Society's ChildS


Dollars

What recovery? Banking survey shows 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings - 1 in 5 have no savings


RT
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 15:36 UTC
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© Mark Blinch/Reuters
Two out of three Americans have $1,000 or less in their savings account, if they have one at all, a new survey shows. While young people tend to be broke, older Americans and those in higher income brackets are more likely to have substantial savings.

The sobering numbers come from the Google Consumer Survey commissioned by GoBankingRates, conducted in September from a representative sample of 5,006 respondents.

"It's worrisome that such a large percentage of Americans have so little set aside in a savings account," says Cameron Huddleston, a personal finance columnist for GoBankingRates. "They likely don't have cash reserves to cover an emergency and will have to rely on credit, friends and family, or even their retirement accounts to cover unexpected expenses."

Generation X - those aged between 35 and 54 - was most likely to have no savings, at 31 percent, while 29 percent of Millennials (18-34) and 28 percent of Baby Boomers (55-64) said they had no savings account, or that it had run dry.

On the other hand, 16 percent of Generation X, 17 percent of Boomers and 20 percent of seniors 65 and up reported having more than $10,000 squirreled away. There is also a correlation between earnings and savings, as wealthier Americans keep more money in savings accounts. The survey found people earning $75,000 and above more likely to have over $1,000 in their savings, while those in the $100,000-plus bracket reported savings of at least $10,000 more often than other brackets.

The number of Americans with meager or nonexistent savings - 62 percent - appears to have stayed the same since the February survey by Bankrate.com. According to that poll, a quarter of Americans were "teetering on the edge of financial disaster," with their credit card debt equal or greater than their emergency savings.

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Comment: Half of all Americans are broke

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Che Guevara

Medecin sans Frontieres calls for international inquiry on U.S. bombing of Afghan hospital: "Enough. Even war has rules."


Medecin sans Frontieres
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 21:03 UTC
MSF calls for State activation of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to investigate Afghanistan bombing


Speech delivered by Dr Joanne Liu, MSF International President, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

On Saturday morning, MSF patients and staff killed in Kunduz joined the countless number of people who have been killed around the world in conflict zones and referred to as 'collateral damage' or as an 'inevitable consequence of war'. International humanitarian law is not about 'mistakes'. It is about intention, facts and why.

bombed afghan hospital
© Medecins sans FrontieresMSFA destroyed area of the MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan is visible at first light on 03 October 2015, the morning after the facility was hit by sustained bombing.
The US attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz was the biggest loss of life for our organisation in an airstrike. Tens of thousands of people in Kunduz can no longer receive medical care now when they need it most. Today we say: enough. Even war has rules.

In Kunduz our patients burned in their beds. MSF doctors, nurses and other staff were killed as they worked. Our colleagues had to operate on each other. One of our doctors died on an improvised operating table - an office desk - while his colleagues tried to save his life.

Today we pay tribute to those who died in this abhorrent attack. And we pay tribute to those MSF staff who, while watching their colleagues die and with their hospital still on fire, carried on treating the wounded.

Comment: Events like this are the logical outcome of a psychopathic organization, in this case, the U.S. military. Notice how they scrambled to point the finger at anyone but themselves. One can only hope this latest atrocity is egregious enough to actually get an inquiry going. The U.S. has so much to answer for.

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Stormtrooper

Lawyer: NYPD covered up execution of depressed immigrant after being called to house for help


RT
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:39 UTC
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© RT
The New York Police Department engaged in "an execution" of Mohamed Bah, a mentally disturbed immigrant, and then a "cover-up" of his shooting death, a lawyer for the man's family said, arguing that federal charges are necessary in light of new evidence.

The incident occurred three years ago when police responded to a 911 call made by Bah's mother, who was concerned about his mental state.

The NYPD "did everything wrong in responding to that call for help," Debra Cohen, one of the lawyers representing the Bah family, told RT at a Tuesday evening rally outside the office of the Manhattan US Attorney.

Police called to Bah's aid ended up "forcing open the door, attempting to Taser him shooting him with an R1 shotgun, and then shooting at him 10 times, with eight bullets striking him - and the final, fatal bullet striking him in the side of the head, having been shot at close range, while he was still alive," she said.

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Shoe

Minnesota town calls on Feds to designate attacks on police 'hate crimes'


RT
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 17:46 UTC
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© WCCO
The city council of Red Wing, Minnesota has unanimously passed a resolution that calls on the federal government to designate police officers as a group that can be targeted as victims of hate crimes.

In its newly-signed "Resolution in Support of Law Enforcement," the council argues that police officers nationwide have recently become the victims of targeted attacks solely because of their position. The resolution says that the citizens of Red Wing "stand with the families of the fallen and the officers throughout the United States."

It also asks every member of Red Wing Police Department to pull over at 11 a.m. every day in October and flash the lights of their patrol cars red and blue to honor the 28 officers who lost their lives this year.

The resolution says that it stands with National Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury,"who has called on the [Obama] Administration to acknowledge this crisis and asked them to work with us to address the violent surge against police." Canterbury met with Vice President Joe Biden in late September to discuss the situation.

"We had a lengthy and, I think, a very productive dialogue about a wide range of law enforcement issues including the proliferation of violence against police officers," Canterbury told KMSP.

Right now, federal hate crime law only covers race, color, religion and national origin. It doesn't make any mention of occupation or position of authority, and the council wants to see that change.

Comment: The idea that police are 'good guys' who go after 'bad guys' and need protecting is just not reality. It's a myth for television shows that these local officials are obviously buying. Police officers kill unarmed and innocent people for no reason whatsoever all the time in the U.S. Where are the laws protecting citizens? Penalties for their blatant brutality?

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Eye 1

Overkill: SWAT team descends on Colorado school over student's Halloween costume - gas mask, trench coat

Victor Skinner
EAG News
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 18:25 UTC
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© KKTV
A female high school student awaits a disciplinary hearing and could face expulsion for wearing a Halloween costume to school that prompted officials to lock down the building Wednesday.

An unnamed female student was spotted in the hallway at Pueblo County High School early yesterday morning wearing a gas mask and trench coat, and a classmate reported her to school officials, The Pueblo Chieftain reports.

The teen was hauled to the office where she was interrogated by the police, who also placed the school on lockdown for about an hour. The Pueblo County Sheriff's Office SWAT team, which was training near the school, also responded in full camouflage gear and a large armored vehicle to sweep the building for anything dangerous or suspicious. They found nothing, according to the news site.

A spokesman for the sheriff's office told KKTV the girl said the outfit was a Halloween costume. She wasn't carrying any weapons.

"Incidents like this cannot be overlooked and must be taken serious," Pueblo County superintendent Ed Smith told the Chieftain. "Our concern is always for the students."

Smith said the student, who acted alone, was suspended and faces a disciplinary hearing in which she could be expelled, though the school board would have to approve that decision.

"In these times, these kinds of things just aren't funny, but I would like to say that our students reacted very well to this because they are the ones that originally reported it," he told KRDO.

Comment: How utterly ridiculous. The fear mongering has been ramped up to the point that most people lack ALL common sense.

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2 + 2 = 4

Corporal punishment is back with a vengeance: School resource officers assault kids with impunity

Amanda Warren
Activist Post
Wed, 07 Oct 2015 16:14 UTC
whip
Corporal punishment is generally thought to be a degrading form of public punishment intended to inflict harm or pain on another. The term is most associated with the public school system as its presence lingered there for some time after it became a more controversial practice. One reason it's viewed as barbaric is because it is often associated with slave trade and servitude; undeserved and lacking accountability.

Although technically there are states that still have laws allowing corporal punishment, the practice was banned or phased out mainly in the 1990s but already becoming unpopular before that. A lot of you reading this will recall some of those punishments such as spanking, getting paddled, whipped with a belt or cord, or getting knuckles wrapped with sharp-edged rulers. Some people recall teachers pinching with sharp nails or rolling skin between fingers; in rare cases more unusual forms of injury such as being made to kneel down on bottle caps. Some people laugh about those days where parents assumed the child had earned those stripes and may add to them upon discovering the teachers' punishments.
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Alarm Clock

Suicide among Native America youth is a crisis

Anna Almendrala
Huffington Post
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 00:36 UTC
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© AP PHOTO/JAMES MACPHERSONA stuffed bear is placed on a white picket fence on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 in New Town, N.D.
The numbers are staggering. Five years ago, psychiatrist R. Dale Walker was invited to a small Northern Plains reservation that had suffered 17 suicides in eight months. It was there, listening in a group therapy meeting, that he first heard the phrase "grieved out."

Walker, who specializes in American Indian psychiatric issues and is himself a Cherokee, felt overwhelmed at the toll that suicide was taking on reservations and Indian communities.

"One of the most difficult things to hear is when the community says, 'We can grieve no more. We're cried out. We just can't respond anymore to the problem,'" he said. "It really does have an impact."
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Sheriff

Kansas cop tasers unarmed man for parking violation, then lies about it


RT
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:54 UTC
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© Sure News / Youtube
A Kansas City policeman has been accused of battery by the victim after using a stun gun during a situation involving a parking violation.

The civil lawsuit filed by Damian Words alleges that the actions of Dale Secor, the police officer, led to an unnecessary escalation on May 31, 2014, near the Short Stop Mini Mart on 51st Street.

Secor is accused of overstepping his authority by pulling a stun gun after Words refused to obey his orders, according to the lawsuit being examined by Jackson County Circuit Court, 41 Action News reports.

"This battery and injury to Mr. Words occurred because the officer by his training and the rules of the police department should have de-escalated the situation, but instead he escalated it to violence," Words' lawyer Arthur Brown said. "And then he lied about it in his report."

Comment: Also see: California mother sues police for retaliatory beating in front of her children during 'bogus traffic stop'

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Shoe

Chinese carmageddon: Thousands of vehicles stranded on Beijing motorway


RT
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 11:51 UTC
traffic jam
© China Daily / ReutersVehicles are seen stuck in a traffic jam near a toll station as people return home at the end of a week-long national day holiday, in Beijing, China, October 6, 2015.
Impatience? Hatred? Agony? Neglect? What do you think people on one of the busiest and widest highways in China felt when they got stuck in endless traffic jam? Aerial footage of the several kilometers-long gridlock looks like a carpocalypse has happened.

So if you complain about traffic jams in your city, just look at this footage and think again.


Comment: Expressway this is not! If this was an emergency, forget about driving anywhere near here.

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Mail

Best of the Web: Dear Putin: A letter of support to Russia's president for countering the U.S. and ISIS in the Middle East


DearPutin.com
Wed, 07 Oct 2015 11:37 UTC

Comment: The following letter is addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin on behalf of world citizens who are thankful for the role Putin and Russia have taken in their support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the fight against U.S.-sponsored terrorism.

Putin has proven himself to be a statesman and politician of the first order and has done more than anyone on the world stage not only for his own country, but the world at large, countering the U.S. Empire's arrogance and greed. And the amount of lies and barely veiled aggression leveled against Putin has been extraordinary and practically unprecedented. Russia's involvement in Syria has only reinvigorated the attackers. But their words ring even more hollow today. Russia seems to have the West checkmated, and all they can do is watch and prattle as their plans fall to pieces.

So we encourage all our readers to take a stand for what's right and sign the letter. We have!


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You can sign the letter!

Dear President Putin,

As members of the global reality-based community, we'd like to extend our appreciation and support for the Russian Federation's decision to provide humanitarian and military assistance to Syria, its armed forces and its democratically elected leader, President Bashar al-Assad, in their fight against international US-backed terrorists.

The launch of airstrikes directed against ISIL terrorists in Syria comes at a critical time,1 just as did Russia's pivotal role in preventing a Western military intervention in 2013. As a voice of reason and a force for justice, you have the thanks and support of Syrians, Russians and all people of conscience around the world.

Since 2011, Western leaders have been determined to turn Syria into a failed state. They have gone to the extent of providing funding, training and weaponry to foreign mercenaries who have waged a brutal campaign of terror on the Syrian people and their legitimate government.2 These terrorist forces and religious fanatics do not represent the will of the Syrian people, the majority of whom support President Assad. As you said in your speech at the United Nations General Assembly, it is for the Syrian people and only the Syrian people to decide who should lead them.
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