Society's ChildS


Music

Baltimore will not remove statue of Star-Spangled Banner composer defaced with 'Racist Anthem'


RT
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 15:21 UTC
Defaced statue
© ABC 2 News - WMAR / YouTube
A monument to the composer of the US national anthem, whose original third verse has been called racist by left-wing activists, has been defaced in Baltimore. City officials say they will not remove the statue, unlike other memorials around the country.

On Wednesday before dawn, a monument depicting Francis Scott Key, the composer of 'The Star-Spangled Banner', was vandalized with the words "Racist Anthem" spray-painted on it. Red paint also appeared to have been splashed on the monument.

The third verse penned by Key is what presumably attracted the vandals' attention. It has been the focus of Salon columnist Jefferson Morley's attack on the US national anthem, which went as far as calling it a 'neo-Confederate' symbol.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says she does not have plans to remove the statue of Key, after a slew of Confederate-era statues were removed earlier this year due to public outcry.

Comment: See also:

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Bulb

'Culture of celibacy' to blame for Catholic Church child sex abuse - study


RT
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 18:19 UTC
Celibacy
© RyanJLane / Getty Images
A five-year study into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has found that mandatory celibacy and a culture of secrecy within the entirely male-dominated clergy were "the major precipitating risk factor[s] for child sexual abuse."

Former Catholic priest, Des Cahill, and co-author, theologian Peter Wilkinson, compiled information from 26 royal commissions and inquiries from Australia, Ireland, the UK, Canada and the Netherlands since 1985 in their report.

Cahill, now married but still a practising Catholic, began the research after he discovered he had lived and worked with several pedophile priests throughout his career in the priesthood.

He told Guardian Australia: "After the issue of abuse first became public, around 1978, I began wondering: 'Why did this happen?' I knew some of the priest perpetrators and I studied with them and I lived with one of them. And yet I was never aware while I was in the church. You have to understand, a priest offender is very secretive and doesn't want to be found out."

Comment: See also: Vatican's third most powerful figure, Cardinal Pell, charged with multiple sex assaults

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Attention

Two mothers in Minnesota indicted for female genital mutilation, lawyer argues 'cultural issues at play'


RT
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 02:18 UTC
2 moms indicted
© West Coast Surfer / Global Look Press
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against two mothers in Minnesota who allowed their daughters' genitalia to be cut during an illegal religious procedure earlier this year. A Michigan-based doctor who performed the operation is also awaiting trial.

The two mothers have been charged with female genital mutilation (FGM) and conspiracy to commit FGM, according to an indictment that was unsealed Thursday. The two women each have seven-year-old daughters, whom they are accused of performing the procedure on, the Detroit News reported.

One woman, a US citizen, was arrested at her home by the FBI on Thursday and was subsequently arraigned in federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was then released on bond and is expected to appear in court on September 21 at the Detroit federal court. She still has custody of her daughter and son, according to Dan Homstad, a defense lawyer representing the two mothers.

The second mother's legal status and hometown is not known, according to the Detroit News.

Comment: See also: More people may be charged as female genital mutilation case against Michigan physician expands to Chicago, Los Angeles and New York

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Info

'We are not afraid, we will vote!' Catalonia officially launches independence referendum campaign


RT
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 12:05 UTC
People attend a Catalan pro-independence meeting
© Albert Gea / ReutersPeople attend a Catalan pro-independence meeting at Tarraco Arena in Tarragona, south of Barcelona, Spain September 14, 2017.
Catalonia's independence referendum campaign is officially underway, brushing aside Madrid's firm pledge to prevent the October 1 scheduled vote from taking place through an official judicial suspension coupled with probes against regional mayors.

Thousands of Catalan independence supporters flooded a concert arena in the port town of Tarragona to set in motion a two week 'Yes' campaign that was initiated Thursday evening by the regional president, Carles Puigdemont.

"Somebody thinks that we won't vote on Oct. 1? What kind of people do they think we Catalans are?" Puigdemont asked the crowd at Tarraco Arena Plaza. "In Catalonia, we are democrats."

"Voting!", "We are not afraid!" and "Where are the ballots?" chanted the crowd of roughly 7,500 pro-independence activists.

"What do you think will happen on October 1? Of course, we will vote!" declared the president.
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Document

How to protect a drug patent? Give it to a Native American Tribe

Katie Thomas
New York Times
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:50 UTC
Dale White
© St. Regis Mohawk TribeDale White, general counsel of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. For the Mohawk tribe, the deal with Allergan offers promise of a new revenue stream that could allow the tribe to diversify its income.
The drugmaker Allergan announced Friday that it had transferred its patents on a best-selling eye drug to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in upstate New York - an unusual gambit to protect the drug from a patent dispute.

Under the deal, which involves the dry-eye drug Restasis, Allergan will pay the tribe $13.75 million. In exchange, the tribe will claim sovereign immunity as grounds to dismiss a patent challenge through a unit of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The tribe will lease the patents back to Allergan, and will receive $15 million in annual royalties as long as the patents remain valid.
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Boat

Revised visa policy for African, Asian countries refusing return of deported citizens


RT
Wed, 13 Sep 2017 21:57 UTC
returnees
© sodahead.com
The US State Department said it will stop issuing certain kinds of visas to citizens of Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone, because of their refusal to take back deported citizens. The new policy was laid out in State Department cables by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed the restrictions have been imposed in all four countries effective Wednesday, according to AP.

The restrictions were first discussed by US officials last month, after the Department of Homeland Security recommended the State Department take action against the four nations for their refusal to cooperate with the Trump administration's immigration policy.

In its announcement about the visa sanctions, DHS said the four countries had not been reliable in issuing travel documents for their citizens. For this reason, "ICE has been forced to release into the United States approximately 2,137 Guinean and 831 Sierra Leone nationals, many with criminal convictions."

DHS said there are approximately 700 Eritrean nationals residing in the US with final orders of removal. More than 1,900 Cambodian nationals are also subject to final order of removal, of those 1,412 have criminal convictions.
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TV

Americans are cutting the cord and cancelling their cable TV subscriptions

Todd Spangler
Variety
Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:53 UTC
woman with remote
© Shutterstock
Winter is here for cable and satellite TV operators.

American consumers are cancelling traditional pay-TV service at a much faster rate than previously expected, according to research firm eMarketer.

In 2017, a total of 22.2 million U.S. adults will have cut the cord on cable, satellite or telco TV service to date - up 33% from 16.7 million in 2016 - the researcher now predicts. That's significantly higher than eMarketer's prior estimate of 15.4 million cord-cutters as of the end of this year. Meanwhile, the number of "cord-nevers" (consumers who have never subscribed to pay TV) will rise 5.8% this year, to 34.4 million.

"Younger audiences continue to switch to either exclusively watching [over-the-top] video or watching them in combination with free-TV options," said Chris Bendtsen, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. "Last year, even the Olympics and [the U.S.] presidential election could not prevent younger audiences from abandoning pay TV."

Overall, 196.3 million U.S. adults will have traditional pay TV (cable, satellite or telco) this year, down 2.4% compared with 2016, eMarketer predicts. By 2021, that will drop to 181.7 million, a decline of nearly 10% from 2016. The number of pay-TV viewers 55 and older will continue to rise over the next four years, while for every other age cohort the subscriber tallies will decline.
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Footprints

Put her out to pasture: 61% of voters say it's time for Killary to retire


Rasmussen Reports
Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:29 UTC
hillary retire
Hillary Clinton is back today with a new book, "What Happened," to further explain why Donald Trump is president instead of her. But most voters still don't buy her excuses and think it's time for her to step off the national stage.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 30% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Clinton still has a future in public life. Sixty-one percent (61%) say it's time for her to retire, up from 55% just after she lost the presidential election to Trump last November. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Half (49%) of voters believe Clinton's continued presence on the national stage is bad for the Democratic Party. Only 21% say her presence is good for her party, while 23% say it has no impact.

Forty-four percent (44%) say the weakness of her candidacy was the most likely reason for Clinton's loss last November. Just 11% attribute the loss to the strength of her opponent. Forty percent (40%) still agree with Clinton that outside factors beyond her control were the most likely reason, but that's down from a high of 44% in May.
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Gold Coins

JP Morgan Chase is a bubble, not bitcoin, says Max Keiser


RT
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:02 UTC
JP Morgan
© Dylan Martinez / Reuters
The CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon has called bitcoin a fraud that will blow up. Max Keiser of RT's Keiser Report has explained why the real bubble may be in banking, and not in the cryptocurrency.

"JP Morgan, along with the entire finance sector, has been subsidized by the Federal Reserve's corrupt practice of 'financial repression' that moves hundreds of billions from savers and pensioners, and workers, into JP Morgan and Jamie Dimon's pocket. Jamie's compensation is tied directly to manipulating JP Morgan's stock and option prices, thanks to the Fed's conflicted, corrupt, cozy malfeasance," he told RT.

Financial repression is a term describing measures used by governments to channel funds to themselves as a form of debt reduction. These actions include the deliberate attempt to hold down interest rates to below inflation. In this system, benefits are transferred from lenders to borrowers. JPMorgan Chase stock has surged about 260 percent since June 2012.

According to Keiser, it is wrong to say bitcoin is a bubble or a fraud.
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Stock Down

Bitcoin crashes as Beijing orders cryptocurrency exchange shutdown


RT
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 23:42 UTC
bitcoin
© Manuel Romano / NurPhoto / Getty Images
The price of bitcoin plunged on Thursday after Chinese authorities crack down on cryptocurrencies, with the country's biggest exchange announcing the suspension of operations.

The virtual currency fell more than 11 percent, trading at $3,544.14 as of 14:00pm GMT. This is far below the all-time high of $5,013.91 set earlier this month.
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