Society's ChildS


Quenelle

Browser plugin unmasks political money trail by displaying campaign contributions


RT
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 00:52 UTC
Image
A screenshot from allaregreen.us
Ever wonder where your congressperson's campaign contributions come from? A new browser plugin is aiming to shed light on the money trail, and it was built by a teenager.

While there are already great tools to help informed voters look into what special interests are impacting local and national politics, such as those by the Sunlight Foundation, the new web browser tool is possibly the easiest way so far to get a glimpse into the often shady underpinnings of corporate contributions.

The plugin automatically highlights the name of any US lawmaker as you browse through the web, and a simple hover produces a popup window with a quick rundown of where that politician's money is coming from.
Read More...
Sheeple

Herd behavior is a fundamental aspect of capitalism

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge.com
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 06:45 UTC
Herd Mentality
© Unknown

"In economics, [the mainstream] rely on experts who don't know what they are talking about," explains Professor Steve Keen in this brief but compelling documentary discussing 'when the herd turns'. "Herd behavior is a fundamental aspect of capitalism," Keen chides, but it is left our of conventional economic theory "because they don't believe it;" instead having faith that investors are all "rational individuals" (e.g. willing to pay 112x for OpenTable), which he notes, means "[economists] can't foresee any crisis in the future." The reality is - "we do have herd behavior" and people will follow the herd off a cliff unless they are aware its going to happen. "Contrary to herd wisdom, financial crisis are not unpredictable black swans..."

Read More...
Padlock

Two teens left in holding cell without food, toilet paper over the weekend


RT
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 23:42 UTC
jail
© AFP Photo / Anne-Christine Poujoulat

Serious questions have been raised after two teenagers were left unattended in a courthouse holding cell in Douglas County, Georgia over the weekend. The teens were left with no food or even toilet paper.

The teens, ages 16 and 17, appeared before a judge Friday afternoon, one for a probation violation and the other on a vehicle theft charge, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Neither suspect's parents showed up for court, so the two were supposed to be transported back to the Marietta Youth Detention Center, Douglas County Sheriff Phil Miller said during a press conference.

But somehow, that transport never happened.

Instead, the two teenagers were left alone for nearly three days in the courthouse. Their holding cell contained only benches and a window on the door facing the building's basement. There was a bathroom, allowing the teens access to water, but there was no toilet paper.

"As a law enforcement agency that taps itself as a professional agency, I'm as embarrassed today as I can possibly be," Miller said.

Deputies left for the weekend without noticing the teens.

"Nobody that works in security is supposed to leave that building at night without checking the cells, and it's not a hard job to do," Miller added.

The cells have a color-coded light system that alerts deputies when a cell is locked and someone is inside. Security officers should have noticed the red lights on the teenagers' cell.

"We, not following our policy, allowed this to happen and we're wrong," said Miller. "We're going to do everything in my power to correct it."

Deputies discovered the two hungry teens when they returned to work on Monday. They were immediately fed and attended to, Miller said.

The sheriff's department is investigating eight to 10 officers involved in the incident, and Miller said that some may lose their jobs, based on the results of the internal investigation.
Read More...
Clock

Live-in nanny won't leave Los Angeles home, despite legal notice to quit


CBS Los Angeles
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:46 UTC
A couple in Upland says their live-in nanny refuses to leave their home.

It's a story Only On 2.

Amy Johnson spoke to the couple who have tried everything, including legal measures, to get the nanny out.

Johnson was there when the woman was served legal papers in the home in the 1200 block of North Vallejo Way.

The couple, Marcel and Ralph Bracamonte, told Johnson the first couple of months with the nanny "were good," but she soon stopped working and complained of health issues.

At this point, they said they asked the 64-year-old nanny to leave, but Diane Stretton refused to go. They said they served her with legal papers, but they turned out to be the wrong legal papers.

For the time being, officials told the couple the nanny can come and go as she pleases.

Police told Bracamonte there was nothing they could do.

"They told me it was now a civil matter," Bracamonte said, "and I have to [legally] evict her. So this lady is welcome inside my house, anytime she wants, to eat my food anytime she wants and harass me basically. I'm now a victim in my home and it's completely legal."

Read More...
Eye 2

Behind our backs: Banksters concoct another secret trade agreement - TISA

James Hall
Corporotocracy
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:46 UTC
The significance of the TPP -Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the TTIP - Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement has your head spinning already, now add another globalist gift to the Corporatocracy model of total trade domination, the TISA - Trade In Services Agreement. According to the trade group, Coalition of Service Industries, "the TISA is currently being negotiated in Geneva, Switzerland with 50 participants that represent 70 percent of the world's trade in services . . . The TISA has the opportunity to address major and fundamental barriers to trade in services affecting the United States and the globe. Some barriers to services trade include limited movement of data across borders, unfair competition from state-owned enterprises, lack of transparency and need for due process of law, and forced local ownership and discrimination in obtaining business licenses and permits."
TISA
Countries participating in the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA)
What a noble goal, Transparency. When did you hear about this updated GATS and WTO agreement? Well, if you are watching the pressitute media, you probably are in the dark. However, the Office of United State Trade Representative just loves formulating international rules, requirements and regulations, since the benefits are so dramatic. "If business services were to achieve the same export potential as manufactured goods globally, U.S. exports could increase by as much as $800 billion."

Just one question, that never seems to get an answer. Why do all these "so called" beneficial trade agreements doom the United States to a permanent balance of trade deficit?
Read More...
Wolf

Why did the USDA murder over 4 million animals in 2013?

Judy Molland
Care2
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 10:17 UTC
eagle
© unknown
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) murdered 4.3 million wild animals, of which 2 million were native species, in fiscal year 2013. The animals included three eagles, one bald and two golden, which are protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

Also killed were 75,326 coyotes; 345 mountain lions; 321 wolves, including one very rare Mexican gray wolf; 603 monkeys; 6,498 vultures; 10,486 mynas, a type of starling; and 37 frogs, among many others.

How can this be?

On the one hand, we have the Endangered Species Act, signed into law in 1973 by President Richard Nixon who, in one of his finer moments, declared:
Read More...
Stock Down

Obama approval rating plummeting -- yet Americans still think its OK to kill people with drones

Michael D. Shear and Dalia Sussman
New York Times
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:43 UTC
obama
© Doug Mills/The New York TimesMurderer-in-chief Obama, people don't like you.
Dissatisfaction with President Obama's conduct of foreign policy has shot up among both Republicans and Democrats in the past month, even though a slim majority supports his recent decision to send military advisers to Iraq to confront the growing threat from militants there, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The survey suggests that most Americans back some of Mr. Obama's approaches to the crisis in Iraq, including majority support for the possibility of drone strikes. But the poll documents an increasing lack of faith in the president and his leadership, and shows deep concern that further intervention by the United States in Iraq could lead to another long and costly involvement there.

The poll found that 58 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Mr. Obama is handling foreign policy, a jump of 10 points in the last month to the highest level since Mr. Obama took office in 2009. The spike in disapproval is especially striking among Democrats, nearly a third of whom said they did not approve of his handling of foreign policy.

Fifty-two percent of Americans say they disapprove of how the president is dealing with the current violence in Iraq (including about a third of Democrats); 37 percent approve.

"I voted for him because he said, 'Give me four more years and I will fix everything,' but nothing is being fixed," Michelle Roberts, 34, a Democrat from Salem, Mass., said in a follow-up interview. "I understand he wants to fight terrorism, but send in robots, drones. Don't send in our troops. Our men and women are dying for what?"

Comment: It's sad that even those who disagree with Obama think it's a good idea to murder people with drones -- just protect our troops! U.S. society

Read More...
Coffee

Dark side of New Age drug tourism: Shaman's herbal hallucinogen ayahuasca a fatal lure for naive experience junkies

Benjamin Radford
Live Science
Fri, 20 Jun 2014 17:04 UTC
ayahuasca
© Chris KilhamStrange brew: Ayahuasca is the latest traditional shamanic rite to be monetized and marketed to the spiritually starved.
The mother of a man who drowned while using a shamanic hallucinogenic drug has filed a lawsuit against the New Age spiritual retreat where the incident occurred.

Garth Dickson, according to his mother, was under the influence of an herbal mixture known as ayahuasca (pronounced eye-uh-WAH-skuh) when he walked into Shasta Lake and drowned in 2012 while at a retreat called the White Flame Institute, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The White Flame Institute for Consciousness and Liberation offers "transformational life classes" and a "shamanic certification program" along with classes on healing and personal growth, according to the institute's website. Mrs. Dickson accuses the institute and its leader, Bonnie Serratore, of negligence and encouraging the use of ayahuasca as part of the treatments. [5 Controversial Mental Health Treatments]

This is, of course, not the first time that people have died in New Age services: In February 2010, guru and motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was charged with three counts of manslaughter for his role in staging a sweat lodge ceremony in Sedona, Arizona, according to CNN. After an hour inside the small, steam-filled tent, some participants collapsed and others began vomiting. People tried to leave because they were getting sick, but Ray allegedly encouraged them to stay and endure the discomfort, which he said was a form of cleansing that would make them stronger. Three people died in the sweat lodge, 18 were hospitalized, and more were sickened; Ray was eventually convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to two years in prison.

Comment: Drug-induced experiences should not be confused with spiritual development; they are a cheap substitute, a state of experience, not a station of Being. But people these days are so starved of spiritually meaningful experience and spiritual instruction that they will turn to any new fad for fulfillment.

Read More...
Oscar

Actor Gary Oldman offers over-the-top apology after saying Hollywood 'run by Jews'

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:37 UTC
Oldman
© Getty ImagesGary Oldman: speaks the truth about Jews in Hollywood; apologizes to ADL; includes fact that Jews run Hollywood in his apology.
This reads like French farce. Gary Oldman gave an interview to Playboy in which he said that Mel Gibson was the victim of political correctness, because Jews "run" Hollywood - that story was reported yesterday - and as day follows night, today the British actor has reportedly offered an apology to the Anti Defamation League that praises Jews as the "chosen people," who are persecuted throughout the ages, who are first to hear the word of god, and...

First, the Telegraph reports on the Playboy interview:
Oldman said: "Mel Gibson is in a town that's run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he's actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him - and doesn't need to feed him anymore because he's got enough dough.

"He's like an outcast, a leper, you know?

"But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn't turned and said, "That f***ing kraut" or "F*** those Germans," whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That's what gets me.'

Comment: Oldman is clever. Unless he was coerced into writing the apology, it looks like a subtle way of reinforcing the points he made in the Playboy interview. Yes, the "Jews own Hollywood" (see: Who runs Hollywood? C'mon), and yes, celebrities and people of influence are held to a ridiculous double standard of fawning at the feet of organizations like the ADL with obsequious apologies.

Read More...
Ambulance

Florida man killed in gruesome wood chipper accident

Kashmira Gander
The Independent
Tue, 24 Jun 2014 16:18 UTC
Image
© Robert King/ Newsmakers
A policeman said he had "never seen anything like this" in 20 years of service

A man was killed by a wood chipper in the US state of Florida on Monday afternoon, in an incident which has left police officers unable to officially identify the man's body.

The deceased man and his two fellow tree service workers had been clearing debris at around 4:15pm in Davie, Broward County, when he went through the machine, Captain Dale Engle of Davie police told reporters.

Hours later at around 7:30pm, police officers were still struggling to find and identify the man's remains.

Police said on Tuesday that the death was caused by a "workplace accident," CBS News reported.

"I've been in police work 20 years. I've never seen anything like this," said Captain Dale Engle of Davie police told the broadcaster. "It was a gruesome scene."
Read More...