Society's Child
Chewbacca arrested at polling station
A man dressed as the iconic Star Wars alien Chewbacca was detained in Odessa for violating a law forbidding campaigning on election day. The police had to use force to get a handle on the hairy Millennium Falcon mechanic as he attempted to canvass voters for none other than his on-screen rival, Darth Vader, as well as resisting arrest. The Ukraine's Internet Party used Star Wars characters to boost its chances at the polls and eventually managed to snatch a seat in the Odessa City Council for Emperor Palpatine.
Commenting on the execution of prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, Britain's Islamic Human Rights Council said it represented "another assault by Riyadh on the forces of reform and political empowerment in the Muslim world."
"His killing signals a renewed determination in Riyadh to undermine opposition and reform movements at home and abroad highlighted by Saudi Arabia's bloody intervention in Yemen, its support of the Egyptian military dictatorship as well as its promotion of sectarianism in places like Nigeria, Indonesia and Malaysia."

Protests at the US Capitol, expressing dissatisfaction and discontent with the government.
An average of 16 percent of Americans mentioned some aspect of government, including President Barack Obama, Congress or political conflict, as the country's chief problem, according to Gallup's monthly measure of the most important problem facing the US.
The economy was named as the second most important problem, with 13 percent mentioning it, while unemployment and immigration tied for third at 8 percent. "For the second consecutive year, dissatisfaction with government edged out the economy as the problem more Americans identified as the nation's top problem in 2015," Gallup said.
Another top concern in 2015 was gun violence, with 7 percent mentioning it as a great problem following a spate of mass shootings last year.
However, 34 percent of Americans named at least one economic issue, including the economy, unemployment, the budget deficit, inflation and others as the biggest problem.
A CNN/ORC poll released last week found that 75 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed, while 69 percent are angry with the country's direction. The poll found that 52 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama's handling of the presidency and 60 percent disapprove of his handling of terrorism.
The CNN/ORC poll strengthens the argument that Americans want to change the country's status quo and explains the rise of anti-establishment presidential candidates like Donald Trump.
Comment: Predictably, Americans can easily identify where their dissatisfaction lies, they just don't have the old true-to-self where-with-all, anymore, to begin to fix it. In the past, they would just "throw the bums out!"
The 15-minute suspension happened about 90 minutes before market's regular closure and followed a brief 15-minute halt early in the afternoon, when the main indexes had shed 5 percent.
The blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 7 percent by the time the trading was stopped early, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 6.9 percent. The technology-driven Shenzhen Composite was the worst performer, falling by more than 8 percent.
The ranchers accused of arson are Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond, 46, both residents of Diamond, Oregon. They were each sentenced to five years in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for alleged arsons they committed on federal lands.
According to the Washington Standard, the problem is multifaceted.
First, both men were sentenced in 2012 by now-retired U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, following the trial. Steven received one year and a day in prison for setting fires in 2001 and 2006. Dwight got 3 months for his 2001 involvement. Hogan did not believe the men had malicious intent to be labeled as terrorists under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, even though he sentenced them to jail for the time he did.Aside from being thrown in jail for a second time, the Hammonds are upset because they allege no crime was ever committed.
The men agreed to a plea deal that they would not appeal the 2012 sentence in order to bring the case to a close.
Both men served their sentences and were released. Now, the feds have appealed those sentences and want the mandatory minimum five-year sentence imposed on the men, and so they appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who agreed with the feds that the judge ruled illegally. However, now they are wanting to label the Hammonds as terrorists under the 1996 law in order to put them back in jail.
"They called and got permission to light the fire... We usually called the interagency fire outfit - a main dispatch - to be sure someone wasn't in the way or that weather wouldn't be a problem," said Dwight's wife Susan.
Comment: A large majority of people follow what their leaders do and unfortunately, the leaders in the U.S. are psychopaths.
Armed militia occupy forest reserve HQ in Oregon, call 'US patriots' to arms, Bundy bros join protest
During an interview with The Telegraph about his latest film The Hateful Eight, Tarantino's 'fightin' words' follows on from his strong statements against police brutality in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
The demonstrators were holding banners reading, "Stop Erdogan's state terror against Kurds!" and "Stop the war against the Kurdish people!" as they marched through central Berlin.
Some of the banners compared Erdogan's party AKP (Justice and Development Party) to the Islamic State terrorist group.
The rally took place the day when the Turkish General Staff announced that nearly 300 Kurdish rebels, members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), were killed in raids conducted by the Turkish military in three districts in southeast Turkey.
Comment: Erdogan's actions against the Kurds are truly abhorrent. March on!
- Western media AWOL as Sultan Erdogan crushes Kurds in southeast Turkey
- Are Erdogan's anti-Kurdish actions driving Turkey towards a civil war?
According to data collected by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks police deaths, there is no upward trend in the killing of officers. In fact, the data shows the exact opposite. The number of police officers killed by citizens is actually decreasing relative to the last couple of decades.
Comment: The US is a police state and the police are no longer here to protect and serve. There is no "war on police" as the numbers clearly show, but the police do appear to be waging a war against ordinary people with murders, routine excessive force, unreasonable arrests, reckless property damage, and other acts of barbarism. How much longer will Americans tolerate this behavior? See more:
- What war on police? 1,000 lives ALREADY taken BY police in 2015
- US Judge: We subsidize Israeli tyranny and fascism
- Harvard study: Police killings a major public health concern
- U.S. police 300% more likely to kill themselves than be shot or killed by another
And that conundrum isn't the only issue for the area. Contradicting reports from both the government and the landfill's responsible parties, radioactive contamination is actively leaching into the surrounding populated area from the West Lake site — and likely has been for the past 42 years.
In order to grasp this startling confluence of circumstances, it's important to understand the history of these sites. Pertinent information either hasn't been forthcoming or is muddied by disputes among the various government agencies and companies that should be held accountable for keeping area residents safe.
Comment:
- Radioactive materials from St. Louis landfill contaminating surrounding neighborhoods
- St. Louis: Threat of nuclear fallout looms due to landfill fire near nuclear waste dump
- St Louis residents endangered by government mishandling of radioactive chemicals, underground fire threatens to make matters much worse
Gas from the Corrib field started flowing for the first time on December 30th after two decades of battles with locals and environmentalists.
Discovered in 1996, the field is 83 kilometers off the shore of county Mayo. It is connected to a new refinery terminal built in Bellanaboy by a pipeline.
"The sky over Broadhaven Bay was pure orange and it seemed as if thick smoke was billowing over the hill behind me," resident Diane Taylor told the Irish Times newspaper. "It looked like the hill over by Pollathomas was on fire."
On New Year's Eve, Shell reportedly had warned residents via a text alert to expect intermittent flaring - a way in which excess gas is burned off.
The company said the practice is "part of normal start-up activities".
Corrib gas flaming in Bellanaboy visible 60k away in Louisburgh, aurora borealis in background @rtenews @journal.ie pic.twitter.com/8Xsas3bJnH— Irish Coastal Life (@Irishmarinelife) December 31, 2015














Comment: We can basically trace all of these absurd displays to the US-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014. Because of it, Ukrainian society is now disintegrating at an increasingly rapid clip. In all probability, the country would have fared much better choosing Russia as its economic partner. Now it's stuck with being lectured at by the financially-vested US VP Joe Biden. That's pretty much the bottom of the barrel.