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Ravages of war in E. Ukraine: Donetsk residents fear unexploded shells


RT
Fri, 05 Sep 2014 11:34 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
The shelling of Donetsk by Ukrainian forces on September 4, 2014 one day before peace talks were set to begin in Minsk, Belarus
The city of Donetsk not only faces a threat from the sky, with bombs and shells fired by Kiev troops, but also from the ground, from thousands of unexploded shells. RT Paula Slier followed local sappers as they deactivated the deadly weapons.

"About 10 percent of the missiles that we discover on the ground are unexploded," one of the sappers working in Donetsk told RT.

RT's Paula Slier reported that one of the unexploded shells hit a gas pipe, adding that one can actually smell gas in the area.

Together with the sappers, Slier headed to the outskirts of the city where massive shelling was reported earlier.

"This whole village has been shelled by grads [rockets]. And there is one that didn't explode. It didn't detonate," said the sapper.

According another sapper, looking for unexploded shells is a very complicated job as they can't always say "about the consequences because [they] don't know what kind of missile [they] are looking for."

Comment: Is this going to be a ceasefire the Kiev way?

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Whistle

Woman says comic book store in Salem, Massachusetts fired her after she revealed alleged 'rape room'

Arturo Garcia
Rawstory.com
Fri, 05 Sep 2014 11:47 UTC
Image
© Harrison's Comics & Pop Culture official Facebook page
Police in Salem, Massachusetts are reportedly looking into a local woman's allegation that she was harassed while briefly working at a comic book store that also contained a "rape room."

Bleeding Cool reported that the woman, Jennifer Williams, posted online that "the owner's friend Julian" told her about the nickname for one of the store's storage rooms last week. She also said the man put his arm around her without her consent.
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Chart Bar

U.S. propaganda works: More and more Americans support U.S. actions

Susan Page
fdlreporter.com
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:27 UTC
After years of retrenchment in the wake of two costly wars, a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll finds that Americans increasingly are open to a larger U.S. role in trying to solve problems around the world.

The public remains conflicted over just how much the United States can and should do to address global challenges. But the initial shifts in public opinion could make it easier for President Obama to order more muscular options in striking Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq. If the trend continues, it could help shape the 2016 campaign to succeed him.


Comment: The latest poll from YouGov shows the change in public opinion over the past year. Mainly due to ISIS propaganda. Now 63% of Americans support the use of military force in Syria and 16% oppose it, last year it was the reverse.

Image
© YouGov

"This runs counter to this conventional wisdom that the public is isolationist," says Bruce Jentleson, a former State Department adviser in the Obama administration who is now a professor at Duke and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "It's not trigger-happy, but it's also not totally gun-shy."

Comment: For a broad overview of what this implies see: Global Pathocracy, Authoritarian Followers and the Hope of the World

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Heart - Black

Hidden in plain sight: US child homicide rate leads West - UNICEF


RT.com
Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:32 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Michelle McLoughlin
The US leads Western nations in child homicide rates, while millions of children around the world are threatened with physical, sexual and emotional abuse, including murder, rape and bullying, a new UNICEF report revealed.

The report, entitled 'Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence against Children', demonstrated that death by homicide is every much a threat for young people as it is for adults.
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Dollars

Judge rules BP's reckless conduct and gross negligence were responsible for Deepwater Horizon oil spill


The Guardian
Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:00 UTC
Image
© US Coast Guard/EPA
A fire aboard the mobile offshore oil drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, located in the Gulf of Mexico some 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, US
BP bears the majority of responsibility among the companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a federal judge ruled Thursday, citing the energy giant's reckless conduct over the disaster in a ruling that exposes it to billions of dollars in penalties.

BP plc already has agreed to pay billions of dollars in criminal fines and compensation to people and businesses affected by the disaster, the worst-ever US oil spill. But US district Judge Carl Barbier's ruling could nearly quadruple what the London-based company has to pay in civil fines for polluting the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 spill.

Barbier presided over a trial in 2013 to apportion blame for the spill that spewed oil for 87 days in 2010. Eleven men died after the well blew.

The judge essentially divided blame among the three companies involved in the spill, ruling that BP bears 67% of the blame; Swiss-based drilling rig owner Transocean Ltd takes 30%; and Houston-based cement contractor Halliburton Energy Service takes 3%.

Comment: See also:

Over a million birds died during Deepwater Horizon disaster
BP hit with new $34 billion Deepwater Horizon claim from southern state governments
BP 'close to deal' on Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill

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Pistol

Sadistic Texas cops shot at schizophrenic man 80 times, killing him


RT
Thu, 04 Sep 2014 01:35 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Mike Stone
Police in Laredo, Texas opened fire on a schizophrenic man armed with a pellet gun this week, killing him after unleashing upwards of 80 shots, according to the victim's family.

Six officers from the Laredo Police Department have been reassigned to administrative duties while officials investigate the incident, which occurred early Saturday morning outside of a truck stop in the southern part of the Lone Star State.


Comment: It wouldn't be surprising if they end up with a promotion.

Goon cops have gone wild all over America


According to authorities, police spent around five minutes attempting to negotiate with 30-year-old Jose Walter Garza before the man made an "offensive gesture," then allegedly aimed the would-be weapon - a pellet gun made to resemble a semiautomatic handgun, according to the Laredo Morning Times - at the cops who then opened fire.

"He put his finger in the trigger guard and pointed it at the officers," Joe E. Baeza, an investigator and police spokesperson, told the paper.

Law enforcement has since opened a probe in order to get to the bottom of the incident, but Andrea Martinez, Garza's cousin, told the New York Daily News that police shot no fewer than 80 times. Surveillance footage from a camera at the truck stop has since been published online, but the angle it was filmed from shows only the fatal shots, and not how Garza acted beforehand.
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Ambulance

Third American doctor infected with Ebola heading back to US for treatment


RT
Thu, 04 Sep 2014 22:09 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Chris Keane
Bruce Johnson, president, SIM USA speaks regarding the third U.S. doctor contracted Ebola
The latest American to be infected with Ebola while working as a missionary doctor in Africa will be flown in to the Nebraska Medical Center in order to receive treatment.

Missionary doctor Rick Sacra, 51, is scheduled to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, according to the international Christian aid organization SIM. Upon his arrival, he will be transported to the hospital's Biocontainment Patient Care Unit for treatment.

Although Sacra was not actually working with Ebola patients during his time in Liberia - he was serving pregnant women at the ELWA Hospital instead - he was recently confirmed to have the virus and his condition is serious enough to warrant a return to the United States.

"Rick was receiving excellent care from our SIM/ELWA staff in Liberia at our Ebola 2 Care Center," SIM USA President Bruce Johnson said in a statement. "They all love and admire him deeply. However, The Nebraska Medical Center provides advanced monitoring equipment and wider availability of treatment options."
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People

New study: Undocumented immigrants in California contribute $130 billion to State GDP

Jodie Gummow
AlterNet
Thu, 04 Sep 2014 21:33 UTC
immigrants
© Shutterstock
Yet they lack basic civil rights protections and face the daily threat of deportation.

A new study on immigrant contributions at the University of Southern California has revealed that undocumented immigrants in California make up 10% of the workforce and contribute $130 billion to the gross domestic product, the LA Times reported.

The study, conducted in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy Center, explores the various ways that the estimated 2.6 million immigrants who lack legal status participate in state life, with a particular focus on their contributions to the state's GDP. The study found that most immigrant workers lack basic civil rights protections and are faced with the daily threat of family separation and deportation due to the federal government's inability to create a "rational immigration system."

Other key findings in the report with respect to undocumented immigrants in California include:
  • 58% do not have health insurance
  • 38% work in the agriculture industry
  • Half have been in the state for at least 10 years
  • Three quarters live in households that include U.S. citizens
  • Of the 4.4 million immigrants living in the greater L.A. region, 1.1 million are undocumented, contributing $57 billion to the regional GDP
And yet, CIPC says the undocumented immigrant population in California has suffered some 117,000 deportations in recent years from one deportation program alone.
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Phoenix

Oregon woman ignited massive fire for 'bored' firefighters, heads to prison


RT
Thu, 04 Sep 2014 19:09 UTC
oregon fire
© Reuters / Max Whittaker
An Oregon woman convicted of igniting an enormous wildfire simply to give firefighters something to put out will now spend more than one year in jail.

On Wednesday, Sadie Renee Johnson, 23, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by US District Judge Marco Hernandez. In May, she pleaded guilty to sparking a fire that burned through 51,000 acres southeast of Portland, Oregon, back in July 2013. The fire ravaged the Warm Springs Indian Reservation for more than a week and cost almost $8 million to extinguish.

Johnson will also perform 200 hours of community service in the affected area, a sentence that Hernandez reportedly considered light, according to the Associated Press.

"You owe them much more than that," he said to her in court.

The fire began when Johnson threw a firework out of her car and lit up some brush, as noted by Reuters. Two days later, with the fire still raging, Johnson posted a status update on Facebook that read, "Like my fire?" which led detectives to detain her. Johnson eventually claimed that she started the fire because her friends in the fire department "were bored and needed work."

The young woman has also stated she does have substance abuse problems, something that was taken into account by the judge as he determined her sentence. She could have potentially faced five years in prison.
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Whistle

How supporting Israel undermines the U.S.

Shamus Cooke
nsnbc international
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Blasting Gaza into rubble has affected the average American in ways that U.S. politicians will learn to regret. The result is more than bleeding heart sympathy for dead Palestinian children (430 at last count). There is a deeper political effect happening, as young and old alike realize for the first time the cancerous lies coursing through the veins of the U.S. media and political system.
bombing of Gaza
© www.islamicinvitationturkey.com
How long can Israel commit heinous war crimes while America just covers its eyes?
The U.S. government's support of Israel - which includes Obama and all 100 senators - further exposes the gigantic clash between the unpopular foreign policy of the U.S. versus the desires of its residents. The government will be further pushed by corporate interests to pursue these profitable overseas policies, which are teaching millions of people about the reality of their government, consequently undermining the "stable foundation" of the U.S. government.

Merely glancing at the casualty statistics was enough for most Americans to know their TV was lying to them: 1900 Palestinians have died, 10,0000 have been injured - 80 percent of them civilians. Meanwhile, three Israeli civilians have died, zero injured. There is more damage after a Super Bowl victory party than Israel has suffered from Hamas' laughable fireworks.

Americans reacted in horror to Israel's massively disproportionate violence - an obvious war crime as defined by the Geneva Convention. And even more obvious war crimes were committed: the high profile Israeli missile attacks on Gaza hospitals, schools and UN bomb shelters.

During this carnage American viewers were endlessly told by "experts" that "Israel has a right to defend itself," a completely meaningless phrase when entire Gaza neighborhoods were obliterated to pebbles, while the U.S. media searched in vain for ANY damage caused by the "terrifying" Hamas' rockets.

Comment: It is not enough to awaken social consciousness, we must also awaken social responsibility. Obviously the U.S. congress doesn't have either, especially if they are rulled by Israeli propaganda and U.S. corporate profit while closing their minds, eyes and hearts to civil atrocities such as the blatant slaughter in Gaza. It is not enough to disagree, have druthers, or disown one's government, one has to stand up and be accountable to the change that is pleading to be made. If the only thing you can do is put the message out there...DO IT.

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