Society's ChildS


Quenelle - Golden

Activists to protest UK weapons killing Yemeni civilians at 'swanky' London arms banquet

anti-war protest activist
© Stringer / Reuters
Anti-arms trade campaigners will protest outside the glamorous Hilton Hotel on London's lavish Park Lane next week as arms giants and MPs gather for their swanky annual industry dinner.

The demonstration follows similar protests in 2015, when a pregnant activist stormed onto the podium during dinner to give an impassioned speech about the devastating effects of the arms trade.

Safe

Economic chaos and the coming capital controls

capital control
The carnage always comes by surprise, often on an otherwise ordinary Saturday morning...

The government declares a surprise bank holiday. It shuts all the banks. It imposes capital controls to stop citizens from taking their money out of the country. Cash-sniffing dogs, which make drug-sniffing dogs look friendly, show up at airports.

At that point, the government is free to help itself to as much of the country's wealth as it wants. It's an all-you-can-steal buffet.

This story has recently played out in Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, and Iceland. And those are only a few recent examples. It's happened in scores of other countries throughout history. And I think it's inevitable in the U.S.

I believe the U.S. dollar will lose its role as the world's premier reserve currency. When that happens, capital controls are sure to follow.

This is why it's crucial to your financial future to understand what capital controls are, how they are used, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Comment: If all banks are in lockdown within the US, how practical would it be to keep one's money in any bank - even if it is a foreign bank - unless one can just fly out of the country and withdraw their funds? Some other thoughts about retaining the value of one's savings may be found here:

2015, the BRICS checkmate Western finance?


Magnify

After four decades, U.S. returns looted 'Bluebeard' head of Hades to Italy

head of Hades - Bluebeard
© Farnesina/FlickrThe head arrives in Italy.
The head of Hades, Greek God of the Underworld (and the original hipster judging by his beard), finally returned home to Sicily Friday after four decades in the hands of thieves and collectors.

Known as "Bluebeard" due to the pigment of its curly whiskers, the terracotta artifact was stolen from the Italian island in the 1970s before finding its way illegally to Los Angeles' controversial J Paul Getty Museum (aka "the Getty"), named after the oil baron who built it.

The home of the stolen head, which is more than 2,000 years old, was identified when archaeologists discovered fragments of its blue 'facial hair' at an excavation site in Sicily.

A deal was made to return the head from the US in 2013, where it remained in storage until Italian officials could arrange for its homecoming.


This ends one chapter in the Getty's storied history - replete with intrigue, tax fraud, and global art smuggling.

Two men who literally wrote the book about it, titled Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museums, explained how the museum went from a private tax shelter housed in Getty's Malibu home to the "800-pound gorilla of the art world" and the scene of "one of the largest museum tax frauds in American history".

A Getty plan in 1977 to avoid California taxes by displaying six items in Colorado, including a $5 million Greek statue, backfired when authorities found out and levied a $330,000 tax against the owners, according to a UPI story at the time.

Comment: See also: NY Mummy Smugglers Reveal Vast Antiquities Black Market


Bullseye

Eye-witness refutes 'official' story of Oregon FBI killing, 'his hands were up...they fired 120 shots'

Lavoy Finicum
© koin.com
The nearly month-long armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge building in Oregon took a deadly turn Tuesday night as federal and state law enforcement ambushed vehicles en route to a meeting with area residents.

A group of the protesters, including Ammon Bundy, were on U.S. Highway 395 bound for John Day, scheduled to speak at an evening community meeting about the future of the area, when the ambush occurred.

Several hundred people gathered at the John Day Senior Center, waiting in vain for "guest speakers" that would never arrive. The occupiers were invited to the meeting as a set-up by law enforcement, meant to isolate the men in a cell phone dead zone on a road that had been blocked off for 60 miles by law enforcement.

Law enforcement sources have attempted to frame the official narrative as a traffic stop in which Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum and Ryan Bundy attempted to resist arrest, which resulted in Finicum's death. Eyewitness accounts provide a very different accounting of the events that unfolded on the isolated highway.

According to a report in the Oregonian:
Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore said Ammon Bundy called his wife, Lisa Bundy, from the back of a police car on Tuesday night and said Finicum was cooperating with police when he was shot.
According to eyewitness Victoria Sharps, a woman who was in Finicum's truck when it was stopped by law enforcement, there is no question about whether the rancher had his hands in the air or if he was shot unprovoked.


"He was just walking, with his hands in the air, and they shot him dead," Sharps said, adding, "His hands were still up after he was dead."

Finicum was shot at least six times, three times after he fell, she said, in an account posted on Youtube and shared by the Bundy Ranch Facebook page.

Sharps claims that Finicum exited the vehicle after his truck hit a snow bank and became stuck as he attempted to evade law enforcement. Finicum, yelled at law enforcement once out of the vehicle, telling them "just shoot me," which they quickly did, according to Sharp.

Sharp claims that the vehicle was riddled with bullets and estimated Finicum's vehicle was hit with over 120 rounds. She makes the point clearly and concisely that he was unarmed and had his hands in the air when he was killed in the ambush-style attack.

Heart - Black

State Officials in Flint Got Bottled Water 10 Months Before the Public

Bottled water
© Daniel Orth
Adding insult to injury, newly released emails show that while the public was kept in the dark about the poisoning of Flint, Michigan, drinking water, government officials were provided with bottled water for ten months prior to when the scandal broke.

Government e-mails released on Thursday by the group Progress Michigan show that, as far back as January 2015, Flint's State administration building was stocked with purified water specifically because the tap water was known to be toxic.

Lemon

Did the Onion just sell out? Top Killary supporter and Zionist now controls satire outlet

saban
Haim and Killary. Bringing the world into the toilet, together.
Onion staffers may think twice before they produce more stories like Hillary Clinton Tries To Woo Voters By Rescinding Candidacy, Hillary Clinton To Nation: 'Do Not Fuck This Up For Me,' Hillary Clinton: The Merciless, Unrelenting March To The Presidency, or the signed Hillary Clinton editorial titled I'm Weighing Whether Or Not I Want To Go Through The Hell Of Appealing To You Idiotic, Uninformed Oafs.

Many news outlets covered Univision Communications' purchase last week of a stake in The Onion, the world's leading news publication. According to NPR, Univision bought a 40 percent controlling interest in the company, and also acquired the option to buy the remainder of The Onion in the future.

But what's gotten no attention at all is that Haim Saban, Hillary Clinton's biggest fan and financial supporter, is Univision's co-owner, chairman, and CEO. Saban and his wife, Cheryl, are Hillary Clinton's top financial backers, having given $2,046,600 to support her political campaigns and at least $10 million more to the Clinton Foundation, on whose board Cheryl Saban sits. The Sabans are also generous supporters of the overall Democratic Party infrastructure, donating, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a total of $16.1 million since 1989 to Democratic and liberal candidates, party committees, leadership PACs, and federally focused 527s.

Saban badly wants Hillary Clinton to be elected president this year, vowing to provide "as much as needed" to see it happen, since "she would be great for the country and great for the world," and "on issues I care about, [Clinton] is pristine plus."

Comment: "Great for the country and the world"? Absolutely! Why? Because the issues hardcore Killary fans "care" so deeply about are things every decent American can get behind. You know, things like illegal occupation (of Palestine), extrajudicial murder (of Palestinians), Apartheid, genocide, invading and destroying other countries, supporting terrorists, and generally being a force of devious, mendacious, backstabbing, Machiavellian, morally degenerate psychopathy. If these are the kinds of things that make you smile, by all means, vote Hillary!

But seriously, it's a sad day for independent news, and the freedom of the press in general. Whenever anyone anywhere lends their support to a heartless liar and murderer like Killary Clinton, Baby Jesus suffers a depressive episode, an angel has their wings cut off, and more innocent children get murdered in some Middle Eastern country. When it comes to goals like that, Clinton is pristine plus!


Fire

Crane catches fire in NYC, NY

Manhattan crane catches fire
© michaelausiello / Instagram
A crane appears to have caught fire near Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan. Smoke is billowing into the bright, blue sky. The New York Fire Department is on the scene.

The fire is on 40th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

Stormtrooper

The art of disinformation and distraction: How trolls control an internet forum

Trolls
© Tristan Schmurr / Flickr
You may well wonder about the material we have chosen to present below. For one thing, it has been around for a while, though mostly on obscure websites. For another, its authors are unknown. More important, we cannot say how accurate, overall, is the analysis offered in it.

Nonetheless, it is tantalizing — and raises some important issues, no matter its provenance.

The document claims to reveal the techniques — dirty tricks, really — that are practiced by trolls, saboteurs, provocateurs, disinformants, spies and other government operatives, as well as their fellow practitioners of the dark arts.

One thing is certain: we've all experienced the frustration of dealing with this phenomenon. We just don't always recognize it for what it is.

Without even knowing it, you may have witnessed these techniques in action. Perhaps in a political forum that feels somehow manipulated to suppress certain facts and points of view. Or in the deceptive comments that often follow a controversial article. Or in the disruptive behavior at a town hall meeting that seems oddly choreographed. Or at a meeting of activists where the "wrong" people seem to be taking over.

Like toxic mushrooms, the words and actions of these operatives can often look just like the benign stuff. That is why they can so easily poison the well of information.

Comment: It's very likely that the US government has itself engaged in many or all of the above activities in order control the population and direct discussions away from subjects they would prefer remain in the dark. They likely employ many questionable individuals in this pursuit:


Megaphone

Haiti on brink of bloody revolution: 'The people are just fed up'

Protesters in Haiti
© REUTERS/ Jeanty Junior Augustin
Haiti's current government, in an effort to suppress an uprising over alleged voter fraud, may "deploy terror in an effort to break the spirit of the people," international journalist Kim Ives told Radio Sputnik.

Haiti is in the midst of a political crisis, with protesters demanding new elections amid allegations of fraud in the first two rounds of elections held on August 9 and October 25. A third round was scheduled for January 24, but was canceled after tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the capital city of Port au Prince.

Comment: Haiti is in a big mess, no thanks to the US:


Snakes in Suits

Psychopaths have perverted capitalism

capitalism
"An era of corruption is built for those who lead corrupt lives. They revel in the era. They belong. They are home. They don't care what you call the prevailing system, they'll find their way, because they know the unspoken rules and how things actually work. Naïve idealists and academic hair-splitters? The corrupt eat them for breakfast." (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)
The recent acceleration of attacks on capitalism leaves no ground un-scorched. Whatever capitalism is, it's all bad. It needs to be banned. A wiser and saner alternative must be found—and naturally that alternative will be handed down from Above, where wondrous altruists in government can point us toward the Promised Land.

For the sake of humanity, they will assume the reins of power. They'll organize businesses and companies and corporations under the umbrella of government, and all will be well.

Forget the fact that they cooperate and collude and conspire and commit crimes with their erstwhile corporate and banking partners. That's a minor footnote.