Society's ChildS


Attention

Revolt of the masses? Trump has wide support among rural middle-class Americans

Selena Zito
New York Post
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 00:35 UTC
Trump Pennsylvania
© Getty Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.
If you drive anywhere in Pennsylvania, from the turnpike to the old US routes to the dirt roads connecting small towns like Hooversville with "bigger" small towns like Somerset, you might conclude that Donald Trump is ahead in this state by double digits.

Large signs, small signs, homemade signs, signs that wrap around barns, signs that go from one end of a fence to another dot the landscape with such frequency that, if you were playing the old-fashioned road-trip game of counting cows, you would hit 100 in just one small town like this one.

In Ruffsdale, I am pretty sure I saw more than 100 Trump signs.

It's as if people here have not turned on the television to hear pundits drone on and on about how badly Trump is losing in Pennsylvania.

It's not just visual: In interview after interview in all corners of the state, I've found that Trump's support across the ideological spectrum remains strong. Democrats, Republicans, independents, people who have not voted in presidential elections for years — they have not wavered in their support.

Two components of these voters' answers and profiles remain consistent: They are middle-class and they do not live in a big city. They are suburban to rural and are not poor — an element I found fascinating, until a Gallup survey last week confirmed that what I've gathered in interviews is more than just freakishly anecdotal.
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Heart - Black

Judge sentences high school athlete to probation after being convicted of sexually assaulting two unconscious classmaters

Sean Teehan
Mass Live
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 14:24 UTC
David Becker
© Screencap via YouTubeDavid Becker
A former East Longmeadow High School star athlete who was charged with sexually assaulting two unconscious classmates received two years probation in a decision out of Palmer District Court last week.

"He can now look forward to a productive life without being burdened with the stigma of having to register as a sex offender," said attorney Thomas Rooke, who defended David Becker, 18, in court. "The goal of this sentence was not to impede this individual from graduating high school and to go onto the next step of his life, which is a college experience."


Comment: And what about the victims? What about the effects this man's predatory behavior is going to have on their life going forward? Someone who sexually assaults two women is supposed to lose the privilege of being able to move forward in life unimpeded by consequences. Yet we have another case of a judge supporting the rapist and apparently refusing to give real justice to the victims of a very serious crime. Judges in this country put people in jail for years for possessing marijuana, a victimless crime, yet a man who assaulted two unconscious women gets probation. This is a travesty of justice.


On August 15, Palmer District Court Judge Thomas Estes ordered Becker's case continued without a finding for two years, during which time he must remain drug and alcohol-free, submit to an evaluation for sex offender treatment and stay away from the two 18-year old victims.

The sentence allows Becker to serve out the terms of probation in Ohio, where he stated on his Facebook page he had planned to attend college. He will not have to register as a sex offender, and no conviction will appear on his record, as long as he complies with the conditions of probation.
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Smoking

Charlottetown non-smoking rules 'not being enforced' - smokers light up

Dave Stewart
The Guardian
Sun, 21 Aug 2016 14:05 UTC
smoking ban
Charlottetown parks and recreation chairman Mitch Tweel wants enforcement of non-smoking rules.
Mitch Tweel says he sees people smoking in public places and that is against regulations

Charlottetown's parks and recreation committee chairman wants people to simply butt out.

Councillor Mitchell Tweel is talking about the city's tobacco free policy, saying people aren't abiding by the rules.

The city's tobacco free policy for indoor and outdoor recreation and sport facilities went into effect Jan. 1, 2009. It has been mainly through public awareness and education that the city has been attempting to get the message across.

Comment: Further reading:

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USA

Florida man angry after niece brings home waiver from school to be excused from reciting Pledge of Allegiance


Fox 8
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 14:18 UTC
pledge allegiance waiver
A Florida man is upset after his niece brought home a Pledge of Allegiance waiver that asked parents to sign and return the form if they'd like their child to "be excused from reciting" it.

It read:
"I understand my rights as a parent and I request that my child, noted above, be excused from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. This request includes standing and placing his/her right hand over his/her heart."
In frustration, Micah Brienen took to Facebook last Thursday. "My niece brought this home from school today...What is happening to our country?!?" he said in the post.

Brienen's sister-in-law returned the form with her daughter, writing the following in response: "This is the dumbest thing I have ever read and I am so ashamed of this."

The post has been shared more than 13,400 times.

Several days later, Brienen followed up his initial post with one asking his friends to contact the school's superintendent about the issue and letting them know that he is up for reelection.


Comment: Indeed, what is the country coming to? In a real democracy, you don't need a waiver to exercise freedom. The Pledge of Allegiance is a joke and a lie. No child should be forced to recite it.

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Attention

Evacuations ordered in San Diego neighborhood due to mysterious gas leak


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 03:57 UTC
gas leak san diego
The San Diego Police Department has ordered evacuations in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California, following a gas leak report at 6:50pm Monday, according to reports. The source of the leak remains unknown.

More than 200 people are evacuating the area of Bacon Street and Del Monte Avenue, according to officials, local NBC-affiliate KNSD reports.

A 70 percent gas reading was found near a sewer man hole by a San Diego Gas and Electric technician, KNSD reported, but because the source is unknown, the evacuation order is indefinite.
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Arrow Up

Virginia House unanimously decides industrial hemp will be legal ignoring federal prohibition

Erin Elizabeth
Health Nut News
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 02:14 UTC
Hemp
The Virginia state House of Delegates has passed a bill that will make industrial hemp completely legal throughout the state, overriding any federal interference.
Passed 98-0, every delegate jumped on board to seize their right, as a state, to lead their own destiny. Hemp is one of the most valuable commodities on the planet, functioning as food, fiber and, of course, one of the most amazing recreational drugs known to man.

Introduced by Del. Brenda Pogge (R-Norge), House Bill 699 (HB699) would change state law and remove a provision forcing hemp farmers to get federal approval before licensing their farm. It also requires the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services to "adopt regulations as necessary to license persons to grow and process industrial hemp for any purpose."

If passed through the senate, Virginia would join a host of states that have already taken the reigns to grow industrial hemp. The states of Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina, Connecticut, Maine, North Dakota and Vermont have ignored federal prohibition and legalized the production and manufacturing of hemp.

Comment: See also: Industrial hemp sure to become NC's newest legal crop

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Bomb

Pipeline terrorist act thwarted, Georgia


Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
oil pipeline
© oilprice.com
Georgian authorities say they have thwarted a "terrorist act" on a gas pipeline that supplies natural gas from Russia to Armenia.

Georgia's State Security Service said in a statement on August 22 that seven individuals had been detained two days earlier. Five of the suspects, all of whom are Georgian citizens, are facing charges of illegal purchase and storage of firearms, ammunition, and explosives "with the goal of carrying out a terrorist attack," the statement said.

According to the security service, the suspects allegedly planned to blow up a gas pipeline near the village of Saguramo, some 20 kilometers from the capital, Tbilisi.

A police officer, Levan Mamporia, was also detained and is suspected of abuse of power. A seventh suspect is accused of failing to "report a crime on the stage of its preparation."
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Handcuffs

Iranian police arrest international drug trafficker, seize 800 tons of narcotics


FARS News Agency
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 19:15 UTC
Iran drug bust
The drug combat squads of Iran's Law Enforcement troops have arrested an international drug trafficker in Sistan and Balouchestan province, and seized more than 800,000 kilograms of illicit drugs from his network, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced on Monday.

"An international drug trafficker is now in the custody of Iran's police; 800 tons of narcotics have been retrieved from him," Rahmani Fazli said, addressing a ceremony in Tehran on Monday.

He, meantime, said that the discovery of narcotics has increased by over 25 percent in the past five months compared to the same period last year.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are two origins of producing and trafficking various types of narcotic in the region.
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Pistol

Thirteen wounded in Connecticut house party shooting

Chris Prentice
Reuters
Sun, 21 Aug 2016 12:09 UTC
Plymouth Street house in Bridgeport
© Via Google Maps
Thirteen people were shot and wounded when at least two shooters fired into a house party from a neighboring backyard in Bridgeport, Connecticut, early on Sunday, local police said.

Police in the state's most populous city were called to the house just before 1:30 a.m. ET and arrived to find 11 men and two women with gunshot wounds, Captain Brian Fitzgerald said in an emailed statement.

One of the casualties remains in critical condition after being hit in the face.

Police think at least two shooters fired through the hedges from the backyard into a "large house party," according to the statement. An investigation is ongoing and there was no immediate word on arrests or the possible motive.
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Dollar Gold

Masters and slaves: Most unequal city in Western world is London, England - Gap between rich and poor widest in 200 years

Steve Doughty
Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 17:47 UTC
london poverty
The gap between the richest and the poorest in London is wider than it has been since the days of slavery, a leading academic said today.

The City elite and the wealthy in the capital enjoy the greatest advantage over the poorest that has been known in 200 years, Professor Danny Dorling said.

And in the rest of the country the difference between the best and worst off is as big as it was in the slump years of the 1920s when mass unemployment led to poverty without a welfare state safety net.

The analysis from Professor Dorling is the latest evidence that the rich have grown rich under Labour compared to the working people whom the party was founded to help.

In a new book, Injustice, Why Social Inequality Persists, he charged that a new orthodoxy which accepts that greed is good has encouraged the widening of the gap between rich and poor.

Comment: This is why Jeremy Corbyn is currently very popular in the UK, and why he would probably win a snap election by a landslide.

Isn't it interesting, in light of the incessant flak Rio de Janerio took for hosting the 2016 Olympics, that no such complaints were made in 2012 when the city with the worst wealth disparity in the West hosted the Olympics?

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