Society's Child

Lebanon attacked: Coordinated bombings kill 6, injure 19

RT
Mon, 27 Jun 2016 20:43 UTC

At least six people have been killed in a series of suicide bombings that targeted the Lebanese village of Qaa, local media reports. Another 19 people were wounded in the coordinated attack, which reportedly involved up to four assailants.

Multiple blasts rocked the northeastern village near the Syrian border, Lebanese private LBCI TV reports. The explosions allegedly happened some 10 minutes apart from each other.

At least three soldiers were wounded when a suicide bomber's initial attack was reportedly followed by a series of at least three others.

All those killed were civilians, the mayor of Qaa told the Voice of Lebanon.

Comment: The attacks are still ongoing:

An new explosion hit on Monday the village of al-Qaa in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley near the border with Syria, Lebanese state-run NNA news agency reported.

"A bomb blast hit the central square of al-Qaa near the building of the mayor's office," NNA said.

According to the agency, several people were killed or wounded.

Context: Hezbollah's existential war in Syria.

Brexit 'mulligan' petition has thousands of fraudulent signatures

RT
Mon, 27 Jun 2016 17:52 UTC

UK authorities are investigating a highly-popular anti-Brexit petition after "discovering" tens of thousands of fraudulent signatures. The petition platform's lack of identity check raises concerns the vast majority of 3.5 million signs could be fake.

Britain's House of Commons Petition Committee announced on Sunday that it has removed around 77,000 signatures that authorities say were "added fraudulently," and will continue to monitor the platform for "suspicious activity."

The Committee emphasized that the website has not been "hacked," and that it is "working and secure."

"The petitions website has not been hacked," authorities said via Twitter. "Fraudulent signatures have been and will continue to be removed, to ensure the site's integrity."

Comment: Funnily enough, this latest expression of British democracy (the Brexit referendum) is leading many to grow fed up with democracy: "What? No! I change my mind! I just voted as a joke, I wasn't actually serious!" And as the 4chan users mentioned above point out, online petitioning is a ridiculous expression of democracy. If more than 50% of the population staged massive protests, that would be something. But what are the chances of that? Britain chose to Brexit, now it's just a matter of waiting to see if and when the deal is done. In his speech before the House of Commons, Cameron said there will be no second referendum (his spokesman: it's "not remotely on the cards"). And now the EU is demanding that Britain invoke Article 50.

Feel the hate: Seven stabbed at neo-Nazi rally in Sacramento

Jazmine Ulloa, John Myers, Emily Alpert Reyes and Victoria Kim
LA Times
Sun, 26 Jun 2016 17:16 UTC

The white nationalists and skinheads, clad in black, began to arrive a little before noon Sunday for their planned march on the state Capitol grounds. They were met by hundreds of protesters toting signs that denounced "Nazi scum."

Violence began almost immediately, authorities and witnesses said, and by the time the clashes ended 20 minutes later, at least seven people had been stabbed, nine were hospitalized and many more suffered bruises, scrapes and cuts.

"They attacked each other without hesitation," said counter-protester Chandra Zafra, 50, a member of the Mexica Movement nonprofit. "It was a war zone."

For much of the afternoon, the historic domed Capitol was locked down, with staffers and tourists inside. Police swarmed the park-like grounds, but by Sunday evening there had still been no arrests.

Patience, respect and compassion: How to become an officer of the peace

Alek Hidell
We Are Anonymous
Sun, 26 Jun 2016 16:34 UTC

Matthew Cooke is dedicating himself to do at least one thing each week to engage in democracy. Do you have it in you to join him?

Mathew Cooke is more than a Hollywood director. He is an activist with a camera. Cooke directed the 2012 film How To Make Money Selling Drugs, a realistic look at the war on drugs and those who profit from it. Most recently, Cooke focused his efforts on the US prison system in the soon-to-be-released film The Survivor's Guide To Prison. He has spent many years exposing the police state through his documentaries and his video shorts.

Cooke's website features new videos weekly.

Comment: Great sentiments for officers with a conscience. Unfortunately, police departments are overrun with psychopaths and they typically don't respond well to pleas for compassion.

World markets hemorrhage in wake of Brexit vote

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Sun, 26 Jun 2016 16:12 UTC

More stock market wealth was lost on Friday than on any other day in world history. As you will see below, global investors lost two trillion dollars on the day following the Brexit vote. And remember, this is on top of the trillions that global investors have already lost over the past 12 months. It is important to understand that the Brexit vote was not the beginning of a new crisis - it has simply accelerated a global financial crisis that started last year and that was already in the process of unfolding. As I noted on Friday, we have been waiting for "the next Lehman Brothers moment" that would really unleash fear and panic globally, and now we have it. The next six months should be absolutely fascinating to watch.

According to CNBC, the total amount of money lost on global stock markets on Friday surpassed anything that we had ever seen before, and that includes the darkest days of the financial crisis of 2008...

Saudi twins kill own mother for opposing their joining IS terrorists

RT
Mon, 27 Jun 2016 02:44 UTC

Twin brothers in Riyadh have stabbed their entire family, killing their mother and seriously injuring their father and elder brother. The 20-year-olds are reportedly loyal to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The twins, Khalid and Saleh Al Areeni, allegedly carried out the attack in their family home in the Saudi capital on Friday. According to investigators, the young men first stabbed their mother with a cleaver and sharp knives brought from the outside, before going after their father. They then chased their elder brother and stabbed him multiple times as well. Having thought the entire family was finished, the twins fled the scene in a stolen car.

The two stabbed men were critically injured and taken to hospital, while the woman died on the spot. Hundreds turned up at the slain mother's funeral this weekend, Gulf News reported, adding that people prayed for her as they would for a terror victim.

Cop bodyslams handcuffed man for refusing orders to sit

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 26 Jun 2016 15:39 UTC

A disturbing video was uploaded to Facebook showing a Philadelphia SEPTA police officer slam a handcuffed man to the concrete. The reason for the cop slamming down the non-violent man was that he was not obeying his command to sit.

As the video begins, the officer is threatening the man filming the interaction with arrest. He then turns his attention back to the man in handcuffs.

During their exchange, the officer admits he handcuffed the man for the simple reason that he did not provide his ID fast enough. When the man in cuffs attempts to explain that he could not hear the officer due to having his headphones in, the cop wants nothing of it.

"I had my headphones in. Obviously, I couldn't hear you," explains the man, sending the cop into drill instructor mode.

Cop who shot at fleeing teen claims driver tried to run him over; video proves otherwise

Rob Beschizza
Boingboing
Sat, 25 Jun 2016 14:03 UTC

In his police report, officer Robert Cooper claims he was "barely able to get out of the way" as a teen driver tried to run him over, forcing him to shoot into a moving vehicle. But his own dashcam footage made a liar of him.

A police video released Thursday by the State Law Enforcement Division of the May 19 shooting of a motorist by a Forest Acres police officer shows the officer firing seven shots into a slow-moving car as the motorist began to drive away.

"Stop! Stop! Do not make me shoot you!" yells the officer, who is on foot in front of the vehicle with his weapon drawn and pointed at the car's windshield. The driver is inside a small sedan and is the car's only occupant.

Dog snuffers: US-owned security firm slaughters 24 working sniffer dogs for loss of Kuwait oil contract

RT
Sun, 26 Jun 2016 04:26 UTC

Two dozen bomb-sniffing dogs were killed by an American-owned security firm in Kuwait after its contract with a local oil company expired. The owners say they killed 24 dogs "humanely" because they were sick. The animals were slaughtered on June 17. There are a further 100 or so dogs at risk of being killed, according to Kuwait Animal Rescue Unit, an animal rights group.

Earlier this week, the group posted graphic pictures on social media showing bodies of dead dogs piled up in corridors inside the base of Eastern Securities of Kuwait. In one of the pictures, a man is seen resting his foot on a dog's corpse. This US-owned company provided services to Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).

Kuwait Animal Rescue Unit says the security firm killed 24 of its sniffer dogs after losing a contract with the oil company, which reportedly paid Eastern Securities $9,900 monthly for each dog. KNPC has denied being involved in the slaughter. In an interview with the Kuwaiti News Agency, official spokesman Khaled Al-Asousi said the contract with Eastern Securities was terminated after the dogs failed to sniff out explosives during a third-party test.

Comment: Man's cruelty knows no bounds. Working dogs have skills and value, have been precisely trained to do their job and should be regarded as such. This company should be choke-chained.

Arizona says it has no more lethal drugs left to carry out death penalty executions

RT
Sat, 25 Jun 2016 09:33 UTC

The US state of Arizona says it doesn't have any more lethal drugs left to carry out executions after a lawsuit was filed by seven inmates on death row, who say the state is using harmful drugs that violate a ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Arizona Department of Corrections says its supply of midazolam, which is a sedative that has been linked to botched lethal injections, ran out on May 31. State lawyers say they have been unable to find replacements as they filed proceedings at Phoenix's US District Court.

Comment: See also: Pfizer puts a halt to its drugs being used for lethal injection