colosseum. And critics say the years-long deployments at home are sapping the ability of these militaries to fight wars.

Taken together, the domestic deployments - to guard against terrorism - are among the largest in Western Europe since World War II. They come as European militaries are tapped to address an unusually wide range of challenges at once: a resurgent Russia, grinding conflicts in the Middle East, migration across the Mediterranean and smaller wartime deployments far from their borders.

Confronted by terrorism, European leaders rushed their armies onto their streets in the aftermath of attacks starting in 2015. Although advocates say the deployments help bolster security, the peacetime duty has stretched forces thin.
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Sheriff

Lord chief justice: UK judges face a 'torrent' of threats & abuse online

Owen Bowcott
The Guardian
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 14:28 UTC
Lord Burnett of Maldon
© John Stillwell/PAThe lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, holds his first annual press conference at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Judges are facing physical threats and an increasing "torrent of personal abuse" online, some of which is designed to intimidate them, the new lord chief justice has said.

Lord Burnett of Maldon said the new danger confronting the judiciary was "capable of undermining the rule of law", while more support was being made available to those who sit on particularly harrowing family and sex cases.

The new lord chief justice has been in office for two months. Appearing at his first annual press conference in the Royal Courts of Justice in London, he accepted that judges should not be above criticism.
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Birthday Cake

Supreme Court deeply divided over baker's refusal to design gay wedding cake


USA Today
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 14:28 UTC
Supreme Court of the United States
© wikipedia.orgSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court appeared divided down the middle Tuesday over a Colorado baker's refusal to design a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, the latest test in the continuing legal battle between gay rights and religious expression.

In one of the most animated oral arguments the high court has held, justices on both sides peppered four lawyers with questions to illustrate how their decision might affect other merchants, such as chefs and florists, and other minority groups, such as Catholics and African Americans.

While the court's liberal justices said the "cake artist" likely cannot refuse to serve gay couples, and conservative justices said his religious and free speech rights should be respected, Justice Anthony Kennedy once again was the man in the middle.
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Eye 2

Man deported 20 times from US pleads guilty to sexual assault, kidnapping, tells victims' families 'see you in Hell'

James Wilkinson
The Daily Mail
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 13:45 UTC
Sergio Jose Martinez
© KGWSergio Jose Martinez is seen here grinning in court on Friday as he pleads guilty to 10 counts including sexual assault and kidnapping. He assaulted two women on the same night in July
A Mexican man who was deported from the US 20 times has been convicted of 10 counts including sexual assault in Oregon.

On Friday, Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in a Portland courtroom after pleading guilty to kidnapping, sexual assault, sodomy and several other counts, KOIN reported.

Martinez smiled throughout the trial, and as he left, he gave one grim parting shot to his two victims' relatives: 'See all you guys in Hell.'

Comment: Further reading:

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Palette

British street artist Banksy's Bethlehem Christmas message with a twist


Sputnik
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 13:32 UTC
Banksy The Alternativity
© rap-n-blues.com
British street artist Banksy has unveiled new artwork on the Israeli barrier wall in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The Christmas-themed graffiti was timed to coincide with a "festive spectacular" at the artist's Walled Off Hotel, and depicts a more edgy festive message.

Street artist Banksy has unveiled his latest work at his "Walled Off Hotel" in Bethlehem, Palestine.

The work was revealed at the opening of the hotel's "festive spectacular" on Sunday, entitled "The Alternativity."

As well as two new drawings for the event flyer, the artist came up with two new pieces on the Israeli West Bank barrier which relate to the nativity of Jesus.
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Cloud Lightning

Native American tribes to sue Trump over 'unlawful' Bears Ears decision


RT
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 13:20 UTC
Grand Staircase-Escalante
Grand Staircase-Escalante
Five Native American tribes have pledged to sue US President Donald Trump over his decision to shrink the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

President Trump announced on Monday that he was reducing Bears Ears from 1.3 million acres to 228,784 acres (53,000 sq km to 926 sq km), meaning it will be just 15 percent of its original size. He also revealed that the Grand Staircase-Escalante will also be reduced by nearly half.

The decisions sparked a strong reaction from Native American groups in the region with five of them announcing that they will be collectively suing the president in an attempt to reverse the decision.
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Brick Wall

Despite Trump's push the US Border Patrol is losing more agents than it can hire

Eric Katz
Government Executive
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 12:17 UTC
ICE Director Thomas Homan CBP acting Deputy Commissioner Ronald Vitiello
© Andrew Harnik/APICE acting Director Thomas Homan (right) and CBP acting Deputy Commissioner Ronald Vitiello hold a press conference Tuesday.
The Homeland Security Department is making some progress in fulfilling President Trump's mandated hiring spree, according to a year-end report, but is still failing to bring on more border agents than it loses through attrition.

Customs and Border Protection hired a total of 1,477 frontline personnel in fiscal 2017, the agency announced on Tuesday, a 14 percent increase over the number it brought on the previous year. Most of those hires were for CBP officer positions, which saw a 21 percent spike in new people.

Trump's request for 5,000 new CBP employees, however, focused on Border Patrol agents. The agency saw just a 4 percent increase in new employees for those positions. While the numbers demonstrate some progress at CBP, which has for years struggled to keep pace with a congressionally mandated floor of employees, they reflect only new hires without accounting for net losses. Ronald Vitiello, CBP's acting deputy commissioner, said even the increased hiring in fiscal 2017 has failed to keep pace with the losses sustained at the agency.

Comment: According to an article we read a month ago, the Border Patrol is losing agents due to the competition of other federal agencies and the difficulty of the poligraphy test, as well as remote working conditions. This seems to contrast with Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost's optimistic declaration that Trump's rhetoric has a lot of agents "feeling empowered to actually enforce the laws that are on the books" and that this is "certainly bringing up their morale".

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Road Cone

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says sexually harassed women "gotta let it go"


True Pundit
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:01 UTC
Elaine Chao
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Tuesday that women who have experienced sexual harassment or other misconduct in the workplace can't let the experience ruin their lives.

Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said at Politico's Women Rule Summit that fixating on mistreatment after it has occurred "holds you back" professionally.

Comment: More from The Hill:
"The person is still here and they're still around," she said. "Things change, times change, and it's not worth my while to go back and revisit those negative moments."

Chao added that experiences of misconduct in the workplace such as hers are "a dirty little secret that a lot of women have held for a long time."
See also: Behind the Headlines: Weinstein's Weinergate Goes Nuclear: Where is society at with #MeToo?

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Cow Skull

Some jarring numbers to show that Ukraine's economy is a wreck (video)

Louis Heyward
Russia Insider
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 11:58 UTC
Petro Poroshenko
© AFP 2017/ TOBIAS SCHWARZPetro Poroshenko
"Many millions of its citizens have left the country in search of a better life."

Here is what the neocon's 'democratic' coup has wrought:

The currency is worth less than one-third of what it was before. Average salary, less than half of what it was and the same goes for the GDP.

All tech jobs that once promised opportunity have now vanished.

Foreign investment is now less than one-third of what it was before the revolution that sought to sever the country from Russia and economically unite it with the West. The irony being that Russia is still the major investor in Ukraine's economy.

All of this being said, the Ukraine is now a failed state with a growing demographic crisis due to a large-scale exodus of people seeking a better standard of living elsewhere.

Clip taken from Russian news agency with transcript below.


Comment: Surprise? Not at all! This is what happens when you let pathological people take over power. In the case of Ukraine, they were corrupt at best, neo-nazi sympathizers at worst. What else could anyone expect?!

It's funny how every country that is touched by Western backed 'revolutions' turns to mush.

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Books

Is academic journal publishing headed for a day of reckoning?

Patrick Burns
Quillette
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 11:46 UTC
trash can
Imagine a researcher working under deadline on a funding proposal for a new project. This is the day she's dedicated to literature review - pulling examples from existing research in published journals to provide evidence for her great idea. Creating an up-to-date picture of where things stand in this narrow corner of her field involves 30 references, but she has access to only 27 of those via her library's journal subscriptions. Now what?

There isn't time to contact the three primary authors to get copies directly from them. Interlibrary loan will take too long. She could try other sites that host academic papers - such as ResearchGate and Sci-Hub - but access to particular articles isn't assured and publishers are cracking down on what they call copyright violations.

Comment:

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