Society's ChildS


Question

Symbolic? Blue Angels pilot killed in Tennessee crash hours after Thunderbirds crash

Blue Angels air team
© U.S. Navy
The pilot of a Blue Angels jet was killed Thursday during practice for a weekend air show, hours after a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed following a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement ceremony attended by the President, officials said.

The Navy said the Blue Angels pilot died from injuries suffered in the crash in Tennessee.

The Thunderbirds pilot safely ejected before the plane went down in Colorado, officials said.

Dominoes

It's not just Brexit: Greece, Spain, and France are also on the brink

Striking workers at Total oil refinery in Donges, France
© LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty ImagesStriking workers set tires on fire to block the entrance to the Total oil refinery in Donges, France
It could be a wild weekend in late June if all the crises come to a head.

The hedge funds will have prepped their positions. The investment banks will have ordered in pizza and extra coffee ready for a long night of dealing. Exit polls will have been commissioned, and currency traders will be ready to buy or sell sterling GBPEUR, -0.9509% as soon as they start getting a clear idea of whether Britain has voted to stay in or get out of the European Union on June 23.

But hold on. In fact, it is not just the risk of Brexit that the markets need to be worrying about. In truth, the real drama is going to come over a long and difficult weekend, leading up to potentially wild day in European assets on Monday, June 27.

Why? Over that weekend, Spanish voters will go back to the polls in another attempt to settle on a government, which may well see the far-left Podemos group make big gains. Greece will be struggling to find the money to pay back its latest debts. And if the strikes in France escalate, the country may be close to running out of its strategic fuel reserves — and approaching a total meltdown.

Brexit, Spexit, Grexit, and Frexit could all collide. The result? A car crash for the European markets.

Attention

Americans not in the labor force soar to record 94.7 million

US labor participation rate chart
So much for that much anticipated rebound in the participation rate. After it had managed to rise for 5 months in a row through March, hitting the highest level in one year, the disenchantment with working has returned, and the labor force participation rate promptly slumped in both April and May, sliding 0.4% in the past two months to 62.60%, just shy of its 35 year low of 62.4% hit last October. This can be seen in the surge of Americans who are no longer in the labor force, who spiked by 664,000 in May, hitting an all time high of 94.7 million. As a result of this the US labor force shrank by over 400,000 to 158,466K, down from 158,924K a month ago, and helped the unemployment rate tumble to 4.7%, the lowest level since 2007.

Adding the number of unemployed workers to the people not in the labor force, there are now over 102 million Americans who are either unemployed or no longer looking for work.

Comment: Amazing statistic when one considers the US population is around 323,931,054 results in almost 30% true unemployment.


Map

New beginnings: One in ten Russians ready to claim free land in Far East

Russia far east
© Yuri Maltsev / Reuters
About nine percent of Russians say they want to move to the Far East under a state-backed program of giving away one hectare of free land to populate and develop the region.

Research from headhunting website Superjob.ru suggests besides those who are ready to move to the Far East, 22 percent of Russians are thinking about the possibility.

A third of respondents to the survey said they are not ready to move, and another third did not respond.

Airplane

Somali national accused of war crimes found working as airport security guard in Washington, D.C.

Yusuf Abdi Ali
© CBCYusuf Abdi Ali, also known as Col. Tukeh, is alleged to have tortured, killed and maimed hundreds of people under Somalia's then-dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
A Somali national accused of leading mass executions and torturing people during his country's bloody civil war in the 1980s has been working as a security guard at the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C, passing through all TSA and FBI checks for the past six years.

Yusuf Abdi Ali, who is living in Alexandria, Virginia, was discovered by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, according to Fox 5. Ali had been through the full, federally mandated vetting process required to obtain an airport badge, officials said.

Since the revelation, Ali has been placed on administrative leave, and his airport access has been revoked. Airport officials said that they are aware the Somali native was named in a lawsuit filed by a human rights group in 2006 for crimes against humanity. According to CNN, the case has faced several appeals and is headed to the Supreme Court.

Comment: See also: Alleged Somali war criminal first exposed by the fifth estate now in landmark U.S. case
Prior to the fall of the Siad Barre regime, for which he had worked, Ali went to the U.S. on a diplomatic visa where he received American military training...

Before the war, Ali was a graduate of the Pentagon's program for foreign officers. At the time of the armed uprising against Siad Barre in the late 1980s, America was braced by the Cold War and, in an effort to keep a country like Somalia away from Soviet influence, it was willing to support and arm Somalia's military dictatorship, despite its blatant disregard for human rights.

The U.S. military selected and trained the best and brightest of its allies — Ali being one of them.



Heart - Black

Arizona mom kills and dismembers her 3 children, then stabs herself

children found in closet
© KPNX-TV
The Phoenix mother had been transported to the hospital covered in blood with stab wounds to her neck and abdomen when police officers searching her house opened a closet to a grim discovery.

Inside officers found the partially dismembered bodies of her three young sons.

Police discovered the dead boys - who were identified as 8-year-old Jaikare Rahaman, 5-year-old Jeremiah Adams and 2-month-old Avery Robinson — in a closet full of miscellaneous items.

Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump said the youngest boy's body was in a suitcase.

Crump said the children appeared to have been stabbed to death and "parts of their bodies were dismembered."

The mother's brother arrived at the home around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. The mother was speaking to him incoherently when he got there. That's when KPNX-TV reported the mother locked her brother outside of the house and stabbed herself.

Sheriff

Officers behaving badly: Chicago cop with 19 complaints and multiple lawsuits still keeps her job

chicago police
All too often we hear about a tragic incident of police brutality or police killing and find out after the fact that the criminal cop responsible should have never had a badge in the first place.

Time and again we see officers with rap sheets longer than their service records, yet they are still given a badge and a gun and sent out on the streets as ticking time bombs waiting to explode.

Officer Michelle Morsi Murphy is one of those officers.

Attention

Over 100,000 people in Alabama advised not to use tap water due to chemical contamination

Alabama water
Nguyen Huy Kham / Reuters
Chemical contamination has left over 100,000 Alabamans without drinkable tap water, possibly until the fall, according to a warning issued by officials on Thursday.

The West Morgan-East Lawrence Water Authority (WMEL) advised roughly 100,000 Alabama residents not to use their tap water for drinking or cooking, as it has been contaminated with potentially hazardous chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects, and developmental problems in children.

The warning comes on the heels of a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advisory that revealed higher than previously thought levels of synthetic chemicals known as PFOS (Perfluorooctane sulfonate) and PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) in Alabama waters. Scientists found PFOS and PFOA in the blood of "nearly all the people they tested," but in low concentrations, the EPA said in its May 19 warning.

Comment: See also: Operation Flint provides much needed water to residents while the government and mainstream media sleeps


Health

Outbreak of flesh-eating disease strikes Syria thanks to Western warmongering

flesh eating disease
© marlanwayans.tv
As if the people of Syria were not troubled enough with five years of Western-engineered destruction, warfare, and economic oppression, a new disease is working its way across the country. Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease allegedly being spread by infected sand flies although the disease is also described as tropical in nature.

The disease causes open wounds and purplish scarring, a gross disfigurement of its victims.

Attention

Venezuelan security forces fire tear gas at people protesting against food shortages

Venezuelan National Guard
© AFP 2016/ JUAN BARRETO
Venezuelan security forces are deploying tear gas against demonstrators in the country's capital of Caracas, as people are protesting against food shortages, local media reported Thursday.

According to El Nacional newspaper, the protesters are blocking the streets and banging pots, while some are trying to loot local establishments.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared an economic emergency in Venezuela in January. The announcement came two days after Venezuela's oil price dropped to $24 a barrel, the lowest mark in 12 years. Up to 96 percent of Venezuela's budget depends on oil revenues. The measure has since been extended.