Society's ChildS


Attention

The Pentagon is poisoning your drinking water with perchlorate chemicals

Joshua Frank
Counter Punch
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:12 UTC
water
© Darwin Bell
The nation's biggest polluter isn't a corporation. It's the Pentagon.

The Department of Defense, under a 1980 EPA exemption, is still allowed to burn weapons waste, detonate toxic explosives, and in certain cases even radioactive waste. Every year the DoD churns out more than 750,000 tons of hazardous waste - more than the top three chemical companies combined.

The military is largely exempt from compliance with most federal and state environmental laws, and the EPA continues to work hard to keep it that way, especially in the case of perchlorate as the agency debates exactly how much of the noxious stuff is safe to consume.

Comment: US military's toxic legacy - DoD produces more toxic waste than five largest chemical companies combined
In 2014, the former head of the Pentagon's environmental program told Newsweek that her office has to contend with 39,000 contaminated areas spread across 19 million acres just in the U.S. alone.

U.S. military bases, both domestic and foreign, consistently rank among some of the most polluted places in the world, as perchlorate and other components of jet and rocket fuel contaminate sources of drinking water, aquifers, and soil. Hundreds of military bases can be found on the Environmental Protection Agency's list of Superfund sites, which qualify for clean-up grants from the government.

Almost 900 of the nearly 1,200 Superfund sites in the U.S. are abandoned military facilities or sites that otherwise support military needs, not counting the military bases themselves.


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Snow Globe

Nobel Prize winners say what they think are the 10 greatest threats to humanity

Jasper Hamill
The Sun
Thu, 31 Aug 2017 12:20 UTC
mushroom cloud
© Getty ImagesThe mushroom cloud produced by the first test of an American hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific
A group of the world's most intelligent people have spoken out about the doomsday fears which keep them awake at night.

In a survey, the brainboxes revealed fears that nuclear war, environmental disaster and even Facebook pose a risk to the future of our species.

Times Higher Education asked the boffins about the "biggest threat to mankind".

The experts who responded are known as laureates and represent one-quarter of the living Nobel prize winners in chemistry, physics, physiology, medicine and economics - making them arguably some of the cleverest people in the world.

Just over a third (34 percent) said population rise or environmental degradation represented the gravest apocalypse risk.

In second place was nuclear war, followed by infectious disease and drug resistant bugs.
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Attention

Afghans fear US Army and NATO operations more than the Taliban


Sputnik
Sat, 02 Sep 2017 13:25 UTC
US soldiers in Afghanistan
© AP Photo/ Aaron Favil
On Wednesday, 12 civilians were killed and 16 wounded in American airstrikes in Afghanistan's eastern province Logar. Afghan politicians commented to Sputnik Afghanistan on the issue, noting that civilians fear US army and NATO operations more that the Taliban.

On Wednesday, 12 civilians were killed and 16 wounded in an American airstrike in Dasht-e-Bari, an area of the city Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar province, according to Afghan broadcaster 1TV.

US media also reported on the incident, saying that 11 civilians were killed, including eight women.

The Afghan and American forces apparently came under fire from the Taliban while an American helicopter attempted to make a "precautionary landing because of a maintenance issue," The New York Times quotes Capt. Bill Salvin, a spokesman for the United States military in Afghanistan, as saying.
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Fire

Another explosion at Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas causes massive fire


RT
Fri, 01 Sep 2017 22:40 UTC
Arkema chemical plant fire, Texas
© Adrees Latif / ReutersA fire burns at the flooded plant of French chemical maker Arkema SA after Tropical Storm Harvey passed in Crosby, Texas, U.S. August 31, 2017.
Towering flames and clouds of black smoke have overtaken much of the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, after extensive flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey forced an evacuation of the facility.

Late Friday evening, a representative with Arkema told RT America that the fire is not out yet, but it is "in the last stages of smoldering."

A representative with Arkema Inc. told RT America that a fire, which caused noxious plumes of black smoke to tower over Crosby, Texas on Friday, has is not yet extinguished, but is "in the last stages of smoldering."

The fire erupted after two refrigerated trailers containing chemicals became too hot and combusted, Richard Rennard, president of acrylic monomers business for Arkema, said in a press conference.

There are another six trailers at the plant, which Rennard said do not have refrigeration capabilities. He added that officials "fully expect the same thing to happen with those containers that we saw today."
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Sheriff

Study finds militarization makes police more violent

Adam Bates
Cato Institute
Tue, 29 Aug 2017 21:15 UTC
militarization of police 7
© Armstrongeconomics.com
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced yesterday the Trump Administration's repeal an Obama-era rule limiting the distribution of certain military equipment (such as tracked vehicles, camouflage uniforms, high-powered rifles, bayonets, and grenade launchers), he dismissed concerns about police militarization as "superficial." The evidence suggests otherwise: militarization makes police more violent.

Earlier this year, a study conducted by researchers from Harvard, Stanford, Cincinnati, and Gardner-Webb concluded that the Pentagon's 1033 weapons transfer program made participating departments more likely to engage in deadly violence. After receiving 1033 gear, departments were more likely to kill civilians as well as dogs. The researchers included the number of dog killings by police (which, according to the Department of Justice, number around 10,000 a year) in order to control for possible variations in human behavior during the period of the study.

The study found:
1033 receipts are associated with both an increase in the number of observed police killings in a given year as well as the change in the number of police killings from year to year, controlling for a battery of possible confounding variables including county wealth, racial makeup, civilian drug use, and violent crime.

[...]

[D]ue to concerns of endogeneity, we re-estimate our regressions using an alternative dependent variable independent of the process by which LEAs request and receive military goods: the number of dogs killed by LEAs. We find 1033 receipts are associated with an increase in the number of civilian dogs killed by police. Combined, our analyses provide support for the argument that 1033 receipts lead to more LEA violence.

Comment: The militarization of the US - Are they arming themselves against terrorists or you?

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Wolf

Activists decry Oregon court ruling of barking dogs to undergo "total devocalization" surgery

Keith Coffman
Reuters
Thu, 31 Aug 2017 07:31 UTC
Barking dog
A ruling by an Oregon appeals court upholding an order that a couple muffle their continuously barking dogs through "debarking" surgery stirred outrage among animal rights groups on Thursday, which called the procedure cruel and unnecessary.

The case stems from a long-standing feud between neighbors in rural Jackson County in southern Oregon.

Debra and Dale Krein sued in 2012 after enduring years of what they deemed incessant barking by several Tibetan Mastiff dogs owned by their neighbors, Karen Szewc and John Updegraff, court documents showed.

A jury awarded the Kreins $238,000, and the presiding judge ordered all the dogs on the property to undergo "total devocalization" surgery.
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Info

Navy concludes 'no hacking' in Fitzgerald & McCain warship accidents


RT
Fri, 01 Sep 2017 20:35 UTC
USS Fitzgerald US Navy accident
© AFLO / Global Look PressUSS Fitzgerald (DDG 62)
US Navy investigators have found no evidence of cyber intrusion in recent collisions of guided-missile destroyers, the USS McCain and Fitzgerald, with civilian ships in the Pacific, which led to the deaths of 17 American sailors this summer.

The US Navy looked into the possibility that the warships were hacked, but determined that it did not happen, Admiral John Richardson said during a live-streaming Facebook appearance.

Richardson was aware of the "thread of conversation" that cyberattacks could be involved in the collisions, but said, "To date, the inspections we've done show that there's no evidence of any kind of a cyber intrusion."
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Eye 2

Family sues after DCS took little boy, allowed him to be tortured for years and fed to pigs

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 01 Sep 2017 20:59 UTC
Adrian Jones
The family of the late Adrian Jones has filed a lawsuit against the state of Kansas, the state's Department for Children and Families and several others, for the horrifying murder of this innocent young boy.

In 2011, Adrian was taken from his mother by DCF over claims that she wasn't able to properly supervise her child. It is a matter of court record, according to the suit, that Adrian was in perfect health when he was taken by the state. However, all that would quickly change.

As the court records show, "this wrongful death lawsuit involves the grotesque circumstances surrounding the tragically short and brutish life of A.J., a little boy who died a horrific, unimaginably gruesome death at the hands of his father and stepmother, an entirely avoidable child-homicide."

Within just a few months of DCF taking Adrian and placing him in the care of his stepmother - who was observed caring for the child while high on drugs - and admittedly abusive father, the reports of injuries began pouring in.
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Play

Kim Dotcom's 'gift to Hollywood': Bitcoin-based file-sharing platform set for launch as a 'copyright revolution'


RT
Fri, 01 Sep 2017 20:41 UTC
Kim Dotcom
© Simon Watts / Reuters
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has unveiled his new file-sharing service, K.im, which will allow uploaders to get paid for content through a bitcoin-based payment service - Bitcache.

The new services are being pitched by the internet entrepreneur as a possible "solution to piracy" and the start of a "copyright revolution."

Dotcom says K.im and Bitcache were designed to benefit content creators and consumers alike, describing it as a "win-win innovation for all and a boost for bitcoin."

"I'm working for both sides. For the copyright holders and also for the people who want to pay for content but have been geo-blocked and then are forced to download for free," he told Torrent Freak.
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Star of David

Stooge Conan O'Brien frolics with Netanyahu and the Israeli army

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Fri, 01 Sep 2017 20:15 UTC
Conan O'Brien,
Conan O'Brien, "training" with members of the Israeli army.
Conan O'Brien is in Israel filming a show to be broadcast in September. He's also in Palestine, but the show is titled, "Conan in Israel."

Everything about O'Brien's trip is making the Israeli government happy. He flew El Al to Israel. And he's been hanging out with the Israeli army.

Here's nearly an hour video of him mock-training with the Israeli Defense Forces. "Thank you very much. It was an honor."
When do I get a gun? Do I get a gun now?... I will join the Israeli army on the following conditions. I don't want a gun that's loaded...
O'Brien does a promotion of a pro-Israel classic: Israeli hospitals generously treating Syrian victims, who are subject to recrimination from other Syrians for accepting the life-saving care.
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