Society's Child

War propaganda outlet The Guardian needs to retract its bogus claims of real people being 'automated Russian bots'

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Mon, 23 Apr 2018 15:47 UTC

On the 19th of April, The Guardian published an article making the positive assertion that two Twitter accounts were run not by real people, but by automated bot software based in Russia. Since the article was published, the owners of both accounts have stepped forward, on video, demonstrating in no uncertain terms that they are in fact real human beings and not software programs.

As of this writing, days later, there has been neither retraction nor correction of the false claims made by The Guardian, and the article remains as published.

The article's author, Heather Stewart, makes the following claim:

"One bot, @Ian56789, was sending 100 posts a day during a 12-day period from 7 April, and reached 23 million users, before the account was suspended. It focused on claims that the chemical weapons attack on Douma had been falsified, using the hashtag #falseflag. Another, @Partisangirl, reached 61 million users with 2,300 posts over the same 12-day period."

Stewart explicitly asserts that the Twitter account @Ian56789 is a bot. That account's owner appeared for an interview on Sky News, completely disproving this assertion. Stewart also names the Twitter account @Partisangirl as a bot account. The account's owner, Maram Susli, is a well-known Syrian-Australian activist with many publicly available videos and a Wikipedia page.

After brief peace in Baltimore, violent crime once again erupts, with 29 killings in past three weeks

Tim Prudente and Jessica Anderson
The Baltimore Sun
Mon, 23 Apr 2018 05:00 UTC

For a while, there was reason to hope.

Twelve days without a killing in February. Declining street violence in March. Optimism around a new police commissioner. After a three-year spike in violent crime, a long and bloody siege that brought Baltimore international attention, the city seemed finally to be heading toward peace.

Then came April. Someone executed a mother and daughter inside their house. Stray gunfire killed a 65-year-old woman on her porch. A wanton shooter wounded a 69-year-old man outside his home.

Comment: Perhaps the unbelievable level of corruption within the police force in Baltimore could be part of the problem.

See also:

Boy clinging to his dead father won't become face of Yemen war for millions of Westerners (GRAPHIC)

Alexandre Antonov
RT
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 15:39 UTC

A harrowing image taken after the Saudi-led bombing of a wedding party in Yemen last Sunday showed a young boy clinging to his dead father's body. But it's a safe bet he won't become the face of the war in the mainstream media.

Photos and footage were taken after the bombing, which happened in a remote village in the northwestern province of Hajjah. Appearing to be aged seven or eight, the boy tightly grasps the body of a man, grabbing his shirt and repeating "no, no, no" as rescuers try to take him away. People on the ground told Ruptly the boy insisted his killed father was just sleeping, and would soon wake up and take him to their home village not far from the one that was bombed.

He most probably remained there for hours, judging by how some of the images were taken at night and some in the morning. A Ruptly cameraman said the father's body was the last one to be removed from the scene, and the boy stayed with it until the very end.

Comment: What a disgrace that the West has such double standards. They pretend to care about the well-being of Arabic children, but if those children are exterminated in Yemen then it is not on their radar.

Keep dreaming, dreamers: DACA students will have to pay out-of-state tuition fees at Arizona colleges

Parija Kavilanz
Click 2 Houston
Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:31 UTC

Vasthy Lamadrid, a DACA-status student at Arizona State is pursuing her teaching certification.

Gilbert Olmos should be excited that he's wrapping up his freshman year at South Mountain Community College and getting one step closer to his dream of becoming a registered nurse.

But instead he's terrified his college education -- and his dream -- will come to an abrupt end.

Earlier this month, Arizona's Supreme Court ruled that students who have gained legal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program can no longer receive breaks on tuition from the state's colleges and universities. This means costs could almost triple for thousands of DACA status students in Arizona.

Comment: Arizona Supreme Court's decision: Dreamers have to pay out-of-state tuition rates

DACA has enabled nearly 689,000 young immigrants who were brought into the country as children to come out from the shadows and openly attend school and obtain work permits and driver's licenses without the fear of being deported.

With his DACA status, Olmos qualified for in-state tuition. But just days after the ruling, he received an email from his school saying his tuition rate might change. In-state tuition is $86 per credit hour at Maricopa Community Colleges. Out-of-state it's $327 per credit hour. For Olmos, this means his cost per semester will jump from a little more than $1,000 a semester to the out-of-state rate of more than $5,000.

Comment: Life involves struggle. If they're industrious enough, they'll find a way.

UK police refuse to investigate attack on 12yo because not cost effective, crime is "through the roof"

Virginia Hale
Breitbart
Mon, 23 Apr 2018 15:38 UTC

A mother said she has filed a formal complaint to police after they refused to investigate a vicious alleged attack on her 12-year-old daughter stating it would not be "cost effective" and that "crime has gone through the roof".

Victoria Woods said her daughter Isabelle was punched, kicked, and thrown down a hill in Wildmoore Avenue Park, Oldham, on Wednesday in an unprovoked attack after she was set on by a group of around 15 youths - none of whom she knew, Manchester Evening News reported.

Recalling how her daughter was "in floods of tears" after the attack, which left her with bruising, deep scratches, and "caked in mud", Ms. Woods described the response from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) over the incident as "diabolical".

A day after reporting the assault she received a telephone call from a female officer who explained that police would not be taking the case any further "because it wasn't a major crime and it was 'just kids fighting', in her words," Ms. Woods said.

"She said the inspector had decided it was not 'cost effective' to investigate it in terms of the cost and manpower hours.

"I made it very clear I wasn't impressed and I didn't think it was an adequate response," she said, noting: "It's not just girls fighting. There was a group of 15, one attacked her and one was videoing it.

"It was not a situation she could defend herself in. My daughter is terrified of going out."

Top Putin aide: 'After four centuries of trying, Russia has given up on becoming Western'

RFE/RL
Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:06 UTC

A veteran adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia has abandoned its centuries-long hopes of integrating with the West and is bracing for a new era of geopolitical isolation.

In an article for Russia In Global Affairs magazine released on April 9 and titled 'The Solitude Of A Half-Blood', Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov wrote that "Russia's epic journey toward the West" is over, marking an end to its "repeated fruitless attempts to become a part of Western civilization" over four centuries.

Relations between Moscow and the West are at lows not seen since the Cold War, severely strained by issues including Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, its role in Syria's seven-year conflict, and the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain last month.

Comment: All done to Russia rather than by it, of course, but the salient point here is that Russia-West relations are actually worse than even the Cold war, which makes them 'worst ever'.

Surkov, 53, a longtime Putin aide who served as his top domestic-policy strategist for many years and currently works as the presidential adviser on Ukraine, wrote that the 2014 split with the West over Ukraine marked the beginning of a new era in which Russia faces "100 years (200? 300?) of geopolitical solitude."

Second Palestinian journalist dies after being shot by an IDF sniper while covering the 'March of Return'

RT
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 14:55 UTC

A second Palestinian journalist has died after being shot by an Israeli sniper while covering the 'March of Return.' Ahmed Abou Hussein succumbed to his injuries Wednesday after being shot on April 13.

The photojournalist, 25, was reportedly hit in the stomach during the third week of the protest. Israel's 1-24 News, citing the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, reported that he was one of a number of journalists wounded that week. Hussein's death was confirmed by the Gaza Health Ministry on social media.

Conservative Parkland student, Kyle Kashuv, questioned by school security after visiting gun range with his father

Conservative Fighters
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 15:16 UTC

On Friday, Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv went to the gun range to learn to fire a gun for the first time, alongside his father. He tweeted this:

Spiritual 'guru' in India jailed for life for raping teenage girl who sought help at his ashram

The Globe and Mail
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 15:20 UTC

© GETTY IMAGES
In this file photo taken on October 14, 2013, Indian spiritual guru Asaram Bapu is escorted by Gujarat state police in Jodhpur

An Indian court jailed a self-styled religious preacher for life on Wednesday for raping a teenage girl, the latest sexual abuse case against a so-called "godman."

The case highlights the Indian heartland's fascination with spiritual gurus, who wield immense influence for their ability to mobilize millions of adherents, amass untaxed funds and find favor with politicians.

A judge delivered the guilty verdict at a jail in the city of Jodhpur, in the western state of Rajasthan, where Asumal Harpalani, commonly known as Asaram Bapu, has been held since September 2013.

The 77-year-old, who has more than 400 ashrams around the world according to his website, had been denied bail a dozen times.

Count Dankula: Vlogger crowdfunds £85K to appeal Nazi pug case, says he 'can't allow' anyone the same ordeal

RT
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 14:47 UTC

A YouTube comedian who was fined £800 after teaching a pug to do a Nazi salutes while he made anti-Semitic comments has racked up over £85,000 on a crowdfunding page he set up to reverse the precedent set by his conviction.

Mark Meechan - also known as Count Dankula - was fined at a Scottish court on Monday after he posted a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube of the dog responding to phrases such as "gas the Jews." He is now calling on people to fund his defense as he fears his conviction could set a precedent for courts to convict without considering relevant context.

Meechan claims the court only managed to deliver a guilty sentence after they "willingly ignored" the context of the video, which he said had twice been stated.

"This conviction will be used as an example to convict other people over the things they say and the jokes they make, it sets a standard where courts will be able to willfully ignore the context and intent of a person's words and actions in order to punish them and brand them as criminals," Meechan wrote on his GoFundMe page.

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Society's Child

War propaganda outlet The Guardian needs to retract its bogus claims of real people being 'automated Russian bots'

After brief peace in Baltimore, violent crime once again erupts, with 29 killings in past three weeks

Boy clinging to his dead father won't become face of Yemen war for millions of Westerners (GRAPHIC)

Keep dreaming, dreamers: DACA students will have to pay out-of-state tuition fees at Arizona colleges

UK police refuse to investigate attack on 12yo because not cost effective, crime is "through the roof"

Top Putin aide: 'After four centuries of trying, Russia has given up on becoming Western'

Second Palestinian journalist dies after being shot by an IDF sniper while covering the 'March of Return'

Conservative Parkland student, Kyle Kashuv, questioned by school security after visiting gun range with his father

Spiritual 'guru' in India jailed for life for raping teenage girl who sought help at his ashram

Count Dankula: Vlogger crowdfunds £85K to appeal Nazi pug case, says he 'can't allow' anyone the same ordeal

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