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Militarized Police: St. Louis County police were supplied with military-grade weapons by Pentagon during Ferguson protests


RT
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:53 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Getty Images / Scott Olson
Images coming from a tense Ferguson, Missouri this week show local police armed to the teeth and appearing as an occupying force in attempts to suppress citizen outrage over the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager by a police officer.

Through its 1033 program, the Pentagon offers hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus military equipment to police forces throughout the US. St. Louis County, which encompasses Ferguson, is part of the program, according to Michelle McCaskill, media relations chief at the Defense Logistics Agency.

"St. Louis County law enforcement agencies received twelve 5.56 millimeter rifles and six .45 caliber pistols from the Department of Defense between Aug. 2, 2010, and Feb. 13, 2013," a Missouri public safety official confirmed to USA Today.
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Document

Homeland security predicts rise of 'anti-government violence'

Kerry Picket
Breitbart.com
Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:58 UTC
Image
© Breitbart
A leaked document from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis predicts increased "anti-government violence over the next year." The document says the inspiration for violence is Cliven Bundy's Bunkerville standoff with the Bureau of Land Management from earlier in the year.

DHS's seven-page report entitled "Domestic Violent Extremists Pose a Threat to Government Officials and Law Enforcement" points to the recent murders of two Las Vegas law enforcement officers as evidence that there is a "growing trend of anti-government violence compared to the previous four years and inspired by perceived government overreach and oppression" and the "perceived victory at Bunkervile" will "likely prompt more violence."

Bundy's 20-year legal dispute with the BLM over grazing fees on federal land escalated when the agency attempted to seize his cattle in the beginning of April. An armed stand off between the BLM and supporters of Bundy ensued until the feds backed off before any serious violence erupted and left the 67-year-old rancher's land.

Comment:
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
John F. Kennedy

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Handcuffs

Mother arrested for leaving her kids in a park while she went to a food bank


Think Progress
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:59 UTC
playground
© Shutterstock
Police arrested Ashley Richardson, a mother in Winter Haven, Florida, on Tuesday after they found her four children playing alone in a park while she went to a local food bank.

An officer saw the children, who range in age from six to eight, playing in a park alone and said they waved her over when the eight-year-old got stuck in a toddler's swing, which required assistance from fire rescue personnel to get him out. She also said they played near a road and in water along the lakefront.

When Richardson, 28, returned to the park, she was arrested. She told the officers that she had gone to a food bank and didn't think it would take as long as it had. She's now facing four counts of negligent child abuse without bodily harm.

While the situation for her children is far less than ideal, Police Chief Gary Hester had strong words for her. "I met some pretty mature 6, 7, 8-year-olds but you don't leave them unattended," he said. "I guess the question we should be asking is this 28-year-old mother, should she be left unattended. Doesn't look like she's mature enough to be a parent. She's being supervised today in the county jail. Hopefully she learns her lesson."
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2 + 2 = 4

Common Core idiocy triggers homeschooling surge in North Carolina

Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org
Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:48 UTC
Image
© Eagnews.com
North Carolina officials say there has been a huge increase over the past two years in the number of Tar Heel families who have pulled their kids out of public schools and begun educating them at home.

The number of homeschools has jumped 27 percent since the 2011-12 school year, NewsObserver.com reports. As of last year, 98,172 North Carolinian children were homeschooled; that's 2,400 students more than the number who attended a private school.

While the sputtering economy is the reason families are choosing homeschooling over private schooling, the nationalized learning experiment (Common Core) is the main reason families are leaving the public schools in the first place. "Common Core is a big factor that I hear people talk about," Beth Herbert, founder of Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association, told NewsObserver.com.

"They're not happy with the work their kids are coming home with. They've decided to take their children home." In-the-know parents understand that Common Core's plodding approach to math instruction leaves students unprepared for college study in STEM courses - science, technology, engineering and math.
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Stormtrooper

Cops kill man in Walmart over toy gun, bystander dies from incident as well

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 16:02 UTC
Crawford
© Unknown
Young father John Crawford was shot and killed by police this week at a Wal-Mart store in Ohio, because he was apparently carrying around a toy gun that was available for purchase in the store. Police were called to the store by an irresponsible couple who had seen Crawford walking around with the gun pointed in the air.

According to the victim's girlfriend, the police had shot Crawford before they even gave him a chance to put down the gun.

"We was just talking. He said he was at the video games playing videos and he went over there by the toy section where the toy guns were. And the next thing I know, he said, 'It's not real,' and the police start shooting and they said, 'Get on the ground,' but he was already on the ground because they had shot him, and I could hear him just crying and screaming. I feel like they shot him down like he was not even human," LeeCee Johnson, the victim's girlfriend told reporters.

"He had a lot of family members that cared about him, and his kids. They're not going to be able to know their dad. They're too young, only 4 months and a year old, to even know how wonderful he was to them," she added.
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Boat

The working class is sinking and dragging Walmart down with it

Alison Griswold
Slate.com
Thu, 14 Aug 2014 15:19 UTC
Image

Another quarter, another disappointment.
Business continues to disappoint at Walmart's U.S. locations. The big-box retailer reported on Thursday that sales at existing stores were flat in the latest quarter after declining for the previous five. It said traffic dipped 1.1 percent (though customers who made it in chose to spend slightly more) and cut its full-year earnings outlook on higher-than-expected health care costs and company spending on e-commerce.

Walmart has now spent months explaining away the poor performance of its U.S. division. In the first quarter it blamed the weather; in Q4 2013 it cited cuts to government benefits and increased taxes; and in Q3 2014 it gave perhaps the vaguest excuse of all, a "challenging global economy and negative currency exchange rate fluctuations." In a sign that it might be finally shouldering some responsibility for its results, Walmart a few weeks ago ousted U.S. chief Bill Simon and appointed former Walmart Asia head Greg Foran to replace him.
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Handcuffs

Arrested federal judge keeps getting $200K salary

Jay Reeves
Bigstory.ap.org
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:54 UTC
Image
© Associated Press
Mugshot of U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller after his arrest on a misdemeanor battery charge in Atlanta on Sunday.
An Alabama federal judge stripped of his caseload following his arrest on domestic violence charges in Atlanta will continue receiving his annual salary of nearly $200,000.

Legal experts say federal judicial rules don't include a provision for withholding the pay of U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller while a disciplinary committee reviews the case.
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Sherlock

Slavyansk residents disappeared, town being re-populated with migrants from Western Ukraine

S. Naylor
Slavyangrad.org
Thu, 07 Aug 2014 14:42 UTC
Slavyansk
© Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov
Local resident Viktor Shevchenko walks outside a building damaged by a recent shelling in the Ukrainian eastern city of Slaviansk July 1, 2014.
In Slavyansk, occupied by Ukrainian troops, the local residents have practically disappeared. The town is being inundated with migrants speaking in a foreign dialect, who take over the housing of those who left to escape the Ukrainian bombing campaign.

This is reported by one of very few residents of Slavyansk who, trusting Ukrainian official propaganda, made the decision to return to his native city. The picture that he saw is terrifying. He realized that the information about residents of Slavyansk returning home is nothing but a vile lie.

"Please, heed our plea! The people have disappeared from Slavyansk!

"I am a native of Slavyansk, residing here already for twenty-seven years. Or better to say 'I was residing', having left the town three months ago, when it was becoming dangerous to stay. During this time I found refuge with relatives in Odessa. I made a decision to return when all the Ukrainian media started saying that everything in Slavyansk was back to normal, that over sixty percent of residents have come back.

"In the three months of my absence my apartment remained untouched by shells from the junta's bombardment or by its marauding thugs. I had already started to unpack when I heard the sound of my neighbour's doors opening across the hallway. I thought it must have been my neighbour, Sergey Ivanovich, but then I saw a young man unknown to me. To my question about his identity he replied that he was Sergey Ivanovich's son.

"Small problem here - my neighbour's son died in a car accident three years ago - and he happened to be my childhood friend. I decided to pay a visit to my other neighbours and ask who this guy really is, perhaps truly a son about whom I had no idea.

Comment: Every day the situation in East Ukraine sounds more and more like that of Palestine: ethnic cleansing.

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Oscar

RT's coverage of Guantanamo hunger strike leads to Emmy nomination


RT
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:13 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Mark Wilson
The US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
RT has been nominated for a prestigious International Emmy award for its groundbreaking coverage of the six-month-long mass hunger strike by inmates at Guantanamo Bay.

In its investigation, the channel helped to bring the daily brutality suffered by inmates to millions of viewers across the globe, keeping the scandal in the headlines when many in the mainstream media ignored or downplayed the story. In May 2013, President Barack Obama promised to begin letting go prisoners who were cleared for release in January 2010. However, since that promise made over 440 days ago, only 17 of the 86 have been allowed to leave.
RT's #Gitmo coverage earns network its THIRD Emmy nomination [VIDEO] http://t.co/PfYNPOclUL @ManilaChan

- RT America (@RT_America) August 13, 2014
.@RT_com received #iEmmy nod in 2012 for reporting on #OWS & in 2010 for coverage of Pres. Obama's visit to Russia. http://t.co/2Aq6pFZMnw

- RT Press Office (@RT_PressOffice_) August 13, 2014
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Eye 1

Photographs of the Ferguson, Missouri confrontation between police and peaceful protestors reveal unfiltered, uncomfortable truths about American Police State

Philip Kennicott
Washington Post
Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:52 UTC
Image
© Mario Anzuoni/Reuters; Scott Olson/Getty Images
At left, a riot police officer aims his weapon while demonstrators protest. At right, a protester carries what appears to be a Molotov cocktail.
A photograph is never sufficiently proportional to truth. The truth - the full story, the context of things - is too large and complicated to be encompassed by any single image. So from Ferguson, Mo., where daily protests have erupted after Saturday's police shooting of an unarmed African American teenager, we get only photographic data points.

A man lights a rag in a bottle and prepares to throw a Molotov cocktail; militarized police sit atop armored vehicles, guns drawn and aimed at protestors who have their hands raised. Both are volatile images, and both confirm aspects of the truth: There are provocateurs among the mostly peaceful protestors, and the police have adopted a terrifyingly aggressive posture in relation to the citizens they supposedly serve.

But these images aren't coming from Egypt or the Gaza Strip or Ukraine. These are our own, homegrown documents of social unrest and they can't, like images from more distant lands, be kept safely at bay.

The manipulation of photography has become so complex and widespread that images from conflict zones often tend to cancel each other out. Propaganda has trickled down from the state to the D.I.Y. level, and it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

The resulting frustration, our inability to be certain of the authenticity of the image and the accuracy of the caption, is in many ways a relief: If we can't be sure whether the bloodied corpse of a dead child was the result of a bomb from Hamas, or the Israeli army, we push it aside, grateful not to have to take a moral position on the conflict. The self-canceling nature of images releases us from the responsibility to think things through.
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