Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

SOTT Exclusive: Finnish police fired guns just 6 times in 2013 - US cops have killed over 500 people so far in 2015

militarization of police 7
© Armstrongeconomics.com
Police violence in the US is now so prevalent that it has become 'the new normal', although just how extreme the situation it is becomes apparent when we compare it with other developed countries. Take my country, Finland, for example, where cops discharged their firearms just six times in 2013, and 120 times over the last decade, with the use of firearms by police rarely resulting in death.

Finnish police have fired guns about 120 times in the last ten years, and the use of firearms by police rarely results in death: the Finnish National Police Board reported that police killed just three people from 2003-2013, and injured 20.

However, in the US, 2015 statistics show that by June, police have killed over 500 people, and it's understood that this number is under-reported due to a lack of official record keeping. The London Guardian is keeping track of American police killings, and at the time of writing the count was about 540. A similar number of people were killed by US cops last year.

Arrow Up

Quebec bill changes animals from "property" to sentient beings and includes jail time for cruelty

Puppy
© www.dogheirs.com
Animals will be considered "sentient beings" instead of property in a bill tabled in the Canadian province of Quebec. The legislation states that "animals are not things. They are sentient beings and have biological needs."

Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis proposed the bill and wants to change Quebec's infamous image as a haven for puppy mills

The legislation specifies that animals have biological needs and includes fines of up to $250,000 for those who are cruel to animals, as well as jail time for repeat offenders.

Paradis said the bill puts Quebec more in line with other Canadian provinces like Ontario, British Columbia and Manitoba. The act will apply to all domesticated and farm animals and certain wild animals. Paradis said he wants to see animals "treated with dignity as much as possible" it doesn't matter what animal.

"If you have a goldfish you have to take care of it," he said. "Don't get a goldfish if you don't want to take care of it."

Under the bill inspectors will have the power to demand to see an animal if they have "reasonable cause" to suspect the pet or animal is being mistreated. They also can also obtain a warrant to enter a home and seize animals. Repeat offenders would also come under fire as authorities and judges would have the discretion to increase fines and sentence serial violators to jail for up to 18 months.

Pistol

At least 5 dead, 3 injured in shootings at 2 Tennessee military recruiting centers

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© AP video still / AP
Shootings occurred at two military recruiting centers in southeastern Tennessee leaving five people dead, including the gunman, with three others wounded. One person is in critical condition. Another victim, a police officer, is stable.

The active shooter situation is over, the Chattanooga Police Department tweeted. The shooter and four other people are dead, Mayor Andy Berke told reporters during an afternoon press conference.

Comment: Here we go again with a 'terrorist' situation.


Megaphone

Chris Hedges on Bernie Sanders' role within the corporate Democrats

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Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders is the only major party candidate for President who favors a single payer national health insurance system.

What's not to like?

That was the question Ralph Nader asked Chris Hedges on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour.

"Bernie Sanders wants to break up the New York banks, he wants to impose a Wall Street transaction tax, he wants to regulate drug prices, he's for full Medicare for all — everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital — he wants to get rid of these corporate tax havens, he's pushing for a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage, he wants to stronger labor unions. What's not to like?" Nader asked Hedges.

"Because he did it within the Democratic establishment," Hedges said. "He's lending credibility to a party that is completely corporatized. He has agreed that he will endorse the candidate, which, unless there is some miracle, will probably be Hillary Clinton."

"So what he does is he takes all of that energy, he raises all of these legitimate issues and he funnels it back into a dead political system so that by April it's over."

Comment: A lot of people think Bernie Sanders is the answer to the corrupt presidential candidates. As this article shows, having faith in politicians that look on the surface to be different and for the people is a hopeless exercise. In politics, nothing happens by accident, and that truism is definitely relevant with Bernie Sanders' entrance into the presidential race.


Cult

Pastor arrested and charged with sex abuse of 13-year-old girl

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© San Bernardino County Sheriff's DepartmentYanhao Ren booking photo
California youth pastor has been accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl after police found him in the backseat of a car with her on a highway turn out.

Yanhao "Eric" Ren, 24, of the Los Angeles County community known as Rowland Heights, was arrested Monday on suspicion of a number of sex crimes with a child, local station KTLA reports.

Ren has been a pastor for Evangelical Formosan Church of Rowland Heights for two years and has allegedly carried out a sexual relationship with the child since May, the station reports.

On Sunday just before midnight, the California Highway Patrol found him parked with the girl off of Highway 330, a low-traffic road that runs through the Angeles National Forrest, the Highland Community News reports.

Sheriff

Woman who decried police brutality on social media dies in police custody

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Sandra Bland (Screenshot/ABC News
Grieving friends and family of Sandra Bland want to know how the 28-year-old wound up dead in a Texas jail cell, and they don't believe the story they're being told by Waller County authorities.

"The Waller County Jail is trying to rule her death a suicide and Sandy would not have taken her own life," LaNitra Dean, a long-time friend, told ABC 7 Chicago. "Sandy was strong. Strong mentally and spiritually."

Bland, who was outspoken about racism and police brutality, had just gotten a new job at her alma matter, Texas Prairie View A&M, and was on her way from the Chicago suburb of Naperville to her new home near Houston when she was stopped by police for failing to signal during a lane change on Friday afternoon, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The simple traffic stop escalated, according to video of the arrest that has emerged on YouTube. The video shows officers on top of Bland as she cries out that they had slammed her head into the ground and were being too rough with her. An officer is seen telling the person shooting the video to leave. The recording does not show the beginning of the encounter.

"You just slammed my head into the ground," Bland yells as she is being arrested. "Do you not even care about that? I can't even hear!"


Fire

Fires and explosions: Whistleblowers reveal the dangers of smart meters

smart meter
© Dees Illustration
The situation with smart meter fires is worse than we thought — and now we know why. This new investigative video tells all.

In studying and doing presentations and making videos on 'smart' meters for nearly 5 years now, personally I had my doubts I would learn anything new when I first connected with a utility worker whistleblower through Take Back Your Power.

I was completely wrong and they are right. It is worse than I thought — than we all thought. A major and critical error has been brought forth.

This new video (below) explains in simple terms these new revelations from the insiders, as well as new court documentation and other insights.

Smoking

Fascism: Annapolis hospital to discriminate against smokers for job openings

Smoking is healthier than fascism
Smoking: it's healthier than Fascism!

Comment: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever." George Orwell, 1984


A cigarette can linger several days in the body and beginning this month it's enough to disqualify job applicants at Anne Arundel Medical Center.


Comment: So along with being unable to smoke virtually anywhere, you'll now be unable to get a job if you smoke. The war and discrimination against smokers continues.


The Annapolis hospital has announced it will test the urine of applicants for signs of tobacco. Fail the test? Lose the job, though applicants may apply again for testing after six months.

"We are role models for the community," hospital spokeswoman Kelly Swan said. "We care about our employees and want them to live healthy lives."


Comment: How about testing them for trans fats? Or eating fast food? Or excessive sugar consumption? How about gluten? Or binge drinking? Or a wide variety of other things that are detrimental to people's health? Even if smoking were harmful, which it's not, this clearly has nothing to do with wanting their employees to live healthy lives:

Comment: This is an insane policy that's being carried out by brainwashed idiots. That may be hard for many to accept, but when you take the evidence of the benefits of smoking natural tobacco into account, and the completely irrational nature of their arguments when also factoring in the large quantity of things that people are allowed (and usually encouraged) to do to themselves, consciously or not, that are harmful, which aren't regulated "for their benefit", then it's pretty hard to draw any other conclusion. Then again, it's hard to expect much from people who share an ideology with Hitler:

Adolph Hitler: Vegetarian, teetotaler, anti-smoking campaigner
Adolph Hitler the Anti-Smoking Crusader

Hitler wasn't just a non-smoker; he was vehemently opposed to smoking and couldn't abide the smell of cigarette smoke. Edward Deuss is recorded on Nizkor.org as saying that no one was allowed to smoke in any room Hitler was likely to enter, and that when Hitler noticed his men leaving a meeting room at hourly intervals, someone had to lie to him and say they were going to the toilet, when in fact they needed a cigarette. Cross records that Hitler spotted a member of his press corps taking a quick puff outside the aeroplane at a refuelling stop, flew into a rage and sacked him on the spot.
The last sentence may make Hitler look like some kind of deranged lunatic, but in reality, he was just so concerned for the guy's well-being that he couldn't control himself and fired him for his own good! (pardon the sarcasm)


Arrow Down

'The System' will collapse when the trucks stop delivering

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Collectively speaking, most Americans take for granted the system in place to deliver essential supplies to their area. "The system," an underlying infrastructure that keeps goods, services and commerce in America flowing creates a sense of normalcy and order. Food, water, gasoline and medications are just a few of the items restocked weekly in order for our dependent society to maintain a steady flow. What many fail to grasp is just how fragile the system is and just how quickly it can collapse.

Our transportation systems are one of the weakest links in the system. Mac Slavo explains:
In a 2012 report prepared for legislators and business leaders by the American Trucking Associations highlights just how critical our just-in-time inventory and delivery systems are, and assesses the impact on the general population in the event of an emergency or incident of national significance that disrupts the truck transportation systems which are responsible for carrying some ten billion tons of commodities and supplies across the United States each year.

A shutdown of truck operations as a result of elevated threat levels, terrorist attacks, or pandemics would, according to the report, have "a swift and devastating impact on the food, healthcare, transportation, waste removal, retail, manufacturing, and financial sectors."

So too would events such as an EMP attack or a coordinated cyber-attack that could shut down global positioning systems and the computers responsible for inventory control.

Comment: See also: A good way to invest your money: Store large amounts of food, like now


Magnify

Foul play suspected in oil refinery blast in southern France as electronic device discovered at scene

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© Reuters/Philippe LaurensonSmoke billows into the sky from one of two fires that started overnight on a petrochemical facility owned by American firm LyondellBasell at the refineries around the Etang de Berre, near Marseille, southern France, France, July 14, 2015.
An electronic device has been discovered by investigators next to a petrochemical facility in southern France, where two tanks caught fire on Tuesday. Sources say it might confirm earlier suspicions that the blaze was started on purpose.

"The simultaneous explosion of the tanks, which are spaced about 500 meters from each other, is not the result of a technical accident. The thesis of criminal intent is clearly being considered," an anonymous source told Reuters.

The device is now being analyzed to find out if it could have started the fire, police officials told Liberation.

This follows, an announcement by French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Wednesday, for a major increase in security at industrial sites across the country.