Society's Child

Two Americans dead in Afghanistan 'green-on-blue' attack

RT
Thu, 20 Oct 2016 17:18 UTC

Two Americans were killed and three more injured in an attack at an Afghan special forces base near Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the US military has confirmed. The unidentified attacker was killed as well.

One member of the US military and one civilian were killed, while one service member and two civilians were wounded, "during an attack near a coalition base by an unknown assailant," said the US command in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

The Americans killed and injured in the attack were part of NATO's mission to train, advise, and assist the Afghan security forces. The exact circumstances of the attack were being investigated, the US Forces Afghanistan command said, but there were unconfirmed reports in Kabul that the attacker wore an Afghan Army uniform.

The attack took place at the Afghan special forces training center in the Rishkor neighborhood of Kabul, according to Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry.

Leader of Honduran land rights movement assassinated, one of 150 activists killed

Nika Knight
Common Dreams
Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC

© AFP
"No more murders of campesinos in the Aguan region" reads a banner held up during a 2012 march by members of the Unified Campesinos Movement of the Aguan Valley.

A prominent Honduran leader of a rural land rights movement was killed on Monday night in what supporters claim was an assassination organized by wealthy landowners.

Amnesty International Jose Angel Flores, president of the Unified Campesinos Movement of the Aguan Valley, or MUCA, had been under police protection since March, teleSUR reported, after the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights ordered the Honduran state to protect him from death threats in 2014.

Former MUCA president Johnny Rivas, who hosts a radio show on the local station Radio Progreso, blamed "death squads chasing peasant families fighting for land rights" for the murder.

"How many more activists have to be brutally murdered before the authorities take effective action to protect them, or even be willing to talk about this crisis?"—Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International

Comment: Sadly, what we're seeing occur in Honduras is, in large part, due to the internationally pervasive corrupting influence of the US:

London: Cop filmed dragging 13 y.o. girl around like a 'piece of meat'

RT
Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:54 UTC

London's Metropolitan Police stand accused of using disproportionate force after a video emerged showing one of its officers dragging a 13-year-old girl in school uniform along the ground like "a piece of meat."

Katelynn Murphy King was tackled to the ground as she was arrested outside the gates of Wapping High School in east London on suspicion of affray and breaching the peace.

She was restrained after rowing with a 16-year-old pupil from the school who allegedly called her a "slag" before trying to kick her. King reportedly raised her hand as though to slap the other girl, but there was no physical contact between them.

The officer then came up behind King and restrained her on ground.

The footage, shot by King's twin sister, shows her being dragged by her hair in what the family have called "unreasonable force," even though she appears to be complying with the officer.

Rare case of justice: Cop found guilty of shooting a man for no reason

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 19 Oct 2016 15:39 UTC

Andrew Thomas

In a rare semblance of justice, a cop who shot and killed an unarmed man for no reason as he climbed from a wrecked car, was found guilty on Tuesday. For shooting and killing 26-year-old Andrew Thomas, officer Patrick Feaster was found guilty Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter.

Last Thanksgiving, Thomas made a deadly decision to get behind the wheel after he'd been drinking. With his 23-year-old wife, Darien Ehorn in the passenger's seat, Thomas left the Canteena Bar and was immediately pursued by Feaster.

In a pursuit that barely lasted a minute, Thomas loses control of his Toyota Four-Runner, hit the median and flipped over. Tragically, Ehorn was ejected from the vehicle and died on the scene.
Officer Feaster then gets out of his vehicle, gun drawn, and as Thomas attempts to get out of the vehicle, in a likely attempt to check on his wife, the cop shoots him in the neck. Weeks later, Thomas would die from the gunshot wounds.

Thomas posed absolutely no threat to the officer who was 10-20 feet away from Thomas when he fired. There was no possible way the department could spin the shooting into Feaster somehow fearing for his life. So, they did something entirely different.

Local communities worldwide are speaking out against fracking

Paul Brown
climatenewsnetwork.net
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 16:14 UTC

$fracking protests$

Public opposition to pumping water and chemicals into the ground to extract gas from shale − the technique known as fracking − is growing even in the countries whose governments are most in favour.

Although only four countries - France, Bulgaria, Germany and Scotland - have an outright fracking ban at the moment, many districts in countries that allow fracking in some areas ban it in others.

This is true in the US and in Canada, where potential wells will not be developed because local authorities have refused permission.

The carrot for governments generally has been the promise from the fossil fuel companies of large quantities of cheaply-extracted gas that will last for decades and cut their reliance on imports.

Comment: Selling fracking to the public as a safe, alternative energy source is becoming increasingly problematic. But remember - in short - the public's concerns don't matter: Fracking - you are not important

Whether its on the issue of fracking and public health, or fracking and climate change, recent developments are making the opposite case:

In Australia, the New South Wales Government recently suspended all oil and gas licences pending a review of their environmental and health impacts.

In Canada, the Council of Canadian Academies recently stated that the process is fraught with many scientific and technical uncertainties, and should not be rolled-out until the impacts can be properly studied.

Also in Canada, initial studies by the Chief Medical Officers of New Brunswick and Northern Health Board of British Columbia have highlighted the unknown or uncertain impacts of these processes.

Australia has seen some recent high-profile groundwater contamination incidents as a result of 'coal seam gas' operations (what we over here call coal bed methane).

Also in Australia, last year the Australian Medical Association passed a motion objecting to the further expansion of unconventional gas operation without detailed environmental and health impacts being undertaken to demonstrate the safety of the process.

Even the British Medical Journal recently carried an article critical of the Government's policy agenda around unconventional fossil fuels.

Finally, just a few days ago, employees of the Pennsylvania Department of Health blew the whistle on the official cover-up of the health impacts of drilling in the Marcellus shale.

Global frackdown! World prepares for protest against shale gas production

Study says 1/3 of pro-Trump tweets created by bots, but Trump still has 3 times more legit tweets than Killary

RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 16:00 UTC

From the 9 million Tweets generated during the first US presidential debate, analysis found that nearly 2 million of them were pro-Trump compared to just over 600,000 pro-Clinton. Over one-third of those for Trump were generated by bots, whereas just one-fifth came from bots for Clinton.

"Twitter traffic on pro-Trump hashtags was more than twice that of pro-Clinton hashtags [and] one third of pro-Trump twitter traffic was driven by bots and highly automated accounts, compared with one-fifth of the pro-Clinton Twitter," according to a new Oxford University study titled, "Bots and Automation over Twitter during the First US Presidential Debate."

The study's authors, led by Professor Philip Howard, warn that such software has the capacity to "manipulate public opinion" and "muddy political issues." The study is part of a wider project exploring "computational propaganda."

Comment: That may be true in theory, but even if the study is valid, and even if we eliminate the bot-driven tweets, that still means Trump had around 1.2 million tweets, and Clinton only had about 480,000. Trump is clearly more popular, regardless of the bots, with around 72%.

Comment: Read more: Whatever the media polls say, independent snap online polls say Trump won third debate

Rigging the election: Undercover video catches Clinton operatives admit to "starting sh*t" inciting "anarchy" at Trump rallies

Jack Burns
Free Thought Project
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:28 UTC

Throughout the 2016 campaign for the U.S. presidency, the mainstream media's narrative has been that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a racist, his supporters are "deplorable," and campaign rally violence follows Trump wherever he goes. While it is certainly true that many of his supporters have been caught using violence against others, and Trump himself has even incited said violence, a new video implicates Clinton as the kindling for much of this fire.

The truth about many of those presumed violent Trump supporters is now coming forth, thanks to another undercover sting operation by Project Veritas, who have now exposed the Democratic National Committee's devious and self-described "diabolical" black operatives and their subversive operations.

French nuclear watchdog calling for shutdown of five reactors over safety risks

RT
Thu, 20 Oct 2016 10:51 UTC

The French nuclear watchdog has called for the shutdown and inspection of five more nuclear reactors for safety checks. The reactors have a high level of carbon which could lead to various failures.

The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has asked nuclear power utility EDF to carry out additional inspections at Fessenheim 1,Tricastin 2 and 4, Gravelines 4 and Civaux 1 reactors, according to a press release. All these reactors are located across the whole France, close to towns and communes.

"The performance of these inspections will require shutdown of the reactors concerned," ASN added. The watchdog wants to check "certain channel heads of the steam generators on five of its reactors, in which the steel is affected by a high carbon concentration."

Warrantless surveillance: Police stingrays unfairly target low-income, minority neighborhoods

RT
Thu, 20 Oct 2016 13:53 UTC

The use of Stingray devices has been controversial. The surveillance tool can be used to locate cell phones by mimicking phone towers, but their practical use shows severe racial disparities in multiple cities across the country, according to a new report.

Police departments in Milwaukee, Baltimore and Tallahassee have all been found to use Stingray tracking devices without warrants and particularly in low-income, minority neighborhoods, according to City Labs. The Stingray devices are often used in theft and robberies, while logistical issues surrounding these tools have some civil rights activists concerned.

The issues presented are twofold. First, a recent study of Stingray use found three large cities across the country used the devices to target areas in low-income neighborhoods with high minority populations. The other problem is that Stingrays are not used to find one single phone. While they may be used with the intention of finding a specific person, they collect location information from many phones within the area they're used.

Comment: StingRay - the cellphone tracking tech police won't talk about

Treatment Industrial complex: Mental health and rehab the new gravy train for private prison corporations

Robert Greenwald and Emily Verdugo
Alternet
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC

Private prison companies have had a rough couple of months.

First, the Department of Justice announced it would phase out its private contracts for management of Bureau of Prisons facilities. Then, the Department of Homeland Security said it would re-examine the use of for-profit immigrant detention facilities. Stock prices for publicly traded Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group both plummeted and last week CCA laid off 12 percent of its workforce.

This may well be the beginning of the end of for-profit prisons in America. But it may not. Like the Walking Dead TV zombies, you just can't count these bloodsuckers out until its over. And a disturbing new trend suggests it is not.

We call it the Treatment Industrial Complex, or TIC. Through a combination of acquisitions and mergers and an aggressive marketing campaign, for-profit prison companies are moving to preserve their profits by seeking contracts to provide in-prison medical and mental health care; manage mental hospitals and civil commitment centers; and deliver "community corrections" programs, including prisoner reentry services and "alternatives to incarceration" like electronic monitoring.

well you sure don't have to think about anything so what would you call it

cracker

Greek acting gods have a joke “Sapiens is wise, because they know, that we know better what to do with their will, than they do.” Vicious foreign...

Orwik

Jut for laffs here's George Carlin doing a spoof as the Architect in the Matrix: [Link] * BTW, this just came out today: Leonard Cohen - Puppets...

parzival

.. .. Is the Brits' Prince Pedo ok? [Link]

Jibrish

.. .. jUS Con gress shid show [Link] Let's go pfhizer [Link]

Jibrish

Society's Child

Two Americans dead in Afghanistan 'green-on-blue' attack

Leader of Honduran land rights movement assassinated, one of 150 activists killed

London: Cop filmed dragging 13 y.o. girl around like a 'piece of meat'

Rare case of justice: Cop found guilty of shooting a man for no reason

Local communities worldwide are speaking out against fracking

Study says 1/3 of pro-Trump tweets created by bots, but Trump still has 3 times more legit tweets than Killary

Rigging the election: Undercover video catches Clinton operatives admit to "starting sh*t" inciting "anarchy" at Trump rallies

French nuclear watchdog calling for shutdown of five reactors over safety risks

Warrantless surveillance: Police stingrays unfairly target low-income, minority neighborhoods

Treatment Industrial complex: Mental health and rehab the new gravy train for private prison corporations

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