Society's Child

Dutch court: War crimes accusations against Israeli Benny Gantz presented

Adri Nieuwhof
The Electronic Intifada
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC

© Facebook
Ismail Ziada is suing two Israeli generals for the deaths of six relatives during Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza.

As Israelis went to the polls on Tuesday, one of the leading candidates for prime minister was fending off war crimes accusations in a court in The Hague. Palestinian-Dutch citizen Ismail Ziada is seeking justice for Israel's killing of six members of his family during its 2014 assault on Gaza.

Ziada holds Benny Gantz, the Israeli army chief at the time, and Amir Eshel, then the air force chief, responsible for the decision to bomb his family's home in al-Bureij refugee camp. The 20 July bombing that year reduced the three-floor building to rubble, killing Ziada's 70-year-old mother Muftia Ziada, his brothers Jamil, Yousif and Omar, sister-in-law Bayan, and 12-year-old nephew Shaban. A seventh person visiting the family was also killed. Ziada is suing the Israeli generals for more than $600,000 in damages plus court costs.

Gantz is now leader of Israel's Blue and White coalition. After this week's inconclusive election result, he is seeking the support of other parties to put together a government.

In Tuesday's session, the Dutch court heard arguments about whether it has jurisdiction over the case. Lawyers for Gantz and Eshel tried to frame Ziada's legal action as part of "an anti-Israel campaign." Earlier this year, Israel urged the Dutch court to dismiss the war crimes case against Gantz.

This video shows part of Ziada's statement in court:

A 2M no-show! Area 51 raid flops! Group of YouTubers chat up guards instead

RT
Fri, 20 Sep 2019 19:55 UTC

A viral prank that promised to see two million alien hunters breach the gates of Area 51 has ended with a whimper instead of a bang, drawing only a few dozen enthusiasts for the much-anticipated 'raid.'

Initially a mock Facebook event, "Storm Area 51" quickly became a phenomenon that garnered interest from hundreds of thousands of netizens, who signed up to blaze past police and military guards to "see them aliens" at the top-secret Nevada facility. Some celebrities who'd promised to join in heated up the memeful event even more, while the authorities tried to pour cold water on even the idea of a peaceful alien-themed festival, calling it unsustainable.

So what epic action unfolded in the middle of the Nevada desert on Friday morning as the pulled-in reinforcements readied their rifles and K9 guards stood poised at the perimeter? Well, you guessed it - none of it.

Comment: And these from RT, 21/9/2019: No aliens, no party!

© Reuters/jim Urquhart
Part of the 'crowd'

Jeffrey Epstein paid doctors to medicate 'sex slaves' with tranquilizers

Sputnik
Sat, 21 Sep 2019 06:42 UTC

Victims of Jeffery Epstein said multimillionaire financier and convicted pedophile paid doctors and psychiatrists to prescribe them tranquilizers and anti-depressants.

Virginia Giuffre, who was recruited by Epstein at the age of 16, told the Miami Herald that doctors prescribed her Xanax for the three years, as well as several other victims through recommended doctors.

"There were doctors and psychiatrists and gynecologist visits. There were dentists who whitened our teeth," she told the newspaper. "There was a doctor who gave me Xanax. What doctor in their right mind, who is supposed to protect their patients, gives girls and young women Xanax?"

Sarah Ransome, who was 22 when she was trafficked by Epstein from her native South Africa, said she was taken to a psychiatrist and prescribed Lithium while being on the verge of a mental breakdown.

No one likes Chelsea Handler's Netflix screed on 'white privilege' - savaged by critics and audiences alike

Hannah Bleau
Breitbart News
Sat, 21 Sep 2019 17:10 UTC

Chelsea Handler's Netflix documentary on white privilege - Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea - has been panned by critics, who say it amounts to a "misguided reckoning" and note that she is actively "exploiting her wokeness" and "profiting off a film about her white privilege."

Handler's Netflix special, which dropped last week, centers around the left-wing comedienne's exploration of "white privilege" in an attempt to "be a better white person to people of color, without making it a thing."

"I'm clearly the beneficiary of white privilege. And I want to know what my personal responsibility is moving forward in the world we live in today where race is concerned," Handler says in the documentary.

However, the documentary has not been well received, with critics pointing out that she is, in fact, benefiting from white privilege by participating in a "white privilege" documentary and ultimately making money from the project.

Comment: What does it say when even ultra-lefty sites like Vice turn on one of their own? Get the popcorn ready. The Woke are imploding.

Israeli agression, social stigmas contribute to Palestine's growing suicide epidemic

Diana Alghoul
The New Arab
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 14:06 UTC

A recent report showed that cases of suicide in Palestine have increased by 14 percent and there are many complex reasons behind this harrowing statistic.

For decades, Palestinians have been at the face of violence in the Middle East. They endured being expelled and murdered during a mass exodus in the late 1940s, to being subject to brutal occupations, sieges and forced into refugee camps under abhorrent conditions. It's no secret that the creation of Israel has stunted and even deteriorated Palestinian development.

First hand violence isn't the only form of aggression Palestinians face - as conditions for Palestinians worsen, more people in the occupied territories are resorting to taking their own lives.

Facebook blocks tens of thousands of apps hoarding your data, admits 'won't catch everything'

RT
Sat, 21 Sep 2019 14:02 UTC

Facebook has suspended tens of thousands of apps for improperly using users' personal information - orders of magnitude larger than the 400 they'd previously acknowledged - but they've promised to do better next time. Again.

Some 69,000 apps were suspended by Facebook for potentially slurping up users' personal info without their knowledge or consent, according to a court filing unsealed in Boston on Friday. While 59,000 of those ended up on the chopping block merely because their developers refused to comply with Facebook's investigation, 10,000 set off alarm bells for the likelihood they misappropriated data, according to the documents, whose release triggered a damage-control blog post from the company.

The apps were suspended "for a variety of reasons," Facebook pleaded - they weren't necessarily "posing a threat to people." Wherever the company found wrongdoing - such as a pair of apps that infected users' phones with malware in a lucrative fraud scheme - they insist they've put a stop to it, bragging they've even hauled the app developers into court. Facebook has even hired more people to sniff out bad actors, so they can "review every active app with access to more than basic user information."

'I just wanted the day off': School children admit they used climate change protests as an excuse to skip class

Kelsey Wilkie
Daily Mail
Fri, 20 Sep 2019 11:47 UTC

A young girl sits on a man's shoulders during the Sydney protest on Friday. She held a sign which read: 'There is no planet B'

More than 300,000 people have flocked to climate change rallies in 110 towns and cities across Australia, calling for governments and businesses to act immediately.

The Global Strike 4 Climate, held across the world on Friday, was the biggest climate mobilisation in Australia's history, with more than double the turnout of the March protest.

A whopping 100,000 protesters flooded the streets in Melbourne, while Sydney saw 80,000 people march through the CBD to the Domain.

Comment: A sea of indoctrinated children protesting something that doesn't exist. Welcome to planet Earth.

Jordan Peterson enters rehab after wife's cancer diagnosis

New York Post
Fri, 20 Sep 2019 15:19 UTC

Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and anti-political-correctness crusader, has checked himself in to rehab in New York, his daughter has revealed.

The "12 Rules for Life" author has sought help trying to get off the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam, his daughter Mikhaila Peterson said in a video posted to her YouTube account Thursday.

"I've never seen my dad like this," the 27-year-old diet blogger said in the eight-and-a-half-minute video. "He's having a miserable time of it. It breaks my heart."

The elder Peterson, 57, began taking the addictive medication to deal with stress from his wife's battle with cancer and other health problems earlier this year, his daughter said.

He tried to quit cold-turkey over the summer after his wife, Tammy Roberts, "miraculously" recovered from complications with a kidney surgery, Mikhaila said.

Driving without breaking any laws is 'suspicious' assertion in the US shot down by court!

Tim Cushing
Tech Dirt
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 01:54 UTC

Must be tough out there for cops. Literally everything is suspicious. And there are only so many hours in the day. Since no court is willing to end the tradition of pretextual stops, anything that can be described as suspicious has been used to initiate fishing expeditions.

A few courts have called out this tendency to view almost everything humans do as indicative of criminal behavior. This is one of the better call-outs, as it gives some indication of just how many "training and experience" assertions the court has had to wade through while dealing with law enforcement assertions about reasonable suspicion.

A logical reasoning sequence based upon some "training and experience" — because drug traffickers have been seen breathing, then breathing is an indicia of drug trafficking. Because they normally have two hands, then having two hands is an indicia of drug smuggling. Silly — maybe, but one can wonder if that is the direction we are heading. Whether it be driving a clean vehicle, or looking at a peace officer, or looking away from a peace officer, or a young person driving a newer vehicle, or someone driving in a car with meal wrappers, or someone driving carefully, or driving on an interstate, most anything can be considered as indicia of drug trafficking to law enforcement personnel.

Maybe this is because drug smugglers just happen to be human beings and being such, they tend to engage in the same innocuous acts in which law abiding citizens engage. See Gonzalez-Galindo v. State, 306 S.W.3d at 896 (observing that "[c]riminals come in all makes and colors. Some have hair, some do not. Some are men, some are not. Some drive cars, some do not. Some wear suits, some do not. Some have baseball caps, some do not. Some want attention, some do not. Some have nice cars, some do not. Some eat spaghetti, some do not. And, sometimes, some even engage in innocent activity.")

This is in addition to these data points, all presumed to be "suspicious" behavior by law enforcement officers:

That's the standard law enforcement holds itself to. Fortunately, some courts refuse to accept this lower standard of suspicion. The Arizona Court of Appeals is one of those courts. This recent decision [see below] overturns a lower court's inexplicable support of a cop's extremely dubious "reasonable suspicion" claims. (via The Newspaper)

UK rapper blasted for brandishing fake severed head of BoJo at awards ceremony

RT
Fri, 20 Sep 2019 07:46 UTC

A British rapper's 'tasteless' publicity stunt has been lambasted on social media, after he waved a fake severed head of Prime Minister Boris Johnson during an award show.

The 24-year-old rapper slowthai, whose real name is Tyron Frampton, ended his performance at the Mercury Prize ceremony in London on Thursday night by pulling out a mock-up decapitated head of PM Johnson.

"F**k Boris Johnson! F**k everything!" he shouted on stage while waving the head. The rapper also screamed: "And there ain't nothing great about Britain," referring to the name of his debut album, 'Nothing Great About Britain.' He did all this while wearing a "F**k Boris" T-shirt - an item he sells through his online store.

Comment: See also:

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hobnyeba

Thanks, all, for great comments and links. Lots to think about.

ReRan

Society's Child

Dutch court: War crimes accusations against Israeli Benny Gantz presented

A 2M no-show! Area 51 raid flops! Group of YouTubers chat up guards instead

Jeffrey Epstein paid doctors to medicate 'sex slaves' with tranquilizers

No one likes Chelsea Handler's Netflix screed on 'white privilege' - savaged by critics and audiences alike

Israeli agression, social stigmas contribute to Palestine's growing suicide epidemic

Facebook blocks tens of thousands of apps hoarding your data, admits 'won't catch everything'

'I just wanted the day off': School children admit they used climate change protests as an excuse to skip class

Jordan Peterson enters rehab after wife's cancer diagnosis

Driving without breaking any laws is 'suspicious' assertion in the US shot down by court!

UK rapper blasted for brandishing fake severed head of BoJo at awards ceremony

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