Society's ChildS


Folder

Poison Papers reveal: Monsanto knew PCBs were dangerous and kept profiting for decades

Samantha Wohlfeil
inlander.com
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 13:05 UTC
Spokane
© James NisbetThe city continues to deal with a legacy of PCB contamination in the Spokane River.
Spokane is now suing, and the 'Poison Papers' show why

It's one thing to hear rumors that major chemical companies knew their products were harming people for decades. It's another to see physical proof, in the form of internal meeting minutes, questionable studies, and other documents from the 1930s to 1970s that all show companies strategically continued to sell chemicals despite clear evidence they could hurt animals, people and the environment.

That's exactly why investigative journalist Peter von Stackelberg and a small but dedicated team worked to digitize and post more than 100,000 pages of documents dubbed the "Poison Papers" online last year, so everyone could see for themselves.

Comment: Inside the "Poison Papers"

Read More...
Airplane

Aviation expert claims he found MH370 debris in satellite photo taken 3 weeks after mystery disappearance


Sputnik
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 09:07 UTC
mh370 search
© AP Photo / Rob Griffith
The picture was allegedly made less than three weeks after the airliner's disappearance and shows an object located far away from the search area, which may have been a fragment of the lost plane.

An aviation expert named Simon Gunson claims that a satellite image of the Indian Ocean shows a piece of debris of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which disappeared while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, The Daily Star reports.

Armed with this newfound evidence, Gunson also insists that the Australian government was well aware of the picture, which was taken by Digital Globe on March 25, 2014, but chose to ignore it and steer the search operation in a different direction, the newspaper adds.


Comment: See also:

Read More...
Stock Down

Median household wealth in America is going absolutely nowhere

Ryan McMaken
Mises Wire
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 09:00 UTC
wealth inequality rich poor
Today's headline at The Wall Street Journal looks wonderful: "U.S. Household Net Worth Neared $107 Trillion in Second Quarter." The journal is reporting on a new report from the Federal Reserve.

Unfortunately, the fact that the aggregate national net worth is up doesn't tell us much about how Americans are faring right now. The "$107 trillion" number is just one big number of all assets added up minus debts. Marketwatch sums it up:
It's important to stress that the Fed report doesn't represent the experience for the typical household - this is a report about the aggregate. A separate Fed survey from 2016 showed a little more than half of all families owned stocks, while about two-thirds of households owned homes.
For the sizable portion of Americans who don't own homes or a substantial amount of stocks, the report only illustrates, yet again, that asset price inflation mostly benefits people who already own a sizable amount of assets. If you're a young person looking to build a portfolio - or a prospective first-time home buyer, you're facing some very high prices right now.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Attention

Teen chat app 'Kik' linked to 1,100+ child sexual abuse cases in UK - investigators say 'bureaucratic nightmare' prevents taking action

Angus Crawford
BBC
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 08:59 UTC
girl phone
© Getty
One teen chat app has featured in more than 1,100 child sexual abuse cases in the last five years, the BBC has found.

Of 29 police forces that supplied information to the BBC, all but one had child exploitation cases involving Kik.

Police say they are frustrated with Kik's response, with one detective saying getting information out of the firm was a "bureaucratic nightmare".

Kik said it was "constantly assessing and improving its trust and safety measures".

A BBC Freedom of Information request sent to all 47 police forces in the UK revealed there had been 1,147 investigations by 28 forces into offences of child sexual exploitation, grooming and image offences involving the app. Eighteen forces failed to supply any information.

Founded in 2009, Canada-based Kik claims 300 million users worldwide access its free instant messaging service.

It is popular with teenagers, has many anonymous accounts and is easy to sign up for using false details.
Read More...
Wall Street

Stock prices are rising because companies are spending more money on deceptive stock buybacks than on anything else

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
Market Manipulation”
The primary reason why stock prices have been soaring in recent months is because corporations have been buying back their own stock at an unprecedented pace. In fact, the pace of stock buybacks is nearly double what it was at this time last year. According to Goldman Sachs, S&P 500 companies spent 384 billion dollars buying back stock during the first half of 2018. That is an absolutely astounding number. And in many cases, corporations are going deep into debt in order to do this. Of course this is going to push up stock prices, but corporate America will not be able to inflate this bubble indefinitely. At some point a credit crunch will come, and the pace of stock buybacks will fall precipitously.

Prior to 1982, corporations were not permitted to go into the market and buy back stock.

The reason for this is obvious - stock buybacks are a really easy way for corporations to manipulate stock prices.
Read More...
Gold Seal

Best of the Web: Real 'social justice' is sometimes found in the shadows - or why those claiming to care for the downtrodden are quite often full of crap

Clay Routledge
Quillette
Fri, 14 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
African kids
My 42 years of life can be divided roughly into two periods. The first began with my birth in West Africa to Christian missionary parents. Though my family was forced to leave Africa when my siblings and I became deathly ill with malaria, our missionary-style life continued in Missouri's Ozark region. My father pastored small churches and ended his career in ministry as a hospital chaplain, retiring only when the neurodegenerative disease that ultimately took his life rendered him unable to perform his duties.

In addition to providing spiritual guidance and comfort to congregants, hospital patients and grieving families, my father conducted a separate business as the owner of rental houses. This not only helped my dad support our large family, it also provided him a way to informally share the teachings of Christ through his day-to-day actions. He would allow renters to pay what they could, when they could, even if they fell months behind on their payments. He would drive renters who didn't have their own transportation to doctor's appointments, court dates and the grocery store. He would lend them tools, and sometimes money. His houses were modest and inexpensive, well-suited to the needy families, single mothers, ex-cons, and poor older adults who typically had no family support system. Renters sometimes took advantage of his kindness. He forgave them and stayed the course. I miss him.
Read More...
Attention

Several people stabbed at daycare nursery in Queens, New York, including children


RT
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 09:16 UTC
knife attack queens
© FILE PHOTO Darren Staples / Reuters
A knife attack has left multiple people wounded in a daycare center in Queens, New York, reports, citing police, say. Children are among the victims. The female suspect is in custody.

The incident happened early Friday morning in a home operating as a daycare nursery in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens.There are reportedly at least five victims, including three children. One of girls is in a critical condition, but none of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening.

Comment: An increase in knife attack stories have been seen in Europe and the US in recent months:

Read More...
Broom

Codepink activist dragged from stage for disrupting US official's anti-Iran speech


RT
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:21 UTC
codepink founder benjamin disrupts anti-iran speech
© CSPANSecurity personnel struggle to remove Benjamin from the stage.
A prominent anti-war activist was dragged out of a meeting attended by the US special envoy to Iran, but not before she stepped onto the stage and took aim at the official's hawkish anti-Iranian speech.

CODEPINK Co-Founder Medea Benjamin stormed the stage of Wednesday's event hosted by the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think tank, following a speech given by US Special Envoy Brain Hook. During the speech Hook took aim at the 2015 Iran nuclear deal while praising the ratcheting up of sanctions against Tehran.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have seen.The world community wants to keep the Iran nuclear deal," Benjamin said as she took to the stage with a security guard following closely behind.

Responding to Hook's demand that Iran should act "like a normal country," Benjamin continued: "Let's talk about normal countries. Let's talk about Saudi Arabia. Is that who our allies are? They are the biggest threat to the world community."

Moving on to the US-backed, Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, Benjamin attacked a passive Hook for his comments on the conflict, now in its fourth year. "And how dare you bring up the issue of Yemen? It's the Saudi bombing that is killing most people in Yemen."

Comment: Unfortunately, while she makes valid points, such stunts diminish her credibility and that of others who more reasonably voice opposing views on the US's current stance on Iran.

Read More...
Arrow Down

'Detachment from real life': Bono talks populism in Europe with WaPo journalist Zakaria


RT
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 19:22 UTC
U2 frontman Bono
© Christian Hartmann / ReutersU2 frontman Bono
In poverty-stricken Kiev, Ukraine, a millionaire TV host and Washington Post writer sat down with a multimillionaire musician to discuss Europe's rising tide of populism. Unsurprisingly, readers learned little.

Journalist Fareed Zakaria, a Harvard-educated millionaire with his own CNN show on Sundays wanted to understand how Europe, a continent finally at peace after centuries of conflict, could be succumbing to the rise of "populism and nativism."What, he wondered, could be fuelling Europeans' newfound Euroscepticism and "hostility toward strangers, foreigners, anyone who is different."

Rather than ask a Spaniard watching migrant boats plow ashore on his country's beaches, or a Dutchman whose picture-postcard village now features a mosque and ten kebab shops, Zakaria sat down with U2 frontman Bono, for an article published in the Washington Post on Thursday.

"Europe needs to go from being seen as a bore, a bureaucracy, a technical project, to being what it is: a grand, inspiring idea," the singer opined. He argued that while the EU has enacted mountains of legislation, it has failed to capture the imagination of Europeans.

Comment: See also: Celebrity philanthropist Bono revealed to be a crony of bankers and neocons in new book, The Frontman

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Cody Wilson, 3D gun pioneer, wanted for sexual assault of a minor - UPDATE


RT
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 22:51 UTC
Cody wilson 3d gun
© Kelly West / Agence France-PresseFile photo of Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, holding 'The Liberator' £d-printed gun
Outspoken gun and speech rights activist Cody Wilson has been charged with sexual assault of a minor he met online using the website SugarDaddyMeet.com. Authorities believe he is currently on the run in Taiwan.

Wilson allegedly met the girl for coffee on August 15 before the two had sex in the Archer Hotel in Austin, Texas, for which he paid the girl $500, according to investigators. Wilson operated a profile on SugarDaddyMeet.com under the handle 'Sanjuro' and reportedly told the girl he was a "big deal," according to the court affidavit. SugarDaddyMeet requires that users be over 18 years of age to register, but police confirmed the girl in the case is, in fact, just 16.

On August 22, the girl went to see a counsellor to whom she described her sexual encounter with Wilson. In the US, counsellors are legally obliged to report sexual assault of minors to the authorities.

Comment: More on Mr. Wilson: Update: The New York Times reports:
Cody Wilson, a leading proponent of 3-D printed guns, has been arrested in Taiwan after being charged in Texas with sexually assaulting a 16-year old girl there, Taiwanese officials said on Friday.

The police arrested Mr. Wilson in the Wanhua district of Taipei and delivered him to the National Immigration Agency, officials in the city said.

The police in Austin, Tex., said on Wednesday that Mr. Wilson had failed to board a flight back to the United States from Taipei, and that they had asked the United States Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force for help locating him. The marshals will return Mr. Wilson to local Austin authorities after he returns to the United States, the Austin police department said Friday.

He had not been charged when he went to Taiwan, so he is not considered to have fled the country.

Mr. Wilson, 30, is accused of taking a girl he met via the website SugarDaddyMeet.com to a hotel in Austin on Aug. 15, having sex with her and paying her $500 in cash.

Before he left for Taiwan, a friend of the girl told him that he was under investigation for assault, the Austin police have said. Taiwan and the United States do not have an extradition treaty but have agreed to provide mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.

The state-owned Taiwan Central News Agency reported on Friday that a real estate agent who had seen local news stories about the sexual assault charge told police that Mr. Wilson paid a deposit on an apartment on Wednesday. Mr. Wilson was arrested by officers with the Criminal Investigation Bureau at a hotel in Wanhua, according to the report.

Mr. Wilson could be blocked from owning a firearm for life if convicted, legal experts said. He faces a sentence of up to 20 years, Austin officials said on Wednesday.


Read More...