Society's ChildS


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Odessa residents rally against appointment of Saakashvili to governor

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© Sputnik/ Denis Petrov
Odessa residents rallied on Sunday against the appointment of fugitive Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili as governor of the region.

Around 500 residents of Ukraine's Odessa rallied on Sunday against the newly appointed governor, fugitive Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Saakashvili fled Georgia after the country's new president was elected in November 2013. Saakashvili was appointed as Odessa's governor on May 30, after a brief stint as an advisor to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko. In Georgia, he is accused of embezzling at least $5 million from the state for personal use.


Fire

Massive Texas blaze dying down following pipeline rupture (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

texas fire
Screenshot from www.facebook.com/justin.molands
A blaze from a ruptured gas pipeline near Cuero in Texas is being allowed to slowly burn out. A local sheriff said he expects this to happen by Monday morning. A huge column of fire was visible for over 20 miles after the pipeline caught fire.

No injuries have been reported so far, according to Raul Diaz, a deputy with the DeWitt County Sheriff's Office, as cited by My San Antonio online news.

"If we were going to have a fire from a ruptured pipeline, I don't think we could have picked a better location, as there were so few homes around there," said Joel Zavesky. He added the Sheriff's Office doesn't have any idea what caused the blaze.

There was no major damage as a result of the inferno. Some telephone poles were damaged and there were also some grass fires. Sheriff Zavesky says he expects the fire to burn out by Monday morning. The incident took place near Cuero, a town about 75 miles east of San Antonio.


Comment: One of these 'mixed messages' suggests more information is needed before the cause of this explosion can be determined:


What ignited the 'ruptured pipeline' in this remote location? In Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection, Pierre Lescaudron presents the possibility that certain types of buildings or factories can act as attractors for dramatic electrical discharges, whether 'sparked' by incoming comet fragments or atmospheric electrical conditions. So could something similar be responsible for igniting this explosion?

See also: Was the West Texas explosion a meteorite impact?, Light beam seen during Michigan power plant explosion and SOTT Exclusive: Solar System 'grounding':Transformer explosions and electrical anomalies


Stormtrooper

Psychopathic cop tases 13-yr-old child while choking him!

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© Unkown
We have just received a deeply unsettling video of a police officer choking and shooting a child with a taser gun yesterday afternoon, Saturday June 13.

More details are coming out, and we do not have the victim's name yet, nor the officer's name, but we do know this happened in Fallbrook, California. A witness at the scene provided us the following information.

The child was 13-yrs-old (on the video other witnesses assume he's "15 or 16″ but our sources say he is in fact 13). He was riding on his skateboard with other young boys behind a shopping center, and there happened to be a patrol car parked nearby.

At some point an officer inside of the patrol car told the 13-yr-old child to "get in the car."

The child replied, "Why?"

The officer then warned, "You don't want to get dropped."

Witnesses say that at this point the child became scared and continued skating to a safe place away from the officer.

That is when the officer got out of his vehicle and began slugging the child on the back, according to witnesses.

The cop then "dropped" the child to the ground. At this point several witnesses pulled out their phones and began recording.

The cop can be seen in the video tackling and wrestling the child to the concrete.

But then the unthinkable happens. The video shows the cop locking the child in what appears to be a rear chokehold.

As the child is being choked from behind, the officer uses his free hand to bring his taser gun up to the child's back and shoot it into his spinal area. The child can be heard screaming, flipping around, and his legs can be seen firing up and down in pain.

The officer then shouts, "Put your f***ing hands behind your back!"

The child can be heard saying "I can't" while screaming.

The next tasering is even more horrendous. The cop literally has the child pinned down to the concrete, and begins tasing his back again. The child's body can be seen convulsing uncontrollably, his legs flinging up into the air backwards, suggestion serious cardiac problems at this point or possibly seizures.

The other witnesses are heard getting angry and pleading with the cop to stop the attack, saying "He's just a kid!"

The cop drags the child up and forces him into the patrol car — the child looks visibly injured or motionless. During the final moments of the scene, the officer still has his taser gun out and begins approaching the witnesses. The witnesses are heard asking a nearby citizen for help.

"It was scary," one of them told FilmingCops.com.

"We thought he was gonna start tasing us too."

Snakes in Suits

Some of the most obnoxious things rich people have done recently

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© UnknownLloyd Blankfein and the scowl that says it all.

Millionaires and billionaires have resumed their ostentatious and tin-eared ways.


After the dust cleared from the economic implosion of 2007-2008, being rich became briefly unpopular. Investment firm CEOs, Wall Street bankers and craven house flippers had crashed the economy, and as details of their Gatsby-esqe lifestyle surfaced—Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld, for instance, took a helicopter to work before his century-old firm collapsed—their conspicuous consumption turned insult to injury.

That didn't last long. Bank and corporate profits rebounded quickly, and with all but one banker getting off the legal hook, hardly anybody suffered any consequences for ruining the economy. Sure enough, millionaires and billionaires resumed their profligate, ostentatious and tin-eared ways, but whereas before the bubble burst these were badges of a surging economy, now they came off as self-parody. From arguing for a $2 wage to buying $150 million sculptures, here are the worst of the rich from the past seven years.

Comment: Noteworthy but unsurprising insights into the minds and values of some of the very rich. Is it any wonder that so much is screwed up? But alas, many of these cretins are in for a rude awakening.


Hearts

75-year-old Texas woman receives ridiculous arrest warrant for tall grass; four children come to the rescue

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© Screengrab/KWTX
Had it not been for the help of four young brothers, a 75-year-old Texas woman could have ended up in handcuffs already. Why? Because the grass in her field was overgrown.

After seeing a news report that the city of Riesel had issued an arrest warrant for Gerry Suttle because she never received a court summons for her grass, missed her hearing and got a bench warrant, Blaine Reynolds and his brothers leaped into action in an effort to keep her out of jail.

"It's a summer day, we don't have season passes yet to Hawaiian Falls," Blaine Reynolds, one of the boys, told local station KWTX on Wednesday. What else could we do but go out and help some people."

The station reports that the boys' good deed inspired neighbors to step in and help mow Suttle's lawn. But even the neighborhood effort couldn't keep the city off the elderly woman's back.

On Thursday, she received another summons to appear before a judge concerning her lawn, the station reports.

"Just leave me alone," Suttle told KWTX. "I've lived here 59 years. I don't know how much longer I've got to live here."

She's due in court June 16.

"It is very heartbreaking to see that someone that I didn't even know came out and spent two hours in the sun doing what we thought the city wanted done and then them turn around and say 'no,'" Suttle told CBS News.

But keeping Suttle out of the grips of city officials has now become a community effort.

Smoking

Absurd ordinance would ban smoking in downtown Providence, Rhode Island

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© Jeff Nickerson/Wikimedia CommonsBurnside Park
You can already get a ticket if you smoke in Burnside Park or any other city park in Providence. That ordinance was passed six months ago. Next up -- if it passes -- all downtown public spaces.

Businessman and former Mayor Joe Paolino walks the street that rings the south end of Kennedy Plaza, pointing out the discarded cigarette butts that litter the area. In fairness, the ashtrays were removed he says to discourage smoking. But more importantly, it's the secondhand smoke.

"I don't think that the secondhand smoke is healthy for anybody that has to breathe that smoke. And I think we can clean up our city at the same time," Paolino said.

Some agree. Even some smokers. Mark Brier was smoking in Kennedy Plaza when I asked where he would go to smoke if he couldn't smoke outside downtown.

"I'd go to another city. They're getting too expensive anyway," he said.

Frank LaTorre of Riverside would like to see the ordinance passed by saying, "Does someone have a right to put that kind of carcinogen into the air?" I asked him, "What about car exhaust?" He said, "It's a problem too. We're trying to deal with that as well. But you can't do everything. But I think in terms of secondhand smoke, that it's an incredible health hazard."

Some do not agree, like Kelly Masterson of North Providence.

"Just because it's Kennedy Plaza that's where people (smoke)," said said.

Comment: More anti-smoking measures reminiscent of Hitler's vision of the perfect race:

Adolph Hitler: Vegetarian, teetotaler, anti-smoking campaigner

Worth reading: Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany

And if you really think that the government implements these anti-smoking measures for your health, read:


Heart - Black

Racist Walmart throws four black men out of store for 'walking too slow,' one arrested

walmaet
Since the advent of smartphones, America has become a laundromat - all its unmentionables are showing and people are beginning to talk now that all the cotton and lace is visible. Much the way smartphones have allowed the common practice of police brutality to be witnessed nationally and thereby condemned, so we are able to do the same with racism.

Though thankfully no one was killed in the video below now circulating social media, it is nonetheless disturbing and repulsive to witness thanks to those very same smartphones, not to mention the foresight of the fella to begin filming the incident in the first place. Somehow, coupled with the climate of endless murders of unarmed black folks by (typically) white cops, this video of a group of four black men being kicked out of a Pensacola, Florida, Walmart for "walking too slow" rounds out the reality and broader picture of systemic racism in the United States.

MTO SHOCK VIDEO: Walmart CALLS POLICE On Black Men Shopping . . One Man Was ARRESTED . . . Because Officer Says He 'Shopped Too Slowly'!! (This MUST Stop - #BlackLivesMatter#) - FULL STORY - bit.ly/1L2Epge
Posted by Mediatakeout on Friday, June 12, 2015

Smoking

Smoking ban targeting bars, restaurants, workplaces, other public spaces considered in Waco, Texas

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© Waco Tribune/Jerry Larson
A comprehensive ban on smoking inside bars, restaurants and other public spaces and workplaces goes before the Waco City Council for a vote Tuesday.

The "smoke-free" ordinance proposed by the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District board would erase exemptions that the current smoking ordinance has for bars and for businesses that have separately ventilated smoking sections. It would also prohibit smoking in public parks or within 25 feet of the door of a nonsmoking establishment.

It would preserve exemptions for smoke shops and cigar bars, as well as outdoor workplaces and some designated hotel rooms.

The council Tuesday will take the first of two votes required to pass the ordinance. The business meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Waco Convention Center's Bosque Theatre, following a 3 p.m. work session.

Mayor Malcolm Duncan Jr., who sits on the health district board, said the proposed smoke-free ordinance would protect employees from secondhand smoke and mark a step forward for public health. He said he has been hearing more support than opposition to the ordinance from constituents.

"I think everybody believes not smoking leads to a healthier community," he said.

"If you look around the country, there has been a pretty consistent increase in the trend of cities to go no-smoking."

Comment: Here's the rub: Smoking is not bad for everyone. When have governments truly done anything that was in the best interest of the people? All of this legislation and effort to stamp out something that stimulates the immune system, helps you think better, protects against lung cancer and sparks creativity creates a nation of zombies.


Whistle

Whistler-blower cop demoted, transferred and forced to undergo psychological evaluation after drowning death of young Iowa man

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Pictured left is Sgt Randy Henry, in the middle is Brandon Ellingson who was killed in May 2014
The Missouri Highway Patrol trooper who questioned the cops who killed Brandon Ellingson has just been slapped with a demotion. Sgt. Randy Henry refused to remain silent in the aftermath of Ellingson's death. He spoke out against the agency of the young Iowa man and has been disciplined for doing what everyone says "good cops" are supposed to do.

Now, Sgt. Randy Henry has been demoted to the status of corporal. He has further been moved from Lake of the Ozarks where he has been on patrol for almost thirty years. His superiors have transferred him away from the crime scene, to Truman Lake. Henry's attorney, Chet Pleban of St. Louis, referred to his client as a whistleblower.

In the days after Brandon Ellingson's death, Henry told investigators what Trooper Anthony Piercy told him the night a handcuffed Ellingson died. The college student was in Piercy's custody.

But Piercy's account later, as well as his testimony to a coroner's inquest, was different. Henry also testified in front of a legislative committee about minimal trooper training after the Water Patrol merged into the Highway Patrol in 2011.

"Randy Henry doesn't have a horse in the race," Pleban told The Star. "He's not on one side or the other. He has testimony to give that's material. The truth is the truth. He went to his superiors to say, 'This is wrong. This is what happened.' And they blew him off. So now here we are."


Comment: More details surrounding Brandon's death are available here.


Comment: Another soul lost needlessly to careless and corrupt policing practices. When asked to be accountable for their actions, the department attacks anyone who doesn't toe their line of lies. If you're upset about it, sign the petition and share the article.

RIP Brandon, you were lost to us too soon

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Water

California drought has thieves stealing water

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© Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images
Police are warning for businesses and residents to start locking up their taps. California's drought has gotten so bad, people are stealing water.

Thieves busted the locks on the spigots at a popular Asian shopping center on Barber Lane in Milpitas, just to get their hands on what has become liquid gold.

Palo Alto resident Jason Zhur said he's shocked it has come this far. "But water's becoming more expensive than gas," he said.

Police say the thieves waited until the businesses were closed and returned in the middle of the night to steal their water — and lots of it.

Witnesses saw 3 or 4 water bandits prying open the small boxes that house the spigots. Then they filled up large containers with hundreds of gallons of water.

The businesses discovered the theft after the property owner noticed a much higher water bill and told them.

"It's an easy target," said shopper Sara Tang, "because no one is here at night after they're closed."

Many businesses here have surveillance cameras, but apparently they weren't a deterrent.

"I imagine it's come to that point because water rates are going up, everything is going up, now," said Zhur.

On June 1, water districts across the state began enforcing mandatory cutbacks on water consumption. Residents who don't comply risk steep fines.

Comment: See also: