Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 03 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Dominoes

Tim 'Apple' Cook tells students to #LearnToCode... Twitter users demand he be banned for hate speech


RT
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 19:11 UTC
tim cook
© AFP / SAUL LOEB
The tech giant's CEO, Cook, whom President Trump called his 'good friend Tim Apple', said all American kids should 'learn to code' - prompting sarcastic demands he be deplatformed, like others who have tweeted the dreaded hashtag.

"It should be a requirement in the US for every kid to have coding before they graduate from K12 and become somewhat proficient at it," Cook said, pointing out that Apple was founded by a college dropout and that the company needs skilled coders much more than it needs college degrees.

But a Twitter spokesperson announced it was company policy to suspend users tweeting #LearnToCode back in January. While they subsequently backed away from the statement, several conservative-leaning Twitter users - including the editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller - were suspended for tweeting #LearnToCode at laid-off journalists last month.
      Read More...
Binoculars

On the Idlib front in Syria - Andrew Vltchek reports

Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 18:23 UTC
syria artillery
For a while, all the guns have fallen silent.

I am near Idlib, the last stronghold of the terrorists in Syria. The area where the deadliest anti-government fighters, most of them injected into Syria from Turkey, with Saudi, Qatari and Western 'help', are literally holed up, ready for the final showdown.

Just yesterday, mortars were falling on villages near the invisible frontline, separating government troops and the terrorist forces of Al Nusra Front. The day before yesterday, two explosions rocked the earth, only a couple of meters from where we are now standing.

They call it a ceasefire. But it's not. It is one-sided. To be more precise: the Syrian army is waiting, patiently. Its cannons are pointing towards the positions of the enemy, but the orders from Damascus are clear: do not fire.

The enemy has no scruples. It provokes, endlessly. It fires and bombs, indiscriminately. It kills. Along the frontline, thousands of houses are already ruined. Nothing gets spared: residential districts, sport gymnasiums, even bakeries. There is an established routine: assaults by the terrorists, rescue operations organized by Syrian armed forces (SAA - Syrian Arab Army) and Syrian National Defense Forces, then immediate rebuilding of the damage.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian people have lost their lives in this war. Millions had to leave their homeland. Millions have been internally displaced. For many, the conflict became a routine. Rescue operations became routine. Rebuilding tasks became routine, too.

Now, it is clear that the final victory is near. Syria survived the worse. It is still bleeding, but most of its territories are beginning to heal. People are slowly returning home, from Lebanon and Turkey, from Germany and elsewhere. They go through rubble - their former homes. They sit down and cry. Then, they get up and start rebuilding. That's in other parts of the country: Duma, Homs, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zur.
      Read More...
Better Earth

Sweden's blind altruism is actually harming migrants

Mustafa Panshiri
Quillette
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:59 UTC
Mustafa Panshiri
The 15-year-old boy was standing outside the police station, late one night during the immigration wave of 2015. I was meeting youths like him almost every day, as they came to the station to apply for asylum. Sweden was the country in Europe that took in most immigrants per capita during the crisis, with numbers up to over 160,000 by the end of the year. 35,000 of them, mostly Afghans, claimed refugee status as unaccompanied minors. Linköping is a small town and I was the only police officer there who spoke their language, Dari.

As we sat down to go through routine questioning, I started thinking about my own memories of coming to Sweden from Afghanistan with my parents and siblings. I was a few years younger than the boy sitting across the table from me.

I wanted to tell him that he had come to an amazing country. I wanted to tell him that he had all the opportunity in the world to build a better future for himself. That he no longer had to be afraid. But I didn't have time to say any of those things before the boy broke down before me. He couldn't stop crying.

He told me that he had lost his mother and big brother among hundreds of other migrants in the Turkish mountains. Suddenly on his own, he had managed to travel through Germany and Denmark before finally reaching Sweden. He had just gotten off the train.

He asked me through his tears if he would ever see his mother again.

I realized that this kid wasn't thinking about his education, or his future. He just wanted his Mom.
      Read More...
Attention

Radicalized inmate shouts, 'Allahu Akbar' and stabs two guards in French prison - UPDATE


RT
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 19:59 UTC
French police
© Reuters/Benoit Tessier
A "radicalized" inmate has stabbed two guards in a prison in the northwest of France, causing a tense standoff with the law enforcement. The suspect was injured and apprehended during a full-scale assault on the facility.

The prisoner had been with his wife in a visiting room at the high-security facility on Tuesday when the 27-year-old stabbed two guards with a ceramic knife, shouting "Allahu Akbar," prison staff told AFP. The prisoner then retreated into another room and locked himself in with his wife, beginning a standoff with police lasting several hours.

"It was truly a murder attempt. There was blood everywhere. The family-visiting unit was a battle scene," a member of the prison staff said. Despite the apparent severity of the attack, the victims' injuries turned out to be non-life threatening, and no hostages have been taken.

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said that there was "no doubt about the terrorist nature of the attack," and that the inmate was known as an adherent of radical Islam. Police sources suggest he was radicalized in prison in 2010.

Comment: UPDATE

The situation has escalated as prison guards block access to 18 prisons in France:

About 60 guards have blocked the Condé-sur-Sarthe prison in north-western France, the scene of Tuesday's horrifying attack, setting fire to tires and palettes outside the secure facility. The two guards were seriously injured in the stabbing, and the suspect was shot and wounded by police.

A local union leader at the Fleury-Merogis prison outside Paris told the AFP that "colleagues want to go to work but we do not abandon them, we do not send them to die." Footage from the prison shows that riot police have arrived on the scene and are calling on the guards to remove their blockades.


Additionally, the 'radicalized' inmate's wife has reportedly died from injuries sustained during the assault operation:
The man's wife, who died during the 10-hour siege following the stabbing, is thought to have smuggled a knife in to him during her visit.


      Read More...
Books

Amazon 'burns' book on Quran co-authored by Tommy Robinson


The Independent
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:44 UTC
Tommy Robinson
© Gareth Fuller/Press Association
Tommy Robinson is a co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL)
Amazon has banned the selling of Tommy Robinson's book about the Quran on its website.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is the co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL), and has also recently had his profiles removed from a number of social media websites.

His book, which he co-wrote with Peter McLoughlin, Mohammed's Koran: Why Muslims kill for Islam, has now been pulled from the online retailer after being classed as "inappropriate content."

Robinson has repeatedly accused media outlets and major companies of censorship and his co-author, Mr McLoughlin, compared Amazon's decision to those taken in Nazi Germany.

"This is the twenty-first century equivalent of the Nazis taking out the books from university libraries and burning them," he said, according to the Mail Online.

Comment: There seems to be a movement afoot to shut down discussion of Islam that mirrors the movement to shut down discussion of Zionism, all in the name of 'inclusivity'. From the Daily Mail:
According to Mr McLoughlin the £14 book was removed from the Amazon database, last month, meaning even second hand versions cannot be sold.

The book is marketed as an examination of the Koran and the motivations of extremism. However, critics called it 'infantile'.

Despite scathing reviews the author said it was 'the No.1 best-selling exegesis of the Koran'.

Mr McLoughlin added: 'I can't get my head round it. Every few weeks for the past 18 months they had emailed me asking to put it into special sales programmes, as it was selling so well.

'For 18 months they sought to profit even more from the sales. This is a book where verified Amazon customers left over 1000 five star reviews of the book over the last 18 months.'

Tommy Robinson has become so divisive a Kent councillor was suspended from the Conservative party this week, for re-tweeting a message about him which said he had been unfairly treated by social media companies.

Cllr Andrew Bowles, a Swale Borough Councillor for 16 years, shared the message which said Robinson was the victim of 'disgraceful injustice'.


      Read More...
Ambulance

One killed, over 30 injured in grenade blast in Jammu, India

Karuna Madan
Gulf News
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:36 UTC
grenade blast at bus station in Jammu
© AFP
Indian police inspect the site of a grenade blast at a bus station in Jammu.
Days after the deadly terror attack in Kashmir's Pulwama, at least one person was killed and over 30 injured in a grenade blast that rocked a crowded bus stand in Jammu on Thursday.

All the injured were rushed to Jammu's Government Medical College Hospital. Five of them are critical.

The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police informed media that Mohammad Sharik, 17, a resident of Uttarakhand's Haridwar died due to splinter injuries in the chest.

"The blast occurred at around 12 noon. So far over 30 persons have been brought with splinter injuries," Sunanda Raina, Principal, Government Medical College Hospital, informed media.
      Read More...
Sherlock

US Census Bureau seeks data on legal status of millions of immigrants ahead of court case

Garance Burke
AP
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 12:00 UTC
Elizabeth OuYang
© AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File
FILE - In this Nov. 27, 2018, file photo, Elizabeth OuYang, coordinator of New York Counts 2020, speaks during a news conference outside the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse. Several lawsuits across the country have been filed challenging the citizenship question on the 2020 census. As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether the Trump administration can ask people if they are citizens on the upcoming Census, the Census Bureau is quietly seeking comprehensive information about the legal status of millions of immigrants.
As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether the Trump administration can ask people if they are citizens on the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau is quietly seeking comprehensive information about the legal status of millions of immigrants.

Under a proposed plan, the Department of Homeland Security would provide the Census Bureau with a broad swath of personal data about noncitizens, including their immigration status, The Associated Press has learned. A pending agreement between the agencies has been in the works since at least January, the same month a federal judge in New York blocked the administration from adding the citizenship question to the 10-year survey.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in California also declared that adding the citizenship question to the Census was unconstitutional, saying the move "threatens the very foundation of our democratic system."


Comment: This is an odd statement, because one would think that a democracy is made up of the legitimate citizens of a country.


Comment: The issue of mass migration poses a serious threat to democracy both in the US and the EU, and so it's not only the Trump administration which is seeking to know just how vast this problem is or how it plans to stop it: Also check out SOTT radio's:

      Read More...
Info

'It looked like the creature from Alien': Angler describes catching prehistoric fish

Naaman Zhou
The Guardian
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 11:48 UTC
Australian fish worm goby
© Andrew Rose
The rare native Australian fish known as a ‘worm goby’ was caught in the Kakadu national park in the Northern Territory
An Australian fisherman, who captured a rare, unsettling fish that resembled a creature from the sci-fi film Alien, says it was "not all that exciting" and he caught it with a beer in his hand.

Andrew Rose was fishing in the Northern Territory's Kakadu national park when he snagged a 15cm-long worm goby - a rare, mud-dwelling fish with no eyes, a bony head and sharp teeth.

"It looked prehistoric," Rose told Guardian Australia. "It looked like something you see in the movies. The lure wasn't swimming right, I pulled it and it had this strange looking fish on it. We didn't know what it was. We took photos, took him off the hook and put him back in the water."
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Baltimore officers indicted for deliberately running man over, then planting gun on him

Karma Allen
ABC News
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 11:46 UTC
Baltimore City Police Department
© Raymond Boyd/Getty Images, FILE
The doors to a Baltimore City Police Department Substation are pictured on April 9, 2015 in Baltimore.
A retired Baltimore police sergeant was indicted for allegedly planting a pellet gun on a suspect after another officer intentionally ran him over, prosecutors said.

Former Baltimore Police Department Sgt. Keith Gladstone pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights and witness tampering charges on Tuesday in connection with a 2014 incident that involved members of a corrupt police task, according to an indictment.

Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison suspended three unnamed officers in the wake of the indictment and said they would be investigated by the department's Internal Affairs unit.
      Read More...
Brick Wall

US company offers to build 234 miles of border wall for $1.4 billion

Anna Giaritelli
Washington Examiner
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 11:46 UTC
border patrol wall
© MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
Border Patrol officers keep watch before U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen inaugurates the first completed section of President Trumps 30-foot border wall in the El Centro Sector, at the U.S. Mexico border in Calexico, California on October 26, 2018.
A U.S. company is offering to build 234 miles of President Trump's border wall for just $1.4 billion, a fraction of the $8 billion the Trump administration is hoping to use for that project.

Fisher Sand and Gravel Company's President and CEO Tommy Fisher said the government is overpaying and that for $4.31 billion, he can build the wall and incorporate paved roads and border technology plus warranty.

"Our whole point is to break through the government bureaucracy," Fisher told the Washington Examiner. "If they do the small procurements as they are now ... that's not going to cut it."
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts