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PETA mocked over demand for University of Georgia to retire 'miserable' bulldog mascot

georgia bulldog
© USA TODAY Sports / Dale Zanine
The militant animal rights group PETA has called for the retirement of University of Georgia's bulldog mascot, posting a video supposedly showing him looking miserable. The message backfired among the offended Dawgs fans.

"He looks miserable," tweeted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Monday, posting a video of Uga X at a rainy-day football game. Uga was sitting dry in a dog house while people around him endured the wet and cold weather.

"Animals are NOT mascots," PETA said, calling for Uga to be given to a "loving family" and released "immediately." Needless to say, Bulldogs fans were not amused.

"Does... Does PETA think UGA lives at Sanford stadium?" one Twitter user commented, while another pointed out the bulldog was in a "heated and dry dog house with a sweater on while every human around him is soaking wet and freezing."

Che Guevara

Western media excited about 'new Iran revolution', but polls tell a different story about protests

iran protests
© Reuters/WANA/Nazanin Tabatabaee
Data from two foreign polls tell a very different story about protests in Iran. The economy is tough, but a majority of Iranians back their government's security initiatives and reject domestic upheaval.

On November 15, angry Iranians began pouring onto the streets to protest sudden news of a 50% fuel price hike. A day later, peaceful demonstrations had largely dissipated, replaced instead by much smaller crowds of rioters who burned banks, gas stations, buses and other public and private property. Within no time, security forces hit the streets to snuff out the violence and arrest rioters, during which an unconfirmed number of people on both sides died.

Western commentators tried in vain to squeeze some juice out of the short-lived protests. "Iranian protesters strike at the heart of the regime's legitimacy," declared Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution. France 24 asked the question, is this "a new Iranian revolution?" And the LA Times slammed Iran's "brutal crackdown" against its people.

They grasped for a geopolitical angle too: protests in neighboring Lebanon and Iraq that were based almost entirely on popular domestic discontent against corrupt and negligent governments, began to be cast as a regional insurrection against Iranian influence.

Hotdog

Asia is facing a food crisis and needs another $800 billion in the next 10 years to solve it

rice field
© STR | AFP | Getty Images
Villagers plant rice in a field
Asia is "unable to feed itself" — and needs to invest another $800 billion in the next 10 years to produce more food and meet the region's needs, according to a report.

The population in Asia is growing, and consumers are demanding safer, healthier, and more sustainable food.

Food spending will more than double — from $4 trillion in 2019 to over $8 trillion by 2030, said the Asia Food Challenge Report which was released last week.

"If this investment does not materialise, we believe the industry will struggle to keep up with demand, resulting in poorer food outcomes for Asia's population," according to the authors of the report which was compiled by PwC, Rabobank, and Singapore investment firm Temasek.

Bullseye

Roger Waters: Detention of lawyer taking on big oil 'a dark day for American jurisprudence'

chevron
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has blasted a New York court for extending human rights lawyer Steven Donziger's house arrest. Donziger had won a landmark lawsuit against oil firm Chevron, but is accused of fraud and bribery.

Waters has long supported lawyer Steven Donziger in his efforts to prosecute oil giant Chevron for alleged pollution of indigenous land in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. Chevron was slapped with a $9.5 billion penalty by an Ecuadorian judge in 2011, but has since accused Donziger of using bribery, fraud and extortion to sway the Ecuadorian judgment.

Speaking on Tuesday after a Manhattan court extended Donziger's house arrest, the Pink Floyd frontman accused Judge Loretta Preska of being "in the pocket of Chevron." Judge Preska deemed Donziger a flight risk and extended his house arrest, even though his passport had already been confiscated by the government.

Sherlock

Judge on Epstein's case says it's 'unthinkable' he could die in custody 'unnoticed', demands 'full accounting'

Epstein
© Reuters / Jane Rosenberg 781
Jeffrey Epstein looks on near Judge Richard Berman during a bail hearing in his sex trafficking case
The federal judge who presided over Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking case said it was "unthinkable" any detainee, especially one as controversial and high profile as Epstein, could die behind bars without guards taking notice.

Judge Richard Berman expressed shock over the wealthy financier's death - ruled a suicide by medical examiners - and suggested, in a letter to the New York Times, that prison authorities failed in their duty to protect all inmates.
We all agree that it is unthinkable that any detainee ... would die unnoticed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. It is the job of the Bureau of Prisons to ensure the safety and security of federal inmates.
The judge also pointed to unanswered questions about the guards on duty at the time of Epstein's suicide, arguing that a pair of lawsuits filed against them last week will not provide answers.

Handcuffs

Iran arrests 8 people with ties to CIA during unrest - state media

Iranian protesters
© AFP
Iranian protesters gather around a fire during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices
At least eight individuals with ties to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were arrested in Iran during protests over a fuel price hike, the country's official state news agency IRNA reported.

Those detained "had received CIA-funded training in various countries under the cover of becoming citizen-journalists,"Iran's Intelligence Ministry said, as cited by the outlet.

Six were reportedly arrested attending street riots while "carrying out CIA orders," while two others were apprehended as they were trying to "send information abroad."

Handcuffs

Texting-and-driving homicide trial: New Jersey woman found guilty

texting driving
A Monmouth County jury on Friday found a Keansburg woman guilty in New Jersey's first texting-while-driving vehicular homicide trial.

After about two days of deliberations, the jury foreman announced shortly after 4 p.m. that the panel of seven women and five men had found Alexandra Mansonet, 50, guilty of recklessly causing the death of Yuwen Wang, a 39-year-old Hazlet woman.

Wang's widower, Steven Qiu, was seated in the front row of the courtroom. He hung his head when he heard the verdict.

"Absolutely, it brings a lot of comfort to me and my family," Qiu said afterward.

Attention

Anti-LGBT propaganda protesters get permanent school gates ban

protesters Birmingham
© PA
Protesters outside Anderton Park Primary School in Birmingham.
Anti-LGBT equality teaching protests have been permanently banned from outside a primary school which witnessed weeks of noisy demonstrations, a judge has ruled.

The ban, handed down at the High Court in Birmingham on Tuesday, includes an exclusion zone surrounding the city's Anderton Park Primary School.

The legal bid had been opposed by protesters, along with an interim ban first granted at the same court in the summer.

Birmingham City Council was granted an order temporarily banning protesters from outside the school's gates in June, over safety fears about repeated large-scale demonstrations, often involving people with no direct connection to the school.

Comment: Mr. Afsar has further invoked 'white' bias in the ruling:
Concluding his remarks, Mr Afsar drew comparison between the "diverse group of people coming together for one cause" in support of the protesters, and others in court.

Mr Afsar said: "Yet when you look at those representing the council and the court, compare faces and backgrounds.

"The judge is white, the council's barrister is white, the council's legal team is white, the teachers who gave evidence were white, the witnesses who gave evidence for the council were white.

"The councillors who misrepresented their voters were white, the police officers who presented witness statements for the council were white."

He added: "A lack of impartiality is unfair and when unfairness affects justice that in itself is injustice."
Here we see the natural outcome of the diversity paradox.


Biohazard

Mexico bars shipment of glyphosate pesticide

GMO biohazard
The Mexican government says it won't allow a 1,000-ton shipment of the pesticide glyphosate into the country, citing health and environmental concerns.

Mexico became the latest in a string of countries to announce bans on glyphosate, the active ingredient in weed killer Roundup.

Mexico's environment department said Monday it denied a permit to import glyphosate, presumably for agricultural use.

Comment: Good for Mexico!

See also:


Attention

Someone is going around throwing feces on students at Toronto universities UPDATE: Suspect arrested

toronto
© Denis Bolotsky
University is an extremely taxing and unpleasant time for most students, but for a select few at the University of Toronto and York University, things have been extra crappy these past few days — literally.


Unsuspecting students at both schools had feces thrown at them over the weekend in what Toronto police are investigating as separate but potentially related incidents.

Comment:

UPDATE: They got him!
The suspect wanted for throwing feces in Toronto has been arrested
BlogTO
27 November, 2019

toronto poop thrower
The Toronto poop guy wanted for throwing feces at unsuspecting victims on two Toronto university campuses has been arrested by police.

Toronto Police confirmed they arrested a 23-year-old man at around 6 p.m. tonight near Queen and Spadina.


The man was tracked down after police had issued twoseparate photos of a person seen carrying buckets near the scene of the assaults.

The bizarre incidents prompted city-wide consternation about a "serial shit thrower" attacking students with some suggesting they felt "scared about going to school" while the attacker was on the loose.


After the arrest, Mayor John Tory congratulated police and said he hoped it would "calm concern on campuses and across the city."

Samuel Opoku, 23, of Toronto, has been charged with five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and five counts of mischief interfere with property.

Opoku is scheduled to appear in court at 60 Queen St. West on Wednesday, November 27 at 10 a.m.