Society's ChildS


Light Saber

Judge rules for workers - Walmart management 'illegally punished strikers'

Steven Greenhouse
New York Times
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 02:26 UTC
Walmart_demo
© Brave New Films
A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Walmart managers in California had illegally disciplined employees for going on strike and unlawfully threatened to close a store if many of its employees joined a group demanding higher wages.

In a decision made public on Wednesday, Geoffrey Carter, an N.L.R.B. administrative law judge, also found that a Walmart manager had illegally intimidated workers by saying, "If it were up to me, I'd shoot the union." In addition, the judge said it was unlawful for Walmart managers to tell employees that co-workers returning from a one-day strike would be looking for a new job.

Our Walmart, a union-backed group of Walmart employees, filed the complaint with the labor board, asserting that officials at Walmart stores in Placerville and Richmond, Calif., had illegally intimidated workers.


Comment: A well-known pattern of Walmart management. They employ the same police-state tactics usually reserved for government protests

Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, said in a statement: "We do not agree with some of the administrative law judge's conclusions." The company said it would appeal parts of the ruling to the full labor board in Washington.

Walmart has a long history of vigorously battling unionization efforts.


Comment: Of course! As much wealth as possible must be funneled upward to the ruling clan.

Our Walmart is not a union but is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers union and has mounted a string of protests against Walmart over the last three years. On Black Friday, Our Walmart sponsored protests at more than a thousand Walmart stores, calling for a $15 base wage, more full-time jobs and an end to what it says is illegal intimidation and dismissals.

Comment: Walmart is held up by the corporate 1% as the epitome of capitalist principles, but in reality it is one of the worst leeches on the public purse. Instead of paying a living wage, it counsels its "associates" in how to access social support services to make ends meet, and encourages their already underpaid employees to run food drives for their fellow workers. Disgusting!

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Crusader

North Carolina church members indicted for kidnapping, choking and beating gay man to cure 'homosexual demons'

David Edwards
Rawstory
Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:06 UTC
Image
© WSPAMatthew Fenner
Five members of a controversial North Carolina church were indicted this week on charges that they kidnapped and assaulted a fellow member because he had been possessed by "homosexual demons."

On Monday, a Rutherford County grand jury indicted Sarah Covington Anderson, Adam Christopher Bartley, Brooke McFadden Covington, Justin Brock Covington and Robert Louis Walker Jr. on charges of second degree kidnapping and simple assault. Anderson was also charged with assault by strangulation.

Matthew Fenner told WSPA that he was a member of The Word of Faith Fellowship church in 2013 when the others physically attacked him for being gay on Jan. 29, 2013.

"I honestly thought I was going to die," Fenner recalled. "My head was like being flung back, my vision was going brown and black... I couldn't breathe and I'm sitting here thinking if I don't get out of this, I'm probably going to die."

According to QNotes, the suspects slapped and strangled Fenner, and they threatened to imprison him for two days to fight his "homosexual demons."

Although the church has been accused of abusing LGBT people in the past, Fenner said that local officials refused to take him seriously or even let him file a complaint at first.

QNotes described the Spindale church as "cult-like" for a technique of "deliverance" in which members are encircled, and subjected to "high-pitched shrilling sounds, screams and prayers."

Comment: Beating a man senseless on Yahweh's orders? Christianity is such fertile ground for psychopathy.

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Candy Cane

SOTT Focus: Black Pete, chimney sweep? Meet "Santa's helper" in The Netherlands

Bo Azizi Sanne Bosma and Amari Roos
Sott.net
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:45 UTC
Image
© Bas Czerwinski/Agence France-PresseDemonstrators holding placards reading "Black Pete is Rascism" and "Free Pete" during a demonstration in November, 2013 against Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).
As the holiday season approaches, people the world over will be celebrating the year's end in accordance with their local traditions. In the Netherlands in recent years there has been steadily-growing controversy about its peculiar Christmas tradition involving white people wearing blackface theatrical makeup.

Jon Stewart is right: the U.S. most definitely is NOT a post-racial society. But before we, as Dutch citizens, start lecturing Americans about the state of their nation, we ought to come clean about our own racist proclivities. Every year on December 5th Dutch children celebrate a kind of mini pre-Santa day of gift-giving (well, gift-receiving in the kids' case, but the adult population joins in the fun too). The centerpiece of Sint-Nicolaas Day are parades in every town and city up and down the country, in which the guest of honor is a very Father Christmas-like figure who gives kids candy... with the assistance of 'Black Pete', his negro servant sidekick.

To understand this toxic Dutch 'tradition', you have to understand some of its past. But first, here's the story of "Sint-Nicolaas and Black Pete" as it is presented today.

Comment: If you wish to learn more about racism and how it occurs outside conscious awareness, we recommend reading Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell.

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Pistol

Brooklyn synagogue stabbing: Student attacked, NYPD kills assailant


RT
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 21:42 UTC
NYPD
© AFP Photo / Allison Joyce
A knife-wielding man who stabbed a student in a Brooklyn synagogue was shot dead by police after he lunged at officers.

Police say they used lethal violence against the suspect after he refused to drop the weapon, AP reports. The incident occurred at the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic World Headquarters in Crown Heights at 1:40am on Tuesday.

Comment: Who benefits? Not only does it reinforce the lie about a new wave of violent anti-Semitism - which Israel and its lobby depend upon in order to cover up their genocide of the Palestinians. It also has to the potential to smear critics of police violence and brutality with charges of anti-Semitism. Two birds, one stone!

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Stock Down

Cost of Privatization in UK: Rail, water & utilities hit households financially - study


RT
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
UK Pound
© AFP Photo / Bertrand Langlois
British households could be saving £250 a year each if services such as railways and water were publicly owned rather than privatized, according to a new report.

Research conducted by Corporate Watch and We Own It reveals Britons could be saving hundreds of pounds if such services were taken out of private hands. In the long run, the British government, too, would save billions if services were renationalized.

Additionally, the investigation found that utility companies were paying out £12.7 billion a year in interest and dividends to their shareholders, while passing the cost burden to their customers.

Comment: Corporations fund the policy makers and it is improbable that trend will change. The UK needs its own Putin to reverse the damage Iron lady Margaret Thatcher (aka 'the witch') initiated.

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Sheriff

New Delhi police question Uber taxi service executive over customer rape allegation

Katy Daigle
Yahoo! Tech
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
uber taxi
© businesstach.co.za
Indian police questioned an Uber executive Tuesday about the company's claim it conducts comprehensive background checks and a top official called for the taxi-booking service to be banned nationwide after one of its New Delhi drivers was accused of rape.

New Delhi police official Brijendra Kumar Yadav said there is a possibility of criminal charges against the company if police find evidence the taxi-hailing app misrepresented the safety of its service.

The driver, 32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, is being held by police and will appear again in a New Delhi court on Thursday. A 26-year-old woman who hired Yadav for a ride home from a dinner engagement Friday night accused him of rape.


Comment: What is Uber?
Uber is a rideshare and taxi service headquartered in San Francisco, United States (U.S.), which operates in multiple international cities. The company uses a smartphone application to receive ride requests, and then sends these trip requests to their drivers. Customers use the app to request rides and track their reserved vehicle's location. As of August 29, 2014, the service was available in 45 countries and more than 200 cities worldwide, and was valued at US$18.2 billion.

Upon inception, Uber offered only full-size luxury cars for hire, and the "UberBlack" title was adopted for the company's main service (named after the "black cars" private transportation services in New York City. In 2012, the company launched its "UberX" program, which expanded the service to any qualified driver with an acceptable vehicle. Due to a lack of regulation, Uber can offer lower fees, so the service has become extremely competitive with traditional taxi services, expanding Uber's appeal to a broader cross-section of the market.

Comment: Uber is not new to controversy and protests:
Uber is the subject of ongoing protests from taxi drivers, taxi companies and representative bodies who believe that ridesharing companies are illegal taxicab operations that engage in unfair business practices and compromise passenger safety. As of September 2014, protests had been staged in Germany, France and England, among other nations, while incidents involving passengers have been documented. Uber also continues to resolve issues with governmental bodies, including those of the U.S. and Australia.


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Question

3 questions to ask before putting cameras on cops

Rob Pegoraro
Yahoo! Tech
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 19:00 UTC
body cam_police
© Wochit
Two weeks ago, many of us were sure that if only Darren Wilson had had a body camera, justice would have been more easily served in Ferguson, Missouri - that a video record would have cleared the confusion over Officer Wilson's fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

Then, a week ago - only two days after President Obama proposed putting 50,000 more police body cameras into service - things didn't look so clear. Video taken by a passerby of Eric Garner's fatal chokehold arrest did not stop a grand jury from declining to bring an indictment.

It's not the first time a promised technological solution has looked less shiny upon closer inspection, but the stakes for this technology are extraordinarily high.

Before we follow our habit of attaching a camera to anything that moves - if we can put them on our dashboards and on our drones, why not our cops? - we need to ask a few questions, and get some good answers.

"Any police department that wants to use body cameras, it's a good decision," said Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Hanni Fakhoury. "But you can't just throw the cameras out there and let the details sort themselves out."
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Blackbox

Bank related death? Slain MassMutual executive had access to sensitive data on Bank-Owned Life Insurance policies

Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Mon, 08 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
Melissa Millan
On Thursday, November 20, 2014, the body of 54-year old Melissa Millan, a divorced mother of two school-age children, was found at approximately 8 p.m. along a jogging path running parallel to Iron Horse Boulevard in Simsbury, Connecticut. A motorist had spotted the body and called the police.

According to the coroner's report, it was determined that Millan's death was attributable to a stab wound to the chest with an "edged weapon." Police ruled the death a homicide, a rarity for this town where residents feel safe enough to routinely jog by themselves on the same path used by Millan.

Information has now emerged that Millan had access to highly sensitive data on bank profits resulting from the collection of life insurance proceeds from her insurance company employer on the death of bank workers - data that a Federal regulator of banks has characterized as "trade secrets."

Comment: Considering the amounts of money involved and the growing number of mysterious deaths of bankers, the connection to Bank Owned Life Insurance policies does warrant investigation:

Death a trade secret? Suspicious deaths of bankers are now classified as "Trade Secrets", according to Federal regulator

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USA

The game is rigged: Why Americans keep losing to the police state

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 03:31 UTC
"The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens." - Leo Tolstoy
Rigged Game
© Pinterest
My 7-year-old granddaughter has suddenly developed a keen interest in card games: Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Blackjack, and War. We've fallen into a set pattern now: every time we play, she deals the cards, and I pretend not to see her stacking the deck in her favor. And of course, I always lose.

I don't mind losing to my granddaughter at Old Maid, knowing full well the game is rigged. For now, it's fun and games, and she's winning. Where the rub comes in is in knowing that someday she'll be old enough to realize that being a citizen in the American police state is much like playing against a stacked deck: you're always going to lose.

The game is rigged, and "we the people" keep getting dealt the same losing hand. Even so, we stay in the game, against all odds, trusting that our luck will change.

The problem, of course, is that luck will not save us. The people dealing the cards - the politicians, the corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the bureaucrats, the military, the media, etc. - have only one prevailing concern, and that is to maintain their power and control over the country and us.

It really doesn't matter what you call them - the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex - so long as you understand that while they are dealing the cards, the deck will always be stacked in their favor.

Incredibly, no matter how many times we see this played out, Americans continue to naively buy into the idea that it's our politics that divide us as a nation. As if there were really a difference between the Democrats and Republicans. As if the policies of George W. Bush were any different from those of Barack Obama. As if we weren't a nation of sheep being fattened for the kill by a ravenous government of wolves.

We're in trouble, folks, and changing the dealer won't save us: it's time to get out of the game

We have relinquished control of our government to overlords who care nothing for our rights, our dignity or our humanity, and now we're saddled with an authoritarian regime that is deaf to our cries, dumb to our troubles, blind to our needs, and accountable to no one.

Even revelations of wrongdoing amount to little in the way of changes for the better.
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Crusader

Pass the sick bag: Fox News analyst discussing torture report: 'The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome!'

David Edwards
Raw Story
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 02:34 UTC
Image
Fox News host and authoritarian follower Andrea Tantaros
Fox News analysts, hosts and reporters on Tuesday wasted no time in blasting Democrats after Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) released a report condemning the CIA's use of torture and other enhanced interrogation techniques.

Just moments after Feinstein announced on the floor of the Senate that the Intelligence Committee had made the long-delayed torture report public, Fox News National Security Analyst K.T. McFarland insisted that Democrats were going to "do harm" to the country by angering terrorists.


Comment: If people truly cared about angering terrorists, maybe they should start complaining about all the bombing of innocent civilians done by the U.S. military instead of doing what democracies should be doing by disclosing their illegal acts.


McFarland, who said that torture techniques were both legal and justified by the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, argued that Democrats were only releasing the report for political reasons.

"Why go after it now unless the motivation is completely political?" she remarked. "Congress is changing hands, the Senate is going from Democrat to Republican hands. And are the Democrats in the Senate just - they've been evicted from the house, are they just trashing the place before they leave?"

Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters told the hosts of Out Numbered that the American people did not need to know about torture at the CIA because "people do nasty things in the dark especially after a terrorist attack."


Comment: That's right, this person who is supposed to report on what our government is doing is saying that we should just stick our heads in the sand and let our government illegally torture people because we were attacked (by elements within our own government, don't forget!) by "terrorists". These people have completely stopped functioning as journalists. They are just mouthpieces for the empire, justifying horrific acts deemed illegal long ago because of their barbarity all in the name of protection.

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