Society's Child

Venezuelans buy bus tickets out after Maduro wins re-election - nearly 1 million left the country in 2015-2017

Luc Cohen
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wed, 23 May 2018 11:26 UTC

Caracas, (Reuters) - Betsabeth Casique saved for eight months for bus tickets out of Venezuela for herself and her three children. At 1.4 million bolivars each, they are worth what she earns in a month working as a nurse.

It is less than two dollars at the black market exchange rate.

When socialist President Nicolas Maduro won re-election to a six-year term on Sunday in a vote the opposition and foreign governments called illegitimate, Casique decided to leave, first for the western city of San Cristobal and from there to Cucuta, Colombia.

"That was the straw that broke the camel's back, what pushed me to do it faster," Casique, 29, said while charging her cell phone outside the Aeroexpresos Ejecutivos terminal in Caracas, where she was planning to buy tickets for a bus leaving on Tuesday.

Ninety-nine people bought tickets on Monday morning for that trip, said Greberli Rojas, a passenger who displayed a handwritten wait-list she was keeping to avoid disputes between passengers trying to fit on the bus.

Comment: The situation in Venezuela is disastrous. While there is no doubt that Maduro is partially responsible due to his insistence on facing the forces of globalization with inflexible socialist policies, it is also true that the country would not have most of its problems if it was not being constantly harassed and threatened with regime change by the US and its regional allies:

Despite sanctions and Western attempts to isolate, Russia attracts big investment

Frank Sellers
The Duran
Tue, 22 May 2018 10:24 UTC

© REUTERS/Mikhail Metzel/TASS/Host Photo Agency/Pool EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
Participants listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who delivers a speech during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017.

Western media would have you believe that Russia is an underdeveloped nation with a wretched standard of living. They advance the perception that it is a country that has never recovered from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

They would also want you to believe that Russia is suffering under the heavy burden of Western imposed sanctions that have brought Russia to her knees as a result of isolation, which couldn't be further from reality.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is right around the corner, scheduled for the the 24th-26th of May, and the docket for this year's event should be impressive to anybody who keeps an eye on international economics.

As reported by RT

Comment: With Russia's growing economy, why wouldn't they want to seek investment there? So far the sanctions have only been bad for business. See also:

Judge rules parents can kick their 30yo son out of house

Mark Price
Charlotte Observer
Tue, 22 May 2018 11:21 UTC

The strange case of a New York state couple going to court to get their 30-year-old son to move out has ended in favor of the parents, according to media outlets in upstate New York.

State Supreme Court Justice Donald Greenwood ruled Tuesday that Michael Rotondo must leave his parents' home in Camillus in upstate New York, reported TV station WSTM.

Rotondo said he planned to appeal, calling the judge's decision "outrageous," reported WSYR.

The 30-minute court hearing was described as "surreal" by the news outlet Syracuse.com, which reported Michael Rotondo was argumentative, refused to address his parents directly and never denied they asked him to leave the home.

Researchers warn about global 'staggering' obesity epidemic

AFP
Wed, 23 May 2018 11:16 UTC

In 27 years from now, almost a quarter of the global population will be obese, researchers said Wednesday, warning of the mounting medical bill.

If current trends continue, 22 percent of people in the world will be obese by 2045, up from 14 percent last year, according to research presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Vienna.

One in eight people, up from one in 11, will have type 2 diabetes -- a form of the disease that generally hits in adulthood as a result of being overweight.

"These numbers underline the staggering challenge the world will face in the future in terms of numbers of people who are obese, or have type 2 diabetes, or both," said researcher Alan Moses of Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk's research and development department.

MP warns: Cocaine fuels soaring violent crime rate as UK set to become Europe's coke capital

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 11:05 UTC

The UK is on the way to becoming the cocaine capital of Europe, a government minister has warned. Security minister Ben Wallace linked the profitable drug to soaring crime rates.

Wallace said the "high-margin, high-supply drug" was "fueling" an increase in violence on the streets. He told MPs that technology had enabled drug dealers to avoid police detection and order drugs directly from other "serious" gangs.

The cost of Fatherlessness

Augusto Zimmermann
Quadrant
Wed, 23 May 2018 10:23 UTC

Child abuse and neglect overwhelmingly occur in households from which the biological father is absent or removed. Shamefully, recognising and defending fathers' role in the protection of their biological children is spurned by the prevailing left-feminist agenda

For years fathers' groups have complained that whenever they request that fathers should have more time to spend with their children after divorce, feminist groups argue that those children will be exposed to more violence.

Contrary to social evidence, feminists think males raised without fathers will treat women better. And yet, most of the male perpetrators of domestic violence are the products of what once was called a "broken home". They have been denied a meaningful contact with their biological fathers, and, as a result, denied experience of traditional fatherhood.

Comment:

Israeli ambassador says Dutch parody of Eurovision song is anti-Semitic because it references Israeli violence in Gaza

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 09:19 UTC

Israel's ambassador to the Netherlands made a formal complaint over a sketch show version of Israel's winning Eurovision entry. The spoof song included references to Israeli violence in Gaza and has been called anti-Semitic.

Israel's ambassador to the Netherlands Aviv Shir-On has lodged an official letter of protest to BNNVARA, the public broadcaster that aired the show, the Foreign Ministry and the Central Jewish Board group in the country.

The 'Samme Wallis de Vries Show,' created a spoof of the winning Eurovision performance, with comedian Martine Sandifort playing the part of singer Netta Barzilai. The lyrics of the female empowerment anthem "Toy" were changed to something more politically relevant: "The world's leaders are eating out of my hand... we're throwing a party, are you coming? Later, at the al-Aqsa mosque, which will be empty soon anyway." The al-Aqsa Mosque is one of Islam's most holy places, located in a part of Jerusalem that Israel claims for its own.

The video also features footage of protesting and wounded Palestinians, as well as a reference to the US Embassy opening on Israel's 70th anniversary, to which Sandifort sings, "the Palestinians aren't invited to her party." Instead of the lyrics, "I'm not your toy," the comedic version says, "look how beautifully I launch missiles." On the day of the embassy opening on May 14, almost 60 Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli forces at the border.

Comment: There is almost nothing one can say or do that criticizes Israel without it being called 'anti-semitism'.

Jordan Peterson is playing in the Left's cultural sandbox

David French
National Review
Mon, 21 May 2018 14:58 UTC

There's room for a Christian counter-offensive in secular culture.

Rarely in my life have I read a more hostile or vicious takedown of a public figure than last week's New York Times profile of Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson. Rarely have I witnessed a more bizarre and bad-faith interview of a public figure than journalist Cathy Newman's January interrogation of Peterson on Britain's Channel 4 News. Few public figures inspire more vitriol and mockery on Twitter than, you guessed it, Jordan Peterson. And never before have I seen vitriol so out of proportion to the "threat" of the man's underlying message.

I don't claim to be an expert on everything the man's said, but I read and reviewed his most recent book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote for Chaos, and I've watched many of his most popular YouTube videos - and the contrast between the actual content of his message and the rage and mockery it elicits never fails to surprise me. Have we really reached the point where the basic argument that men and women are different, or that free men and women will often make different choices in large part because they are different, or that religion and ancient traditions can inform and guide our lives today, are now so toxic that their advocates must and should face a relentless campaign to drive them from the public square?

Or, given the obvious crisis that young men face - with rising rates of suicide and drug overdose, and diminishing educational outcomes - why the extraordinary hostility to a man who is reaching those same young men with a message of hard work, personal responsibility, honor, and integrity?

Comment: See also:

Chris Hedges: The collapse is coming, get ready

Chris Hedges
Truthdig
Sun, 20 May 2018 00:00 UTC

The Trump administration did not rise, prima facie, like Venus on a half shell from the sea. Donald Trump is the result of a long process of political, cultural and social decay. He is a product of our failed democracy. The longer we perpetuate the fiction that we live in a functioning democracy, that Trump and the political mutations around him are somehow an aberrant deviation that can be vanquished in the next election, the more we will hurtle toward tyranny. The problem is not Trump. It is a political system, dominated by corporate power and the mandarins of the two major political parties, in which we don't count. We will wrest back political control by dismantling the corporate state, and this means massive and sustained civil disobedience, like that demonstrated by teachers around the country this year. If we do not stand up we will enter a new dark age.

4.8mn Swedish homes to get war prepper pamphlet

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 03:47 UTC

The Swedish government is issuing pamphlets explaining how citizens should prepare for a multitude of potential crises from terrorist attacks to all-out war, saying: "Sweden is safer than many other countries but threats exist."

The booklet, produced by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), advises Swedes to stock up on tinned food, bottled water and blankets in addition to planning how they would manage the supply of water, food, heat and communications when public services are not functioning as normal.

Comment: Ridiculous! Sweden distributes 4.7 million leaflets on 'how to prepare for war with Russia'

Great interview with Professor Petrovsky, a very brave soul ! He is clear and concise from a Vaccine researcher /producer point of view and calls...

Gator

There's no mileage in anything the Smith's have to say, their well versed in interfering with things. So we can all sleep safely in our bed...

Winternights3

Seriously, lets break down these words, and I am fully equipped for this task that I give to myself NOW. gives OSHA the authority to act quickly...

Buffalo_Ken

Forensic pathologists performed a postmortem and concluded that the man had probably died mid-flight Let me see ... he walked onto the plane,...

HashAttack2

This ain't no fucking real emergency. It is an effing emergency in the mind of a few....who thought they were gonna put the rest of us into...

Buffalo_Ken

Society's Child

Venezuelans buy bus tickets out after Maduro wins re-election - nearly 1 million left the country in 2015-2017

Despite sanctions and Western attempts to isolate, Russia attracts big investment

Judge rules parents can kick their 30yo son out of house

Researchers warn about global 'staggering' obesity epidemic

MP warns: Cocaine fuels soaring violent crime rate as UK set to become Europe's coke capital

The cost of Fatherlessness

Israeli ambassador says Dutch parody of Eurovision song is anti-Semitic because it references Israeli violence in Gaza

Jordan Peterson is playing in the Left's cultural sandbox

Chris Hedges: The collapse is coming, get ready

4.8mn Swedish homes to get war prepper pamphlet

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