Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Heart - Black

More than 200 veterans die waiting for care at backlogged Phoenix VA

VA Medical Center in Phoenix
© AP

Comment: A psychopathic war monger like the U.S. has no use for its cannon fodder once they have returned from 'battle'. They are merely slave labor to be discarded when they are no longer useful.


The Phoenix Veterans Affairs office is still improperly canceling veterans' appointments, has built up a new backlog of cases — and at least one veteran is likely dead because of it, the department's inspector general said in a new report Tuesday.

Two years after they first sounded the alarm about secret waiting lists leaving veterans struggling for care at the Phoenix VA, investigators said some services have improved, and they cleared the clinic of allegations that top officials ordered staff to cancel appointments.

But confusion and bureaucratic bungling are still prevalent, some veterans are waiting a half-year or longer for treatment, and staff are still canceling appointments for questionable reasons.

More than 200 veterans died while waiting for appointments in 2015, and investigators said at least one veteran would likely have been saved if the clinic had gone ahead with his consultation. "This patient never received an appointment for a cardiology exam that could have prompted further definitive testing and interventions that could have forestalled his death," the inspector general said.

Stock Down

Tightening the noose on the global economy

noose
The investment world has an embarrassingly short attention span. But frankly, it is a necessity. If daytraders, hedge funds and other horses in the carousel actually had to look beyond the next week of market activity or study back on market history in comparison to today, then they would not be able to retain their blind optimism, which is exactly what is necessary for them to continue functioning. If they were all to examine the global financial situation with any honesty, the entire facade would collapse tomorrow.

At bottom, it is not central bank stimulus and intervention alone that drives equities and bond markets; it is the naive faith and willful ignorance of average market participants. There is a problem with this kind of economic model, however. Reality is never kept in check indefinitely. Fiscal truths will be exposed, one way or another.

How does one know when this full spectrum shift in awareness will occur? Well, there's no science that can help us with that. While basic economics is subject to the forces of supply, demand and mathematical inevitability, it is also subject to human psychology, which is another matter entirely.

TV

Has someone been hacking the Emergency Alert System?

emergency broadcast system
It seems like the Emergency Alert System has been hacked during September which happens to be FEMA's preparation awareness month. The authorities claim nothing fishy is going on. What do you really think is going on here?

Comment: See also:


Bulb

California passes law banning police from robbing innocent people using civil forfeiture

civil forfeiture
In a refreshing and unfortunately rare instance of reasonableness in policy, California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law a piece of legislation requiring police to secure an actual conviction before stealing people's stuff in drug-related offenses.

Civil asset forfeiture has been rightly likened to state-sanctioned armed robbery, as it allows police to commandeer cash, vehicles, homes, or any property of value — even if the person is never charged with a crime — and then use or sell the items for profit for their departments.

Police in Oklahoma, for example, recently honed their thievery by rolling out nefarious Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machines, known as ERAD, which can scan your bank account and prepaid cards, and — if an officer believes any balances are tied to a crime — can wipe those accounts dry.

California's new law, formerly Senate Bill 443, quashes this nightmarish policing-for-profit in the exact way advocates of civil asset forfeiture (CAF) reform have been demanding for years.

For police to keep cash stolen from people in amounts under $40,000 under the premise it has something to do with a drug-related crime, there must be an actual guilty verdict in court.

Handcuffs

Husband and wife convicted of financing terrorism after sending funds to nephew fighting for ISIS in Syria

isis
© AFP
A London couple are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to financing terrorism by sending funds to their nephew to support him in fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria.

Mohammed Iqbal Golamaully, 48, and his wife, Nazimabee Golamaully, 45, have both admitted to sending money to Zafirr Golamaully, which could result in a prison sentence.

Nazimabee Golamaully entered her plea at a hearing at the Old Bailey on Monday afternoon, while her husband entered his plea at an earlier hearing.

Both have been granted bail while they await sentencing at Old Bailey on November 10.

A London couple are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to financing terrorism by sending funds to their nephew to support him in fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria.

Health

'Heart-breaking' plight of Yemen's starving children: UN urges end to conflict amid ongoing Saudi strikes

starving children
© Khaled Abdullah / Reuters
UN humanitarian aid chief Stephen O'Brien, who travelled to Yemen and was shocked by what he saw, has called on all parties in the conflict to give access to aid, as Yemenis are becoming poorer - and hungrier - by the day.

"The best humanitarian relief that can be provided is an end to the conflict. I urged the authorities, as I urge other parties to the conflict, to return to political negotiations without delay to reach a negotiated solution," Stephen O'Brien, who is also the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.

Four out of five Yemenis are in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN says. The UN World Food Programme says nearly half of Yemen's 22 provinces are on the verge of famine. However, the situation with children in Yemen is especially dire, it seems.

My visit to Al Hudaydah hospital was heart-breaking," he said. "Mothers bring their malnourished children for treatment but there is simply not enough medicines to treat them. The quantities of food, medicine and fuel entering the country are way below the needs and must be increased as a matter of urgency."

Comment: It's not only the gruesome destruction of young bodies, or the slow-motion death of malnutrition and starvation inflicted upon these children; it is also great emotional and psychological anguish and turmoil they they feel, as illustrated by the following story: This 10-year-old girl wants you to know what the US Government is doing to Yemen


Dollars

Apple is the biggest US tax avoider - stashes $215bn in Irish offshore accounts

Apple computers
© Bobby Yip / Reuters
A new study reveals Fortune 500 companies are holding nearly $2.5 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to pay less tax. Top is Apple which since 2009 funneled $214.9 billion to tax havens and would owe $65.4 billion if the profits returned to the US.

The report was published just weeks after a European investigation concluded Ireland provided Apple with a favorable tax rate which allowed the company to pay one percent on EU profits in 2003 down to 0.005 percent in 2014. Apple is now obliged to pay $14.5 billion in back taxes.

The $215 billion Apple booked offshore through three tax havens last year is bigger than the gross domestic product of Portugal, Greece or New Zealand. If the company returned the earnings to the US and paid the $65.4 billion in tax, it would have been more than economies of Belarus, Uruguay or Croatia.

Comment: Apple and other corporations are able to get away with this only if politicians collude with them. The lawmakers provide the loopholes.


Monkey Wrench

Reducing consumer waste: Sweden plans to make planned obsolescence obsolete

bike repair
Our world is being totally trashed, not out of necessity, out of convenience. Something has changed in recent decades, and companies deliberately no longer produce goods that will last as long as possible, instead capitalizing on the consumer's willingness to toss something in the trash and replace it with something new, rather than go through the effort of having it fixed.

It's called planned obsolescence, a strategy of some product manufacturers. The basic idea is to engineer a product to have a predictably short lifetime so that when it malfunctions or breaks, the company can profit by selling another product. The additional sales and profits make it possible to sell more products at a lower cost, thereby increasing the attractiveness in a replacement. This is especially true for technology products, and some companies are finally beginning to design products that can evolve as technology does.

This business model has led to the collapse of the repair industry which used to be a thriving source of skilled labor for many people while saving resources and reducing mountains of waste.

Comment: See also:


Megaphone

Syrian-born journalist slams mainstream media for pro-rebel bias in Aleppo

syria destruction
A Syrian-born journalist has slammed the New York Daily News and the Independent newspaper for not accusing Syrian rebels of shelling areas belonging to government forces, lamenting that the MSM is not covering all sides of the war.

Harout Ekmanian was speaking to RT about his disbelief at the deliberate misreporting of the death of a Syrian swimmer and her 12-year-old brother.

Mireille Hindoyan and her younger sibling were killed in the Villi district of West Aleppo on Friday.

"I think the first victim of the war is the truth, especially in the Syrian war where journalism and journalists suffered a lot. Preserving impartiality has become a very difficult task for journalists,"he said.

Ekmanian, who now lives in New York, wrote an editorial in the New York Daily News explaining what had happened, only for the publication to remove a section in which he said the rebels were responsible for the deaths of the brother and sister.

"The New York Daily News published my contribution, but a paragraph was removed. I don't think personally that was a very serious editorial decision and I am still waiting for an explanation," he told RT.

Info

What about people's rights? Texas lawmakers want schools to teach kids how to behave during traffic stops

Texas police
© Laura Buckman / Reuters
Texas politicians are deliberating a bill to require schools teach teenagers how to comply with police during traffic stops. The local Black Lives Matter has called the proposal "an insult," and accused lawmakers of "trying to satisfy" police unions.

"Students need to know what their rights are. It is not as simple as "obey and complain" - it's too simplistic," Senator John Whitmire told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee during a three-hour hearing on Tuesday.

"We are in an emotionally sensitive time," Whitmire told community leaders, referring to increased tensions between police and citizens around the country.