Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Propaganda

Farage dismisses journalist's question on who pays for his bodyguards with "Russians"

Nigel Farage
© REUTERS/Rebecca Naden
Nigel Farage in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, Britain.
The Brexit Party leader may have finally confessed that Brexit has been a Russian op all along. That, or he simply cut off a reporter, who was hounding him with questions about Leave campaign donor Arron Banks.

Former UKIP head Nigel Farage, whose new political party is currently crushing competition in the European Parliament election campaign, was chased by journalist Matt Frei for a report shown by Channel 4 on Thursday. The news outlet said Arron Banks, the millionaire supporter of the Brexit movement, was also bankrolling Farage's personal lifestyle, and Frei went to doorstep Farage during his visit to Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, on Wednesday.

Farage, who is well-known for using a condescending and rude tone when asked questions he doesn't like, is shown deflecting Tydfil's inquiries about who pays for his "operation" alternating between suggesting the reporter ask something relevant to the European Parliament election, sarcasm and simple silence.

Comment: People are voting for Farage because he is the only figurehead in British politics who says he will execute the will of the people, and attempts to smear him based on how he's funding his campaign are unlikely to work; particularly when the issue of donors, corruption and the abuse of public funds is endemic in British politics.


People 2

More men are uncomfortable interacting with women at work since #MeToo, study says

metoo
Women are still navigating the effects of male-dominated workplaces a year and a half after the rise of the #MeToo movement. A new study by LeanIn.org found 60 percent of male managers said they are uncomfortable interacting with women at work - up 32 percent from 2018. Workplace interactions that men are nervous about include mentoring, socializing and having one-on-one meetings.

Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In's founder and Facebook's chief operating officer, said on "CBS This Morning" on Friday the survey results indicates "we're in a bad place."

"Sixty percent of male managers in the U.S. - 60 percent - are afraid to have a one-on-one meeting with a woman," Sandberg said, to which Gayle King immediately asked, "How do you get promoted without a one-on-one meeting?"

Exactly Sandberg's point. She went on to explain that senior men who were surveyed are also nine times more likely to hesitate to travel with a woman and six times more likely to hesitate to have a work dinner.

Comment: The #MeToo movement has lead to some negative repercussions and this man-bashing, public declaration of female victimhood isn't going to help matters.


Stop

Germany passes motion against the BDS movement because anti-Semitism

BDS protest
© Stefanie Loos / Reuters
Germany's parliament has passed a motion defining the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as anti-Semitic. It calls on Berlin to cut funding to groups supporting BDS.

The Bundestag voted to adopt the non-binding motion backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party on Friday, making it the first European parliament to do so.

The FDP motion supported by the CDU, CSU, SPD and Greens says the "arguments and methods of the BDS movement are anti-Semitic," as it calls for the boycott of Israeli artists and because the BDS 'don't buy' labels put on Israeli goods "recall the most terrible phase of German history," referring to the Nazi slogan 'Don't buy from Jews'.

The motion urges the German government not to fund or support groups "that question Israel's right to exist," although that isn't what the BDS movement sets out to do.

Comment: BDS is the political and economic attempt of people with a conscience to stop Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine. This has nothing to do with anti-Semitism and has everything to do with respecting basic human rights.


Life Preserver

Heroic boy lowered head-first into water-filled pipe to rescue trapped little girl

Girl saved
© uvao.moscow
A walk in the park almost turned to tragedy for a little girl in Moscow, when she fell into a poorly-covered pipe filled with water. It took a blood-chilling trick, performed by a volunteer boy, to save the day.

In a video first published by the Mash Telegram channel, a group of men are seen trying to reach into a pipe going down below a lawn of a park in southeastern Moscow. "Grab her! Grab her!" they can be heard shouting, before the slim figure of a boy is lowered into the darkened pipe - and later emerges with a bawling toddler girl in tow.

According to Mash, the girl was running across the lawn when she stepped on the pipe's cover. It gave way, sending her plunging about four meters down.

Bullseye

'Mass surveillance is exactly what the US does': Kim Dotcom points out glaring hypocrisy of Huawei ban

huawei
© Reuters / Charles Platiau
Kim Dotcom has slammed the US for hypocrisy over its Huawei ban given America's history of "abusing technology" and "turning its entire tech sector into a spy machine."

The Megaupload founder took to Twitter in the wake of the ban to highlight that the abuse of technology for mass surveillance is "exactly the conduct of the US" and said that "because the US does it, they think China will too."


Trump declared a "national emergency" for the telecommunications sector on Wednesday, citing risks from "foreign adversaries."

Comment: Kim Dotcom is spot on. The Deep State is in full on projection mode towards Chinese tech


Dominoes

Russian officials suspend controversial Yekaterinburg church plan as Putin suggests polling public

Yekaterinburg protests

Russian riot police detain activists protesting on May 15 against a plan to build an Orthodox church in a park in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg
The mayor of Russia's fourth largest city says construction work on a proposed new church, which sparked three days of protests, has been temporarily halted, hours after President Vladimir Putin said residents should be consulted in an opinion poll.

The announcement by Yekaterinburg Mayor Aleksandr Vysokinsky was the latest development in a protest campaign that has rocked the Urals city and drawn support from across Russia.

Thousands have protested against city plans to build a replica of a cathedral demolished by Soviet authorities in a popular central park, with 100 people arrested over the past three days.

Activists complain that the park is one of the few green spaces remaining the city, and have called for the development to be sited elsewhere.

Eye 1

Now-dead Ohio State doctor accused of abusing at least 177 students

Dr. Richard Strauss
A now-dead Ohio State team doctor sexually abused at least 177 male students over nearly two decades, and university officials knew what he was doing and did little to stop him, according to an investigative report released by the school Friday.

Dr. Richard Strauss committed the abuse from 1979 to 1997 - nearly his entire time at Ohio State - in episodes involving athletes from at least 16 sports, plus his work at the student health center and his off-campus clinic, the report said.

The report on Strauss, who took his life in 2005, could cost the university heavily by bolstering the lawsuits brought against it by a multitude of victims.

The findings put Strauss in a league with gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of Michigan State University, who was accused of molesting at least 250 women and girls and is serving what amounts to a life sentence. Michigan State ultimately agreed to a $500 million settlement with his victims.

Info

Bayer hopes that a 'silver bullet defense' will save it from Roundup lawsuits

Bayer AG
© Reuters / Wolfgang Rattay
German pharmaceutical firm Bayer plans to argue that a $2 billion jury award and thousands of US lawsuits claiming its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup causes cancer should be dropped.

The company points to a US regulatory agency's provision that the herbicide is not a public health risk. On Wednesday, Bayer said it will argue that the lawsuits, which are brought under state law, conflict with guidance from a federal agency, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Back in 1985, the watchdog labeled glyphosate a carcinogen, reversing its position later in 1991. Last month, the EPA reaffirmed prior guidance saying that glyphosate is not a carcinogen and not a risk to public health when used in accordance with its current label.

Under the legal doctrine of preemption, state law claims are barred if they conflict with federal law.

"We have very strong arguments that the claims here are preempted... and the recent EPA registration decision is an important aspect of that defense," said William Hoffman, one of Bayer's lawyers.

Comment: See also:


Airplane

F-16 pilot ejects before plane crashes into Southern California warehouse

F-16 fighter jet
© Ethan Miller / Getty Images file
An F-16 fighter jet on a training mission crashed into a warehouse as it approached to land at March Air Reserve Base in Southern California on Thursday, authorities said. The pilot, who ejected safely, and at least 11 other people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The jet crashed off base on Opportunity Way in Riverside County, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, at about 3:45 p.m., base officials told NBC News. Hazardous materials crews were securing potential hazards, including ordnance that may have been on the aircraft, military and state officials said.

Aerial video of the scene showed a broad hole in the roof of a large warehouse-like building bearing the logo of See Water Inc., which manufactures pumps, controls and other equipment for the water and wastewater industries. Authorities were examining a white and orange parachute along the roadside, in an industrial area of warehouses and large businesses near Interstate 215.

Comment:








Red Flag

French incomes place below some of America's poorest states — and the protesters know it

yellow vests
With the rise of the Yellow Vest Movement in France - which began last October and continues today - French activists and writers have begun to re-evaluate the state of French income and poverty. Since the movement began, articles with titles such as "Revealed: The shocking scale of poverty in France in 2018" or "Soul-searching in France as poverty leaves one million children hungry" have become more overtly political given the context of the protests.

Typically, the government's response to accusations of widespread poverty - which, as in America, are not necessarily accurate accusations - has been to spend more money on social programs.

But here's the thing: France is already spending more than the rest of Europe when it comes to welfare programs. According to the OECD, when it comes to "public social spending" as a percentage of GDP, France tops the list at over 31 percent.

In contrast, Swedish social spending is 26 percent of GDP, while Germany and Norway come in at 25 percent. Switzerland is near the bottom of the list at 16 percent, while the US is at 18 percent.