Society's ChildS


Snakes in Suits

Author and journalist Tariq Ali: Banks and elites have allowed the poor to rot for their own selfish gains


RT
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 14:50 UTC
Tariq Ali
© Tariq Ali / RT
The banks behind politicians in the western world "have allowed the poor to rot," and now the elites in those countries, especially the US, are facing a revolt, journalist and author Tariq Ali told RT America's Chris Hedges in an exclusive interview.

"The elites who have run the United States and western Europe have proven incapable of offering even the smallest palliatives to their populations. They have allowed the poor to rot ‒ regardless of skin color ‒ and grow," Ali said. "And so what we have is a protest against this center elite, which I call the extreme center because whether it's social democratic or conservative, they unite to crush."

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has become a perfect example of this protest against the extreme center, he tells Hedges.

"They've found in Trump someone who airs their most crazed fantasies at the same time who attacks the banks, at the same time attacks these new treaties which are being carried through and promises some palliatives to the poorest section of the white working class," Ali said.
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Vader

Dutch woman on holiday in Qatar reports being drugged and raped, authorities detain her for adultery


RT
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 14:08 UTC
female silouhette
© Reuters
A Dutch woman who reported being raped during her holiday in Qatar has been held by the country's authorities on suspicion of adultery since March. Dozens of people on social media have condemned the arrest and called for the woman's release.

"She was arrested in March on suspicion of adultery, which means having sex outside marriage," lawyer Brian Lokollo told AFP on Saturday.

The 22-year-old woman, identified as just 'Laura' by Dutch media, said that she was drugged prior to being raped and reported having"realized to her great horror" that she had been taken advantage of after she woke up in an unfamiliar flat.

The woman went dancing at a hotel in Doha and when she returned to her table she realized she had been drugged as "after the first sip of her drink... she felt very unwell," Lokollo told Dutch broadcaster NOS-Radio1.

Comment: While the US is busy destroying progressive societies in Syria and Libya, they are supporting the barbaric ruling classes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar who have no respect for human rights.

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Eye 2

Delta IV US rocket loaded with classified snooper satellite cargo successfully blasted into space (VIDEO)


RT
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 02:07 UTC
Rocket
© United Launch Alliance / Facebook
The world's largest rocket has successfully blasted into space from Florida's Cape Canaveral for all to see, but the exact details of its intelligence agency cargo is something that the US government is keeping a closely guarded secret.
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Pills

Unsealed documents reveal Big Pharma worked with pain clinics and caused the opioid epidemic

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:41 UTC
Big pharma
© goinggentleintothatgoodnight.com
Over the past year we have heard much about the opioid epidemic gripping the U.S., as Big Pharma rakes in billions from people getting hooked on prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin.

Nowhere is the problem more pervasive than in West Virginia, which has the highest drug overdose rate in the nation and one of the highest prescription rates of opioids. A disproportionate number of manual labor jobs like coal mining, combined with a high rate of unemployment, has made the state ripe for the picking by Big Pharma.

Newly unsealed court documents reveal the extent to which prescription drug wholesalers have knowingly contributed to the opioid addiction problem, by colluding with sham "pain clinics" to push their products on the small towns of West Virginia.

Comment: As long as Big Pharma and the government are colluding together the opioid epidemic will continue to rage on.

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Sheriff

Oakland police chief fired after investigation finds over a dozen high-ranking officers across multiple agencies paid for sex with prostitute

Darwin BondGraham and Ali Winston
East Bay Express
Fri, 10 Jun 2016 11:44 UTC
Sean Whent
© Associated PressOakland Chief of Police Sean Whent has resigned
At this morning's press conference announcing the departure of Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent, Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth told a room full of reporters that Whent was resigning for "personal reasons." The mayor said it had nothing to do with a scandal involving rookie police officers who sexually exploited a minor, or the suspicious death of a police officer's wife and his subsequent suicide.

"I'm extremely angry about the alleged misconduct in this department," Schaaf said.

But the mayor and other city officials are either not being forthright about the extent of OPD officer misconduct and the reasons for Whent's resignation, or they are in the dark.

The Express has learned that the sexual-misconduct scandal involves more than just a few rank-and-file Oakland cops, but also high-ranking officials from departments throughout the Bay Area. A few committed statutory rape of the victim, who was an under-age sex worker at the time, and informed her of undercover police operations.
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Water

We 'slayed the dragon': Pennsylvania community wins as Nestle drops water extraction plans

Andrea Germanos
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:07 UTC
Nestle
Victory for Monroe County, Pennsylvania community comes on heels of another loss of bottled water giant in Oregon.

After facing community resistance, bottled beverage giant Nestlé Waters North America this week ditched its plans to extract water from a Monroe County, Pennsylvania spring.

The plan would have seen Nestlé take 200,000 gallons of water per day from the source in Kunkletown, located in Eldred Township, and truck it away daily to a nearby plant where it would have been bottled under its Deer Park brand.

Comment: See also: Nestlé water bottling plant shut down by drought protestors in California

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Jet5

Russia's Su-27 fleet grounded following deadly crash near Moscow


The Moscow Times
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:45 UTC
Su-27 fighter jet
Russia has grounded its Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets while a crash of one is investigated.
Head of the Russian Air Force, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev has ordered the grounding of the country's entire Su-27 fleet, until the reasons behind the crash that led to a pilot's death on Thursday are clear, the TASS news agency reported.

Meanwhile, investigators working at the crash site recovered the flight-data recorder and sent it to the Defense Ministry's Research Institute. The black box was in good condition, according to TASS.

A Su-27 fighter jet crashed on Thursday morning in the Moscow Region, TASS reported. The body of the pilot was found in the forest at the accident site, located about two kilometers from the village of Muranovo.

The crash was likely caused by a technical error, the Defense Ministry's press service said, adding that the pilot attempted to avoid crashing into the village. "He had no time left for ejection," Ministry representatives added.

The aircraft fell apart into pieces, but the color of surviving parts indicates that it belongs to the elite aerobatics squad Russkiye Vityazi, or Russian Knights, an unidentified source within the emergency services told TASS.

The Defense Ministry confirmed that the jet crashed while returning to the airbase after a planned flight. Six jets from the Russian Knights squad took part in the opening ceremony of a monument dedicated to Russian aviators in the village of Anushkino earlier on Thursday. Only five of them returned to the airbase, TASS reported.


Comment: Also on June 9th a Swiss F-5E air demonstration fighter jet collided with another plane and crashed in the Netherlands. It was the first serious incident of the prestigious Patrouille Suisse display team in its 52-year history.

There have been other fighter jet crashes in the United States recently. See also:

2 F-16 fighter jets collide mid-air in Georgia: 6 crashed jets in the U.S. over 2 weeks

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Pistol

Approximately 20 dead, 40 injured at Orlando nightclub mass shooting - Eyewitnesses report two gunmen

Ashley Fantz & Faith Karimi
CNN
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 11:44 UTC
orlando shooting
© APOrlando Police officers direct family members away from a multiple shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., today. A gunman opened fire at the nightclub and multiple people have been wounded.
Approximately 20 people people are dead inside Pulse nightclub, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said Sunday morning, just hours after a shooter opened fire in the club.

At least 42 people have been transported for medical treatment, he said.Police have shot and killed the gunman, Mina told reporters. "It's appears he was organized and well-prepared," the chief said, adding that he had an assault-type weapon and a handgun.

Orlando authorities said they consider the violence an act of domestic terror. The FBI is involved. The shooting began around 2 a.m., and an officer responded, Mina said. The officer engaged in a shoot out outside the club. The gunman then ran into the club.

"That turned into a hostage situation," Mina said. Authorities were getting calls from people inside the club but away from the gunman, the chief said. More police rushed to the scene and broke down a door with an armored vehicle. At that point police shot and killed the gunman, Mina said.

CNN affiliate WKMG video captured club goers carrying injured people from the club.

"It's just shocking," said Christopher Hansen who was inside Pulse. He heard gunshots, "just one after another after another."

"It could have lasted a whole song," he said.


Comment: Eyewitness Javer Antonetti, 53, was at the club with his brother. He said he was near the back of the club when he heard shots ring out:
"There were so many, at least 40 [shots]. I saw two guys and it was constant, like 'pow, pow, pow'."
Another eyewitness said:
"There had to have been more than one shooter - the shooting was so constant, it sounded like a gun range."
Elsewhere in Orlando on the same day...

22-year-old 'Voice' singer Christina Grimmie shot dead in Orlando - Suspect possibly deranged fan

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Pistol

22-year-old 'Voice' singer Christina Grimmie shot dead in Orlando - Suspect possibly deranged fan

Joseph Ax
Reuters
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 11:35 UTC
Christina Grimmie shooting
© Steve Marcus / Reuters Christina Grimmie performs at a 2015 concert
A man thought to be a deranged fan fatally shot Christina Grimmie, a rising singing star who gained fame on YouTube and as a contestant on television's "The Voice," while she was signing autographs after a concert in Orlando, Florida, police said on Saturday.

The suspect, identified as 27-year-old Kevin James Loibl of St. Petersburg, Florida, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was tackled by the 22-year-old singer's brother in the Friday evening attack, Orlando police said.

Loibl is believed to have traveled to Orlando for the event. He had two loaded handguns, additional ammunition and a hunting knife at the time of the shooting, police said.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina told reporters the suspect did not appear to have a criminal record and there was no indication he and Grimmie knew each other. Mina said it appeared he may have been a deranged fan.

"We believe he came here to commit this crime," Mina said.
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Boat

Biblical message? Life-size Noah's Ark replica crashes at Norwegian harbor


RT
Sun, 12 Jun 2016 00:57 UTC
replica of Noah’s Ark was severely damaged
© Hakon Mosvold Larsen / AFP
A full-size replica of Noah's Ark was severely damaged when it crashed into a Norwegian Coast Guard vessel as it was leaving the Oslo harbor.

The 70-meter-long (230-foot) ship was being towed out of the harbor Friday morning by tugboats when "several things went wrong" according to a statement from Ark of Noah.
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