Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 04 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Heart - Black

Infant found unconscious in Harlem dies, police say

Benjamin Mueller
The New York Times
Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:00 UTC
Image
© Robert Stolarik/The New York Times
Officers on Saturday outside the apartment in the Washington Houses in East Harlem where Deion McNeil was found bleeding from a gash on his forehead on Friday. He died at the hospital.
A 23-day-old boy died on Friday after the police found him wounded and unconscious in his family's apartment in East Harlem, the authorities said.

The infant, Deion McNeil, was unresponsive and bleeding from a gash on his forehead when he was found on the living room floor, the police said.

Detectives on Saturday were questioning Deion's mother, Ebony McNeil, who was the only adult at home with the boy when she called the police around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, the authorities said. Two other children - Ms. McNeil's 6-year-old son and 17-month-old daughter - were also at home at the time.

Emergency medical workers took Deion to Metropolitan Hospital Center, which is across the street from the family's apartment in the Washington Houses on Second Avenue at 97th Street. He was born in that hospital, according to a post on the Facebook account of Larry McPhail, his grandfather.

But doctors could not save Deion on Friday.

Comment: Seems like there are so many more tragic infant deaths lately.

      Read More...
Smiley

Are the American people that clueless about potential coming economic disasters?

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:14 UTC
Economy Stop Signs
The American people are feeling really good right about now. For example, Gallup's economic confidence index has hit the highest level that we have seen since the last recession. In addition, nearly half of all Americans believe that 2015 will be a better year than 2014 was, and only about 10 percent believe that it will be a worse year. And a lot of people are generally feeling quite good about the people that have been leading our nation. According to Gallup, once again this year Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America and Barack Obama is the most admired man in America. I don't know what that says about our nation, but it can't be good. Unfortunately, when things seem to be going well common sense tends to go out the window. A couple days ago, the Guardian ran an article entitled "Goodbye to one of the best years in history", and a whole lot of people out there are feeling really optimistic these days. But should they be?

Sadly, what we are experiencing right now is so similar to what we witnessed in 2007 and early 2008. The stock market had been on a great run, people were flipping houses like crazy and most people were convinced that the party would never end.

But then it did end - very painfully.

The signs of trouble were there, but most people chose to ignore them.

Sadly, the exact same thing is happening again.

Comment: There is no such thing as "the free market". Indeed there may have never been. The price of oil is simply another weapon US imperialists wield against their enemies, in this case, Russia and Iran, though if pesky Venezuala goes down too, so much the better. What the short-sighted morons running this show didn't seem to calculate was the damage being done to domestic oil production which can't survive at prices less than $80-$90 per barrel. It may go even deeper. Saudi Arabia has cheap oil and lots of it. It's also seems willing to run a budget deficit for the first time in its history due to dropping revenue. Perhaps they are playing to knock their 'friend' the US off as a competitor, too?

      Read More...
Newspaper

Lawlessness and death squads in Ukraine: Washington Post almost gets it right

Adrian Karatnycky
Washington Post
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 23:18 UTC
Donetsk
© Efrem Lukatsky/AP
A car drives by a private house destroyed in a recent battle between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists in Semenivka, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014.
Kiev is abuzz with creative reforms in governance, major anti-corruption initiatives and budgetary clawbacks against rent-seeking oligarchs. Civic activism is on the upsurge, and a new government team - populated with many foreign-born and Western-educated ministers - is largely free from the control of the country's super-rich, who dictated policy in the past.

In recent months, Ukraine's defenses have strengthened since the Russian takeover of Crimea and the eastern industrial Donbas region. Ukraine's security service, formerly riddled with corruption and Russian infiltration, has rebuilt its leadership. Combat readiness has improved and weapons production is on the rise, as are the refurbishment and modernization of tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers. With winter in full swing, the danger of a major Russian offensive has faded.


Comment: It was never there to begin with!


Comment: This isn't the first time the Washington Post has posted something closely resembling the truth. See also: SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Shock! US media outlet Washington Post questions U.S. intervention in Ukraine. But despite presenting a whitewashed version of these battalions' early activities, and totally misrepresenting Russia's involvement in the conflict, at the very least they got across a good point: these groups are composed of lawless, nazi psychopaths. They are nothing more then mercenary death squads. And THOSE are the people the U.S. and NATO, and by extension all those people they represent, are supporting, directly and indirectly.

      Read More...
Pistol

NYPD cops busted again for planting evidence and inventing informants

Stephon Johnson
Amsterdam News
Fri, 02 Jan 2015 17:02 UTC
police arrest
© unknown
In 2011, while caught up in a corruption scandal, former NYPD Detective Stephen Anderson testified in court that fabricating drug charges on innocent victims to meet quotas was common practice. Three years later, cops in Brooklyn are again accused of planting evidence and allegedly lying about "informants" to make gun-related arrests.

Two weeks ago, a judge in Brooklyn ordered prosecutors to produce a confidential informant that cops were accused of inventing as part of a scheme to boost the numbers of gun arrests via planting weapons on innocent men. The scenario described in court usually went as follows: a tip came in from a "confidential informant" that someone had a gun. Officers would then find a man who matches the description at a reported location, then a gun is discovered and an arrest is made.

Comment: See also: Planting Evidence to Sow Fear: Chicago Cops are the Terrorists

      Read More...
USA

Colony of crazies: Israeli settlers attack US diplomats, Israel to investigate


Sputnik
Sat, 03 Jan 2015 23:10 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Sebastian Scheiner
Israeli authorities are looking for Jewish settlers in the West Bank who have attacked US diplomats, an official from the US State Department has told Sputnik.

"The Israeli authorities have communicated to us that they acknowledge the seriousness of the incident and are looking to apprehend and take appropriate action against those responsible," the official said Friday.

According to the official, the American side has video evidence of the attack that it is willing to share with the Israeli law enforcement.

Comment: It's almost funny that these pitiful excuses for human beings just can't contain their over-the-top insanity. Not only are they callously inhuman enough to steal and live on other people's land, they systematically torture the people they have displaced, and then are stupid enough to attack US diplomats. But then, that idiom about biting the hand that feeds isn't in their bible.

      Read More...
Boat

Major search off Scottish coast after ship with 'eight people on board' is overturned

Stephanie Linning
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 03 Jan 2015 21:46 UTC
Image
© EPA
It is understood that up to eight people could be on board the vessel, pictured partially-submerged in the sea.
Eight people are missing after their cargo ship overturned in stormy seas.

A major air and sea rescue operation has been mounted after the upturned hull of the vessel was spotted off the north coast of Scotland this afternoon.

But hopes of finding any survivors are rapidly diminishing as weather conditions in the area continue to deteriorate as darkness falls.

The upturned hull of the Cemfjord, a cargo ship registered in Cyprus, was spotted by a passing passenger ferry at 2.30pm today. It is understood that there were eight people onboard.

The 83-metre ship, which was carrying cement from Denmark to Runcorn, Cheshire, is now drifting in freezing waters of the Pentland Firth - 15 miles north-east of Wick.

A spokesperson for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: 'We have discovered wreckage but, at present, there are no survivors in the immediate vicinity.'
      Read More...
Dollar

Airline sues 22-year-old who Figured out how to get cheaper tickets legally


Yahoo! News
Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00 UTC

A young entrepreneur from New York has some enemies in the airline industry. Aktarer Zaman has a website that helps people find cheap airline tickets, but now he's facing a lawsuit.

Comment: Sued cheap-flights site owner: 'It's not illegal'
Zaman founded Skiplagged.com last year as a side project and runs the site alone. It uses a strategy known as "hidden city" to allow a user to book a ticket with a layover in the flyer's actual destination, and the user just skips the last leg of the trip.

He said there is nothing illegal about the strategy and noted that it has been around for a long time. He says he doesn't think it is "ethical for big corporations to suppress this knowledge that is publicly accessible" to consumers. The site does not generate any profit.

United Airlines and Orbitz claim "unfair competition."
...
Zaman explained that "travelers do not break the law when they miss all of their flights so why would it be illegal to miss one leg of a flight?"
Read this article for analysis on the lawsuit.
On the whole, the lawsuit really is ridiculous. Suing this guy for showing accurate information about flight prices seems tremendously questionable. However, the situation is complicated somewhat by Zaman's promises to both companies. No matter what, it's well known that airlines play really obnoxious fare-pricing games, and Zaman was trying to shed some light on it with a simple side project. And, really, if your entire business can supposedly be undermined by a 22-year-old kid in his spare time accurately showing the prices of various flights, perhaps the real problem is with your business model, and not with the kid.


      Read More...
Heart - Black

Deadly New Year 2015: Tragedies mar festivities around the world


RT
Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00 UTC
Manila slum burning 3
© Reuters
A raging fire engulfs houses in Quezon city, metro Manila January 1, 2015.
For many people around the world, New Year was a time of celebration and joy, but for some it was quite the opposite. Stabbings, mortar shelling, massive fires and a fatal stampede all hit seasonal revels, causing havoc and heartbreak.

Stampede 'over fake money' kills dozens

At least 36 people were killed in China's Shanghai on New Year's Eve in a stampede, city authorities said. It was later reported that they rushed to pick up what turned out to be fake US money bills thrown from a building in Chen Yi Square in the city's Bund waterfront district.

Comment: Symbolic beginning to the year?

      Read More...
Red Flag

John Crawford's girlfriend mysteriously dies in car crash

Jackson Marciana
Counter Current
Fri, 02 Jan 2015 11:17 UTC
Tasha Thomas
© MSNBC screenshot
Attorney Anthony Vannoy and Tasha Thomas during an MSNBC appearance reagrding John Crawford III’s shooting death

Tasha Thomas, 26, the girlfriend of John Crawford was just confirmed as the victim of a fatal car crash, along with 30-year-old Frederick Bailey.

Thomas was with Crawford at the Beavercreek Walmart near Thomas' home, when Beavercreek Police Officer Sean Williams shot and killed the African American father, even though he had not broken any law.

The New Year's Day crash comes as police response to protests and "die ins" at the Beavercreek Walmart and Fairfield Commons Mall have drawn national scrutiny.

Police say that Thomas' vehicle was traveling at nearly 100 miles per hour on a city street at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when it crashed into a pole and overturned several times.

There is no explanation for why Thomas and Bailey would have been driving at such uncanny speeds on downtown Dayton streets in the middle of the afternoon.

Comment: How convenient her death is for the Beavercreek police.

      Read More...
Red Flag

The holiday spike in domestic abuse

Mattie Quinn
The Atlantic
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:30 UTC
Image
For Peg Hacskaylo and her team at the District Alliance for Safe Housing in Washington, D.C., the holiday season is an especially hectic time. Working to prevent domestic violence is already a trying profession, she says, but the shelter will "typically always see an uptick in activity right around New Year's Day."

2014 shone a glaring spotlight on violence against women, including the incident with NFL player Ray Rice, the contentious Rolling Stone article profiling an alleged, then retracted, campus gang rape at the University of Virginia, and the "No More" PSAs playing during high-profile television events. In the days after the footage of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée emerged, calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline jumped 84 percent, according to Katie Ray Jones, chief executive officer of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.


Comment: Where's the public outrage? Police have a larger domestic violence problem than the NFL


Comment: It is disheartening to acknowledge the suffering that many families experience during the holiday season, especially when it comes to domestic violence. The following article gives some jaw dropping information about the reality of domestic abuse in the U.S.A: Thirty jaw-dropping U.S. domestic violence statistics
The number of American troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012 was 6,488. The number of American women who were murdered by current or ex male partners during that time was 11,766. That's nearly double the amount of casualties lost during war.

Women are much more likely to be victims of intimate partner violence with 85 percent of domestic abuse victims being women and 15 percent men. Too many women have been held captive by domestic violence -- whether through physical abuse, financial abuse, emotional abuse or a combination of all three.

We are inundated with news stories about domestic violence, from athletes beating their significant others in public elevators or in their own homes to celebrities publicly abusing their girlfriends. This problem is not one that will go away quickly or quietly.

Domestic violence is not a singular incident, it's an insidious problem deeply rooted in our culture -- and these numbers prove that.


      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts