Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Captured Saudi jihadist describes fighting for al-Nusra Front


Sputnik
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 10:35 UTC
jihadists
© sputniknews.com
The Syrian government troops continue to liberate settlements near the country's key cities. During the assault on one such town near Damascus they managed to capture a Saudi citizen, Hamud Saleh Hamid, one of the al-Nusra Front's senior members known as Abu Azzam.

A Sputnik correspondent became the first reporter who was allowed by the Syrian intelligence services to meet with Azzam, now held in one of the prisons near Damascus. He lost both his legs during the war. The interview was held in the office of a jail officer. Before leaving the correspondent alone with the prisoner, the officer gave him an alarm button.

Training Camp Instead of School

It was hard to start the conversation as the 37-year-old Azzam was demonstrating his contempt to the interview. "I had a Bachelor's degree in the Mecca university and taught mathematics in the homeland. At the very beginning of the Syrian unrest people came to streets and then that turned to slaughter. Then religious leaders and authoritative people started to call at sermons and on TV on people to go to Syria; videos started to emerge in the Internet and I decided to go there [to take part] in jihad," he said.

Azzam said that he left a wife, four daughters and a son in Saudi Arabia. He arrived in the Turkish city of Antakya with his Syrian friend and from there they were transported to a training camp for newcomers in the Idlib province by people linked to the al-Nusra Front, outlawed in Russia. After a month of training Azzam and six other people from the Gulf states were sent to the northeastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor.

Comment: Even jihadists have stories to tell that reveal insights into the ongoing mindset, perspectives and circumstances currently taking place in the Middle East. It is a disturbing element, a gross tragedy, that so many are compelled to "answer a call" contrived and perpetuated by those who sit in high places and great distance from the horrors and evil it actuates.

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Nuke

Turkey Point nuke plant polluting drinking water; owners sued


RT
Sat, 16 Jul 2016 14:45 UTC
Turkey point power plant
© Acroterion / WikipediaThe Turkey Point Generating Station, near Homestead, Florida.
Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Florida Power & Light Co., operator of the Turkey Point nuclear facility, saying that the company violated the Clean Water Act by discharging contaminants from the plant, impacting nearby drinking water.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) and the Tropical Audubon Society filed a lawsuit in US District Court of Southern Florida, accusing Florida Power & Light (FPL), the largest utility in the state, of allowing a canal cooling system at Turkey Point Power Plant, located south of Miami, to pollute Biscayne Bay and the Biscayne Aquifer, a source of drinking water for more than 3 million people. Turkey Point has two nuclear reactors that are cooled by the canal system.

FPL has failed to "adequately control the temperature of the cooling water in the cooling canal system, by failing to control the nutrient levels in the system, and by failing to properly operate the so-called 'interceptor' ditch to prevent widespread contamination of the ground water by saline water and other pollutants, including radioactive tritium," the lawsuit says.

Comment: This plant has been flirting with disaster since 2014 at least. How long before it goes critical?

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Attention

The Nice tragedy will be used to bolster the police state and lead to more war, less freedom, and more terrorism

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Police state
At least 84 people were killed when an attacker plowed through a crowd gathered in Nice, France, for Bastille Day festivities.

As the country and world reel in shock, French President François Hollande already claims the purposeful mowing down of dozens to be a likely act of terrorism.

"The terrorist nature of the attack cannot be denied," Hollande said early Friday. "We must show absolute vigilance and determination. All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism."

Three days have been set aside to mourn victims of the horrific act, which happened as crowds assembled along Promenade des Anglais in advance of a fireworks display.

One witness, who said attendees had set off their own small fireworks throughout the day, described the scene prior to the attack as 'jovial' and 'upbeat,'and told the Guardian:
"After being there for a little over ten minutes, we heard what sounded like fireworks going off and then heard screaming. All of a sudden, there were hundreds of panic-stricken people running our way and it was clear that if we did not move, we would get trampled. So we started running as fast as we could while having no idea what was going on."
Two Americans from the Austin, Texas, area — father and son Sean and Brodie Copeland — were among the dead, though most victims are believed to be French citizens.

Police ultimately shot the driver of the truck to halt the carnage. In the aftermath, authorities identified the attacker as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had a French visa and lived in Nice — and a petty criminal and delivery driver.

Once again, the West struggles to cope with an attack civilians in some areas of the Middle East have become all-too familiar with.

But something the West has come to expect in the wake of such tragedies — increased Police State-like surveillance, controls, security, and altogether lessened freedoms for everyone — is already taking hold.


Comment: European countries seek to increase security measures following truck attack in Nice, France


Comment:

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Quenelle

Sue 'em! ACLU sues Baton Rouge police for attacking crowds, violating rights at Alton Sterling protests

Nika Knight
Common Dreams
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
police arresting a nurse
© Jonathan Bachman/ReutersA photograph of riot police arresting a nurse protesting peacefully in Baton Rouge on Saturday garnered international attention.
'Peaceful protestors were violently attacked and arrested, assault weapons pointed at them with fingers on the triggers, some dragged across the cement, their clothes ripped off of them'

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana and other local civil rights groups filed suit against the Baton Rouge police department on Wednesday for violating the first amendment rights of demonstrators protesting the recent fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling.

Baton Rouge police showed excessive force when they arrived at this weekend's Black Lives Matter demonstration in riot gear and bearing machine guns, the lawsuit (pdf) alleges. The officers also violated protesters' First Amendment rights when they used "physical and verbal abuse and wrongful arrests to disperse protestors who were gathered peacefully to speak out against the police killing of Alton Sterling," the ACLU wrote.

"[The police response] made me afraid to protest. Seeing the way the police were manhandling folks caused me to hide, scream out of fear, and finally flee for my safety. I had to run. A peaceful demonstration should never be like that," said Crystal Williams, local resident and organizer with North Baton Rouge Matters. "I feel like speech is my most powerful tool to ensure my community and my family are safe. But now I feel totally silenced."
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Black Magic

Why does synthetic marijuana make people act like zombies?

Cari Nierenberg
Live Science
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 18:15 UTC
spice k2 synthetic marijuana
© The Morning Call
Users of increasingly popular street drugs called K2 or spice, which are made from mixtures of herbs laced with synthetic cannabinoids and other chemicals, are showing some incredibly strange behaviors.

Indeed, as the use of these so-called synthetic-marijuana drugs escalate among U.S. teens and young adults — who typically smoke or vape the drugs — TV and newspaper accounts report that users are passing out on sidewalks, stumbling out into traffic, and "looking and acting like zombies."

People on synthetic cannabinoid products can act anywhere from a bit confused to completely out of their minds, depending on the dose of K2 used and an individual's susceptibility to the drug, said Dr. Anthony Scalzo, a professor of pediatrics and chief of toxicology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri.

Comment: Related articles:

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Question

The psychology of 'Pokémon Go': What's fueling the obsession?

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 10:22 UTC
pokemon go
© Courtesy of Sarah LewinPokemon Go's Squirtle shows up on the streets of New York City.
Perhaps you've seen them: roving bands of (mostly) young people, gathering together with smartphones aloft, talking about something called Rattata or Squirtle.

If not, you've probably at least seen the headlines about these folks — players of the massively popular new game "Pokémon Go." The game, which uses geolocation to place virtual Pokémon characters in the real world, has breathed sudden new life into the 20-year-old Pokémon franchise, with some estimates suggesting that the game has been downloaded more than 7 million times in the U.S. since its release on July 6.

Part of its success owes to its deft mixing of the real world and the virtual world. "Pokémon Go" blends a game experience with real physical activity and real, in-person socialization, said Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center in Newport Beach, California.

Comment: Related articles:

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Cell Phone

More lunacy: Pokémon Go players scale perimeter, sit next to tiger enclosure


RT
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 03:40 UTC
pokemon go
© Sam Mircovich / Reuters
Two Pokémon Go players in their 20s were arrested after breaking into a Toledo, Ohio zoo in the middle of the night while playing the augmented reality video game.

Robin Bartholomy, 25, and Adrian Crawford, 26, were found sitting next to a tiger enclosure by police after they jumped a fence at about 2.30 a.m.

"They are certainly old enough to know better," Toledo police lieutenant Joe Heffernan told CBS8. "The fact that you're playing a video game on your phone is not going to play well as an excuse in court."

Local reports claim Bartholomy had said she would be willing to break the law to find the game's characters in a now-deleted Facebook post.
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Evil Rays

Cop who shot Philando Castile received special training: Conditioned to believe that the public is the enemy

William N. Grigg
Free Thought Project
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Cop training
Jeronimo Yanez, the St. Anthony, Minnesota Police Officer who fatally shot Philando Castile, underwent "Bulletproof Warrior" officer survival indoctrination that imparts what one police trainer calls a "paranoid" and "militaristic" mindset.

In May of 2014, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Yanez underwent a 20-hour seminar on "Street Survival" taught by Illinois-based Calibre Press, which teaches courses on the subject to police officers nationwide. The company's "Street Survival Seminar" overview displays a monomaniacal focus on that most important of all policy considerations, "officer safety." It treats every police encounter as a combat situation in which only one life truly matters - that of the government's armed emissary, not that of the citizen who is supposedly being protected and served by him.

Although Calibre co-owner Jim Glennon has written that viewing "police as the enemy is not a healthy or helpful position for a society to take," the courses presented by his company relentlessly teach officers that the public is their enemy. As one instructor summarized the course for the benefit of his students, "We've got to survive this job!"

Comment: Turning police into a robotic and militarized force has sure become a big business in the U.S.

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TV

Grow up! Nine ominous signs that you're a tool of the entertainment-industrial complex

Sigmund Fraud
Waking Times
Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:30 UTC
cake me festival
We find ourselves at a critical time in history, on the brink of self-destruction, yet under the spell of so many lies, illusions and false realities. A survey of the actors on stage reveals the shocking truth that so many of the would-be-could-be change-makers out there are absent, sidelined, and simply not present or available for action when we need them most. Instead, so many of us are totally engrossed in entertainment-based lifestyles, substituting games, fantasies and phony arenas for the drama and achievement of real life.

Where are all the young warriors and radicals out there who won't stand for the abuse, oppression, surveillance, tyranny, and debt slavery being handed down by older generations? And why do so many young people seem to care not at all about world events, the quality of government, or the future of our society and culture?

It really is no accident that so many are too pre-occupied to 'occupy,' for after all, we do live in the matrix, a sort of glorified hamster cage for the human race, where controlling interests pre-design our lives by entrapping us with pre-set choices, all the while cutting off exit-strategies for those who'd rather opt-out.
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Sheriff

How do cops without guns handle violence?

Alexa Erickson
Collective Evolution
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 18:19 UTC
British police
Confrontation, sporadic violence, and arrests during protests continue to follow the surge of racially biased shooting in the United States. People are angry, confused, and above all, terrified of law enforcement. They have lost faith and trust in the justice system of a nation which prides itself on racial equality.

More than 50 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, approximately six-in-ten Americans believe the country needs to continue making changes to achieve racial equality.

This year alone, 569 people have been killed by US police. Many of the circumstances have proven these killings to be unjustified, and many others have made media headlines for their clear racial profiling.

Comment: Aside from many officers having inborn tendencies towards violence, one can only suspect that American police training is specifically designed for maximum carnage.

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