Society's ChildS


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Sicilian bishop bans Mafiosi from church Sacraments


RT
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 13:42 UTC
catholic church ceramony
© Pascal Deloche / www.globallookpress.com
Sicilian archbishops in the birthplace of the Cosa Nostra, have ended a two-century-old tradition by banning mafia members from acting as godparents for baptisms or being sponsors to Catholic confirmation.

Ever since the mafia's inception in Sicily in the 19 century, members of the notorious crime syndicate and later the La Stidda criminal clan have been immune from the condemnation of local clergy.

But on Thursday things changed, when Michele Pennisi, archbishop of Monreale, outside of Palermo, stopped just short of excommunicating mafia members. Instead, Pennisi issued a decree banning members of criminal gangs to act as godparents or be admitted to confirmation, the last of three initiation rites into the Catholic faith.
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2 + 2 = 4

Georgia's new 'domestic terrorism' bill could criminalize Muslim and immigrant rights protestors

Kevin Gosztola
Shadowproof
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
Atlanta Muslim Ban Protest
© Photo by tanip on FlickrAtlanta Muslim Ban Protest.
State legislation introduced in Georgia would expand what is considered "domestic terrorism" and make it possible for state authorities to further criminalize Muslim and immigrant rights groups, which may engage in boycotts, sit-ins, and other forms of protest.

The American Civil Liberties Union chapter in Georgia, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ) in Atlanta, and Project South condemned SB 1, which they argued is "in line with a national trend of state-level legislation written to crack down on protests and suppress the freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble that is granted by the First Amendment." They added, "Bills like this exist in eighteen other states."

Azadeh Shahshahani, a legal and advocacy director for Project South, called the timing of the legislation "significant because we're seeing a number of protests nationally."

Mass mobilizations occurred around the inauguration of President Donald Trump. More than 60,000 people demonstrated as part of the Women's March event in Atlanta. Thousands protested against the travel ban targeted against Muslims and immigrants.
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Handcuffs

U.S. Secret Service stops intruder before reaching White House grounds

Joseph Weber
Fox News
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 10:04 UTC
The White House
© Fox News
An unidentified person was apprehended Saturday jumping a barrier in front of the White House, resulting in a full lockdown of the complex.

The incident occurred at about 12:45 p.m. on the front side of the White House, along Pennsylvania Avenue. The person jumped over a stretch of bike-racks that serves as a barrier between visitors and the White House's roughly 6-foot, black wrought-iron fence.

President Trump was not inside the White House at the time, having left Friday for his resort home, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida.

The unidentified suspect was apprehended by a uniformed Secret Service officer, and charges are pending, the agency said.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was inside the complex at the time and commended the Secret Service on its effort.


Last weekend, a man jumped the White House fence when Trump was inside the mansion.
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Calendar

Provocative Trump billboard with Nazi-like dollar signs, nuclear mushroom clouds erected in Phoenix, Arizona


RT
Sun, 19 Mar 2017 08:00 UTC
Trump Nazi billboard
© Ruptly
A provocative billboard depicting US President Donald Trump surrounded by mushroom clouds from nuclear explosions and dollar signs resembling Nazi swastikas has been erected in Phoenix, Arizona. The US leader also wears a Russian flag lapel pin.

The billboard, placed on Grand Avenue near Fillmore Street, is owned by Beatrice Moore, who commissioned the menacing image to artist Karen Fiorito.

"I think a lot of people are feeling this way and I'm just trying to express what I think is on a lot of people's minds these days," she told KPNX television, a local NBC affiliate. "Something that really concerned us was this idea of a dictatorship where things were going in a certain direction."

The billboard went up Friday to coincide with the start of the annual three-day Art Detour event nearby, although organizers said they had nothing to do with the installation. The owner said it would remain up as long as Trump is president.


Comment: Trump is not Hitler, but a totalitarian society is not out of the realm of possibilities.
The real seeds of a totalitarian nightmare are sprouting in the West - just not in Trump's brain. They're alive and well in the intelligence agencies (who allied with Nazis before, during, and after WWII), and in the revolutionary fervor taking root in (mostly) grassroots organizations on the Right and the Left. Actually, the Left has the advantage when it comes to nightmare creation. Conservatives tend towards authoritarianism. Liberals, with their postmodern philosophical underpinnings, tend towards radical restructuring of society that cares not how many millions of "its own" it has to kill in order to get there.

That Time Hitler Gave a Speech on Blacks in Germany


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Alarm Clock

Police investigating case of 11-year-old girl set to become Britain's youngest mother


RT
Sun, 19 Mar 2017 10:15 UTC
Pregnancy test
© XYZ pictures/globallookpress.com
Police are investigating the case of a pregnant 11-year-old who is set to become Britain's youngest mother.

The father is understood to be a couple of years older than the girl, police say.

Few details of the pregnancy can be made public for legal reasons and the local authority is seeking strict reporting restrictions in the High Court's family division.

The mother-to-be, who lives in the east of England, is expected to give birth soon, possibly by caesarean section, according to the Mirror.

The news comes just weeks after a woman who was once Britain's youngest mother announced she was expecting a second child more than a decade later. Tressa Middleton, now 23, gave birth in 2006 aged 12 after she was raped by her brother.
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Bomb

White House security tightened after reports of man with bomb inside car


RT
Sun, 19 Mar 2017 07:28 UTC
The White House
© NuriPhoto/Gettyimages.ru
Security has been tightened at the White House after a car approached a checkpoint, according to the US Secret Service, Reuters reports. CNN cites two separate officials who say a man drove a car to the building, saying there was a bomb inside the car.

One person was detained late Saturday after the incident, and the vehicle was searched, CNN said. It is not immediately clear if there was any explosive device inside the car. White House guards immediately increased security, while several streets in the vicinity were cordoned off.

What appears to be a developing situation comes several days after a man scaled a perimeter fence, a vehicle gate, as well as another fence surrounding the White House, and walked around for sixteen minutes before being arrested by security.

US President Donald Trump was not inside the building at the time. In recent years, the White House has seen a string of several high-profile trespassing incidents.
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Heart - Black

Chuck Berry Rock 'n' Roll pioneer dies aged 90


RT
Sun, 19 Mar 2017 10:34 UTC
Chuck Berry
© Eric Gaillard / ReutersChuck Berry
Legendary American singer and songwriter, Chuck Berry, who became a Rock 'n' Roll icon died aged 90 at his home in St. Charles County, Missouri, local police has announced.

Berry's death was confirmed by the St. Charles Police Department who issued a statement Saturday explaining the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the musician's body.

First responders were called to a medical emergency on Buckner Road, Missouri, at 12:40 pm local time, on Saturday. There, the medical team found an unresponsive man and "immediately administered lifesaving techniques".

"Unfortunately, the 90-year-old man could not be revived and was pronounced deceased at 1:26 p.m," the statement read.

"The St Charles County Police Department sadly confirms the death of Charles Edward Anderson Berry Sr., better known as legendary musician Chuck Berry," the police department added.
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Quenelle

Namibia tribes lodge case against Germany and demand compensation for the 20th century's first genocide


Al Jazeera News
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 19:58 UTC
Namibia tribes genocide
Lawyers representing two indigenous Namibian tribes are meeting for a pre-trial conference in New York on Thursday following a lawsuit filed earlier this year that demands compensation for the descendants of people massacred in the 20th century's first genocide.

Between 1904 and 1908 about 100,000 Herero and Nama people were killed by German colonial leaders in South West Africa, now known as Namibia, when the territory was a German colony.

German settlers, with the explicit consent of German colonial authorities, seized about a quarter of Ovaherero and Nama lands between 1885 to 1903.

Video link:
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Bizarro Earth

Teens get into brawl in Philadelphia subway station, police say becoming a 'daily occurrence'


Fox 29
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 19:46 UTC
teen brawl philadelphia subway septa
SEPTA police say a group of teens got into an all-out brawl. A lot of the wild scene was caught on cell phone video. Police are now hoping the public can help them.

It was a chaotic scene after school Thursday that SEPTA's police chief says happens far too often.

"I have to tell you, this is becoming a daily event, throughout the city, either street corners or outside schools or on the SEPTA system," said SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel.

Comment: See the video in the original article.

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X

Trump rescinds Obama guidance for student loan defaults

Max Greenwood
The Hill
Fri, 17 Mar 2017 06:30 UTC
graduation cap drowning
© NPRDrowning in Debt
The Trump administration on Thursday rolled back Obama-era guidance that forbade student loan debt collectors from charging high fees to defaulted borrowers, The Washington Post reported.

In a "Dear Colleague" letter, the administration tells agencies that collect on defaulted loan debt to disregard guidance prohibiting them from charging borrowers who default on their payments fees of as much as 16 percent of the loan's principal and accrued interest. It also says that the initial guidance handed down by the Obama administration in 2015 should have been subjected to public comment before it was issued.

"The Department thinks that the position set forth in the [Obama administration guidance] would have benefitted from public input on the issues discussed in the [guidance letter]," the Trump administration's directive reads. "The department will not require compliance with the interpretations set forth ... without providing prior notice and an opportunity for public comment on the issues," it continues.

The decision to rescind the guidance came two days after the Consumer Federation of America issued a report that finds that the number of people defaulting on their student loan payments is on the rise.

The Trump's administration's letter affects 7 million people with loans through the Federal Family Education Loan Program that are held by guaranty agencies. Individuals whose debt is held by the Department of Education are not impacted by the decision. The amount owed in student loan debt has surpassed that of credit card debt — about $1.2 trillion.

Comment: Hopefully this rollback speaks to Obama's faulty process rather than the 16% interest as quoted in the article. It also shows concern for the mounting debt, those who hold the loans and the bottom line. Did Obama even consider these or did he just want to score points with college debt holders to vote Democratic? Will Trump provide a workable plan?

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