Society's ChildS


Black Cat

The largest African elephant killed in almost 30 years; celebrated by psychopathic hunters the world over

Peta Thornycroft and Aislinn Laing
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 19:39 UTC
Exclusive: German hunter pays nearly £40,000 to shoot one of the largest elephants ever seen in Zimbabwe, while conservationists and safari guides mourn the loss of 'magnificent' animal
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© Telegraph, UKA hunter, allegedly a German national, celebrates with a guide after killing a huge elephant.
It is an image that will haunt conservationists: one of Africa's most majestic creatures lying dead on the ground as a white Western hunter poses proudly by its side.

Barely three months after the shooting of Cecil the lion caused global outrage, a German hunter has risked the wrath of animal lovers once more by shooting dead one of the largest elephants ever seen in Zimbabwe.

Mystery surrounded the identity of the elephant, which was estimated to have been between 40 and 60 years old, but had never been seen before in Zimbabwe's southern Gonarezhou National Park.

But its tusks, which touch the ground in a photograph taken moments after its shooting, confirmed its exceptional nature, weighing a combined 120lb.

It was shot on October 8 in a private hunting concession bordering Gonarezhou by a hunter who paid $60,000 (£39,000) for a permit to land a large bull elephant and was accompanied by a local, experienced professional hunter celebrated by the hunting community for finding his clients large elephants.

The German national, who the hunt's organisers have refused to name, had travelled to Zimbabwe to conduct a 21-day game hunt including the Big Five of elephants, leopards, lions, buffalo and rhinoceros. The kill was celebrated in hunting forums around the world, where it was suggested he might have been the biggest elephant killed in Africa for almost 30 years.

Conservationists and photographic safari operators in the area expressed their outrage on Thursday night, saying the animal was one of a kind and should have been preserved for all to see.
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© Telegraph, UK

Comment: Another sickening display of humanity's complete lack of respect for nature. Mother Nature just may take steps to balance things out a bit.

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Candle

Murdered Ohio woman found hanging from fence mistaken for Halloween decoration


RT
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:55 UTC
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© ABC/via FacebookRebecca Cade
Construction workers in Ohio were shocked to discover that the figure of a woman hanging from a fence was not a Halloween decoration, as initially thought, but a real dead body.

Ohio police told reporters the body was discovered at 8:30am on Tuesday in Chillicote, according to the state's local outlet WKRC. The shock value was all the greater because it's Halloween time, when people engage in pranks and make-believe. But this was anything but that.

The gruesome scene showed the body dangling lifelessly by a sleeve. The police were immediately called, and it was determined the woman had sustained injuries, but not mutilation. One local, Tammy Dixon, told WKRC "I just put my hands over my face and said, 'This can't be happening here, it's not real and I just didn't see what I thought I saw.'"

Forensics have determined that the local woman, a 31-year-old Rebecca Cade, was badly beaten in her final moments. Neighbors told reporters they couldn't recognize her face.

Police initially tried to link the motive to the unsolved deaths of four other local women and disappearances of two more in Ross County in the last 18 months. But Tuesday evening they arrested Donnie Cochenou Jr., 27, who had confessed to the killing and was allegedly arguing and fighting with Cade before things escalated. The motive, while less mysterious, remains unclear.

Couchenou Jr. is being held on $2 million bail.

Comment: A tragic story. To learn more about addiction read Dr. Mate's book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction:
Based on Gabor Maté's two decades of experience as a medical doctor and his groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver's skid row, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts radically re-envisions this much misunderstood field by taking a holistic approach. Dr. Maté presents addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout (and perhaps underpins) our society; not a medical "condition" distinct from the lives it affects, rather the result of a complex interplay among personal history, emotional, and neurological development, brain chemistry, and the drugs (and behaviors) of addiction. Simplifying a wide array of brain and addiction research findings from around the globe, the book avoids glib self-help remedies, instead promoting a thorough and compassionate self-understanding as the first key to healing and wellness. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts argues persuasively against contemporary health, social, and criminal justice policies toward addiction and those impacted by it. The mix of personal stories - including the author's candid discussion of his own "high-status" addictive tendencies - and science with positive solutions makes the book equally useful for lay readers and professionals.
See also: A Top Doc Explains Why Kind Love Beats Tough Love When Treating Addiction

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Bad Guys

Lies, damn lies: U.S. law enforcement 'fails' to adequately count police-on-civilian killings


RT
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 20:51 UTC
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© Screengrab via YouTubeEric Garner being choked to death by NYPD thug.
An the old saying goes: "lies, damned lies, and statistics." It may not quite apply to a new FBI report on officer-involved shootings, but the phrase expresses some of the frustrations felt by activists on behalf of the victims who went uncounted.

Released Thursday, the FBI's figures for police-on-civilian deadly shootings lacked adequate substance and included errors, according to a report by the Guardian. The data was collected on a voluntary basis from local police departments, but 99 percent of them did not volunteer any information.

The FBI counted 439 police killings for the year 2014 based on reports from 224 local law enforcement agencies, of which there are 18,000 in the country. That's up from 392 homicides reported in 2009, but the number of reporting agencies also increased from 196 in the same year. No trend can be surmised from the data.

Notorious cases, including Eric Garner from New York City, and Ohio's Tamir Rice and John Crawford, were not included. Information regarding whether or not the victim was armed was also not included. Other methods and mistakes also complicate any goal of arriving at an accurate estimate.

The reason for not including Garner, the man choked to death by an New York Police Department (NYPD) officer, was simply because the NYPD has not participated in such FBI data gathering since 2006. The NYPD, the nation's largest police force, promises to release details on officers' deadly use of force next year.

Comment: Here's a list (with sources) of those killed by police in 2015. The number is 938 - the most recent was killed today.

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Arrow Down

Walmart experiences its biggest stock plunge in 27 years as the recession gets worse

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 20:55 UTC
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Now that a major global recession has begun, you would expect major retailers like Wal-Mart to run into trouble as consumer spending dries up, and that is precisely what is happening. On Wednesday, shares of Wal-Mart experienced their largest single day decline in 27 years after an extremely disappointing earnings projection was released. The stock was down about 10 percent, which represented the biggest plunge since January 1988. Over 21 billion dollars in shareholder wealth was wiped out on Wednesday, and this was just the continuation of a very bad year for Wal-Mart stockholders. Overall, shares had already declined by 22 percent so far in 2015 before we even got to Wednesday. Here is more on this stunning turn of events from Bloomberg...
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suffered its worst stock decline in more than 27 years after predicting a drop in annual profit, underscoring the giant retailer's struggles to reignite growth.

Earnings will decrease 6 percent to 12 percent in fiscal 2017, which ends in January of that year, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said at its investor day on Wednesday. Analysts had estimated a gain of 4 percent on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Sheriff

VIDEO: Teen killed by cop for flashing his brights, family sues

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 20:30 UTC
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No charges against Officer Frost (left) who shot and killed Deven Guilford (right) during a traffic stop.
The family of Deven Guilford filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan against Eaton County Sheriff Deputy Jonathan Frost and Eaton County.

Around 8:00 pm on February 28, 2015, the 17-year-old Grand Ledge High School was shot seven times by Eaton County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Jonathan Frost. While he was driving to his girlfriend's house after playing basketball at his church, Deven was stopped because he momentarily flashed his bright lights to alert the oncoming officer that his brights appeared to be on. Five minutes later he was dead.

During this traffic stop, it appears that Deven was puzzled and confused about why he was pulled over and why he was being confronted and ultimately arrested by the officer. The officer did nothing to calm or de-escalate the situation. Instead, Frost rapidly became argumentative and agitated when Deven asserted that the officer had been driving with his high beams on and resisted producing his ID. The entire encounter lasted just over 5 minutes and the backup Frost had called for, before he ever touched Deven or his vehicle, arrived barely a minute after the fatal shots were fired.
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Dollar

American bureaucracy: Price of college education has more than doubled since 2000

Charles Hugh-Smith
Of Two Minds
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 18:33 UTC
student debt NYU
© Robert Mecea/AP
Forgiving skyrocketing student debt won't solve the real problem, which is the soaring costs imposed by a cartel that is failing to prepare students for the economy of tomorrow.

Everyone understands soaring student debt is a problem: burdened with $1.3 trillion in student loans, young people are unable to start businesses, buy homes and start families. The high cost of housing and meeting regulations to launch businesses add additional burdens, but the weight of $1.3 trillion in debt right out of the starting gate is crushing.

The "solution" being pursued by the federal government is obvious: take over most of the student debt and then eventually bury it in the zombie-loan graveyard (i.e. defaults are ignored but the debt isn't officially written off), write it down via forgiveness programs, or some other mechanism to reduce the burden.

If this wasn't the plan, then why has federal ownership of student loan debt skyrocketed from zero to $900 million in a few short years?


Comment: It could be yet another hand-out to the banks.


Comment: As George Carlin so eloquently stated,
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying ­ lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else." "But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests."
Also see:

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Eye 1

'Breach of human rights': Mass murderer Breivik to sue Norway for keeping him in solitary


RT
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 19:12 UTC
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© Stoyan Nenov / Reuters Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik
Convicted mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a series of attacks in 2011, is suing the Norwegian state for keeping him isolated in his cell and restricting access to other prisoners, officers and visitors.

"There will be a court case about his prison conditions. We are arguing that his prison conditions are a breach of human rights. He has been held in isolation for four years," his lawyer, Oeystein Storrvik, told Reuters.

Comment: Anatomy of a Psychopath: Norwegian Mass Murderer Breivik stuns trial by comparing grief of victims' families to his 'pain' at being shunned
Norway gunman's father speaks out: 'He should have taken his own life'
Breivik Defends Massacre of 77 People: 'I Would Have Done it Again'
Norway Builds Psychiatric Ward for Breivik
Psychopathic Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik gets 21 years, regrets not killing more

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Dollars

Illinois hands IOUs to lottery winners instead of cash

Harriet Alexander
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 18:44 UTC
Lottery
© Illinois LotteryMillions of dollars in backdated claims are now owed to winners.
Lottery winners in Illinois are being forced to accept an IOU, rather than cash, because the state has been unable to agree its budget.

Gamblers who win more than $600 (£388) will not be given their money until the state's financial situation has improved. In July the city said that payments of more than $25,000 would be temporarily suspended, but Thursday's announcement of the lower threshold has left winners furious.

"You know what's funny? If we owed the state money, they'd come take it and they don't care whether we have a roof over our head," said Susan Rick, 48, who won $250,000 in July. "Our budget wouldn't be a factor. You can't say to the state, 'Can you wait until I get my budget under control?'"

Two lottery winners last month filed a lawsuit against the lottery, demanding their money with interest.

"If I was the one selling raffle tickets and I didn't pay, I would be sued or in jail or both," said Rhonda Rasche, one of the winners who filed the suit, in an interview with The Chicago Tribune.

The Illinois Lottery has withheld more than $288 million in prizes since the state budget expired in June, according to the lawsuit.

The problem has arisen because the state of Illinois has, for five months, been unable to agree on its budget. Bruce Rauner, the Republican governor of Illinois, has failed to secure approval for his "Turnaround Agenda" from the Democrat-ruled General Assembly.
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Arrow Down

Corporations ditching worker's compensation in favor of private short-term lower-benefit plans

Michael Grabell and Howard Berkes
ProPublica
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
workers comp
© Dylan Hollingsworth for ProPublicaAfter truck driver Joe Becker herniated discs in his back on the job, his employer, Dent Truck Lines, paid for surgery. But when he needed a second operation to remove screws causing him pain, Dent refused to pay, saying it was past the two-year time limit. Becker, who lives in Abilene, Texas, now lives on Social Security disability.
Standing before a giant map in his Dallas office, Bill Minick doesn't seem like anyone's idea of a bomb thrower. But backed by some of the biggest names in corporate America, this mild-mannered son of an evangelist is plotting a revolution in how companies take care of injured workers.

His idea: Let them opt out of state workers' compensation laws — and write their own rules.

Minick swept his hand past pushpins marking the headquarters of Walmart, McDonald's and dozens of his other well-known clients, and hailed his plan as not only cheaper for employers, but better for workers too.

"We're talking about reengineering one of the pillars of social justice that has not seen significant innovation in 100 years," Minick said.

Minick's quest sounds implausible, but he's already scored significant victories.

Many of the nation's biggest retail, trucking, health care and food companies have already opted out in Texas, where Minick pioneered the concept as a young lawyer. Oklahoma recently passed a law co-written by Minick allowing companies to opt out there. Tennessee and South Carolina are seriously considering similar measures. And with a coalition led by executives from Walmart, Nordstrom and Lowe's, Minick has launched a campaign to get laws passed in as many as a dozen states within the next decade.

But as Minick's opt-out movement marches across the country, there has been little scrutiny of what it means for workers.

Comment: Those at the helm of these corporations and those who are ultimately assisting them in their drive to implement serfdom are perfect examples of a society that has become completely ponerized.

How Societies Regress to Become Pathocracies
Human nature demands that vile matters be haloed by an over-compensatory mystique in order to silence one's conscience and to deceive consciousness and critical faculties, whether one's own or those of others. If such a ponerogenic union could be stripped of its ideology, nothing would remain except psychological and moral pathology, naked and unattractive. Such stripping would of course provoke "moral outrage", and not only among the members of the union.

[...]

Children of the privileged classes learn to repress from their field of consciousness the uncomfortable ideas suggesting that they and their parents are benefiting from injustice against others. Such young people learn to disqualify and disparage the moral and mental values of anyone whose work they are using to over-advantage.

[..]

Once the process of poneric transformation... has begun and advanced sufficiently, they perceive this fact with almost infallible sensitivity: a circle has been created wherein they can hide their failings and psychological differentness, find a world where they are in power and all those other, "normal people", are forced into servitude.


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Treasure Chest

Intelligence gaps leave British banks at high risk for money laundering, corruption


RT
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 13:17 UTC
bankers london
© Neil Hall / Reuters
Intelligence gaps have left UK banks at a very high risk of being used to launder the dirty money of crime, corruption and terrorism, a report claims.

The National Risk Assessment report produced by the Treasury and the Home Office reveals many of the structures that make carrying out financial activity in the UK appealing for law-abiding businesses also leave British banks vulnerable to corruption.

"The same factors that make the UK an attractive place for legitimate financial activity - its political stability, advanced professional services sector and widely understood language and legal system - also make it an attractive place through which to launder the proceeds of crime," the report said.

The report also highlighted serious "intelligence gaps" which made it very difficult to tell how much corrupt money was actually flowing through the UK, particularly in terms of what was termed "high-end" corruption.

Comment: Perhaps these so-called intelligence gaps enable the government to avoid blame while covertly facilitating such lucrative practices. Incompetence, corruption and greed is endemic in the global banking sector and it appears that little has changed since the interest rate rigging scandal was exposed in 2012.

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