Society's ChildS


Health

UN to deliver humanitarian aid to three besieged Syrian cities

Devastated street in Syria's Deir Ez-Zor
© AFP 2015/ AHMAD ABOUD
The Syrian government on Thursday agreed to allow the United Nations to deliver humanitarian aid to three besieged Syrian cities, the UN said in a statement.

"The UN welcomes today's approval from the Government of Syria to access Madaya, Foah and Kefraya and is preparing to deliver humanitarian assistance in the coming days," the statement said.

The organizations added it was concerned over the plight of about 400,000 people in the cities of Deir Ez-Zor, Daraya, Foah and Kafraya, besieged by the conflicting parties, as well as in the besieged areas of East Ghouta region of the rural Damascus.

"Almost 42,000 people remaining in Madaya are at risk of further hunger and starvation. The UN has received credible reports of people dying from starvation and being killed while trying to leave," the statement said.

Pills

Cops abusing steroids at alarming rates, resisting mandatory drug testing

cops steroids
Police departments all over the world have physical fitness requirements for new recruits. Their argument is that strength and fitness are necessary for the job of policing. But as time goes on, the standards for officers keeping in shape are usually not maintained, making it curious why the standards were put in place at all for new officers. But over the past decade, an increasing number of officers - even seasoned ones - have been doing a lot more than keeping in shape on the job... they have been getting pretty huge. Now some people are wondering if there could be a connection between this and incidences of police brutality and violence happening all over the United States.

Steroid use among officers could account for the side effect of "roid rage" so common with abnormally high levels of testosterone.

In one case, Susan Donaldson James of ABC News spoke with a six-year veteran of a Pennsylvania police force "patrolling an area encroached upon by urban crime."

Matthew and his partner said that they "struggled for nearly seven minutes to subdue the crazed youth, who was high on PCP and had another officer in a head lock."

It was shortly after that close call, that Matthew turned to illegal anabolic steroids "for both strength and self-esteem," he said.

Comment: Clearly, there is a severe, systemic problem with the way we handle law enforcement in this country.


Snakes in Suits

The 'new normal' of the collective American consciousness

American consciousness

America is to be judged by its citizens, not its politicians. But if Americans lose contact with one another; substitute real, tangible realities with virtual ones projected on internet and television screens; refuse to engage in the democratic process and choose passivity over involvement, nihilism over hope, fatalism over self-determination; remain complacent about if not ignorant of US actions and wars in the world; adopt definitions of themselves that are crafted by self-serving special interests, profiteers or merchants of war and hate running now for president from both political parties, they lose all concepts of who they are, what they stand for, and what really constitutes American values.


As it stands, Americans are on the cusp of recognizing that they are losing their historic identity, or the one they embraced before 9/11.

In the collective American consciousness questing for material objects, success, fame, wealth, property and stock equities, together with a megalomaniacal drive for Empire to dominate a world now splitting itself into East and West, there remains no public figure speaking for "everyone"; for unity through diversity; for peace; for the poor, homeless, disabled and elderly; for children and young people who will inherit a financially bankrupt nation that cheerleads its populist billionaires who take all, avoid taxes, give little back, blame the scapegoat, and ignore the plight of others, particularly the plight of young generations who will inherit it all as they advance into tomorrow's leadership positions. Who speaks for them?

Vader

New Jersey high schooler accused of violating bullying laws for making anti-Israel tweets

Bethany Koval
Bethany Koval
A social media storm erupted after administrators at a New Jersey high school accused a student of bullying because of anti-Israel comments that she posted on Twitter. They say that the tweets may have violated the state's broad anti-bullying laws.

Bethany Koval, a 16-year-old Israeli Jew, said on Wednesday that she was called to the principal's office at Fair Lawn High School and reprimanded for making tweets criticizing Israel and mentioning that a pro-Israel classmate had unfollowed her on Twitter.

Heart - Black

Mayor of German city where women were sexually assaulted during New Year's celebrations blames women for attacks

german women drinking
© AP Photo/ Marc Kleine-Kleffmann
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker recommended that German women should change their behavior and follow a special set of rules to avoid sexual harassment, German media reported.

During an emergency meeting on Tuesday, she proposed a number of measures to prevent similar attacks in the future.

In particular, the mayor referred to a code of conduct for young women and girls. In her opinion, women should keep themselves at arm's length from strangers. They also should immediately seek help of passers-by and the police as well as call on other people to bear witness to the attack.


Comment: Another case of an authority figure totally losing the plot when it comes to sexual assaults against women. People like Mayor Reker continually want to pin the blame on the victims, but what they seem not to understand is that no matter what women are doing, there is never, ever an excuse to rape someone. It's absolutely ridiculous to think that women keeping at arm's length from strangers will have any effect at stopping sexual assault. Get a clue Reker! We need to protect our women and punish rapists, not make women feel responsible for what is a humiliating violation of their body, mind and soul.


Recker promised to strengthen security in Cologne during festivities, but warned young women against inappropriate behavior during public events where people are drinking.

Heart - Black

Asylum seekers can't open bank accounts, left in debt & homeless

Refugees
© Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
A majority of newly arrived refugees in Britain either end up in severe debt or sleeping on the streets, as they are ineligible to open bank accounts, the Refugee Council has revealed.

Several asylum seekers, who believed their lives were about to change for the better, have found themselves sleeping rough days after arriving in Britain.

The Refugee Council reports that many refugees have problems opening bank accounts, from where they can access wages or benefits because they do not possess forms of identification recognized in the UK.

Comment: If the leaders of the UK wanted to assist the refugees fully then they could do so at any time. But they obviously aren't doing that.


Dollar Gold

Gold soars after China sells record amounts of reserves to defend its currency

China stock market
© Unknown
A little over two months ago, when official PBOC data revealed that not only had Chinese reserve outflow slowed down, but actually posted an uptick in October, we warned that "Capital Is Still Flowing Out Of China, Here's How Beijing Is Hiding It", in which we explained that in taking a page from the western playbook, the Chinese central bank had shifted to less "traceable" forms of currency manipulation, namely via "forwards". To wit:
Standard central-bank intervention to support a currency generally involves selling dollars and buying the home tender. In this case, China's large state banks borrowed dollars in the swap market, sold the U.S. currency in the cash spot market and used forward contracts with the central bank to hedge those positions.

"If you can intervene without actually diminishing your reserves, it's somehow viewed as better," said Steven Englander, global head of Group-of-10 foreign exchange-strategy in New York at Citigroup Inc. Such central-bank activity "may not look quite as dramatic as the sale of reserves, and they may prefer that optically," he said.
Since this form of FX intervention does not impact cash reserves and is not reflected in a change of underlying spot securities, China could intervene for an extended period and not show it, which is precisely what happened in October and November.

Comment: It looks like the world is standing at the cliff's edge, getting ready to dive:


Hearts

German MPs infuriate Kiev by raising $217,000 for the children of Donbass

Donbass
© REUTERS/ Gleb Garanich
Two members of the German Parliament raised almost 200,000 euros ($217,000) for the children of Donbass, suffering from an economic blockade imposed by Kiev in November 2014.

Throughout 2015, Wolfgang Gerke and Andrej Hunko, the two members of the German Bundestag, raised money for the children of Donbass and then sent the funds to medical institutions in Gorlovka, Lugansk and Donetsk, Hunko told RIA Novosti in an interview.

"Just before last Christmas, Wolfgang Gerke and I started a small charity event for a children's hospital in Gorlovka... We were amazed by the resonance of our fundraising campaign," Hunko said, adding that already by February 2015 the two German MPs managed to raise over 30,000 euros ($32,500), which they immediately sent to Donbass.

Comment: German society continues to fall victim to an anti-Russian & anti-Muslim hysteria, so it's great to see these German politicians stand up and act on the truth. Hopefully their actions will inspire others.


USA

TSA frisks 10-year-old girl after finding juice pouch

tsa_10 year-old
© Kevin Payne/Youtube
A young girl's father was outraged after a TSA agent patted her down for nearly two minutes at an airport. The search was initiated after agents found a juice pouch mistakenly left in a carry-on handbag.

The frisking happened last week in North Carolina and the girl's father recorded the incident on his smart phone. Kevin Payne and his daughter, Vendela, were heading home to San Diego by way of Raleigh-Durham International Airport, when Transportation Security Administration agents discovered a Capri Sun juice pouch.

Liquids exceeding three ounces are not allowed in carry-on bags for fear that they might contain explosives, and so TSA agents initiated a pat down followed by an hour of extra screening.

"Maybe the TSA agents were bad apples, maybe they were under-trained, maybe they need re-training, maybe they did everything by the book," Kevin Payne said, according to KXAN. "I don't really know, but it was an uncomfortable situation."

Payne said that TSA agents told him he wasn't allowed to film, but he recorded the incident on his smart phone anyway, and has since posted the video on YouTube and Nextdoor.

"I'm a very big proponent of security, and if they were patting me down no problem, but this was a 10-year-old girl," Payne said, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. "The whole system seems to not work the way it should be working."

Comment: Thinking on the part of TSA agents is either not allowed, or just not possible.


USA

Civil war can now be seen on America's horizon

US civil war

Comment: This article is being published for educational purposes only. We do not support or condone any act or acts that are being suggested by the following piece but are presenting it here as a means to understand how a few strata in US society are thinking about domestic conflict in the United States.


If internationalists were to get their way fully with the world and future historians write their analysis from a globalist perspective of the defunct American nation, they will probably say simply that our collapse was brought about by our own incompetence - that we were our own worst enemy. Yes, they would treat America as a cliché. They will of course leave out the destructive influences and engineered disasters of elitists, that would just complicate the narrative.

My hope is that we do not prove these future historians correct, and that they won't have an opportunity to exist. My work has always been designed to help ensure that resistance thrives, but also that it is pursued in the most intelligent manner possible.

As I write this, China's stock market has crashed 7% and was shut down by Chinese authorities who are once again initiating outright intervention to stem the tide. U.S. markets are quickly tracking lower. Oil is plummeting.

Comment: The tyrannical US government is actually just a reflection of much larger processes that can be said to be occurring cosmically. What if truly fighting meant not physically fighting or engaging government forces at all - but taking an even broader view of things? And if so, what would that broader context entail? Where would we look to see and understand that a civil war, while seemingly justified on its own level, is nothing compared to another war which is currently taking place? One with even greater import and implications - and that will affect many generations to come - and, indeed, all of humanity?

See:

Riding the Wave: The Truth and Lies About 2012 and Global Transformation

The Secret History of the World and How to Get Out Alive

Comets and the Horns of Moses

Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection: The Secret History of the World - Book 3