Society's ChildS


Dollar Gold

Market manipulation: Oil prices to remain low in Q1 2016, stabilize by end of year


Sputnik News
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 19:16 UTC
oil wells
© AP Photo/ Charles Rex Arbogast, File
Oil prices could stabilize toward the end of 2016, but would remain relatively low, according to the chief executive of BP oil company, Bob Dudley.

Global oil prices will reach a "low point" in the first quarter of 2016 before stabilizing by the end of the year, the chief executive of BP oil company, Bob Dudley, said Saturday.

"A low point could be in the first quarter," Dudley told BBC radio.

Comment: A more evidence-based explanation for the decline of oil prices than OPEC over-producing oil and fracking adding a significant amount to the oil supply, is market manipulation:

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Newspaper

Michigan Government 'sorry' as Flint's 'man-made' water catastrophe continues

Andrea Germanos
Common Dreams
Wed, 30 Dec 2015 18:58 UTC
Flint michigan

Michigan's top environment official resigns in latest development of lead contaminated water crisis.

In the latest fallout from Flint, Michigan's public health crisis of lead poisoning its drinking water, Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday said he was "very sorry" and the state's top environmental official resigned. One advocacy group, however, says that full accountability and transparency for this "man-made catastrophe" are still absent.

That catastrophe began in April 2014, as the Rust Belt city was under control of an emergency manager, and it moved its water supply from the Detroit system to the Flint River without the proper corrosive controls. Lead leached from pipes, putting thousands of the city's children at risk of brain damage from the contamination and prompting local outcry. A local pediatrician has called it an "emergency" situation that is "alarming and absolutely gut-wrenching." The latest developments are in response to initial findings released by a Snyder-appointed task force charged with looking into how and why the crisis came to be. The body put most of the blame on Michigan's environmental regulatory agency.

Comment: More information about the ongoing crisis in Michigan:

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Rose

New York man saves woman from faulty lift, says 'Happy New Year', dies


Hindustan Times
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
Stephen Hewett-Brown
© Google PlusStephen Hewett-Brown managed to save Erudi Sanchez by pushing her out of the lift onto one of the building’s floors before getting pinned between the elevator car and the shaft as he tried to escape himself
A New York man fell to his death in a faulty elevator after pushing out a woman to safety and wishing her 'Happy New Year', news agencies reported.

25-year-old Stephen Hewett-Brown, an aspiring musician, was riding an elevator in lower Manhattan, New York around midnight when it malfunctioned.

He managed to save Erudi Sanchez, 43, who lives in the building, by pushing her out of the lift onto one of the building's floors before getting pinned between the elevator car and the shaft as he tried to escape himself, witnesses told the Daily News of New York.

"When I got into the elevator, I felt it dropping and I thought my feet would get caught in the gap but the man pushed me out and said, 'Happy New Year,'" Sanchez told the Daily News on Friday.
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Chart Bar

American middle class decline, in part, self-inflicted

Charles Hugh Smith
OfTwoMinds
Tue, 29 Dec 2015 00:00 UTC
middle class over consumption
Conventional explorations of why the middle class is shrinking focus on economic issues such as the decline of unions and manufacturing, the increasing premiums paid to the highest-paid workers and the rising costs of higher education and healthcare.

All of these factors have a role, but few comment on the non-economic factors, specifically the values that underpin the accumulation of capital that is the one essential project of middle class households.

Daniel Bell's landmark 1976 book The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism held that
"capitalism--and the culture it creates--harbors the seeds of its own downfall by creating a need among successful people for personal gratification--a need that corrodes the work ethic that led to their success in the first place."
I would phrase this in the language of values and capital: The primary cultural contradiction of the Great American Middle Class is the disconnect between the values needed to build capital and those of gratification via debt-based consumption.
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Family

More than 400,000 Ukrainians ready to integrate into Russian society


Sputnik
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 17:54 UTC
Ukrainian refugees in Russia
© Sputnik/ Aleksandr Pogotov
More than 1.3 million displaced Ukrainians have contacted FMS since the start of the armed conflict in southeastern Ukraine in April 2014. Over 419,000 have filed asylum claims, according to the agency.

"Russia has done everything in its power to take in Ukrainian citizens who have been forced to flee Ukraine. Over 400,000 people are potentially ready to integrate into the Russian society," the migration agency said.

FMS estimates that a total of 2.6 million Ukrainians are currently living in Russia, 1.1 million of them from the war-hit southeastern regions.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, Russia is the world's second biggest recipient of asylum claims after Germany.
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Info

Majority of Chinese believe Western countries intend to contain China

Gu Di and Liu Xin
Global Times
Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:00 UTC
us fleet south china sea
A new poll shows that some 78 percent of Chinese believe Western countries intend to contain China.

Some 36.5 percent said the West intends to and have already moved to contain China. Some 41.7 percent say Western countries have such intentions but there exists no obvious action, according to a survey released by the Global Times' Poll Center Tuesday.

The annual survey, "How Chinese people view the world," involved telephone responses from 1,530 people from seven Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Changsha.

Jin Canrong, deputy dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Tuesday that this is how the Chinese feel, following the past year's events.

Relations between China and the US have been strained in 2015 due to issues like the South China Sea disputes and cyber security. China and Japan locked horns in disputes around the Diaoyu Islands and Japan's attitude to face up to its wartime history.

Comment: The Chinese are well aware of the West's geopolitical maneuvers.

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Bizarro Earth

Predictions and trends for 2016: The good, the bad, and the ugly


21st Century Wire
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 17:02 UTC
minority Report
Looking forward into the New Year, here are a few predictions and some emerging trends to be on the look out for in 2016.

In last year's Predictions and Trends for 2015, we told readers to expect some major tectonic shifts in the geopolitical arena. That happened alright, and in the coming 12 months we can expect some of those new realities to solidify, while others continue to take shape.

The good, the bad, and the ugly - here's what to look for ahead in 2016...

Comment: 2016 should prove to be quite interesting, get a good seat and enjoy the show!

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Stock Up

Russian economic development may outperform that of EU members


Sputnik
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 13:33 UTC
moscow
© Sputnik / Natalia Seliverstone
This year may see Russia get the better of EU countries in terms of economic development, according to the Russian economist Vladislav Ginko.

In an interview with Sputnik, noted Russian economic expert Vladislav Ginko suggested that in 2016, Russia will be able to outperform EU members as far as economic development is concerned.

According to him, this year will prove to be more successful for those countries that have maintained their economic and financial sovereignty.

Comment: It's encouraging to witness how Russia has successfully outmaneuvered Western machinations against her, and to see those actions backfiring.

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Dollar

After Protests and Strikes, 14 US States Implement Minimum Wage Increase for 2016


TeleSUR TV
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 17:11 UTC
Fast-food workers and their supporters join a nationwide protest for higher wages and union rights outside McDonald's in Los Angeles, California, United States, Nov.10, 2015.
© ReutersFast-food workers and their supporters join a nationwide protest for higher wages and union rights outside McDonald's in Los Angeles, California, United States, Nov.10, 2015.
Fourteen states and several cities in the United States have increased their minimum wage after more than six years without an increase across the country. The federal minimum wage still remains at US$7.25 per hour, however as of Friday (New Year's Day), the average minimum wage across fourteen states that opted to change the rates reached just over $9 USD.

The steepest increases came in Alaska, California, Massachusetts, and Nebraska, who all raised their minimum wages by a dollar. This in turn had made the states of California and Massachusetts the first states the in the country to implement $10-per-hour minimum wages.
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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Number of protests across US surged during 2015


RT
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 03:12 UTC
protester gas canister
© Eric Thayer / ReutersA protester throws a gas canister back at police during clashes at North Ave and Pennsylvania Ave in Baltimore, Maryland April 28, 2015.
From 'Black Lives Matter' to 'Fight for 15,' the year of 2015 saw a surge of protests all across the nation.

January

Protesters around the country kicked off the 2015 with a Black Lives Matter demonstration against police brutality. On New Year's Eve, about 100 demonstrators gathered at New York City's iconic Times Square, where Mayor Bill de Blasio and his family presided over the annual ball drop, to stage a 'die-in.' Marchers didn't manage to get onto the square itself, due to the massive number of revelers attending.

On the West Coast, the largest New Year's march was held in Oakland, California, against perceived police force. Over 200 activists staged a noise demonstration where voices, electronics, musical instruments and fireworks were used as a means to get message out, but instead attract a large police presence. After unruly protesters lobbed bottles at the police who were cordoning them off, 29 people were arrested.

Later in the month, 23 Black Lives Matter activists were arrested after chaining themselves to barrels and blocking both sides of an interstate near Boston.
"Today, our nonviolent direct action is meant to expose the reality that Boston is a city where white commuters and students use the city and leave, while black and brown communities are targeted by police, exploited, and displaced," protester Katie Seitz said in a statement.

Comment: Americans of conscience are justifiably outraged over the murderous behavior of police officers who are supposed to protect and serve. Pathological leadership, which exists across the United States, does not know how to solve crises. It does not know how to rebuild, nor how to heal. It only knows how to create additional chaos and point the finger at others. This of course adds more fuel to the fire, degrades society, and quickens the pace of systematic collapse.

What will 2016 bring... the breaking point?

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