Society's ChildS


Star of David

Netanyahu rejected ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, sources say


The Guardian
Thu, 09 Nov 2023 12:21 UTC
Netiyahoo
© Abir Sultan/Pool/AFPIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu • Kirya military base Tel Aviv • October 28, 2023
Israeli PM said to have turned down proposal in early talks and continues to take tough line...

Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a deal for a five-day ceasefire with Palestinian militant groups in Gaza in return for the release of some of the hostages held in the territory early in the war, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

The sources said the Israeli prime minister rejected the deal outright in negotiations soon after Hamas militants staged an unprecedented incursion into Israeli territory on 7 October, killing an estimated 1,400 people.

Negotiations resumed after the launch of the Israeli ground offensive on 27 October, but the same sources said Netanyahu had continued to take a tough line on proposals involving ceasefires of different durations in exchange for a varying number of hostages.

Others indicated that negotiations which took place prior to the ground invasion involved a far larger number of hostages, with Hamas proposing the release of dozens of foreign nationals captive in Gaza.
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Cell Phone

Eric Adams had cellphones, iPad seized by FBI as part of corruption investigation

Craig McCarthy, Olivia Land
New York Post
Fri, 10 Nov 2023 03:42 UTC
Eric A
© William FarringtonNew York Mayor Eric Adams
The FBI seized Mayor Eric Adams' electronic devices early this week as part of a federal probe into his campaign fundraising, The Post has learned.

The feds seized the electronics — which included at least two cellphones and an iPad — in connection to an investigation into whether Hizzoner's 2021 campaign colluded with the Turkish government and others to direct money into his mayoral effort, sources told The Post after the news was first reported by the New York Times.

Adams' campaign attorney Boyd Johnson said the mayor was cooperating with federal authorities and had already reported that a review found "an individual had recently acted improperly." Johnson said in a statement obtained by The Post:
"After learning of the federal investigation, it was discovered that an individual had recently acted improperly. In the spirit of transparency and cooperation, this behavior was immediately and proactively reported to investigators. On Monday night, the FBI approached the mayor after an event. The Mayor immediately complied with the FBI's request and provided them with electronic devices. The mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing and continues to cooperate with the investigation."
The statement did not identify the individual or detail the improper behavior. Adams himself added:
"As a former member of law enforcement, I expect all members of my staff to follow the law and fully cooperate with any sort of investigation — and I will continue to do exactly that. I have nothing to hide."
The agents approached Adams, 63, on the street after an event at New York University on Monday and asked his security team to step aside, a source told The Times. The agents then got into Adams' SUV with him and executed a court-authorized warrant to seize his devices.
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Family

People power! Overwhelming demands for a Gaza cease-fire catch Democrats off guard: 'The phone doesn't stop'

Molly Redden
HuffPost
Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:44 UTC
cori bush Rashida Tlaib congress ceasefire gaza
© 8.Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesReps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) hold a banner demanding a cease-fire and condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov.
Congressional staff say the mood inside the Capitol is tense, stifling and bewildering as members brush off their constituents' outrage.

An end to the bloodshed in the Israeli-Hamas conflict seemed more remote than ever on Thursday when President Joe Biden answered a question about the chances of a cease-fire by saying: "None. No possibility."

But as Biden refuses to use his leverage over the U.S.'s Israeli allies, voters and constituents across the country are overwhelming members of his party with demands to stop the violence, which has claimed more than 11,000 lives in the past month.

Staffers from more than two dozen Democratic offices say they are receiving an unprecedented number of calls and emails demanding for members to support a cease-fire — an onslaught for which their caucus was wholly unprepared.

Comment: Looks like a lot of folks saw these tweets. Good on them!





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Attention

Whistleblowers: FBI officials singled out agents who were former military for anti-Trump retaliation

Kerry Picket
Washington Times
Fri, 10 Nov 2023 23:22 UTC
wrayhand
© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesFBI Director Christopher Wray
More whistleblowers have stepped forward to tell Congress that high-ranking FBI officials are targeting agents for their political beliefs and trying to force them out of the bureau, specifically going after former military members.

The Marine Corps and other military veterans at the FBI are being accused of being disloyal to the U.S. because they fit the profile of a supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to two new disclosures sent to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee.

The Washington Times obtained copies of the disclosures.

The whistleblowers said FBI Security Division Deputy Assistant Director Jeffrey Veltri and Assistant Section Chief Dena Perkins specifically went after bureau employees who served as Marines or in other military branches

They retaliated against the agents by stripping them of security clearance, which sidelines them on the job and pushes them toward the exit, according to the disclosures.

Comment: An interview with Garret O'Boyle May 22, 2023:

There will likely be no consequences for Clark, Perkins and Veltri. That's how psychopathic institutions roll.

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X

Czech physicist: Claims Net Zero would be cheap and easy are "completely insane"

Pierre L. Gosselin
NoTricksZone
Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:00 UTC
zero
© KJN/greenbiz
In an email, Czech physicist Lubos Motl warned claims of Net Zero being "cheap and easy" are naïve, "insane".

Globally, the costs would in fact be economically ruinous and explosive in terms of social cohesion.

Here's the excerpt of what he wrote (edited to remove names):

Some people claim promoting Net Zero would be totally easy and cheap, below $2 trillion (total integrated expenses) - as long as we built a bunch of nuclear power plants. But such claims are completely insane.

All electric cars is basically impossible

First, nuclear power is fine but it is no 'miracle' in comparison with coal. Every forcedly shut down power plant - whether it runs on coal or uranium - is a huge waste of money. Equally importantly, for Net Zero, it totally fails to be enough to replace the power plants. You also have cars etc. The replacement of cars by electric vehicles is basically impossible in the decades to come. The market already shows that the demand for EVs has almost evaporated. Instead of the promised exponential growth, the EV makers are probably facing a decline. It is no surprise.

Comment: Delusion is the only road to grandeur. Signpost up ahead...

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Snakes in Suits

US says prostitution ring counted politicians, tech execs, lawyers as clients

Nate Raymond
Yahoo! News
Wed, 08 Nov 2023 21:24 UTC
John Jospeh Moakley U.S. Courthouse
FILE PHOTO: Exterior of John Jospeh Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston
U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday charged three people with running a high-end brothel network out of apartment complexes in greater Boston and northern Virginia whose customers included elected officials, tech and pharmaceutical executives, lawyers, professors and military officers.

Federal prosecutors in Boston did not identify any of the "wealthy and well-connected clientele" that they say paid up to $600 per hour for sexual encounters with predominantly Asian women who were being exploited through sex trafficking.

The brothels' alleged operators -- Han Lee, 41, and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Massachusetts and James Lee, 68, of California -- were arrested and charged with conspiring to coerce and entice women to travel to engage in illegal sexual activity.

Acting U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said the probe was "just getting started" and that law enforcement was gathering more evidence after executing search warrants on locations in Massachusetts, Virginia and California.

Those searches included of active brothels and uncovered financial documents, cash and women believed to be engaging in prostitution, according to court records.

Comment: Will any of these high profile individuals ever see their day in court, or will they go unpunished like the Epstein clients?

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Arrow Up

German homelessness rises by 50% in a year - media


RT
Fri, 10 Nov 2023 21:17 UTC
Berlin, homeless, tents, tent city
© Getty Images / Maja Hitij/Getty ImagesTents belonging to the homeless are seen in government quarter of the city during the snowstorm on January 11, 2017 in Berlin, Germany
A sharp rise in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany has contributed to a more-than-50% rise in homelessness in the EU state in the past 12 months, according to a report by an emergency housing assistance organization.

Increased rents, a lack of social housing and soaring costs of living have limited accommodation options for about one million refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, The Times newspaper reported, citing new data from the Federal Association for Aid to the Homeless (Bag W). Additionally, about 148,000 non-Ukrainians applied for asylum in the EU state in 2022, further compounding the country's scarcity of available housing.

"Inflation, elevated costs and rising rents are bearing down heavily on households in Germany with weak incomes," Bag W's director Werena Rosenke told The Times. The most vulnerable, Rosenke added, are "low-income single-person households, single parents and couples with many children."

Last year, about 607,000 people were at least temporarily homeless in Germany, Bag W said, compared to 383,000 in 2021. This was the highest count since 2018, with asylum seekers making up 411,000 of the figure (71%). While the homeless statistics were not broken down by nationality, January data from the country's Federal Statistics Office said that Ukrainian nationals accounted for just under a third of the homeless population.

Comment: The amount of suffering being endured by the populations of Europe because of their leaders' insane policies isn't quantifiable in statistics. But statistics can show just how much that suffering is increasing.

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Attention

US support for Israel prompting Arab anger - CNN


RT
Fri, 10 Nov 2023 20:35 UTC
Joe Biden, Israel
© Amir Levy / Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden speaks during the welcome ceremony during Biden's visit to Israel on July 13, 2022 in Lod, Israel.
The United States' continued support for Israel's military action in Gaza is provoking fury in the Arab world, a US diplomat has warned the Biden administration, according to a diplomatic cable obtained by CNN.

The cable reflects US diplomatic concerns at rising malcontent from Arab countries in the Middle East over Washington's endorsement of Israel's bombardment of Gaza in retaliation to Hamas's October 7 cross-border attack, the news network reported on Friday.

"We are losing badly on the messaging battlespace," the cable, received by the White House on Wednesday from its embassy in Oman, said, according to CNN. It added that the conclusion was drawn from conversations with "a wide range of trusted and sober-minded contacts."

Figures in the Arab world view the Biden administration's support for Israel's unprecedented siege of the coastal Gaza enclave as being "material and moral culpability in what they consider to be possible war crimes," the cable continued.

Another diplomatic communication seen by CNN, this time from the US Embassy in Cairo, warned American officials of an op-ed in an Egyptian state-operated newspaper which said that "President Biden's cruelty and disregard for Palestinians exceeded all previous US presidents."

Comment: It should be obvious that was going to happen. Leads one to think they believe they can manage everyone and everything with nothing getting too out of control. We'll see.

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Black Cat

Illinois staffer busted for raking in over $1 million for services during Covid pandemic

Kyle Becker
Becker News
Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:00 UTC
Gov. J.B. Pritzker appointed Alicia Tate-Nadeau
© Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times; Justin L. Fowler /The State Journal-Register via APGov. J.B. Pritzker appointed Alicia Tate-Nadeau (right) in 2019 to lead the state agency overseeing pandemics, natural disasters and an influx of migrants. Her assistant, Amy Gentry, earned more than Tate-Nadeau in less than a year.
The Covid response exposed not only the nation's vulnerability to mass media manipulation, but also endless cases of government malfeasance and corruption.

One striking example has surfaced recently out of Illinois. The head of the Emergency Management Agency's personal assistant, Amy Gentry, quit abruptly in late October due to taxpayer scrutiny of her being paid between $28,000 and $48,000 a month during the Covid pandemic.

The Sun Times reported that Gentry ultimately had billed the state over $1 million for her contracts.

The assistant made $240,761.30 in billings from February to August, which is twice her boss Alicia Tate-Nadeau's pay for that time, the news outlet reported.

In 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker put her boss Alicia Tate-Nadeau in charge of the emergency agency that handles pandemics, natural disasters, and an influx of unauthorized immigrants.
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Display

Is a cyber 9/11 coming?

Marie Hawthorne
The Organic Prepper
Fri, 10 Nov 2023 00:00 UTC
hacker
Talk of a "Cyber 9/11" has been circulating for years. With the next presidential election twelve months away now, some folks are predicting that a major cyber event will happen before then, throwing a monkey wrench into the 2024 election process.

What the heck is Cyber 9/11?

What does Cyber 9/11 mean? Is there a real risk? What should we be preparing for?

There are two aspects to the Cyber 9/11 concept. The first is the disaster itself; 9/11 was a catastrophe that ended the lives of over 3000 people in one day. There are fears that if power grids were hacked or enough damage was done to logistical centers, the ensuing chaos would cause deaths.

Quite memorably, back in 2000, a disgruntled public works employee in Australia hacked into the water treatment system and caused raw sewage to pour into public areas, flooding a Hyatt hotel. One man acting alone caused a disgusting, expensive mess. Of course security experts are concerned with what a team of angry individuals could do.

Comment: The author has left out a most crucial dimension of this threat; how those in the WEF (and affiliated organizations) are already "preparing" for such an attack - and may likely be the cause of one:

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