Society's ChildS


Apple Green

Semantic aphasia: Fighting continues during 'truce' in Gaza, IDF kills 5-year-old girl


RT
Wed, 20 Aug 2014 04:38 UTC
Hamas rockets
© AFP Photo / David BuimovitchAssuming these are really Hamas rocket launches (photo taken 19 August), it shows the fraudulence of the videos of Iron Dome shooting non-existent 'rockets' out of the air.
Israeli-Palestinian rocket fire resumed on Tuesday after Gaza truce talks broke down. A 5-year-old girl and a woman became the first victims of renewed Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Hamas launched around 50 rockets at Israel, hitting as far as Tel Aviv.


Comment: 50 rockets? According to whom? The notoriously mendacious Israeli government? Should we trust their numbers, especially when we know that Iron Dome is a total fraud?


Israel launched at least 35 airstrikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. One of the strikes hit a house in Gaza City, killing a woman and a 5-year-old child, according to Palestinian Health Ministry.

Reportedly, one of Israel's targets was Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, Israeli Channel 10 said.

The three people killed during the Israeli airstrikes included a wife and a child of the Hamas military wing's leader Mohammed Deif, AP cited senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying.


Comment: Chances are, Deif's wife and child were the intended targets.

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Pistol

What I did after police killed my son

Michael Bell
Political Magazine
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 00:17 UTC
Image
After police in Kenosha, Wis., shot my 21-year-old son to death outside his house ten years ago - and then immediately cleared themselves of all wrongdoing - an African-American man approached me and said: "If they can shoot a white boy like a dog, imagine what we've been going through."

I could imagine it all too easily, just as the rest of the country has been seeing it all too clearly in the terrible images coming from Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown. On Friday, after a week of angry protests, the police in Ferguson finally identified the officer implicated in Brown's shooting, although the circumstances still remain unclear.

I have known the name of the policeman who killed my son, Michael, for ten years. And he is still working on the force in Kenosha.
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Alarm Clock

Emerging solar plants scorch birds in mid-air

Ellen Knickmeyer and John Locher
Associated Press
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 13:13 UTC
array of mirrors
© AP Photo/John LocherNew estimates for the plant near the California-Nevada border say thousands of birds are dying yearly, roasted by the concentrated sun rays from the mirrors.
Ivanpah Dry Lake, Calif. - Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays - "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair.

Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.

The investigators want the halt until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

The deaths are "alarming. It's hard to say whether that's the location or the technology," said Garry George, renewable-energy director for the California chapter of the Audubon Society. "There needs to be some caution."

The bird kills mark the latest instance in which the quest for clean energy sometimes has inadvertent environmental harm. Solar farms have been criticized for their impacts on desert tortoises, and wind farms have killed birds, including numerous raptors.

"We take this issue very seriously," said Jeff Holland, a spokesman for NRG Solar of Carlsbad, California, the second of the three companies behind the plant. The third, Google, deferred comment to its partners.
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Heart - Black

County will not pay medical bills for toddler hurt in Habersham, Georgia raid


WSB - TV
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 20:00 UTC

Habersham County officials say they do not plan to pay for the medical expenses of a toddler seriously injured during a police raid.

Bounkham Phonesavah, affectionately known as "Baby Boo Boo," spent weeks in a burn unit after a SWAT team's flash grenade exploded near his face. The toddler was just 19-months-old and asleep in the early morning hours of May 28. SWAT officers threw the device into his home while executing a search warrant for a drug suspect.

Habersham County officials are defending their decision not to pay, but the child's family isn't giving up.

After weeks of recovery at two different hospitals, Channel 2 Action News was there in July as the little boy walked out of a hospital with his family.

He is doing better, but late Friday afternoon, his family's attorney told said the family's medical bills are mounting.

"But at this point, the county is refusing to pay," said attorney Muwali Davis.

Habersham County's attorney provided the following statement, saying: "The question before the board was whether it is legally permitted to pay these expenses. After consideration of this question following advice of counsel, the board of commissioners has concluded that it would be in violation of the law for it to do so."

The attorney for Boo Boo's family insists that is not good enough.
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Megaphone

Police State USA: Dozens arrested, reporters detained, assembly rights restricted


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 18:15 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Getty Images / Scott OlsonPolice attempt to control demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
Confrontation resumed on Monday night in Ferguson, Missouri, as police used tear gas to disperse protesters. Live ammo was shot in the altercation, with two people injured. Over 70 people, including a journalist, were reportedly arrested.

Protests over the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 9 by a police officer continued into their ninth day. Police were telling people not to congregate unless they were in protest-designated areas, a policy needed to protect Ferguson from a "criminal element," it was explained.

Militarized US police face-off with Ferguson protesters LIVE UPDATES
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Pistol

Compton, CA school police allowed to have assault rifles on campus

Rina Palta
SCPR.org
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:22 UTC
AR-15 rifles
© wikipediaAR-15 rifles
As Compton students head back to school Monday, residents are expressing concern about a school board policy passed in July that allows campus police who pass an internal selection process to buy semi-automatic AR-15 rifles and carry them in their patrol car trunks while on duty.

"This is our objective - save lives, bottom line," Compton Unified Police Chief William Wu told the board.

Wu argued officers are woefully underequipped in the event of a terrorist attack or mass shooting, in which shooters increasingly wear body armor, which is not penetrable with standard firearms. He cited a recent FBI study that found that roughly 5 percent of mass shooters have worn such armor. Wu said that while assault-style rifles are more deadly, they're also more accurate.

Comment: Calling AR-15s 'tools' doesn't change reality. They are guns and they are going to be available for use at schools (you know, those buildings where kids hang out all day?). For more on the guns-in-schools madness see:

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Megaphone

Fundraiser to benefit Ferguson cop who killed Michael Brown causes rift within KKK


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:33 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Joshua Lott
A top Ku Klux Klan leader has condemned a fundraiser set up by an outsider KKK group for the benefit of Darren Wilson, the police officer who fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9.

Imperial Wizard Chuck Murray of the New Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan called for donations to the police officer last week in an email obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"We are setting up a reward/fund for the police officer who shot this thug," wrote Murray, whose group is based in South Carolina. "He is a hero! We need more white cops who are anti-Zog and willing to put Jewish controlled black thugs in their place. Most cops are cowards and do nothing while 90% of interracial crime is black (and non-white) on white."

Murray did not offer comment to SPLC.

The email did not sit well with Frank Acona, Imperial Wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights, one of the largest factions of the KKK in the United States.
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Stock Down

Sanctions blowback: US shoots itself in foot again and the money goes to China


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:52 UTC
Anatoly Chubais
© RIA Novosti / Grigoriy SisoevAnatoly Chubais, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Board, RUSNANO Corporation
Economic bridges continue to burn in the US-Russia sanctions standoff, with the latest casualty being US firm Applied Materials, which can no longer export IT equipment to Russia's nanotechnology giant Rusnano.

According to Rusnano CEO Anatoly Chubais, Russia has already found an alternative source for the technology (mostly memory MRAM) in China and other markets.

"This is an example where we were able to quickly find a solution so work at the plant wasn't disrupted," Chubais told ITAR-TASS.

The state-owned tech company said it will look east, and try to better plan investments.

"Generally speaking, we need to refocus on the Asian capital markets. I hope, we'll be able to show some results this year," Chubais said.

On Monday, the head of the Russian Ministry of Communications announced on Twitter that Russia is seeking closer technology ties with China, and will begin to import memory and servers instead of the US, which banned the export of certain technology products that can also be used for military in their latest round of sanctions.
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Wall Street

Greener pastures: Wall Street and Asian banks may abandon Britain if the UK leaves the EU


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:52 UTC
canary wharf business district
© Reuters / Eddie KeoghThe Canary Wharf business district in London.
Wall Street banks could abandon Britain for the Republic of Ireland if the UK decides to leave the EU, senior figures in the industry have reportedly said. This is despite a Forbes report that names London the world's 'most influential city'.

Changes to EU banking rules could see London stripped of its financial preeminence. Some major institutions including Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are believed to be drawing up plans to desert the City amid concerns the UK is drifting further from the EU.

This is despite a Forbes list of "The World's Most Influential Cities 2014" which ranked London as the most influential city in the world, because it attracts more than double the amount of foreign direct investment deals than New York, which came in second.

Most US and Asian banks currently run their main European operations from the UK, which entitles them to provide services across the EU. But if the UK left the EU, it is unlikely foreign banks based in London would hold on to this benefit.
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Roses

'Arrest the killer of my child': Michael Brown's mother pleads after autopsy


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 19:08 UTC
Image
© AFP/Getty Images/Scott OlsonLesley McSpadden, the mother of slain teenager Michael Brown.
The family of Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri last Saturday, held a press conference Monday morning to discuss the preliminary autopsy and the number of bullets fired at their son.

"The Brown family wanted to have this autopsy performed on their behalf because they did not know whether the federal officials were going to conduct their own independent autopsy, and they did not want to be left having to rely on the autopsy done by the St. Louis law enforcement agencies ‒ the same individuals they feel are responsible for executing their son in broad daylight," Benjamin Crump, the lead counsel for the Brown family, said. "So therefore, that is why they begged and pleaded to have an independent autopsy done."

The Brown family hired renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael M. Baden to conduct a second postmortem analysis on their son. The preliminary report, released to the New York Times Sunday night, shows that the unarmed teenager was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, while four shots hit his right arm. Any shots that missed the deceased would not have been able to be counted during the examination.

The number of shots fired "could have been answered on day one [by the Ferguson Police Department] if you really wanted to have transparency as the objective," Crump said, referring to Baden's initial conclusions.
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