Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Britain unraveling: One-fifth of UK population mired in poverty amid worst decline for children and pensioners in decades

May Bulman
The Independent
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 16:21 UTC
poverty UK
© Egor Eryomov / Sputnik
Britain's record on tackling poverty has reached a turning point and is at risk of unravelling, following the first sustained rises in child and pensioner poverty for two decades, a major report has warned.

Nearly 400,000 more children and 300,000 more pensioners are now living in poverty than five years ago, during which time there have been continued increases in poverty across both age groups - prompting experts to warn that hard-fought progress towards tackling destitution is "in peril".

The report, by the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), shows that a total of 14 million people in the UK currently live in poverty - more than one in five of the population. While poverty levels fell in the years to 2011-12, changes to welfare policy - especially since the 2015 Budget - have seen the numbers creep up again.

The findings will fuel challenges currently facing Theresa May over failure to improve equality in the UK, after the entire board of her social mobility commission quit over the weekend at the lack of progress towards a "fairer Britain".

Comment: See also:

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Stock Up

The Latest in Plunder Capitalism

Paul Craig Roberts
Counterpunch with Sott Commentary
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 11:41 UTC
white house for sale
I deplore the tax cut that has passed Congress. It is not an economic policy tax cut, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with supply-side economics. The entire purpose is to raise equity prices by providing equity owners with more capital gains and dividends. In other words, it is legislation that makes equity owners richer, thus further polarizing society into a vast arena of poverty and near-poverty and the One Percent, or more precisely a fraction of the One Percent wallowing in billions of dollars. Unless our rulers can continue to control the explanations, the tax cut edges us closer to revolution resulting from complete distrust of government.


Comment: Identity politics much? You don't have to be in the 1% to own equity (he means stocks and bonds). Many people, especially retirees count on dividends for income. Most people's retirement plan is to cash out their equity holdings, or to continue to hold them and collect dividends, which are subject to separate tax rules. That's not even considering certain types of dividend yielding enterprises favored by retirees.

This man is an idiot.


The current tax legislation drops the corporate tax rate to 20%. This means that global corporations registered in the US will be taxed at a lower income tax rate than a licensed practical nurse making $50,000 per year. The nurse, if single, faces in 2017 a 25% marginal tax rate on all income over $37,950.


Comment: More identity politics. See the moral narrative he has for "corporations" vs. "nurses".

Corporations hire people, who then pay income tax. No corporation, no job, no income tax.

One of the central points of Trump's tax plan is capital repatriation. Guess who else did that? Oh, Putin. Because capital flight is a significant issue with corporations and the wealthy. The single best way to avoid capital flight and repatriate all of those profits is lowering the tax rate to increase the tax revenue.


A single person is taxed at a rate of 33% on all income above $191,651. 33% was the top tax rate extracted from medieval serfs, and approaches the tax rate on US 19th century slaves. Such an upper middle class income as $191,651 sounds extraordinary to most Americans, but it is so far from the multi-million dollar annual incomes of the rich as to be invisible. In America, it is the shrinking middle and upper middle class incomes that bear the burden of income taxation. The rich with their capital gains from their equity holdings are taxed at 15%.


Comment: It's more complicated than that. Capital gains taxes are progressive as well.


Even single individuals who earn between $1 and $9,325 are taxed at 10% on their pittance.


Comment: Yes. It's called being fair. Everyone pays. The taxes on someone making $9,325 would be $932. Steep tax bill. This guy is such a progressive edge lord.


Comment: It seems that Paul Craig Roberts has really drunk the liberal kool-aid and is feelin' the Bern. He has hit all of the word salad talking points: One percenters, Banksters, Derivatives (read CDOs and PMBS). He even manages to take a shot at masculinity and trophy hunting. Like that wasn't out of place, but the truth is, as someone who worked for Reagan, much of what is happening today is actually due to people like Paul Craig Roberts and not the so-called financial elite.

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Books

Why can't Johnny read? California faces lawsuit over lack of literacy in schools


RT
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 16:27 UTC
girl reading book
© Geri Lavrov / Getty Images
California is facing a lawsuit over a literacy crisis, with lawyers claiming that state authorities have not followed their own suggestions on how to address the issue. They say the state is "dragging down the nation" when it comes to education.

The suit was filed by a group of lawyers representing teachers and students from three of California's lowest-performing schools - La Salle Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles; the charter school Children of Promise Preparatory Academy in Inglewood; and Van Buren Elementary School in Stockton.

Of the 26 lowest-performing school districts in the nation, 11 are in California, the lawsuit says. But the state's massive size apparently has little to do with it, as Texas - the largest state after California - has just one district on the list.

"When it comes to literacy and the delivery of basic education, California is dragging down the nation," said public counsel lawyer Mark Rosenbaum, according to AP. He is representing the plaintiffs along with the law firm Morrison & Foerster.

According to Rosenbaum, assessments found that less than half of California students from third grade to fifth grade have met statewide literacy standards since 2015. The failure is seen in both traditional and charter schools.

Comment: Could whole word memorization in place of phonics education have anything to do with this lack of literacy?

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Blue Planet

Vatican: Earth at great risk unless climate change is stopped in 10 years

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D
Breitbart
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 11:56 UTC
climate action now
© AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys
In a dramatic declaration punctuated by dire threats and warnings, the Vatican is urging the world to "decarbonize the energy system as early as possible and no later than mid-century" to avoid irreversible damage to humans and ecosystems.

In its newly released "Final Declaration: Our Planet, Our Health, Our Responsibility" from a November workshop on climate change, air pollution and health, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences warns that "there is less than a decade" to put in place a series of sweeping measures to counteract the effects of human-induced climate change. "The time to act is now," it reads.

Surprisingly for a statement coming from an academy of "science," the document is riddled with unscientific assertions in a bizarre mix of political ideology and apocalyptic hyperbole.

"With unchecked climate change and air pollution, the very fabric of life on Earth, including that of humans, is at grave risk," the text begins. "We propose scalable solutions to avoid such catastrophic changes. There is less than a decade to put these solutions in place to preserve our quality of life for generations to come."

In what can only be termed an attempt to generate mass hysteria, the statement envisions a dark scenario not unlike those depicted by past doomsday fads such as the supposed population explosion and catastrophic oil shortages of the 1970s.


Comment: The creeping fascism of global warming hysteria: A dogma of coercion, bias, and junk science


Comment: See also:

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Document

Thousands sterilized under Japan's eugenics law; disabled woman to sue


RT
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 16:08 UTC
Sendai district court
© JIJI PRESS / AFPThe Sendai district court, where the lawsuit will be filed.
A woman who had her reproductive capacity removed under Japan's Eugenic Protection Law plans to sue the government, demanding an apology and compensation. About 84,000 people were sterilized using the notorious legislation, which was only abolished in 1996.

"What she experienced was nothing but inhumanity and a disregard for human rights," said the sister-in-law of the woman, who plans to file the first-ever lawsuit of this type in the Sendai District Court in January, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. "Somebody should speak up to redress such suffering because the victims are getting older."

The 1948 law was aimed at "preventing the birth of inferior offspring" and nominally intended to limit the births of children of rape victims, and those with life-threatening diseases. However, it was frequently cited to administer forced sterilizations on those with genetic disorders, psychiatric illnesses and other disabilities.

The case of the plaintiff, whose name has not been publicized, is particularly egregious. She suffered brain damage in early childhood due to the anesthesia gone wrong, and her family says that they suffer no known genetic defects.
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Cross

Third vandalism in six months: Wooden crosses pulled out of the ground at cemetery in Darmstadt, Germany


Voice of Europe
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 15:54 UTC
wooden crosses Darmstadt
© Polizei Südhessen
For the third time in six months the "Bessung" cemetery in Darmstadt was vandalised. About 20 wooden crosses were pulled out of the ground and thrown away.

According to the police it happened it happened last Friday night. Visitors discovered the crime around 6:45 am and called the police.

In the last six months there have been several incidents at the cemetery. At the end of June, 30 crosses were pulled out of the ground in the same way. In September a tombstone was damaged at the cemetery.
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No Entry

Mom banned from transgender support group for speaking common sense

Suzanna Descalzi
4thWaveNow
Fri, 01 Dec 2017 15:28 UTC
Suzanna is helping to organize support groups for parents of youth who present with rapid-onset gender dysphoria. See here for more information.

Linda is a left-leaning Canadian mom, believer in science and common sense, who is navigating life with her 19-year-old trans-identified biological daughter. She hopes that her daughter will opt out of medical transition and eventually come to a more genuine understanding of who she really is.

The events described in this article recently took place in a support group jointly sponsored by Family Services Ottawa and Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario for "parents & caregivers of gender creative, trans, transgender children, youth or young adults."
group therapy
It was my turn to introduce myself. "Oh God," I thought nervously, "here it goes!"

I glanced around at the others in the circle. Like me, they were all parents of children who had decided they were transgender. They were smiling politely, looking at me expectantly. I gripped the top of the spiral-bound notebook in my lap with both hands and, ignoring the group leader's request to "state your name and preferred pronouns," I began.

Comment: What a frightening display of the rejection of reality and the lengths that people will go to to protect their ideologies.

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Alarm Clock

Legitimate condition or sidestepping responsibility? British man diagnosed with 'sexsomnia' after rape conviction


Sputnik
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 15:03 UTC
sleeping man
© CCO
In a surprising discovery, British doctors found that an unidentified man suffers from a rare form of sleepwalking, where he tries to forcefully have sex with his partners.

According to the BBC, the anonymous British man has been diagnosed with 'sexsomnia', a medical condition.

The man was referred to the doctors by his girlfriend, who experienced "out of character behavior" on his part, when he tried to forcefully "penetrate her through her underwear," as she slept.

Comment: The 'sexsomnia' defense: Man accused of raping woman 100s of times blames sleep disorder

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Quenelle

Police in Honduras refuse orders to stamp out pro-democracy protests

Jon Queally
Common Dreams
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 14:53 UTC
Masked officers in the Honduras National Police
© EPAMasked officers in the Honduras National Police force said they would not confront protesters.
"We are tired. And our job is to give peace and security to the Honduran people, not repress them. We want all Hondurans to be safe."

Amid widening violence and ongoing protests, members of the Honduras National Police force-including those within the U.S.-trained units known as the Cobras-say they are refusing to obey orders from the right-wing government of the incumbent president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who has used the security forces to crackdown on demonstrators and imposed a curfew amid allegations of voter fraud in recent elections.

We want peace, and we will not follow government orders - we're tired of this," a spokesperson for the police told reporters outside the national police headquarters on Monday. "We aren't with a political ideology. We can't keep confronting people, and we don't want to repress and violate the rights of the Honduran people."

On Monday night, demonstrations in the streets continued as opponents of Hernández poured into the streets with pots and pans-now with the tacit support of the police forces who had earlier been sent disperse them-as they called for transparency in the counting of votes and the ouster of the ruling party. As Reuters reports, "Some police officers abandoned their posts and joined carnival-like demonstrations that erupted across the city hours after night fell and the curfew was supposed to have begun."
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Snowflake

If the shoe fits: Don't call us snowflakes - it damages our mental health, say young people

Olivia Rudgard
The Telegraph
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 14:42 UTC
snowflake generation
© DIGITAL VISION/PEOPLEIMAGES72 per cent of 16-24 year-olds think the term is unfairly applied
Being called a "snowflake" is damaging to mental health, young people say. Figures show that the majority of young people think the term is unfair - and even more think it could have a negative effect of its own.

The "snowflake generation" is a disparaging term now commonly used to refer to young people, who are perceived to be over-sensitive and intolerant of disagreement.

But research by insurance firm Aviva found that 72 per cent of 16-24 year-olds think the term is unfairly applied, while 74 per cent think it could have a negative effect on young people's mental health.
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