Society's ChildS

Bandaid

Child abuse scandal at Penn State university costing over $237 million

penn state child abuse case
© Jerry Sandusky Pat Little / Reuters
Penn State's costs in relation to the Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal are nearing a quarter of a billion, four years after the former football coach was charged with 52 counts of sexual abuse on young boys over a 15-year period from 1994 to 2009.

According to the school's latest financial statement, Pennsylvania State University has paid at least $237 million in settlements and fines associated with case, after the school was found to have repeatedly violated campus crime reporting requirements.

The eye-watering tally is a combination of various fees, including the recent $12 million payout to former assistant coach Mike McQueary, who won a whistleblower and defamation case against the school after he testified against Sandusky in 2012.

Comment: The university's petty financial losses are nothing compared to the lives traumatized by Penn State's indifference to human suffering and systematic abuse of young boys over a 15 year period!


Pistol

Fort Lauderdale shooting: FBI has some explaining to do

Law enforcement Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
© Zachary Fagenson / ReutersLaw enforcement walk outside a terminal after a shooter opened fire at a baggage carousel at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., January 6, 2017
Given that he reportedly suffered mental health problems, that he told FBI agents he was hearing voices about ISIS and that he was held for psychiatric evaluation in Alaska just two months ago, how is it even possible that Esteban Santiago was allowed to fly with a gun?

Following the bloodbath he is believed to have caused at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday โ€” killing five and wounding eight in a shooting spree at baggage claim โ€” the FBI said Saturday that Santiago wasn't even on the federal no-fly list.

Why in heaven's name not?

How many warning signs, red flags and alarm bells does the agency need to recognize that someone poses a danger, deserves ongoing scrutiny and shouldn't be allowed to possess โ€” let alone fly โ€” with weapons and ammunition?


Comment: Incidents like this have people clamoring for stricter and more effective law enforcement and anti-terrorism measures. The crazies in government, military, and law enforcement love that, because it only creates precedents for even more repressive controls. The only people who lose are the people. But they've never mattered much.


Comment: Further reading: Ft. Lauderdale shooter 'lost his mind' after tour in Iraq, says family


TV

Fox is split: Hannity and Carlson taking heat for stances on Assange and Russia

assange hannity
As the mainstream media's propaganda war over the role played by Julian's Assange's Wikileaks and alleged Russian hacking continues, a notable rift is opening at FOX News between two leading presenters, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, and the remaining staff at the network.

Mr. Hannity, who has consistently supported Donald Trump from the beginning of his campaign, recently conducted the first face-to-face interview with Assange in many months at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Hannity said he came out of the interview with full trust in Wikileaks:
Hannity told Fox News' Bill Hemmer "I believe everything (Assange) said," and praised the Internet activist for his commitment to government transparency.
Assange denied any link to Russia or any other "state party," which Hannity found credible:
Despite the Obama administration's claims that Russia was behind cyber-intrusions meant to interfere with the U.S. election - and punitive measures taken against Moscow last week - Assange said nobody associated with the Russian government gave his group the files.

Cloud Precipitation

Woefully unprepared: Americans panic, empty Wal-Mart shelves for winter weather

Wallmart
A wise man once told me that the American people have two speeds: graze and stampede.

As a wave of extremely cold temperatures and isolated winter storms hits the South and Southeastern parts of the United States, Americans are once again proving their tendency to panic buy food and basic provisions in the event of even the most predictable and short-term emergencies.

In the age of terrorism, ongoing wars, social unrest, economic instability, cyber-warfare, ecological disasters like oil and gas spills, flooding, and changing weather patterns, basic preparedness is the responsibility of all people, and with a little bit of forethought and planning, anyone on any budget can beat the herd by storing at least a few days worth of food and water. Yet, somehow, Americans en masse still wait until disaster is on their doorstep before carrying out this fundamental civic duty.

The following images were sent to Waking Times on January 6th, 2017, by a Wal-Mart employee of the Cambridge Court store in Charlotte, North Carolina, who photographed empty food shelves as a severe winter storm descended upon the region. Along with the photos, this employee commented that the store had been a madhouse all afternoon and that lines were incredibly long.
"It's been a mess since Monday, the lines on the register look like people going to vote." ~ Wal-Mart employee, Ras Vosty

Comment: Additional 'food for thought' when it comes to being prepared:


Info

The Limited retail chain is closing all of its 250 stores

The Limited store in San Jose
© AP Photo/Paul SakumaThe Limited store in San Jose.
The Limited has posted a message on its website saying it is closing all of its 250 stores nationwide, a move that would make the women's apparel chain the latest big-name retailer to be wounded by shoppers' growing preference for online shopping and "fast fashion."

The posting said that the chain's website would continue to be open for business.

There had been a steady drumbeat of evidence that trouble was brewing at The Limited. During the December shopping rush, the store's 80 percent off deals and its sudden decision to disallow returns seemed more characteristic of a fire sale than a holiday bonanza.

Comment: Sears and Kmart stores are also closing: Sears sells Craftsman brand and will close 150 stores


Pistol

Florida airport massacre perpetrated in 'methodical manner'

Law enforcement Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
© Zachary Fagenson / ReutersLaw enforcement walk outside a terminal after a shooter opened fire at a baggage carousel at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., January 6, 2017
The Iraq war veteran who had his mental health and potential terrorist links checked only a month before he went on a shooting rampage at Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida has been charged by federal prosecutors and potentially faces death penalty.

Esteban Santiago-Ruiz, 26, an Iraq war veteran, who killed 5 people and wounded 8 during a shooting rampage at Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida was charged by federal prosecutors on Saturday.

He is due to appear in court in Broward County on Monday according to officials. If convicted, Santiago-Ruiz most will most likely get the death penalty.

Bomb

5 killed and 15 injured in bomb blast near Damascus

Bomb blast in Damascus
© FILE PHOTO Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
At least five people have been killed and fifteen injured, including women and children, after extremists detonated a car bomb in the Damascus countryside, Syrian SANA news agency reported, adding that the death toll may rise.

The bombing took place near the crossroad of Beit Jin village near the town of Sa'sa' in the western part of Damascus Countryside Province on Sunday.

Some of those wounded were seriously injured, the agency said.

Ten of the injured, including two children and seven women, were admitted to Mamdouh Abaza Hospital in the city of Quneitra, 25km from Beit Jin village, a medical source told SANA.

Bomb

Car bombs in eastern Baghdad kill 20, injure at least 60

A police tape cordons the site of a suicide bomb blast in Baghdad
© Ahmed Saad / ReutersA police tape cordons the site of a suicide bomb blast in Baghdad
Two suicide blasts hours apart rang out in eastern Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite areas. The explosions have claimed at least 20 lives and wounded over 60 people, according to police and medics cited by Reuters.

The Sunday attack took place at a vegetable market in Jamila, a mainly Shiite district of eastern Baghdad.

There is no claim of responsibility yet, but the explosion comes less than a week after a similar blast killed 36 people and wounded 52 in the Sadr City area of the Iraqi capital. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) took credit then, saying they targeted Shia Muslims.

Update: Islamic State (IS, ISIS/formerly ISIL) has claimed responsibility in a tweet, saying that the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber.

Comment: See also: At least 32 killed and 61 wounded in Baghdad's Sadr City blast, and Scores killed in New Year's weekend terror attacks in Iraq.


Cult

Airport shooter said he was "mind controlled" by U.S. Intelligence Agency

Esteban Santiago
© McClatchy
Airport shooter admits he was 'mind controlled' by intelligence agency, eyewitness claims there were at least three other "sleepers," shooters, with high-powered rifles shooting into crowd

Eyewitness: "There was like at least three people in there still shooting" after the first guy was caught

Demoted and discharged Alaska National Guard private first class and alleged killer of 5 people at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Esteban Santiago, 26, may have been mind controlled or mentally ill, according to FBI officials.

Santiago, who was arrested in January and waiting to stand trial in March on criminal charges, recently showed up to an F.B.I. office in Anchorage unannounced seeking help.

Santiago told the F.B.I. he thought he was being mind controlled, possibly by the U.S. government or the C.I.A. and admitted hearing voices, which Santiago said told him to study "extremist materials on the Internet," the New York Times reports.

Blue Planet

Jan Oberg: Thoughts as we move into the new year - 2017

abstract building
โ€“ just look at the world and imagine it a little differently and the sky is blueโ€ฆ
The old years went - in as little a time as it takes to turn around and see who is tapping you on your shoulder. And it is the new, the next year.

I hope it will pass too - in as little time as it takes for me to turn my head and look forward again - because the face of 2017 doesn't look good or kind to me.

Neither do the next ten or so years.

Beyond that the world will become a better place. If, that is, if we survive and don't destroy it all.

It is actually already becoming a better place!

The thing that has too pass - or pass away - is the United States Empire.

In a few years it will go the way Rome and all the rest plus the Ottoman, British and Soviet empires did. No empire lasts forever.

Comment: Oberg's vision is what all normal people long for. Unfortunately the amount of suffering it will take to bring them to those realizations will be immense. In the end we can only work on ourselves, one by one, to make that world possible.