Society's ChildS


Snowflake

Understanding the psychology of progressive hostility

sjws protest free speech
A bad sign: intolerance for tolerance
Recently, I arrived at a moment of introspection about a curious aspect of my own behavior. When I disagree with a conservative friend or colleague on some political issue, I have no fear of speaking my mind. I talk, they listen, they respond, I talk some more, and at the end of it we get along just as we always have. But I've discovered that when a progressive friend says something with which I disagree or that I know to be incorrect, I'm hesitant to point it out. This hesitancy is a consequence of the different treatment one tends to receive from those on the Right and Left when expressing a difference of opinion. I am not, as it turns out, the only one who has noticed this.

"That's a stupid fucking question," answered a Socialist Alliance activist when I asked sincerely where they were getting what sounded like inflated poverty statistics. "If you don't believe in gay marriage or gun control, unfriend me," demand multiple Facebook statuses from those I know. "That's gross and racist!" spluttered a red-faced Ben Affleck when the atheist and neuroscientist Sam Harris criticized Islamic doctrines on Bill Maher's Real Time. Nobody blinks an eye when Harris criticizes Christianity, least of all Affleck, who starred in Kevin Smith's irreverent religious satire Dogma. But Christians are not held to be a sacrosanct and protected minority on the political Left. As Skeptic Magazine's Michael Shermer tweeted recently:

Arrow Up

US labor market report: 313,000 jobs added in February

thumbs up Trump
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The U.S. labor market got even hotter in February.

The American economy added 313,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent.

Economists had expected 200,000 additions to nonfarm payrolls, with the unemployment rate falling to 4.0 percent.

Construction jobs expanded by 61,000 new positions. Retails and business services added 50,000 jobs each. Manufacturing had a strong month, adding 31,000 jobs. Finance added 28,000. Healthcare expanded by 19,000 jobs. Mining grew by 9,000 jobs.

Other fields, including hospitality and technology, were unchanged.

Comment: Inflated numbers or a true Trump effect?:


Handcuffs

Charges filed against Asheville cop who beat and tased man for jaywalking

NC police bodycam footage
© Screenshot/Citizen Times
On Thursday, North Carolina's Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams announced that charges were filed against a former Asheville police officer who had repeatedly punched and tased a man accused of jaywalking.

The former officer, Christopher Hickman, was charged with assault by strangulation, assault inflicting serious injury and communicating threats for the August 2017 altercation. Hickman was initially suspected of simple assault.

Following the announcement, the Asheville City Council released a statement noting that the charges would give way to "structural changes" needed to prevent similar events from happening in the future.

"Like you, we are angry. We are angry that a black man walking home from a long day at work was stopped for jaywalking - something most of us do regularly without consequence," the statement reads. "We are angry that Johnnie Rush was attacked, beaten, choked and tased by a white police officer in violation of city policy and common decency."

Star of David

Gideon Levy: 'No society lives in as much denial as Israel' (VIDEO)

gideon levy
Gideon Levy - Ha'aretz journalist under constant attack by racists and Zionists
A week ago Gideon Levy spoke to the Israel lobby conference in Washington. Many people have shared the video of the Haaretz columnist, so I'm providing a transcript below of key passages.

Outside pressure is all that will change Israel. BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) is the only game in town. The Jewish lobby in the U.S. is the most important force in supporting Israel. The shameful Israeli propaganda over the attacks on the Tamimi family, the protesters in Nabi Saleh, shows how desperate Israel is, and maybe that offers hope.

Zionism is a totalitarian ideology that brooks no dissent. Everyone kept saying, Israeli soldiers could change things by talking about the occupation, but when Breaking the Silence came forward it was crushed. "Anyone who raises a question is immediately erased, demolished." And the media play right along with the propagandists.

Arrow Up

Russian-built nuclear power plants see rising demand around the world

Rosatom Russia nuclear plant
Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom expects to sign foreign contracts worth $26 billion this year for the construction and maintenance of nuclear power plants, official data shows.

According to its results for 2017, Rosatom's portfolio of foreign orders for the next decade totals $133.6 billion. The company traditionally calculates its portfolio of orders for a period of 10 years. Head of Rosatom Alexei Likhachev told reporters that the firm hopes to exceed the $130-billion mark.

The Russian company has recently inked agreements on nuclear cooperation with India, Iran, Egypt, China, and a number of other countries. It is bidding to construct 16 nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia.

Comment: On February 27th the head of Rosatom met with Vladimir Putin and shared the company's performance and investment strategies:
Rosatom's investment has increased over the past six years by about 20%, while the share of its funding from the state budget has decreased from 40% to 24%, he told Putin. "The corporation invests its money both in new products and, obviously, in the construction of nuclear power plants," he said.

"We have reached all the main construction targets both in Russia and outside the country for the previous year [and] for the first time in modern Russia, we've conducted two first criticality programmes, including for unit 4 of the Rostov NPP. With your involvement, in January we started increasing its capacity to the nominal output. Everything is on schedule," he said.

"Another first criticality procedure was conducted on unit 1 of Leningrad NPP II. It is very important to note that this will be the second Generation III+ unit in operation in Russia, meeting all the post-Fukushima safety requirements, including both active and passive safety systems.

"It is the second energy unit in Russia of this type. In February 2017, the unit 6 of the Novovoronezh NPP was put into commercial operation - a real breakthrough in global nuclear energy construction," he said.

Thanks to the addition of Novovoronezh 6, Rosatom last year set a record in electricity output by exceeding 200 terawatt hours and reaching 203 TWh, he said. The Soviet record - which included Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian and Lithuanian nuclear power plants - was 212 TWh.

"We are moving quickly towards breaking that record," Likhachov said.

"It is also very important to note that the corporation is developing not only high-capacity facilities but a whole number of small and medium-capacity sources. This year, we are launching our 'first-born', the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant," he said, adding that first criticality procedures are scheduled to take place this year.

All these projects are helping Rosatom "maintain global leadership", he said. "Despite fierce competition, we are building more units abroad than all the other countries put together."
Yet another example of how Russian ingenuity and generosity is helping to build a complex, multi-polar world.


No Entry

Oakland California SJW coffee shop will not serve cops, citing 'physical and emotional safety' concerns

police car lights
© Getty ImagesA California coffee shop refuses to serve police officers.
Hasta Muerte Coffee in Oakland, California, has a controversial policy concerning police officers: The shop won't serve them.

According to KTVU-TV, Hasta Muerte Coffee isn't your average coffee joint. The station described the outfit as "a worker-owned collective with a decidedly anti-establishment bent."

In addition to the apparent mentality of those working there, the station also detailed a mural outside of the cafe that decries "fatal police shootings and law enforcement militarization."

The station reported that it all began when a local police sergeant visited the cafe in order to buy a coffee and introduce himself. The cafe reportedly denied service to the officer.

Comment: These SJWs are really playing with fire, here. Essentially declaring war on the police is never a good decision, no matter how just you think the cause is. See also:

California Bay Area coffee shop won't serve police for 'safety of customers, employees'


Pistol

Illinois House passes bill to confiscate currently legal firearms from gun owners under 21, moves to state Senate

Pistols guns
It happens every time there's talk of gun control laws: The left predictably scoffs at gun owners, calling them paranoid for not trusting the state.

"Nobody wants to confiscate your guns," liberals assure the rest of America. "Stop exaggerating."

Flash forward to Thursday. Lawmakers in Democrat-controlled Illinois have passed a bill to - you guessed it - confiscate currently legal firearms from gun owners. So much for being paranoid.

Comment: See also:


Handcuffs

French Islamic teacher punishes student by beating him and shaving his 'non-Koranic' blonde hair - gets 1 year in prison

shave head
© Getty Images
An Islamic school teacher in France has been sentenced to one year in jail for brutally beating his 12-year-old student and for shaving off the boy's "non-Koranic" hair, which was colored blonde.

The teacher, along with three other men, was convicted of kidnapping and violence against a minor by the Pontoise criminal court on Friday, French media report. The shocking incident occurred last April, when the boy showed up at his Arabic class at the Sablon mosque, in the municipality of Sarcelles, north off Paris.

The teacher apparently did not favor the new hairstyle sported by the student, saying his blonde fringe went against "Koranic rules." As a "punishment," he decided to shave off his pupil's tinted hair in the middle of class.

In revenge, the boy later pelted the offender's house with eggs only to run into more trouble. The teacher called the boy's stepfather and got permission to teach him "a good lesson," with the condition that it wouldn't leave marks on his body.

Attention

Immigration related crime increases 61% in one German region

Migrants in Germany
© Jesus Fernandez / Shutterstock.com
A study in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, showed that migrant crime has greatly increased in the region. The number of migrant suspects in the state more than doubled in three years, German newspaper Die Welt reports.

The study of the Niedersachsen Criminal Institute, shows that between 2013 and 2016 the number of migrants suspected of criminal offenses have more than doubled to 30,796.

While almost half of the cases involved immigration related offenses, there is a large increase in other offenses as well. Without these kinds of violations, the increase of migrant suspects is still 61 per cent.


Comment: As the number of migrants increases - and during that time period it has exploded - and as Germany's ability to cope decreases, it seems likely that "immigration related offenses" would increase. And according to one German government survey, crime committed by migrants was more likely to be reported. Surely there has been a rise in crime, but again according to that one report, the crimes were usually committed by migrants either against other migrants or refugees.


Comment: The effects of uncontrolled mass migration due to the West's illegal wars and their descent into a post-modernist hell is a ticking time bomb: Also be sure to check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis


Attention

While the Media Across the World Look Away, Civilians in Afrin Are Being Slaughtered

Civilians in Afrin
© Rojava
On a green hillside in Afrin in northern Syria, Arab militiamen allied to the Turkish army which invaded this Kurdish enclave seven weeks ago have captured a group of terrified looking Kurdish civilians. The unformed and heavily armed militiamen are shouting "pigs", "pimp" and "PKK - Kurdistan Workers Party - pigs" all the while chanting "Allah Akbar (God Is Great)". The Kurds, their hands raised in the air, are led away by the militiamen and their fate is unknown.

There are many such videos and still photographs from Afrin taken by Kurds and members of the Turkish forces showing the shelling and bombing of houses, the mangled bodies of children killed by the explosions and others of Kurdish civilians being herded away. One horrific selfie taken by a militiamen shows him staring at the camera while over his left shoulder is a burned out civilian car in which sits the corpse of the driver, his white teeth thrown into relief because the rest of his body is burned black.

If any of these images were coming out of Eastern Ghouta, they would be leading every television newscast and dominating the front pages. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, would be holding up pictures of dead and dying children. But because these events are happening in Afrin and not in Eastern Ghouta, in the same country but 200 miles apart, they are almost entirely ignored by both media and foreign politicians.

Afrin is seeing the beginnings of a tragedy that could be every bit as bad or worse than anything witnessed in Eastern Ghouta today or East Aleppo in 2016. Coming upon pictures of children buried under broken concrete, one has to search for additional information to know if the deaths are of Kurds killed by the Turkish bombardment in northern Syria, or people in Eastern Ghouta slaughtered by the Syrian government at the same time in much the same way. The greatest difference between the two situations is that the atrocities in Damascus are publicised by the media across the world, while in the Kurdish case they are regarded as scarcely worth a mention.