Society's ChildS


Cut

Internet outage hits several African countries as multiple major undersea cables 'fail'

ship laying subsea cable
© SSEN/PAFILE: A ship laying subsea cable off the coast of Caithness in Scotland in July.
A dozen countries across Africa suffered a major internet outage on Thursday, March 14, as multiple undersea telecommunication cables reported failures, network operators and internet watch groups said. The cause of the failure was not immediately clear.

The MTN Group, one of Africa's largest network providers, said the ongoing disruptions were a result of failures in multiple major undersea cables. "Our operations are actively working to reroute traffic through alternative network paths," the South African company said in a statement.

Network disruptions caused by cable damage have occurred in Africa in recent years. However, "today's disruption points to something larger (and) this is amongst the most severe," said Isik Mater, director of research at NetBlocks, a group that documents internet disruptions around the world. NetBlocks said data transmission and measurement shows a major disruption to international transits, "likely at or near the subsea network cable landing points."

Comment: See also:


Black Magic

Ex-Nickelodeon coach who sexually abused child star kept signed painting of serial killer Gacy at home

John Wayne Gacy
© Bureau of Prisons/Getty; Steve Eichner/WireImageJohn Wayne Gacy, left, and a self-portrait.
Brian Peck, the former dialogue coach who pleaded no contest to sexually abusing former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell, had a signed self-portrait painting of infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy that he flaunted in front of another child star.

The revelation surfaced in an upcoming ID docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, premiering March 17. The show uncovers the price many former child actors say they paid while working long hours in an emotionally manipulative and sometimes sexually charged environment.

In an exclusive clip shared with PEOPLE, former All That cast member Kyle Sullivan, then 14, talks about seeing the inside of Peck's home, which included a shrine to Planet of the Apes and — most notably — a painting of a clown holding balloons, which seemingly had nothing to do with the famous sci-fi franchise.

Comment: There's every reason to suppose that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the criminals and perverts in the US media industry. Although, in recent years, more people than ever are now coming forward to expose just how Hollywood itself is riddled with, if not inextricably linked, to sexual predators: Music producer latest to accuse Sean 'Diddy' Combs of sexual misconduct in federal lawsuit


Gold Seal

Basketball legend John Stockton and censured doctors sue Washington Medical Commission over suppression of free speech on Covid

John stockton
Children's Health Defense, basketball hall-of-famer John Stockton and physicians targeted by the Washington Medical Commission on March 7 sued the commission for allegedly violating doctors' First Amendment right to criticize the "mainstream COVID narrative" and denying the public the right to hear such criticism.

Basketball legend John Stockton and Children's Health Defense (CHD) are among the plaintiffs suing the Washington Medical Commission, alleging it violated doctors' First Amendment right to criticize the "mainstream COVID narrative" and denied the public the right to hear such criticism.

Stockton v. Ferguson, filed March 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, seeks "to protect the right of physicians to speak, and the right of the public to hear their message."

Stockton, a basketball hall-of-famer and Olympic gold medalist, also co-hosts the "Voices for Medical Freedom Podcast." According to the lawsuit, Stockton joined the lawsuit to advocate in favor of the public's right to access "soapbox speech."

Comment: Listen to Dr. Pierre Kory discuss his own being fired from 3 positions as he attempted to treat patients for vaccine injury:




Airplane

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett warned family friend 'It's not suicide' before death

John Barnett boeing whistleblower found dead not suicide
© CopyrightJohn Barnett. Barnett was found dead while in the middle of a legal case with Boeing regarding his time in employment with the aircraft manufacturer.
John Barnett, the 62-year-old Boeing whistleblower discovered dead with a gunshot wound in South Carolina Saturday, had previously told a family friend not to believe what authorities would say if he was found dead, according to local network ABC News 4.

The Context

Police are investigating after Barnett was discovered in a hotel car park in Charleston with a single gunshot wound to the head, along with what officers described as a "silver handgun" and a "white piece of paper that closely resembled a note." A coroner's report said he died from a "self-inflicted" wound, though the Charleston Police Department is still making inquiries.

After retiring in 2019 Barnett accused Boeing, his employee of 32 years, of cutting corners and using sub-standard parts to build planes. He claimed to have reported this to management and been ignored, though Boeing has denied this.

Comment:


Binoculars

Florida gov DeSantis sending soldiers, aircraft to protect Florida from illegal immigrant boats amid Haiti unrest

florida coast guard illegal immigrants
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesA U.S. Coast Guard boat pulls up next to a sailboat containing approximately 150 migrants on July 21, 2022, in Islandia, Florida.
Haiti is engulfed in what some experts have called a low-scale civil war

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday that he is sending over 250 additional soldiers and officers, as well as aircraft and boats, to "protect" the state from vessels carrying illegal immigrants from Haiti - as gang violence has brought additional turmoil to the Caribbean nation.

The development comes amid ongoing unrest in Haiti, where the country's powerful gangs have burned police stations, attacked the main airport and raided two of the country's biggest prisons in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced Tuesday that he will resign once a traditional presidential council is created, bowing to international pressure to do so.

Comment:


NPC

Memes are shaping elections and no one is immune from them

web memes
Moments after more than 100 million Americans finished watching the Super Bowl, a post on President Joe Biden's personal X account showed an image of him smiling, while his eyes emanated red beams. The Feb. 11 post read, "Just like we drew it up."

For the uninitiated, the message seems confusing at best and scary at worst. But the picture wasn't for them. It was designed for the online supporters and detractors of President Biden, who are already well aware of the so-called Dark Brandon meme.

Dark Brandon is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of political memes that are subtly shaping the thoughts and perceptions of millions of voters in 2024.

In practice, an internet meme is any image, phrase, video, or other electronic material that people enjoy replicating, sharing, or reinterpreting to share with others.

No Entry

A low-trust society is an impoverished society

congress
The sole remaining reservoirs of trust in American life are personal networks, local enterprises and local institutions.

It's not exactly news that social trust has declined significantly in the United States. Surveys find that public trust in institutions and the professional classes that dominate those institutions has cratered. (see chart below) Social trust--our confidence that other people are trustworthy--has also fallen to multi-decade lows.

This was not the case in decades past. Americans maintained high levels of trust in their institutions, government and fellow citizens. The decline in social trust is across the entire spectrum: our trust in institutions, professional elites and our fellow Americans has declined precipitously.

The causes of this decay of social trust can be debated endlessly, but several factors are obvious:

Chess

Portugal sees shift to the right in general election

luispedro
© eco.sapo.pt.jpgLuis Montenegro • Pedro Nuno Santos
Portugal's centre-right Democratic Alliance Party has claimed victory by a slim margin in the country's general election, concluding eight years of Socialist Party rule.

The Democratic Alliance coalition's success in the snap election on Sunday saw its leader
Luis Montenegro, declare: "The Portuguese people have spoken. They want a different government, different policies, renewed parties and dialogue among their leaders...And that's what we are prepared to offer."
The electoral platform is made up of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) along with two smaller conservative parties, narrowly finishing first and defeating its socialist rivals in the election.

The election, in which no party secured a majority of seats in Parliament, saw both main parties - PSD and the Socialist Party (PS) polling roughly 29% of the vote. However, it was the right-wing Chega party which saw the biggest surge, securing 18 per cent of the vote, and 48 seats in the 230-seat parliament just five years after it entered Portuguese politics. It makes it the country's third largest political force. The result quadruples its seat count, from 12 to 48.

Target

6,000 foreign mercenaries killed in Ukraine, report published by Russia's Defense Ministry shows

foreign mercenary
© AP Photo / Bernat ArmangueA foreign mercenary takes part in a mission in Kharkov region, Ukraine.
Russia's Defense Ministry issued a report Thursday which said its forces have killed nearly 6,000 foreign mercenaries and volunteers fighting on behalf of Ukraine since the war began over two years ago.

The report claimed that in total 13,387 "foreign mercenaries" from multiple dozens of countries have fought in Ukraine, and offered a remarkably specific breakdown of nationalities. International press outlets underscored that it was impossible to independently verify the claims.

Comment: See also: NATO Troops MIGHT Deploy to Ukraine? They're Already There, And Getting Killed


USA

Consequences Minus Truth

"People crave trust in others, because God is found there." — Dom de Bailleul
Shameful Lady
© The Elephant
The rewards of civilization have come to seem rather trashy in these bleak days of late empire; so, why even bother pretending to be civilized? This appears to be the ethos driving our politics and culture now. But driving us where? Why, to a spectacular sort of crack-up, and at warp speed, compared to the more leisurely breakdown of past societies that arrived at a similar inflection point where Murphy's Law replaced the rule of law.

The US Military Academy at West point decided to "upgrade" its mission statement this week by deleting the phrase Duty, Honor, Country that summarized its essential moral orientation. They replaced it with an oblique reference to "Army Values," without spelling out what these values are, exactly, which could range from "embrace the suck" to "charlie foxtrot" to "FUBAR" — all neatly applicable to our country's current state of perplexity and dread.

Are you feeling more confident that the US military can competently defend our country? Probably more like the opposite, because the manipulation of language is being used deliberately to turn our country inside-out and upside-down. At this point we probably could not successfully pacify a Caribbean island if we had to, and you've got to wonder what might happen if we have to contend with countless hostile subversive cadres who have slipped across the border with the estimated nine-million others ushered in by the government's welcome wagon.

Momentous events await. This Monday, the Supreme Court will entertain oral arguments on the case Missouri, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., et al. The integrity of the First Amendment hinges on the decision. Do we have freedom of speech as set forth in the Constitution? Or is it conditional on how government officials feel about some set of circumstances? At issue specifically is the government's conduct in coercing social media companies to censor opinion in order to suppress so-called "vaccine hesitancy" and to manipulate public debate in the 2020 election. Government lawyers have argued that they were merely "communicating" with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others about "public health disinformation and election conspiracies."