Society's Child
Traini, who is now 29, spent the morning of February 3 cruising around the town of Macerata for about two hours, firing at African migrants from the window of his car with a pistol. Six people were injured.
As he faces justice over the brutal shooting spree, prosecutors have called for a 12-year jail term for Traini - just under half of the maximum 22-year penalty for his offences. Prosecutors accepted Traini's guilty plea and requested a simplified court procedure.
And of Americans 45 and younger, the passing rate is a tiny 19 percent, according to a survey done for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
Worse: The actual test only requires that 60 percent of the answers be correct. In the survey, just 36 percent passed.
Comment: RT adds
An overwhelming majority of Americans have no clue about their history or civic culture, with only 36 percent of natives able to pass the US Citizenship Civics Test taken by foreigners, a new study has shown.
Surprisingly enough, those born with the inherent right to be called Americans failed to answer even the basic questions about their history and culture, a national survey released by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation revealed.
There are 100 civics questions on the naturalization test, which immigrants must answer to gain US citizenship. Candidates are asked 10 questions from the entire list, and are required to answer six of them correctly in order to become eligible for a US passport.
Just one-in-three Americans passed the multiple choice exam that is undertaken by foreigners. Shockingly, 87 percent of respondents did not know that the US Constitution was ratified in 1787, while 60 percent of respondents couldn't identify which countries fought in World War II against the US and its allies.
While many Americans aren't shy when it comes to expressing their opinion regarding the controversy surrounding US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, only 43 percent knew the actual number of justices (nine) that protect the nation's constitution.
Some 72 percent failed to correctly identify the 13 original states from a list of options offered to them in the multiple-choice questions.
The problem with basic civic knowledge seems to be more acute for those aged 45 and under, with only 19 percent passing the mock test. Those 65 years and older, however, managed to answer the questions with 74-percent success rate.
While the results might seem surprising to some, the US public education system lags behind most developing nations. According to the 2015 International Student Assessment (PISA), which was conducted to measure pupils' reading ability, as well as math and science literacy, the US ranked 38th out of 71 countries that opt to take the exam every three years.
"Unfortunately, this study found the average American to be woefully uninformed regarding America's history and incapable of passing the US Citizenship Test," Woodrow Wilson Foundation President Arthur Levine said.
"It would be an error to view these findings as merely an embarrassment. Knowledge of the history of our country is fundamental to maintaining a democratic society, which is imperiled today."
Just 90 minutes from Toronto, residents of a First Nations community try to improve the water situation as the beverage company extracts from their land
The mysterious rash on the arm of six-year-old Theron wouldn't heal. For almost a year, his mother, Iokarenhtha Thomas, who lives in the Six Nations of the Grand River indigenous reserve in Ontario, went to the local doctor for lotions for the boy. It worked, for a time. But the itchy red rash always returned. Thomas came to suspect the culprit behind the rash: water - or, rather, the lack of it.
Thomas, a university student and mother of five, has lived without running tap water since the age of 16. Her children lack access to things commonplace elsewhere, like toilets, showers and baths. For washing and toilet usage, they use a bucket.
Comment:
- Profits for psychopathic corporations! Nestlé CEO says water should be privatized - not a basic human right
- As California suffers drought, Nestle pumps water for bottling from tribal land
- Dangerous precedent: Maine judge gives Nestle control of towns' groundwater for up to 45 years
- Nestle's ties to the Michigan water crisis
- Nestle is pumping millions of gallons from the Great Lakes for free while Flint pays for poison
- Nestle Rebuked by the FDA for Misleading Nutritional Labeling
- How Nestle Gerber Poison Babies With Genetically Modified Ingredients
The documents filed Wednesday night in a Utah court say 39-year-old William Clyde Allen III confessed to investigators after his arrest at his house in the small city of Logan, north of Salt Lake City.
The documents filed to justify Allen's arrest did not state a motive.
State investigators working with the FBI say the envelopes were mailed last week to the president, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Navy's top officer, Adm. John Richardson. The letters were intercepted and police say all four tested positive for ricin.
No attorney has been listed for Allen.
Kent State University decided to cancel the show entirely instead of recasting it and replaced it with a production of the Children of Eden, which is expected to be less problematic.
Eric van Baars, the director of the university's School of Theatre and Dance said the decision to cancel was "in response to our community members' voices and the national dialogue regarding the desire for authenticity on our stages". Van Baars told Fox News that in order to be "current and culturally engaged," the school was trying to support the progression of "conscious casting" in theatre.
Comment: One's acting ability is irrelevant in the new world of "conscious casting". Now the criteria for getting a part is based on whether an actor's gender identity, race, socio-economic status, place of birth, astrological sign, and favorite color matches the character being portrayed. See also: LGBT activists shame Scarlett Johansson into pulling out of trans role, now film will likely never get made
The GoFundMe campaign for Kavanaugh was set up by John Hawkins, the founder of the Right Wing News website, who called Kavanaugh a "good man who has been treated very, very badly." The page has raised more than $531,000 in just eight days and is still accepting donations.
The Faith Matters counter-extremism network, quoted in the Independent, warned Choudary is a part of a "dance of hate where the only ones to profit have been the extremists."
This gobbledegook was presented as an academic journal, was peer-reviewed and published in Cogent Social Sciences. The only problem was that it was a hoax. A big, beautiful brilliant hoax carried out by two academics - Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay - who had immersed themselves in the academic BS of their time. In that paper they successfully punked an academic scene which (in the humanities at least) allows the most insane and untrue claims to be presented as truth, so long as they are suffused in fashionable grievances and coated in a form of academic vocabulary which is an insult to academic inquiry and an offence against language.
Comment: Academia has signed its own death warrant with its descent into ideological nonsense. The warning from the author above comes far too late (and likely never would have been listened to anyway) - academic "studies" are already a complete laughing stock. There is so little respect for these institutions at this point, outside of their bubble, no one takes them seriously.
See also:
- The Grievance Studies Scandal: Five Academics Respond to The Implications of Hoax Papers Published in Postmodernist Journals
- Academic journal duped by author of viral 'dog rape culture' article
- 'The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct': Hoax gender studies paper accepted by a peer-reviewed academic journal
- Is academic journal publishing headed for a day of reckoning?

Pastors from Nevada pray with Donald Trump during a visit to Las Vegas in October 2016. Plenty of moviegoers in Lynchburg, Virginia, heaped praise on the movie.
This is the theme of The Trump Prophecy, a movie telling the story of Mark Taylor, a former fireman from Orlando forced to retire after suffering from PTSD, which premiered on Tuesday.
Between graphic nightmares featuring demonic monsters and hellish flames, Taylor received a message from God in April 2011, while he was surfing television channels.
As he clicked to an interview with Trump, Taylor heard God say: "You are hearing the voice of the next president."
And so it came to pass, although it took another five years and a national prayer campaign. Taylor duly wrote a book, The Trump Prophecies: The Astonishing True Story of the Man Who Saw Tomorrow ... and What He Says Is Coming Next, on which the movie is based.
The belief that Trump's election was God's divine will is shared by others. Franklin Graham, the prominent conservative evangelical, said last year that Trump's victory was the result of divine intervention. "I could sense going across the country that God was going to do something this year. And I believe that at this election, God showed up," he told the Washington Post.
Comment: One man's angel is another's demon. Trump appears to have been crowned king of the political divide - there's no middle ground, he is either adored or loathed. The trailer for the film:
In a letter seen by BBC News, they say the tie-up "will significantly damage the credibility of PHE".
On Tuesday, government alcohol adviser, Sir Ian Gilmore, resigned over the agency's decision to work with Drinkaware on a new campaign.
Comment: Did it really take "experts" to tell us that taking advice from an agency with a glaring conflict of interest is a bad idea? If PHE is really so concerned with reducing the harm alcohol has on the public, why wouldn't they get funding from an agency whose bottom line doesn't depend on people drinking more?
See also:
- Major N.I.H. drinking health study shut down: Tainted by funding appeals to the alcohol industry
- Why is the most hazardous drug still legal?
- British men show resistance to alcohol health warnings
- The debate rages: Latest research contends no amount of alcohol is safe
- Scientists reveal those who drink alcohol occasionally have lower risk of dying early than those who abstain














Comment: It's pretty unlikely that Traini is actually a 'changed man' when he's blaming 'a difficult childhood' for his actions.