Society's Child
Privacy as we once knew it is dead. We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology—specifically the technology employed by the government against the American citizenry. As a result, warns John W. Whitehead in this week's vodcast, we are becoming a nation where even the most virtuous citizen risks becoming an outlaw.
© Dan Bacher
Protesters stayed in front of the plant from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Protesters stayed in front of the plant from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Environmental and human rights activists, holding plastic "torches" and "pitchforks," formed human barricades at both entrances to the Nestlé Waters bottling plant in Sacramento at 5:00 a.m. on Friday, March 20, effectively shutting down the company's operations for the day.
Members of the "Crunch Nestlé Alliance" shouted out a number of chants, including "We got to fight for our right to water," "Nestlé, Stop It, Water Not For Profit," and "¿Agua Para Quien? Para Nuestra Gente."
The protesters stayed until about 1 pm, but there were no arrests.
Representatives of the alliance said the company is draining up to 80 million gallons of water a year from Sacramento aquifers during a record drought. They claim Sacramento City Hall has made it possible through a "corporate welfare giveaway."
"This corporate welfare giveaway is an outrage and warrants a major investigation," Coalition spokesperson Andy Conn said. "For more than five months we have requested data on Nestlé water use. City Hall has not complied with our request, or given any indication that it will. Sacramentans deserve to know how their money is being spent and what they're getting for it. In this case, they're getting ripped off."
Comment: Nestle's behavior is par for the course, as mega-corporations are psychopathic by their very nature. All considerations such as human rights or the very health of the planet are subordinate, if non-existent, with respect to the pursuit of proft. It seems pretty clear that the state government which should be defending the rights of its citizens, has been bought and paid for. Why else for the stonewalling on Nestle's water usage?
© Atlasobscura.com
For example, let's talk about the price of oil. There are only two times in history when the price of oil has fallen by more than 50 dollars in a six month time period. One was just before the financial crisis in 2008, and the other has just happened...
In the latest week, drillers idled another 41 oil rigs, according to Baker Hughes. Only 825 rigs were still active, down 48.7% from October. In the 23 weeks since, drillers have idled 784 oil rigs, the steepest, deepest cliff-dive in the history of the data:We are looking at a full-blown fracking bust, and this bust is already having a dramatic impact on the economies of states that are heavily dependent on the energy industry.
For example, just check out the disturbing number that just came out of Texas...
The crash in oil prices is hammering the Texas economy.Ouch.
The latest manufacturing outlook index from the Dallas Fed plunged again in March, to -17.4 from -11.2 in February, indicating deteriorating business conditions in the state.
© Wikimedia Commons
In the most recent case, a woman with a long history of mental illness was charged with neglect after her young baby died. Jasmine Randers, 26, suffers from paranoia and had fled from a Minnesota treatment facility where she was under state commitment. The district attorney refused to go forward with a plea unless she agreed to be sterilized.
The cause of Randers' baby's death could not be determined. A cab driver who drove her to a hotel the night before she brought the baby to a hospital claims the baby was screaming, but stopped completely during the ride. Prosecutors speculated that the child could have suffocated in Randers' coat during the cab ride, died as a result of unexplained infant death syndrome, or been accidentally crushed to death by Randers while she slept. According to an investigation by the Tennessean, the child was healthy and there were no signs of traumatic injury.
Comment: This is a barbaric, sexist practice that no respectable city, state, or nation should engage in.
© Reuters
In an open letter to Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden published by the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper Tuesday, Ashton said the energy giant's recently announced roadmap to cleaning up its environmental portfolio is nothing more than veiled attempt to preserve the "status quo." Ashton accused Beurden of using a cynical argument that "the economic and moral cost" of phasing out fossil fuels "would exceed the benefit in climate change avoided."
"In reality your authority is compromised by your obvious desire to cling to what you know, whatever the cost to society," he stated. Ashton continued by arguing, "For a leader in the oil and gas industry to call for continued dependence on oil and gas will sound to most like special pleading."
A photo posted on Instagram shows Thelmo Garcia, parents of his students confirmed on March 12, 2015.
Teacher Thelmo Garcia, 37, was arrested off campus and charged with a single count of child abuse last Friday stemming from an incident in February in which Garcia allegedly put a plastic bag over a 10-year-old student's head for several seconds before removing it, KTLA 5 reports.
Garcia pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown L.A. and was held on a $100,000 bond, according to NBC Los Angeles.
"I was surprised because I thought he was a good person," Rianna Lashchev, a former student of Garcia's, told the news site. "I was crying and I felt bad for him."
Parent Tara Siddiqi, however, is less surprised.
"Her daughter, Tanya Siddiqi, said her teacher would pull children's hair, give high-fives while holding a tack, and throw staples at students," NBC Los Angeles reports.
Los Angeles Unified School District officials issued a statement about Garcia's arrest that does not detail his alleged misdeeds, but informs parents that he was removed from the school in February. The statement also does not disclose whether Garcia is on paid or unpaid leave, or whether he was terminated.
His profile was also removed from the school's website, according to KTLA 5.
Comment: A new behaviorial theory of teaching children to fear for their lives?
As Rafi points out, regardless of what photos were available of the black suspects, the white suspects definitely had mugshots taken. In trying to justify the discrepancy, The Gazette explained they must make a formal request in order to get mugshots, yet they were clearly willing to take that extra step when it came to the black suspects.
This is just another reminder that the media has a lot of power to subtly shape the perception of crimes. It's the same issue that inspired the #IfTheyGunnedMeDown hashtag on Twitter, which sought to draw attention to the way black victims of police brutality are so often portrayed as menacing or dangerous. Similarly, The Huffington Post explored how the media will often portray white suspects with more empathy and respect than black victims.
© Boston Globe
Police even have the right to smash down your door with a battering ram without a warrant and shoot you with pepper balls in order to take over your property, US District Court Judge Andrew Gordon concluded in a case called Anthony Mitchell v. City of Henderson. Mitchell and his parents sued the city of Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, because of events on July 10, 2013.
The Mitchells' attorneys argued the events violated their clients' First, Third and Fourth Amendment rights. The Third Amendment makes it illegal for the government to seize private homes for use as quarters for soldiers and has rarely been the focus of a federal case. The attorneys contended that the Third Amendment applies to police as well as the military.
Does the Third Amendment Apply to SWAT teams?
Gordon dismissed the case.
"The relevant questions are thus whether municipal police should be considered soldiers, and whether the time they spent in the house could be considered quartering," he wrote. "To both questions, the answer must be no."
Judge Gordon's description of events as described by Mitchell and his parents, Michael and Linda, makes for some very disturbing reading. None of the Mitchells was suspected of a crime. Instead, police simply wanted to take over their homes to use as observation posts to watch a neighbor who was barricaded inside his house and who was refusing to leave. Police were investigating a domestic complaint against the neighbor.
Comment: It's one thing to have a SWAT Team ask to use your house to stage their forces. It's entirely different to treat the occupant of that house as a criminal and violate that individual's Constitutional rights. But, as this case proves, Americans have no real Constitutional rights anymore. They are living in a totalitarian police state where their rights are merely conditional, not given.
His passenger who remained hospitalized Tuesday has not been publicly identified.
On Monday morning, Hall attempted to gain entry at the National Security Agency headquarters, Jonathan Freed, NSA director of strategic communications, said in a statement.
"The driver failed to obey an NSA Police officer's routine instructions for safely exiting the secure campus. The vehicle failed to stop and barriers were deployed."
NSA police on the scene fired on the vehicle when it accelerated toward a police car, blocking its way, according to the NSA. An NSA police officer was also hospitalized but not identified.
The two men who officials say tried to ram the main gate at NSA headquarters were dressed as women, according to a federal law enforcement official.
© Facebook
Then she "blamed the devil," a police source said.
The 35-year-old Lower East Side mom, identified as Latisha Fisher, took little Gavriel Ortiz-Fisher inside a rest room at 5 Boro Burger on Sixth Ave. at 36th St. around 2:25 p.m., cops said.
As the tragedy started to unfold, a woman walked into the bathroom and saw the mother holding her hand on the boy's mouth, but Fisher told her: "I put my hand over his mouth to put him to sleep," according to a police source.
At some point, the mother locked herself in the bathroom. Customers and employees eventually became worried when the line to the toilets grew long.
When workers forced their way inside, the child was unconscious and foaming at the mouth, according to the sources.
They said Fisher tried to swat away attempts by the restaurant staff to perform CPR on the limp toddler.
"I would describe her as soulless," a law enforcement official said when asked if the mom seemed distraught. "She put her hand over his mouth and smothered him."
Another sickened police source said: "She is a lunatic. She is crazy."
Comment: For more on the ways Big Brother is watching you see: