Society's ChildS


Red Flag

Researchers warn society could collapse by 2040 due to "unprecedented epidemic of food riots"


RT
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:57 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Toby Melville
With the global demand for food on the rise, our society could collapse as soon as in 2040 due to fatal food shortages and "unprecedented epidemic of food riots," if counter measures are not taken, researchers have warned.

Food security experts and analysts in the field of the economics of sustainable development were asked to develop the worse-case scenario illustrating a "plausible, relatively-severe production shock affecting multiple agricultural commodities and regions."

According to a report from Lloyds of London prepared with the help of Anglia Ruskin University's Global Sustainability Institute, "the global food system is under chronic pressure to meet an ever-rising demand, and its vulnerability to acute disruptions is compounded by factors such as climate change, water stress, ongoing globalization and heightening political instability."

Researchers say that the food system is becoming "increasingly vulnerable to acute shocks," driven by the world's population growth and shifts in consumption patterns as countries develop. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projects that global agricultural production will need to more than double by 2050 to close the gap between food supply and demand, the report, supported by UK's Foreign Office says.

Comment: A social and economic collapse could certainly happen sooner than 2040 if the dollar collapses and the U.S. experiences an economic meltdown, like many commentators have been predicting could happen soon:

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Stock Down

Collapse: The nine dynamics of decay, the lifestyle of bureaucracy

Charles Hugh Smith
of two minds
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
bureaucracy guys
© translatingmarek.comMore of the same doing more of the same.
When systems are broke and broken, collapse is the only way forward.

It's a big, complex topic because there are as many types of collapse as there are systems. Some systems appear stable on the surface but collapse suddenly; others visibly decay for decades before finally slipping beneath the waves of history, and some go through stages of collapse.

The taxonomy of collapse is broad, and each unsustainable system (i.e. a system that will fail despite claims to the contrary) has its unique characteristics.

Rome didn't fall so much as erode away. That's the template for collapse.

While collapse may be sudden, the decay that generated the collapse had been rotting away the foundation for years or decades. In distilling the vast literature on collapse into nine dynamics, I am drawing upon many other authors' work.*
Here are the nine dynamics of decay that lead to collapse:

1. complacency and intellectual laziness
2. profound political disunity
3. rise of unproductive complexity
4. those bearing the sacrifices opt out/quit
5. decay of effective leadership
6. rise of bread and circuses social welfare and entertainment to distract/placate restive citizenry
7. decline of wealth-producing capacity--status quo living off financial trickery
8. sclerosis--status quo controlled by vested interests
9. resource depletion/environmental damage
All of these dynamics are currently in play around the globe.

Comment: Unfortunately, we can all too well relate to the concepts presented in this combo article. It exemplifies the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And, we come closer and closer to implosion every single day.

See also: Collapse, Part 1: Greece

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Red Flag

Benefits of standard American diet: Obese Americans now outnumber those who are overweight


RT
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:02 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Rick Wilking
Americans who qualify as obese now outnumber those who are considered merely overweight, according to a new study. The figures also show that 67 percent of women and 75 percent of men in US are suffering from weight problems.

The report, published by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, studied data from more than 15,000 men and women aged 25 or older of a nationally representative group collected between 2007 and 2012 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

It estimated that 67.6 million Americans over the age of 25 were obese in 2012, and a further 65.2 million were overweight.

The NHANES included body mass index (BMI) information. A person with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal, a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight and a BMI over 30 is considered obese.

Comment: The majority of Americans who are obese/overweight would be smart to change their diet to a low carb, high fat ketogenic diet. Not only is it a great diet for weight loss, it also is much healthier than the high carb diet that the government recommends:

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Arrow Down

Children fleeing Middle East war-zones imprisoned in adult detention centers with prison-like conditions


RT
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 15:36 UTC
children detention centers
© Reuters / Stoyan Nenov
Vulnerable children fleeing warzones in the Middle East are being wrongly classified as over-18s and imprisoned in adult detention centers, despite the government having outlawed child detention, a report has said.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism discovered UK border and asylum officers are sending teenagers as young as 14 straight to adult detention centers, where they are subject to conditions described as "distressing" and "scary."

This takes place without referring them to social services, as they are supposed to under government guidelines.

Campaigners have called on the Home Office to change their conduct, ensuring each person who claims to be a child is entitled to a proper assessment.

A three month investigation by Maeve McClenaghan of the bureau revealed that five children have been found to be detained in the notorious Yarl's Wood detention center since the start of this year.

Comment: It appears that border officials are falling prey to their prejudices against those arriving from Middle East countries. Most of these children are coming to the UK as a result of horrific conditions which the West is primarily responsible for creating. When these vulnerable children are mistreated, it furthers the formation of societal wedges between the immigrant communities and the local populace. One has to wonder if some of this is planned in order to keep communities fighting amongst themselves, so they are too distracted to notice who is really creating the misery.

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Arrow Down

Bond manager: "Its time to hide money under the mattress"

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
Image
No one knows how well prepared the system is to handle potential bank runs and massive demands for cash withdrawals if the system tanks.

And no one knows how much longer the system can hold.

The erratic and unnatural market forces from the Federal Reserves' zero interest rate is driving things towards an unstable tipping point, and no one knows what will happen if it does.

Millions may be left without a way to access their funds - perhaps for days or weeks - and banks may lose funds that governments are unwilling or unable to repay.

So a top bond fund manager is warning to diversify holdings into things like gold, silver and savings accounts, and to keep some cash on hand in cash everything else comes to grinding halt. The London Telegraph warned:

Comment: There have been so many financial warnings, from so many places, looking at so many indicators, that it will likely be this year that we see a major downturn.

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Gold Coins

Pitchforks coming soon? CEO compensation more than 300 times that of average workers

Daniel Marans
Huffington Post
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 17:51 UTC
ceo pay
© corpwatch
CEOs at top U.S. companies earned more than 300 times what average workers did in 2014, a new study revealed on Monday.

According to the report by the Economic Policy Institute, CEOs of the top 350 publicly owned U.S. companies earned, on average, $16.3 million a year -- 303.4 times more than the average worker earned in 2014.

The ratio of CEO-to-average worker pay is up 244.7 percent since 1965, when it was 20-to-1, the report states. It is down, however, from a 2000 peak of about 376-to-1.

The Economic Policy Institute attributes the sharp increase in the ratio of CEO-to-average worker pay to skyrocketing CEO compensation even as average worker pay has stagnated. Since 1978, when pay packages began to rise more dramatically, CEO compensation has gone up 997 percent, even as the average worker pay has risen 10.9 percent in the same period.

Comment: Professor Peter Turchin at the University of Connecticut created a mathematical formula that uses numbers to explain historical cycles such as the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Communism. He measured income inequality, the minimum wage, and health. He concludes that the wider the gap between rich and poor, and the unhappier the general population is, the closer people get to revolution. His formula predicts that when the income gap finally reaches a breaking point, violence - or the threat of violence brings the pitchforks to the gates of the upper classes and they will get scared enough to take steps to mollify the masses. However, considering the nature of psychopathy and the likelihood that many of those at the highest levels of society are pathologically greedy, it is more likely that Mother Nature will intervene before any steps are taken to redistribute wealth or alleviate the suffering these pathologicals have wrought throughout society.

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Bizarro Earth

Suffocating in the USA - "I Cannot Write!"

Andre Vltchek
CounterPunch
Sun, 21 Jun 2015 14:02 UTC
american flag torn
At the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), in Los Angeles, a gigantic, carnivorous flag with torn ends was waving in an artificial wind created by enormous propellers.

There were no visitors at the exhibition. For a while I thought that in all this huge space I was totally alone. But soon I noticed two figures in black torn dresses, moving slowly, in semi-darkness, desperately clinging to the walls. Backs bent, they passed by the bookstore right near the place where someone had put a small sign on the wall that said, "I cannot breath!"

Most likely it was a performance, a desperate protest action of one man and one woman, a performance against this giant all-devouring flag.

"I cannot breath!" A man shouted before he died, before he was murdered by the regime.

"I cannot write!" I thought. Which to me was almost the same as not being able to respire.

***

It was the first time in many years that I had missed my column, my essays, for several weeks.

Even when I was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Kenya, in Senegal, I still managed to write.

I managed to write after a deranged, evangelical and fascist preacher paid hotel staff to poison me in the Indonesian city of Surabaya.

I wrote in many warzones and desperate slums, from Iraq to Mindanao, from Haiti to Marshall Islands.

But I couldn't write in the United States of America. Not one single line, not one word. Not this time.
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Heart - Black

Immigration rules could force deportation of thousands of UK nurses despite severe nursing shortage


RT
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 16:48 UTC
nursing shortage UK, nurse deportaton
© Reuters / Stefan Wermuth
New immigration rules could force up to 30,000 foreign nurses in the UK to return to their home countries despite the National Health Service (NHS) facing a severe nursing shortage, healthcare unions have warned.

A new pay threshold, due to come into effect next April, will mean non-European workers will have to leave the UK after six years if they are earning less than £35,000.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned the rules would "cause chaos" for the NHS at a time when demand on the health service is increasing.

The union called on the Home Office to add nurses to the list of shortage occupations which are exempt from the immigration rules and to reconsider the pay threshold.

Comment: Another example of incomprehensible mandates by dimwitted politicians, who obviously won't notice the lack of care and suffering that will ensue for people who must deal with an already overburdened system.

NHS to face chronic nurse shortage by 2016

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Airplane

All New Zealand flights grounded over radar glitch - reports


RT.com
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 03:45 UTC
AKL Airport
© NZ Herald
All commercial flights across New Zealand have been grounded due to a radar fault that affected the country's entire airspace, according to local media.

All the already-airborne flights are allowed to land routinely, but due to the radar fault no jets are currently allowed to take off, Radio New Zealand reports.

"We were informed by Airways New Zealand of a radar fault which is affecting all flights nationally," an Auckland Airport spokesman told the NZ Herald.
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Chart Pie

Unemployed, disabled woman with $10k yearly income ordered to repay $37k student loan debt


RT
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 00:35 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Nyimas Laula
A federal appeals court has denied a woman's bankruptcy request and ordered her to pay back student loans of more than $37,000 despite her yearly income of $10,000. The disabled woman has been unemployed for seven years.

The Maryland court judge denied Monica Stitt, 45, her bankruptcy request on June 9, and ordered her to pay the amount.

Stitt wanted to discharge student debt through bankruptcy due to "undue hardship." But this is exceptionally hard because the debtor has to prove the hardship and the definition of how hardship is measured is not defined by the bankruptcy code but is left to the courts to decide.

Stitt had borrowed $13,250 in student loans which had increased with interest to $37,400 by the time she filed for bankruptcy. After the bankruptcy judge ruled she couldn't cancel the debt, the woman appealed to the US District Court in Maryland without a lawyer, where a District judge upheld the bankruptcy court's ruling.

The appeals court used three criteria to determine whether Stitt's circumstances qualified her for relief. Those criteria are whether the loan would be too difficult to pay back while maintaining a "minimal standard of living," whether the difficult circumstances lasted a long time and whether the debtor demonstrated "good-faith efforts" to repay the loan in the past.

In Stitt's case she passed two of the three measurements. The judge said even if she paid only $3.50 a day in interest on the loan she still wouldn't qualify for a minimal standard of living. Stiff also qualified for having difficult circumstances that lasted as she was disabled, and also unemployed since 2008.

Comment: The student loan industry is booming.
The federal government of the United States made a profit of $41.3 billion on student loans for the 2013 fiscal year.

Although the profit is $3.6 billion less than the that the US government reaped from distressed borrowers the previous year, it is a profit higher than that made by all but two companies, Exxon Mobil and Apple, in the world.
Student loan debt, among other types, feeds the conscienceless capitalist (slavery) system at the expense of the disenfranchised. There's nowhere to go but down.

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