Society's ChildS


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Small tribe with a big voice vows to stop Chinese oil drilling in a largely untouched area of the Amazon rainforest


White Wolf Pack
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
Zapara tribe
Wearing a traditional headdress and a white vest woven from the bark of an Amazonian tree, Manari Ushigua held a megaphone to his mouth to denounce Ecuador's latest oil deal: A multi-million dollar contract that will allow oil drilling on his tribe's territory for the first time in four decades.

"We don't want oil drilling in our lands," said Ushigua, one of the most well-known leaders of Ecuador's tiny Zapara tribe. "Our culture is at risk of disappearing; so is our language and our way of relating to the rainforest."

For several years Ecuador has been trying to increase oil production by inviting foreign companies to drill in the Sur Oriente, a largely untouched area of the Amazon rainforest that's about the size of Massachusetts and considered one of the most biodiverse places on earth.

On Jan. 25, the government signed one of the first concessions in this remote area: A four year deal that allows Chinese consortium Andes Petroleum to operate on two parcels of the jungle covering 45% of the Zapara's ancestral lands.
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Arrow Down

Two thirds of Londoners cannot afford home heating, excess winter deaths reach highest level in fifteen years

Jonathan Cook
TruePublica
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
fuel poverty UK
People can't live good lives without enough energy to heat their homes, cook their meals and power their appliances. Cold homes have a terrible effect on our mental wellbeing and physical health, and London is at the forefront of a fuel poverty crisis.

Excess winter deaths in the capital spiked to 4,000 in 2014/15 - the highest level for 15 years - and in fuel poverty hotspots such as Newham, more than 1 in 7 households are unable to meet their basic energy needs. Last winter, 2 in 3 Londoners turned off or hesitated from using their heating due to high bills.

In a rich society like the UK this is an outrage. The experiment with a privatised energy system has failed us - the profit-driven Big 6 energy supply companies have ripped us off, evaded their social and environmental obligations and left people disillusioned. The time has come to look to the alternatives, of which there are many.

Public energy offers possibilities that the privatised Big 6 never can. Local governments are increasingly realising that not only can they play a role in expanding renewable energy capacity and investing in home insulation, but they can also reduce our energy bills at the same time.

Comment:

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Whistle

Louisiana sunbather hospitalized after being run over by police car on the beach

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 15:26 UTC
Lindsey Gordon
Lindsey Gordon
Lindsey Gordon, 24, was laying out, sunbathing on the beach this week when an out of control cop in his police cruiser came barrelling down the sand and ran her over.

Gordon, who merely wanted to catch some sun with her friend, is now hospitalized in critical but stable condition with a shattered pelvis and internal bleeding.

According to FOX 8, Gordon and her friend were sunbathing around 3:15 Thursday afternoon as Grand Isle Police Officer Norris Esponge was patrolling the beach in a marked police unit, an F-250 truck. Gordon's friend was able to move out of the way, but Louisiana State Police say Officer Esponge rolled over Gordon.
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Pistol

Lackland AFB shooter was a former FBI agent

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 15:17 UTC
FBI agents
© KENSFBI officials at Lackland shooting scene
The man responsible for the deadly shooting at Lackland Air Force Base last week has been identified as Steven D. Bellino.

A statement from the Air Force identified the deceased as Tech. Sgt. Steven D. Bellino and Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder. They did not name Bellino as the shooter. However, a federal official close to the investigation, speaking anonymously, told the Associated Press that Bellino opened fire at the Air Force base on Friday.

"The 37th Training Wing mourns the loss of our airmen and family members," Brig. Gen. Trent H. Edwards, commander of the wing, said in a statement Saturday, according to CBS affiliate KENS. "Our primary focus at this time is to take care of the family and the men and women who are grieving our losses."

Comment: Two people killed in shooting at Lackland AFB in Texas, murder-suicide suspected

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V

Peaceful man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask arrested at Arizona election fraud protest

Brianna Acuesta
Activist Post
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 14:47 UTC
guy fawkes mask
A man wearing an Anonymous mask, a symbol of the hacktivists fighting for justice, was arrested in Arizona while sitting peacefully during a hearing at the state Capitol regarding the suspected election fraud.

Bystanders and fellow protesters recorded the event as police approached the man, Jonathan McRae, who had the mask atop his head, not covering his face, and forcefully removed him from his seat. The crowd came to the aid of the man verbally, one man even reached for McRae despite inevitably being manhandled by police after, and the man remained silent the entire time.

The crowd continuously yelled, "Shame!" and "He didn't do anything!" They explained that, "The guy that was chanting already left," hoping to help the cops realize that they had the wrong man. The officers claimed in the police report that McRae was the man "yelling and causing a disturbance" and that they had already asked him to leave 4 times.

Comment: Here's video of the arrest:



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Heart - Black

Tampa parents furious over 'privilege' quiz

Douglas Ernst
WND
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 19:10 UTC
'Her sexuality and all that has nothing to do with the school'

school sexuality test
© Photo: WTSP-10 screenshotStudents at Monroe Middle School in Tampa, Florida, were asked to fill out a “How privileged are you?” form by a Spanish teacher
Florida parents are livid at a Spanish teacher who assigned middle-school students a form titled "How privileged are you?" during class.

Seventh- and eighth-grade students at Monroe Middle School in Tampa were asked questions about race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, and religion during a Spanish lesson. The teacher, who has been pulled from the classroom while officials investigate, allegedly used the form as a way to promote "diversity."

"Her sexuality and all that has nothing to do with the school," parent Regina Stiles told WTSP-10 on Tuesday. "You're here to teach my child a foreign language - not anything else."

Stiles' daughter revealed her ADHD in the form's "mentality disability" box due to the teacher's opinion on the condition. The child was also asked to consider boxes labeled "genderqueer" and "pansexual."

Comment: What chance do our children have of flourishing when they're living under such an onslaught of cultural toxicity?

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Nuke

Britain is sending a huge nuclear waste consignment to America - why?


The Conversation
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 21:36 UTC
Nuclear Waste
© Gualtiero Boffi
A very unusual exchange is about to take place over the Atlantic. The UK is sending some 700kg of highly enriched uranium to be disposed of in the US, the largest amount that has ever been moved out of the country. In return, the US is sending other kinds of enriched uranium to Europe to help diagnose people with cancer.

The vast majority of the UK's waste comes from its fleet of nuclear power stations. Most of it is stored at the Sellafield site in north-west England. But the material being sent to the US is a particularly high (weapons usable) grade of enriched uranium that you wouldn't want to move to Sellafield from its current location at Dounreay in the north of Scotland without building a new storage facility - presumably more expensive than the cost of transportation.

The decision to move this radioactive waste out of the UK has been presented as making it harder for nuclear materials to get into the hands of terrorists, but this is implausible. The UK is capable of managing homegrown highly enriched uranium itself. The plan also contradicts the principle that countries are responsible for managing their own nuclear legacy.

Comment: Governments and scientists act like children playing with matches. A cursory glance at the news every day shows the recklessness of psychopathic governments in their pursuit of power and money at the expense of people and the environment. The nuclear energy/waste issue is one of the greatest hazards we face as a species and our world leaders' track record doesn't instill one with much faith when it comes to the disposal of nuclear waste.

Transporting 700kg of enriched uranium 4000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, over and/or through populated areas is typical of such psychopathic recklessness and is a disaster waiting to happen.

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Donut

Ridiculous! Louisiana man faces 20 years in prison for stealing $31 in candy bars


All Gov
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 19:37 UTC
Jason Grimes
© Via FacebookJason Grimes
A Louisiana man accused of stuffing $31 worth of candy bars into his pockets faces a possible sentence of 20 years to life in prison, prompting a judge to question whether the sentence was "over the top."

Orleans Parish prosecutors chose to charge Jacobia Grimes, 34, under a statute that boosts the alleged candy theft to a felony. The law applies to people who have been convicted of "theft of goods" at least twice. Grimes has five prior theft convictions, making him a "quad" offender under the state's habitual-offender law.

Grimes, 34, pleaded not guilty Thursday, The New Orleans Advocate reported.

The possible sentence raised questions with Judge Franz Zibilich, who was overseeing Grimes' arraignment last week.

"Isn't this a little over the top?" Zibilich said. "Twenty years to life for a Snickers bar, or two or three or four."

Grimes' attorneys, Miles Swanson and Michael Kennedy, said his prior guilty pleas were for similar shoplifting attempts, including stealing from a Rite-Aid, Save-A-Center, Blockbuster Video, and Rouses grocery stores.

Swanson said all the thefts were for less than $500 worth of items. The last theft of socks and trousers from a Dollar General store got him a four-year sentence in 2010.

One of his lawyers said he could have been charged under a different statute than the habitual-offender law.

"They're spending their time to lock someone up for years over $31 worth of candy," Swanson said.

Comment: 40 reasons U.S. jails and prisons are full of black and poor people

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V

Palestinian activists slam UK arms company over profiting from Israeli war crimes


Press TV
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 01:17 UTC
Palestinian child amidst rubble
© AFPA Palestinian child sits in front of the rubble of buildings which were destroyed during the 50-day war of Israel against Palestinians in the summer of 2014, in the village of Khuza'a, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on June 15, 2015.
Scores of pro-Palestinian activists in the UK have demonstrated outside the headquarters of an arms manufacturing company, accusing it of benefiting from Israel's deadly crackdown against Palestinians.

The protesters gathered in front of the UK headquarters of aerospace manufacturer Thales, in Crawley, on Friday and expressed their anger against the company's partnership with Israel's Elbit Systems to develop a surveillance drone, nicknamed Watchkeeper, used by the regime against Palestinians.

The rally was held by the Sussex Stop Arming Israel campaign and was supported by other human rights groups, including the Inminds. The main messages of the protest were "Stop Arming Israel" and "Thales profits from Israeli war crimes."
"Thales UK has a billion pound contract with Israel's largest arms company Elbit Systems to develop a fleet of drones. Human Rights Watch has documented [the drones] as being used by Israel to deliberately target Palestinian civilians in Gaza," said Inminds chair Abbas Ali.
"It's sickening that Elbit markets this killer drone as being extensively 'field tested' in 'real life' situations -- using the slaughter of Gaza's people as a marketing ploy to gain a competitive advantage," he added.

The Watchkeeper drone, which is produced through a joint venture dubbed UAV Tactical Systems, is modeled on Elbit's Hermes 450, a UAV that has been used in action by the Israeli military. According to the Sussex group, the drone is developed under a contract awarded by the UK Defense Ministry.


Thales UK is a subsidiary of the French company Thales, and is currently considered as the UK's second largest military company.
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Handcuffs

The secret epidemic of police domestic violence: Cops up to 15x more likely than general public to be domestic abusers

Kelly W. Patterson
Cop Block
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
domestic violence woman sign help
Could she be married to a cop?
This post was originally published at the "Ms. Magazine" blog in October of 2015 by Alex Roslinand Susanna Hope (who was married to a police officer for 20 years) under the original title "Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence." (See below for their full biographies.)
Domestic violence takes place in up to a staggering 40 percent of law enforcement families, but police departments mostly ignore the problem or let it slide, write ex-police wife Susanna Hope and award-winning investigative journalist Alex Roslin in their new book, Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence. The following excerpt is adapted from their book, available on Amazon or as an eBook from their website, and is being published as part of the Ms. Blog's Domestic Violence Awareness Month series.

According to Alex Roslin, Police Wife itself has more than 60 pages of appendices giving advice and resources to survivors, family and friends plus recommendations for advocates, police, governments, journalists and researchers.

In order to help survivors and others, they've made virtually all of the appendices available for free through their website. Here is the direct link to this extended free excerpt.

Comment: According to this research, statistically speaking, any cop you encounter is more likely to be a wife-beater than not. What an appalling state of society.

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