Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Macedonia police teargas refugees as Europe arrivals reach 1 million

A young migrant girl near Macedonia
© ReutersA young migrant girl holds up a drawing in a makeshift camp on the Macedonian-Greek border, near Gevgelija, Macedonia, Nov. 30, 2015
Macedonian police fired teargas Wednesday at hundreds of refugees who tried to enter the country through its land border with Greece and demanded they be allowed in to continue their journey towards wealthier European countries.

Most of the refugees attacked were from Pakistan, Iran and Morocco who, under new regulations by the non-European Union Balkan nations, are not among the nationalities to be allowed through. Macedonian border authorities are screening the refugees and only letting in those from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

For several weeks, more than 1,500 refugees have been stranded in the border region between Greece and Macedonia and living in tents. Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said his government was trying to persuade them to come to Athens and apply for asylum in Greece, saying there was accommodation available for them.

Family

Catalonia dismisses court ruling that blocks secessionist bid

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy
© EFESpanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy praised the Constitutional Court's decision and said Catalonian independence will never happen
Catalonia's regional government again defied the government in Madrid and dismissed the Spanish Constitutional Court decision to block the secessionist movement, saying that their conviction to gain independence remains unchanged.

"The content of this declaration, approved by an absolute majority, is to remain unchanged no matter how many sentences the Spanish Constitutional Court issues," said Catalonian government spokeswoman Neus Munte.

Earlier in the day, Spain's Constitutional Court blocked the Catalan secession drive, increasing tensions between the regional government and Madrid, while adding to political uncertainty in the country ahead of the Dec. 20 general elections.

Pistol

Black Friday breaks record with 185,000 gun background checks

guns
© Damian Dovarganes, AP
More Americans had their backgrounds checked purchasing guns on Black Friday than any day on record, according to data released by the FBI this week.

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 185,345 requests on Nov. 27, one of the largest retail sales days in the country.

"This was an approximate 5% increase over the 175,754 received on Black Friday 2014," wrote Stephen Fischer, the FBI's chief of multimedia productions. "The previous high for receipts were the 177,170 received on 12/21/2012."

Comment: Americans must not feel so safe to live there without guns. Who can blame them?


Pistol

Mass shooting in San Bernadino SWAT team drill nearby

swat team san berbadino
An active shooter situation is currently underway in the 1300 block of South Waterman Avenue in San Bernardino, California.

The shooting apparently took place at the Inland Regional Center, which is a facility that provides services for people who have developmental disabilities. The facility had just celebrated its Christmas party.

Pistol

Up to 20 victims and up to 3 armed suspects on the loose in San Bernardino shooting

police tape line
© Max Whittaker / Reuters
Police in San Bernardino, California are responding to reports of an active shooter in an office building. There are 20 victims, according to the fire department. The location is around the corner from a Planned Parenthood.

The San Bernardino Sheriff's Office is urging the public to avoid the area of Orange Show Road, South Waterman Avenue and Park Center Circle.

The San Bernardino Fire Department has confirmed the presence of an active shooter near Park Center. SWAT teams have been deployed to the scene.


Live feed from the location shows many injured people being helped by emergency services.

Along with San Bernardino police officers, the California Highway Patrol, FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are on the scene.

People are leaving the building where the suspected shooter or shooters are located.

Witnesses told police that the shooters were wearing ski masks, KABC reported.

Hearts

Portland student's winter jacket idea that melts hearts and warms the needy

jackets on light posts
© @Grady_Trimble / NEWS CENTER / Twitter
A Portland student's simple gesture of goodwill is reminding the world that you don't need deep pockets to be able to help people in need.

As temperatures drop with each passing winter's day, Gabby Kaper decided to tape heavy jackets to lampposts in downtown Portland for any homeless people feeling the cold.

The sight of jackets attached to the street lights caused a mini mystery until good Samaritan Kaper stepped forward.


Comment: Good on this young lady for helping to warm society, in more ways than one! An inspiring act of kindness that reminds us that giving is good for the soul!


Bizarro Earth

Botswana sells fracking rights in one of Africa's largest conservation areas to UK energy company

Kgalagai Transfrontier Park
© Flickr/Andrew AshtonKgalagai Transfrontier Park
Botswana's government has recently sold the rights to the British Karoo Energy company to frack for shale gas in the Kgalagadi transfrontier park, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

Botswana's government has recently sold the rights to the British Karoo Energy company to frack for shale gas in the Kgalagadi transfrontier park, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Kgalagadi park is among Africa's largest conservation areas.

Arrow Down

Man hit with felony charges for handing out jury nullification fliers

Gavel
© Reuters
A Michigan man was arrested and charged with a felony for handing out fliers informing people of their jury nullification rights on the sidewalk in front of a courthouse.

Keith Wood, 39, faces a felony charge for obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor for attempting to influence jurors. Wood said he was handing out pamphlets from the Fully Informed Jury Association on November 24, while standing on a sidewalk in front of a Mecosta County courthouse.

Obstruction of justice is carries a penalty of five years in prison with up to $10,000 in fines, and attempting to influence jurors is a one-year misdemeanor with fines of up to $1,000.

Comment: A similar incident happened to a Denver man: Denver activist charged with multiple felonies for informing jurors of their rights.

For the judge to blatantly charge a man for informing people of their rights is a clear indication that the judge views himself as all powerful and he apparently expects everyone to be obedient authoritarian followers.


TV

We are being gamed: Beware the Media Industrial Complex

media reality
In conversations with various people, I have often brought up the fact that the Media seems to have no memory of the past, is entirely uniform when it comes to urging war, and patently ignores a plethora of glaring issues. The issues it does catch sight of, it seems incapable of penetrating, remaining at the surface of things, and therefore keeping discourse at the most superficial level. When questioned about these tendencies of Media, the responses I've received range from "well, that's just the way they maintain ratings", to "but my paper or network has the better ideology". Americans appear satisfied to accept what occurs to them as given, and like Pangloss to reply, indeed, this is "the best of all possible worlds".

I beg to differ.

Here are a few troubling questions that I feel greatly undermine the idea that Mainstream Media is credible:

Megaphone

This is fascism, and we should say it clearly ... while we can

Trump/Hitler
© Trump image from Reuters
Sixty million people died in World War II, but fascism won. It didn't win on the battlefield. It didn't win right away. It won because the same fears, the same greed, the same hatred that fueled its growth in the first part of the twentieth century never went away. The symbols of fascism became anathema, but the causes ... went deep. And gradually, slowly, one step at a time, all those vices became first tolerated, then treated as virtues, and then as the only acceptable view.

Godwin's Law—the contention that any argument will eventually come round to warnings about Hitler—is twenty-five years old, but for much longer than that, we've been taught that the use of that... f-word, is not to be taken seriously. Sure, every government program, new or old, is open to accusations of communism and warnings of a slippery slope toward some failed dictatorship. That's expected. But to even acknowledge our long, stumbling lurch to the right; the building force of corporate power; the relentless need for war; a police whose power of enforcement is divorced from law; a preening nationalism that rewards the full rights of citizenship only to those who fit an ever-narrower mold... You can't call it fascism. People will only laugh.

Comment: