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TSA whistleblowers: Agency has "bully bosses" and "Lord of the Flies" culture

Lily Dane
Daily Sheeple
Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
TSA Agents bullies
Travelers aren't the only ones who are tired of being bullied by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA): whistleblowers are speaking out now too.

Today, three TSA executives told members of Congress that poor leadership, a lack of oversight, low morale, and widespread retaliation has led to a culture of fear at the agency.

Mark Livingston, a program manager with the TSA's office of risk management, told members of Congress:
If you tell the truth in TSA you will be targeted. I call it the Lord of the Flies —either attack or be attacked.
From NBC:
The House Oversight Committee is investigating allegations TSA officials gave hefty bonuses to supervisors who ignored security warnings and retaliated against employees who spoke up by reassigning them and giving them negative performance reviews. Dozens of TSA employees have come forward to speak with congressional investigators about abuses of power.

Comment: This is another indication that the U.S. is now living under a pathocratic system; where at the very top of all or most governmental institutions the pathological mindset has taken the reins of power and everyone else is under its sway in one way or another. And heaven forbid one should try to correct or point out the error of its ways. You're either 'with it or against it'.

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Heart - Black

Racism in Europe: Road signs showing distance to Iraq and Syria put up in Danish town


RT
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:10 UTC
european road signs
© Signe Marquard Rønn / Facebook
Controversial road signs showing the direction and distance to Syria and Iraq were set up in a Danish municipality with the most asylum seekers in the country. They did not last long, though, as while some claimed it was a "fine initiative", others branded it "racist."

Unknown people planted the controversial signs 'Syrien 4426' and 'Irak 5317' with arrows pointing to the direction to the two destinations and indicating the distance in kilometers, on Friday, local media reported. The signs were set up in the municipality of Thisted, Northern Denmark, which houses six refugee centers.

Although the signs did not "survive" for long as they were taken down by volunteers, they managed to spark a heated debate between their supporters and opponents.

The signs did not go unnoticed by the nationalist Danes' Party (Danskernes Parti), Thisted's deputy mayor and a number of activists. While some of them praised the move and others chastised it, most of them agreed that the incident has prompted a lively debate.

"Fine initiative to create a debate", wrote Thisted's deputy mayor Ib Poulsen on his Facebook page as reported by Ekstra Bladet.
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Arrow Up

Monsanto loses, farmers win! Burkina Faso drops GM cotton over crop quality decline and economic losses


Phys.org
Sun, 24 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
GMO cotton
© Reuters/Munish SharmaFarmer Darshan Singh plucks cotton from his damaged Bt cotton field on the outskirts of Bhatinda in Punjab, India, October 28, 2015.
Burkina Faso, Africa's top cotton producer and the sole West African nation to venture into biotech farming, is dropping genetically-modified (GM) cotton on quality grounds.

The world's 10th largest cotton producer, with four of its 19 million people dependent on the "white gold", Burkina Faso earlier this month said it was giving up Monsanto's GM Bt cotton because it had proved uneconomical.

Burkina took up GM cotton in the 2000s in the hopes of bumping up returns on what was then its top export product, surpassed in 2009 by gold.

But the country's association of cotton producers now say GM cotton, though producing higher yields, has caused a drop in crop quality.

Comment:

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Ambulance

The depressed state of the U.S. economy is driving people to suicide

Betsy McCaughey
New York Post
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 01:14 UTC
depression, suicide
Middle-aged people laid off and unable to find work are taking another way out. They're killing themselves.

Suicide rates are soaring, according to federal data released last week. Especially in economically depressed states and job-starved upstate New York. People in need of work are twice as likely to take their own lives as employed people, and people fired in their 40s and 50s find it hardest to get hired again.

That makes boosting economic growth a life-or-death issue for many. But you wouldn't know it listening to President Obama and Hillary Clinton. President Obama whitewashes reality, claiming the "American economy is pretty darn good right now."

False. The Obama economy is stalled. It grew at a measly .7 percent annualized rate the first quarter of this year. That's compared with the 3.5 percent rate the US enjoyed for most of the 20th century — what's needed to sustain employment and optimism.

True, the economy slowed under George W. Bush. Obama inherited a recession and, with it, a suicide epidemic. When the recession hit, suicide deaths suddenly started outnumbering deaths from auto accidents. But eight years later, job losses are still driving the suicide rate higher and higher.

Comment: The root of the problem can be directly attributed to psychopathic officials and their destructive influence on society. These individuals who have taken control of the U.S. have no real conscience or empathy for the masses, and it won't matter one whit who wins the next presidential election. The elites only pay lip service to the staggering social problems that have swamped the nation, as their priorities lie elsewhere.

21 signs that America is the most unhappy place in the world

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Alarm Clock

Unbelievable! Oklahoma court rules that forced oral sex is not rape if victim is unconscious from drinking

Molly Redden
Raw Story
Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:03 UTC
'Drunk man with a glass of brandy'
© Shutterstock
Ruling is sparking outrage among critics who say the judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming and buying outdated notions about rape

An Oklahoma court has stunned local prosecutors with a declaration that state law doesn't criminalize oral sex with a victim who is completely unconscious.

The ruling, a unanimous decision by the state's criminal appeals court, is sparking outrage among critics who say the judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming and buying outdated notions about rape.

But legal experts and victims' advocates said they viewed the ruling as a sign of something larger: the troubling gaps that still exist between the nation's patchwork of laws and evolving ideas about rape and consent.

The case involved allegations that a 17-year-old boy assaulted a girl, 16, after volunteering to give her a ride home. The two had been drinking in a Tulsa park with a group of friends when it became clear that the girl was badly intoxicated. Witnesses recalled that she had to be carried into the defendant's car. Another boy, who briefly rode in the car, recalled her coming in and out of consciousness.

Comment: Sickening! Predators should be pleased with this ruling.

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Cell Phone

Falling iPhone sales signal an economy in decline

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 21:29 UTC
Apple iphone
© Regis Duvignau / Reuters
Corporate revenues in the United States have been falling for quite some time, but now some of the biggest companies in the entire nation are reporting extremely disappointing results. On Tuesday, Apple shocked the financial world by reporting that revenue for the first quarter had fallen 7.4 billion dollars compared to the same quarter last year. That is an astounding plunge, and it represents the very first year-over-year quarterly sales decline that Apple has experienced since 2003. Analysts were anticipating some sort of drop, but nothing like this. And of course last week we learned that Google and Microsoft also missed revenue and earnings projections for the first quarter of 2016. The economic crisis that began during the second half of 2015 is really starting to take hold, and even our largest tech companies are now feeling the pain.

This wasn't supposed to happen to Apple. No matter what else has been going on with the U.S. economy, Apple has always been unshakeable. Even during the last recession we never saw a year-over-year decline like this...
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Crusader

Russian poll shows Putin still enjoys 82% approval rating in April


Sputnik
Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:29 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev
Russian President Vladimir Putin's performance is approved by 82 percent of Russian citizens, an opinion poll for the month of April released on Wednesday said.

According to the survey conducted by the non-governmental Russian research company Levada-Center, 82 percent of those interviewed said that they generally approve the work of Putin. The indicator remained the same since the start of the year.

Another 56 percent named him as the public figure they trust the most, followed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
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Red Flag

Dangerous precedent: Parents of toddler who died of meningitis found guilty by jury for not providing proper care

Bill Graveland
Calgary Herald
Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:01 UTC
David Stephan and his wife Collet Stephan
© DAVID ROSSITER / POSTMEDIADavid Stephan and his wife Collet Stephan leave the courthouse on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 in Lethbridge, Alberta. The Stephans are charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life to 19-month-old Ezekiel in 2012.
The mother of a toddler who died of meningitis began weeping uncontrollably Tuesday after a jury found her and her husband guilty of failing to provide their ill son with the necessaries of life.

David and Collet Stephan were charged after 19-month-old Ezekiel died in March 2012.

The couple testified at their trial in Lethbridge that they believed their son had croup or flu, so they treated him for 2 1/2 weeks with remedies that included smoothies with hot peppers, garlic, onions and horseradish.

He eventually stopped breathing and died after being rushed to hospital.

The four-man, eight-woman jury had been deliberating since Monday afternoon. There was a gasp in the courtroom as the decision from the jurors came down. Observers in the courtroom's gallery started to cry.

Comment: This case appears to be a situation where the Canadian government is finding a loophole into forcing vaccinations. Canada cannot legally force vaccinations due to the Canadian Constitution, but the outcome of this trial could have a chilling effect on parental rights throughout Canada. It appears that they may have found a back door to mandating vaccines, by prosecuting parents who choose not to vaccinate, thereby setting a judicial precedent if they win. For more details on this case, see: The Stephan family faces criminal prosecution & loss of children for not vaccinating

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Network

Landmark study shows audiences want more foreign news sources, fresh perspectives


RT
Wed, 27 Apr 2016 20:54 UTC
RT news room
© Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik
An extensive PwC study has confirmed that since RT was established in 2005, audiences are taking in more foreign news, from more sources, and with more varied views, promising a bright future for the channel and other alternative media sources.
News sources chart
Following an online survey of 5,000 news consumers from 10 significant countries, including the US, UK, and Russia, PwC discovered that 79 percent of respondents were more interested in news offering "a different perspective" than a decade earlier. Additionally, those who read or watched news from a country other than their own were accessing 4.1 different media outlets a month, as opposed to 2.5 in 2005.
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Info

For the second day in a row White House on lockdown


RT
Wed, 27 Apr 2016 20:49 UTC
U.S. Secret Service
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The executive mansion has been locked down for the second time in less than 24 hours. The lockdown is due to an unknown situation, according to reporters in the press briefing room.

The president is believed to be inside the White House.

A Secret Service agent told RT that it "might be an hour" before the lockdown is lifted.

The lockdown was prompted by a package containing papers and a phone that was thrown over the fence, CNN reported. The Secret Service, which protects the president and the White House, is still checking for any possible threats in the area.
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