Society's ChildS


People 2

Forgotten France rises up

Serge Halimi
Le Monde
Sun, 06 Jan 2019 13:18 UTC
female cleaner
© Jacques Demarthon · AFP · GettyShe's probably part-time, and doesn't want to be.
France's yellow vests, coming together in informally organised groups, took just one month to challenge policies on taxation, education, transport and environment, and make the Macron government back down.

December 15, place de l'Opéra, Paris. Three yellow vests read out an address 'to the French people and the president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron' saying: 'This movement belongs to no one and to everyone. It gives voice to a people who for 40 years have been dispossessed of everything that enabled them to believe in their future and their greatness.'

The anger provoked by a fuel tax produced, within a month, a wider diagnosis of what ails society and democracy. Mass movements that bring together people with minimal organisation encourage rapid politicisation, which explains why 'the people' have discovered that they are 'dispossessed of their future' a year after electing as president a man who boasts he swept aside the two parties that alternated in power for 40 years.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Hardhat

SOTT Focus: Niall Bradley on PressTV: 'Suppression of Yellow Vest Protests Will Likely Backfire on French Government'


PressTV
Sun, 06 Jan 2019 12:31 UTC
Niall Presstv yellow vests
Yellow vest protesters had promised to keep rallying into the new year, and that's what they did today. An 8th weekend of protests was held in defiance of the government dismissing protesters as agitators and hardliners, which appears to indicate a tougher stance against the movement.

It's not fuel price hikes that they are protesting against anymore. Macron's concessions have not appeased them either. The protesters are questioning the very state of democracy in the country and demanding fundamental change. While Macron's popularity rating plunges to a record low, for how much longer are the protests likely to go on?

On today's The Debate, we discuss the tense stand-off in France with columnist Catherine Shakdam in London, and Niall Bradley, editor at independent news site SOTT.net

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Light Saber

Jordan Peterson: It's a sad world when guidance to overcome despair is met with destructive cynicism and sarcasm

Jordan Peterson
National Post
Fri, 04 Jan 2019 21:16 UTC
Obi-Wan Kenobi
© Lucas FilmA young letter-writer likens a Jordan Peterson lecture to the scene in 'Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope' where Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) gives Luke his father's lightsaber.
In this occasional series, Jordan Peterson writes from his international speaking tour for his book, 12 Rules for Life, where he's speaking to sold out crowds throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

Over the last few years, I have received many tens of thousands of emails. I stopped even trying to keep up. But I read them from time to time, and often feel that it would be better to read and answer more. If I want to write my next book, and continue touring and lecturing, and stay on top of the other projects I am committed to (including producing new material for my YouTube channel and podcast) then it's not possible. It's too bad, because so much of what is sent my way is thoughtful and heartfelt and positive.

Today, Dec. 28, 2018, a few more letters than usual made it through the multiple barriers that are now in place to slow the onslaught of communication. Three came in close succession, each quite different. I thought it might be interesting to share them more broadly.
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Better Earth

Scientists say men are more disadvantaged than women in the UK, US and most of Europe

Jasper Hamill
Metro
Fri, 04 Jan 2019 12:19 UTC
YinYang Gender inequality
© Entrepreneur
Scientists have invented a new way of measuring gender equality and claimed it shows men are more disadvantaged than women in most developed countries. Researchers from the University of Missouri and University of Essex in the United Kingdom said previous ways of measuring inequality are 'biased to highlight women's issues'.

Their Basic Index of Gender Inequality (BIGI) instead measures three factors: educational opportunities, healthy life expectancy and overall life satisfaction. The academics calculated scores for 134 nations and used the results to suggest men are more disadvantaged than women in 91 nations.

They discovered that the most developed nations in the world came 'closest to achieving gender equality, albeit with a slight advantage for women'. However, in the least developed countries, women fall behind men because they don't have access to education. Using the index, Bahrain was named as the top nation for gender equality followed by the UK and the Netherlands. The US was ranked in position 34, with men falling behind in education as well as life expectancy and satisfaction. Most European countries with the exception of Italy were deemed to be better for women than men.

Comment: By far not an overall, nor comprehensive - three category, rating system.

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Passport

Plot thickens: Frmr US Marine detained in Russia on espionage charges holds multiple passports


RT
Sat, 05 Jan 2019 16:19 UTC
Paul Whelan
© Paul Whelan family archivePaul Whelan
The plot thickens in the case of a former US Marine who was detained on spying charges in Russia before the New Year. It has emerged that Paul Whelan also holds UK and Irish passports, and maybe a Canadian one.

The American was arrested in a posh hotel overlooking the Kremlin in Moscow by Federal Security Service (FSB) before the New Year. He was put in custody and charged with espionage a few days later, facing between 10 to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Whelan is a former US Marine, who worked as a security director for BorgWarner, a major Michigan-based car parts manufacturer. Whelan had been visiting Russia since 2007 and this time he arrived to attend a friend's wedding, according to his family. He reportedly liked the country, had a profile on a Russian social media website, and even a basic command of the Russian language.

The Marines gave Whelan, who served two tours in Iraq, a bad conduct discharge in 2008 over accusations of theft. This detail, made public after his arrest, was a surprise for the family. He was also revealed to be a citizen of at least four countries - US, UK, Ireland and Canada - all of who are now issuing statements on his detainment.

Comment: Previously: Global News reports:
Whelan's family says he was in Russia to attend a friend's wedding. A Russian lawmaker, meanwhile, hinted Friday that the detainee could possibly be swapped for a Russian woman who has pleaded guilty to trying to influence U.S. politics.

Whelan's arrest came two weeks after Russian gun-rights activist Maria Butina pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to act as a foreign agent by trying to infiltrate conservative circles and the National Rifle Association to influence U.S. politics.

Butina has become a cause celebre for Russia - her face is being used as the profile picture on the Foreign Ministry's Facebook page - and the timing of Whelan's arrest has led to suggestions that he is being seen as a potential swap for her.

A top member of Russia's parliament, foreign affairs committee deputy head Dmitry Novikov, on Friday appeared to suggest that was a possibility once the investigation into Whelan was completed.

"I think that we have to give our special services the opportunity to finalize things with the detainees. Then we will see," he said, according to the Interfax news agency.


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Megaphone

The Cuban Cricket Crisis: New study identifies insect as the likely culprit behind alleged "sonic attacks" on U.S. diplomats at embassy in Havana, Cuba

Sara ElShafie
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Fri, 04 Jan 2019 12:05 UTC
US embassy in Cuba
© AFP / Yamil LageThe US embassy in Cuba, where mysterious ‘attacks’ on US embassy staff were reported.
Just two years ago, the U.S. Embassy in Havana was bustling with U.S. personnel sent by the Obama Administration to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba. Today it is nearly empty. In late 2016, diplomats started hearing a loud, piercing noise. Two dozen of them reported symptoms such as ear pain and dizziness, and were diagnosed with injuries consistent with a concussion. Suspicions of politically motivated "sonic attacks" soon followed. The U.S. State Department recalled most personnel from Cuba and reduced its embassy staff in Havana to a skeleton crew. Cooperative measures between the two governments stalled amidst conspiracy theories of high-tech attack. Despite ongoing investigations by American and Cuban government agencies, and extensive coverage of the study by major news outlets, the source of the strange noise provoking the crisis has remained an enigma.

But a new study indicates that the culprit behind this debacle is in fact... a cricket. According to Alexander Stubbs, a scientist in the Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, the mysterious noise is actually the echoing call of the Indies short-tailed cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus). Stubbs will present his findings this week at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Tampa, Florida, based on a paper that was just released through the bioArxive online database.

Comment: Interesting that the study doesn't mention similar 'attacks' reported by diplomats in other countries:

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Snowflake

Snowflake viewers rip Ellen DeGeneres for forgiving Kevin Hart over 10yr-old homophobic tweets


RT
Sat, 05 Jan 2019 17:34 UTC
degeneres hart
© Viewers SHRED Ellen DeGeneres for forgiving Kevin Hart over 10yr-old homophobic tweetsKevin Hart and Ellen DeGeneres
Fans are savaging Ellen DeGeneres after she appealed to their sense of forgiveness in defense of fellow comic Kevin Hart, who was pressured into declining an offer of hosting the Oscars over his decade-old homophobic tweets.

DeGeneres, whose on-screen coming-out made television history, offered Hart a chance to explain himself on her show after controversy over his 10-year-old tweets forced him to turn down a chance to host the Academy Awards.

After he explained that he's already apologized, grown up, and evolved since then - "I'm not that guy anymore" - DeGeneres told him that she's called the Academy to ask for him to be reinstated.

Comment: So much for the Left's bleating about peace, brotherhood and tolerance. Apparently once one has "fallen", it's forever.

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Fire

No proper exit in Polish 'escape room' where fire killed 5 teenagers

Joanna Plucinska
Reuters
Sat, 05 Jan 2019 10:19 UTC
Fire investigation
© Agencja Gazeta/Cezary Aszkielowicz/via REUTERSPolice officers are seen at the site of a fire which broke out in an escape room in Koszalin, Poland January 4, 2019. Picture taken January 4, 2019.
Five teenage girls killed by a fire in an "escape room" attraction in Poland might have survived if there had been a proper evacuation route, a senior firefighter said on Saturday.

In "escape rooms", participants are locked in a room and race against the clock to solve puzzles and challenges to open a way out.

The girls killed in Koszalin, in northern Poland, on Friday were taking part in a birthday treat. One other person was being treated for burns.
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Handcuffs

California board recommends parole for Charles Manson follower


NBC News
Fri, 04 Jan 2019 17:30 UTC
Robert Kenneth Beausoleil
© California Department of Corrections and RehabilitationRobert Kenneth Beausoleil
A California parole panel on Thursday recommended for the first time that Charles Manson follower Robert Beausoleil be freed after serving nearly a half-century in prison for murder.

Beausoleil, 71, was not involved in the most notorious killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others by the Manson "family" in 1969. He was convicted in the slaying of musician Gary Hinman that same year.

Hinman was tortured for three days, according to testimony at previous parole hearings, including when Manson cut his face with a sword.

Parole panels ruled against releasing Beausoleil 18 prior times.

California's incoming governor, Gavin Newsom, could block the parole in coming months. Termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown has consistently stopped releases for followers of the cult leader, who died in prison in 2017.
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Newspaper

UK government spends 200K to look after deported terrorist hate preacher and the public is not pleased


RT
Sat, 05 Jan 2019 17:23 UTC
Abu Qatada
© REUTERS / Muhammad HamedAbu Qatada stood trial in Jordan.
The revelation has raised the ire of the public, and a British pundits didn't mince their words live on RT.

Abu Qatada, who requested asylum in the UK in 1993, was deported to his home country of Jordan in 2013 for posing a threat to national security.

Now, it has emerged that Qatada's meetings with doctors and human rights workers in Jordan were actually funded by UK taxpayers for three years, and cost a hefty £200,000 ($254,000), the Times revealed. A legal battle to deport him is said to have cost more than £1.9million ($2.4 million).

"In the first place, Abu Qatada should never have been granted asylum here... And then you think about all the money, all the welfare payments he and those around him have 'parasited' of the UK taxpayer," argued David Vance, a rightwing political commentator.
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