Society's ChildS


Pistol

US soldier says he killed unarmed Afghans for sport

Morlock
© ReutersJeremy Morlock
An American soldier has pleaded guilty to being part of a "kill team" who deliberately murdered Afghan civilians for sport last year. Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, told a military court he had helped to kill three unarmed Afghans. "The plan was to kill people, sir," he told an army judge in Fort Lea, near Seattle, after his plea.

The case has caused outraged headlines around the world. In a series of videotaped confessions to investigators, some of which have been broadcast on American television, Morlock detailed how he and other members of his Stryker brigade set up and faked combat situations so that they could kill civilians who posed no threat to them. Four other soldiers are still to come to trial over the incidents.

The case is a PR disaster for America's military and has been compared to the notorious incidents of torture that emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This week the German magazine Der Spiegel published three pictures that showed American soldiers, including Morlock, posing with the corpse of a young Afghan boy as if it were a hunting trophy.

Some soldiers apparently kept body parts of their victims, including a skull, as souvenirs. In a statement issued in response to the publication of the photos the US army apologised to the families of the dead. "[The photos are] repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States army," the statement said.

Attention

400 sheriffs say 'enough is enough,' demand congress reduce immigration, criminalize sanctuary cities

sheriff Hodgson
© Fox NewsSheriff Thomas M. Hodgson
Nearly 400 sheriffs across the country are calling on the Republican-controlled Congress to follow through on President Trump's popular immigration agenda by securing the nation's porous borders and criminalizing sanctuary cities.

Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts, has gathered with about 380 sheriffs from across America, representing 40 states, to ask Congress to push Trump's agenda that would help decrease and end illegal immigration to the United States.

"Enough is enough," the sheriffs write. They continue, saying:
Congress must pass text
© unknown

Family

Dehumanizing the unborn: People with Down syndrome deserve love and respect, not genocide

Killing those with Down syndrome serves no rational purpose. It is a policy born of ignorance and fear. Worse, what it communicates to those so affected is simply unimaginable.
Lucas Warren Down's syndrome
Ann Turner Cook recently celebrated her 91st birthday. You may not recognize her name, but you surely know her face. She is the iconic baby sketched in charcoal who has graced Gerber baby-food jars since 1928.

Gerber recently initiated an annual photo contest to name a national "Spokesbaby of the year." This year more than 140,000 pictures were submitted, and on February 7 Gerber announced the winner, Lucas Warren.

Son of Courtney and Jason Warren of Dalton, Georgia, Lucas has an infectious smile and an endearing personality. The photo that made him famous caught him in mid-giggle sitting in an overstuffed chair with white pants and aqua shirt, bare feet, and black polka-dot bowtie to complete the ensemble.

The name "Lucas" means "light." He is certainly that. Courtney said, "We hope this opportunity sheds light on the special needs community and educates people that with acceptance and support, individuals with special needs have the potential to change the world - just like our Lucas!"

Attention

Hundreds gather to mourn and protest police shooting of unarmed black man in California

Funeral Stephon Clark
Hundreds of people have joined the funeral of an unarmed African-American man shot dead by police in the capital of the US state of California.

The public service in California's capital Sacramento became a rallying cry for justice in the face of police violence against African-Americans.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton delivered an angry, rousing speech at the occasion.

Sharpton noted that White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders, when asked by reporters on Wednesday why President Donald Trump had not addressed the incident, had called Clark's killing a "local matter."

"This is not a local matter," Sharpton shouted. "They have been killing young black men all over the country, and we are here to say that we are going to stand with Stephon Clark and his family."

Comment:


Eye 1

Facebook now busted for handing data on millions of users to Hillary Clinton campaign

hillary clinton zuckerberg
Did Facebook break campaign finance laws?

Facebook's privacy problems continue to grow, not just with handing over user data to the Trump campaign and the Obama campaign, but also to the loser Hillary Clinton campaign.

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign collected the Facebook data of millions of people, which could and should be considered campaign contributions.

Fox News' Tucker Carlson explains in the video below...

Comment:


Eye 1

The amount of personal information Google has on you is nothing compared to Facebook

Google spying
As TFTP reported last week, it was revealed that both the Obama campaign and the Trump campaign used third-party integrations to collect private information on millions of unsuspecting Facebook users. The resultant scandal has sent Facebook's stock tumbling as well as created a firestorm for Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow data miners. Remaining conveniently out of the scrutiny, however, is Google, whose data mining of private information, according to a recent report, dwarfs that of Facebook.

Web developer Dylan Curran, based in Waterford, Ireland, is making headlines this week after he recently downloaded both his Facebook data file and his Google data file.

As TFTP has reported, the information Facebook keeps on its users is utterly mind-blowing, consisting of everything from text messages to liked posts, the social media giant is building profiles on billions. However, according to Curran, this is nothing compared to what Google has.

"Want to freak yourself out? I'm gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it," Curran wrote before giving a breakdown of all the information insidiously gleaned by these information giants.

Binoculars

IDF assassinate Palestinian unarmed civilians while they walk, run, pray - US news doesn't care

palestine protest
Video said to be from Gaza border yesterday March 30, 2018, shows shooting in the back of a man identified as Abed el-Fatah Abed e-Nabi, 18, on left, as he ran. He was reportedly killed.
There was growing proof on social media over night that the Israeli shootings of Palestinians at the Gaza border yesterday were arbitrary and criminal. Here is a video of a Palestinian shot while walking, evidently toward the fence. Here is another video that appears to show two Palestinian youths being shot, while running holding a tire- and video of the same incident from a different angle.


Haaretz reports that one of the two was shot in the back and killed: Abed el-Fatah Abed e-Nabi, 18.


While the BBC supplies a terrifying statistic: "Palestinian health officials said at least 400 people had been wounded by live ammunition."

Jim Zogby of the Arab American Institute links video of a Palestinian boy shot while he is praying, evidently at the border. Jacob Magid of the Times of Israel posts the same video and says mordantly, "The IDF's gonna have a hard time saying this guy fell off his bike..."


Yousef Munayyer of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights observes:
More videos of Palestinians in Gaza being shot by Israeli snipers while posing no threat. Here they were running away. The Israelis were so far away you can't even see them hiding behind their sniper scopes.
Munayyer asks if there has been any cable coverage of this at all? Scott Roth says, "Won't find anything on cable, and it's a scandal."

Comment: It was about time for Israel to engage in another ritual slaughter. It's been too long since the last one. The death toll now stands at 17, with hundreds otherwise injured by live fire (the IDF regularly targets civilians in the knees and groin). Thousands are mourning in Rafah, Gaza and Khan Younis.
Hamdan Abu Amshah funeral
© Suhaib Salem / ReutersRelatives of Palestinian Hamdan Abu Amshah, who was killed along Israel border with Gaza, mourn during his funeral in Beit Hanoun town.
See also:


Bug

Facebook in a bind: Fake news and data harvesting puts social media network in no win situation

facebook
Mark Zuckerberg is stuck in a catch-22. Any fix for Facebook's previous big problem - fake news - would make the current big problem with data harvesting worse.

As a media company and one of Americans' top sources of information, Facebook's de facto anonymity and general lack of responsibility for user-generated content make it easy for propagandists to exploit. Making matters worse, it isn't willing to impose tighter identification rules for fear of losing too many users, and it doesn't want to be held responsible in any way for content, preferring to present itself as a neutral platform.

So Zuckerberg has been trying to fix the problem by showing people more material from friends and family and by prioritizing "trusted publishers" and local news sources over purveyors of fake news.

But the Cambridge Analytica scandal shows people may not be OK with Facebook's data gathering, improved or not.

Info

Syrian military: All E. Ghouta towns liberated, key Damascus highway open after 7yrs of blockade

Syrian forces
© Ammar Safarjalani / Global Look PressSyrian forces
Syrian forces have liberated all militant-held settlements in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, the military command said in a televised statement. A major Syrian motorway has been unblocked for the first time in seven years.

"After a set of carefully planned battles and operations carried out by our armed forces in cooperation with loyal and allied troops, the control over all the towns and settlements in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta has been restored," a Syrian Army statement said, as cited by Sputnik news agency.

The army has also lifted the blockade of a main highway connecting the Syrian capital to the rest of the country, the statement said, as cited by SANA state news agency. "The victory in Eastern Ghouta ensured opening of the main routes between Damascus and central, northern and coastal regions, and all the way to the Iraqi border," it said.

Comment: See also: Liberation in sight: Bashar Assad photographed in Eastern Ghouta


Ambulance

Pennsylvania man overdoses on over the counter anti-diarrhea drug

Arjun Patel
Arjun Patel
There is a new and dangerous overdose threat, and it is found in anti-diarrhea products like Imodium A-D. It is called loperamide, and it can get you high but also take your life.

Now comes word that a 29-year-old Pittsburgh area man died as a result of a loperamide overdose.

As KDKA in Pittsburgh reports, the unusual cause of death for Arjun Patel, 29, of Fox Chapel was ruled this week in his November 2017 death.

Comment: More from Live Science:
Although the drug is safe in doses used to treat diarrhea, in large doses it can cause serious side effects, including breathing and heart problems, and even death. A new report describes two cases of people who died after overdosing on Imodium, also called loperamide, which is sold over-the-counter.

"People looking for either self-treatment of withdrawal symptoms [for opioid addiction] or euphoria are overdosing on loperamide with sometimes deadly consequences," study co-author William Eggleston, a clinical toxicologist at the Upstate New York Poison Center, in Syracuse, said in a statement. "This is another reminder that all drugs, including those sold without a prescription, can be dangerous when not used as directed."

Loperamide is an opioid drug, meaning it belongs to the same class of drugs as some prescription painkillers. Regular doses of the drug won't cause a "high" because only a tiny amount gets into the blood stream. But at very large doses, the drug can get into the blood stream and brain, and cause effects similar to those of opioid painkillers, the researchers said.