Society's Child

Breaking the silence: 'Drunk on power, tedious boredom', Israeli ex-soldiers depict what they saw or perpetrated

Oliver Holmes
The Guardian
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:12 UTC

For many Israeli soldiers, it is the mundane, day-to-day memories of their time in the military that continue to jolt them in post-army life. Regular house searches, arrest and hours at checkpoints fill their minds when they look back and wince.

When several dozen ex-combatants were asked about a time that most affected them, former First Sergeant Omry Balely remembered weeks of boredom at a roadblock near the parched Palestinian city of Jericho.

"The general feeling was that it was a quiet and very safe area. When you're at a checkpoint, you're in a daily routine of controlling the lives of other people. Who enters and who doesn't is in your hands - a 19-year-old kid with power."

They would get agitated and taunt the Palestinians, denying entry or exit to those who said the "wrong" thing, or cuffing one to a barrier for having incorrect documentation. Looking for amusement, his unit handwrote bogus VIP permits for the Palestinians who crossed regularly. They were legally meaningless but added some fun to the long hours in the sun.

Curfew imposed in Bogota, Colombia, 20K police deployed against protesters, UPDATES

RT
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 22:39 UTC

Colombian President Iván Duque instructed the authorities in Bogota to impose an overnight curfew on the entire Colombian capital, as 20,000 uniformed police were deployed to "establish order" amid anti-government protests.

"What we are facing is not a march," said Bogota Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, announcing the measure on Friday evening, describing the protesters as a small number of "criminals, vandals, looting, stealing and wanting to practically end our city."

Initially, the curfew was to apply only to Bosa, Kennedy and Ciudad Bolivar - three districts on the south side of the capital, whose residents are primarily poor and working-class Bogotans. The decision to lock them down was made after violence erupted on the sidelines of mass protests against the government's austerity policies.

Over 200,000 people rallied in Bogota on Thursday. Another 20,000 rallied in Cali, prompting local authorities to impose a curfew there.

Comment: RT, 23/11/2019: Car bomb kills 3

A truck rigged with explosives detonated outside a police station. The blast happened in Santander de Quilichao, a town some 500km from the nation's capital, Bogota. Three police officers were killed and seven more wounded.

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO shows injured men wearing police uniforms being wheeled into hospital.

The explosion apparently was powerful enough to reduce a nearby building to rubble.

Inside the police station shows the building's interior devastated by the blast.

"There were two explosions that were felt throughout the city, immediately the power went out and everything went dark... only the ambulances rushed towards the hospital."

UPDATE: Sputnik, 23/11/2019: Protesters rally at president's house

Duque has authorized the use of emergency means for ensuring order during the protests, banning the possession of firearms and prohibiting the consumption and sale of alcohol. The incumbent government has taken what it describes as preemptive measures.

Rather than quell the unrest, the curfew was defied by hundreds of protesters who gathered in front of Duque's house on Friday night.

'Sacred right to suck up to power': Pilger blasts 'cruel' media coverage of Julian Assange

RT
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 15:18 UTC

In a wide-ranging dismantling of mainstream media reporting on Julian Assange, award-winning journalist John Pilger has blasted the Guardian for its coverage of the WikiLeaks founder.

Pilger took aim at a Guardian editorial published this week, which made the case for not extraditing the Australian to the US, where he could face 175 years behind bars for possession and dissemination of classified information.

The BAFTA award-winning documentary filmmaker has offered his interpretation of what the editorial actually meant.

Comment: See also: Now that Assange is safely locked up, Sweden drops its 'investigation'

Massoud Shadjareh: Iraqi protesters continue to die as demonstrations lose focus - 'demands are changing'

Sputnik
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 18:12 UTC

© Reuters / Thaier al-Sudani
Iraqi demonstrators take part in ongoing anti-government protests in Baghdad, Iraq November 21, 2019

At least seven protesters were killed and more than 50 people injured during anti-government demonstrations in Baghdad on Thursday. Despite previous concessions by the Iraqi government, an anticipated end to the protests seems further away than ever before as the protesters' messaging now appears more and more fractured, an expert told Sputnik.

In the last few weeks, waves of protests in Iraq has seen the deaths of some 325 individuals and injuries to thousands more. Citing police and hospital sources, Reuters reported that police have killed protesters using live ammunition and also fatally fired tear gas canisters at people's heads.

Comment:

Hmmm, this sounds familiar:

Unidentified snipers blamed for Iraqi protester bloodshed, news bureau stormed by masked gunmen

Butina joins Russian ombudsman's office to help compatriots in 'difficult situations' abroad

RT
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 17:48 UTC

Less than a month after her return to Russia from the US, where she spent over a year behind bars, Maria Butina has joined the Russian ombudsman's office and will focus on helping compatriots who run into trouble abroad.

The Russian gun activist, whose case whipped up anti-Russian hysteria in the US and saw mainstream media telling juicy stories about her trading sex for political favors that later proved to be false, will now help those who find themselves similarly at fault outside Russia.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said Butina had accepted an offer to join her team. Speaking at the State Duma Committee on International Affairs on Friday, Moskalkova said that she wants to set up a committee that would protect the rights of Russian citizens who find themselves in "difficult circumstances in life" when abroad, and Butina will be one of its members.

Comment: Kudos to Ms. Butina for making use of a horrific experience to help others. With Russophobia in high gear, she likely won't be the last innocent Russian to find themselves in the cross-hairs of the Empire.

Monsanto pleads guilty to illegally spraying banned pesticides in Hawaii

Audrey McAvoy
Time
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 03:24 UTC

© Matthew Thayer—AP
Monsanto crew members count corn sprouts in a field of test hybrids in a breeding nursery near Kihei, Hawaii on Sept. 10, 2014.

Agrochemicals company Monsanto on Thursday pleaded guilty to spraying a banned pesticide on research crops on the Hawaii island of Maui in 2014, prosecutors said.

Monsanto, now owned by the pharmaceutical company Bayer of Germany, has also agreed to pay $10 million for charges it unlawfully stored the pesticide, which was classified an acute hazardous waste. The money includes a $6 million criminal fine and $4 million in community service payments.

Prosecutors have agreed not to prosecute Monsanto if it abides by the agreement, which requires the company comply with U.S. environmental laws.

U.S. attorneys in Los Angeles handled the case after their counterparts in Honolulu were recused.

Comment: See also: Monsanto: The complete history of the world's most evil corporation

YouTube censored my interview with Posie Parker

Konstantin Kisin
Quillette
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:01 UTC

One of the crucial debates in the modern online space in recent years has been about the limits of permitted speech. While the First Amendment protects the rights of Americans to speak their mind, those of us living in Europe and much of the rest of the world are increasingly subjected to restrictions on what we are and aren't allowed to say.

In 2016, the British police detained and questioned 3,300 people for saying the "wrong" thing on social media. A recent example of this style of policing is the ex-cop who was told by the police that he needed to "check his thinking" after he retweeted an offensive limerick. He has brought a case against the police and has launched a crowdfunder to pay his costs.

Traditionally, "hate speech" has been understood to mean words aimed at stirring hatred and violence towards members of various protected groups. But today hate speech means whatever tech giants want it to mean.

Comment: See also:

World's ultra-rich scramble to find safe-deposit boxes ahead of next crash

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 11:20 UTC

Last week we reported that according to a new analysis by UBS Wealth Management, the wealthiest investors around the world are preparing for a "significant" market crash by the end of next year.

And while that may be fine and good - after all, virtually no finance professional thinks the current, longest bull market on record, will continue beyond next year's election - one question quickly emerged: if the world's 0.001% are indeed liquidating in anticipation of a generational crash, just what are they converting their assets into? After all, if the crash is great enough, not a single risk asset will retain its value, while a DM sovereign collapse could promptly render paper money is worthless, as for gold retaining its value, yes maybe, but only if one owns far more lead to defend it.

The answer is to be found at 46 Park Lane, a few blocks from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, which initially resembles a private club with wood-paneled walls and an ornate fireplace dating back to Britain's Victorian era. But down a flight of stairs is one of the most secure rooms in London.

Comment: See also:

The Day John Kennedy Died

Edward Curtin
OffGuardian
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 20:16 UTC

There is a vast literature on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who died on a November 22nd Friday like this in 1963.

I have contributed my small share to such writing in an effort to tell the truth, honor him, and emphasize its profound importance in understanding the history of the last fifty-six years, but more importantly, what is happening in the U.S.A. today.

In other words, to understand it in its most gut-wrenching reality: that the American national security state will obliterate any president that dares to buck its imperial war-making machine. It is a lesson not lost on all presidents since Kennedy.

Unless one is a government disinformation agent or is unaware of the enormous documentary evidence, one knows that it was the CIA that carried out JFK's murder. Confirmation of this fact keeps arriving in easily accessible forms for anyone interested in the truth.

A case in point is James DiEugenio's recent posting at his website, KennedysandKing, of James Wilcott's affidavit and interrogation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, declassified by the Assassinations Record Review Board in 1998.

In that document, Wilcott, who worked in the finance department for the CIA and was not questioned by the Warren Commission, discusses how he unwittingly paid Lee Harvey Oswald, the government's alleged assassin, through a cryptonym and how it was widely known and celebrated at his CIA station in Tokyo that the CIA killed Kennedy and Oswald worked for the Agency, although he did not shoot JFK.

I highly recommend reading the document.

Grenfell Tower contractor's hiring for new project in London highlights neoliberal outsourcing nightmare

Neil Clark
RT
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 18:56 UTC

News that the principal Grenfell Tower contractor won a new contract worth almost £100 million to redevelop a London council estate might seem shocking, but really it's unsurprising given the way the system operates in the UK.

You couldn't make it up, could you?

Despite the secretary of state saying it should not bid for public works until investigations into the Grenfell fire had been completed, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan signing an order to that effect, Rydon - the principal contractor for Grenfell - has just been awarded a new contract worth almost £100 million ($129 million) for more redevelopment work from Ealing Council in London.

Ealing says it selected Rydon as a 'partner' for their project to demolish the 264-home High Lane estate and replace it with 450 homes in April 2017, i.e. two months before the Grenfell Fire. But why couldn't they have put the decision on hold until after the inquiry into the fire which, lest we forget, caused the death of 72 people?

What this highlights is how outsourcing in the neoliberal era allows councils and companies to evade proper responsibility. Only last month, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the judge in charge of the Grenfell Inquiry, said in his report into the first phase of the fire that the aluminium composite material cladding on the outside of the tower was the 'primary cause' of the flames spreading up the building. He said the external facade failed to comply with building regulations.

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Society's Child

Breaking the silence: 'Drunk on power, tedious boredom', Israeli ex-soldiers depict what they saw or perpetrated

Curfew imposed in Bogota, Colombia, 20K police deployed against protesters, UPDATES

'Sacred right to suck up to power': Pilger blasts 'cruel' media coverage of Julian Assange

Massoud Shadjareh: Iraqi protesters continue to die as demonstrations lose focus - 'demands are changing'

Butina joins Russian ombudsman's office to help compatriots in 'difficult situations' abroad

Monsanto pleads guilty to illegally spraying banned pesticides in Hawaii

YouTube censored my interview with Posie Parker

World's ultra-rich scramble to find safe-deposit boxes ahead of next crash

The Day John Kennedy Died

Grenfell Tower contractor's hiring for new project in London highlights neoliberal outsourcing nightmare

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