Society's ChildS


Fire

One killed, three injured in chemical plant explosion in Texas

St. John Barned-Smith
Houston Chronicle
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 17:55 UTC
Texas chemical plant explosion
© Jon Shapley

Three injured in blast during 'routine function' at facility on Bay Area Blvd.

Russell Sage heard a loud boom and felt blast waves shake his truck as he sat parked across the street from the PeroxyChem plant in Pasadena Saturday afternoon.

"All of a sudden, the truck vibrated and you could hear it," said Sage, 34, who was on call at a facility about 800 yards from the plant. "You could feel it in your chest."

Moments later, Sage saw police, paramedics and other emergency personnel rush into the plant in the 12000 block of Bay Area Boulevard. Two ambulances later left, one with lights blaring and the other silent.

PeroxyChem officials and police confirmed that one person was killed and three others injured during an explosion at 12:45 p.m. at a tank holding an oil-based cleaning solution, according to Vance Mitchell, with the Pasadena Police Department.

David Brannon, with the Pasadena Fire Marshal's Office, said the explosion was caused by an over-pressurized tank. Harris County Haz-Mat and Channel Industries Mutual Aid also responded to the accident, he said.

Comment: Several days ago four workers were critically injured in a Dow Chemical plant explosion in Massachusetts.

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Arrow Down

Middle East stocks crash as the global financial apocalypse accelerates

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 17:37 UTC
apocalypse time
It looks like it is going to be another chaotic week for global financial markets. On Sunday, news that Iran plans to dramatically ramp up oil production sent stocks plunging all across the Middle East. Stocks in Kuwait were down 3.1 percent, stocks in Saudi Arabia plummeted 5.4 percent, and stocks in Qatar experienced a mammoth 7 percent decline. And of course all of this comes in the context of a much larger long-term decline for Middle Eastern stocks. At this point, Saudi Arabian stocks are down more than 50 percent from their 2014 highs. Needless to say, a lot of very wealthy people in Saudi Arabia are getting very nervous. Could you imagine waking up someday and realizing that more than half of your fortune had been wiped out? Things aren't that bad in the U.S. quite yet, but it looks like another rough week could be ahead. The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are all down at least 12 percent from their 52-week highs, and the Russell 2000 is already in bear market territory. Hopefully this week will not be as bad as last week, but events are starting to move very rapidly now.

Much of the chaos around the globe is being driven by the price of oil. At the end of last week the price of oil dipped below 30 dollars a barrel, and now Iran has announced plans "to add 1 million barrels to its daily crude production"...

Comment: See also:

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Heart - Black

Zero Tolerance idiocy: Girl suspended for sharing her inhaler with schoolmate having an asthma attack


RT
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 16:49 UTC
schoolgirls
© Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Two honor roll students in Dallas were suspended and faced 30 days in an alternative school after one of the girls tried to save the other's life by sharing her inhaler. The school says it is an automatic decision when a controlled substance is involved.

Earlier in the week, 12-year-old Indiyah Rush offered her classmate, Alexis Kyle, 13, who has asthma, her inhaler when she saw her wheezing and gasping during gym class at Vernon Schrade Middle School in Dallas.

"I was just trying to save her life," Rush told Fox 4 News on Wednesday. "I didn't think I was trying to do anything bad."

Rush has had asthma since the age of five and carries a rescue inhaler.
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Stock Down

Hollande declares economic emergency in France


RT
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 15:06 UTC
Economic emergency France
© Miguel Medina / AFP
French President Francois Hollande has announced what he called "a state of economic and social emergency" involving a €2 billion plan to revive hiring and catch up with the world's economy. "Due to the threat of terrorism in the past, we had to introduce a state of emergency. But amid global chaos and an uncertain economic environment, it's appropriate to talk about a state of economic and social emergency. Employment is the most important question after the security of French citizens," TASS quotes Hollande as saying.

According to AP, in his annual speech to business, Hollande announced plans for training half a million jobless workers, greater use of apprenticeships, and €2,000 aid for small businesses that hire young workers. "New economic powers are rising, the digital economy is rapidly developing, we have to rethink our economic and social model," said the President. Hollande's socialist government has been failing to boost long-stagnant French growth or cut chronic unemployment, which has been about 10 percent for a long time. One of the key milestones of his presidential program of 2012 was to cut the unemployment. Hollande's chances for a second term may depend on his ability to create jobs.

Comment: Since 2012, when Hollande was elected, more than 600,000 people have lost their jobs, at a time when joblessness has decreased in most other large European economies. According to an IFOP - French Institute of Public Opinion - poll that was held in 2014: 86 percent of French people rejected Hollande, setting a new unpopularity record for leader of the country.

See also:

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Fire

Fire engulfs passenger ship off New Zealand coast, dozens 'jump into water'


RT
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 03:42 UTC
New Zealand ship fire
© WHAKATANE BEACON
A passenger ship with some 60 people on board caught fire one kilometer off the northeastern coast of New Zealand's North Island near the town of Whakatane. Rescue teams and local boats have responded to the emergency, pulling dozens of escaping people from water.

The boat reportedly belonged to White Island Tours, according to the NZ Herald. Media reports suggested there were up to 53 passengers and 7 crew members aboard the ship at the time the fire broke out. The total number was later confirmed as 57.

All passengers and crew have been evacuated and accounted for, according to Whakatane authorities.

RadioLIVE has described chaotic scenes, with some passengers and crew jumping overboard to escape the burning vessel while small local boats hurry to save them.

At least "four or five" people have been taken to a local hospital, the radio reported.

Coast Guard and emergency services rushed to the coast of Whakatane after police received a call reporting the situation at around 3:45 pm local time (2:45 am GMT).

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Cult

NYPD investigates assault on man pummeled, kicked by suspects chanting 'ISIS, ISIS'

Letitia Stein
Yahoo! News
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 12:43 UTC
NYC taxi cabs
© IngImage
New York City police were investigating on Sunday an assault on a man who was pummeled by suspects shouting "ISIS, ISIS," leaving him with bruises on his head and face, authorities said.

The 43-year-old man was attacked while walking with a nine-year-old girl in the Bronx around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, according to the New York City Police Department.

He was punched several times in the head, knocked down and kicked, police said. The victim, whose name was not given, was treated for injuries at a hospital and released.

He had been wearing a shalwar kameez, a traditional South Asian outfit featuring a long tunic, the New York Times reported.

The attack comes amid increasing anxiety in the United States over the threat posed by Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for militant attacks around the world.

No one was immediately arrested in the New York assault, which is under investigation by the police department's Hate Crime Task Force, the agency said in a statement on Saturday.

Comment: History repeating itself right before our very eyes. The Jews were treated the exact same way in Nazi Germany.

See also:

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Clipboard

Equality: Women will have to register for the draft

Richard Sisk
Military.com
Mon, 12 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
women military
© archive.hlntv.comWomen to be drafted for service on basis of equality.
Women will eventually have to register for the draft if "true and pure equality" is to be realized in the U.S. military, Army Secretary John McHugh said Monday. "If your objective is true and pure equality then you have to look at all aspects" of the roles of women in the military, and registration for the draft" will be one of those things. That will have to be considered."

McHugh said draft registration was not a subject to be decided by the services or the Department of Defense, and will ultimately have to be dealt with by Congress. He expected a "pretty emotional debate and discussion."

However, as more military occupational specialties are opened to women, the debate on Selective Service System registration was inevitable, McHugh said. "If we find ourselves as a military writ large where men and women have equal opportunity, as I believe we should," he said.

The question on women and the draft was posed to McHugh and Gen. Mark Milley, the new Army chief of staff, at the annual three-day meeting and exposition of the Association of the U.S. Army at the Walter E. Washington convention center in Washington, D.C. Milley deferred the question to McHugh, saying he could not comment on policy.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was to decide in January on whether combat roles, mostly in the infantry, armor, artillery and Special Operations, should be opened to women.
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Dollar

Powerball lottery: An effective voluntary tax

Michael Hiltzik
Los Angeles Times
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 15:43 UTC
Powerball lottery ticket photo
Powerball fever has gripped the country, as one might expect with a jackpot of $1.5 billion at stake in Wednesday's drawing.

Newspapers, online sites, and TV broadcasts are brimming with reports of massive sales and hopeful players -- The Times website, latimes.com, has run 18 posts about the lottery just since Jan. 10, when the last drawing failed to produce a winner and drove the jackpot to this record level. Powerball officials in the 44 states that participate in the game are quoted expressing astonishment at the size of the jackpot and the nationwide frenzy it has induced.

Comment: If you need a concrete example on why the powerball seems to be one big tax try using this simulator. Go ahead, try it.

The median household income in the US is somewhere around $53,000. If you use an entire year's worth of salary the usual outcome is that yes, maybe you will win some of the small prizes here and there but you will also be in the hole TEN times that amount. This sounds like stealing. And according to the data it is an epidemic that affects those of lower socioeconomic status more than others.

Results for using 50 grand are as follows:
You've played the lottery 28,186 times over about 270 years and spent $56,372, but won $5,072. You're in the hole $51,300. So why not throw some more money at that problem?


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Dominoes

'Survival Island 3' game pulled after uproar over killing Australian Aborigines


The Telegraph
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 20:50 UTC
survival island 3
An edited screen grab of the app Survival Island 3 on the petition's website.
A video game allowing players to kill Australian Aboriginals has been removed from mobile stores after more than 65,000 people signed an online petition against the "racist" app.

The app, Survival Island 3 - Australia Story, tells users that they have to find ways to stay alive in "one of the most dangerous places in the world", including having to "fight with aboriginals - you invaded their home!".

The change.org petition, which has been signed by more than 65,000 people since it was set up on Friday, called for the app to be pulled from mobile stores, adding that "killing indigenous Australians is not a game".

"Selling games that promote racism and negative stereotypes of indigenous Australians is not acceptable," the petition added.

Comment: This game is reminiscent of one that was released in 2008 called "Muslim Massacre", in which the player controls an "American Hero" whose goal is to "ensure that no Muslim man or woman is left alive".

The production and distribution of 'games' in which the player has to kill innocent civilians, and specifically civilians the established authorities want society to hate - the 'other', which has traditionally been Aborigines in Australia - is as much state propaganda as official lies from official sources.

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Attention

Detroit's toxic schools are dangerous health hazards to children and teachers, will the rest of US schools follow?

Dylan Hock
US Uncut
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 21:01 UTC
detroit schools
© US Uncut
Mushrooms, black mold, fecal matter, dead rodents, no heat. Detroit’s schools are just as toxic as Flint’s water.
Detroit's students are trying to learn while breathing in black mold and sitting in classrooms filled with buckets catching toilet water leaking through the ceiling. And that's not even the worst part.

Republican Governor Rick Snyder is not only using the financial emergency management laws to poison children in Flint; he's doing the same thing in Detroit via the public school system, which the state has controlled for the last seven years. Darnell Earley, the same emergency manager who oversaw the changes in Flint's water system, is currently in charge of Detroit's public schools.


The people of Flint wanted the world to see the pictures detailing their horrifying conditions. But now, teachers and parents want the world to see these images from Detroit Public Schools under the direction of Gov. Snyder's emergency management to get a better, broader idea of how Snyder ignores children for the sake of the bottom line:


Comment: What we see below is what happens when psychopathic politicians favor war and profit over infrastructure and caring for its citizenry. Detroit gives us an excellent example of what our 'leaders' intend for the rest of the country, and the world, if they have their way.


Comment: Across the US, we've seen increased spending on war, weapons and militarized police forces while children are poisoned from public water and public education. The United States will perish if the priorities don't change dramatically, and soon.

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