Society's ChildS


Blue Planet

2nd train derails in Wisconsin in 2 days, spills crude oil


Chicago Tribune
Sun, 08 Nov 2015 22:50 UTC
Image
A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying crude oil derailed Sunday in Wisconsin, the second day in a row a freight train derailed in the state.

The eastbound CP train derailed about 2 p.m. in Watertown in the southeastern part of the state. The railroad said at least 10 cars derailed, and some were leaking.

No fires or injuries were reported. CP was sending teams to the site.

Comment: All these train accidents are beginning to look suspicious: Another Buffett-owned oil tanker train derails in Wisconsin one day after Obama kills Keystone XL pipeline

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Handcuffs

Out of control cops: 3 youths violently beaten and arrested by Texas police


Sputnik
Sun, 08 Nov 2015 23:12 UTC
austin police violently arrest people for jaywalking
© YoutubeProtecting citizens from dangerous jaywalkers
Three people were arrested by police in Austin after jaywalking in a violent incident that was caught on video Friday.


Comment: Only in a police state could jaywalking possibly be an arrest-able offense.


After the three spent the night in jail, two were released and had their charges dropped while the other remained detained.

Jeremy Kingg, one of the arrested men, told ATTN: news that the group had called out to police at about 2:30 a.m. because they did not know if they were allowed to cross. When police didn't respond, they crossed the street.


Comment: Warning: There is, quite understandably, a lot of swearing in the video below.



Comment: Even if these people were breaking the law by jaywalking, this response is totally unreasonable. These cops should be fired and charged with assault.

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Attention

Mexico facing public pressure, demanding corrupt security forces be held accountable for mass grave


RT
Sat, 07 Nov 2015 05:56 UTC
Image
© Henry Romero / Reuters
More than 100 bodies were discovered in central Mexico, officials said Friday. Authorities have begun an investigation into local security forces, who are accused of secretly dumping the bodies.

At least 105 bodies were found in an indigenous community in Morelos province, which is known for the country's highest abduction rate, according to a statement released by the region's prosecutor Javeir Perez.

Perez said there was no official authorization to bury the bodies. According to Mexican law, all unidentified bodies must be buried in plastic bags with a case number label attached to them.
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Arrow Down

The shocking suicide rate of US veterans


Sputnik News
Sun, 08 Nov 2015 17:59 UTC
Marching US Soldiers
© AFP 2015/Jewel SamadUS military soldiers march during the Veterans Day Parade in New York.
Why are suicide rates among veterans higher than in the general US population, American author David Swanson asks, posing yet another question: why does the subject of war as a suicide-related motive never arise in official studies?

The problem of high suicide rates among war veterans is widely discussed in the United States: the latest study has found that the suicide rate among recent veterans is 50 percent higher than non-military civilians.

Incredible as it may seem, official reports brush aside the idea that war itself has anything to do with the problem, American activist and author David Swanson notes.

"Remarkably, the subject of war, their role in war, their thoughts about the supposed justifications (or lack thereof) of a war, never come up," Swanson wrote in his article for Information Clearing House.

The psychiatric studies and mass media reports are being focused on various "factors to blame" from "prior suicidality" to "poverty." However, they tell us virtually nothing, according to Swanson.

"Perhaps their goal isn't to tell us something factual so much as to shift the conversation away from why war causes murder and suicide, to the question of what was wrong with these soldiers before they enlisted," the author remarked.

The issue requires further investigation the American activist says, calling attention to the fact that violence and PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), which are closely connected with one another, are also higher among veterans than among non-veteran civilians.
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Arrow Up

Viggo Mortensen stands by Tarantino's anti-police brutality statements: 'You have to speak up'

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 08 Nov 2015 16:28 UTC
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn
This week we have been paying close attention to the developing feud between Academy Award-winning film director Quentin Tarantino and the police departments of the United States. The largest police union in the country, representing 330,000 full-time cops Threatened Tarantino with a "surprise" after he refused to back down in his statements about police brutality.

As police departments around the country are attempting to bully Tarantino into recanting his statements, other celebrities are surprisingly risking their own positions as well to speak out in his support.

Actor Viggo Mortensen of the Lord of The Rings series and numerous other successful films recently appeared on Democracy Now to discuss the situation and show his support for Tarantino.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Former employee at Service Dogs Europe claims company exploits the vulnerable

Tom Morgan
The Telegraph
Sat, 07 Nov 2015 04:25 UTC
Stephanie Mortlock
© Simon Hildrew/NewsquestStephanie Mortlock, 22, is among dozens of people who claim they’ve been conned by Service Dogs Europe.
A former employee at Service Dogs Europe (SDE) has turned whistleblower to accuse the company of risking its customers' lives.

They were advertised as miracle dogs to provide life-saving services for those in greatest need.

However, the reality has proven the opposite for hundreds of vulnerable and disabled Britons who ploughed their savings - and hopes - into a bogus training firm.

Investigators are also calling for government intervention amid claims the firm is among several exploiting a charity funding crisis for legitimate dog training centres.

Some animals supplied for round-the-clock assistance for paralysed people, diabetics and extreme allergy sufferers were not even fit to fetch a ball.

Ex-trainer Janne Kovaljeff, 43, described his time at Irish-based SDE as "horrifying" as he revealed how one dog was so ill it died within days of delivery to a vulnerable customer who had shelled out thousands of pounds.

The company, run by Henry Fitzsimons, has now shut down while allegedly still owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to its customers.

Mr Kovaljeff, who worked for SDE for more than a year, claimed Mr Fitzsimons sacked anyone who complained about the regime.

"I warned Henry he could kill someone," Mr Kovaljeff said.

According to an investigation to be published on Thursday in Dogs Today, animals were sold by SDE with virtually no training and within weeks of arriving at the centre.

Comment: So Mr. Fitzsimons found a market where people were desperate and used that against them in order to turn a greater profit. In so doing, he knowingly put the lives of his customers at risk. This psychopath deserves to be put into a cage much more than the service dogs he was supposed to be training.

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Handcuffs

US Border Patrol agent arrested in 'ISIS style' beheading

William N. Grigg
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 08 Nov 2015 16:00 UTC
Joel Luna
Joel Luna
Videos depicting the decapitation of hostages by the nihilistic terrorist group called ISIS have caused millions of Americans to fear that the Middle Eastern group might infiltrate the United States - perhaps working in concert with Mexican drug cartels.

On November 5, San Juan, Texas native Joel Luna was arrested and charged with capital murder in an ISIS-style beheading that took place last March. While the 30-year-old Luna has no documented ties to ISIS, he is a six-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Brownsville ABC affiliate KRGV reports that Luna faces a capital murder charge, in addition to charges of possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence and criminal conspiracy. A safe that was seized by investigators contained more than two pounds of cocaine, 17 grams of methamphetamine, three pistols, $89,000 in cash, and Luna's Border Patrol badge.

Comment: "ISIS" operating in Mexico remains to be proven. DHS denies it, but how trustworthy are they? At any rate, one needn't be affiliated with ISIS to behead someone. Beheadings are a time honored tradition of psychopathic killers no matter what their affiliation.

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Bulb

'Trust nothing you read or watch': BBC journalist says mainstream media can't be relied upon to report facts

Sophie McAdam
Activist Post
Sat, 07 Nov 2015 14:39 UTC
cameraperson
John Darvall is a BBC radio host who recently had an epiphany over the state of journalism, after realizing the industry he'd served so well wouldn't think twice about screwing him over for a good story.

Darvall, who hosts a show on BBC radio Bristol, has just lost his daughter. Polly was 22, and died in a tragic car accident on Halloween. Since he works for the BBC, Darvall's grief became public, and he agreed to give an interview. The report was full of inaccuracies and mistakes which compounded his loss, and caused huge problems in the family.

'This poor piece of journalism made Tuesday probably the worst day of this whole episode so far. This includes seeing our dead daughter in a hospital mortuary just 12 hours after she was killed,' Darvall wrote in a moving blog post.

Comment: See also:

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Dollar

There are Zombie debts menacing America, and mine even has a name: Kathryn

Suzanne McGee
The Guardian
Sun, 08 Nov 2015 13:36 UTC
Zombie debt
© Scott Serio/ZUMA Press/Corbis Some zombies come with corporate name tags.
I don't know the woman debt collectors think is me but that doesn't stop them calling. Now, thankfully, there is a federal effort to tackle this growing problem.

Her name is Kathryn.

Every few weeks, I'll answer the phone, and someone will want to talk to her. In fact, whoever is on the other end of the line will insist on talking to her. They assume that I am her, even when I inform her that I'm not and that I don't know who she is. They threaten that if I don't bring her to the phone, I'll face "consequences". Sometimes I'll get two phone calls a day, every day of the week.

These debt collectors want Kathryn to repay some student loans, and every time her file is sold to a new agency, my phone number is transferred along with it - and I have to begin convincing a new bunch of folks that this isn't the way to find her.

Halloween may be over, but the world of zombie debt is a year-round horror show. Aggressive collectors buy credit card accounts from original lenders like Chase or Bank of America that have been written off as in default and impossible to collect on. Having paid only pennies for every dollar owed to acquire these accounts, the new collectors have a big financial incentive to collect the maximum they can - it's not about recouping money but about seeing how much they can make. Getting someone to agree to pay $1 for every $10 of debt owed could mean a 100% return.

Small wonder that a number of players in this space resort to abusive practices, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced last week a new nationwide initiative involving not only 47 attorneys general and many state regulatory agencies but also numerous local bodies and even a Canadian provincial regulatory.

Operation Collection Protection will try to halt the industry's worst practices - and it's needed, says Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the FTC.

"We receive more complaints about this industry than any other," she told a press conference last Thursday, noting that debt collectors make a billion contacts a year with consumers. "The majority [of those] are legal. Many are not."

Comment: The by now familiar tale of banks and their financial partners preying on the most vulnerable in society in an aggressive and predatory manner, and often accompanied by fraudulent, illegal tactics. All in order to extract a (further) profit from those who can least afford it and are most vulnerable to intimidation and manipulation. And when these practices are exposed, as the author mentions, a 'slap on the wrist' is all that happens.

Were the average person to try and employ similar fraudulent / illegal methods in order to psychologically terrorize and profit at the expense of others, you could be sure that the end result would involve jail time.

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Rocket

Did millions across US Southwest just witness comet or meteor? US military sez: 'It was Trident ballistic missile test'


RT
Sun, 08 Nov 2015 02:56 UTC
Comet or balistic missile test over LA
© Андрей Соломатин / YouTube
Social media went wild in wonder and amazement when a large bright comet-shaped object with a blue-green-white tail streaked over Los Angeles and San Diego, sparking speculation as to whether it was a meteor, military test, or, of course, an alien visit.


The US Navy has confirmed that the mysterious "meteor" was a scheduled Trident II ballistic missile test flight. Cmdr. Ryan Perry of the Navy's Third Fleet said in a statement that the rocket was launched from the Kentucky Ohio-class submarine in the Pacific Test Range off the coast of Southern California.

Comment: We find it far more likely that this was an incoming space rock. Missile tests happen all the time, but rarely light up the sky like this. Meteor fireballs exploding in the atmosphere, however, are now being seen around the world on a daily basis.

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