Society's ChildS


Gear

'An historic and exciting event': Pentagon relocates US Army HQ from Seoul after 70+ years

USFK change of command ceremony on Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek
© ReutersUSFK change of command ceremony on Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, South Korea; January 5, 2018
The US Army's headquarters in South Korea, located in the capital Seoul since the end of WWII, has moved to a $11bn base in the rural south - away from mass protest rallies and the North's guns.

The new United States Forces Korea (USFK) headquarters was opened on Friday at Camp Humphreys, a base near the town Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, where the HQ was stationed for more than 70 years.

USFK commander General Vincent Brooks said the relocation was "an historic and exciting event" during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Brooks, who also leads the UN forces stationed on the Korean Peninsula, added that it "represents the significant investment in the long-term presence of US Forces Korea."

Comment: See also: Thousands of S. Koreans protest installation of THAAD US missile defense system as Seoul announces location


Star of David

Dear Isaac Herzog, American intermarriage is not a plague

Charles Grodin and Cybill Shepherd

Charles Grodin and Cybill Shepherd in "The Heartbreak Kid," an intermarriage comedy by Elaine May (1972)
Isaac Herzog, the chair of the Jewish Agency and former leader of the Zionist left (left, or less extreme right?) in Israel, has declared intermarriage by American Jews a "plague," with millions of victims:
I'll tell you a personal story. Last summer I traveled [with my wife] to the USA for a vacation. I graduated from a Jewish school in New York. And we went to meet friends. I have a ton of friends in the U.S.A. And I encountered something that I called an actual plague. I saw my friends' children married or coupled with non-Jewish partners! And the parents beat their breasts and ask questions, and are suffering. Listen, it's every [Jewish] family in the U.S.A.! And we are talking about millions. And I said there must be a campaign, a solution. We have to rack our brains to figure out how to solve this great challenge.
Oh the horror! Young American Jews are marrying who they love, not who their parents want them to love. How terrible. What a tragic mistake those young fools are making.

Windsock

Poll: American support for death penalty continues its long-term decline, despite recent uptick favoring capital punishment for murder convictions

death penalty, capital punishment
President Donald Trump has voiced his support for the death penalty, and a recent Pew Research Center survey found an uptick in the share of Americans who favor capital punishment for those convicted of murder. Over the long term, however, public support for the death penalty has declined significantly, as has the number of executions in the United States.

As the debate over the death penalty continues in the U.S. and worldwide, here are five facts about the issue:

1.The annual number of U.S. executions peaked at 98 in 1999 and has fallen sharply in the years since. In 2017, 23 inmates were executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That's slightly higher than the year before, when 20 people were executed, but still well below the number of inmates annually put to death in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Just eight states - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and Virginia - accounted for all executions in 2017, compared with 20 states in 1999.
pew research US executions

Comment: And Russian views: Nearly 80% of Russians want death penalty to combat corruption, Twitter poll shows


Sheriff

Cop arrested for punching his 14yo autistic son in the face and repeatedly smashing his head into a wall

Larry Bybee
An Amesbury police officer was arrested on Tuesday and charged with crimes related to the alleged beating of a 14-year-old autistic boy.

According to the Essex District Attorney's Office, officer Larry Bybee arrested on Tuesday and charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child-his own son. The court issued a restraining order against Bybee and he was ordered to stay away from his children, alcohol, and drugs during his arraignment.

According to NBC10, court documents show the alleged incident happened at Bybee's home in Amesbury on June 13. It was reported to the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families the following day since Bybee's son lives in New Hampshire half of the time with Bybee's ex-wife.

Sheriff

New body cam footage shows Vegas police cowered in fear in hallway as Paddock slaughtered dozens

Cordell Hendrex Las Vegas shooting
Sadly, the more information we receive from the worst mass shooting in modern American history, the less coverage it gets by the mainstream media. Damning footage contradicting official timelines and LVMPD documents have surfaced and they barely register as a blip on the media's radar.

After being forced to release information on the October 1 massacre, the Las Vegas police department-in an insultingly futile attempt at transparency-has been dumping information related to the shooting. In what appears to be a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters, much of the video released by the department has no time stamps and is provided without context.

Like all the previous footage, the latest body camera video to be released lacks a time stamp. However, because we know that Stephen Paddock - according to the official timeline and citizen videos of the incident - initially opened fire at 10:05 p.m. and did not stop shooting until 10:14 p.m., we now know that officers were inside the hotel and could've engaged him-contrary to what we've been told.

Comment: See also:


People 2

String of transgender murders could be the work of a serial killer, activists fear killings are linked

Transgender
Three transgender black women have been fatally shot in Jacksonville, Florida, since the beginning of the year, and local activists fear that the killings are linked.

"The transgender community in Jacksonville is frightened," Gina Duncan, a transgender-rights advocate with Equality Florida, said in a statement on Tuesday. "They fear this could be a serial killer or orchestrated violence targeting the community. They do not feel protected on their own streets."

Celine Walker, 36, was the first trans women killed in Jacksonville this year. Police found her body on Feb. 4 inside a room at an Extended Stay America hotel in the city's Southpoint area, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Antash'a English, 38, was found shot in the abdomen between two abandoned houses in northern Jacksonville on June 1, and she later died in a hospital, the sheriff's office said.

Passport

The cause of mass migration: Western wars and imperial exploitation uproot millions

migrants asylum seekers
© punghi / Shutterstock.comMigrants on their way to Western Europe
"Immigration" has become the dominant issue dividing Europe and the US, yet the most important matter which is driving millions to emigrate is overlooked - wars.

In this paper we will discuss the reasons behind the massification of immigration, focusing on several issues, namely (1) imperial wars (2) multi-national corporate expansion (3) the decline of the anti-war movements in the US and Western Europe (4) the weakness of the trade union and solidarity movements.

We will proceed by identifying the major countries affected by US and EU wars leading to massive immigration, and then turn to the western powers forcing refugees to 'follow' the flows of profits.

Family

Number of homeless children in England at highest level since 2007

Child homelessness in England
© AlamyRough sleeping in England increased for a seventh consecutive year in 2017, reaching 4,751 people, although the true figure is believed to be much higher.
The number of homeless children and older people in temporary accommodation has reached the highest level since the global financial crisis in 2007, government figures show.

A total of 123,130 children were housed in temporary accommodation in England in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of nearly 80% since 2011. The number of people accepted as homeless over the age of 60 has increased by 40% in the last year, reaching 2,520. There has also been a significant rise in the number of homeless single parents.

Campaigners have blamed government welfare cuts, lack of affordable housing and rising rents for the growing number of homeless people housed in temporary accommodation by the state.

Dollars

China caps film star pay citing 'money worship', 'distortion of social values', and fake contracts

Fan Bingbing
© Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images‘Yin-yang’ contracts said to belong to Fan Bingbing were posted online.
Chinese authorities are capping the salaries of celebrities, blaming the entertainment industry for encouraging "money worship" and "distorting social values".

The salaries of on-screen performers should be capped at 40% of the total production costs, according to a joint notice from five government agencies including China's tax authority, the television and film regulator, and the propaganda department. Leading actors should receive no more than 70% of total wages for the cast, according to the announcement, published in Xinhua.

The directive - the same as guidelines released last year by the China Alliance of Radio Film and Television - comes after a series of Chinese celebrities were accused of signing fake contracts to evade taxes.

In May a well-connected Chinese TV presenter, Cui Yongyuan, posted photos of contracts believed to belong to Fan Bingbing, one of the country's highest paid actors. The contracts, one for $1.56m and another for $7.8m, were meant to be an illustration of "yin-yang contracts", a common method of tax evasion in which only the smaller contract is reported to authorities.

Comment: Not a bad idea for a LOT of professions.


Bizarro Earth

Left wing justices don't like the law

Sotomayor Supreme court
© Renee Jones Schneider/Minneapolis Star Tribune via APSonia Maria Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
The left doesn't like the rule of law much. If they legally lose an election, they take to the streets as if some injustice had been done to them. If we enforce our border laws, they become hysterical and try to intimidate and bully public officials. If they can't get a law passed by constitutional means, they are perfectly happy to use regulation to exert extra-legal control over the citizenry.

All of which is bad enough in leftist media, leftist mobs and leftist officials. But in leftist Supreme Court justices, it's even worse.

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