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Police State narrative: Texas Police use Hurricane Harvey relief as excuse for requesting more military hardware

Whitney Webb
Mint Press News
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
Houston Police vehicle
© Carlo Allegri/Reuters
A Houston Police vehicle drives along a flooded street in the rising water of Buffalo Bayou following tropical storm Harvey in a neighborhood west of Houston, Texas, U.S., August 30, 2017.
With military-grade equipment available for the cost of pick-up, police forces have been stocking up. While some of that equipment appears actually to have been used in post-hurricane relief work, most of it is better suited for SWAT raids, intimidating protesters, and killing people.

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, local Texas police are using the recovery efforts to justify the continued existence of a controversial program that critics argue strongly contributes to a dangerous trend of police militarization. According to the Houston Chronicle, local police agencies are arguing that excess military equipment they had received from the Pentagon through its controversial "1033" program allowed them to rescue people in areas they could not have reached otherwise. Federal data cited by the Chronicle showed that the greater Houston area has received more than $13 million in military equipment via the program since 2014.

"They tend to think that we're militarizing ourselves. No, we're not," Sgt. Jimmie Cook of the Harris County Sheriff's Office told the Chronicle. "We're not looking for M16s. It's useful gear that helps supplement our budget and it doesn't cost the county anything except for the tank of gas to go pick it up."

While the Chronicle piece on the matter paints an overall rosy picture of how heavy military equipment is being used by Houston-area police - as well as its role in flood rescues - it also admits that much of the military equipment ended up not being used in flood rescues after all. The article notes that certain classes of military-grade vehicles were rendered ineffective for work in flood situations due to concerns about electrical wiring or due to department concerns that the vehicles could suffer damage that would render them useless in the future.

Comment: The US Police State is reflection of America's National Security State - where the answer to seemingly everything is to throw more money, time and resources towards arming ourselves to the teeth - and ignoring the myriad other economic, political and social problems that could use the spent Trillions towards actually helping people.

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Ambulance

Yemen in crisis: Two-thirds of entire population in need of humanitarian aid


RT
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 17:22 UTC
Yemen
© Naif Rahma / Reuters
People carry the body of a man that they recovered from the site of an air strike near the northwestern city of Saada, Yemen November 1, 2017.
Eighteen million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million with very acute need, former UN Human Rights Officer Lyal Sunga told RT. He added that military force is often used disproportionately by the Saudi-led coalition.TrendsYemen unrest

At least 26 people were killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen on Wednesday. The strike hit a hotel, and a market crowded with civilians.

There have been a number of similar airstrikes carried out by the coalition since 2015. In a statement, the coalition said it's now conducting a review. However, since the start of the Saudi intervention, the crisis in Yemen has continued to deteriorate on an almost daily basis.
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Info

Sgt. Bergdahl spared prison term - Trump calls it "complete & total disgrace"


RT
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 17:54 UTC
Bowe Bergdahl
© AP
Bowe Bergdahl
US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has been spared jail time by a military court, receiving a dishonorable discharge instead. Donald Trump condemned the ruling, branding it a "disgrace" to the US and its military.

A military judge made the ruling in Bergdahl's case on Friday. The serviceman was captured by Taliban in Afghanistan back in 2009, when he deserted his post. Bergdahl claimed he did so to report a case of "leadership failure" in his unit.

His disappearance prompted a hasty search-and-rescue operation, which resulted in several US soldiers being injured and a combat dog being killed. Bergdahl spent five years in Taliban captivity until he was exchanged in 2014 as part of a prisoner swap with the militant group.

Taliban released him in exchange for five men who were associated with the group and were detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bergdahl was subsequently charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place. Back in August, Bergdahl pleaded guilty to both charges, which could have resulted in a maximum punishment of life in prison.

The prosecution argued for Bergdahl to be sent prison for 14 years owing to the injuries US servicemen sustained during the botched efforts to rescue him.

However, the military judge spared Bergdahl a prison sentence, instead ruling that he be dishonorably discharged from the US Army. Such a discharge will result in Bergdahl being stripped of all his veteran's benefits. In addition, it is treated as the equivalent of a felony conviction in many states, accompanied by the same loss of civil rights for the discharged soldier.

Comment: It's interesting that most mainstream articles don't include that bit about Bergdahl saying he left his post to report a problem with chain of command. The ones that do, don't expand on it. What was the issue? As for Trump's response, once again, The Donald confirms he may be a blowhard, but he's no dictator.

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Handcuffs

Coach and agent sentenced to prison for million-dollar MLB player-smuggling racket


RT
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 16:40 UTC
MLB player
© Ray Stubblebine / Reuters
A Major League Baseball (MLB) coach and a sports agent convicted of smuggling Cuban players to the USA were sentenced to federal prison on Thursday. Julio Estrada and agent Bartolo Hernandez had been convicted in March.

The pair were jailed for having organized an illegal international network aimed at bringing Cuban-born players to the US, via Haiti and Mexico, in exchange for a cut of their baseball contracts.

Due to the US embargo of Cuba and immigration laws, players from the Caribbean island first arrived in Haiti or Mexico, where they applied for residency in order to be eligible to sign contracts with the Major League Baseball (MLB) teams.

Trial evidence showed that Hernandez and Estrada provided players with fake documents. They thereby deceived the US government into granting visas to players including MLB stars Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Yuli Gurriel of the Houston Astros.
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People 2

The new prudes? Viewing all men as predators leads to new sexual reformation - even as libertinism runs rampant

Lara Prendergast
The Spectator
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 17:14 UTC
consent cartoon
Nell Minow, an American film critic, recently described how in 2010 she had interviewed the Friends actor David Schwimmer. When the noise in the restaurant grew too loud, he asked her whether she might like to move to a room upstairs with him, and if so, would she like a chaperone present. She praised him for this behaviour. 'He understood what it is like to have to be constantly on the alert and he wanted to make sure I understood I was safe.'

When I read Minow's story, my reaction was to think what a patronising arse Schwimmer must be. A woman journalist shouldn't need a chaperone when she is doing her job. But, in the fallout from the Harvey Weinstein allegations, it has become clear that, for many women, safety is starting to trump liberty. We are moving towards a chaperone culture, in which women, delicate lambs that we are, must be protected at all times.

A new schism is opening up between men and women. Women are incessantly told to be vigilant of predatory men and are increasingly scared to be out in public. Men, meanwhile, are becoming more nervous around women for fear that their very nature is itself threatening to the opposite sex. The wrong words, gestures or body language might now render them guilty of one of the new crimes popping up on social media - for example, 'creeping' on someone or being 'too handsy'. The spotlight is on Hollywood and Westminster - or 'Pestminster', as it has been dubbed - but it will soon turn to other industries. More sex pests will be exposed or their peccadillos gossiped about on WhatsApp groups. The internet jury will then make its decision.

Comment: Whatever this "sexual reformation" is, it isn't progress. Progress incorporates whatever good has come before while fixing what no longer works. Stagnation and regression does away with that good - usually in the name of progress. That's not to say there aren't problems that need solutions. The problem is this: it's not even clear that we've identified the actual problems. And if that's the case, the "solutions" might just make things worse. For example, this one is a must-read: Dispelling the myths about sexual abuse: Men are victims too, and women are often aggressors - but rates of violence are still lower than ever.

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Attention

Prominent female journalists establish "Second Source" initiative to tackle media industry sexual harassment


RT
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 15:48 UTC
workplace sexual harassment
© Global Look Press
Twenty prominent female journalists have banded together to establish 'the Second Source,' a women-led initiative determined to tackle harassment in the media industry. The women say they have had enough of sexual harassment in the media.

The group, established in the wake of sex scandals across multiple industries spanning the globe, aims to promote awareness, inform people of their rights, and work together to create change.

Second Source co-founder, Buzzfeed's Longform & Special Projects News Editor Louise Ridley, spoke to LBC's James O'Brien this week to discuss the anti-harassment project.

"This is a group we've set up with journalists across the media industry - so, people in TV, radio, online, and in newspapers - to tackle sexual harassment," she said.
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Candle

Philadelphia child struck by hunter's stray bullet as a newborn has died after years of health issues


CBS Philly
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 16:28 UTC
shayne iverson
A 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy who was struck by a hunter's stray bullet as a newborn and struggled with health issues afterward has died.

Shayne Iverson's mother writes in a Facebook post that he became ill with a fever over the weekend and was diagnosed with meningitis. She says Wednesday he died at a hospital, adding "he's at peace now."

"I am comforted knowing that he is in heaven where he can see and walk and talk, where he feels no pain," wrote Stefanie Iverson. "That little boy was my life and I tried my hardest to give him a full, happy life."
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Arrow Down

Number of asylum seekers in Germany doubles in two years as government admits it cannot keep track of refugees

Oliver JJ Lane
Breitbart
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
refugees in Germany
The number of asylum seekers and refugees in Germany has more than doubled in two years according to the latest figures from the Federal Statistics Office, but the nation is struggling to keep track of all the new arrivals.

At the end of 2016 the number of people seeking asylum had hit 1.6 million, a rise of 113 per cent compared to the end of 2014. The figure is likely to have risen even further since.

German newspaper Handelsblatt reports the breakdown of the 1.6 million figure, with 872,000 holding a "humanitarian residence permit", and 158,000 in the country despite having had their asylum applications rejected. Of those, 75 per cent were given a "tolerance" - suspending the requirement for them to leave the country.

In addition to those who had decisions made on their asylum status, there were another 573,000 whose applications for asylum hadn't been ruled upon at all.

Yet the 1.6 million figure could be even higher as the agency had excluded some 392,000 individuals for whom it was not clear whether they were asylum seekers or not.

Comment: Migrant Germany: A state of siege and the mood is changing

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Eye 2

Real Wolves of Wall Street: Ex-Soros hedge trader accused of luring women to Manhattan 'sex dungeon' for brutal rape and torture sessions

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 16:24 UTC
Howie Rubin

Soros insider Howie Rubin
Out of all the stories of harassment, abuse and victimization of women that have emerged since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke last month, this one is possibly the most bizarre, and - if accurate - repugnant.

To wit, the New York Post reported Friday that a former portfolio manager at Soros Fund Management, the firm founded by Billionaire investor George Soros, sadistically abused and victimized women in a Manhattan penthouse sex dungeon - even beating one woman so brutally that one of her breast implants flipped.

Howie Rubin, 62, a former Bear Stearns trader who was featured in the best-selling Michael Lewis novels "Liar's Poker" and "The Big Short," was accused in a $27 million lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court of luring women to his sex dungeon, abusing them, then trying to silence them with settlements and NDAs.

Rubin reportedly rented a lavish Metropolitan Tower pad in Midtown to indulge in brutal sex with women whom he paid between $2000 and $5000 per session, according to the suit filed Thursday.
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Mr. Potato

Study finds fringe communities on Reddit and 4chan have high influence on flow of alternative news to Twitter


Phys.org
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 16:16 UTC
Mainstream news flow

This graph represents the news ecosystem for mainstream news domains used in the study. The connecting lines are colored the same as their source node and line thickness represents the frequency in which the URL from each news domain appeared on each social platform.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Cyprus University of Technology, University College London and Telefonica Research have conducted the first large-scale measurement of how mainstream and alternative news flows through multiple social media platforms.
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