Society's ChildS


Dollar

Elon Musk faces wrath of twitterverse after being exposed as Republican PAC donor


RT
Sun, 15 Jul 2018 10:58 UTC
elon musk
© Rashid Umar Abbasil / Reuters
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing criticism over his environmental stance after donating $38,900 to a Republican PAC, which is lobbying for the GOP to retain control of Congress ahead of the midterm election.

Federal Election Commission filings, which were released on Saturday, showed Musk to be among the top 50 donors to Protect The House, a group that supports the anti-environmental stance of the GOP. However, the CEO has denied any political affiliation with the group, claiming not to be a "conservative" but rather a registered independent with "politically moderate" beliefs, caring more about humanitarian issues and the environment.

"Reports that I am a top donor to GOP are categorically false. I am not a top donor to any political party," Musk tweeted on Thursday.

Comment: For more information on Elon Musk:

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Megaphone

Clashes break out at 'Free Tommy Robinson', pro-Trump London rally


RT
Sat, 14 Jul 2018 16:11 UTC
Tommy Robinson protest
© Simon Dawson/ ReutersSupporters of Tommy Robinson demonstrate in London, Britain July 14, 2018.
Fists were flying and bats were swinging as demonstrators at a Free Tommy Robinson rally were involved in clashes with counter protesters at an event in London. The rally joined a pro-Trump demonstration that took place earlier.

The 'Welcome President Trump' rally marched to Whitehall from the US embassy in Battersea at midday, while the Tommy Robinson demonstration started to gather at around 2pm. The crowd featured numerous people carrying "Britain supports Trump" placards.
Tommy Robinson protest
© Yves Herman/ Reuters
Police had issued restrictions on the demonstrations amid fears of confrontations with counter protesters. Activists were handed leaflets explaining that anyone who contravened the timing and location of the demonstration could face prosecution.
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Eye 1

Muslim swimmers kicked out of city pool over 'cotton rule,' mayor apologizes


RT
Sun, 15 Jul 2018 12:29 UTC
Kids in pool
© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters
The mayor of a US city has apologized after officials forced a group of Muslim children out of a community pool by falsely claiming that their hijabs and niqabs did not meet safety standards.

Mayor Mike Purzycki of Wilmington in Delaware said staff had exercised "poor judgement" at the Foster Brown public pool earlier this month. The situation arose when the director of a summer Arabic enrichment program was approached by the pool manager, who cited a policy that supposedly prohibited swimmers from wearing cotton in public pools.

The manager said that the elementary-school-aged swimmers had to leave the pool because they were wearing cotton shirts, shorts, hijabs and headscarves. However, no such specific rule exists.

"There's nothing posted that says you can't swim in cotton," Tahsiyn Ismaa'eel, owner and principal of the Darul-Amaanah Academy, told Delaware Online. "At the same time, there were other kids with cotton on. I asked, 'Why are my kids being treated differently?'"

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

Man deported from US 11 times arrested for attacking wife with chainsaw


RT
Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:54 UTC
ice officer
© Fred Greaves / ReutersAn officer with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (file photo)
A man accused of attacking his wife with a chainsaw has been deported from the US 11 times since 2005, officials from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have said.

Alejandro Alvarez Villegas allegedly attacked his wife at their home in Whittier, southern California, with a mechanical saw while their three children were present, according to police. The 32-year-old is then said to have fled the scene in a stolen car. He was later picked up by police after detectives developed information about his whereabouts.

Police said that when officers arrived at the home they found the woman suffering from traumatic physical injuries believed to have been inflicted by a chainsaw. The victim was transported to a local hospital and her current condition is unknown.

In a statement to RT, ICE officials said that police have been requested to notify ICE prior to the release of Alvarez Villegas to enable customs officials to take him into custody. "Department of Homeland Security databases indicate Mr. Alvarez Villegas is a serial immigration violator who has been removed from the United States 11 times since 2005," the statement read.
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Wine

26yo man flogged 80 times in Iran for drinking alcohol as a teen 10 years ago


Amnesty International
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 15:34 UTC
iran flogging
The public flogging on Tuesday in Iran of a young man convicted of consuming alcohol when he was just 14 or 15 years old over a decade ago highlights the inhumanity of a justice system that legalizes brutality, said Amnesty International today.

"The circumstances of this case are absolutely shocking, representing another horrific example of the Iranian authorities' warped priorities. No one, regardless of age, should be subjected to flogging; that a child was prosecuted for consuming alcohol and sentenced to 80 lashes beggars belief," said Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

"The Iranian authorities' prolific use of corporal punishment, including on children, demonstrates a shocking disregard for basic humanity. They should immediately abolish all forms of such punishment, which in Iran includes amputation and blinding as well as flogging."

The public flogging took place on 10 July in Niazmand Square, Kashmar, Razavi Khorasan province, where the man, known just as M. R., was flogged 80 times on his back. Domestic media outlets have posted a picture from showing the young man tied to a tree as he was flogged by a masked man, with a crowd of people watching at a distance.

According to the Public Prosecutor of Kashmar, M. R. consumed alcohol during a wedding where an argument caused a fight that resulted in the death of a 17-year-old. The public prosecutor has conceded that M.R. was not involved in the murder and that the flogging sentence was only for drinking alcohol.

Comment: Iran may be part of the axis of resistance fighting jihadi and Israeli terrorism, but that doesn't mean it's free from its own pathology. Like China in recent decades (and Saudi Arabia in recent months), Iran has been getting more moderate over the years - but it's still a theocracy when it comes down to it. Writing in the 80s, Lobaczewski - after pointing out the ousted Shah of Iran's pathological personality - wrote in Political Ponerology: "The genesis of [Iran's] present tragedy also doubtless contains pathological factors which play ponerologically active roles."

Unfortunately, incidents like the above then get used for propaganda purposes in the West by people who have no real empathy for the Iranian people and who just want pro-Western regime change. But that won't solve the problem - it will just lead to more violence and more radicals.

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Attention

Don't be offended: Free speech is what protects us from Nazis

Daniel Friedman
Quillette
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 13:45 UTC
Freespeech wall
© opendemocracy.netUp against the wall...
Free speech has recently become a cause célèbre of the nationalist and racist right-wing in the United States, as provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos bring their roadshows to college campuses, flout the values of progressive students, and then publicize and ridicule those students' emotional or sometimes violent responses. As a result, some on the Left have become skeptical of the benefits of the First Amendment.

Prior to last year's violent confrontation in Charlottesville, VA, during which an alt-right protester rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring others, the ACLU defended the right of neo-Nazis and white nationalists to demonstrate in support of Confederate monuments. For this, the ACLU was widely criticized by progressives, and since then, some progressives have begun to argue that a society with unfettered free speech is one that fails to protect marginalized communities.

Former ACLU legal director and Berkeley law professor John A. Powell recently told a reporter from the New Yorker that absolutist free speech rules in the United States fail to weigh the value of speech against the harms that speech can cause, and argued that we ought to regulate speech that can cause P.T.S.D. and "stereotype threat."

It is probably true that the value of some speech is less than the cost of the harm it imposes. But free speech advocates don't defend the speech rights of Nazis because they believe that Nazis have anything valuable to contribute to a marketplace of ideas. They defend the rights of Nazis because Nazis with the freedom to speak can cause less harm than Nazis with the power to regulate speech.


Comment: This is true in the sense that it is the left who are in fact behaving more so like Nazis than the right, and are the last people you'd want to be the ones regulating speech. Although later it becomes clear that he is referring to Trump as the "Nazi", the point still stands that government in general should stay out as much as possible in regulating speech.


Comment: See also:


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Black Cat

Zoo in New Orleans closed after jaguar escapes exhibit and kills 6 other animals


ABC
Sun, 15 Jul 2018 12:00 UTC
jaguar
The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans is closed after a jaguar escaped its exhibit Saturday morning, attacking and killing six other animals, according to zoo officials.

Around 7:20 a.m., an adult male jaguar escaped its habitat, according to officials. Authorities say the zoo was closed to the public at the time of the escape.

Comment: See also:

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Beer

UK police claim to have found small bottle containing 'Novichok' in Amesbury victim's house


RT
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 17:37 UTC
novichok amesbury forensic
© Henry Nicholls / ReutersForensic investigators in Amesbury, Britain, July 6, 2018
UK police say they have found the source of the nerve agent that allegedly poisoned two people in Amesbury, killing one. They claim the source appears to be a small bottle discovered in one of the victim's homes.

The bottle was apparently found in Charlie Rowley's house in Amesbury on Wednesday. "Scientists have now confirmed to us that the substance contained within the bottle is Novichok," a Friday statement by police said.

Investigators say they've not yet determined how a bottle of supposedly weapons-grade chemicals ended up in Rowley's home, or if there are more like it around. Police cordons will remain in place around the scene "for some considerable time."

Rowley, 45, and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, 44, took ill on June 30, with what British police later said was nerve agent poisoning caused by Novichok, citing researchers at the nearby Porton Down chemical lab. Both were admitted to the Salisbury hospital in critical condition.

Comment: Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, described the bottle found in Amesbury as a "forensic gold mine" and a "treasure trove" providing "significant clues". Indeed, what a fantastic find, just like a real-life episode of Poirot or Midsummer Murders- the murder weapon was found with the contents still intact, even after four months... case closed?

Unfortunately for the UK government, there are still some major holes in the official story, as Craig Murray writes:
We are continually presented with experts by the mainstream media who will validate whatever miraculous property of "novichok" is needed to fit in with the government's latest wild anti-Russian story. Tonight Newsnight wheeled out a chemical weapons expert to tell us that "novichok" is "extremely persistent" and therefore that used to attack the Skripals could still be lurking potent on a bush in a park.

Yet only three months ago we had this example of scores from the MSM giving the same message which was the government line at that time:

"Professor Robert Stockman, of the University of Nottingham, said traces of nerve agents did not linger. He added: 'These agents react with water to degrade, including moisture in the air, and so in the UK they would have a very limited lifetime. This is presumably why the street in Salisbury was being hosed down as a precaution - it would effectively destroy the agent.'"

In fact, rain affecting the "novichok" on the door handle was given as the reason that the Skripals were not killed. But now the properties of the agent have to fit a new narrative, so they transmute again.

It keeps happening. Do you remember when Novichok was the most deadly of substances, many times more powerful than VX or Sarin, and causing death in seconds? But then, when that needed to be altered to fit the government's Skripal story, they found scientists to explain that actually no, it was pretty slow acting, absorbed gradually through the skin, and not all that deadly.
For more information see the NewsReal episode and articles below:



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Bomb

Gaza Strip: Israeli jets strike Hamas in response to 'terror acts, violent riots' at border


RT
Sat, 14 Jul 2018 02:20 UTC
Gaza blast
© IDFSpokesperson/Twitter
Israeli fighter jets have carried out strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza strip, in response to the violence and "terrorist acts" the group instigated at the border, as well as cross-border rocket launches, the IDF said.

"Tonight, IDF fighter jets targeted an attack terror tunnel in southern Gaza, in addition to several terror sites throughout Gaza, among them complexes used to prepare arson terror attacks and a Hamas terror training facility," the IDF said, posting a video of the strike.

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Arrow Up

Piles of surrendered Western arms: a sign of 'gross interference', a sign of liberation


RT
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 20:36 UTC
Weaponry of rebels
© Omar Sanadiki/Reuters
The Western-made weapons surrendered by armed groups in Deraa are "material evidence of gross interference" in Syria, according to Russian Foreign ministry. The Syrian province was under militant control for years.

"Enormous number of Western-produced modern weapons and equipment was handed over by reconciled militants to the Syrian army," spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, during her weekly news briefing on Thursday. "Different antitank missile systems, armored vehicles and small arms represent material evidence of gross interference in Syria."

The reconciliation deal with militant forces, brokered by Russian military, and the advances of the Syrian army allowed to "almost completely" liberate the embattled southwestern Deraa province. Syrian forces regained control over the border with Jordan and the operation against remaining terrorists was carried out with minimal casualties, Zakharova stressed.


Comment: No matter the count and caliber of weapons taken out of circulation...there are always more to be made, purchased and distributed - an ongoing industry fattening the pockets of the MIC with numbing regularity.

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