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Human Rights group slams IDF commander for murderering unarmed Palestinian teenager


RT
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 15:10 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Ronen Zvulun
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem released a video allegedly showing an IDF commander killing a Palestinian who threw stones at his car. The commander didn't call an ambulance, moved the fatally-injured teen "with his leg" and drove off, says the group.

The incident happened on July 3 in the West Bank town of a-Ram, north of Jerusalem. A 17-year-old Palestinian, Muhammad Ali-Kosba, began throwing stones at the car of Colonel Yisrael Shomer, commander of the Binyamin Regional Brigade.

Jerusalem-based B'Tselem commenced an investigation into the matter after various Israeli politicians issued statements in support of Shomer. It analyzed several witness accounts, took footage from a surveillance camera and consulted the doctors who treated the teen.

Comment: Also see:

The Gaza Platform: Online digital mapping of Gaza assault refutes every Israeli lie, shows evidence of deliberate war crimes

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Cardboard Box

Oligarch control: Overwhelming majority of world population continues to live in economic privation

Andre Damon
WSWS.org
Sat, 11 Jul 2015 00:00 UTC
poverty
© Shutterstock.com/makler0008
Despite significant advances in communications, agriculture and bio-technology over the past 15 years, the overwhelming majority of the world population continues to live in economic privation, according to a report on global incomes published this week by the Pew Research Center.

The report, entitled "A Global Middle Class is More Promise than Reality," classifies 71 percent of the world population as either poor or low-income, subsisting on less than $10 per day. The report concludes that 84 percent lives on less than $20 per day, or $7,300 per year, an income level associated with "deep poverty" in developed countries.

Only seven percent of the world population lives on what the report calls a "high" income level of more than $50 per day, or $18,000 per year. The great majority of these people live in Europe or America.

Comment: Capitalism is not the primary reason that much of the world's population has been reduced to poverty and feudal enslavement. Capitalism is a system like any other 'ism' that can be manipulated by those whose rampant greed and lack of compassion compels them to rise to positions of power where they are able to accumulate vast fortunes and enough political clout to insure that they remain in control. Until more people begin to understand that the blame for most of the ills of the world does not lie with any one financial system or political ideology, but can be placed squarely on the heads of those whose very nature is predatory, we will continue to fight amongst ourselves while empowering them.

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Rainbow

Use of 'husband' and 'wife' words to be illegal in US


Pravda.Ru
Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:00 UTC
After the same-sex marriages legalization in all the US states, the law is suggested to be extended.

A 77-year-old Lois Capps, member of the US House of Representatives from California, has applied to eliminate such terms as "wife" and "spouse" from the federal law, so that, gays and heterosexuals will have equal rights.

Instead, neutral "spouse", or "married couple" may be used, not to discriminate the LGBT community.

California has already adopted the initiative.

Pravda.Ru has reported, that such terms as "mother" and "father" are illegal in the US since 2011. It was noticed by the State Department, that more and more same-sex couples raise children.


Comment: This is true on passport forms: "Parent One" and "Parent Two."


Capps said her bill would also have other benefits if it became law. In one example, she noted that U.S. law says it's illegal to threaten the president's wife, but says nothing about the president's husband. "Capps' bill would update the code to make it illegal to threaten the president's spouse," her office said.

In case of Clinton's winning presidential elections in 2016, Bill Clinton may be called as the "first spouse".

Similar measures have been introduced by the Royal Bank of Scotland, that decided to address the clients as Mx (Mixter), instead of gendered Mr, Mrs, Ms or Miss.

Comment: "Mx" (Mix) is commonly used by non-binary people and those who do not wish to reveal their gender. There is also "Ind," which indicates an individual, another newly created gender-neutral title for those who do not feel "Mx" meets their gender-neutral standard. Ind was created to be free of gender entirely, thus making it a better option for a gender and gender nonconforming persons. (Stay with me here, there is more to choose from!) There is also "Misc" or "Misk," derived from "miscellus", meaning "mixed," for those who would say they have aspects of various genders at various times. And then there is "Pr" to replace 'he' or 'she'. Designer honorifics. What ever happened to: "hey you..."?

As for Bill Clinton being called the "first spouse," let's hope not.

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Fire

Buyer beware! Apple watches causing rashes and burns

Justin Luna
Neowin
Fri, 10 Jul 2015 19:58 UTC
apple watch
The Apple Watch was launched back in April, with the company receiving one million pre-orders. However, delivering the watch into the hands (or wrists) of the people who ordered was a problem, taking months for the company to finally ship the product.

But now that the watch has reached some of the people who bought them, another drawback has surfaced: a number of users are reporting painful looking rashes on the skin, and the watch was allegedly also inflicting burns upon use.

A report from Fusion stated that Paula Cerutti, during her workout expressed that she started to feel a burning sensation on her wrist. She then thought that the Apple Watch Sport she owned was strapped on too tightly, so she reportedly started loosening the strap's grip.

Comment: It's surprising that this still needs to be said, but wearing an EMF-emitting device on your body is a bad idea.

Electromagnetic Radiation and your health

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Gold Coins

Greece: 'When Money Dies'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 11 Jul 2015 19:42 UTC
woman at ATM
© www.thfire.com
"When Money Dies" is the title of a 1975 book by Adam Fergusson, in which he describes the downfall of the Reichsmark in Weimar Germany. A fascinating look at that period of history, one can glean quite a few useful pieces of advice on how to survive a currency crisis. But "when money dies" could also describe the current currency crisis in Greece, in which many Greeks seem to have taken those lessons from Fergusson's account of the Weimar hyperinflation to heart.

Even though the Greek currency crisis isn't a traditional hyperinflationary crisis, many Greeks are trying to get their hands on, and then spend, cash. One of the fears is that bank depositors will be forced to take losses on their accounts, the so-called "haircut". This happened in Cyprus to some larger depositors, but the fear in Greece is that people with even just a few thousand euros in their accounts might be forced to take losses of 30-50% or more. Just imagine that you have $10,000 in your bank account and overnight the government says, "Sorry, your account balance is now $5,000." Overnight, the purchasing power of your bank account has been cut in half.

Comment: The writing is on the wall. Failing to prepare is absolute folly.

Should one prepare for a collapse or not?

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Chart Pie

Raging class war: Anti-gentrification protest in Camden, London ends in violence


RT
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:48 UTC
Image
© Still from Ruptly video
Scuffles broke out between anti-gentrification protesters and police in Camden with injuries reported on both sides. Five rally participants have been arrested.

A man has been hospitalized and two police officers suffered minor injuries after about 20 protesters started throwing bottles and pieces of wood late on Saturday, according to police.

Comment: The people are getting more and more fed up with the 'games' governments and bankers are playing on ordinary people.

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Snakes in Suits

Is neoliberalism finally running out of tricks?

Robert Hunziker
ukprogressive.co.uk
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:17 UTC
Image
Neoliberalism, the privatization and commoditization of everything that moves, has experienced a great run over the past three decades, jump-started in the 1980s by PM Thatcher and President Reagan, christened in 1951 by Milton Friedman.

Decidedly, "austerity of governmental social programs" is the kissing cousin to "privatization of public assets" as part and parcel of neoliberal principles, for example, Troika (European Central Bank, European Commission, and International Monetary Fund) and austerity "the dismantling and privatization of public health and education systems" (Pablo Iglesias).

Throughout Europe, Troika's influence, or "neoliberalism on steroids," has been hand-feeding kernels of dissent to popular uprisings. The imposition of draconian austerity measures inflicted upon Greece and the Mediterranean nation-states is rapidly, very rapidly, nursing a badly bruised European Left back to robust health.

It's not only Greece where the Left resonates. Thanks to neoliberal dictates amongst the European financial ruling elite, the Left has become fashionably acceptable to everybody in the street, off the street, and across the street. And of even more significance, on a practical basis amongst the aggrieved, the Left appeals more so than ever in recent history, and therein exist a source of strength the Left has sorely missed for decades. "On a practical basis" is meaningful to lots and lots and lots of people whenever social welfare cuts serve to undercut meager livelihoods.
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Stormtrooper

Thugs: Twelve Philadelphia cops caught beating one black man as he screams for help


RT
Fri, 10 Jul 2015 17:08 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Tom Mihalek
A video has emerged which shows a swarm of Philadelphia police officers repeatedly beating a man while he screams for his grandmother's help. The city's police department says that it has launched an internal investigation into the matter.

The nine-minute video shows Tyree Carroll, a 22-year-old African-American, being repeatedly punched, kicked, and possibly tased while lying on the ground during an arrest.

Although the incident occurred on April 4, the video - filmed by a woman from the window of her house - only emerged this week.

The beginning of the footage shows Carroll being beaten by four officers as he screams "Grandma!"

About a minute into the video, another police car arrives with more officers. One cop can be heard yelling: "You're getting the f***ing taser," while another shouts "Tase that motherf***er."

Carroll's grandmother, Nancy Carroll, told NBC News that it was too difficult for her to watch the video.

"I couldn't bear to look at it," she said. "I just shut my mind and looked away."

Carroll's attorney, Shaka Johnson, admitted that her client did have a criminal record, but stated that none of his previous run-ins with police had left him in need of medical attention.


Comment: All that for 5 grams of crack.

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Snakes in Suits

Jeb Bush accuses Obama of creating 'chaos' in the world by using too many big words

Tom Boggioni
Raw Story
Sat, 11 Jul 2015 15:46 UTC
Jeb Bush
In an interview with the Union Leader, aspiring 2016 Republican presidential nominee Jeb Bush took a slap at the foreign policies of President Barack Obama, stating that the leader of the free world uses too many big words and wastes his time at conferences with world leaders instead of forging ahead.

In video captured by C-SPAN, Bush criticized the White House's nuclear negotiations with Iran calling it, "the Clinton-Kerry-Obama foreign policy playing out."

Bush then advocated for more blunt and simple type of statesmanship — reminiscent of the style of his brother, former President George W. Bush as well as Vice President Dick Cheney — in dealing with world.

Comment: Would this be an example of Jeb Bush's statesmanship: "We need more war so let's get out there and fight."?

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Extinguisher

Violent crime rates surging in major U.S. cities and the economy is not even crashing yet

Michael Snyder
End Of The American Dream
Thu, 09 Jul 2015 11:49 UTC
Image
Don't let anyone tell you that crime is going down in America. All over the United States, rates of violent crime in our major cities are increasing by double digit percentages. Murders are way up, shootings are way up and rapes are way up. So what is behind this sudden spike in crime? In Baltimore, authorities are pointing to the racial tensions that were stirred up by the riots that erupted in protest to the death of Freddie Gray. But what about the rest of the country? From coast to coast, we are witnessing a dramatic increase in violent crime, and the economy is not even crashing yet. So what is going to happen when the next great economic crisis hits us, unemployment skyrockets, and people really start hurting?

When I was surveying the news today, I was very surprised to learn that the murder rate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has more than doubled so far this year...
Milwaukee, which had one of its lowest annual homicide totals in city history last year, has recorded 84 murders so far this year, more than double the 41 it tallied at the same point last year.
And of course Milwaukee is far from alone. All over the U.S., violent crime is jumping dramatically. Here is more from USA Today...
Baltimore, New Orleans and St. Louis have also seen the number of murders jump 33% or more in 2015. Meanwhile, Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, has seen the homicide toll climb by 19% and the number of shooting incidents increase in the city by 21% during the first half of the year.

In all the cities, the increased violence is disproportionately impacting poor and predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods. In parts of Milwaukee, the sound of gunfire has become so expected that about 80% of gunfire detected by ShotSpotter sensors aren't even called into police by residents, Flynn said.
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