Society's ChildS


Arrow Down

Financial investment euphoria and the mass escape from reality

Tim Price
The Cobden Centre
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
financial euphoria
Built into the speculative episode is the euphoria, the mass escape from reality, that excludes any serious contemplation of the true nature of what is taking place.
"Contributing to and supporting this euphoria are two further factors little noted in our time or in past times. The first is the extreme brevity of the financial memory. In consequence, financial disaster is quickly forgotten. In further consequence, when the same or closely similar circumstances occur again, sometimes in only a few years, they are hailed by a new, often youthful, and always supremely self-confident generation as a brilliantly innovative discovery in the financial and larger economic world. There can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance. Past experience, to the extent that it is part of memory at all, is dismissed as the primitive refuge of those who do not have the insight to appreciate the incredible wonders of the present." - John Kenneth Galbraith, 'A short history of financial euphoria'.
From the vantage point of the great bond bubble of 2016, the first dotcom insanity now looks like an oasis of common sense. With the benefit of hindsight, it was clearly unwise to give Pets.com, for example, an online seller of pet supplies whose spokesperson was a sock puppet, a market capitalisation of $121 million, but then hindsight's a wonderful thing. The company had its IPO in February 2000, missing the peak of the market by just a month, and within 270 days it was gone altogether.

Comment: For an approach to reality, read the SOTT FOCUS piece: 2015, the BRICS checkmate Western finance? It isn't just about about BRICS...

Read More...
Info

Big talk or Secret Weapon? DPR Chairman Pushilin: The next offensive will be Ukraine's last


Fort Russ
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 21:22 UTC
Denis Pushilin
PolitRussia- translated by J. Arnoldski

The Chairman of the National Council of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, stated in an interview to Lente.ru on Wednesday that Ukraine will completely cease to exist if it goes on a large-scale offensive in Donbass.

"If Ukraine attempts to resolve the conflict by force and goes on the offensive, then it will only get new cauldrons. If Kiev fails to realize the Minsk Agreements, then more than just Mariupol will come under DPR control. An attempt at a large-scale offensive would be the final point of existence of Ukraine as a state," Pushilin said.

According to him, the Donetsk People's Republic is currently under heightened security measures.
Read More...
Star of David

Israeli police chief claims suspecting Ethiopian Israelis & Arabs of crime is 'natural'


RT
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 21:03 UTC
Israeli Jew of Ethiopian origin, is detained by policemen
© Baz Ratner / ReutersA protester, who is an Israeli Jew of Ethiopian origin, is detained by policemen during a demonstration against what they say is police racism and brutality in Tel Aviv.
Israel's police chief has said it is "natural" for his officers to treat Arabs and Israelis of Ethiopian descent as potential criminals, adding that his controversial claim is backed up by studies on crime rates among immigrants "the world over."

"When a police officer comes across a suspicious person, his brain suspects him more than if [the suspect] were someone else, it's natural," Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich told a gathering of the Israel Bar Association on Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel.

He added that "over-policing is natural" as well when it comes to Ethiopians, responding to a question about persistent accusations of police brutality and racial discrimination against Ethiopian Jews.

Comment: Looks like the US is far from the only country having police problems.

Slavery and the Origins of American Police: A Brief History

Read More...
Attention

Afghan opium production saw nearly 4000% increase since US-led NATO invasion


Tasnim
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 19:50 UTC
Opium Afghan
© Getty images
Since the US-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the production of opium in the country has increased by 40 times according to Russia's Federal Drug Control Service, fueling organized crime and widespread death.

The head of the FSKN, Viktor Ivanov, explained the staggering trend at a March UN conference on drugs in Afghanistan. Opium growth in Afghanistan increased 18 percent from 131, 000 hectares to 154, 000, according to Ivanov's estimates.

"Afghan heroin has killed more than one million people worldwide since the 'Operation Enduring Freedom' began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales," said Ivanov, according to TeleSUR news website.

Prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, opium production was banned by the Taliban, although it still managed to exist.
Read More...
Pistol

Epidemic of police shooting dogs is proof programmed cops shoot to kill

John W. Whitehead
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 28 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
cops killing dogs montage
© thefreethoughtproject.com
"In too much of policing today, officer safety has become the highest priority. It trumps the rights and safety of suspects. It trumps the rights and safety of bystanders. It's so important, in fact, that an officer's subjective fear of a minor wound from a dog bite is enough to justify using potentially lethal force, in this case at the expense of a 4-year-old girl. And this isn't the first time. In January, an Iowa cop shot and killed a woman by mistake while trying to kill her dog. Other cops have shot other kids, other bystanders, their partners, their supervisors and even themselves while firing their guns at a dog. That mind-set is then, of course, all the more problematic when it comes to using force against people."—Journalist Radley Balko
Almost two years after the firestorm that took place in Ferguson, Missouri, when a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager and militarized police descended in a brutal show of force to quell local protests, not much has really changed for the better. Unarmed Americans are still getting shot by police with alarming regularity.

SWAT teams are still bursting through doors, terrorizing families and leaving lives and property shattered. In one incident, a Kansas SWAT team erroneously raided the home of two former CIA analysts after police observed family members shopping at a gardening store and found loose-leaf tea (mistaken for marijuana) in the family's trash can.

And the military industrial complex is still making a killing (literally and figuratively) at taxpayer expense from the transformation of small-town police forces—"kitted out with Marine-issue camouflage and military-grade body armor, toting short-barreled assault rifles, and rolling around in armored vehicles"—into extensions of the military.

Comment: Until the public demands, demands, and re-demands the reform of police departments and the disarming of lethal equipment meant for war, there will be no turning back to the gentler, service-oriented public servants and safer neighborhoods for families and their pets.

Read More...
Attention

Indiana housing complex to be razed, toxic levels of lead detected


RT
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 03:36 UTC
USS Smelter and Lead Refinery
© www.rt.comUSS Smelter and Lead Refinery, producing toxic waste for decades.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) frequently finds dangerous amounts of lead and arsenic in the soil across the country. Now a housing complex in Indiana must be demolished because of the high levels. The complex was identified as a problem area years ago, but the government has only just decided to take action.

The West Calumet Housing Complex is not just a housing project; it has been home to 1,100 since 1972. However, East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland announced last month that it would be demolished after the EPA released a report showing that the lead levels were as much as six times above the least conservative EPA standards. However, the EPA has known about the possibility of chemical contamination in the project for at least a decade.

Yard sign DO NOT
© www.nwitimes.comWest Calumet Housing Complex
The complex is home to mostly black residents and 670 children who have been playing in the grass that contains 19 times the maximum lead levels advised for bare soil in play areas. Parents in the complex are scrambling to test their children for lead poisoning as they also prepare to uproot their lives and leave their homes.

"We used to have mud fights and play slip-and-slide" Anthony Abbey, 33, who grew up playing in the complex's wet grass, told the Guardian. "You were throwing lead at each other," added Mario Irving.
Read More...
Rocket

Aleppo frontline: Parents witness 6-year-old son being killed in rocket attack - 4-year-old daughter injured


RT
Tue, 30 Aug 2016 14:36 UTC
Arwa
© RTArwa, a four-year-old victim of a rocket attack which killed her brother.
A four-year-old Aleppo girl born during the war hides her enormous suffering behind a charming smile - she was severely injured in a rebel rocket attack which killed her brother. Her bereaved parents have shared their grief with RT's Lizzie Phelan. Arwa is propped up by her father - she can't sit properly and barely stands with the help of her parents. She was a healthy girl until the tragic incident which killed her 6-year-old brother Abdusalam.

Arwa's father told RT's Lizzie Phelan that at the time of the attack, their family was in Minyan, a frontline village in west Aleppo. "Rockets began raining down on our home ... we got in the car to leave, a rocket was fired, and the shrapnel hit [the car], injured my girl and hit our son in the head, killing him."

The girl's mother recalled that when she heard the sound of the explosion, at first she thought it was in the street. "Arwa was in front of me, I didn't even know she was injured, but then she began to cry. I thought she was crying for her brother," she told RT.

Arwa's mother said she "took her son to her chest," only to find that he was dead. Later in hospital, the shocked parents learnt that their daughter was severely injured. The shrapnel tore off part of her buttock and with it part of her lower intestine. Arwa needs two operations, one so she can sit again and another so she can control her bowels. The latter operation is not currently available in Syria.


Comment: The wars of men are suffered by children, a legacy of fear and pain inherent in the machinations of power and greed manifested on the battlefields, in cities, in backyards, homes and playgrounds, entrenched forever in the minds, bodies and souls of its victims.

Thanks, America.

Read More...
Brain

'It was a set-up!' Mayor of English city sez 'They made me do it!' after video surfaces of him snorting coke


RT
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:04 UTC
dover mayor snorting
© Yo Yo Jass/YouTube
Video footage which shows the mayor of an English town snorting an unknown substance has surfaced online.

The footage shows Councillor Neil Rix take a package from his pocket, roll up a bank note and lean over a toilet cistern.

Rix, who is mayor of Dover in Kent, claims he is the victim of a blackmail plot which police are investigating.

The mayor has been an elected member of Dover Town Council for nine years and also served as deputy mayor.
Read More...
Extinguisher

Woman sets herself ablaze in congressman's Chicago office


Chicago 5
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 18:24 UTC
crime scene
A woman set herself on fire in a suicide attempt Tuesday afternoon at U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis' West Side office, authorities said.

About 3 p.m., the 43-year-old woman entered the office at 2746 W. Madison St. She drank hand sanitizer, poured it on herself and set herself on fire in an attempt to kill herself, according to Chicago Police. She suffered burns and was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition.

The 7th District congressman was not in the office at the time, but he said he was on his way back from a meeting and returned after the incident was under control.
Read More...
2 + 2 = 4

Religion of science: Professors tell students to drop class if they dispute man-made climate change

Kate Hardiman
thecollegefix.com
Wed, 31 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
global warming censored

'We will not, at any time, debate the science of climate change'

Three professors co-teaching an online course called "Medical Humanities in the Digital Age" at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs recently told their students via email that man-made climate change is not open for debate, and those who think otherwise have no place in their course.

"The point of departure for this course is based on the scientific premise that human induced climate change is valid and occurring. We will not, at any time, debate the science of climate change, nor will the 'other side' of the climate change debate be taught or discussed in this course," states the email, a copy of which was provided to The College Fix by a student in the course.

Comment: By definition science is 'the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment'. To simply shut out half of reality is not only un-scientific but damn right stupid and suggests a more nefarious agenda.

See this article for more information: Climate Change Swindlers and the Political Agenda

Read More...