Society's ChildS


Airplane

Marseille airport evacuated after suspicious package found

marseille airport
© Boris Horvat / Reuters
Marseille Provence Airport has been briefly evacuated after a suspicious package was found, according to reports on social media, which state that police officers are currently patrolling the perimeter.

According to a witness at the scene, the military has now allowed passengers to re-enter the airport. Marseille is the venue for Thursday's Euro 2016 football semi-final between France and Germany.

The airport is located 27km from Marseille, and is the fifth busiest airport by passenger traffic and third largest for cargo traffic in France. France is on high alert following the attacks in Paris in November 2015, when Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists killed 130 people.

Stringent security measures have also been imposed across the country due to the Euro 2016 football championship, with Marseille's Stade Vélodrome one of the main venues for the tournament.

Handcuffs

"Land of the free" now the nation of slaves: The Prison-Industrial-Complex

American flag barbed wire
© pixabay.com
"Prisoner number......It is time to go home".

The most beautiful words she had ever heard, as she dreamt about the day that phrase would be uttered for the past ten years. Today, she will get to see her daughter that has been out of her life and begin the process of reunification.

As she takes her first steps outside the prison walls in a decade, it is like stepping into a foreign land. Outside the concrete confinement she is overwhelmed by the simplicity of feeling the fresh breeze, the sunlight, the green grass, and of course her family. Her daughter, mother, and brother await her release in what feels like another world away.

Her lower lip starts to tremble uncontrollably - which it always has done when she becomes emotional - only to see her 13-year-old daughter's lower lip mirror that of her own. Mother-and-daughter are able to embrace for the first time in years as they share an electric bond that cannot be broken, despite so many unanswered questions over the years.
"Why is Mom in jail? Why didn't I get to have a Mom while growing up? Why wasn't anyone there to do my hair, makeup, or other little girl activities that everyone else enjoyed? Where was my Mom all this time?"

Comment: Further reading:


Bulb

German Green Party politician speaks out against demonization of Putin

Ludger volmer
© AP Photo / Jockel FinckLudger Volmer

The former green state minister Ludger Volmer strongly criticizes his party's Russia policy and warns against a one-sided image of Putin.


The former Minister of State in the Foreign Office, Ludger Volmer (Green), has sharply attacked his party's Russia policy.

The 64-year-old, who served under the aegis of Joschka Fischer and retired from the Bundestag in 2005, now castigates the Greens in an open letter for demonizing the Russian President Vladimir Putin and "meekly reciting NATO slogans,". This just increases the danger of escalation. This is "disgraceful for a peace party" that it is "stuck in silence."

Although it is correct to consider Putin critically according to Volmer, yet Putin's image in Germany is "one-sided." And: "The vast majority of Russians want him." In addition, one does not have to "love the Russian national character, but when it comes to any other questionable ideology, you try to deal constructively with them, political Islamism for instance -- in some instances too much so."

Comment: See also:


Jet3

Swiss fighter jets escort plane flying to Tel Aviv after anonymous tip of bomb on board plane

hornet fighter jet
© Fabrice Cofrini / AFPAn F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft of the Swiss Air Force
Two Swiss Air Force jets have been scrambled to escort an El Al Boeing 747 en route from New York to Tel Aviv after an anonymous tip-off about a bomb on board, according to Haaretz. The flight landed safely at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

The two F/A-18 fighter jets escorted the El Al plane through Switzerland's airspace from the French border, the Swiss Air Force said in a statement.

El Al flight LY002 was flying over the Swiss-French border when the fighter jets were scrambled, according to the Jerusalem Post. Once the flight had crossed Swiss airspace, the F-18s returned to their bases and the airplane continued as planned.

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24.com indicated the plane landed in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport at 12:44pm local time. El Al released a statement saying no explosive device was found on board, the Jewish Press reported later in the day, citing Israel Radio.

The El Al Boeing 747 was checked for explosives after landing safely at Ben Gurion Airport, according to Haaretz, citing Israel's Foreign Ministry. "An examination showed the plane was 'clean'," it said.

The ministry added the anonymous tip about a bomb "inside an airplane kitchenette" was received by the US aviation body, which notified Swiss authorities "while the plane was in [Switzerland's] airspace, and the Swiss scrambled fighter jets to escort the plane."

Gear

Cogs in the machine: Economic development and modernity have transformed livelihoods into deadlihoods

workers cogs machine, working world india
© Puneet Paranjpe/Reuters
In India, economic development and modernity have transformed livelihoods into deadlihoods. They are wiping out millennia-old livelihoods that were ways of life with no sharp division between work and leisure, and replacing them with dreary assembly line jobs where we wait desperately for weekends and holidays.

Economic progress, we are told, is about moving from primary sector jobs to manufacturing and services. And so the livelihoods that keep all of us alive - farming, forestry, pastoralism, fisheries, and related crafts - are considered backward.

In India, this marginalizes 700 million-800 million people, two-thirds of its population.

The results? Horrendous ones like thousands of farmers' suicides in the last decade; or the displacement by so-called 'development projects' of 60 million people from their farms, forests, and coasts.

Less visible is the pauperization of many others deprived of the natural resources they depend on, as their lands and waters get taken away for industry, infrastructure and cities. Entire new forms of poverty are being created by development.

Comment: While the focus is on India, much of what is said can be applied to any developed nation in the world - it's definitely time for change: Post imperialism: A Template for a New Social Order


USA

America is no more

police brutality
When I was young, America still existed. No more. Not even the blather from the 4th of July can hide the obvious fact.

The young do not know that they have lost their country, because they are born into a time when the country is lost. To them that is normalcy.

Besides, the young are too busy texting and describing themselves, often intimately, on social media to be aware of the fate that awaits them, lost as they are in their insouciance.

When I was young, the police were the public's friends. We could count on them to help us, not abuse us. False arrest was rare. Abuse of citizens even rarer. Today both are routine.

Over the years I have written about the transformation of the police from protectors of the public into abusers of the public.

Over these years I have received many letters from former policemen who write that they gave up their profession out of disgust of the corruption and unaccountable brutality, or as a result of fear that they would be forced to participate in the corruption or become a victim of it.

Comment: The fabric of society has been infested with the values of its psychopathic leaders. From Political Ponerology:
"In a pathocracy, all leadership positions, (down to village headman and community cooperative managers, not to mention the directors of police units, and special services police personnel, and activists in the pathocratic party) must be filled by individuals with corresponding psychological deviations, which are inherited as a rule. However, such people constitute a very small percentage of the population and this makes them more valuable to the pathocrats. Their intellectual level or professional skills cannot be taken into account, since people representing superior abilities are even harder to find. After such a system has lasted several years, one hundred percent of all the cases of essential psychopathy are involved in pathocratic activity; they are considered the most loyal, even though some of them were formerly involved on the other side in some way."



Megaphone

Pope Francis criticizes countries like Turkey and the US that talk peace in Syria yet supply arms to fighters

pope francis
© Tony Gentile / Reuters
Pope Francis has criticized countries that talk of wanting peace in Syria, yet continue to supply arms to the warring sides.

The Pope did not name any names, but said in a video message to a charity group holding a conference on Syria: "While the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters. And some of the countries supplying these arms are also among those that talk of peace.

"How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?" he added.

According to international estimates, the war in Syria, currently in its fifth year, has claimed more than 400,000 lives, and a further 11 million have been displaced. As a conflict, it has created the biggest international refugee crisis since World War II.

Fire

Hysterical society: Man receives death threats and is arrested for flag-burning Facebook photo

flag burner
On the 4th of July, countless Facebook users donned their digital pitchforks and torches and praised the arrest and felony charge against 22-year-old Bryton Mellott. His crime? Posting a picture of himself with a burning American flag.

A short time after he posted the photo on Facebook, Mellott was swarmed with online attacks and threats from countless individuals who have no concept of freedom of speech. Shortly after the threats to Mellott began pouring in, the Urbana police department's phone began ringing of the hook with calls for his arrest — so police responded.

Sgt. Andrew Charles, with the Urbana police told the News Gazette they arrested Mellott because of all the threats against him and his place of employment, Wal-Mart.

Comment: More flag madness:


USA

Life in the police state: Four historical freedoms that now require permission

american flag
Independence, liberty, freedom. Ideas worth celebrating, for sure, only intangible constructs of the human mind, therefore, their meanings can change along with the times. And since people are extremely adaptable creatures, we rapidly normalize to ever-evolving societal and cultural conditions and values. What people consider to be 'freedom' today, is nothing similar to what it was even a couple of generations ago.

Here are 4 celebrated, historic liberties that people have long enjoyed, yet are undergoing a dramatic metamorphosis in an evolving world.

1. ) The Freedom to Travel

The idea that human beings should be free to roam the earth without permission or threat is now dated. Prior to the 1930's you needn't a driver's license to operate a motor vehicle or carriage in America. Traveling without a passport used to be commonplace as well.

Attention

Train derailment causes spill of poisonous fracking chemical near San Antonio,Texas

san antonio train derailment
A derailed train has spilled approximately 1,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide in San Antonio, Texas, according to reports. The train was carrying 60,000 gallons of the poisonous, highly-corrosive chemical. A nearby area was temporarily evacuated.

Five train cars overturned on Sunday afternoon, according to the San Antonio Express-News, near the intersection of Loop 410 and Interstate 35. As many as 6,000 people were evacuated from Traders Village, a large flea market and carnival area just south of Lackland Air Force Base.