Society's ChildS


USA

Video: Chris Hedges on the American Empire's descent into dystopia

For money Mr. Fish
In a powerful speech delivered at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, N.Y., Chris Hedges analyzes fascism and empire in the Trump age.

The Truthdig columnist begins by enumerating the many factors that are currently contributing to the United States' demise politically, socially and environmentally. He then adds, "Overseeing [America's] descent at the highest level of state and federal government is a motley collection of imbeciles, con artists, thieves, opportunists and war-mongering generals, and yes, I am also speaking about the Democratic Party."

Stormtrooper

Cop forces K9 to maul unarmed elderly woman for no reason

K9 to maul 60-year-old Wendy Tucker
A police officer has been suspended without pay and now stands indicted on charges of official misconduct after forcing his K9 to maul 60-year-old Wendy Tucker. After a long battle for its release, the dashcam video of the incident has finally been made public. It is nothing short of horrifying.

On January 29, 2014, Tuckerton police Cpl. Justin Cherry and another officer responded to a residence where Wendy Tucker was reported as an unwelcome guest. After agreeing to leave, Tucker said she would take the bus home due to the fact that her license was suspended. But shortly afterward, Cpl. Cherry observed Tucker driving and attempted to pull over her vehicle.

Asserting that she was distrustful of the Tuckerton police officers, Tucker did not immediately pull over and instead drove to the municipal complex in Barnegat before stopping her car in the parking lot. While in the custody of Barnegat police, Tucker remained sitting in her vehicle when Cherry and other officers dislocated her left arm by roughly pulling Tucker out of the car and throwing her to the ground.

Magnify

Military services failed to report hundreds of criminal service member fingerprint records to FBI

Mourners Holocombe Family
© Eric Gay/APMourners arrive at a funeral for members of the Holcombe family who were killed when an Air Force veteran with a violent history opened fire at the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, killing 26.
One month after an Air Force veteran with a history of violence killed 26 churchgoers in Sutherland, Texas, the Pentagon inspector general released a study showing that the military services failed to submit required fingerprint data to the FBI's national database in hundreds of cases where service members had been convicted of violent crimes.

The requirements to send fingerprint records and final disposition reports of court-martialed service members were not followed in as many as one-fourth of the relevant cases, the watchdog said in a review begun in February.

During the two years reviewed, 2015 and 2016, the services' law enforcement arms were supposed to submit 2,502 fingerprint cards to the FBI, but 601 (24 percent) were not, auditors found. And only 780 (31 percent) of the required final disposition reports were received by the FBI's national Criminal Justice Information Service.

Comment: See also:


Mail

Open letter from Susiya, West Bank: Save our village from Israeli bulldozers

Palestinian protest Susiya village West Bank
© Allison DegerPalestinians from Susiya lead protest against the upcoming demolition of their village.
As I write this letter, our village, Susiya, located in the south Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank of Palestine, is in immediate threat of demolition. The only way to stop the demolition is through international pressure.

On 22 November 2017 the Israeli State Attorney's Office announced that within 15 days they plan to demolish 20 buildings, which represent one-fifth of our village. This will violate the fundamental human rights of around 100 villagers, half of them children. The 20 buildings are our homes and also provide shelter for our animals. The timing of the demolition - in the middle of winter - could not be more devastating. It will leave us vulnerable and exposed to freezing rain and harsh winds. Our health clinic which provides health services for around 500 people from our own and surrounding communities, is among the buildings they plan to demolish. The Israeli authorities also want to demolish our village council which provides services for 350 local residents.

Susiya West Bank village map
© OCHASusiya: A community at imminent risk of forced displacement.
In 2012 we commissioned a master plan for our village, which was rejected several times by the Israeli authorities. The rejection prevents us from building houses together with the necessary infrastructure such as running water, electricity and paved roads to create a sustainable life in our village. It leaves us no choice but to remain on our land living in tents, under very difficult conditions, forbidden from building or repairing anything, in order to protect our land from the threat of annexation by the surrounding settlements. In the Israeli government's recent response it was agreed to examine the legal principle of the planning issue. Yet despite the potential to develop a master plan for the village, the government states that it will demolish the 20 buildings immediately. And as we know from past experience, if they come to demolish once, nothing will prevent them coming back and trying to demolish the rest of our village.

Comment: For the attention of Jared Kushner.

Undisclosed before UN vote: Jared Kushner led a foundation that funded illegal Israeli settlements


Stormtrooper

DC officer who shot Terrence Sterling was 'unjustified'

police Terrence Sterling
© OfficialDCPolice / YouTube
After an officer was cleared of criminal charges for shooting unarmed motorist Terrence Sterling, investigators determined that he did not follow protocol and should be fired. The decision could affect a pending lawsuit against Washington, DC.

A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Internal Review Board found that Officer Brian Trainer, 27, was "unjustified" when he shot Sterling last September, Police Chief Peter Newsham told Fox News Tuesday.

The MPD Use of Force Review Board determined that Trainer violated department rules and recommended that he should be terminated from the force. The board's investigation does not determine if Trainer should be held criminally responsible.

USA

Hotel Americana: They divide us; we conquer ourselves

Charlottesville riot
© Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
This is a saga of a once free people who were defeated with weaponry and then subdued with chicanery. The first part of the saga witnessed a rebellion as the masses put up a spirited battle to overcome oppression. After decades of systematic repression, eventually the people were quelled with a most diabolical of schemes. What eventually subdued them was factionalism as people who shared the same struggles and felt the same injustices were convinced that their plights were dissimilar and that they were each other's enemies. Divide and conquer set brother against sister and neighbor upon neighbor until all were eventually made equal through suffering and despair. In a land that could feed the world, the mass majority were put into the yoke of poverty while a few were living a life of high society.

At first glance, the above paragraph seems to describe what is going on in Africa. If that was your assumption, I don't blame you for making the logical leap to that conclusion. After all, Africa was in fact colonized by malicious foreigners who came in the guise of missionaries as they invaded the continent of man's birth with a bible in the front hand and guns behind their backs. Induced tribalism created by artificial borders and manufactured countries where none existed is how more than a billion people were eventually put to shackles as their wealth is being siphoned off to this day by gluttonous colonizers. A continent that can feed the world has thus been reduced to the status of beggars and AID recipients.
"For the nation to live, the tribe must die." ~ Samora Machel

Comment:


Pistol

House passes 50-state gun carry permit reciprocity, intensifies background checks

man with gun
© Bill Waugh / Reuters
Both pro and anti-gun control advocates are unhappy with a bill the US House passed to allow permitted gun owners to carry concealed handguns across state lines and also enhances the national background check system.

The House bill passed Wednesday, 231-198, and follows two of the deadliest mass shootings in modern US history. The largely Republican-backed bill was supported by six Democrats, and 14 Republicans voted against it.

The bill is seen as a win for the National Rifle Association, which has long pushed for Concealed Carry Reciprocity (CCR) - the standard term for allowing people with permits for concealed weapons to carry guns over state lines.

Stock Down

Seasons Greetings: Ukraine mimics the West, adopts December 25th as holiday

putin winking
© APUncle Volodya says, “When people complain of your complexity, they fail to remember that they made fun of your simplicity.”
Nolan Peterson, perennial Ukraine optimist and is-the-glass-half-empty-or-are-you-not-listening-to-me guy, feels like the country has turned a corner. Yes, by God, things are looking up. Ukraine might not be able to look forward to EU membership, but hey! It has visa-free travel, so if you have enough money for a vacation, you can go to the EU and see what it would be like to live there. Ukraine might not be able to look forward to NATO membership, but there are a few NATO troops in Ukraine training the country's soldiers so that they can get a feel for what it would be like to be a NATO soldier, sort of. I mean, apart from getting paid, and stuff.

And the country's GDP growth might be an anemic 0.2%, the Balance of Trade might have been relentlessly negative for more than a year, so that Ukraine is digging itself into a deeper hole every month by buying more than it's selling - worse yet, nearly all of it with borrowed money - and the Government Debt to GDP ratio might have more than doubled from Yanukovych to Poroshenko. Running the economy is like juggling flaming tar. But never mind that. Sit down for a minute, because Mr. Peterson has big news, the kind of news that is going to make you want to pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile. You're going to want to jump in the air - proof, incidentally, that you are not a Moskal - and click your heels together.

Ukraine now has Christmas.

Comment: Well, they've already adopted Black Friday, why not Christmas? The Ukraine is a sinking ship and a few Christmas decorations, borrowed from Western nations, is nothing but rearranging the deck chairs. See also:


Newspaper

Police prepare to review plans to make misogyny a hate crime

girl sitting
© PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/ Getty
Criminals motivated by sexism could face increased sentences as police prepare to review plans to make misogyny a hate crime. It comes as part of efforts to clampdown on sexual harassment.

Proposals to make misogyny the sixth strand of offences categorized as a hate crime are currently being discussed by senior police officers. If agreed, criminals who are found to have acted out of hatred towards women would be handed longer sentences. Under the reforms, sexist behavior or language would be treated as an aggravating factor to other crimes such as assault and harassment.


Comment: Lady Justice is not so blind to gender or race these days.


Handcuffs

John Conyers III arrested and accused of stabbing girlfriend during argument earlier this year

John Conyers III
© Aaron J. Thornton/Getty ImagesJohn Conyers III, son of the retired Representative John Conyers Jr., at a movie premiere in July.
John Conyers III, who was endorsed by his father on Tuesday to succeed him in the House, was arrested in February after his girlfriend suffered knife cuts during an argument.

Mr. Conyers, in an interview Wednesday, tried to head off a possibly disqualifying scandal just a day after his father resigned from Congress amid multiplying allegations of sexual harassment. As issues of sexual harassment and abuse roil Washington, any violent altercation against a woman could doom his effort to take the seat that his father held since 1965.

The younger Mr. Conyers said that the couple began arguing around 3 a.m. the day after Valentine's Day and that after a physical fight, the police arrested him on suspicion of domestic violence.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office later dropped the charges, but the girlfriend got a restraining order against Mr. Conyers, which remains in effect until next March, he said.

"She says I stabbed her, which makes no sense," Mr. Conyers, 27, said. "I didn't do this. She and I had a verbal altercation and that escalated. She pulled the knife on me. She was chasing me. I tried to take it from her. There was a struggle. I pinned her to the wall. She kept swinging and she cut herself."

Comment: See also: Democratic Congressman John Conyers retires amid sexual harassment allegations - and endorses his son to replace him