Society's ChildS


Camera

Photographer in Liberia's Ebola zone encounters the dead

Diane Cole
National Geographic
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:58 UTC
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Moore has covered wars in Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among other places. But when he arrived in Liberia's capital city of Monrovia this month to report on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, he faced dangers of a different order.
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© John MooreA Liberian soldier beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine in Monrovia's West Point slum on Wednesday.
Liberia has 972 probable, suspected, or confirmed cases of the disease, with 576 dead, more than any other country. Including the countries of Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, the death toll from Ebola has reached 1,350, according to the World Health Organization.

Since Moore's arrival in Monrovia, there has been an attack on an isolation center that sent quarantined Ebola patients fleeing. This week, Liberian soldiers quarantined Monrovia's West Point slum in an effort to contain the virus, provoking clashes with neighborhood residents.

Moore spoke to National Geographic about the harrowing scenes he's documented, the personal risks he faces - and the humanity that endures.

Comment: See also Ebola transmission: "Being within 3 feet" or "in same room" can lead to infection.

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Black Cat

Same Oklahoma cop previously involved in wrongful death lawsuit accused of sexually assaulting women while on duty

Travis Gettys
The Raw Story
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 06:34 UTC
Daniel-Holtzclaw
© AP Photo/Oklahoma County Sheriff's OfficeThis Aug. 21, 2014, photo made available by the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office shows Daniel K. Holtzclaw. The 27-year-old Oklahoma City police officer was arrested Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014 and is being held in lieu of $5 million bond after being accused of committing a series of sexual assaults against at least six women while on duty.
An Oklahoma City police officer named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this year has been accused of sexually assaulting women while on duty.

Daniel Holtzclaw, a three-year veteran of the Oklahoma City Police Department, was arrested Thursday afternoon outside Gold's Gym on charges of rape, forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery, and indecent exposure and jailed on $5 million bond, reported The Oklahoman.

Investigators said Holtzclaw stopped women while on patrol and threatened to arrest them unless they exposed themselves, allowed him to fondle them, or had sex with him.

Police Chief Bill Citty said the case angered and disturbed him, and he praised detectives for their work on the case.

Comment: Holtzclaw is a former Eastern Michigan University football player. Football is one of many sports where aggression is cultivated, and often translates into aggressive behavior of players off the field. Despite their pathological traits and misbehavior on and off the play field, they get excused again and again. If police departments weren't so ponerized, this man would never have been allowed to remain on active duty after being involved in the wrongful death of Clifton Armstrong.

Rampant sexual abuse by officers ignored by police departments

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Ambulance

Russia's Red Cross takes up the mantle after ICRC backs out due to security concerns


RT
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 12:12 UTC

Comment: Kiev and the western media response's handling of the Russian aid convoy has been a total farce, parroting baseless speculation about Russia's 'belligerent' intentions. The fact is, there is NO evidence the convoy is anything other than what it claims to be: a humanitarian aid convoy. And it is Kiev that has stalled and subtly threatened those accompanying the convoy by not providing promises of security to Red Cross personnel.


russian aid convoy
© AP Photo/Sergei GritsThe first trucks of the convoy roll on the main road to Luhansk near the village of Uralo-Kavkaz, after it passed the border post at Izvaryne, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 22, 2014.
Russia's Red Cross is ready to take part in the aid mission in eastern Ukraine, where the humanitarian situation is "critical", and to escort the Russian aid convoy that is on its way to Lugansk without ICRC accompanying it due to security concerns.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) are holding talks in Geneva over the situation regarding the humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the head of the Russian Red Cross, Raisa Lukutsova, told RIA Novosti on Friday.

She described the situation in the conflict-torn east Ukrainian regions as catastrophic.

Russian Red Cross volunteers are ready to participate urgently in the humanitarian operation in the area.

"The Ukrainian side kept fobbing us off with promises that the [Russian aid] convoy could proceed 'tomorrow', 'the day after tomorrow,' but they failed to provide security guarantees to ICRC employees," Lukutsova told the Interfax agency.

"But what's most important is that there are no food products, medications, and water in the conflict zone. And we, as Russia's Red Cross, are ready to take part in this humanitarian operation."
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Stock Down

Declining wages, low-paid jobs rising across the U.S.

Nadia Prupis
Commondreams.org
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:13 UTC
'These losses are part of an alarming trend toward greater inequality and a shrinking share of the economic pie going to workers'
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© Michael FleshmanProtesters rally for increase to national minimum wage
While wages have declined across all sectors in the years following the financial crash of 2008, low-paid workers have been hit the hardest, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) reported this week.

NELP analyzed five groups of median wages in its report, titled An Unbalanced Recovery: Real Wage and Job Growth Trends (pdf). Since 2009, while higher-income sectors saw a drop between 2.1 and 2.5 percent, workers in the three lowest-paid groups were hit much harder, with wage declines between 3.6 and 4.6 percent. Some of the hardest-hit professions within the three lowest-paid groups were maids, housekeepers, home health and personal care aides, and restaurant workers, whose wage decline ranged from 5.8 to 8.3 percent.

The study also found that low-paid jobs are on the rise. Despite the stagnant or diminished level of wages more people found work in lower-paid occupations than in any other industry in the past year. Low-wage and mid-wage jobs constituted a combined 67 percent of job growth from July 2013 to July 2014.
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Bad Guys

Shame on her: Fox news presenter annoyed by Ferguson update during broadcast about murdered journalist Foley

Antonia Malloy
The Independent
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 08:59 UTC
Image
Biased and bigoted?; Fox News presenter Megyn Kelly
Fox news presenter Megyn Kelly expressed her frustration on air when an update on the Ferguson riots interrupted an interview about the death of American journalist James Foley.

An Isis video released overnight on Tuesday shows a suspected British jihadist beheading Foley in what is claimed to be a revenge killing for the ongoing US air strikes in Iraq.

When breaking news from Ferguson appeared on the screen during her coverage on Tuesday night, Kelly said: "Hold on...I realise... I realise something is happening in Ferguson, but we're talking about something important here, so can you at least split screen the video."


Comment: What is happening in Ferguson is extremely important for the rest of the U.S. and beyond. This is a police state in action and it is clear to anyone who wishes to see and hear.


Comment: Kelly's arrogance and lack of compassion for the people of Ferguson is breath-taking. She cares much more about one (white) journalist than an (overall black) community that is in uproar and under attack. Selective empathy anyone?

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Heart - Black

Readers of 'soft porn' like 'Fifty Shades of Grey' more likely to binge drink, have eating disorders and abusive relationships

David Ferguson
The Raw Story
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:39 UTC
violence women
A study conducted at Michigan State University found that young adult women who have read the popular erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey are more likely to exhibit symptoms of eating disorders and to have verbally abusive partners than women who haven't read the book.

Furthermore, reported MSU Today this week, women who have read all three books in author E. L. James' Fifty Shades trilogy are more prone to binge drinking and risky sexual behaviors.

The study, which appeared in the Journal of Women's Health, attempted to assess whether a connection exists between unhealthy behaviors in women and an affinity for popular culture - like the Fifty Shades series - that glamorizes and eroticizes violence against women.

"Fifty Shades - a blockbuster fiction series - depicts pervasive violence against women, perpetuating a broader social narrative that normalizes these types of risks and behaviors in women's lives," said the study's background statement.

Comment: Violent and abusive behavior against women, which can be both physically and emotionally harmful, gain societal acceptance when they are glamorized and normalized in popular culture such as books and movies. 'Culture' has now become so degraded that all forms of psychopathy have been normalized and violence against women is epidemic. It is no wonder that consumers of such 'entertainment' exhibit disturbing behaviors and engage in relationships with abusers as they have been taught by the proliferation of this garbage to accept sociopathic abuse as the norm.

Fifty Shades of Grey romanticizes sexual violence and emotional abuse of women
Violence against women at epidemic proportions
Psychopathy: the character trait that predicts risky sexual behavior and hypersexuality in both males and females

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Camcorder

Newly released video disproves police depiction of fatal shooting in St. Louis

Jon Queally
Common Dreams
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 11:48 UTC
Image
The final moments of Kajieme Powell, a 25-year-old black man shot and killed by St. Louis police officers earlier this week, were caught on video.
New video footage from a cell phone camera at the scene of a deadly shooting by two St. Louis Metropolitan police officers two days ago strongly betrays the depiction of the killing given by the department in the aftermath of the incident.

Kajieme Powell, a 25-year-old black man was shot and killed by police on Tuesday just miles from where ongoing street protests in response to the August 9th killing of a black unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, have garnered international attention. Following the death of Powell on Tuesday, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson claimed the shooting was justified because the man was brandishing a knife - "with an overhand grip" and making swiping motions - as he approached the two officers on the scene.

However, the new footage taken by a civilian bystander but released by the department late Wednesday shows that although Powell appeared agitated, his hands were at his sides and does not appear to be as close as stated when the officers opened fire with lethal force.

The following video contains the Chief Dotson's initial depiction of the shooting and then the new cell phone footage of the moments leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself. [Warning: Graphic content]:


Comment: Police justifying lethal force is nothing new. Will anything be done to the officers who killed Kajieme Powell in cold blood? If Darren Wilson gets paid leave for murdering Michael Brown, it's hard to expect anything different being handed down to the two policemen in the video. It's clear they shot and killed a man, used lethal force, when it was not necessary. When you see incidents like this and the way they are dealt with by a psychopathic, militarized police force, it's hard to see the U.S. as anything other than a police state where the citizens are the enemy.

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Gear

Truth to the lies: Right wing blogger claim that Ferguson officer suffered fractured eye socket knocked down by CNN source

Travis Gettys
The Raw Story
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 10:07 UTC
ferguson police
An unnamed source has "unequivocally" knocked down the anonymous report that Officer Darren Wilson suffered broken bones near his eye socket before shooting unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

The deadly shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, provoked international outrage as police in military gear confronted protesters demanding answers from authorities in ongoing - and frequently violent - demonstrations.

Little information about the investigation has been officially released, although at least a dozen sources close to the officer or authorities have refuted witness statements about the incident.

Conservative blogger Jim Hoft - known in some quarters as "the dumbest man on the Internet" - reported Tuesday that the officer suffered an "orbital blowout fracture to the eye socket."

The blogger, who calls himself "The Gateway Pundit," based his report on two unnamed sources, including one "within the Prosecuting Attorney's office and confirmed by the St. Louis County Police."

Hoft's claims have been widely reported, despite his dubious reputation.

Comment: The conservative media has been attempting to twist the facts to shore up the notion that local police are only doing their duty, when it is obvious to anyone with a conscience that US cops are armed to the teeth and have been murdering people and pets with impunity for quite some time:

Social media used to illustrate mainstream media bias towards minorities in police shooting of Michael Brown
Ferguson highlights the rise of police militarization where peaceful protesters become enemy combatants
The police have become a militarized murder machine

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Bacon

Russia is busy winning friends and influencing people: Chilean meat producers to visit Russia in September


RIA Novosti
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 08:11 UTC
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© AP Photo/ Steve PopeChilean meat producers plan to visit Russia in September to discuss delivery volumes
Members of the Chilean associations of poultry and pork producers intend to visit Russia in September to discuss delivery volumes, according to a statement released by Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) Tuesday.

"The Embassy of Chile has asked Rosselkhoznadzor for assistance for members of the associations, who arrive in Russia in September on a trade mission to discuss increasing their deliveries to Russia", the statement said.

The Chilean delegation would also like to conduct talks with Rosselkhoznadzor about safety requirements and the product assessment technology deployed in Russia to ensure that the Chilean products meet the necessary standards.
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Megaphone

Topsy-turvy world: South Carolina student arrested after writing about shooting a dinosaur, while Michael Brown shooter gets paid leave


RT
Thu, 21 Aug 2014 07:31 UTC
student who shot dinosaur
Screenshot from 5 News Channel
The mother of a South Carolina high school student was left irate when her 16-year-old son was suspended and then arrested after writing that he intended to buy a gun and kill a dinosaur as part of a homework assignment.

Alex Stone, a student at the South Carolina school, said he wrote a joke that included a gun and a dinosaur for a class assignment to write a few sentences about himself and to list a mock Facebook status. The homework was due Tuesday, the second day of the school year.

The teen wrote, "I killed my neighbor's pet dinosaur." For his status, he said, "I bought the gun to take care of the business."

The teacher then reported Stone to school administrators, Dorchester District 2 officials said. The principal followed the school system's procedures, suspending the 16-year-old. This prompted the school's resource officer to call the Summerville Police Department.
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