Society's ChildS


USA

White and trashed: The bankruptcy of American capitalism

Finian Cunningham
RT
Fri, 06 Nov 2015 11:06 UTC
Image
© Carlos Barria/Reuters
News headlines this week of epidemic drug abuse and mortality among Americans confirm what many observers have already noted - America is in bad, bad shape.

But despite the media coverage, there was little commentary on the backdrop to the malaise. American society is collapsing because of an epic failure in the economy.

Reports dwelt on the types of drugs being used and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, but there was scant attention given to soaring poverty and social misery. Could this be because the US media, like the government, is covering for what should be the "big story"? The bankruptcy of American capitalism. And when we say "bankrupt" we mean not just a protracted downturn in the "business cycle" - but rather the entire system mired in a condition of historic, terminal failure.

The Washington Post headlined: "Nearly 60 percent of Americans — the highest ever — are taking prescription drugs". Reporting on a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, the article revealed: "Nearly three in five American adults take a prescription drug, up markedly since 2000 because of much higher use of almost every type of medication, including antidepressants and treatments for high cholesterol and diabetes."

Based on the same study, NBC News headlined: "More Americans than ever use prescription drugs". The channel reported that "the percentage of people taking prescription drugs rose from51 percent of the adult population in 1999 to 59 percent in 2011."

Meanwhile, the London-based Financial Times, reporting on a separate study also published this week, ran this grim headline: "White, middle-aged, uneducated and dying". The FT said: "Drug and alcohol abuse and mental health issues in the US are contributing to an alarming surge in deaths among white middle-aged people, in a trend that has reversed decades of progress and is not being seen in other advanced economies."

Comment: See also:America's Darkest Secret: The Nine Stages of American Autogenocide

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Star of David

US reform Jews to adopt transgender rights policy


News Max
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 08:28 UTC
URJ
© omnifeed.comReform Jews call for Transgender Rights
Temples and synagogues affiliated with the nation's largest Jewish movement could adopt gender-neutral bathrooms and their rabbis would be encouraged to give sermons on transgender topics, under a groundbreaking resolution expected to pass at a conference of Reform Jews on Thursday.

The proposal features some of the most far-reaching policies for transgendered men and women seen among any of the nation's mainstream religious organizations, according to advocates for gay and transgendered rights.

It also has generated little discord within the movement of 1.5 million North America Jews affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism, the organization that will vote on the measure as part of its biennial conference in Orlando. "It's a big deal but at the same time it's not controversial for them at all," said Michael Toumayan of the national Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for gay rights.
bathroom sign
© www.thecoastguard.ca
The Episcopal Church and United Church of Christ also have adopted positions in support of transgender issues but the Reform Jewish movement's policy would go further by listing specific actions to promote inclusion, said Toumayan, manager for the civil rights group's religion and faith program.

Comment: The surface reforms and new inspirational perspectives, for the most part, appear as accommodational restrooms. Other topics, such as circumcision, name-changing, gender-neutral language are areas less defined. Reformed Judaism (1.5M) represents less than 2% of the US population, but more than one-third of US Jewish ideology. The Union of Reform Judaism passed a resolution affirming the rights of gays and lesbians in 1977.

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X

Powerful blast rocks central Stockholm, Sweden; gas leak suspected


RT
Fri, 06 Nov 2015 12:41 UTC
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© justdofficiella/instagram
The blast which was described by witnesses as "powerful" occurred on Brännkyrkagatan street at 11:40 am local time, Aftonbladet newspaper reports.

Windows were shattered in a nearby house, however, the apartment's owner told Expressen.se this is unrelated to the blast.

It is not yet clear whether there are any casualties. "It isn't clear what happened," Stockholm police official Albin Näverberg told Aftonbladet.

He told local media that police are looking into the causes and suggested that there could have been a gas leak. "There was a small blast in the south part of the center, no one was hurt. They suspect [it was] a gas leak," said RT's stringer in the Swedish capital.

Stockholm police have contacted the owner of the apartment where the blast happened. "There are no signs of a crime," the local police department said on its website.

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Megaphone

Special Ed teacher's resignation letter hits a nerve

Robin Sussingham
WUSF News
Tue, 27 Oct 2015 14:47 UTC
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Wendy Bradshaw
A Polk County public school teacher's letter of resignation has apparently hit a nerve with frustrated teachers and parents nationwide.

Special education teacher Wendy Bradshaw submitted her letter to her Lakeland elementary school on Friday morning, then posted it to her Facebook page. It started to go viral within hours, and as of Tuesday had been shared nearly 40 thousand times. It was also posted on the Washington Post education blog.

Comment:

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Light Saber

People Power! Million Mask March results in protests around the world


Tasnim News Agency
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 12:55 UTC
Image
In DC people took to the streets, bashing a window at the EPA and replacing an american flag with an anonymous flag at Monsanto's headquarters.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in hundreds of cities around the world for the 2015 Million Mask March, with police arresting dozens in London and activists storming the doors of biotech giant Monsanto in Washington, DC. Organized by the Hacktivist group Anonymous, the event featured thousands of people from around the world donning Guy Fawkes masks and protesting a variety of injustices ranging from inequality and corruption to police brutality and capitalism itself, RT reported.

Protests spanned the globe, with major events taking place in Europe and the United States, as well as Canada and Guatemala.As in the past, one of the biggest marches took place in London, where hundreds and potentially thousands of people flooded the streets. Although protesters were told to follow a specific route, some broke off from the main group and the scene quickly became chaotic.

Roughly 50 people were arrested as a result. According to Sky News, arrests were primarily for public order violations. Three officers were also injured during the day's events. At one point in the evening, a police car was set on fire, with some demonstrators standing around it, before police finally extinguished the blaze. Smoke devices were also deployed in London.

Comment: In Washington DC, protesters gave out money, food and hugs to the homeless:

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In London, 3 officers were injured and a police car was set on fire. There were also dozens of arrests for 'public order violations'.
Below is video from Seattle where a few hundred protesters took to the streets and were stalked by police on bikes.


Here's another image from Washington, DC:



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Fire

5 injured as factory explosion produces huge fireball in Brasov, Romania


Reuters
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 12:31 UTC
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© DigiSport.ro screengrab
Five people were injured in an explosion at a bread factory in the central Romanian city of Brasov late on Thursday and firefighters were trying to extract a person from the rubble, Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat said.

The explosion was caught on camera, as it occurred at a factory near a soccer stadium where a televised match was starting.

"Five people were taken to the hospital ... with burns," Arafat told local television station Antena 3, who said firefighters and ambulances were on site, with local hospitals alerted and helicopters on standby.

"Right now they are trying to extract one person from the rubble. We suspect more people are trapped under the rubble."

Arafat said ten people were estimated to have been working in the factory at the time of the blast.

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Ambulance

Bavaria rail crash: At least 2 dead as German train collides with towed US Army vehicle


RT
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 23:37 UTC
Bavarian train crash
© DPA / AFP Rescuers gather at a partially burnt regional train after an accident on the railway near the Bavarian city of Freihung, southern Germany, on late November 5, 2015.
A passenger train collided with a tractor trailer towing a US Army truck at a railway crossing in southern Germany, local media reported. The train driver and the trailer driver were killed, while more than 20 people were injured, according to DPA agency.

The crash happened in Freihung, in eastern Bavaria, late Thursday. According to DPA news agency, it is now being assumed that the truck got stuck on the tracks and was hit by the train. The collision was followed by an explosion.

The train, which was heading from Nuremberg to the city of Weiden, collided with a "Romanian tractor trailer" towing a US Army truck, FOCUS Online reports, citing local police. The truck was being transported from the US military's Grafenwöhr Training Area in Bavaria, local Mittelbayerische.de reports.

Comment: Tragic yet perhaps symbolic too, as Germany increasingly collides with the US on many issues, as it seeks to realign its geopolitical position. See also:

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Heart - Black

Displaying signs of psychopathy, defendants in Becky Watts trial 'live in fantasy world'


BBC
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 01:29 UTC
Nathan Matthews, Shauna Hoare, Becky Watts
Nathan Matthews (top right) and girlfriend Shauna Hoare (bottom right) are accused of murdering Becky Watts (left)
The trial of a man and woman accused of murdering teenager Becky Watts has been told the defendants live in a "fantasy world" where "lies are told".

Prosecutor William Mousley QC said the couple had "lied and lied and lied again" at Bristol Crown Court.

The jury heard Becky's stepbrother Nathan Matthews and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare "did not like her" and wanted her as a "sexual plaything".

Mr Matthews and Ms Hoare deny murdering the 16-year-old.

Mr Matthews admitted he had killed Becky after panicking during an attempt to kidnap and scare her, but insists Miss Hoare had no part in it.

In his closing statement, Mr Mousley told the jury: "The real world where you and I live is a world of good sense and logic, where obvious and safe conclusions can be drawn from the evidence."

He said the world in which the defendants lived was "where lies are told, they are all innocent lies and that fantasy world where nobody tells anyone else what they have done and nobody displays any emotions".
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Road Cone

Crumbling infrastructure: 99-year-old dam may collapse from winter rains and spill arsenic-contaminated tailings


CBS San Francisco
Wed, 04 Nov 2015 04:27 UTC
Eastwood Multiple Arch Dam
© City of JacksonThe Eastwood Multiple Arch Dam in Jackson, Calif. following tree trimming operations in August 2015.
State officials are warning that a 99-year-old dam in Northern California is at risk of collapsing if a big rainstorm comes through.

The concrete Eastwood Multiple Arch Dam in Jackson was built in 1916 and holds back large quantities of arsenic-contaminated tailings left over from gold mining.

In June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that the dam was structurally unsound.

California Department of Toxic Substance Control officials say they recently began a $1 million emergency repair operation that is expected to be completed this month.

The city of Jackson says the National Weather Service will issue a warning if rainfall amounts reach certain levels that could exacerbate the dam's structural problems.

Comment: How long will these repairs hold, and how many other such structurally unsound dams exist that are not being repaired? Questions that almost seem like wasted breathe when the media focuses on irrelevant nonsense like how Russia could 'annihilate' US Army.

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Arrow Down

More school hysteria: Student suspended for dietary supplements

Emily Smith
Opposing Views
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 00:00 UTC
vitamins high school
New York high school student Wyatt Hatfield was suspended from school Oct. 13 after bringing in Vitamin C supplements. The school's policy reportedly says that students can't possess "look-a-like drugs."

Hatfield, a junior at Marathon High School in Marathon, New York, had put a combination of supplements in his lunch bag on Oct. 13, WBNG reports. The supplements included vitamin C, olive leaf extract and Echinacea, all of which had been left on the school bus.

According to superintendent Rebecca Stone, all medications have to be approved by a parent or doctor and then stored at the nurse's office. While Stone said that the policy has been in place for years, Hatfield argued against it.

"I found it quite ridiculous that I was being suspended for dietary supplements," Hatfield told WBNG.
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