Society's ChildS


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How a Hollywood spy film brainwashes us

Jonathan Cook
Information Clearing House
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 18:46 UTC
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Why are so few of us truly fearful of the impending meltdown of capitalism, stoked by global corporations' rape and pillage? And why are so many of us passive in the face of impending environmental catastrophe?

The answers, surprisingly, are to be found in a recent spoof spy blockbuster, Kingsman - The Secret Service. American Sniper may have enraged leftists for its overt jingoism and implicit war-cheerleading, but movies like Kingsman, which exercise their spell largely below the radar of political activism, are far more important in shoring up a climate of political submissiveness and naivety.

If Joseph Goebbels were alive today, this is the kind of movie he would be making - lappped up by audiences and winning general critical plaudits. Even critics who have panned it, as several did in the UK's elite media, faulted it for its crudity; none seemed aware of its insidious faux class politics and faux environmentalism.
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Handcuffs

US prison population keep increasing

Andrew Pontbriand
Information Clearing House
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 18:26 UTC
We don't just have the world's largest prison population per capita, we blow every other country out of the water. Amazing isn't it? Amazing we as Americans are told constantly we are the most free, most advanced, and most civilized society. Lady liberty, oh miss high-and-mighty!

Oddly enough, China, a country ruled and looked at as mostly Authoritarian takes 7th place in the world in incarceration rate. Which of course makes you wonder, what the hell is going on in America? Are we just a society of misfits, rabble-rousers, and outright criminals? Or, is it something else?

The answer may surprise you.

Comment: Another sad statistic for the 'exceptional' USA!

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Eye 1

American war crimes: Details of CIA torture of U.S. resident Majid Khan


Democracy Now!
Thu, 04 Jun 2015 19:19 UTC

Shocking new details have emerged about how the CIA tortured a former resident of Baltimore, Maryland, who has been in U.S. detention since 2003, first at a CIA black site, then at Guantánamo. Majid Khan is the only known legal resident of the United States to be held at Guantánamo. Over the years, Khan has detailed U.S. torture practices to his attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights, but until recently much of the information remained classified. According to the declassified notes, Khan was waterboarded on two separate occasions, he was hung on a wooden beam for days on end, he spent much of 2003 in total darkness, and he experienced repeated beatings and threats to beat him with tools, including a hammer. Khan also faced rectal feeding, which his lawyers described as a form of rape. Part of Khan's torture was outlined in last year's Senate torture report, but the declassified information provides new details on the abuse. We are joined by Majid Khan's lawyer, J. Wells Dixon, a senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Comment: See also: Detainee at Gitmo alleges new forms of sexual abuse by CIA

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Star of David

"We will shoot you if you do anything": Palestinians speak to RT after forced Israeli evictions


RT
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 18:14 UTC
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© Reuters / Finbarr O'Reilly
Palestinians evicted from their homes by Israeli forces spoke to RT about how they were abused and mistreated by the police as they desperately attempted to retain their property.

The family of Emad Abu Khaled was evicted Tuesday as Israeli authorities arrived to demolish two houses in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The forced eviction was caught on camera.

"They came to our house at 4 in the morning and told us that they wanted to destroy it, and brought two bulldozers," Emad Abu Khaled told RT. "They also threatened us with guns and said, 'We will shoot you if you do anything.' They don't care what you do, if you resist and stay inside they can demolish the building with you inside it."

Although Israeli authorities claim the construction of the houses was illegal, Palestinians say the permits are nearly impossible to obtain. Many families are currently receiving demolition orders and live in constant fear of eviction, which is often followed by violent actions.


Comment: The Israelis have been perpetrating this kind of violence on the Palestinian people for years, yet no one in the world is willing to stand up for them and for justice. What is happening in Palestine is inhumane and psychopathic. How long before the Israelis and their U.S. supporters finally reap what they sow?

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Handcuffs

Grand jury indicts ex-police officer Michael Slager in shooting death of Walter Scott


Raw Story
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 17:58 UTC
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© Charleston County Sheriff's officeMugshot of South Carolina police officer Michael Slager
A grand jury on Monday indicted a white former police officer on a murder charge for the shooting death of a black man in North Charleston, South Carolina, according to the prosecutor overseeing the case.

Michael Slager, 33, was fired from his patrolman job after being charged with murder in the April 4 death of 50-year-old Walter Scott, who was running away from the officer following a traffic stop when he was fatally shot in the back.

If convicted of murder, Slager would face between 30 years and life in prison without the possibility of parole, said Scarlett Wilson, solicitor for the Ninth Judicial Circuit.

Scott's death reignited a public outcry over police treatment of African Americans that flared last year after killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City and elsewhere.

The deadly shooting was captured on video by a bystander using his cell phone, but Wilson said that evidence did not make the case a slam dunk.

"Just because you have video in this case, it doesn't mean it's the be-all and end-all," she said at a news conference in Charleston. "The issue is the people who were there who were involved, who saw or heard anything, who can demonstrate what they saw and heard."

Comment: See:

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Heart - Black

Ayn Rand's insane manifesto 'Atlas Shrugged': 10 lessons in psychopathic thinking

Adam Lee
Raw Story
Sat, 06 Jun 2015 15:56 UTC
Ayn Rand
© Last Week Tonight (YouTube)Ayn Rand
Over the past year, I've been reading and reviewing Ayn Rand's massive paean to capitalism, Atlas Shrugged. If you're not familiar with the novel, it depicts a world where corporate CEOs and one-percenters are the selfless heroes upon which our society depends, and basically everyone else — journalists, legislators, government employees, the poor — are the villains trying to drag the rich down out of spite, when we should be kissing their rings in gratitude that they allow us to exist.

Rand's protagonists are Dagny Taggart, heir to a transcontinental railroad empire, and Hank Rearden, the head of a steel company who's invented a revolutionary new alloy which he's modestly named Rearden Metal. Together, they battle against evil government bureaucrats and parasitic socialists to hold civilization together, while all the while powerful industrialists are mysteriously disappearing, leaving behind only the cryptic phrase "Who is John Galt?"

Atlas Shrugged is a work of fiction, but as far as many prominent conservatives are concerned, it's sacred scripture. Alan Greenspan was a member of Rand's inner circle, and opposed regulation of financial markets because he believed her dictum that the greed of businessmen was always the public's best protection. Paul Ryan said that he required his campaign staffers to read the book, while Glenn Beck has announced grandiose plans to build his own real-life "Galt's Gulch," the hidden refuge where the book's capitalist heroes go to watch civilization collapse without them.

Reading Atlas Shrugged is like entering into a strange mirror universe where everything we thought we knew about economics and morality is turned upside down. I've already learned some valuable lessons from it.

Comment: Rand's world view produced some seriously twisted behaviors on her part: Her works gave lethal legitimacy to the predators of society. We are now reaping the results of her ideas. Still, she and her acolytes were not above hypocritically taking advantage of government benefits:

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Stormtrooper

Pool party turns violent when police show up and assault and nearly shoot multiple unarmed teens

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 23:17 UTC
teen_cop
© YouTube
A weekend pool party in Texas turned violent after a McKinney police officer on a power trip began brutalizing a young woman.

According to video post on Facebook, the police were called to a McKinney residence because of the large number of people attending a pool party.

The police officers were in some sort of feeding frenzy as they were rounding up young teens, armed only with their swimsuits and forcing them to a patch of grass on the roadside.

As the video begins, one officer is seen doing a barrel roll as if he's in a war zone.

Once the officers seemed to have calmed down, one of them began to attack a young woman who was doing absolutely nothing wrong. As he was assaulting the young woman, several bystanders tried to intervene. At this point, things almost got deadly.

The officer then pulled his gun to ward off the good Samaritans who attempted to stop his brutal attack on a young woman. Luckily for all those involved, two of the crazed officer's co-workers stopped him from shooting people. As he had his gun drawn on multiple teenagers, the two officers patted him on his back in an apparent attempt to calm him down.

"On your face!" screams the abusive officer as he slams a young girl's head into the ground.

At the end of the video, the officer attempts to justify his brutal actions by telling the teens that the entire situation was their fault because they failed to prostrate themselves fast enough.

"I told you to sit!" the officer exclaims as if the teenagers were dogs who disobeyed his commands.

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Pistol

Armed open carry activists defy police in Texas


Sputnik
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 19:12 UTC
After concealed-carry activists in Texas took their firearms onto private property, they were approached by police carrying assault rifles leading to a tense standoff caught on video.

White concealed-carry activists were walking around with assault rifles slung around their backs. When police approached them, one of the activists yelled at the police for approaching them, one of them having his gun drawn.

Open Carry Texas, a gun-rights group, posted the video on YouTube.


Comment: The fact that these men were not immediately told to drop their weapons and get on the ground speaks volumes about the intrinsic racism in police departments.

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Arrow Down

Hypocritical legislation: South Carolina takes action against Israeli boycotts


Source
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 18:30 UTC
State law bars public entities from contracting with companies that boycott "based on race, color, religion, gender or national origin."
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
© ReutersSouth Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
WASHINGTON - South Carolina's governor has signed into law a bill to stop efforts to boycott, divest and sanction Israel on Thursday afternoon, in a first for the nation on a statewide level.

The bill makes no mention of Israel directly, but prevents public entities from contracting with businesses engaging in the "boycott of a person or an entity based in or doing business with a jurisdiction with whom South Carolina can enjoy open trade."

The premise of the law is that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, colloquially known as BDS, discriminates against the people of Israel and weakens the economy of South Carolina.

"Boycott," for the purposes of the law, is defined as the effort by companies to "blacklist, divest from or otherwise refuse to deal with a person or firm when the action is based on race, color, religion, gender or national origin of the targeted person or entity," according to the text.

Companies also must agree not to engage in boycott activities going forward.

Comment: Israel has proven itself time and again that it is no friend to the United States, and it is unbelievably hypocritical for US states to ban economic sanctions in an effort to protect Israel, a terrorist state and committer of international war crimes against Palestinians, but say nothing about the sanctions against Russia who has consistently been peacefully protecting its interests in Ukraine. This is a slap in the face to those who have suffered so much in Palestine at the hands of their Israeli occupiers.

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Stormtrooper

Officer repeatedly sprayed mace in woman's vagina as punishment: Lawsuit


Filming Cops
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 19:00 UTC
A New Mexico woman suffered for weeks with painful urination and swollen, burning genitals after an officer repeatedly sprayed mace inside of her vagina to "punish" her, according to an ACLU lawsuit.

"It's tantamount to torture," Peter Simonson, the Executive Director of ACLU of New Mexico said in an interview.

Marlene Tapia was apparently arrested for a drug-related issue.

She was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center, where two officers made her strip naked.

They then forced her to bend over at the waist.

The officers claimed that Tapia had a "plastic baggie" in her vagina.

Rather than sending her to medical staff to get it removed, one of the officers began spraying mace inside Tapia as punishment, according to the lawsuit.

"It's just the maliciousness, the wanton disregard, wanton maliciousness that the corrections officer demonstrated," said Simonson.

View the court records here:

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