Society's ChildS


TV

MSM Fail: NBC's 'Nightly News' ratings sink to all-time low

Justin Caruso
Breitbart
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
NBC Nightly News
NBC has been dealt another blow of bad news-ratings for this year's NBC Nightly News have fallen to an all time low.

The Wrap reports that NBC Nightly News just had it's "lowest-rated September-to-September year ever."

The report continues, stating that the Lester Holt-hosted show "delivered its lowest-rated year ever in both total viewers and the all-important adults 25-54 demographic, according to available numbers dating back to Nielsen electronic data began in 1991."

This is just the latest bit of bad news for NBC. The company has been rocked by reports detailing how the company covered up sexual assault allegations made against Harvey Weinstein, preventing their reporter, Ronan Farrow, from publishing a story about Weinstein's alleged history of sexual harassment and assault.
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Question

Blip or trend? Far East regional elections suddenly become less predictable in Russia

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 17:19 UTC
Vladivostok
© Vitaliy Ankov / SputnikRussian city of Vladivostok.
Russia's Far East has given the Kremlin a bloody nose over the past two weekends. It's a reminder to Moscow that the regions can't be taken for granted and blowback can be expected over unpopular pension reforms.

In the end, it was a landslide. Nationalist opposition candidate Sergei Furgal of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) defeated President Putin's man Vyacheslav Shport by a margin of almost 70 percent to just under 28 percent in the race to become governor of Khabarovsk. Meanwhile, contests in Vladimir, Khakassia and Primorye also delivered setbacks to the ruling party, United Russia.

But don't get too excited - or worried - just yet, depending on your political preferences. These were regional elections, fought mainly on local issues, involving personalities barely known in Moscow but well-known in their own backyards. Small town heroes, or villains, as it were.

Comment: Putin was faced with harsh demographic and economic realities regarding Russia's pension system. He did his best to find a compromise that would ensure the viability of the system without impacting Russian retirees. The Duma recognized his efforts and amended the bill according to his suggestions.

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Red Flag

Second Kavanaugh accuser, Deborah Ramirez refusing to testify to Senate

Susan Ferrechio
Washington Examiner
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 20:55 UTC
Deborah Ramirez
© Benjamin Rasmussen for The New YorkerDeborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh
Deborah Ramirez, a Yale University classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, is refusing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusation against Kavanaugh, a GOP lawmaker said Tuesday.

Ramirez lawyer John Clune tweeted Tuesday that "We have been working hard to cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee...and they have refused to meet all scheduled appointments." He said Ramirez wants an FBI investigation, not a congressional investigation, and is willing to "swear to the FBI under penalty of perjury."

A top Judiciary Committee GOP aide told the Washington Examiner in response to the Clune claim, "The Ramirez legal team has declined to comply with the committee's established process and investigation and seem to prefer working through the media."

Clune is scheduled to appear on CNN tonight.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who sits on the committee, said a lawyer for Ramirez told committee staff she would not speak to them about her allegation that Kavanaugh flashed his naked groin in her face during an alcohol-laden party their freshman year. Ramirez made the accusation in a blockbuster Sunday night New Yorker story.

Comment: Have Kavanaugh's two accusers been carefully constructing perjury hedges? Sure looks like it.
In the case of the second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who was a student at Yale and claims that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her, we have the same perjury-hedge dynamic. She's spoken only to the press, and in the wake of intense solicitation from those parts. And she's on stage one of the Ford style of accusations: lots of hazy and indistinct memories that she became sure of only just recently. Muddled memories certainly can be read any way a person wants them to be read. They're also a convenient hedge against perjury, since a defense team can't come up with pinned details to refute them.

Yet everyone else in this confirmation drama is testifying under oath and telling lawmen to haul them away to jail if they aren't telling the truth.


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Footprints

American teen finds herself trapped in a South Korean cult during holiday with mum

Kate Lyons
The Guardian
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 15:00 UTC
Elise with camera
© EliseElise on a trip to Fiji where 400 members of Grace Road Church moved after their leader prophesied that it was the promised land
During the summer break after her junior year of high school, Elise* travelled to South Korea from Chicago with her mother for what was meant to be a six-week holiday.

Instead, the 17-year-old ended up trapped in Grace Road Church, a cult whose leader was arrested in August accused of depriving followers of their liberty and participating in ritual beatings. While there, Elise was forced to attend five-hour sermons, denied medication and told she would never see her father and sister again.

Elise's mother organised the trip in 2013 after discovering her daughter smoked marijuana. The holiday was supposed to allow Elise - who was born in the US to Korean parents - a chance to spend time with her Korean family and have a break from her American friends.

But, after two weeks with family, Elise's mother took her to stay at Grace Road Church in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul.

The church, which denies it is a cult, has branches in both South Korea and Fiji, where hundreds of church members moved in 2014 after its leader, Pastor Shin Ok-ju, said there would be a famine in Korea and Fiji was the promised land where they would survive.
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Yoda

Britain's Labour Party defies Israel lobby and votes for arms freeze

Asa Winstanley
The Electronic Intifada
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 14:46 UTC
Labour Party conference UK
© Asa WinstanleyDelegates listen as Colin Monehen, a delegate from Harlow, proposes the motion to end British arms sales to Israel, at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, 25 September.
In a historic move, the Labour Party's annual conference on Tuesday voted to end UK arms sales to Israel.

But The Electronic Intifada has learned that Emily Thornberry, the woman who would become foreign minister were a Labour government elected tomorrow, had privately tried to scupper the motion.

Although Thornberry is a close ally of Labour leader and Palestine solidarity veteran Jeremy Corbyn, she is also a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel and opposes an arms embargo.

Amid a sea of waving Palestinian flags, and chants of "Free Palestine," delegates debated a motion condemning Israel's killing of Palestinian protesters - more than 140 to date - since the Great March of Return protests began on 30 March.


Comment: Expect further hysterical allegations on UK media that Jeremy Corbyn is 'antisemitic'.

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Sheriff

Cop sentenced to 30 months prison for allowing his K9 to brutally maul inmate

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 14:54 UTC
K9 mauling
Shocking surveillance footage, which was subpoenaed by federal investigators, shows a savage and violent attack on Louisiana man by a sheriff's deputy and his K9 partner. The footage was so deeply disturbing that 6 years after it happened, the deputy responsible has finally been brought to justice.

Former sheriff's deputy David Prejean pleaded guilty in February to the assault and is only just now being sentenced. Prejean was a K9 sergeant with the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office and had been called to the jail to assist with a shakedown, according to prosecutors. Prejean will now spend the next 30 months behind bars for the attack.

The attack happened on Dec 6, 2012. Marcus Robicheaux along with all of the other inmates was being subject to a contraband sweep. Like all of the other inmates, Robicheaux had his hands on his head and his nose on the wall.

As the video begins, we see Deputy Prejean, grab Robicheaux by the back of his shirt and drag him to the middle of the room where he's thrown to the ground.

The entire time Robicheaux is seen keeping his hands up and not resisting. The prosecution agreed.
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Star of David

Crazy foreign fighters in Israeli Army: They seek escape, devotion, or 'just want to shoot'

Naomi Kundera
Mondoweiss
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
Sara Netanyahu with Lone Soldiers
© Haim Zach/GPOSara Netanyahu attends welcome for approximately 300 new immigrants who will soon enlist in the IDF as Lone Soldiers, Tel Aviv University, August 16, 2018.
"You always find that a lot of Lone Soldiers tend to be a little crazier," Yosef, 23, told me in an American accent over the telephone using the slang term for young enlistees in Israel's army who have no family in the country.

I met "Yosef" after posting an advertisement on one of the many Facebook support groups for Lone Soldiers. Dozens were eager to talk about their personal reasons for voluntarily joining the Israeli military. My Facebook inbox flooded with current and veteran soldiers from the Israeli military. I spoke with eight Americans who left their lives in the U.S. behind to fight for Israel. Because all asked to remain anonymous, their names have been changed for publication.

Yosef was one of the most candid interviews.

Comment: See also:

Foreign fighters flocking to Middle East to wage jihad, for Israel

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Arrow Down

MSNBC's Joy Reid sued for defamation after inciting her Twitter followers to go after Trump supporter


RT
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 14:14 UTC
Joy-Ann Reid
© Bryan Bedder / AFPMSNBC Journalist Joy-Ann Reid
MSNBC host Joy Reid has been sued by a woman who received a torrent of verbal abuse, including death threats, from Reid's Twitter base after the host accused her of hurling racial slurs at a 14-year old.

Roslyn La Liberte has become widely known as the screaming woman in a MAGA cap in a notorious photo, in which she appears to shout at a Latin-American teenage boy. In a lawsuit, filed with the New York Eastern District Court, La Liberte says that Reid "used her substantial social media presence, fame, and reputation as a hard-hitting journalist" to peddle false accusations of racism against her.

Reid effectively took out a social-media hit on La Liberte, tweeting the photo, originally posted by Alan Vargas, a March of Our Lives student activist, who called on his followers to spread the post, writing that "this woman needs to be put on blast." Reid's re-post gave a powerful boost to the tweet, since she has almost 1.3 million Twitter followers, compared to Vargas' 14,000.

Comment: Unlike Roseanne Barr, Joy Ann Reid apparently gets to make unlimited blunders and still keep her job.

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Russian Flag

Steven Seagal says he is Putin's man, wouldn't mind ruling Russia's Far East region


RT
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 14:33 UTC
Vladimir Putin, Steven Seagal
© Alexei Druzhinin / Sputnik
President Vladimir Putin (L) and US actor Steven Seagal (C) during their meeting in the Kremlin
Martial arts icon and Hollywood star Steven Seagal has described himself as Vladimir Putin's representative, and announced that he wants to become the governor of Primorsky Region in the Russian Far East.

Seagal has arrived in Primorsky Krai (a type of federal district in Russia) to take part in the Pacific Meridian movie festival, which is currently taking place in the region's capital Vladivostok. When reporters asked the celebrity if he wanted to become the governor, he answered that he represented President Vladimir Putin's interests and would take over the gubernatorial seat with pleasure.
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SOTT Logo

'Women without veils lack modesty?' French feminists slammed for saying hijab empowers females


RT
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 14:10 UTC
hijabs
© Reuters
A French feminist group has come under a barrage of criticism and been accused of confusing Islam and Islamism after releasing a photo of a veiled woman and argued that wearing a headscarf is a sign of modesty & empowers females.

The controversial post appeared on the Facebook page of the Family Planning 13 association, which traditionally promotes values of feminism and secularism, earlier in September. One of the photos shows a curvy woman in underwear, saying that "nudity empowers some women." In another picture one can see a veiled girl with words "modesty empowers some women." The group argued that "different things empower different women."
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