Society's ChildS


X

CNN punished its own journalist for fulfilling a core duty of journalism

Image
Weapons of mass deception

CNN suspended its global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, for two weeks for the crime of posting a tweet critical of the House vote to ban Syrian refugees.
Whether by compulsion or choice, she then groveled in apology. This is the original tweet along with her subsequent expression of repentance:

Image

Black Cat

Arkansas judge accused of molesting young men skips court date, keeps full pay, no arrest

Image
© One Page News
A judge who has been accused of sexually assaulting numerous defendants who passed through his courtroom, has skipped court this week and failed to show up to defend himself against these charges.Judge Joseph Boeckmann had reportedly been coercing young men into sexual acts since as far back as 2009.

Boeckmann would select young men that passed through his court, and he would give them community service near his house. Once they were near his home, Boeckmann would get them inside and force them into sexual acts and sometimes take photos. Boeckmann would offer the young men lighter sentences or money in exchange for their silence. He reportedly had a fetish for spanking the boys, both for their "punishment" and for his personal enjoyment.

According to the complaint:
"The 'work' usually consisted of picking up cans either alongside city roads in Wynne, or actually picking up cans at Boeckmannn's residence, wherein Boeckmann would photograph the buttocks of the men as they were bending to retrieve the garbage. Multiple male litigants have been photographed by Boeckmann during these 'community service' type sentences. Boeckmann maintained these photographs of male litigants' buttocks in his home for his own personal use. In addition to the illegal sentences, Boeckmann has used his judicial status to form relationships, personal and sexual, with male litigants. Boeckmann has engaged in a consistent pattern of seeking out young Caucasian male litigants before Cross County District Court for the purpose of forming personal sexual relations with the litigants, thus creating a self-imposed conflict of interest for himself in his role as Cross County District Court judge."
All of the men that Boeckmann molested were over the age of 18, however, it is suspected that he has child pornography on his computer, and it has been reported that his computer has been confiscated since the allegations have been made public.

Comment: In a totalitarian state, the rule of law is divided in two. One rule of law for the elite and another for the rest of us.


Ambulance

7 killed in New Zealand helicopter crash

Image
Helicopter crashes at New Zealand glacier, killing all seven on board
Four British tourists were among seven people killed in a helicopter crash in one of New Zealand's best-known tourist spots.

The pilot and six passengers were on board the aircraft when it went down at Fox Glacier on the remote west coast of the South Island in what have been described as poor conditions.

Four rescue helicopters were sent to the scene and a paramedic and alpine rescue team were winched down to the scene of the crash and confirmed there were no survivors.

A spokesman for the New Zealand Police said it is thought all six passengers were foreign tourists, while the pilot was a local man.

"It is believed two were Australians," the spokesman said, adding that formal identification will take "some time."


Info

'We kill innocent people': Bataclan survivor says Paris horror made him rethink West's military campaigns

Image
© Christian Hartmann / Reuters French riot police secure the area near the Bataclan concert hall following a fatal shooting at a restaurant in Paris, France, November 13, 2015.
"This was the Apocalypse." These are the words of Pierre Janaszak, a TV and radio presenter, who spoke to RT after experiencing the massacre at France's Bataclan theater. He says the ordeal has changed his view of the world forever.

Pierre Janaszak, a TV and radio presenter, went to the Bataclan with his sister on that fateful Friday evening. He says he just wanted to make her happy because she is a huge fan of "The Eagles of Death Metal," the US band that was performing in the Paris theater on November 13.

Pierre was on the left side of the balcony in front of the stage - drinking beer and having fun. When he first heard the shooting, about 50 minutes into the gig, he thought it was "part of the show."

Comment: Well, staring at your naval thinking good thoughts won't make the problem go away. People should reconnect with their empathy and quit supporting the psychopaths in power.


Attention

Exploiting the situation: Sicilian mafia offers Big Apple protection from 'psychopathic' ISIS

Image
© Brendan McDermid / ReutersGambino crime family associate Franco Lupoi is escorted by FBI agents from their Manhattan offices in New York February 11, 2014.
The son of a New York mob boss has given Islamic State a stark warning, saying if they are planning any attacks in New York, they will have to contend with the Sicilian mafia. The notorious crime syndicate say they want to do their bit to protect locals.

Giovanni Gambino, the son of a key figure in the Gambino mob organization, says the mafia is in a much better position than security bodies, such as the FBI or Homeland Security, to give New Yorkers the protection they need.

"They often act too late, or fail to see a complete picture of what's happening due to a lack of 'human intelligence,'" he said in an interview with NBC News, as cited by Reuters, adding that the mafia's knowledge of individual movements and interaction with locals gives it the upper hand, even compared to the latest surveillance technologies.

Comment: Well, the US creates the boogie man and then claims to be protecting you from it whereas the Mafia is actually helping to protect people. Which would you choose?


Red Flag

For real? Turkish coastguard 'filmed' Greek coastguard 'trying to sink' Syrian refugee boat

Syrian refugees in boat
© Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
A Greek coastguard has been accused of deliberately trying to sink an inflatable refugee boat carrying Syrian refugees crossing the Aegean Sea. A video shows a man seemingly trying to prod the life raft with a pole.

The footage was released by the Turkish Institute of Public Diplomacy and shows a person on board the Greek vessel trying to sink the inflatable dinghy, despite it being packed with 58 refugees.

Comment: This story is hard to believe. Was the Turkish Coastguard doing the filming? If so, why would the Greek Coastguard try to prod the refugee boat under the Turkish glaring search light? Turkey maybe trying to score some points here trying to portray themselves in a good light.


Airplane

Turkish Airlines flight NYC-Istanbul lands in Canada after bomb threat

Turkish plane diverted to Canada
© Kayla Hounsell @CTVAtlanticTurkish Airlines Flight 2 sits on the runway of Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 jet flying from New York City to Istanbul was sharply diverted mid-air and landed in Halifax, Canada due to a bomb threat. Firefighting crews and police have evacuated the aircraft.

256 passengers and crew have been moved to the terminal building, and "all is going smoothly," the emergency services stated on their Twitter account.

Canadian emergency services and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are responding to the situation, East Hants Fire Service Dispatches reported on Facebook. The fire department earlier tweeted that a bomb threat has been made.

The flight in question is Turkish Airlines TYH2 / TK2. While the nature of the threat has not been confirmed, plane watchers on social media have speculated it may have been made online.

An investigation into the bomb threat is currently taking place, they added.

Comment: See also: 'Terror threat' reported as two Air France flights from US to Paris diverted, forced to land


USA

Largest immigration wave in modern history may be ending: More Mexicans are leaving the US than entering

Mexican immegrant
The 'Great Recession' was evidently so bad for the economy that it stopped the net influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico. For the first time since the 1940s, more Mexicans have been leaving the U.S. to return home than arriving, a reversal that brings down the curtain on the largest immigration wave in modern American history. As WSJ reports, the Pew Research Center figures released Thursday suggest that the surge in legal and illegal Mexican immigration that helped transform America - and remains a contentious issue on the presidential campaign trail - may have peaked for good.

Pew Hispanic found that, according to official numbers, more than 800,000 undocumented workers came to the United States during 2009-2014 while more than 1 million fled the U.S. during the same period. It seems that employment became more difficult after the 2008 economic crisis, while Mexico's economy actually improved.

Comment: Looks like the Mexican immigrants see the writing on the wall that the US economy is not in good shape.


Heart - Black

Fear is toxic to a democracy

syrian refugee opposition
© Lee Royal/flickr/cc
Fear is toxic to a democracy. Fear divides. Fear overreacts. Fear discriminates.

It's a lesson we've learned throughout our history, from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II to the post-9/11 Patriot Act. And now in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks, we're relearning that lesson again as some of our leaders put forth proposals that would undermine our commitment to a free, pluralistic, compassionate, and open society.

Currently 31 governors are on record opposing resettling any Syrian refugees in their states. These efforts to subvert federal policy would be unconstitutional. Only the federal government has the authority to determine who is allowed to enter the country -- the states do not. And once immigrants are admitted, the states cannot restrict them from settling wherever they choose.

The governors say they worry that terrorists may hide among those who are fleeing the Islamic State and the Assad regime. This is a good argument for a rigorous and multi-layered screening process -- but we already have one. The current U.S. refugee screening system includes background checks by multiple agencies, biometric tests, medical screenings, and in-person interviews with Department of Homeland Security officials.

Pills

BigPharma haul: Flood of new expensive drugs coming to market in U.S. and Europe

cost of drugs TTP
Drug companies have brought a host of expensive new medicines to market in the United States and Europe this year, figures show, another bumper haul for an industry often accused of over-charging.

Drug prices are set to be a major issue in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election next year, with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton having pledged to rein in costs in a country that has the world's highest prices.


Comment: The idea that Hillary will act to contain the pharmaceutical industry is laughable, considering that she has received more campaign cash from drug companies than any candidate in either party, even as she declares the industry is one of her biggest enemies.


The busy drug pipeline to the West also illustrates how the vast bulk of research cash is spent on developing money-spinning medicines for rich countries, rather than to tackle tropical diseases that kill millions in the developing world.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far approved 37 novel drugs in 2015, more than the 34 that had been cleared by this stage a year ago and just short of 2014's final total of 41, which was an 18-year high.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is also waving through more products, recommending a total of 84 new medicines so far, up from 75 in the first 11 months of 2014, according to data released on Friday. Unlike the FDA, the EMA includes generic drugs in its list.

Comment: With the approval of the TPPA, the profiteering of the pharmaceutical industry at the expense of the public will only get worse. The TPPA will enshrine a billions-over-millions trade-off: billions of dollars in profits will be made by patent-holding pharmaceutical corporations, and millions of people will needlessly suffer and die. TPPA is designed to block the sick and the poor from accessing affordable generic and biosimilar medicines.