Society's ChildS


Light Saber

Rooting out government corruption from the bottom up: Citizen watchdogs in Illinois

Edgar county watchdogs
Kirk Allen and John Kraft
Two regular guys from Southern Illinois, Kirk Allen and John Kraft, became folk heroes after lawfully "citizen arresting" their park district board. Now, their fight against corruption threatens to shake the political establishment.

Illinois' number one manufactured product is corruption. More than 95 percent of the Illinois legislature is safe in gerrymandered districts. The incumbent governor has three current federal investigations of his administration, but the Attorney General/state's attorney class can't find public vice anywhere.

So what can the law abiding citizen do? The answer is coming from some regular guys in southern Illinois who decided to hold public officials accountable. They call themselves the "Watchdogs."

Kirk Allen and John Kraft live in Edgar County which may be the most corrupt county in the country. For a couple of watchdogs, it's a target rich environment.

In 1985, New York prosecutor Rudy Giuliani indicted the local pizza owner during the mob "Pizza Connection" prosecutions. For twenty years, State trooper Michale Callahan staked his career on reversing the false double-murder convictions of Randy Steidl and Herb Whitlock and became a local legend. In a county of only 18,000 residents, just four units of government have amassed $79 million of bonded debt.

During the summer, the Watchdogs used a little known provision of law to "citizen arrest" an entire unit of government. The story was featured on Chicago broadcast news and garnered the front page in most downstate daily newspapers.


Comment: The Watchdogs have combined a close knowledge of their local statutes covering good governance in their state, and applied it. Every level of government from the Constitution on down has provisions for openness and transparency written into the law. It is up to the governed to make sure the law is being followed. Unfortunately, the pathocratics who have been allowed to shape our society have made it so complex and exhausting simply to survive, it takes extraordinary effort to do so. Hats off to these gentlemen. We need more of them.


Stock Down

A sign of global debt bubble collapse? Gas is now officially cheaper than milk

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You've probably had more than one sigh of relief at the gas pumps lately here in America. Gas is averaging under $3 a gallon across the nation. In some places, it's under $2.50. Gas prices haven't been this low in nearly half a decade.
"It's stunning what's happening here," says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. "I'm a little bit shocked."

The national average price of gasoline fell 33 cents to end October at $3 a gallon and dipped Saturday to $2.995, according to AAA. That marks the first time in four years that gas has been cheaper than $3 a gallon.

When the national average crossed above $3 a gallon in December of 2010, drivers weren't sure they'd ever see $2.99 again. Global demand for oil and gasoline was rising as people in developing countries bought cars by the tens of millions and turmoil was brewing in the oil-rich Middle East.

Now demand isn't rising as fast as expected, drillers have learned to tap vast new sources of oil, particularly in the U.S., and crude continues to flow out of the Middle East. (source)
The price has only continued to drop. Buying a gallon of gas is now officially cheaper than buying a gallon of milk.

So is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Eye 2

Jury rejects insanity defense and convicts man for poisoning and dismembering his mother

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A 26-year-old Colorado man who professed to be insane when he poisoned his mother to death and drove around with her dismembered remains in his car was found guilty on Monday of first-degree murder, prosecutors said.

Ari Liggett was accused of killing his 56-year-old mother, Beverly Liggett, in 2012 by giving her potassium cyanide, then cutting up her body in the Denver-area home they shared.

On Monday, jurors rejected Liggett's insanity defense and convicted him of murder, said Michelle Yi, spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office.

Liggett and his mother were reported missing by family members in October 2012, police said at the time. Investigators searching for the pair traced credit card receipts from purchases made by the son to western Colorado.

Days later, a police officer spotted the missing vehicle in the Denver suburb of Greenwood Village. When an officer tried to stop the car, Liggett sped away and ultimately crashed the automobile into a concrete wall.

Blackbox

Question to soldiers: Are you really a hero?

hero
In America there is no greater recruiting ground for the U.S. military than professional and college sports. Pro sports and the NCAA promote U.S. military men and women as "heroes" of honor to be admired and practically worshiped for their supposed valor, bravery, and courage. Sporting arenas throughout America this week will remind their audiences of millions of viewers that our "courageous" military men and women deserve to be honored for their service to America, but is all of this just a mass propaganda campaign to set the stage for recruiters throughout America to convince teenagers to join the military? I believe it absolutely is and here's why.

As I mentioned, in America we have an ongoing political advertising campaign that portrays the U.S. military as an opportunity, a proving ground that builds character, an entity that only selects the best men and women who supposedly believe in America and are willing to defend America and the values it stands for (notice the word 'freedom' is hardly ever used any more). The U.S. military is portrayed as a stage for those with honor, integrity, initiative, leadership and (as I mentioned before) courage. A close look at this list of virtues however proves that nothing could be further from the truth.

Horse

No good deed goes unpunished: Chinese media censor Putin's chivalry

putin chivalry
© APVladimir Putin puts a shawl on Peng Liyuan as they arrive to watch a fireworks show at the opening ceremony of the APEC summit. Putin is now a 'role model' and 'father figure' to many young Russians
On a chilly night in Beijing, Vladimir Putin offers his coat to Peng Liyuan, the wife of the Chinese president, but his act of chivalry is quickly censored

Beijing has launched a major campaign to improve manners in the Chinese capital, called "Be a Splendid Beijinger".

And as world leaders gathered outside on a chilly night for the opening ceremony of the APEC summit, Vladimir Putin was on hand to show the locals how to be polite.

Noticing that Peng Liyuan, the wife of the Chinese president Xi Jinping, was shivering in just a silk qipao dress, Mr Putin stood up and draped a camel-coloured overcoat over her shoulders.

In turn, she demurely paused a moment before slipping off the coat, handing it to an assistant and putting on a cardigan.

Her husband, sitting on her other side, seemed oblivious throughout as he chatted with Barack Obama.

Newspaper

Flashback Best of the Web: Dying vet's 'F*** You' letter to George Bush & Dick Cheney needs to be read by every American


Comment: Iraq War 2 veteran and social critic Tomas Young, author of the following letter to George W Bush and Dick Cheney, has died at 34, one day before Remembrance Day 2014.


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Psychopaths often experience 'Duper's Delight'
To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all - the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

Comment: Pathocrats will always push for war. It's up to each of us to stop it by not accepting it. It's truly a shame so many are dead or injured because too few worked to prevent it. History repeats itself.


Rose

Iraq war veteran and critic Tomas Young dies at 34, a day before Remembrance Day

Tomas Young
© Reuters / Mark BlinchIraq war veteran Tomas Young - RIP
Tomas Young, an Iraq War veteran and outspoken critic of the conflict he was severely injured in, died on Monday at the age of 34 - a day before Veteran's Day. There is no word about the cause of death.

Tomas Young enlisted in the military two days after 9/11 because he wanted to strike back at those responsible for the attack on America. Instead of being deployed to Afghanistan after joining the Army, he was deployed to Iraq. He was shot in the chest and paralyzed during an insurgent attack in Sadr City just a few days after beginning his tour of duty.

His injuries resulted in quadriplegia, paralysis from the neck down. Young became a significant critic of the war in Iraq - during which 4,488 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq and 30,000 were wounded - and an early member of Iraq Veterans Against the War advocacy group.

Following his return home, he was the subject of the 2008 documentary Body of War, which chronicled his life after Iraq.

Comment: If we are to celebrate Remembrance Day this year, there's nothing more fitting than (re)reading Tomas Young's letter again and share it far and wide, because this is exactly what we should remember, not just today but everyday: the psychopathic insanity of our leaders who stage wars, and ALL the victims of ALL wars, especially the ones being fought right now because of the "lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power" of said leaders:

Dying vet's 'F*** You' letter to George Bush & Dick Cheney needs to be read by every American

Hemingway addressed soldiers thus in his "Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter" first published in Esquire (September 1935):
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. [Horace's statement: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori] But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.



Penis Pump

A new fascist Golden Dawn in Spain

golden dawn
Greek Golden Dawn followers
Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party has denied any links with a Spanish party of the same name (Amanecer Dorado) which was officially registered in Spain in October.

"We have read about it in the press, but don't know anything else," said a spokesperson for Golden Dawn of a Spanish party using the same name, symbols and ideology.

The spokesperson also denied any contact with the Spanish party which registered with Spain's interior ministry on October 27th.

Spain's version of Golden Dawn describes itself as being dedicated to "the defence of the identity, roots, culture, values and tradition of the people of Spain and Europe", Spain's El Diario reported.

But little else is known of the party with an Alicante address.

Comment: The only reason the Greek Golden Dawn refuses to be associated with the term neo-Nazi is because they are anti-German, due to the fact that they (along with the vast majority of Greeks and other Europeans suffering under inhumane austerity measures) consider Germany the cause of their, and their country's, financial fall. But their racist, ultra-nationalistic, criminal ideology is undoubtedly on par with Nazism.


Chart Pie

80% of Catalans vote for independence in high-voter-turnout unofficial elections

catalan vote
© Reuters/Albert GeaCatalans queue at a polling station
International observers have praised the high voter turnout in Catalonia's symbolic vote on independence from Spain on Sunday despite "challenges" faced, while criticizing the low number of polling stations.

A delegation of eight MEPs from Belgium, France, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK praised the high level of participation in the unsanctioned poll "despite the challenges" faced.

Voter turnout out on Sunday was over 30 percent, with over two million people casting their ballot in a symbolic poll which went ahead despite repeated attempts from Spain's central government in Madrid to block the ballot. Over 80 percent of those voters said they were in favour of a split from Spain.

The head of the delegation of observers, the UK's Ian Duncan, noted in a report that the vote "took place in a calm and open manner where no one was coerced or intimidated."

Voting on Sunday was generally peaceful, but a group of people tried to destroy ballot boxes in the town of Girona, with two being arrested. In another incident, some 50 right-wing protesters burned a Catalan independence 'estelada' flag outside the government delegation in Barcelona.

Comment: The Catalans spoke loud and clear! However Madrid responds, one thing is for sure: with these preliminary results, it will be way harder to rig the vote if and when an official referendum eventually takes place, the way UK did to Scotland.


USA

Best of the Web: The Devil's Bargain: The illusion of a trouble-free existence in the American police state

Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus - the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers' enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others. - Simone Weil, French philosopher and political activist
Justice
© venitism.blogspot.co.nz
It's no coincidence that during the same week in which the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Yates v. United States, a case in which a Florida fisherman is being threatened with 20 years' jail time for throwing fish that were too small back into the water, Florida police arrested a 90-year-old man twice for violating an ordinance that prohibits feeding the homeless in public.

Both cases fall under the umbrella of overcriminalization, that phenomenon in which everything is rendered illegal and everyone becomes a lawbreaker. As I make clear in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, this is what happens when bureaucrats run the show, and the rule of law becomes little more than a cattle prod for forcing the citizenry to march in lockstep with the government.

John Yates, a commercial fisherman, was written up in 2007 by a state fish and wildlife officer who noticed that among Yates' haul of red grouper, 72 were apparently under the 20-inch minimum legal minimum. Yates, ordered to bring the fish to shore as evidence of his violation of the federal statute on undersized catches, returned to shore with only 69 grouper in the crate designated for evidence. A crew member later confessed that, on orders from Yates, the crew had thrown the undersized grouper overboard and replaced them with larger fish. Unfortunately, they were three fish short. Sensing a bait-and-switch, prosecutors refused to let Yates off the hook quite so easily. Unfortunately, in prosecuting him for the undersized fish under a law aimed at financial crimes, government officials opened up a can of worms.

Arnold Abbott, 90 years old and the founder of a nonprofit that feeds the homeless, is facing a fine of $1000 and up to four months in jail for violating a city ordinance that makes it a crime to feed the homeless in public. Under the city's ordinance, clearly aimed at discouraging the feeding of the homeless in public, organizations seeking to do so must provide portable toilets, be 500 feet away from each other, 500 feet from residential properties, and are limited to having only one group carry out such a function per city block. Abbott has been feeding the homeless on a public beach in Ft. Lauderdale every Wednesday evening for the past 23 years. On November 2, 2014, moments after handing out his third meal of the day, police reportedly approached the nonagenarian and ordered him to "'drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," recalls Abbott. Abbott was arrested and fined. Three days later, Abbott was at it again, and arrested again.