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France's 'Yellow Vest' protesters block Total's fuel depots to protest high gas prices

oil depot protest
© AFP / Xavier Leoty
The 'Yellow Vests' block an oil depot at La Rochelle.
A number of Total's fuel depots were blockaded by 'yellow vest' protesters, angry over skyrocketing gasoline prices in France, as massive demonstrations continue to rage across the country.

Protesters have blocked access to three fuel depots, a spokesman for the company told Reuters on Monday. Two facilities, one near the northwest city of Rennes, and the other in Fos-sur-Mer in the south, are operated by Total, the spokesman said.

The third depot blocked by the demonstrators is partially owned but not run by the corporation and is located in La Rochelle.

Comment: See also: Protests over fuel prices threaten to bring France to a standstill


Sheriff

Female officer accuses Nashville PD of vengeance after she reports discrimination & rape by colleague

downtown Nashville
© Wikipedia / Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
A female officer who became a pariah among Nashville police has sued the force and her commander for allegedly retaliating against her after she alleged a rape by a colleague, as well as racial and gender-based discrimination.

Monica Blake, an African-American officer 14 years on the job, has been at odds with her department for a while and her lawsuit includes a long list of grievances, from being treated differently than male colleagues to free speech suppression and retaliation for reporting a rape in 2016.


Horse

Stormy Daniels: Politics and Donald Trump have 'completely destroyed' my career

stormy daniels
© Tara Ziemba/Getty Images
Stormy Daniels attends a fan meet and greet on May 23, 2018 in West Hollywood, California.
The Donald Trump sex scandal has "completely destroyed" Stormy Daniels' writing and directing career, the adult film actress told members of the Oxford Union debating society Thursday evening.

The political "shitshow" of the last ten months left her with no capacity to write movies - her favorite part of working in porn - she said during an event entitled "Sex, Guns and Other Fluff: How Porn Can Set You Free."

Comment: Poor Stormy. You'd think anyone would have the sense to realize that she brought it all on herself. It's also not really clear how this scandal could have a negative impact on her career. She went from being an obscure niche star to a household name in about a month. What happened to 'all publicity is good publicity'?

See also:


Attention

MEXICANS protest 'migrant invasion' as Tijuana riot police face off with protesters against caravan

police migrant caravan riot protesters
© Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Tijuana residents have staged a rally against migrants gathering in the Mexican border city in hopes of crossing to the US. Donald Trump supported their outrage, saying even his country is ill-prepared to survive such an invasion.

Anti-migrant sentiment is running high in Tijuana, as hundreds of locals shouting "no to the invasion" and "Mexico First" staged a protest rally on Sunday. Starting at a major traffic roundabout they marched north toward a makeshift shelter which now hosts thousands of migrants. The protesters carried placards reading "enough of uncontrolled migration" and "migrants yes, invaders no."

Comment: Trump has new allies: MEXICANS!


Sheriff

Police dog killed in the line of duty given bagpipe funeral

K9 dog officer Axe
© St. Clair Shores Police Department
Fallen K9 officer Axe.
A police officer's dog killed in the line of duty in Detroit has been hailed as a "hero" by the local mayor and given a full church memorial service, complete with traditional bagpipes.

K9 officer Axe of the St. Clair Shores Police Department was killed in an incident outside a baby shower in the city, which saw cops shoot dead a man identified as Theoddeus Gray.

An investigation into the deaths is currently underway and full details of the incident have yet to be released, according to the Detroit Free Press. However, the police dog killed in the exchange, which police say involved the deceased man brandishing a weapon and taking aim at Axe, has been honored with a full police funeral by colleagues.

Quenelle

Social media joins Pam Anderson in slamming 'smutty' Australia PM for abandoning Assange

Pamela Anderson
© AP Photo / Paul A. Hebert/Invision
Appearing on a radio program, the Australian prime minister publicly chuckled at the Baywatch icon's proposal, claiming in response that he has a number of "envoys" close at hand who would eagerly deal with the Pamela issue.

Blonde and Blonder star Pamela Anderson has expressed her indignation over the Australia's reluctance to bring Julian Assange home in an open letter to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, calling him "smutty" and "lewd." Writing on the US website The Daily Beast, the Baywatch star took a dig at Morrison over his response to her calls to assist in freeing the WikiLeaks founder.

"You trivialised and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family. You followed it with smutty, unnecessary comments about a woman voicing her political opinion," Anderson wrote, stressing that everyone deserves "better from our leaders, especially in the current environment."

Comment: Also see:


Hearts

Amanda Knox gets engaged to longtime boyfriend

Amanda Knox
© Instagram
Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox, whose legal drama gripped the world after she was accused of murder in Italy, is engaged to her longtime boyfriend.

Knox and her now fiance, Christopher Robinson, have dated for three years and announced their engagement in a video posted on social media Friday.The proposal happened at their home in Seattle, and featured an alien theme. It starts with Knox going outside after she hears weird noises and finding what looks like a meteorite with blue light glowing in the backyard.

As Knox laughs nervously and asks what's happening, she finds a tablet with an overview of their love story. "I had been thinking about this, but it's already happened in the future," Robinson says in the video. "It's happening now. I don't have a ring, but I do have a big rock. Will you stay with me until the last star in the last galaxy burns out and even after that? Amanda Marie Knox, will you marry me?"

Comment: Also see: Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and the nightmare of Italian justice


Jet3

WWII-era fighter plane crashes during re-enactment show in Texas

plane crash texas
A vintage fighter plane that saw action during WWII and the Korean War crashed into a parking lot during a re-enactment show in Texas. Two people died in the incident.

The P-51 Mustang went down on Saturday in Fredericksburg, Texas, during the WWII Pacific Combat Program event organized by the National Museum of the Pacific War. The museum later confirmed on Twitter that both passengers on the plane, one of which was a military veteran, had been killed.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the vintage airplane was completely destroyed and several automobiles were also damaged. The names of the victims have been withheld, and it is also unclear what may have caused the crash.

Comment: The number of aircraft accidents of all kinds appears to be on the rise: And check out SOTTs exclusive report from 2015 documenting the phenomenon: Mayhem and Maydays in May skies: Aircraft crashes, accidents, glitches, mishaps and near misses


Megaphone

Eugenics anyone? Human rights groups call on Canadian government to end coerced sterilization of indigenous women

forced sterilization
© Jemal Countess/Getty Images
The issue of forced sterilization of vulnerable people, including indigenous women, is a very serious violation of human rights,’ said Jane Philpott, minister of indigenous services
Human rights groups are calling on Canada to end the coerced sterilization of indigenous women, as a growing number of victims seek to join a class action lawsuit against government and medical professionals.

At least 60 women have joined a pending class action lawsuit against doctors and health officials in the province of Saskatchewan, seeking compensation for the violation of their rights.

The lawsuit has yet to be certified by a judge, but this week Amnesty International announced it will lobby the UN committee against torture to increase pressure on the Canadian government to act.

"Ultimately, this is about women who are supposed to have the right to make decisions about their bodies, having that right taken away from them," said Amnesty's Jacqueline Hansen.

Comment: From Wikipedia:
Eugenics (/juːˈdʒɛnɪks/; from Greek εὐγενής eugenes 'well-born' from εὖ eu, 'good, well' and γένος genos, 'race, stock, kin')[2][3] is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population.[4][5] The exact definition of eugenics has been a matter of debate since the term was coined by Francis Galton in 1883. The concept predates this coinage, with Plato suggesting applying the principles of selective breeding to humans around 400 BCE.

Frederick Osborn's 1937 journal article "Development of a Eugenic Philosophy"[6] framed it as a social philosophy-that is, a philosophy with implications for social order. That definition is not universally accepted. Osborn advocated for higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desired traits (positive eugenics), or reduced rates of sexual reproduction and sterilization of people with less-desired or undesired traits (negative eugenics).

Alternatively, gene selection rather than "people selection" has recently been made possible through advances in genome editing,[7] leading to what is sometimes called new eugenics, also known as neo-eugenics, consumer eugenics, or liberal eugenics.

While eugenic principles have been practiced as far back in world history as ancient Greece, the modern history of eugenics began in the early 20th century when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom[8] and spread to many countries including the United States,Canada[9] and most European countries. In this period, eugenic ideas were espoused across the political spectrum. Consequently, many countries adopted eugenic policies with the intent to improve the quality of their populations' genetic stock. Such programs included both "positive" measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly "fit" to reproduce, and "negative" measures such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilization of people deemed unfit for reproduction. People deemed unfit to reproduce often included people with mental or physical disabilities, people who scored in the low ranges of different IQ tests, criminals and deviants, and members of disfavored minority groups. The eugenics movement became negatively associated with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust when many of the defendants at the Nuremberg trials attempted to justify their human rights abuses by claiming there was little difference between the Nazi eugenics programs and the U.S. eugenics programs.[10]In the decades following World War II, with the institution of human rights, many countries gradually began to abandon eugenics policies, although some Western countries, among them the United States and Sweden, continued to carry out forced sterilizations.

Since the 1980s and 1990s, when new assisted reproductive technology procedures became available such as gestational surrogacy (available since 1985),preimplantation genetic diagnosis (available since 1989), and cytoplasmic transfer (first performed in 1996), fear has emerged about a possible revival of eugenics.

A major criticism of eugenics policies is that, regardless of whether "negative" or "positive" policies are used, they are susceptible to abuse because the criteria of selection are determined by whichever group is in political power at the time. Furthermore, negative eugenics in particular is considered by many to be a violation of basic human rights, which include the right to reproduction. Another criticism is that eugenic policies eventually lead to a loss of genetic diversity, resulting in inbreeding depression due to lower genetic variation.



Hammer

Mourning Stan Lee fans incensed after Bill Maher claims Trump could only get elected in comic book-loving country

Comedian Bill Maher (left), Stan Lee (right)
© Reuters / Lucas Jackson / Mario Anzuoni
Comedian Bill Maher (left), Stan Lee (right)
While many are still reeling after Stan Lee's death earlier this week, HBO host Bill Maher lashed out at his legacy, claiming that comics don't make Americans smart enough for adult life - and maybe that's why they elected Trump.

HBO's Real Time host turned legions of comic-book fans against him with his comments last Saturday - days after the legendary Marvel creator died at the age of 95. Ironically, Maher took part in the Stan Lee-produced 'Iron Man 3.'