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Russia shuts down Church of Scientology


ITAR-TASS
Mon, 23 Nov 2015 18:50 UTC
Russian Church of Scientology
© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS
Scientology church in Moscow.
The Moscow City Court on Monday ruled to shut down the local Church of Scientology at the Russian Justice Ministry's demand.

According to the ministry, the church regulations contradict the federal law on the freedom of religion.

The Moscow Church of Scientology registered in the capital in 1994 has been ordered to set up a commission to handle its liquidation within six months.

The organization's lawyers said the Justice Ministry gave no serious reasons which "could influence the liquidation."

"The organization violated no bans," lawyers said.

Comment: Another country banning the Church of Scientology.

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Dollars

Should we pay for the Syrian refugees?

Ron Paul
Ron Paul Institute
Mon, 23 Nov 2015 17:29 UTC
Syrian refugee child
© Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo
Last week the US House dealt a blow to President Obama's plan to resettle 10,000 Syrians fleeing their war-torn homeland. On a vote of 289-137, including 47 Democrats, the House voted to require the FBI to closely vet any applicant from Syria and to guarantee that none of them pose a threat to the US. Effectively this will shut down the program.

The House legislation was brought to the Floor after last week's attacks in Paris that left more than 120 people dead, and for which ISIS claimed responsibility. With the year-long US bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, there is a good deal of concern that among those 10,000 to be settled here there might be some who wish to do us harm. Even though it looks as though the Paris attackers were all EU citizens, polling in the US shows record opposition to allowing Syrian refugees entry.
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Star of David

Australian journalist detained by Israeli security for carrying details of Syrian fighters secretly treated in Israeli hospitals

Amanda Meade
The Guardian
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 15:00 UTC
Image
© Eva Rinaldi
Sharri Markson, journalist at the Australian, was taken aside by Israeli security while visiting a hospital
Sharri Markson, a senior journalist at News Corp's the Australian, has said security forces in Israel were "heavy-handed" when they briefly detained her during a press tour after she collected personal details of wounded Syrian fighters being secretly treated in a hospital.

Sources said the chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, stepped in to defuse the tense situation when Markson was questioned about breaking the hospital's strict rules on protecting the identity of the 500 patients, some of whom are fighting in the Syrian war.

"The primary concern of the Israeli security personnel and hospital authorities was to protect the identities of the Syrian patients because disclosing their personal details would put them in danger," Alhadeff told Guardian Australia.

"There was an unfortunate misunderstanding but the situation was quickly defused and resolved."

Comment: Perhaps the Israelis were so interested in protecting the identities of the patients because the 'Syrian fighters" are really undercover Israeli agents or even paid mercenaries, and they can't have that knowledge being spread by the media. It wouldn't be surprising if she got a not-so-subtle message sent to her by the "heavy-handed" Israeli security.

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Eye 1

Why are police part of the public school system and how do we get them out?

GS Potter
TruthOut
Sat, 21 Nov 2015 14:22 UTC
Image
© Monica Almeida / The New York Times
Police officers with the Los Angeles United School District stand outside Venice High School in Venice, Calif., March 16, 2015.
Charges have yet to be brought against Ben Fields, the white police officer in South Carolina who slammed a 16-year-old Black student to the floor of her classroom at Spring Valley High School, injuring her face and neck and breaking her arm.

Nearly a month has passed since the video of the October 26 incident went viral, and while Fields was fired from his job on October 28, he has not been arrested or charged with assault or battery under South Carolina law.

Fields had previously been sued for use of excessive force and currently faces a federal lawsuit in which attorneys claim that he "recklessly targets African-American students." A federal investigation to determine whether or not any federal laws were violated during the incident is underway.

Comment: Public education and hystericized society: For children in the U.S., school is the first indoctrination into the American police state

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Pistol

At least sixteen shot during parade after-party in New Orleans, Louisiana

Jed Lipinski
The Times-Picayune
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 20:29 UTC
Image
© Michael Democker/AP
The after party that followed the Nine Times Social Aide & Pleasure Club's annual second line was in full swing at Bunny Friend Park when gunfire erupted within a crowd of hundreds of revelers, several witnesses recounted Sunday.

Music from a DJ was playing. As many as 300 people were wandering throughout the Upper 9th Ward park when the shots rang through the air. One witness, a nurse who would not give her name, said it sounded like New Year's Eve, when celebratory gunfire often occurs, all over again

People scattered everywhere. Three witnesses said they saw a man with a silver-colored machine gun head toward Louisa Avenue. They also heard more gunshots coming from within the crowd as he ran away.


New Orleans police officers had been monitoring the second line, but witnesses say they were beginning to disperse as the after party kept going. As soon as gunshots were heard, however, officers were on the scene immediately, witnesses said.

Several victims were lying on the sidewalk along Gallier Street sidewalk after the chaos died down a bit.
Image
© Michael Democker/AP
Police remove a victim from the chaotic shooting scene.
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Wolf

Delta will no longer accept pets as checked baggage

Melanie
Life with Dogs
Sat, 21 Nov 2015 22:48 UTC
Image
Following the deaths and disappearances of dozens of pets in the last 10 years, Delta has recently announced that beginning in March of 2016, they will no longer make pets fly in the cargo hold of their passenger planes.

"Delta will no longer accept pets as checked baggage, but will continue to transport allowable pets in all cabins of service except Delta One, effective March 1, 2016," Delta said in a statement. "Customers may also ship pets for travel within the United States as freight through Delta Cargo."
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Ambulance

Funding cuts to mental health services triples number of emergency psychiatric visits


Science Daily
Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:00 UTC
women mental health
© Unknown
Countywide reductions in psychiatric services -- both inpatient and outpatient -- led to more than triple the number of emergency psychiatric consults and 55 percent increases in lengths of stay for psychiatric patients in the emergency department. The before and after study of the impact of decreasing county mental health services was published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine ('Impact of Decreasing County Mental Health Services on the Emergency Medicine').

"As is often the case, the emergency department catches everyone who falls through the cracks in the health care system," said lead study author Arica Nesper, MD, MAS of the University of California Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento. "People with mental illness did not stop needing care simply because the resources dried up. Potentially serious complaints increased after reductions in mental health services, likely representing not only worse care of patients' psychiatric issues but also the medical issues of patients with psychiatric problems."

Comment: This is worrisome at a time when the economy is already taking its toll on mental health. If the expected economic and social turmoil continues to increase, emergency facilities will be quickly overwhelmed.

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Footprints

Euro-skepticism: Finland's parliament to debate leaving the Eurozone

Joshua Krause
The Daily Sheeple
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 22:24 UTC
finnish flag puzzle
Finland is in a rather unique position within the European Union. Their nation is by all accounts, very prosperous and stable with a relatively small debt to GDP ratio. However, their nation is also being crippled under the influence of the Eurozone. They've endured a relentless recession accompanied by negative economic growth and high unemployment. In fact, their economy has contracted by .6% this past quarter, which is worse than any other EU nation including Greece. Their current downturn has lasted even longer than the post-Soviet crash of the early 90's.

Because of their recent economic woes, Finland has become the perfect example of how detrimental it is to be a part of the EU. That's because they don't fall under the stereotypes of their Southern peers like Greece, Spain, and Italy. Finland isn't a debt ridden basket case nation, rife with corruption, dysfunction, and empty promises. And yet, the Euro is still wrecking their economy.
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Horse

Trump's xenophobia and "memory" of 'thousands and thousands' of Arabs cheering 9/11 in New Jersey

Maxwell Tani
Business Insider
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 00:00 UTC
Image
Donald Trump claims that "thousands" of people in New Jersey were "cheering" amid the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on US soil.

In an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his assertion that he saw people in New Jersey — where the real-estate mogul claims there are "large Arab populations" — cheering as the World Trade Center came down.
"There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down," Trump said on Sunday. "I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well-covered at the time."

Comment: Trump appears to be inventing things nearly out of whole cloth in order to justify his deeply xenophobic, fascistic thinking. He has entered the mind set of the 'reality creators': politicians who have no problem whatsoever making up stuff to get others to think and do as they would want them to. We should not underestimate the capacity for buffoons to behave in incredibly destructive ways.

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V

More than 1,000 in Boston protest Massachusetts governor's anti-refugee stance


Sputnik
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 21:25 UTC
Image
© Boston Globe
More than 1,000 people protested Gov. Charlie Baker's position against allowing Syrian refugees into the state.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Boston to protest against the efforts of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to stop the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state, local media reported Saturday.

According to The Boston Globe newspaper, the event that brought together some 500 people took place Friday night.
"Don't give into racist fear! Refugees are welcomed here," the people chanted, as quoted by the media outlet. Speakers from several refugee organizations gave speeches in support of the refugees and calling for compassion.

Baker was one of the governors calling to stop the refugee resettlement program in fears that the security measures in place were not enough to stop extremists from entering the country disguised as refugees.

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would block the presidential administration from resettling some 10,000 Syrian refugees as well as Iraqi refugees to the United States in 2016, as was announced by Obama earlier in the year. The move followed the deadly attacks in Paris last week which claimed lives of at least 130 people. The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
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