Society's ChildS


Book 2

Living on almost nothing in America: 1.5 Million families live on $2 a Day

Marcus Harrison Green
YES Magazine
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 22:07 UTC
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© Jennifer Luxton
For their new book, H. Luke Shaefer and Kathryn J. Edin followed the lives of America's poorest families to find out what they need to break out of poverty, and how to make it happen.

If she did not make plasma deposits twice a week at a donation center in Tennessee, Jessica Compton and her family would have no income. If not for a carton of spoiled milk, Modonna and Brianna Harris' refrigerator would be barren. The Harris and Compton families' stories are just two accounts of devastating poverty documented in sociology professors Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer's book, $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.

Comment: Poverty is neither a lack of self-control nor a character defect

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Fire

Europe's biggest mosque ablaze: More than 70 firefighters tackling huge fire in South London

Steve Robson
The Mirror, UK
Sat, 26 Sep 2015 12:32 UTC
Morden mosque fire
Scene: Thick, black smoke cane be seen emanating from the mosque

One man as been taken to hospital as much of the building, which can hold up to 10,000 worshippers, is up in flames

More than 70 firefighters are tackling a huge blaze at a mosque in South London.

Most of Baitul Futuh - said to be the largest mosque in Western Europe - is on fire, according to the fire service.

London Fire Brigade sent eight fire engines to the scene in Morden just after midday.

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Attention

New report shows glyphosate resistance in weeds is endangering farming crops

John Vibes
Natural Blaze
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
Roundup, Herbicida de Monsanto
© Jared Rodriguez; Adapted: IRRI Images, Libertinus)
As we have covered extensively in recent months, Monsanto's herbicide glyphosate, the primary ingredient in their top-selling product Roundup has been proven to cause cancer. Now, according to new reports, the chemical doesn't even work and is creating a new resistance in weeds that make them more resilient and more difficult to get rid of.

Nebraska farmer Mike Pietzyk recently discussed how the weeds are becoming resistant to Roundup in a recent interview with Chemicals And Engineers News.

"The days of going out and spraying RoundUp twice a year—those are long gone," he said, adding that he was forced to use a cocktail of different chemicals, some of which are even more dangerous than Roundup. Pietzyk and other farmers are now seeking new solutions to avoid the harsh pesticides used in conventional farming.

"People in urban areas and towns need to understand—we live here, we drink the water under the ground out here," he says. "We want to be good stewards of what we've been entrusted with," he said.

Comment: Herbicide resistant weeds have been spreading for some time, yet because Monsanto has strong ties to government, things have now reached a crisis point.

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Cardboard Box

Homeless veteran versus homeless teen: Shocking video shows New York man throwing food on vet


RT
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 21:54 UTC
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© MoeandET/Youtube
A homeless veteran begs for change on a New York street. Passers-by ignore him, giving their money to a teen begging nearby. One man dumps his takeout on the unfortunate veteran, showing what he thinks of his service. You won't believe what happened next...

The veteran asks the teen to "watch his stuff" as he cleans up at a nearby shop. A few minutes later he returns, bringing a slice of pizza for the boy. Little did he know that the "homeless teen" was actually part of a social experiment, set up by two brothers from Brooklyn.

Mohammed "Moe" and Etayyim "ET" Etayyim became YouTube celebrities for filming a series of prank videos starting in early 2014. They have also made seven "social experiment" videos highlighting child abuse, bigotry and the treatment of the homeless.

In this video, posted September 23, Moe and ET dress up their younger brother Omar as a homeless teen and sit him right next to a genuine homeless veteran, trying to scrounge up money for food. A six-minute video shows people persistently ignoring the older man, and giving money to Omar instead.

At one point, a man in a striped polo shirt and a fedora rebuffs the veteran, sneering at his plea that he "served his country."


Comment: This video should shame society and the local New York government for allowing these atrocious homeless conditions to develop exponentially. Other governments are not so callous. New York could take a lesson from other states:

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Eye 2

German nurse shocked after being forced out of flat to make way for refugees she helps


RT
Sat, 26 Sep 2015 12:30 UTC
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© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters A volunteer points at a blackboard as migrants participate in a spontaneously organized English and German lesson at an improvised temporary shelter in a sports hall in Hanau, Germany, September 24, 2015.
Having lived in the same flat for 16 years, a German woman is being forced to move out to make way for refugees, because building a new shelter is too expensive. The 51 year-old nurse, who has helped asylum seekers in the past, was shocked by the news.

Bettina Halbey, who lives alone in the small town of Nieheim, received a letter from her landlord and the local municipality at the start of September, Die Welt newspaper reported on Thursday.

"I was completely shocked and I can't even begin to find the words to describe how the city has treated me," Halbey told the German publication. "I have had to go through a lot of difficulties recently, and then I get this notice. It was like a kick in the teeth."

Comment: How can the mayor justify this decision when Germany has allocated over $2 billion for refugee housing? Maybe he just wants to keep the money allotted to his town rather than spend it properly.

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Magic Wand

A Doublespeak translation of Agenda 2030 and the UN's new sustainable development goals

Aaron and Melissa Dykes
Truthstream Media
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
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It's that time again: the United Nations is officially releasing the all new Agenda 2030 sustainable development plan, or what some have hailed as "the new Agenda 21 on steroids," at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit kicking off today in New York City.

Since these supposedly non-binding international agreements can sometimes be a bit tricky to decode, what with all the weaponized buzz terms and semantics games, we've prepared a handy dandy translator on the 17 new Agenda 2030 goals below.
  • Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
  • Translation: Centralized banks, IMF, World Bank, Fed to control all finances, digital one world currency in a cashless society
  • Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
  • Translation: GMO

Comment: See Doublespeak definition:
Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target" for bombing[1]), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language.[2][3]

The term "doublespeak" probably has its roots in George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four. Although the term is not used in the book, it is a close relative of one of the book's central concepts, "doublethink". Another variant, "doubletalk," also referring to deliberately ambiguous speech, did exist at the time Orwell wrote his book, but the usage of "doublespeak" as well as of "doubletalk" in the sense emphasizing ambiguity clearly postdates the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four.[4][5] Parallels have also been drawn between Doublespeak and Orwell's classic essay Politics and the English Language, which discusses the distortion of language for political purposes.[6]

Edward S. Herman, political economist and media analyst, has highlighted some examples of doublespeak and doublethink in modern society.[7] Herman describes in his book, Beyond Hypocrisy the principal characteristics of doublespeak:
What is really important in the world of doublespeak is the ability to lie, whether knowingly or unconsciously, and to get away with it; and the ability to use lies and choose and shape facts selectively, blocking out those that don't fit an agenda or program.[8]
In his essay "Politics and the English Language", George Orwell observes that political language serves to distort and obfuscate reality. Orwell's description of political speech is extremely similar to the contemporary definition of doublespeak;
In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible... Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness... the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. Where there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, ...[9]


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Stormtrooper

Abu Ghraib torture prison military commander in Iraq now an NYPD Deputy Inspector known for brutality towards activists


RT
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 03:44 UTC
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© UnknownTen American Marines in Iraq showing their true colors.
A New York Police Department Deputy Inspector served in the US Army military command in Iraqi at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison at the same time human rights abuses were being committed there, an investigation by the Gothamist discovered.

The officer has a reputation for using aggressive tactics against street protesters.

Deputy Inspector Andrew J. Lombardo is well known to New York activists for his seemingly arbitrary arrests and intense questioning techniques, but what they may not know was that he was part of the military chain of command at Abu Ghraib.

The Gothamist discovered a US Army Reserve Facebook post from 2011, which referenced NYPD Captain Andrew J. Lombardo (his rank before his promotion) and featured the following caption:

Comment: A classic textbook example of how the 'War on Terror' abroad is part and parcel of the police brutality phenomenon at home in the US. Individuals like Deputy Inspector Andrew J. Lombardo are cogs in the psychopathic machine of dominance, brutality and oppression and a perfect illustration of an Imperial functionary. On any given day one can read up more than a half dozen articles here that document new abuses individuals are receiving at the hands of these machines wearing badges. No where else in the world is this occurring quite like it is in the US: Now is when psychopaths rule.

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Pistol

Cop shoots and kills man who was pointing finger like a gun at him

Tom Boggioni
Raw Story
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 21:11 UTC
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Authorities in Baltimore County say a man shot and killed by a police officer on Wednesday following a chase, was pointing his finger as if it was a gun when the officer fired on him, the Guardian is reporting.

According to police, the man who has yet to be identified was running from police after attempting to purchase a type of narcotic cough syrup — which can be combined with alcohol to get high — using a fake prescription at a pharmacy.

Responding to a call from the pharmacist, the officer chased the man who abruptly stopped and, according to police authorities, "reaching around to the small of his back and abruptly whipping his hand around and pointing it toward the officer, as if with a weapon."
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Bizarro Earth

Hysteria: Boy with cerebral palsy taken off flight at Heathrow because passenger complains 'he's not sitting properly in his seat'

Matt Watts
Evening Standard
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 19:45 UTC
boy taken off flight Air mauritius
© Nigel Howard
Cerebral Palsy sufferer David Bysooa with his mother Vidulah Bysooa and stefather Steve Lambert Nigel Howard
David Bysooa, 16, from Surbiton, was removed from an Air Mauritius flight at Heathrow after he became unsettled in an aisle seat and the passenger beside him complained

A teenager with cerebral palsy has been banned from flying alone by an airline after being ordered to leave a flight for "not sitting in his seat properly".

David Bysooa, 16, from Surbiton, was removed from an Air Mauritius flight at Heathrow after he became unsettled when he was given an aisle seat instead of the window seat his mother Vidulah had booked. David was travelling alone to visit his grandparents in Mauritius, something he has done on his own with the airline more than a dozen times.

Each time the teenager had travelled in a window seat as it makes him feel more relaxed. But after being given an aisle seat on the full flight David, who has mild autism and learning disabilities, kept leaning over the woman next to him while the plane was still on the runway.

When the passenger complained, the crew were unable to find an alternative seat. When he became upset he was ordered to leave the plane at the request of the captain and led back to his parents in the terminal.

Mrs Bysooa today accused the airline of discrimination. The 47-year-old, who works with the reservations department of Kenyan Airlines at Heathrow, said: "The way my son was treated was appalling. "This is someone who frequently flies with the airline and is well known. They should have understood why he needed to have a window seat.

"He is more than capable of flying on his own but the way he was discriminated against is disgraceful."

She has raised the matter with the Civil Aviation Authority. David was not offered a refund for the missed flight by Air Mauritius.

In an email to support worker Tom Quilter of Achieving for Children, which has taken up Mrs Bysooa's complaint, Air Mauritius said it could not guarantee specific seats on its aircraft.

David leaning over the "nervous flyer" who had booked the window seat had created "a very uncomfortable atmosphere". It added: "I can assure you that the decision was not taken lightly."

Comment: A business that wants to keep repeat customers is aware of its customers' needs. How many flights does it take for Mr. Bysooa's particular needs to be remembered?

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Eye 2

Jailers watched as man arrested for unpaid traffic ticket died naked on cell floor

Robby Soave
Reason
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:54 UTC
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It was a death sentence.

David Stojcevski, a 32-year-old resident of Roseville, Michigan, was arrested for failing to pay a $772 fine stemming from careless driving. A court ordered him to spend a month in the Macomb County jail.

Over the next 17 days of his incarceration in a brightly lit cell—where he was denied clothing—he lost 50 pounds, suffered convulsions, and eventually began to hallucinate. He died in agony, from a combination of obvious, untreated drug withdrawal and galling neglect.

Making matters worse (if anything could be worse than that), the entirety of his demise was captured on jail surveillance footage. Indeed, Stojcevski was under self-harm watch—stemming for a profound misdiagnosis of his condition, which was drug addiction, not mental instability—and jail officials were supposed to be watching him constantly. Either their vigilance was inadequate, or they watched and simply didn't care.

Comment: The family should sue, and the jailers should be criminally charged for their negligence in letting a man clearly needing medical assistance die without doing anything.

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