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© twitter.comAfter hell broke loose, they responded. Now that they are sick, Congress didn't.
John Feal, a former World Trade Center demolition worker and leading advocate for sick responders, said some 72,000 people are registered with the health program across the US and are monitored or given annual check-ups. He said 33,000 are currently receiving treatment for 9/11-related illness that include shortness of breath, asthma and at least 50 different types of cancer.
"At midnight last night, Ray Pfeifer's stage 4 cancer didn't expire with the bill. He still has stage 4 cancer. Paul Johnson, who has pulmonary fibrosis, didn't expire - he is going to die, and he needs this program," Feal, the executive director of the FealGood Foundation, told RT. Firefighter Ray Pfeifer rushed to Ground Zero on September 11 and remained there, working every day amid the toxic air until May 2002. He has renal cancer.
© Reuters/Mike Segar
Who had the stronger arguments, Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin," asked the New York Daily News/JustRivals competition service in a vote posed to participants after the two leaders expressed opposite viewpoints at the UN headquarters.
Comment: It seems like the more people actually hear what Putin has to say, and the more they know him - the more they seem to like and trust him. And speaking of polls:
A new information tragedy in Ukraine. It started so innocently: the nationally conscious patriotic website Nedelya.ua organized a survey. The question was: which politician would you entrust with governing your country? 41,664 votes were cast. The results were a knock-out blow for the organizers--a full and crushing victory for Vladimir Putin. Treason! Let's look at the results:Even Zhirinovskiy doubled Poroshenko's score! In spite of the common wisdom which says that if Vladimir Volfovich takes up the Ukrainian question, the nationally conscious will be left in charge of Lvov, and even that will be a lease...All in all, pretty bad news for the embroidered shirt crowd...
- Lukashenko: 5% (2032)
- Xi Jinping 2% (820)
- Zhirinovskiy 2% (708)
- Poroshenko 1% (538)
- Merkel 1% (430)
- Marie Le Pen 1% (426)
- Nazarbayev 1% (318)
- Obama 1% (244)
- Timoshenko 0% (176)
- Lyashko 0% (170)
- Yatsenyuk 0% (158)
- Kolomoysky 0% (150)
- Simonenko 0% (130)
- Kuchma 0% (86)
- Yanukovych 0% (116)
- Tigipko 0% (76)
- Kravchuk 0% (32)
- Yushchenko 0% (32)
One could of course argue that Kremlin trolls attacked the poll en masse, pushing the Putin button in order to play mind games with the patriotic citizens of Ukraine and to establish the "bloody dictatorship of the Moscow tyrant." One could, but who will believe it. The site is well known in a very narrow circle, and is rather not frequented by "trolls and bots": this landfill of an internet resource is visited mainly by the nationally conscious warriors.
Now about Putin. It's no wonder: he is considered to be the world's number 1 politician according to the global media community. That's the result of the 2013 world survey of 175 news agencies and media outlets around the world. Naturally, nedelya.ua did not participate in that survey but confirmed its results nevertheless: even in Ukraine where the population is being thoroughly zombified and threatened with the image of the Russian president 24 hours a day, his rating is off the scale. Therefore Ukraine's national idea, defined in terms of "Ending Putin" is suffering a defeat on all fronts.
© AP PhotoEmpty shells
Roughly seven hundred armed militants and criminals surrendered themselves to the local authorities in the Syrian Daraa Governorate that is situated next to the border with Jordan in the last two days, national Syrian Arab News Agency Sana reported.
Hundreds of militants and other law offenders decided to hand themselves over to authorities under the terms of a national reconciliation program.
According to media reports, militants have surrendered their arms to law enforcement, including large numbers of machine guns, automatic weapons and sniper rifles.
Comment: Some clear results already being produced by Russia's decisive action in Syria. And it has only just begun.
Abstract background on risk business concept, metaphor to small fish being in danger among many hooks.
A social media April Fool's prank spearheaded by NPR in 2014 is - ironically - drawing some reflection. This isn't one of those frustrating social media psychology tests without the users' knowledge. It appears to have been a lighthearted joke and a thank you to readers.
NPR posed a question with a link:
Why Doesn't America Read Anymore?According to writer Jay Hathaway, commenters squawked:
We totally do, NPR. Shut up. We read all the time. We're reading your article right now!Which only proved that they didn't.
© WikipediaThe Lions' Gate in Jerusalem
The attack took place near the landmark Lions' Gate. Two of the wounded are reportedly in critical condition, while one is in serious condition, the Jerusalem Post reports.
"The Arab suspect repeatedly stabbed the three Israelis while they were walking near Lion's Gate," Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, according to the Jerusalem Post. "Border Police and Police responded immediately and shot the terrorist, neutralizing him. Police have cordoned off the area and are searching for a possible accomplice."
Comment: Dead supposed 'Arab terrorists' tell no tales.
All the victims are members of the same ultra-Orthodox family, who were walking towards the Western Wall when they were attacked, Channel 2 reports.
Paramedics rushed to the site to provide medical assistance.
One of the victims, the father, has died of his wounds, according to a spokesman for Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Another victim, the mother, is in a critical condition, while the condition of the third person is serious. The two-year-old child was slightly injured and is currently being treated.
Desperate Americans stand in soup kitchen lines and look for work, circa 1929.
According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics some 94.6 million Americans (age 16 and over) are either not working or have made no effort to find a job. With a population of 320 million, that means nearly one in three people in the United States are currently out of work.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that a record 94,610,000 people (ages 16 and over) were not in the labor force in September. In other words they were neither employed nor had made specific efforts to find work in the prior four weeks.Curiously, the official unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.1%, suggesting that some 95% of people actually have jobs.
The number of individuals out of the work force last month — due to discouragement, retirement or otherwise — represented a substantial 579,000 person increase over the most recent record, hit in August, of 94,031,000 people out of the workforce.
13 ave and 43rd St, Brooklyn, NY, USA
The blast occurred in a building on 42nd Street and 13th Avenue in Borough Park at about 1:00pm, according to the city's Office of Emergency Management.
© Mirror, UK
Kristen Lindsey, who was a vet at the Washington Animal Clinic before being fired in April, bragged on Facebook about killing the cat, named Tiger, with a bow and arrow. The gruesome post contained a picture of a smiling Lindsey holding up a big orange-and-white tabby by the arrow embedded in the cat's head.
"My first bow kill, lol," she had written on the photo. "The only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through it's [sic] head! Vet of the year award ... Gladly accepted."
Not so much. The photo elicited outrage that included death threats against Lindsey. People organized under the banner "Tiger's Justice Team." And the cat was not feral. It was a pet cared for by an elderly couple that liked to ride around on their farm tractor and even had a pet sitter.
The cat had gone missing the same day Lindsey posted the photo.
As a result of the outcry, Lindsey was fired from the animal clinic in April.
In June, a grand jury chose not to indict her on animal cruelty charges, citing insufficient proof. But that wasn't the end of it. The cat's self-appointed justice squad wanted to see to it that Lindsey would face some punishment for killing the cat.
Now the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners has voted to revoke her license. Lindsey has rejected the call to voluntarily comply, meaning her case will go before the State Office of Administrative Hearings, where a final decision is expected to be made in early 2016, KBTX reports.
Comment: It is understandable that people would this associate this behavior with serial killers. Torturing and killing animals, without a pang of remorse or conscience, is a sign of psychopathy, not a serial killer. Psychopaths wish to inflict pain and enjoy suffering:
"The experience of pleasure is not reciprocal for the psychopath," stated Dr. Meloy, "it is available only through sadistic channels of power and control. Achieving power for the sake of having power is the nature of the psychopath."They love to have power and control over others," agreed Dr. Hare.See also: Female psychopath: Texas veterinarian fired after bragging online about killing a cat with a bow and arrow
The need for absolute power over others and the wish to inflict pain for the enjoyment of watching others suffer, are almost never apparent to the casual observer. The reason for this is that another core trait of the psychopath is disguise. So unfortunately, these individuals usually mask themselves as good-natured people. If they have tremendous wealth, you can bet that they'll create charitable organizations as part of their mask.
The Hidden Evil: The Psychopathic Influence
© Reuters / Lucas Jackson
Today, the NYPD Inspector General's office—an independent agency tasked with investigating and auditing the NYPD's operations—released a report on the department's use of force between 2010 and 2014. Its conclusions, based on a study of 179 instances, are at times sadly unsurprising (black people are grossly overrepresented as the victims of excessive force); and other times more novel (newer officers tended to use force more readily than more experienced cops). Broadly, it suggests that the department's policies on using violence are vague and often unenforced—a revelation NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton preempted this morning by announcing that he plans to quickly implement some of the reforms for which the inspector general advocates.
Comment: These are but a few examples of the brutal treatment by New York's 'finest' which aren't actually representative - there are far worse examples:
- Undercover NYPD cop kills bystander after shooting at suspect holding fake gun
- American Police State: Two bystanders shot and wounded by NYPD officers who opened fire onmentally disturbed suspect in crowded Times Square
- NYPD officer charged with 40 counts of sexually abusing teenage girl
- NYPD brutally beat man, pin him to floor during arrest; angry crowd gathers in protest
- Horrifying: Woman held in psyche ward and drugged for 8 days because NYPD didn't believe she owned BMW
- NYPD beat autistic teen in front of home without cause
- NYPD cops busted again for planting evidence and inventing informants
Comment: If this isn't a sign (though there are many others) that the US economy is on the brink of collapse - with all that that entails - then nothing is.
See also: Top threats to your life when the SHTF and how to prepare for them