Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

Dirty cops didn't know this camera caught them deleting video of the murder of Laquan McDonald

Laquan McDonald
Accused of deleting the surveillance video of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald's death, several officers appeared in recently released screenshots tampering with Burger King's computers before the footage mysteriously disappeared. Although 86 minutes of the surveillance video have gone missing, including the moment that McDonald was gunned down, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez claims no one tampered with the footage.

Surrounded by officers and suspected of breaking into cars on October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald, 17, was attempting to walk away from a group of Chicago cops when Officer Jason Van Dyke exited his patrol car. According to initial reports, McDonald was armed with a knife and lunged at Officer Van Dyke. Fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers, Van Dyke shot the teen in the chest out of self-defense.

But according to witness statements and police dashcam video, McDonald was walking away when Van Dyke opened fire. After McDonald had collapsed to the ground in a near-fetal position, Van Dyke continued firing his weapon until emptying his clip. As Van Dyke began reloading his gun, a fellow officer had to order him to cease firing at the dying teen.

Comment: From the video above it's clear that Laquan McDonald was walking away from Van Dyke and posed no threat at the time. So with no real threat, Van Dyke still empties his entire clip into McDonald, killing him. And then Van Dyke and his fellow officers try to cover up the murder. These acts of carnage have now become standard operating procedure for US cops.


Airplane

White House tightens visa waiver program and appoints new 'ISIL adviser'

Airport travelers
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
The Obama administration has announced stricter regulations for 20 million travelers from countries in its visa waiver program, and also appointed a new adviser to deal with Islamic State militants to bolster security following the terror attacks in Paris.

Citizens of the 38 nations participating in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) will now be screened for past travel to countries the US considers terrorist safe havens, the White House has said.

The US government will also move up the deadline for all VWP travelers to begin using passports with embedded security chips and seek to establish customs checkpoints in seven VWP countries, where passengers and their baggage could be inspected before entering the US.

Comment: Who Is Rob Malley?
Malley was appointed in October 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton to help oversee Arab-Israeli talks. He was later attacked by some pro-Israel critics for saying that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was not solely to blame for the failure of the 2000 Camp David talks hosted by Clinton.

Before returning to the White House to work with the Obama administration, Malley directed the Middle East Program at the International Crisis Group in New York between 2001 and 2014. He was criticized while at the think tank for meeting multiple times with Hamas officials.

Earlier this month, Malley conceded that the administration would not work toward a Palestine-Israel settlement during the remainder of Obama's term. He said that for the first time in two decades, an American administration "faces the reality" that a solution to the intractable conflict "is not in the cards."



Attention

Breaking news: Explosion heard at Istanbul metro station

train station explosion
© unknownEvacuation out of Bayrampasa metro station after series of explosions.
Blast heard at Bayrampaşa station believed to have been caused by power transformer.

A loud explosion has been heard at a major train station in Istanbul, according to local reports.

The blast was reported at Bayrampaşa metro station, which has suspended all trains.

Turkish station Haberturk repored one person was killed and speculated the explosion may have been caused by a power transformer.

Comment: Reports indicate more than one explosion heard. No reasons have been forthcoming as yet.


Heart

Express Scripts partners to distribute Daraprim for $1

pills
© Cheryl Frazier
Drug maker Imprimis Pharmaceuticals just found a backer to distribute its $1 alternative to Daraprim, the infection-fighting drug whose price was hiked 5,000% by Turing Pharmaceuticals.

Express Scripts (ESRX), a major manager of prescription drugs, announced Tuesday that it will offer patients the low-cost Imprimis drug, instead of Daraprim, starting as soon as this week.

Comment: A happy ending to the insatiable greed of Valeant - the company that hiked the price of this drug by 5000%.


Airplane

Flight attendant accused of attacking crew, air marshals; spoke of 'nonsensical things'

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© Fox News
An American Airlines flight attendant faces federal charges after she began attacking fellow crew members and U.S. marshals on both legs of an international flight from Charlotte.

Joanne Snow is charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants, and assault on an officer or employee of the United States, according to court documents related to the case. Snow's erratic behavior disrupted both legs of American flight 704 from Charlotte to Frankfurt, Germany, on Nov. 23 and 24, according to a federal affidavit.

According to the affidavit by federal Air Marshal Joseph D. Fialka, who was assigned to the round trip, Snow slapped other flight attendants and shoved, punched or kicked at marshals. Fialka says that other flight attendants told him before takeoff from Charlotte that they had tried to have Snow removed from duty but that American did not replace her. American spokeswoman Katie Cody released this statement midday Monday:

"We are aware of the incident, along with the subsequent criminal complaint, and take this matter very seriously. We are cooperating fully with federal law enforcement in their investigation, and are working directly with our employees. The safety and security of our customers and employees is always the top priority."

In his affidavit, Fialka said Snow confessed to him several times before takeoff that she was "crazy" or a "train wreck." Once the doors closed, another attendant told Fialka that Snow had slapped her in the middle galley of the airport. Some 45 minutes later, Fialka says, Snow shoved him several times. "She was quite irrational at this time," the marshal said in his affidavit. "She proceeded to the back of the plane, I learned that, while in the back of the plane, she grabbed the collar of the clothing (of another marshal) ... and spoke nonsensical things."

Clock

California man imprisoned 16 years for rape cleared by DNA testing

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© Reuters/Francine Orr/PoolLuis Lorenzo Vargas breaks down in court as he is exonerated for three sexual assaults that he was convicted of and spent 16 years in jail.
A man who served 16 years in prison had his conviction for three sexual assaults thrown out after DNA testing proved that he was not the suspect. Luis Lorenzo Vargas broke down in court on 23 November when a Los Angeles County judge exonerated him from the crimes he was convicted of in 1999.

The Los Angeles Times reported that DNA testing in 2014 on evidence from one of the attacks excluded the 46-year-old as a suspect and instead led to an unidentified serial rapist nicknamed the "teardrop rapist". Lawyers for the California Innocence Project at the California Western School of Law in San Diego reported in court documents that prosecutors argued that the same suspect must have committed all attacks Vargas was accused of.

"The evidence now shows the prosecution's case against him was demonstrably false," the attorneys wrote, adding it "points unerringly to Vargas's innocence." According to the Times, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office joined the innocence project in asking Superior Court Judge William C Ryan to release Vargas since it "no longer has confidence in the convictions."

Vargas received the support of his daughter and his mother, who cried as the judge tossed out his case. "It's a relief because I believed that my father was innocent the day he told me he was innocent," daughter Crystal Vargas said outside the courthouse. Despite being ordered to be released, Vargas will be placed in federal custody due to an immigration hold, authorities said. He also previously served time for forcibly raping a girlfriend, the Times noted.

Comment: He lost 16 years of his life in prison due to a broken, ponerized, dead-end U.S. legal system.


Bad Guys

Four Minneapolis men charged over shooting of five Black Lives Matter protesters

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© Via FacebookLance Scarsella
Minnesota prosecutors on Monday filed felony charges against four men in connection with the wounding of protesters near a demonstration that has continued outside a Minneapolis police station since the fatal police shooting of a black man.

Allen Scarsella, 23, who prosecutors said in a complaint had admitted to shooting five protesters, was charged with one count of second-degree riot while armed and five counts of second-degree assault. Joseph Backman, 27; Nathan Gustavsson, 21; and Daniel Macey, 26, were each charged with second-degree riot in the Nov. 23 late night shooting that left five demonstrators with wounds that were not life-threatening.

All four men had been in custody since last week in the shooting near the protest camp that sprung up after the fatal shooting by police of Jamar Clark, 24, two weeks ago. Hennepin County jail records indicate that Scarsella's bail has been set at $500,000 and the others at $250,000 each. All are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon.

Scarsella, Gustavsson and Backman are white, while Macey is Asian, police said.

The criminal complaint said Scarsella told a friend who is a police officer in another jurisdiction that he had gotten into an altercation and shot protesters.

(Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Comment: The murder of Sandra Bland and America's 'color revolution'


Eye 1

Walmart hired Lockheed Martin and contacted FBI to monitor labor protests by its workforce

walmart spying blackwater
The retail giant is always watching.
In the autumn of 2012, when Walmart first heard about the possibility of a strike on Black Friday, executives mobilized with the efficiency that had built a retail empire. Walmart has a system for almost everything: When there's an emergency or a big event, it creates a Delta team. The one formed that September included representatives from global security, labor relations, and media relations. For Walmart, the stakes were enormous. The billions in sales typical of a Walmart Black Friday were threatened. The company's public image, especially in big cities where its power and size were controversial, could be harmed. But more than all that: Any attempt to organize its 1 million hourly workers at its more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. was an existential danger. Operating free of unions was as essential to Walmart's business as its rock-bottom prices.

OUR Walmart, a group of employees backed and funded by a union, was asking for more full-time jobs with higher wages and predictable schedules. Officially they called themselves the Organization United for Respect at Walmart. Walmart publicly dismissed OUR Walmart as the insignificant creation of the United Food and Commercial Workers International (UFCW) union. "This is just another union publicity stunt, and the numbers they are talking about are grossly exaggerated," David Tovar, a spokesman, said on CBS Evening News that November.

Internally, however, Walmart considered the group enough of a threat that it hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin, contacted the FBI, staffed up its labor hotline, ranked stores by labor activity, and kept eyes on employees (and activists) prominent in the group. During that time, about 100 workers were actively involved in recruiting for OUR Walmart, but employees (or associates, as they're called at Walmart) across the company were watched; the briefest conversations were reported to the "home office," as Walmart calls its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

Comment: There is hardly a noticeable difference between government and corporate clampdowns on legitimate dissent.


Passport

Muslim taxi cab driver shot by Pittsburgh passenger ranting about ISIS

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© Twitter
Muslim taxi cab driver was shot in Pittsburgh by a man who ranted against Islamic State militants before running into his house to grab a rifle instead of paying his fare. The 38-year-old Moroccan immigrant said he picked up the man about 1 a.m. Thanksgiving outside Rivers Casino, and he said the passenger began questioning him about his background, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"He started the conversation and began to ask questions like, 'You seem to be like a Pakistani guy. Are you from Pakistan?'" said the driver, who asked to remain anonymous because he feared for his safety. The driver explained he came from Morocco but insisted he was "an American guy" — but that didn't satisfy the passenger.

"Then he continued the conversation," the driver said. "He began to speak about ISIS killing people. I told him 'Actually, I'm against ISIS. I don't like them.' I even told him that they are killing innocent people. I noticed that he changed his tone and he began to satirize Muhammad, my prophet, and began to shift to his personal life. He mentioned that he has two kids and was in prison for some time."

When they arrived at the man's house in Hazelwood, he asked the driver to wait because he had left his wallet inside.
"I waited for just five minutes, I think, and I noticed that he came out of the house carrying a rifle in his hand," the driver said. "I noticed him coming toward me. I didn't hesitate. I [made] a fast decision to leave and drove my taxi away because I felt he was going to do something, there is danger he would shoot me or something. I felt like he had the intention to kill me."

The man fired multiple gunshots at the driver's cab, blasting out the rear window and shooting him in the back. The driver drove several blocks before pulling over and flagging down another driver to ask for help. He remains hospitalized in stable condition, the newspaper reported, but the bullet is still lodged between his shoulder blades.


Comment: Never again? The Nazis specifically targeted Jews in the same way. We are witnessing a piece of history repeating itself.


USA

The American story line dissolves

Face palm statue
Sometimes societies just go crazy. Japan, 1931, Germany, 1933. China, 1966. Spain 1483, France, 1793, Russia, 1917, Cambodia, 1975, Iran, 1979, Rwanda, 1994, Congo, 1996, to name some. By "crazy" I mean a time when anything goes, especially mass killing. The wheels came off the USA in 1861, and though the organized slaughter developed an overlay of romantic historical mythos — especially after Ken Burns converted it into a TV show — the civilized world to that time had hardly ever seen such an epic orgy of death-dealing.

I doubt that I'm I alone in worrying that America today is losing its collective mind. Our official relations with other countries seem perfectly designed to provoke chaos. The universities have melted into toxic sumps beyond even anti-intellectualism to a realm of hallucination. Demented gunmen mow down total strangers weekly in what looks like a growing competition to end their miserable lives with the highest victim score. The financial engineers have done everything possible to pervert and undermine the operations of markets. The political parties are committing suicide by cluelessness and corruption.