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Johnny Depp latest celeb to hint at violence against Trump, assassination

Dan Bilefsky
New York Times
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 19:26 UTC
johnny depp

Depp in Glastonbury, where he made the remark about Trump.
The actor Johnny Depp is the latest American entertainment figure to suggest — however jokingly, ironically or obliquely — the killing of President Trump.

Speaking on Thursday at the Glastonbury arts festival in southwest England, Mr. Depp asked the audience, "Can you bring Trump here?"

The remark was met with booing and jeering, and he continued: "You misunderstand completely. When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? I want to clarify: I'm not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it's been awhile, and maybe it's time."

The words were being interpreted as an allusion to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, in 1865.

Mr. Depp, who was introducing a screening of the 2004 film The Libertine — in which he played the womanizing poet John Wilmot, second earl of Rochester — acknowledged that his words would cause a storm.

"By the way, this is going to be in the press and it'll be horrible," he said. "It's just a question; I'm not insinuating anything."
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Cult

KKK: Still a threat to society, active in 33 states


RT
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 18:33 UTC
KuKluxKlan
© Spencer Platt / AFP
Ku Klux Klan, alive and well in America
The Ku Klux Klan is active in 33 states and "still poses a threat" to US society, according to a new Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report.

The ADL study found that despite internal disorder and splintered membership, the number of active KKK groups has increased slightly in the last year. More than half of current Klans formed within the last three years.
"The Ku Klux Klan movement is small and fractured, but still poses a threat to society," said ADL CEO, Jonathan A. Greenblatt.
Across the US, there are still some 3,000 Klan members in more than 40 groups as well as a number of unaffiliated individuals who identify with Klan ideology, according to the report.

The Klan's instability is rooted in infighting and competition for membership from other white supremacist groups while rampant rumormill among KKK members is also said to undermine the organization. The report cites high turnover of members and the creation of new branches as evidence of this.
"These hardened racists and bigots are looking to spread fear, and if they grow dissatisfied with the Klan, they move on to other groups on the extreme far-right. There's lots of instability and unpredictability in the Klan movement," said Greenblatt.
Klan map
© adl.org

Comment: The KKK: Homegrown vigilante terrorism, a historical part of American heritage tracing back to the era of slavery and the Democratic Party.

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Binoculars

The scoop on feds' sweet deal for billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 19:18 UTC
jeffrey epstein
© Palm Beach Post / 2008 staff photo
Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy Palm Beach resident charged with having teenage girls give him sexual massages, was in court Monday morning to enter a plea after nearly two years.
Federal prosecutors went on the offensive this month, denying allegations that they bowed to pressure from billionaire Palm Beach resident Jeffrey Epstein and his high-priced lawyers at the expense of dozens of teenage girls he sexually abused.

In their first public comment since 2007 — when they negotiated a deal that allowed Epstein to escape federal charges — prosecutors filed hundreds of pages of documents in U.S. District Court, explaining what led to the now infamous non-prosecution agreement that has been decried as "a sweetheart deal."

Contrary to claims by attorneys representing two of Epstein's victims in a lawsuit against the federal government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie Villafana said she and her superiors were trying to help the traumatized young women when they agreed to let Epstein plead guilty to state prostitution charges.

The now-64-year-old money manager, who spends most of his time on his estate in the Virgin Islands, served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in the Palm Beach County Stockade. He was allowed to leave each day to go to work.

Comment: We wonder just how far Epstein's influence goes...

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Briefcase

Servant abuse: 8 UAE princesses charged and fined for degrading treatment


RT
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 19:18 UTC
belgian court
© Dirk Waem / Belga / AFP
FILE PHOTO: A judge speaks during the so-called "Conrad princesses" trial in front of the Brussels criminal court for human trafficking, on May 11, 2017.
Eight princesses from the United Arab Emirates were given suspended jail terms and fined in a trafficking case in Belgium, escaping the harsher charges of inhumane treatment.

The case against Princess Sheikha al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi's ruling al-Nahyan family and her seven daughters had been dragging on since 2008.

Back then, a servant managed to escape from a luxury Brussels hotel booked by the UAE royals and complained of mistreatment to the local police.

On Friday, a criminal court in Brussels found Princess Shekha and her daughters guilty of trafficking and degrading treatment. They were handed 15-month suspended sentences and ordered to pay a fine of €165,000 (US$184,000), with half of the sum suspended.

Defense lawyer Stephen Monod contacted RT via email to clarify that the word "trafficking," used in the verdict, had nothing to do with "smuggling illegal labor into a country," but referred "to employing labor in unworthy conditions."
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Boat

Autopilot engaged when cargo ship struck USS Fitzgerald off the coast of Japan


RT
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 19:12 UTC
wrecked ship
© JIJI PRESS / AFP
The Philippines-flagged freighter that struck the USS Fitzgerald off the coast of Japan last week was on autopilot at the time, according to tracking data that emerged in the course of the investigation. The collision killed seven US sailors and injured three.

While the US Navy's investigation is ongoing, officials familiar with the preliminary results said the container ship ACX Crystal was under control of a computerized navigation system at 1:30 am local time on June 16, when the freighter broadsided the Fitzgerald about 64 miles off the coast of Japan.

There were no crew members on duty in the pilot house of the Crystal at the moment the freighter collided with the Fitzgerald, the Washington Free Beacon reported. So far, the investigators have found no evidence the collision was deliberate.

The Navy investigators are now trying to determine why the Fitzgerald's radar and sensors did not detect the freighter in time to avoid the collision.
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Handcuffs

Operation Broken Heart III: Nearly 240 child predators arrested during police raid

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 19:00 UTC
police raid
© Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times
Investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children arrested 238 people during Operation Broken Heart III.
As bogus news pushing the divisive two-party paradigm about which puppet politician said something stupid this week fills the airwaves, very real news is taking place and conveniently getting glossed over. This very real news involves very real victims — who happen to be innocent children.

This week, a massive operation came to a head that was carried out across Southern California which swept up 238 child predators and traffickers — including clergymen attempting to buy a 6-year-old boy.

Conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force, "Operation Broken Heart III" targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department, as reported by the LA Times.

The mass arrests were not made up of recluse pedophiles living in their mother's basements either. In fact, many of the arrests involved high-profile figures throughout the community.
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Heart - Black

Virtually heartless: Wealthy CEOs get slammed for VR headsets depicting homelessness

April Glover
Daily Mail Australia
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 18:24 UTC
VR headsets
© CEO sleepout Twitter
The wealthy men and women were filmed wearing virtual reality goggles as part of the CEO Sleepout.

The head honchos of Australia's most profitable businesses gathered together to raise money for homeless people by partaking in the 'CEO Sleepout'.

But the wealthy bosses were slammed after it emerged the men and women were given virtual reality headsets to simulate homelessness instead of actually sleeping rough on the streets.

Footage of a row of CEOs wearing the expensive headsets as they experienced 'what it was like to be homeless' through futuristic software sparked fury from dozens of critics who slammed them as 'out of touch' with reality.

The caption of the video, posted to Twitter, read: 'Our Sydney CEOs using virtual reality to get a glimpse of the realities faced by the people who experience this everyday.'

But despite the noble intentions behind the cause, the charity was instantly condemned online by users who were unimpressed by the philanthropists wearing VR goggles instead of taking to the streets.
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Newspaper

'Politics was involved', says juror in Bill Cosby mistrial

Joe Mandak and Michael Rubinkam
AP
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 17:51 UTC
Bill Cosby
A juror in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial said Thursday that some jurors were concerned that prosecutors waited 10 years to charge him, expressing suspicion that politics had played a role in the case.

The juror told The Associated Press that the panel was almost evenly split in its deliberations, with a similar number of jurors wanting to convict the 79-year-old entertainer as acquit him on charges he drugged and molested a woman at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.

He was the second juror to speak out after the jury deadlocked in the case. A mistrial was declared Saturday after 52 hours of deliberations. Prosecutors plan to put Cosby on trial again.

The juror who spoke to the AP questioned the long delay in bringing charges against the TV star, suggesting that "no new evidence from '05 to now has showed up, no stained clothing, no smoking gun, nothing."

In reality, prosecutors reopened the investigation in 2015 after the public release of a deposition that Cosby gave in 2005 and 2006 as part of accuser Andrea Constand's lawsuit against him — testimony that hadn't been offered when another district attorney passed on the case in early 2005. Prosecutors used Cosby's deposition as evidence at the criminal trial.

The juror spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive deliberations.

Comment: Mistrial or not...

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Clipboard

Poll: Americans grow weary of Russia probe

Jonathan Easley
The Hill
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:10 UTC
Donald Trump
© The Hill
A majority of voters believe the Russia investigations are damaging to the country and are eager to see Congress shift its focus to healthcare, terrorism, national security, the economy and jobs.

Those are the findings of the latest Harvard-Harris Poll survey, provided exclusively to The Hill, which paints a complicated picture of voters' opinions about the numerous probes that have engulfed the White House.

Sixty-four percent of voters said the investigations into President Trump and Russia are hurting the country. Fifty-six percent of voters said it's time for Congress and the media to move on to other issues, compared to 44 percent who said the focus should stay on Russia.

But other surveys have found strong support for the special counsel investigating the Russia probe. A Harvard-Harris survey released last month found 75 percent support for former FBI Director Robert Mueller's investigation.
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Star of David

Israeli airline practice of asking women to swap seats for radical Orthodox Jewish men ruled illegal


RT
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 16:58 UTC
israeli airline
© Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
Israeli airline El Al can no longer ask women to switch seats if ultra-Orthodox men object to sitting next to them, a court has ruled, after a case was brought by a Holocaust survivor who said she was humiliated after being asked to move.

The Jerusalem-based Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), which was representing the plaintiff, announced the court's decision on Wednesday.
"Huge victory in IRAC's long fought battle against gender segregation in the public sphere - court tells El Al airline women do not need to move seats for men," the group, which is a public and legal advocacy branch of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, said in a statement.
The court decision follows a lawsuit filed by 83-year-old Holocaust survivor Renee Rabinowitz. In 2015, a flight attendant on board an El Al flight from Newark to Tel Aviv asked her to move. According to the airline, it tries to make concessions to ultra-Orthodox men who cite religious beliefs in their requests not to be seated near any women other than their own wives.

Comment: Radical religious extremists incompatible with Western civilization? We guess so!

Now that Israel has made this tiny step towards moving out of the Middle Ages, how about they do something about Israeli apartheid? No, that's probably too much to ask.

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