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People power: Anti-govt protesters seize Ukrainian APCs, army units 'switch sides'


RT
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 06:42 UTC
People power in Kramatorsk
© AFP Photo/Anatoly Stepanov
Anti-government activists block a collumn of Ukrainian men riding on Armoured Personnel Carriers in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on April 16, 2014.
Kiev's military faced off with protesters in east Ukraine on Wednesday to sort out their differences...and found none. Soldiers appeared reluctant to go into battle against anti-government activists.

When Ukrainian Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) entered downtown Kramatorsk as part of Kiev's military operation against anti-government protesters in the east of the country, they were stopped in their tracks, surrounded by crowds of local residents.

One YouTube video of what happened next shows a woman coming to a soldier with the reproach: "You are the army, you must protect the people."

"We are not going to shoot, we weren't even going to," is the soldier's reply.

Similar conversations could be heard at each of several APCs which entered the city, with locals promising to defend their neighbors, in case the soldiers start a military operation.


Military vehicles parked in downtown Kramatorsk have turned into hotspots for political discussion, with people beside the vehicles trying to get their views through to people on top of the tanks.

Another video features the Kramatorsk crowds loudly chanting "Army with the people" and applauding the soldiers as they were leaving their APCs.

"Guys, we are with you! You are great!" women are heard yelling to the vacating soldiers.

Comment: The people are clever enough to see that killing fellow Ukrainians is not going to do any good for Ukraine and will only serve the minions in power, who want bloodshed so as to be able to call on NATO support.

This has so far been mainly peaceful in contrast to the Maidan protests, where policemen were set on fire and bulldozed by the fascist elements who were allowed and probably encouraged to take the lead.

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Beaker

French parliament bans genetically modified maize


RT
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:07 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Karl Plume
France's lower house of parliament passed a law Tuesday prohibiting genetically modified (GM) maize from being grown, citing environmental concerns. The law can be applied to any GM strain that is adopted at EU level.

The law follows a decree last month, which halted the planting of Monsanto's insect-resistant maize MON810, which will be allowed for cultivation in the EU, Reuters reported.

But if any strain of GM crop is adopted in the future at EU level - including Pioneer 1507, which was developed by DuPont and Dow Chemical - it will be subsequently banned in France.

Pioneer 1507 could be approved by the EU later this year, after 19 of the 28 EU member states failed to gather enough votes to block it.

The law adopted Tuesday by France's lower house (National Assembly) is similar to one rejected by the upper house (Senate) in February, which was seen as unconstitutional.
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2 + 2 = 4

A high school students reveals the holes in Common Core

Young Publius
Eagle Rising
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 06:15 UTC
common core protest
© unknown
The federal government has developed a new platform for American education: the Common Core Curriculum.

The leftists have been promoting it across the liberal mainstream media. There is a minor hole in the media's coverage of Common Core; they never ask the ones being affected by this platform: the students. In order to establish my future statements, I am a sophomore in high school; I am an honors student participating in the college prep course.

Recently I was "selected" to participate in a "test of the test" for the new Common Core state test (the PARCC) which is set to replace the PSAE in the state of Illinois. On paper, Common Core sounds like a good idea, asking a student to explain how they got the wrong answer to a math problem and if they can explain their answer giving them credit for their work; however, in the long term, this will only undermine the American education system. We all (I hope) have been taught that 2+2=4. Under Common Core, if a student answers with 5 instead of 4, and can explain their answer, the student will receive credit.
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Arrow Down

Pennsylvania trooper cleared after stomping on innocent man's skull while handcuffed


Police State USA
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 03:23 UTC
Troopers
© Getty Images

Exton - Police followed an innocent man into his home, believing that he was a fleeing suspect. When the man protested being handcuffed on his own floor with strangers searched his home, an officer cussed at him and stomped on his head, causing multiple facial fractures and shattered teeth.

The scene was so gruesome that a cop testified against a fellow cop. Yet instead of being fired, that stomping officer was later promoted, and now has been officially cleared of violating the victim's civil rights.

Botched Drug Raid

The incident dates back to August 19th, 2009, when a multi-agency drug task force performed a raid on a home on East Swedesford Road in Exton, Pennsylvania. Officers from the West Whiteland Police Department joined forces with the Pennsylvania State
Zachary
© Facebook
Zachary Bare had his skull stomped by a PA State Trooper.
Police "Clandestine Drug Lab Team." The group dressed in black masks and carried long guns into the targeted residence about 9:30 p.m. to stop the inhabitants from getting high.

Things did not go smoothly for the cops, as two of the suspects were able to escape through the back door. Officers resorted to combing the neighborhood for individuals matching the suspects' description.

A few blocks a way, officers came upon a young male wearing shorts and no shirt, entering a residence on nearby Heather Lane.

That man was actually 20-year-old Zachary W. Bare, who had just returned home from swimming in Brandywine Creek. The residence he entered was his own home, where he lived with his disabled mother.

Officers suspected Mr. Bare of being involved with a plot to get high without government permission.

They entered his home without permission and confronted him in his kitchen. Bare was ordered him to the floor and cuffed, so that officers could then perform a warrantless search on his house.
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Boat

South Korean ferry disaster: Two dead and more than 300 missing

Heather Saul
The Independent
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 02:40 UTC
South Korean ferry capsized
© Unknown
Passengers on the Sewol ferry included 325 high school students on a trip
More than 300 people remain unaccounted for after a ferry carrying 477 passengers, most of them school students, sank in cold waters off South Korea's southern coast, killing at least two and injuring 14.

The South Korean Coast Guard warned many more are missing than the initial 100 announced, as dozens of boats, helicopters and divers scrambled to rescue passengers.

The Sewol ferry, which had been carrying students from the Danwon high school in Ansan city near Seoul, had been travelling from the north-western port of Incheon to the popular southern tourist island of Jeju for a four day trip when it capsized.

The Coast Guard said 164 people have been rescued so far. One rescued passenger said he believed many others were trapped inside the ferry when it sank.

South Korea's Ministry of Security and Public Administration had reported that 368 people had been rescued and about 100 were still missing but later said those numbers had been miscalculated.

Emergency officials said at least 30 navy and coastguard divers are searching the ship for survivors. The US Navy has confirmed it will be sending a ship to join the rescue operation.

The vessel sent a distress call after it began listing, according to the Ministry of Security and Public Administration. The government said about 95 per cent of the ferry was submerged.
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Bomb

No jobs in America: U.S. corporations hold over $2 trillion In untaxed profits overseas

Kevin Drawbaugh and Patrick Temple-West
Huff Post
Tue, 08 Apr 2014 15:59 UTC
General Electric
© Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The General Electric Co. (GE) logo is seen on a refrigerator displayed for sale at a Lowe's Cos. store in Torrance, California, U.S, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013. General Electric Co. is scheduled to release earnings figures on Oct. 18.
* U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Wyden calls for reform

* Total of profits stashed abroad up 93 percent 2008-2013

* GE tops list, followed by Microsoft, Pfizer, Merck, Apple (Adds comments from Merck, Microsoft and Apple)

Foreign profits held overseas by U.S. corporations to avoid taxes at home nearly doubled from 2008 to 2013 to top $2.1 trillion, said a private research firm's report, prompting a call for reform by the Senate's top tax law writer.

"The new numbers ... certainly highlight what is one of the key challenges for tax reform. I do think there need to be some reforms in this area," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden told reporters on Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Under U.S. law, corporations do not have to pay income tax on most of their overseas profits until they are brought into the United States. These earnings can be held offshore for years if they are classified as indefinitely invested abroad.
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Folder

The tax man cometh...unless you're a big corporation

Adrian Rehn
PolicyMic
Fri, 11 Apr 2014 09:37 UTC
caterpillar company
© unknown
At long last, tax season has arrived! While most Americans dread having to get their records in order and input numerous fields only to be capped by brief euphoria or anger (depending on whether we get any money back), for many corporations, it's a much different experience. For some of them, it's like Christmas.

Many corporations have lower effective tax rates than individuals. While corporate profits have soared, Americans' incomes have staggered and yet we're the ones carrying the tax burden. Not only do many U.S. companies keep their overseas profits in foreign countries, about $2.1 trillion in all, double what it was in 2008, they also spend tens of millions of dollars on lawyers and auditors who help identify possible loopholes. We're overdue for a tax overhaul that is both unjust and overly complex.
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Chart Pie

Facebook targets providing financial services

Sally Davies, Duncan Robinson and Hannah Kuchler
CNBC
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:15 UTC
Facebook headquarters
© Harriet Taylor/CNBC
Facebook headquarters
Not content with being just a platform to host cat photos and status updates, Facebook is readying itself to provide financial services in the form of remittances and electronic money.

The social network is only weeks away from obtaining regulatory approval in Ireland for a service that would allow its users to store money on Facebook and use it to pay and exchange money with others, according to several people involved in the process.

The authorisation from Ireland's central bank to become an "e-money" institution would allow Facebook to issue units of stored monetary value that represent a claim against the company. This e-money would be valid throughout Europe via a process known as "passporting".

Facebook has also discussed potential partnerships with at least three London start-ups that offer international money transfer services online and via smartphones: TransferWise, Moni Technologies and Azimo, according to three people involved in the discussions.

In the case of Azimo, Facebook offered to pay the company $10 million to recruit one of its co-founders as a director of business development, according to people familiar with the situation. A Facebook spokesperson said the company did not comment on "rumour and speculation".
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Yoda

Jesters speaking truth to power: Lewis Black praises socialism as 'enforced Christianity', decries lack of action on job creation in National Press Club speech

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 13:46 UTC
Lewis Black
Comedian Lewis Black on Monday explained why he considered himself a socialist, and mocked those who accused President Barack Obama of being one.

"I do say that I'm a socialist, and I am a socialist, and that is about as powerless a position as you can be in the United States," he said at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C.

"And I really just wanted to start with that because the idea of calling anyone, outside of maybe Bernie Sanders, a socialist - to call Obama a socialist, you have got to be out of your godd*mn mind. There are seven socialists left in the country, and if you really want to see the leadership of the socialist party you can go to cemetery and find them."

"We have no effect," Black said. "As a matter of fact, when I was a kid you actually read about them, and I can't imagine in many of the history books, which have also kind of forgotten evolution is a real thing, that socialism is even really discussed historically."

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Cell Phone

Illinois driver chastised for infraction through unsolicited text message from police


Police State USA
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 13:25 UTC
No Texting While Driving sign
© Police State USA
No Texting While Driving sign.
A man was startled to receive a text message from a strange number chastising him for using his cell phone while driving.

After admittedly taking a phone call during his daily commute, the driver received an unsolicited text message from a number he had never seen before. It read: "Get off the phone when you are driving!"

The sender then provided an identity of "Illinois State Police Officer Robinson #54367."

Police State USA was alerted to this strange new enforcement technique directly from the driver, who wished to remain anonymous. After interviewing the driver and seeing the message directly on his phone, there is little to doubt about his story.
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