Society's ChildS


Health

Russia and Syria launch mass humanitarian operation in Aleppo

Old Aleppo, Syria
© REUTERS/ Hosam Katan/File photo
Russia and the Syrian government have launched a joint large-scale humanitarian relief operation in Aleppo, establishing three corridors for civilians and one for militants with weapons and equipment, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday.

"We have repeatedly called on the warring parties to reconcile, but every time the militants violated the cessation of hostilities, shelled villages, attacked the positions of government troops. As a result, a complex humanitarian situation has been created in Aleppo and its suburbs," Shoigu told reporters.

Comment: The ICRC welcomed the move, adding that humanitarian corridors must be "well planned and ... implemented with the consent of parties on all sides." Good luck telling that to the U.S.'s moderate rebels! The first group of Aleppo residents trapped in the siege against the terrorists holding the city began their escape today through the corridor created with Russian help.

MSF may also join an international call for help with the aid operation:
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) is interested in Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's call on international organizations to take part in Russia-backed humanitarian operation in Syria's Aleppo, the head of mission in Russia for MSF Operational Center in Brussels (OCB) told Sputnik on Thursday.

"As stated many times before, MSF is very concerned about the people of Aleppo, and the estimated 250,000 people trapped in the east of the city. MSF is thus interested in this call from Defense Minister Shoigu, and we are willing to make contact with the MoD [Ministry of Defense] to get accurate and comprehensive information on the conditions," Ewald Stals said.
Meanwhile US aid is stuck in the mud: USAID 'significant fraud': $239 million in desperately needed Syrian aid frozen


Laptop

Technology is now a cancer

"New and improved" is now an oxymoron. Every single day my cell phone tells me that 10 or
Brain on technology
© TechinfographicsThis is your brain on technology. Get help.
20 apps have been "updated" and none of them ever work better. Instead, a phone that worked perfectly when I got it now tells me, 10 to 20 times a day, "Unfortunately, Moto has stopped." The operating rule in technology for years now has been, if it isn't broke, graft something onto it so we can advertise it as new and improved.

Why does every coffee maker come with a clock? Because consumers have been banging their pitchforks on the iron gates of the appliance companies, chanting "We want clocks!"? No. They do it because they can. Likewise with variable-strength settings, and delayed-start. Now they're connecting the coffee pots to the Internet of Things so we can talk to them about coffee with our smartphones. I don't want to discuss coffee with my coffee pot. I just want a damn cup of coffee..

Okay the examples so far are trivial. These aren't:
  • More cars broke down and stranded their occupants on the road in 2015 than in any year on record. The main culprit, according to AAA: technology.
  • Farmers in several states are campaigning to win the right to repair their own machines, while manufacturers claim the farmers only lease the technology that makes the thing run, and any problem has to be handled by a certified technician in a company-owned service center. Tell a farmer that when, in harvest time, his $400,000 combine is sitting silent in a field containing his annual income for lack of a 100-dollar oxygen sensor. Then step back.
  • Long-haul truckers are desperate to escape the rising costs of technology — some of it mandated to control emissions. "The engines and drive trains of these new trucks are good for a million miles, easy," one operator told me. "But the technology starts shutting them down after about 20,000 miles." Nothing like having a refrigerated 18-wheeler stopped on an Interstate ramp in Florida because a crankshaft-position sensor is hallucinating.
  • Now comes the Internet of Things, featuring devices connected to the Internet via your Wifi system so you can use your smart phone to feed your dog, adjust the thermostat in your empty house, adjust your refrigerator temperature (something I personally have not done more than twice in 50 years), adjust the lighting in your empty house, and other necessary things.
There is no question that automobiles, for example, are far better today than they were 30 years ago, mainly because of improvements in the machining of engine and drive-train parts. We used to have to drive a car a thousand miles at painfully slow speeds to "seat" the valves and rings and bearings, which meant, let them bang against each other until they fit better. Even when properly broken in, and most of us didn't wait to exceed 60 miles per hour, it was rare for an engine to last 100,000 miles. Now, precision tools have done away with the break-in period, and at least tripled the life expectancy of engines. Score one for technology.

Handcuffs

teleSUR host Abby Martin discusses violent arrest at DNC

Abby Martin, host of Empire Files, was released by police on Monday after a violent arrest while covering DNC protests for teleSUR, but says that many more wait to be processed after "mass marches, mass protests and mass arrests and detentions," despite police reports that no arrests have been made at the DNC.
Abby Martin arrest DNC
© Mike Prysner/Twitter
Martin was on her way to a "Democracy Spring" event where there were reports of civil disobedience and arrests being made. The police had closed off all streets surrounding the action and directed Martin to an exit, where she was arrested for a lack of credentials. She and her producer, Mike Prysner, unknowingly entered an area where only those with credentials are allowed.
abby Martin arrest DNC
© Mike Prysner/Twitter
The police stopped them and told them to leave the area. As they were complying and leaving the area, another police officer grabbed Martin, twisted her arm, tore her dress and arrested her for "disorderly conduct."

Three cops "aggressively manhandled me," she said, before throwing her in a police van and driving her to an elementary school to be processed alongside many protesters that had participated in the Democracy Spring action and others.

"I was just trying to accept my fate and how unreal what was happening was," said Martin. "I just kept thinking about what people go through" in aggressive arrests every day in the U.S.

"It's just really stunning to go through that experience and to know that this is what police do to people every day in this country."

Stop

MSM pukes: Warns Americans against Russian invasion following Trump 'invitation'

Donald Trump
© Carlo Allegri / Reuters
Beware: The Russians are coming to invade an email near you, and at the invitation of Donald Trump, no less. At least that's how the mainstream media have interpreted the Republican Presidential candidate's latest comments.

Headlines referring to Trump's "call on Russia to cyber-invade the United States" have contributed to a media frenzy, with the DNC accusing Russians of hacking into its emails.

The topic can now be found at the top of news feeds across every social media platform following Trump's press conference on Wednesday when he jokingly weighed in on the email scandal.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," said Trump, while commenting on ongoing debacle. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

Comment: Trump wishes he had that power: 'I hope Russia has all 33,000 emails that Hillary deleted'


TV

The media is not showing what's really happening at the Democratic National Convention & epic rant about Killary

DNC Convention walkout
If you watch the nightly news and listen to the radio reports from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, one would think it's a huge success. Don't believe media reports.

There are protests all over the city!

Furthermore, the DNC is a bust, as almost half of the convention goers walked out of the convention after being threatened, according to reports from those who witnessed it.

Need I say any more, because the videos below will prove to you what's going on in Philly, which the controlled media won't allow you either to see or to know?

Comment: And on the outside of the convention, reporter Abbie Martin was treated to illegal detention by the police.




Info

South China Sea PR blitz: Times Square video tells Beijing's side

Times Square
© RIA Novosti. Igor Mikhalev
If you live in Manhattan and know nothing about what's going on in the South China Sea, you have a wonderful opportunity to get acquainted with the history of the region and the saga that's going down in it, thanks to a three-minute video, courtesy of Beijing, aired right in the middle of Times Square.

Projected from one of the large media screens in Times Square, the video tells the story of how the sea that we now know as the South China Sea was discovered, named and developed. It also features a number of experts from various countries that support China's position — one that rivals in the disputed part of the world would surely take issue with.

Wu Shicun, President of China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies, UK Labor party MP Catherine West, and Pakistani Ambassador to China Masood Khaled, are among the experts who underscore the historical and legal basis of China's sovereignty over the South China Sea from different angles.

"The 'dual-track approach' suggests that the relevant disputes are to be resolved through friendly consultations and negotiations between the states directly concerned," according to the narrative.

Bomb

Mass evacuation of DC Union Station during rush hour due bomb threat

Union Station Washington DC
© Joshua Roberts/Reuters
A mass evacuation at Union Station in Washington, DC has been ordered by Metropolitan police. There are conflicting reports suggesting it was due to a bomb threat.

Police blocked off streets around Columbus Circle as people left the station. The busy train station is one block away from the US Capitol.

"We got a bomb threat," an officer who did not give his name told Reuters, as he urged people to leave the station.

Police cars, a fire truck, ambulance and K-9 units are at the station. A bomb-sniffing dog was seen walking among people standing outside the train station.

Eye 2

Psychopath: Cop on trial for murder of teen allegedly told witness "this is my second one"

Stephen Rankin
© Portsmouth PoliceStephen Rankin
Stephen Rankin, a Portsmouth, Virginia police officer on trial for the murder of an 18-year-old, told a witness "this is my second one."

Rankin's trial for killing William Chapman in a Wal-Mart parking lot started on Wednesday with several protesters outside the court holding signs reading "Black Lives Matter."

The comment, which was made to a store employee and recorded by his Taser's camera just seconds after he killed the unarmed black man, was played to the court at a Tuesday pretrial hearing.

"This statement is not probative of anything," said James Broccoletti, Rankin's lead attorney, according to the Guardian.

However, Virginia 3rd Circuit Court Judge Johnny E. Morrison denied the motion, agreeing with prosecutors, who argued they should not have to sanitize evidence surrounding the shooting.

Robot

Using robots to kill suspects increases militarization of police

police robots
Through the 1033 program, law enforcement agencies may obtain unmanned ground vehicles, explosive ordnance disposal robots (bomb robots) and multiple police bots, such as the iRobot Packbot 510s and the MarcBot.
As in many cities around the country, Black Lives Matter held a demonstration in Dallas to protest the police shootings of two more black men, Alton Sterling of Louisiana and Philando Castile of Minnesota. During the demonstration, Micah Xavier Johnson, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, mounted his own personal, deadly protest by shooting police officers guarding the nonviolent rally. Five officers were killed and seven wounded.

After negotiating for some time with Johnson, who was holed up in a community college parking garage, police sent in a robot armed with explosives and killed him. Dallas police chief David Brown said, "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the subject was," adding, "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger."

The legal question is whether the officers reasonably believed Johnson posed an imminent threat of death or great bodily injury to them at the time they deployed the robot to kill him.

Johnson was apparently isolated in the garage, posing no immediate threat. If the officers could attach explosives to the robot, they could have affixed a tear gas canister to the robot instead, to force Johnson out of the garage. Indeed, police in Albuquerque used a robot in 2014 to "deploy chemical munitions," which compelled the surrender of an armed suspect barricaded in a motel room.

But the Dallas police chose to execute Johnson with their killer robot. This was an unlawful use of force and a violation of due process.

Comment: It's a vicious cycle. The more military-style equipment police forces have access to, the more their training and tactics will revolve around this equipment. Why bother negotiating with a suspect when they can just be murdered by remote control?


Attention

Police station stand-off in Armenia growing into a full-blown 'Maidan'

yerevan armenia
© Vahram Baghdasaryan / Photolure / ReutersAn armed man stands inside the Erebuni police station seized by "Sasna Tsrer" movement members in Yerevan, Armenia, July 23, 2016.
The standoff in the Armenian capital of Yerevan between militants of the radical opposition organization "Constitutive Parliament" and security forces is ongoing. The holding hostage of security personnel has given rise to the organization of street confrontations against the acting government in the style of the Ukrainian "Maidan."

The standoff continues

The bandits continue to remain on the territory of the occupied police unit in the Erebuni district. Yesterday, they burned the fourth police car. They are still demanding the release of prominent warlord Jirayr Sefilianan and the resignation of the government. Rallies of the pro-American opposition in support of extremists are being organized nearby. Another march in support of the militants was held yesterday.

The risk of new attacks

The Yerevan TV Tower has been put under heavy guard which indicates that the government fears new armed actions. The elimination of the terrorists, most of whom are veterans of the Karabakh war, could provoke an increase in protests. On the other hand, leaving the terrorists with impunity would give a carte blanche to other armed groups. The Armenian authorities are faced with difficult choices.

Comment: Commenting on this ongoing event and the recent shooting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Russian writer Mikhail Onufrienko comments:
The US exerts constant pressure on us and our European neighbors, using terrorists against the weakest Muslim states that form a crescent in the south of Russia and the European Union. The attacks cannot be successful but they keep populations and governments in suspense, with gaping holes in security systems and shootings in the capitals, spreading panic among the population.

Under these circumstances, Russia must not give in to provocations. We need to constantly ask ourselves: "Who stands to benefit from this?" And if it's not profitable to us but to our "overseas partners", we need to resist emotional reactions. "Putin, commit troops"? In your dreams! "Russia, hands off Ukraine! The Crimea and a piece of the Donbass are enough for you." Ditto. "Break off relations with Turkey"? Dream on. "Implement severe sanctions against the EU to make them starve"? No way.