Society's ChildS


USA

The world must judge America's human rights abuses

"If Eric Holder doesn't prosecute Michael Brown's killer any resulting violence ought to be called the Barack Obama Riots."
Police Brutality
© Global Research
Black people in this country are brutalized by police on a daily basis. That has always been true but thanks to modern technology there is a steady stream of proof caught on video. Accessing the internet means inevitably being confronted with awful imagery such as Marlene Pinnock being beaten by a highway patrolman in California. We see Eric Garner murdered by the NYPD, pleading that he couldn't breathe.

These videos may or may not assist with prosecutions. Footage showed the late Rodney King being beaten by California police in 1991. The officers were indicted, a rarity, but a jury acquitted them anyway, making a mockery of the old saying "seeing is believing." Common sense wisdom doesn't count for much if it threatens to upend white supremacy. No matter how seemingly iron clad the case, police rarely face criminal charges.

Such was the case of Milton Hall, a mentally ill black man shot to death by Saginaw, Michigan, police on July 1, 2012. A camera inside one of the patrol cars shows Hall, surrounded by police, armed only with a small pen knife. He is unable to harm anyone, given that he was surrounded by seven cops and a police dog, yet they fired forty-six shots with fourteen of them striking and killing Hall.

Local prosecutors did not charge the officers and the Obama/Holder Department of Justice did not see fit to do anything either. After investigating they concluded that prosecution was not warranted.

"Even if the officers were mistaken in their assessment of the threat posed by Hall, this would not establish that the officers acted willfully, or with an unlawful intent, when using deadly force against Hall. Accordingly, this tragic event does not present sufficient evidence of willful misconduct to give rise to a federal criminal prosecution of the police officers involved."
"No matter how seemingly iron clad the case, police rarely face criminal charges."
The ACLU of Michigan not only pushed for local and federal action, but has taken its protest to a new and very important level. On October 27, 2014, Mark Fancher, Racial Justice Project Attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, testified before an international body regarding the federal government's refusal to prosecute Hall's "death by firing squad." The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is an arm of the Organization of American States. It is mandated to "promote the observance and protection of human rights in the hemisphere."

Airplane

Russia to open new Su-27 airbase in Belarus next year

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© Vitaly V KuzminThe Russian Air Force deployed four Su-27SM3 fighters to Belarus in December 2013
The Russian Defence Ministry will open a new airbase in Belarus in 2016, Russian Air Force commander colonel general Viktor Bondarev has said.

Speaking to reporters during his visit to Russia's under construction facilities, Bondarev said: "The Russian Air Force base in Belarus will open in 2016. Su-27 fighters will be stationed there."

The Su-27 fighters are expected to be deployed at a military airfield in the Belarusian city of Bobruisk. Russia has drafted a technical plan for the reconstruction of the airfield.

Russia deployed four Su-27SM3 fighter jets to the 61st air base in Baranavichi, Belarus, in December 2013, and is expected to increase the number to 24 by the year-end.

An upgraded variant of the Su-27 Flanker, Su-27SM3 jets are used to carry out tasks in support of the Union State of Russia and Belarus Air Force, ITAR-TASS News Agency reported.

Manufactured by Sukhoi, the Su-27 Flanker is a twin-engine super manoeuvrable fighter aircraft designed to provide general air defence in cooperation with ground and airborne control stations.

Evil Rays

Growing unease among parents, lawmakers over RFID biometric tracking of students

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© Eagnews.org
A growing number of schools are using special tracking chips embedded in student ID cards or biometric scanners to track students, and the new technology is making many lawmakers nervous about its privacy implications.

The relatively new tracking technology allows schools to more accurately follow student attendance, lunch purchases and students who ride buses, but lawmakers in many states have banned specific types of student data collection over privacy concerns, Governing.com reports.

"This year, Florida became the first state to ban the use of biometric identification in its schools. Kansas said biometric data cannot be collected without student or parental consent. New Hampshire, Colorado and North Carolina said the state education departments cannot collect and store biometric data as part of student records.

"New Hampshire and Missouri lawmakers said schools can't require students to use ID cards equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that can track them. The new laws are similar to one Oregon passed last year and what Rhode Island lawmakers passed in 2009," according to the news site.

Of the 110 bills considered in 36 states this year to address student data collection, 39 targeted biometric data specifically, and 14 of those bills passed, according to information from the nonprofit Data Quality Campaign cited by Governing.

At the same time, many private companies are quickly recruiting schools and have amassed a large clientele over roughly the last decade. More than 1,000 school districts in 40 states currently use biometric identification - from reading portions of student fingerprints, to iris scanners, to palm scanners - to track student lunch accounts, student bus travel, attendance and other activities, Jay Fry, CEO of biometric firm identiMetrics, told Governing.

Eye 2

Fired CBC host Jian Ghomeshi accused by at least 8 women of violence, sexual abuse, and harassment

Ghomeshi
One woman, actor Lucy DeCoutere, alleges she was slapped and choked without her consent.

Eight women from across Canada now accuse former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi of abusive behaviour ranging from allegations of beating and choking without consent, to workplace sexual harassment.

The allegations the Star is probing range from 2002 to the present.

One of the women, popular Canadian television actor Lucy DeCoutere, has agreed to be identified. DeCoutere, who plays Lucy on Trailer Park Boys , recalls an incident in 2003 when she alleges Ghomeshi, without warning or consent, choked her to the point she could not breathe and then slapped her hard three times on the side of her head.

"He did not ask if I was into it. It was never a question. It was shocking to me. The men I have spent time with are loving people," said DeCoutere, who, when she is not acting on the television show, is a captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force in New Brunswick.


Airplane

Air traffic controller arrested in Total CEO plane crash investigation

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© RIA Novosti. Maksim BlinovAn air traffic controller, who was working a shift at Moscow's Vnukovo airport when the private jet of Total CEO Christophe de Margerie went down, has been charged in the plane crash case, the Russian Investigative Committee said Thursday.
An air traffic controller, who was working a shift at Moscow's Vnukovo airport when the private jet of Total CEO Christophe de Margerie went down, has been charged in the plane crash case, the Russian Investigative Committee said Thursday.

"Criminal proceedings continue involving other suspects in the case," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, adding that the suspects, which include a snowplow driver, a senior airport engineer and a flight supervisor, will be charged in the near future.

Markin added that Alexander Kruglov, the air traffic controller, had already been questioned and placed in custody. Earlier an air traffic controller trainee was also charged.

Comment: Are these individuals patsies or part of a larger more sinister CIA-M16 scheme to take out Christophe de Margerie? The Total CEO was not toeing the line by isolating Russia and had also expressed his support for a wider use of other currencies in transactions outside the US - for oil purchases in particular. See: CIA-MI6 hit? French oil CEO dies in plane crash at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport


Airplane

Airplane crashes into flight safety building at Wichita airport

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A building at Wichita airport burns today after a 10-seater plane crashed into it.
An airplane crashed into a two-story building at an airport in Wichita, Kansas early Thursday shortly after takeoff, leaving at least two people dead and five injured.

The 10-seater, twin-engine plane struck a building at Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport at around 9:50 a.m. local time Thursday. Eyewitnesses at the scene have since posted photographs on the social media site Twitter of huge plumes of black smoke rising into the sky from the site of the crash.

Ron Blackwell, the chief of the Wichita Fire Department, said during a press conference shortly after 11 a.m. that authorities can confirm two fatalities, and said a search was ongoing. Five people at that time were unaccounted for, Blackwell said, and four had been transported to a local hospital with serious injuries.

A local NBC News affiliate reported shortly after that one person is listed critical condition as a result of the incident, and confirmed that the plane in question is a Beechcraft that lost an engine during takeoff, citing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Around 45 minutes after the crash occurred, the FAA said in a statement that the aircraft crashed while attempting to return to the runway shortly after takeoff.

Ryan Weatherby, a witness, told the Kansas City Star that the airport building started on fire once the plane hit. First responders have since descended on the scene and the building has been evacuated, but a NBC affiliate reported that 10 people inside were unaccounted for as of 10:45 a.m. local time.

As many as 13 people may have been onboard the plane at the time of the crash.

Arrow Up

Sweden will officially recognize the state of Palestine on Thursday

sweden palestine flags
Sweden is set to officially recognize the state of Palestine on Thursday in a move that will make it the first major European country coming up with this decision, the country's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said.

"Today the government takes the decision to recognise the state of Palestine," Wallstrom as quoted by Agence France-Presse.

The minister also added that this decision will serve as an important step "that confirms the Palestinians' right to self-determination".

The intention to recognize the state of Palestine was first announced by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in his inaugural address to the parliament on October 5.

Arrow Down

Ponerized Detroit labor unions have betrayed the work force

detroit bankruptcy
The Detroit bankruptcy case, which will conclude with a federal judge's November 7 ruling on the city's restructuring plan, has brought to light once again the anti-working class character of the trade unions.

In their closing arguments before the federal bankruptcy judge, Steven Rhodes, on Monday, the representatives of the city and the state gloated that they had so quickly wrapped up the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history. The "radical" restructuring plan, said Jones Day attorney Bruce Bennett, had not been "watered down." Indeed, the final proposal includes savage attacks on the working class - including pension cuts in violation of the state constitution and the virtual elimination of retiree health benefits.

Michigan's special attorney general, Steven Howell, told the court the "Chapter 9 filing had not been popular." Nevertheless, the initial objectors "were now supporters," he said, singling out the unions as examples of the "new spirit of cooperation" in Detroit.

Howell was acknowledging that the unions have played a critical role in the conspiracy to rob workers of basic social rights - a conspiracy involving the Democratic mayor and City Council, the Republican governor, the Obama administration, Judge Rhodes and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. The "spirit of cooperation" is directed against the widespread anger of workers throughout the Detroit area over the measures that are being implemented on behalf of the banks and large bondholders.

Throughout the bankruptcy, the unions have acted not as defenders of the workers, but as creditors with some of the biggest claims on the city's assets. The token opposition that the unions presented early on was aimed at securing a better deal for the wealthy executives who run them.

Comment: It has become clear that the Unions have been infiltrated and corrupted from the inside, so that they now serve the interests of the elites. This process has been documented by Andrew Lobaczewski in his book Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes. This is what results when conscience-lacking psychopaths take control of organizations and gain the power to command the people to obey their "authority" blindly. Breaking with the Democrats will not change anything, as both political parties in the US have long been corrupted by this ponerological process and now both serve only their elitist masters.

See also: Corporate political conspiracy behind bankruptcy of Detroit revealed and Paul Craig Roberts: Labor's demise is America's demise


Propaganda

The failure of American journalism and mass media

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© Screen shot of journalist Gary Webb from Vimeo.
There is more truth about American journalism in the film "Kill the Messenger," which chronicles the mainstream media's discrediting of the work of the investigative journalist Gary Webb, than there is in the movie "All the President's Men," which celebrates the exploits of the reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal.

The mass media blindly support the ideology of corporate capitalism. They laud and promote the myth of American democracy - even as we are stripped of civil liberties and money replaces the vote. They pay deference to the leaders on Wall Street and in Washington, no matter how perfidious their crimes. They slavishly venerate the military and law enforcement in the name of patriotism. They select the specialists and experts, almost always drawn from the centers of power, to interpret reality and explain policy. They usually rely on press releases, written by corporations, for their news. And they fill most of their news holes with celebrity gossip, lifestyle stories, sports and trivia. The role of the mass media is to entertain or to parrot official propaganda to the masses. The corporations, which own the press, hire journalists willing to be courtiers to the elites, and they promote them as celebrities. These journalistic courtiers, who can earn millions of dollars, are invited into the inner circles of power. They are, as John Ralston Saul writes, hedonists of power.

When Webb, writing in a 1996 series in the San Jose Mercury News, exposed the Central Intelligence Agency's complicity in smuggling tons of cocaine for sale into the United States to fund the CIA-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua, the press turned him into a journalistic leper. And over the generations there is a long list of journalistic lepers, from Ida B. Wells to I.F. Stone to Julian Assange.

The attacks against Webb have been renewed in publications such as The Washington Post since the release of the film earlier this month. These attacks are an act of self-justification. They are an attempt by the mass media to mask the collaboration between themselves and the power elite. The mass media, like the rest of the liberal establishment, seek to wrap themselves in the moral veneer of the fearless pursuit of truth and justice. But to maintain this myth they have to destroy the credibility of journalists such as Webb and Assange who shine a light on the sinister and murderous inner workings of empire, who care more about truth than news.

Comment: The US public has been kept in dreadful ignorance of the Elite's real intentions for a very long time. A famous quote from President Woodrow Wilson from nearly a 100 years ago comes to mind, and can easily be applied to the mass-media:
"Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."



Heart - Black

Hysterical Islamophobia: Dad threatens 'sh*tstorm' if daughter's world history class includes Islam

Angry Man
© Shutterstock.comAngry man yells into phone
An angry father has been banned from a Maryland high school's campus after he made vague but ominous threats against the school because his daughter's history homework mentioned the Islamic faith.

BayNet.com reported that La Plata High School in Charles County, Maryland has issued a No Trespass order after parent Kevin Wood - a former U.S. Marine - called the school and threatened to disrupt classes if his daughter's world history class continued to study the religion and its impact on human history.

Wood reportedly telephoned Vice Principal Shannon Morris last thursday enraged over a homework assignment which dealt with the formation of Middle Eastern empires centuries ago. History teacher Katie O'Malley Simpson said that the history curriculum has never been considered controversial in the past.

"The assignment has been given for years," O'Malley-Simpson said.

La Plata High School Principal Evelyn Arnold issued a "No Trespass" order against Wood after hearing about the contentious call, in which Wood promised to come to the school and disrupt classes if Islam was mentioned any further.

O'Malley-Simpson called the decision to ban Wood from campus "unusual," saying, "We don't file no trespassing charges lightly. We would only do that when we feel someone has threatened the safety of staff and students."