Society's ChildS


Dollars

FBI claims ISIS used eBay and PayPal to funnel cash into US


RT
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:01 UTC
ebay and PayPal logos
© Chris Helgren / Reuters
A senior member of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) used PayPal and fake eBay transactions to send money to an alleged operative of the terrorist group in the US, according to an affidavit disclosed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, WSJ reports.

The paper, unsealed in federal court in Baltimore, alleges US citizen Mohamed Elshinawy was involved in a global network that used eBay to fund ISIS. Elshinawy reportedly received nearly $8,700 through the use of fake computer printer sales from Islamic State associates.

The man reportedly told investigators he used a scheme dubbed "drop-shipping," that made it appear as if goods were bought and shipped to individuals linked to the terrorist organization, as a way of disguising the movement of money.
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Yoda

Comeback kid: Trump's approval rating rebounds to 45%, surging among Hispanics, union households

Paul Bedard
The Washington Examiner
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:00 UTC
trump
Donald Trump
President Trump is the new "comeback kid," with his approval rating in a new national poll rebounding after a freefall.

The latest Zogby Analytics survey, provided to Secrets, gave Trump a 45 percent approval rating, driven by big gains among Hispanics, union households and voters in the West.

What's more, said Zogby, more men approve of Trump than don't.

"The president's approval rating has rebounded somewhat since our July poll. Following a series of disastrous weeks, Trump's approval numbers have moved up slightly, especially among his base and a few other sub-groups not known for their support of the president," said the polling analysis provided to Secrets.
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People 2

Planned Parenthood is wrong, genitals do determine gender

Michael Brown
Townhall
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 14:22 UTC
planned parenthood
In keeping with standard transgender talking points, Planned Parenthood wants parents to teach their preschoolers that "their genitals don't determine their gender." Instead, gender is whatever you make it to be. As I've heard endlessly from LGBT activists, "Gender is not what's between your legs, it's what's between your ears."

But if that's the case, when a biological boy is convinced he's really a girl, why is he put on hormone blockers to stop the onset of puberty so he won't develop as a boy. And why, when he's old enough, does he get sex change surgery to change his genitals? I thought genitals didn't determine gender?

Why can't he just be a girl with male private parts? Why mess with his private parts if genitals have nothing to do with gender? And why put him on hormones for life so that he won't grow a beard as a female? Isn't that gender stereotyping? Who says that women shouldn't have beards?

After all, we read today about "menstruating men" and "men" having babies. Why not bearded ladies? (Now that I think of it, Tom Neuwirth, aka Conchita Wurst, has basically said, "Yes, why not?")

Comment: It is a social madness, and it runs even deeper as Rob Slane has argued: More Transgender Rights? No, It's Only the Death of Meaning, Dear!

This one's a must-read, too: Natural expression of gender: The story of a male-identifying little girl who didn't transition

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Attention

Hamburg police searching for 'Jack the Ripper' murderer who left prostitute's body parts scattered around city


RT
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:11 UTC
Police
© Morris MacMatzen / Reuters
Hamburg police are searching for a 'Jack the Ripper'-style murderer who cut a sex worker into pieces and scattered her body parts across the city. Some of the body parts were found 25km apart.

The latest piece, the seventh, was found in the Goldbekkanal canal on Thursday, the local Hamburger Morgenpost (HM) newspaper reported, citing police.

The woman, identified in local media as 48-year-old Lucy, was reported missing August 1. She was reportedly working in the St. Georg neighborhood of Hamburg as a prostitute. Lucy was a citizen of Equatorial Guinea, West Africa, but had lived in Spain before moving to Germany, according to ARD broadcaster.
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Family

Former Lebanese minister praises Russia's Middle East policy that 'saved millions of lives' from terrorism


Sputnik
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 13:02 UTC
Syrians support Putin and Assad
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
Russia has made an invaluable contribution to fighting terrorism in the Middle East, according to Wiam al Wahab, former Lebanese minister and leader of the Tawhid Party (Arab Unitarian Party), in a conversation with Sputnik.

"[Terrorism] is a very dangerous phenomenon. It would have ruined the Middle East without Russia's involvement. I'd like to say that Russia has contributed a lot to maintain the current fragile balance in the region. Russia helped rescue our region from the terrorists' embrace of," Wahab told Sputnik Arabic.

He added, "The decision of Russian President [Vladimir Putin] to engage in Syria saved millions of lives in the Middle East."

According to the politician, Moscow turned the tables on the Middle East, challenging the West's policy in the region.

"Without Russia's involvement the West would have continued to support various militant groups to destabilize the Middle East," he claimed.
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Card - VISA

Beware at the pump: Black market fuel is making millions

Brendan Farrington
AP
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 22:20 UTC
Florida Department of Agriculture shows a truck outfitted with a large tank
© Larry Payne/Florida Department of Agriculture via APThis is undated photo made available by the Florida Department of Agriculture shows a truck outfitted with a large tank used to syphon gas from gas stations using stolen credit cards.
A black market for diesel and gasoline has rapidly spread around the nation, with organized crime gangs using fraudulent credit cards to siphon millions of dollars in fuel from gas stations into large tanks hidden inside pickup trucks and vans.

Stealing fuel can be less risky than selling drugs or other illegal endeavors, and criminals can make $1,000 or more a day re-selling the stolen fuel at construction sites and unscrupulous gas stations, or to truckers looking to cut costs, investigators and industry experts say.

"It's pretty rampant," said Owen DeWitt, whose Texas-based company, Know Control, focuses solely on helping gas stations prevent fuel theft. He said the crime is worst along Interstate 10, from Jacksonville, Fla., to the Los Angeles area. "California and Florida are the two worst; Texas is No. 3."

Black market diesel started becoming a big business when credit card "skimmers" became more prevalent around 2006, DeWitt said. Thieves install these devices at gas station pumps, where they record card information as unsuspecting customers fuel up. The information is later transferred to a magnetic strip on a counterfeit card. The problem has only grown as the devices become more sophisticated.
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Red Flag

Labour MP: Child sex abuse not being investigated in UK over concerns of being branded racist


RT
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:46 UTC
shadows
© Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Political correctness is getting in the way of authorities investigating whether there is an underlying cultural cause behind child sex abuse, the shadow women's minister says.

Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion said the public and authorities are failing to speak out against child abuse because they are scared of being branded racists.

Her comments come after a gang of 17 Asian men were convicted over their involvement in a sex abuse network in Newcastle targeting vulnerable and underage women.

While most of the men are British-born, they were members of the Iraqi, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Iranian and Turkish communities.
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Newspaper

Nepal: It's now a criminal act to force women into menstruation huts


RT
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:28 UTC
menstruation hut
© Prakash Mathema / AFPNepalese women sit by a fire in a chhaupadi hut.
The Nepalese government has made it a criminal act to force women into cowsheds while they're on their periods. The ancient Hindu tradition sends menstruating females into the sheds to keep so-called "impurity" out of the home.

Although the practice - called 'chhaupadi' - was banned by the Supreme Court in 2005, it remains common in Nepal's remote west.

However, the government has now made the practice a criminal act that could come with jail time.

"The parliament has a passed a new law that makes chhaupadi a criminal act," lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, who headed a parliamentary panel that finalized the legislation, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Anyone forcing women into seclusion during their period can now be sentenced to three months in jail."

The new law will come into force within a year, according to Pokharel, as authorities want to spread awareness of the legislation before cracking down on offenders.
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Airplane

ISIS militant from Russia suspected of planning drone attack on US aircraft in Turkey


RFE/RL
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:22 UTC
A U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker touches down on the flightline at Incirlik air base
A U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker touches down on the flightline at Incirlik air base.
Media reports in Turkey say law enforcement authorities have detained a suspected Islamic State (IS) militant from Russia who was allegedly planning a drone attack on U.S. aircraft at Incirlik air base.

The August 10 reports cited unnamed officials as saying the Russian citizen, identified as Ruslan Bakiyev, was detained in the southern city of Adana while "studying" the area around Incirlik.

Reports also said Bakiyev was suspected of plotting an attack on the Alevi Muslim community in the region.

Comment: Note how RFE/RL used the headline: "Russian suspected," then in the article says it was an ISIS member from Russia by 'unnamed officials'. Just reading their headline promotes the anti-Russian sentiment.

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Books

Men are the new minority on college campuses

Jon Marcus
The Atlantic
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 21:11 UTC
college students
© Max PetroskyA rare male student at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, where women outnumber men by more than six to one, Vinny Bucci said his male friends from high school chose vocational training over college. In colleges and universities nationwide this year, more than 56 percent of students are women.
Jessica Smith raised an arm and pointed across the lobby of the university student center like an ornithologist who had just spied a rare breed in the underbrush.

"There's one," she said.

It was, in fact, an unusual bird that Smith had spotted, especially on this campus: masculum collegium discipulus. A male college student.

Women outnumber men by more than six to one here at Carlow University, where Smith is a senior and an orientation leader who was preparing to welcome incoming freshmen.

That's an extreme example of a surprising shift besetting all of higher education.

Where men once went to college in proportions far higher than women-58 percent to 42 percent as recently as the 1970s-the ratio has now almost exactly reversed.

Comment: Perhaps some students should take a gap year after high school and acquire real world experience before settling on a life course at the ripe old age of 18.

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