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Cryptic Assange tweet ignites speculation on his wellbeing and whether a new batch of leaked files will be released


RT
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 09:47 UTC
Julian Assange
© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
A Julian Assange tweet featuring a 60 character code and a YouTube link to a popular rap song has sparked a frenzy of speculation about the meaning of the message and the wellbeing of the WikiLeaks founder.

The 46-year-old published the tweet in the early hours of Monday morning. The peculiar post, which lacked any apparent context, triggered a flurry of speculation on Twitter and on message boards.


Many wondered if Assange had died and the code was a "dead man's switch" which would release the organization's "insurance" files, while others said it was an encryption key signalling that WikiLeaks was set to release a fresh batch of leaked files.



An encryption key is a random collection of numbers and figures used for protecting and unlocking data. The longer the key is, the harder it is to crack. The string can be unravelled into its original form with the right key.

Comment: Back in October Assange tweeted an encryption key and the clock has been ticking for awhile now. Come on guys, let's get on with it, popcorn is getting cold!

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Attention

German police boss slams NYE 'Safe Zones': 'Sends a devastating message'


Breitbart
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 12:00 UTC
Berlin Police
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
A German police union boss has criticized organizers of Berlin's annual open-air New Year's Eve party for designating a special "safety area" for women, saying it suggests they aren't safe from assault elsewhere.

The comments by Rainer Wendt, who heads the right-leaning DpolG union, come amid an ongoing debate in Germany about how to tackle an increase in sexual assaults.

Wendt told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung daily in an interview published Saturday that establishing such a safe zone sends a "devastating message."
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Sheriff

Street artists file lawsuit claiming sheriff ordered dog in K-9 unit to attack (UPDATE)

David Edwards
Raw Story
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 19:27 UTC
Image
© WPLG
Street artist Humberto Pellegrino recovers after attack by a K-9 unit
Two Florida street artist have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that two Broward Sheriff's Office deputies ordered a dog in the K-9 unit to eat them.

Humberto Pellegrino and Pedro Claveria explained this week that they had snuck into Pompano Beach train yard to paint train cars when a sheriff's helicopter and deputies with assault rifles showed up.

The men admitted that they initially hid under one of the trains, but they said that they quickly tried to surrender, WPLG reported.

"There was a dog and I saw an assault rifle and I was like, 'Oh wow, I think those are the cops,'" Pellegrino recalled. "We complied, we never tried to run, we never ran an inch from where we were at."

The deputies arrest report, however, claimed that the men did not comply with orders to come out from under the train.

Comment: The street artists were awarded $175,000 as a result of the lawsuit:
"There was a dog and I saw an assault rifle and I was like, 'Oh wow, I think those are the cops,'" Pellegrino told local 10 news. "We complied, we never tried to run, we never ran an inch from where we were at," he said.

The officer's lies just cost the taxpayers of Broward County $175,000 as result of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Pellegrino.

"Every time he would latch on to him, they would yank him," the men's attorney, David Brill, said.

As Local 10 reports, Brill said he hoped the settlement would prompt BSO to fire Wengert, who has a long history of excessive force complaints, including a pending federal lawsuit in the beating of another man, Kevin Buckler after Wengert pulled him over for allegedly playing loud music on his radio.

"They just took something from you, you know? I surrendered," Pellegrino said about his incident with the deputies. "They fed me to an animal."
Needless to say, the officer kept his job.



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USA

America in 2017: Almost 100 times more people were killed by police than terrorists

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 31 Dec 2017 21:52 UTC
american police
In the United States, in 2017, according to the government data, eight events took place on American soil that were classified as acts of terrorism. The combined death toll from all eight terroristic acts in 2017 is 12. Twelve people were killed on American soil by other people attempting to make a political statement through an act of violence and yet we are told the threat of terror inside the United States is at an all-time high. Nothing could be further from the truth.

However, there is another number that is particularly worrisome and it has to do with how many people American police have killed this year. As of the publishing of this article, the number of people who've been killed by police in 2017 is 1,184. This is nearly 100 times the number of people killed by terrorists inside the United States this year and yet the government and the media at large remain entirely silent on this violent epidemic.

While the shootings in Nevada and Texas were horrific and some of the deadliest to take place on American soil, they are not technically classified as terrorism as they were not carried out in the name of a political ideology. Even if we include the deaths from these mass shootings, police have still killed far more people than all the mass shooters in 2017 combined.

Our televisions and politicians constantly remind us of this essentially nonexistent terror threat while ignoring the very real threat from law enforcement. The victims of law enforcement are written off by society because their guilt is assumed and therefore they are dehumanized easily dismissed.
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Toys

First baby of 2018 arrives at Queensway Carleton Hospital

Matthew Pearson
Ottawa Citizen
Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:02 UTC
Tia Mirna Rabaa
© Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser / Postmedia
Tia Mirna Rabaa was the first baby born in Ottawa January 1, 2018, to parents Mirna Aloula and her father Anthony Rabaa.
Even though his wife, Mirna Aloula, was nine months' pregnant and had contractions throughout the weekend, Anthony Rabaa didn't expect his fourth child to actually arrive on the Jan. 1 due date.

"We thought it would be a quiet, relaxing New Year's Eve," the 39-year-old said Monday.
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Video

'Wormwood' crime documentary on the death of Frank Olson is an LSD-soaked masterpiece

Matthew Gault
Motherboard
Thu, 28 Dec 2017 11:10 UTC
Wormwood film series
© Netflix
Errol Morris dissects MKUltra, the CIA's mind control experiments - and redefines the true crime genre in the process.

America loves watching true crime documentaries. There are several television channels dedicated to the subject, dozens of podcasts, and hundreds of movies. Most of them tell the story of a violent crime, then unravel its mysteries. There are variations on the theme-authorities catch a killer or don't, the wrong person is accused, or the bad guy gets away-but they all follow a similar pattern.

Then there's the work of director Errol Morris. He wants the audience to understand not just the crime, but the way the crime affected everyone around it, and what the story people tell about the crime says about them.

Wormwood is his new documentary miniseries on Netflix that -on its surface - it's about LSD, the CIA, and the clandestine MKUltra project. From the early 1950s until 1973, the CIA and the Pentagon used torture, hypnosis, and drugs such as LSD to attempt to control the human mind. It didn't work, and the project killed Frank Olson.

Comment: For more background on this story, see:

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No Entry

Rising number of deaths among the homeless perpetuate crisis in Seattle, Washington area

Vernal Coleman
The Seattle Times
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 06:00 UTC
The chapel at Saint Martin de Porres shelter
© Alan Berner/The Seattle Times
The chapel at Saint Martin de Porres shelter in Seattle has symbols memorializing residents of the shelter, volunteers and longtime supporters who have passed away. The shelter is for men age 50 and older, and it is run by Catholic Community Services.
As 2017 comes to a close, Seattle and King County have made significant strides in addressing homelessness. But with 133 deaths of people without permanent homes recorded so far this year, there's still a long way to go.

The toll of the region's homelessness crisis has been building since early in the year.

By April, the list of people who died while homeless or without a verifiable address reached 48. In September, it passed 93, the previous year's total.

By the close of November, the King County medical examiner's list reached 133, surpassing the previous high of 111 from 2006.

The list is a grim indicator of what many people living without shelter and those involved in the region's fight against homelessness both acknowledge: For all the progress made toward the goal of making homelessness "rare, brief and one-time," the reality on the streets remains stubbornly unchanged.
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Attention

Police officer killed, 3 wounded, 'rioter' open fires during rallies in Iran - state media


RT
Mon, 01 Jan 2018 18:56 UTC
Iran protests
© AFP
An image grab taken from a handout video released by Iran's Mehr News agency reportedly shows a group of men pushing traffic barriers in a street in Tehran on December 30, 2017.
One officer was killed and three were wounded in the protests in Iran, Reuters reports, citing state media. It is understood that a "rioter" opened fire on police in Najafabad, although the timing of the shooting is unclear.

"A rioter took advantage of the situation in the city of Najafabad and fired shots at police forces with a hunting rifle," Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi, a police spokesman, told the Iranian state broadcaster as cited by the news agency. He confirmed that one officer was shot dead in the incident and three more sustained injuries.

The shooting has resulted in the first reported casualties among Iranian law enforcement since the beginning of the protests, which have engulfed the Islamic Republic since December 28.

Earlier on Monday, it was reported that the number of civilians killed amid the pro-and anti-government demonstrations has grown to 10. More than 400 people have been arrested in the protests, AFP said.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

The parallel worlds of Gaza and Israel

Stanley L. Cohen
CounterPunch
Fri, 29 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
GAZA
© unknown
History is inexplicable. It has a way of seizing the chosen few to deliver a commanding message that transcends the tapered, often rote, confines of time, place and journey. Like the mystery of magic, defining moments seem to find powerful launch through the flash of a sudden second and echo through the voice of those destined to become iconic well beyond the rhyme of powerful lyric alone. To them, theirs is a journey of the ages. For those fortunate enough to witness such passage it is a transcendent reminder that greatness is measured not through acquired wealth or power but by the prompt of the principle, courage and sacrifice of the few.

Who can forget Faris Odeh, 15 years old when he stared down a tank with little more than a stone in his hand, murdered by Israel in Gaza? Or 23 year old Rachel Corrie, on that mist covered morning, armed with a bullhorn as she faced off against a bulldozer to save a home, murdered by Israel in Gaza.

And now legend has taken 29 year old Ibrahim Abu Thuraya from us. Disabled but not disarmed, he had the boldness to stand his ground clutching his weapon, the flag he loved... murdered by Israel in Gaza.

What is there about a tiny enclave known as Gaza that so offends, so alarms, so intimidates Israel? It would be far too easy to say nothing and simply reduce it to Tel Aviv's voracious chase of its off-shore gas reserves or its potential as a Mediterranean tourist coastline ...once cleansed of its native population and the destruction which bears the marked Star of David.
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Pills

Feds use computer data to combat the opioid epidemic

Sadie Gurman
Yahoo News
Mon, 01 Jan 2018 21:01 UTC
opioid abuse training
© AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
In this Dec. 21, 2017, photo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cessar, shows a report on a program involving opioid abuse in Pittsburgh.
The pain clinic tucked into the corner of a low-slung suburban strip mall was an open secret.

Patients would travel hundreds of miles to see Dr. Andrzej Zielke, eager for what authorities described as a steady flow of prescriptions for the kinds of powerful painkillers that ushered the nation into its worst drug crisis in history.

At least one of Zielke's patients died of an overdose, and prosecutors say others became so dependent on oxycodone and other opioids they would crowd his office, sometimes sleeping in the waiting room. Some peddled their pills near tumble-down storefronts and on blighted street corners in addiction-plagued parts of Allegheny County, where deaths by drug overdose reached record levels last year.

But Robert Cessar, a longtime federal prosecutor, was unaware of Zielke until Justice Department officials handed him a binder of data that, he said, confirmed what pill-seekers from as far away as Ohio and Virginia already knew. The doctor who offered ozone therapy and herbal pain remedies was also prescribing highly addictive narcotics to patients who didn't need them, according to an indictment charging him with conspiracy and unlawfully distributing controlled substances.
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