Society's ChildS


Alarm Clock

12 Devastating testimonials from Americans who did everything "right" and still fell into economic ruin

Their struggles are not far removed from those of millions of Americans.

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What does it feel like to be sliding down the economic ladder in America and falling through non-existent safety nets? Beyond the recent headlines suggesting that the worst of America is now being displayed in an explosion of gun violence, there's a quieter, widespread and equally stark epidemic of downwardly spiraling lives in America.

That epidemic is the slow-motion descent into shame, despair, depression, financial ruin, assaults by predatory lenders, fruitless job retraining and homelessness caused by long-term joblessness. The House Republicans' refusal to extend unemployment benefits has pushed legions of desperate people even closer to the edge - or over it, into the streets.

Comment: Unfortunately it seems this will become a reality for more and more people as they are forced to realize that the American Dream was just that - a dream. A couple of people in the article seem to think that being Republican can somehow save them from poverty. What will it take for people to let go of their various ideologies that keep us fighting each other and see that the issue isn't Republican vs Democrat, white vs black, gay vs straight, women vs men, middle class vs the poor, America vs the rest of the world, but rather psychopaths (especially those in power) vs human beings?

Poverty has always been a reality for some people and, too often, those people have found themselves demonized by the more fortunate who have managed to avoid it, but now, as things get progressively worse and pathologicals tighten their grip, many in the upper and middle classes are being schooled in the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth that many in the US and around the world have known for centuries: that most governments are corrupt and anyone can suddenly find themselves on the bottom rung at any time.

For more insight on how the American Dream has been a nightmare for many, see these Sott links:

The facade of the American dream

The American Dream: How the Banksters captured and subverted the United States

American Eulogy


Airplane Paper

Ukrainian Su-24 fighter jet shot down in Donetsk region by local militia

The self-defense forces of Gorlovka, Donetsk region, have reported that the Ukrainian Su-24 plane that bombed the building of a local police station at 4:30 a.m. Kiev time has been shot down.

SU-24 military aircraft
© RIA Novosti/Igor ZaremboSU-24 military aircraft
"We have managed to shoot down a Su-24 plane. The pilot ejected. He is now being questioned in the self-defense forces' headquarters," the Gorlovka self-defense forces' representative told Interfax. He also added that the Ukrainian army had bombed the city of Druzhkovka last night.

According to earlier reports, one person was killed and six were wounded in an air strike by the Ukrainian Air Force in the city of Gorlovka. "One person was killed and six were wounded in an air strike by the Ukrainian Air Force in Gorlovka. The police station and the nearby residential buildings were badly damaged," the report says.

Family

The real cost of pathocractic austerity measures: Recession 'led to 10,000 suicides'

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People queuing for jobs in the US as youth unemployment soared
The economic crisis in Europe and North America led to more than 10,000 extra suicides, according to figures from UK researchers.

A study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, showed "suicides have risen markedly".

The research group said some deaths may have been avoidable as some countries showed no increase in suicide rate.

Campaign groups said the findings showed how important good mental health services were.

The study by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine analysed data from 24 EU countries, the US and Canada.

Cowboy Hat

49 Ukrainian troops killed as transport plane shot down in Lugansk

Ukrainian transport plane shot down
© YoutubeA fire that allegedly started at the crash site of the downed Ukrainian military transport.
Forty-nine Ukrainian troops were killed when their military Il-76 transport jet was taken down by local militia forces just before landing at Lugansk Airport. Some military hardware and supplies were lost as well.

The death toll was confirmed by the Ukrainian General Prosecutor's office on Saturday morning in a statement, which said nine crew members and 40 troops were killed.

Earlier the Defense Ministry said the troops were being transported to the Lugansk Airport for rotation along with military equipment and supplies.


Eye 1

Brazilian police fire tear gas at World Cup protesters as journalist 'injured' amid rubber bullets and stun grenades

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© Nelson Antoine/APA protester is detained by police during the demonstration in Sao Paulo
Within 10 minutes of the demonstration, officers had reportedly fired tear gas and sound bombs, and arrested one, according to local press.

Local people angry at the amount of public money being spent on the tournament have begun to carry out their threat of taking to the streets around the stadium where the opening ceremony will take place ahead of the first match.

The protest started in the east of São Paulo, which will host the opening ceremony of the World Cup from around 3pm local time (9pm UK time).

Comment: Again, we see that psychopathic leaders continue with their agendas with no consideration for civilians. It is clear that the majority of the Brazilian people are against the World Cup being held in Brazil, on which the government is wasting billions of money that could have been used to improve life in Brazil, not to mention offering help to the children living there: as of right now, poor Brazilian children are being forced into prostitution to meet the demand of fans of the World Cup. It is sad to see that protests are met with violence from the police force. There is nobody to listen, and the government ministers have the nerve to say that they will be hoping for a win in the match "to bring a feel-good factor to the country''?!


Bizarro Earth

Jealous lover eats rival's heart with a knife and fork in South Africa

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A jealous lover in South Africa stabbed a rival, cut out his heart and ate it with a knife and fork, police and media reported Thursday.

Police were called to the gruesome scene at a house in Cape Town's Gugulethu township by frantic neighbours, spokesman Frederick van Wyk told the Cape Times.

"On the scene they found a suspect, a Zimbabwean national, busy eating the heart of a human with a knife and fork," he said.

The woman at the centre of the love triangle told police that her former lover had visited the house where she was living with her current partner and they had chatted together before he gave her money to buy liquor and she left.

When she returned she found her partner, 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona, had been stabbed, Van Wyk said.

Neighbours alerted by the commotion said they had peered through the house windows to see the man cutting out Manona's heart and eating it.

Comment: This is happening more and more often, and there are probably several explanations. For more info see:
Cannibals rising - Zombie Apocalypse 2012
Is Solar and Cosmic Radiation Playing Havoc With Life on Planet Earth?
Zombie Nation: 70 MILLION Americans are on mind-altering drugs


Heart - Black

Rise of debtor's prisons: Truancy ticketing enriches schools by targeting those already impoverished

Eileen DiNino
Eileen DiNino
There's no doubt that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of the most iconic films from the 1980s. Ferris skips school, goes to a Cubs game, drives a Ferrari, gets the gorgeous girl, and outwits Principal Rooney. But would we have been laughing if Ferris' mother had been thrown in jail because of her son's truancy and ended up dying there?

That's exactly what happened to 55-year-old Pennsylvania mom Eileen DiNino. The unemployed mother of seven didn't have the wealth of the fictional Bueller family, so she was unable to pony up $2,000 for truancy fines that her kids racked up for missing school. Although the federal government outlawed debtor's prisons in the 1830s, last Friday DiNino, who lived in Berks County, an hour northwest of Philadelphia, was tossed in a jail cell to serve out a two-day sentence. A cause of death is still to be determined, but law enforcement officials didn't give DiNino the high blood pressure medication she needed. She was found dead in her cell on Saturday, reported The Associated Press.

While the trend of jailing impoverished people is chilling enough, what's also concerning is that being locked up for truancy fines is more common than most Americans realize. In Berks County alone, over 1,600 parents and guardians have been locked up since 2000 due to nonpayment of truancy fines, and two-thirds of those incarcerated are women. Like DiNino, the majority come from low income backgrounds and have no Bueller-style cash, savings, or credit card to offer up as payment.

Comment: Related:
Ponerized judge: Woman sentenced to prison for son's school absence dies in jail cell


Arrow Down

Eulogy for NHS: Heath care act to usher in two-tier health care system

Harry Leslie Smith
© Sarah Lee for the GuardianHarry Leslie Smith: 'The ­creation of the NHS made us understand that we were our brother’s keeper.'
In 1926, Harry Leslie Smith's sister died of TB in a workhouse infirmary, too poor for proper medical care. In 1948, the creation of the NHS put a stop to all that. In an extract from his new book, Harry's Last Stand, he describes his despair at the coalition's dismantling of the welfare state

A midwife with a penchant for gin delivered me into the arms of my exhausted mother on a cold, blustery day in February 1923. I slept that night in my new crib, a dresser drawer beside her bed, unaware of the troubles that surrounded me. Because my dad was a coal miner, we lived rough and ready in the hardscrabble Yorkshire town of Barnsley. Money and happiness didn't come easily for the likes of us.

Considering the hunger, the turmoil and the squalor in Britain during the early years of the 20th century, it was miraculous that I lived to see my third birthday. That I survived colic, flu, infection, scrapes and bangs without the benefits of modern sanitation, hygiene or health care, I must give thanks to my sturdy peasant genes. As a baby, I was ignorant of the great sorrow that enveloped England and Europe like a damp, grey fog. The nation was still in mourning for her dead from the world's first Great War. It had ended only five short years before my arrival. Nearly a million British soldiers had been killed in that conflict. It had begun in farce in 1914 and ended in bloody tragedy in 1918. In four years, that war killed more than 37 million men, women and children around the world.

Comment: It appears the UK is moving toward a disastrous system similar to the USA where 'health care' will only be available for those wealthy enough to afford it.


Bad Guys

Tensions brewing in South Yorkshire: Angry villagers warn of riots due to clashes with immigrant population

hexthorpe shouth yorkshire
Trouble brewing: Residents of Hexthorpe, South Yorkshire, said people would take the law into their own hands unless the authorities step in to combat anti-social behaviour they blame on Roma immigrants
Angry villagers yesterday said riots could break out if police do not deal with hundreds of Roma immigrants who they claim have ruined their community.

Residents of Hexthorpe, South Yorkshire, said people would take the law into their own hands unless the authorities step in to combat anti-social behaviour.

At a public meeting yesterday, emotions ran high as 120 locals confronted police and council officials.

Hexthorpe has a population of 3,300 and 500 Roma residents, most of whom are said to have arrived since January when entry rules to the UK were relaxed.

Villagers claim Roma groups are fly-tipping and leaving litter in the streets. They say they make so much noise at night that elderly residents have to sleep with ear plugs, while others are scared to go outside.

The meeting also heard allegations of assault.

Handcuffs

Police departments target low-level drug arrests to get millions in funding from the federal government

marijuana drug money
A new report revealed that state and local police departments make low-level drug arrests, such as marijuana possession, to get millions in funding from the federal government.

This little-known funding channel is called the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, which awards federal money to state and local police who are willing to join the failed and never-ending "War on Drugs."

"This money has helped reshape policing strategies and policies in major cities and a lot of rural areas throughout the United States," Harry Levine, a sociologist at Queens College, CUNY, told AlterNet.org.

"Although the government claims [Byrne grant money] goes toward apprehending high level traffickers, it's often very low level people who get arrested," added Levine. "It targets low-income people and people of color much more than anyone understands."

Comment: This may be one reason police departments are able to afford high tech military gear:

The militarization of US police continues...Machine guns, grenade launchers, silencers and more

Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of the US Police Force