Society's ChildS


Snakes in Suits

Beyond absurd: Germany and Austria anti-doping agencies demand outright ban for Russia at 2018 Winter Games


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 13:13 UTC
Olympic skier
© Anton Denisov / Sputnik
The German and Austrian anti-doping agencies have demanded a complete ban on the Russian Olympic team at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

"We demanded that already for the Summer Olympics in Rio, and our opinion has not changed," Andrea Gotzmann, chairwoman of the German National Anti-doping Agency (NADA), told the German broadcaster ARD on Monday.

Gotzmann, a former basketball player, said she does not believe in Russia's efforts to fight the use of doping.

"The Winter Games will take place in about one-and-a-half years and you must say here as well that the Russian state has thwarted and cheated the anti-doping system," she said.

"Therefore we must demand a ban on participation for Pyeongchang as well."

"The situation is only worsening," said Michael Cepic, managing director of the Austrian NADA, mirroring Gotzmann's statement. "The structures cannot be changed overnight. Therefore we demand a complete suspension [of the Russian Olympic team] for 2018 [Games]."
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Attention

DOJ finds Baltimore PD targeted black communities, ignored and belittled sexual assault cases


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 04:09 UTC
Department of Justice
© Jose Luis Magana / ReutersU.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, accompanied by Baltimore police Commissioner Anthony Batts, speaks to police officers during a visit to the Central District of Baltimore Police Department in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, May 5, 2015.
The Department of Justice's review of the Baltimore Police Department is out, and it's not pretty. The DOJ found Baltimore's practices were "explicitly discriminatory," using a questionable amount of time and resources on targeting black communities.

Following the acquittal of three police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, and charges being dropped against the other three involved, the report from the DOJ has been widely anticipated.

According to an advance copy of the report released Tuesday evening by the New York Times, the DOJ found that "supervisors have issued explicitly discriminatory orders, such as directing a shift to arrest 'all the black hoodies' in a neighborhood."

That's just for starters.

The report is to be publicly released Wednesday. In it, the DOJ claims that the practices of Baltimore's police department "perpetuate and fuel a multitude of issues rooted in poverty and race, focusing law enforcement actions on low-income, minority communities."

For example, of the more than 300,000 police stops recorded from January 2010 to May 2015, 44 percent of those were in the city's Western and Central Districts. According to the Baltimore Sun, those areas represent 11 percent of the city's population and are predominantly African-American.

That is just for the recorded stops. The report notes that "the true number of stops is likely far higher because BPD officers do not document stops consistently."

Comment: See also: Highest ranking officer in Freddie Gray case to receive $127k in back pay, all charges dropped

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Life Preserver

Citizens of Chicago still paying for its failed Olympics 2016 bid, while LA tries for 3rd time


RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 23:23 UTC
2024 olymics
© Paul Hanna / ReutersLA are bidding on the 2024 Olympic games.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who hopes to bring the 2024 Olympics to his megalopolis, says his bid is being hampered by Donald Trump's presidential candidacy.

The citizens of Chicago, who are still paying for their failed bid for this year's Olympic Games submitted eight years ago, might think the City of Angels is better off, given the hidden and destructive costs.

"I think for some of the IOC members they would say, 'Wait a second, can we go to a country like that, where we've heard things that we take offense to?'" Garcetti, a long-time Clinton supporter, told the Associated Press.

The decision on the 2024 Olympics will be made two months before presidential polls open in November, but the Democratic mayor used the opportunity to slam Trump.

"But even if that doesn't happen, even the threat of that, the talk of that, the idea that we exclude people based on who they are at our borders, gives us urgency to having things like the Olympics underscore who we are and what we're about," he added during his Tuesday press conference in Rio.
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Eye 2

Pathological: Former Fox News Channel boss Roger Ailes spent millions on operation to smear journalists


RT
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 15:28 UTC
Roger Ailes
© Fred Prouser / ReutersRoger Ailes, former CEO and co-founder of the Fox News Channel.
It has not been a good summer for the brainchild behind the Fox News Channel.

Roger Ailes, the former CEO and co-founder of the conservative TV network who resigned last month after several sexual harassment allegations, now faces accusations of spending millions of Rupert Murdoch's money to set up a 'Black Room'and take down his enemies, both personal and political.

The network's $1 billion profits were also used to settle lawsuits brought by its employees.

Fox executives have since discovered that Ailes used his budget to target journalists reporting negatively about him, according to New York Magazine.

An operation based on the 14th floor of the News Corp building in New York City, which insiders branded the 'Black Room' five years ago, tracked the former CEO's foes and developed smear campaigns against them, all with the help of private detectives, consultants, and political operatives who answered only to Ailes.

Gawker journalists, known for their "aggressive" reporting about him, were specifically targeted.

Comment: By now, everyone who isn't brainwashed by network news and mainstream media knows that Fox News has been the U.S.'s preeminent propagator of lies, propaganda and disinformation for many years. The world is quite literally far worse off for its existence. Is it any wonder then that we would now hear all these revelations about the channel's pathological 'guiding light' - Roger Ailes?

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War Whore

Highest ranking officer in Freddie Gray case to receive $127k in back pay, all charges dropped


RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 21:47 UTC
Protest
© Sait Serkan Gurbuz / ReutersBaltimore police officers are seen as demonstrators gather near Camden Yards to protest against the death in police custody of Freddie Gray in Baltimore April 25, 2015.
Lieutenant Brian Rice ‒ the highest-ranking police officer involved in the in-custody death of Freddie Gray ‒ will receive nearly $127,000 in back pay, a Baltimore, Maryland panel has announced. Rice was acquitted of all charges.

Rice, 42, was suspended without pay per department policy on May 1, 2015, the same day the state's attorney's office charged him with involuntary manslaughter, assault in the second degree, misconduct in office and false imprisonment. A judge found him not guilty of all charges at the end of a bench trial on July 18, allowing Rice to be reinstated ‒ and receive back pay.

Comment: See also: Poll shows many young blacks and Hispanics have experienced police harassment or violence

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People 2

Muslim representative demands polygamous marriages after Italy allows same-sex unions


RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 23:00 UTC
Muslim women
© Abed Omar Qusini / Reuters
Polygamy must become a civil right in Italy similar to same-sex civil unions, which the country allowed earlier this year, a prominent Muslim representative has said.

"There's no reason for Italy not to accept polygamous marriages of consenting persons," Hamza Piccardo, founder of the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations (UCOII), wrote in a controversial Facebook post last week.

"When it comes to civil rights here, then polygamy is a civil right. Muslims don't agree with homosexual partnership and still they have to accept a system that allows it," he stressed.


Comment: Right or wrong, Piccardo does have a point.

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Attention

Devil in the details: Alcohol lobby using skewed data on car accidents in effort to block marijuana legalization

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
legal marijuana
When the good people at Marijuana.com went through the WikiLeaks dump of the DNC emails, they found something unrelated to the trove of damning information on the criminal Hillary Clinton. Within the mountains of email texts, was a paid segment by the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), stoking fear within Washington, encouraging politicians to be wary of marijuana legalization.

The May 24, 2016 edition of Huddle, a daily Politico newsletter for Capitol Hill insiders, contained this paid advertisement:
** A message from Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America: While neutral on the issue of legalization, WSWA believes states that legalize marijuana need to ensure appropriate and effective regulations are enacted to protect the public from the dangers associated with the abuse and misuse of marijuana.

23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medicinal marijuana while Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and D.C. have legalized possession and recreational use. In the years since the state legalized medicinal use, Colorado law enforcement officials have documented a significant increase in traffic fatalities in which drivers tested positive for marijuana.

Congress should fully fund Section 4008 of the FAST Act (PL 114-94) in the FY 2017 Appropriations process to document the prevalence of marijuana impaired driving, outline impairment standards and determine driving impairment detection methods.
While the paid segment is not as fantastical as some of the claims coming from the reefer madness crowd, they are basing their paid propaganda on entirely skewed data.
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Gold Coins

The rich get richer: Billionaires around the world increase in number

Veronica Dagher
Wall Street Journal
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 05:59 UTC
billionaires
© Bloomberg NewsWarren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, left, showed off his ping pong skills to fellow billionaire Bill Gates, chairman and founder of Microsoft, during the Berkshire shareholders meeting last year.
Whatever the world's economic and market turbulence last year, one group has held up well: billionaires.

The combined wealth of the world's billionaires, defined as individuals with a net worth of $1 billion or above, increased by 5.4% to a record $7.7 trillion, according to Wealth-X's 2015-2016 billionaire census. By comparison, the gross domestic product of the U.S. is around $17 trillion.

The world's billionaire population grew by 6.4% to 2,473 in 2015.

Billionaires controlled 3.9% of the world's total household wealth in 2015, slightly down from 4% in 2014, according to Wealth-X, a consulting group that uses public records and research staff to manually track the habits of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, or people valued at more than $30 million.

"Wealth helps accumulate more wealth," says David Barks, associate director of custom research for Wealth-X.

Comment: What a load of nonsense. This article by the Wall Street Journal quite conveniently leaves out all the illegal and downright evil ways so many of the rich make and maintain their fortunes. From working with 'inside information' to exploiting many millions of workers, to empowering companies like Monsanto - the list goes on and on. But the WSJ is a cheerleader for "capitalism" and its job is to sell the "American dream" of having vast amounts of wealth and power - despite the cost to many others of course.

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Arrow Down

Travesty of 'justice': Native American teen faced prison sentence for possessing one gram of marijuana

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
Devontre Thomas
Devontre Thomas - far from the menace to society that one would think federal prisons are reserved for.
In Oregon, a state that has legalized the recreational and medicinal use of cannabis, 19-year-old Thomas was federally charged for possessing one gram of cannabis - equivalent to about one joint.

He could be sentenced to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine, and would also be denied federal student loans and other forms of government aid for his entire life. Ideally, he can succeed without help from the same leviathan that victimizes so many non-violent citizens through an immoral War on Drugs, but the stigma of a federal conviction can be a lifelong problem.

This abomination of justice appears to be due to the fact that Thomas is Native American and was caught with the "illicit" plant at Chemawa Indian School, which is operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Education. The county or the Indian tribe does not have jurisdiction there, leaving the teenager in the clutches of a state apparatus stuck in the Reefer Madness era.
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Attention

Nanny state hysteria: Australian judge bans mom from breastfeeding because she got a tattoo

Christina Sarich
Underground Reporter
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 17:43 UTC
tattooed lady
© Pixabay
An Australian judge has ruled that a mother cannot breastfeed her child because she chose to get a tattoo. Judge Matthew Myers' injunction against the woman comes despite the fact that the mother tested negatively for both hepatitis and HIV — diseases that are sometimes, but rarely, transmitted through tattoo needles. He argues that the mother put her 11-month-old at risk.

Does this set a dangerous precedent that allows governments to decide what is best for our children? Why is the 'stick' of a tattoo arguably more dangerous than that of a vaccine? Why does the tattoo prevent a mother from doing one of the most natural and positive things on the planet? And who gave our government a say over deciding which particular needle a mother should succumb to?

Arguably, more women should be breastfeeding, not less, but women are even being verbally berated for breastfeeding in public, though there are countless developmental, as well as physical and emotional, benefits for both the mother and child. One mother was even kicked out of a courtroom for breastfeeding her sick child recently. Has it really come to this?

Comment: Okay, judge -- how will you enforce this ruling? Will the mom be locked in jail until her breast milk dries up?

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