Society's ChildS


Bullseye

Polish news site: Scaremongering and scapegoating of Putin is really sign of respect and jealousy


Sputnik
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 20:37 UTC
Putin
© Dmitry Astakhov / ITAR TASS
The Western media love to paint the Russian president in a negative light, but any reasonable thinking person understands that this is merely a sign of jealousy, and an attempt to mobilize society by inventing an enemy, Polish news website Obserwator Polityczny suggests.

"Scaremongering [the public] using Putin, whose image is constantly spat upon and served up by the propaganda of some Western countries in the worst possible connotation, actually serves to garner respect for the Russian president in the long term" a recent article in the Polish political news and analysis website Obserwator Polityczny suggests.

"The real cause behind this harassment," the paper playfully argues, "is envy and admiration. Many Western politicians would like to be able to govern in the same way that the Russian president does, and many countries would like to be governed in this way, at least in part."

"Therefore, Vladimir Putin is not really an object of hatred, but of envy, admiration and desire," the publication boldly contends.

Comment: What do you think - do folks like Zbigniew Brzezinski and the cuckoo's nest of Washington neocons secretly admire Putin? Or is it just out-and-out hate with no other dimension to it?

Read More...
Dollars

Congressman proposes legislation to end bail payments that target the poor

Brian Sonenstein
Mint Press News
Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:46 UTC
Bail bonds
© AP Photo/Mel EvansA sign is seen outside a bail bondsman across the street from Mercer County criminal courthouse Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014, in Trenton, N.J.
Congressman Ted Lieu introduced the No Money Bail Act of 2016, which prohibits the payment of money as a condition of pretrial release in federal criminal cases, and bars vital federal funding from going to states that impose money bail. If enacted, the legislation could potentially abolish money bail in the United States.

Co-sponsored by Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Brenda Lawrence and Ruben Gallego, the bill is most notable for its efforts to curb the use of money bail in the states, whose jurisdictions oversee the vast majority of inmates in America. Nearly 500,000 of the 2.2 million incarcerated people in America are in local jails and have not been convicted, and many of them are still in jail simply because they can't afford bail.
Read More...
Books

Scandals surrounding the for-profit college industry: Who's regulating for-profit schools?

Annie Waldman
Pro Publica
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 18:28 UTC
Albert C. Grey
Albert C. Grey president of Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, during a Senate hearing in June.
College accreditors have come under scrutiny recently for allowing for-profit schools to collect billions in federal aid despite low graduation and high default rates.

Accreditors are supposed to be watchdogs for college quality. They are not government agencies but colleges need an accreditor's seal of approval so students can qualify for federal loans.

The agency that has received the most heat is the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. ACICS allowed Corinthian Colleges Inc. to keep on operating right up until the for-profit college chain collapsed after evidence emerged that the schools had lured thousands of poor students into predatory loans. The accreditor placed a Corinthian campus on its "honor roll" just months before the Education Department forced the school to shut down.

ACICS, which oversees hundreds of for-profit colleges, is now the target of two government investigations. A ProPublica analysis also found that schools overseen by ACICS had the lowest graduation rates compared with other accreditors.

Comment: It's like leaving the fox in charge of the hen house.

Read More...
Fire

Explosion during rescue effort brings Russian mine disaster death toll to 36

Tim Hume, Tina Burnside and Radina Gigova
CNN
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 17:30 UTC
Severnaya coal mine
A train drives through a tunnel at the Severnaya coal mine in Russia's icy north.
Russian authorities say the death toll from a mine disaster has risen to 36 after an explosion during an attempt to rescue trapped miners Sunday, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

Sunday's blast killed six people, including five rescue personnel.

In its wake, Russia's Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov told reporters that there was virtually no chance of survival for any of the 26 miners who had been trapped since Thursday in the Severnaya coal mine in the city of Vorkuta.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Komi Republic, the icy region of Russia's polar north where the mine is located, Russia state media reported.
Read More...
Pistol

Salt Lake City: Clashes erupt after cop shoots teenager


RT
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 17:11 UTC
Salt lake city police
© Brett Neilson / Wikipedia
Riot police were trying to disperse angry crowds throwing glass and rocks following an officer-involved shooting in downtown Salt Lake City. A 16 year-old was shot four times by intervening police after an altercation with another man. Witnesses say excessive force was used.

Shots were fired in the Rio Grande St. area of Salt Lake city on Saturday night, police said. According to reports, the shooting involved two police officers. The current condition of the teenager is unknown. He has been taken to a local hospital.

Salt Lake Police detective Greg Wilking told KSL: "There was an altercation taking place, and our officers intervened into that altercation.
Read More...
Quenelle

Crimean official laughs off Kiev's 'braggart' threats to regain Crimea

Matthew Allen
Russia Insider
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 16:48 UTC
Sergei Menyailo Putin
© Kremlin.ruSergei Menyailo (left) in meeting with Russian President Putin
What have the glue-huffers in Kiev been up to lately? Oh, you know, the usual:
"We have nothing. We need a new army, a new National Guard, a new police force. This is what the government of Ukraine is working on right now. We must restore all of this, and then, with enough will, Crimea will be ours," Arsen Avakov, Ukraine's Interior Minister, told the Ukrainian 1+1 TV Channel, asserting, "I have no doubt of that."

In fact, the Ukrainian minister said that Kiev is presently training a special force, separate within the National Guard. "We are training some guys with the help of Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov (Crimean Tatar activists in Ukraine)," he said, while giving no details, adding, "We are working on a project that will prepare us to regain Crimea."

Comment: There may not be a more incompetent, corrupt, and pathological leadership on the face of this planet than the one the US put in power in Ukraine. Their utter depravity, combined with their hubris, makes them a very dangerous neighbor indeed.

Also see:
  • Ukraine war update: Kiev breaks Minsk agreement with mercenaries, sabotage, & heavy shelling of civilian areas


Read More...
Bad Guys

Shameful: Alabama, second poorest US state bans increases in minimum wage


RT
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 16:09 UTC
minimum wage protests
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Alabama, the second poorest state in the US, has effectively banned local governments from increasing the minimum wage. The governor and legislature approved legislation that retroactively prevents Birmingham from setting a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour.

On Thursday, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed a bill that blocked Alabama cities from setting their own minimum wage or require employers to provide leave or health benefits.

The bill, AL HB174, not only prevents local governments from setting a higher minimum wage than federally required, but also bars them from mandating benefits and leave, solidifying Alabama's reputation as a right-to-work state. Right-to-work laws prohibit union security agreements and abolish requirements forcing workers in certain occupations to join unions. As a result, jobs that are frequently unionized are no longer protected.

Comment: The elites in the US have no concept of the struggles of the working poor, and it's becoming clear that they couldn't care less.

Read More...
Cow

Get lost: French farmers boo Hollande over devastating farm policies, Russian sanctions


RT
Sat, 27 Feb 2016 21:27 UTC
paris agriculture fair
Livestock farmers have given President Francois Hollande, along with Agricultural Minister Stephane Le Foll, a raucous, but not so heart-warming welcome at an annual agricultural fair in Paris. They also tore down a government stand.

Farmers frustrated with the "worst crisis ever" met the officials with cries of "Resign!" and "Get lost!" as the officials were trying to make their way through the exhibition center at Porte de Versailles on Saturday, according to AFP. The video shows the crowd whistling and screaming: "Shame on you, you are lazy" as the President addressed the farmers.

Hollande then chatted with one young farmer for some 20 minutes, to whom he noted, "If youngsters are not getting into agriculture, there will be no renewal, no investments."

The youngster quickly retorted by saying, "But it is hard for young farmers to start. We should stop buying meat from abroad."

Comment: The European people have been paying the price for policies enacted by their gutless politicians who are simply following the dictates of their US masters, and it appears they have clearly had enough!

Read More...
Newspaper

Denied the right to assemble, South Korean protesters resort to using holograms

Haeryun Kang
NPR
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:09 UTC
ghost protest
© Lee Jin-man/APHolograms of human figures are displayed during a "ghost protest" against South Korea's president in front of the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul on Wednesday. Amnesty International in Korea said it decided to use the holograms after protesters were denied permission to march.
On the eve of South Korean President Park Geun-hye's third anniversary in office, protesters gathered in Seoul on Wednesday to condemn the administration's increasing crackdown on free speech. These protesters were unlike any others Seoul has seen. They were holograms.

The life-size hologram "ghosts" marched across a transparent screen facing an old palace gate at Gwanghwamun Square, a historic center in Seoul.

"Promise us democracy! Promise us freedom of assembly!" the holographic figures chanted for 30 minutes, as a real crowd of more than 100 — mostly journalists and organizers — watched.
Read More...
Dollars

Why you should prepare for a cashless society

Joshua Krause
Ready Nutrition
Sat, 27 Feb 2016 15:00 UTC
no cash symbol
Earlier this month, the European Central Bank suggested that the 500 Euro note needs to be eliminated. Not long after, academics and policy makers in the US started to call for the elimination of the $100 bill. This isn't something that the average person really thinks about on a regular basis, or even cares about. The vast majority of our purchases are done through digital channels these days. Unless you're about to buy a used car on Craigslist, you probably won't be needing the hundred-dollar bill. For most people, eliminating it would be an inconvenience at best.

So what gives? Why is anyone even considering the elimination of these bills? It seems like there is simply no need for it.

The truth is there are a lot of reasons why governments and banks want to eliminate these high denomination notes, and none of them are good. It should go without saying that the people who are pushing this are not going to give you a straight answer. You're going to hear them give the same excuse over and over again for the foreseeable future: Large denominations are indispensable for black market transactions. They enable drug dealers, tax evaders, corruption, and terrorism.

Comment: Why are the powers that be pushing for a cashless society?
The central banks are ... planning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see moving to electronic money will first eliminate the underground economy, but secondly, they believe it will even prevent a banking crisis. This idea of eliminating cash was first floated as the normal trial balloon to see how the people take it. It was first launched by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup. Their claims have been widely hailed and their papers are now the foundation for the new age of Economic Totalitarianism that confronts us. Rogoff and Buiter have laid the ground work for the end of much of our freedom and will one day will be considered the new Marx with hindsight. They sit in their lofty offices but do not have real world practical experience beyond theory. Considerations of their arguments have shown how governments can seize all economic power are destroy cash in the process eliminating all rights. Physical paper money provides the check against negative interest rates for if they become too great, people will simply withdraw their funds and hoard cash. Furthermore, paper currency allows for bank runs. Eliminate paper currency and what you end up with is the elimination of the ability to demand to withdraw funds from a bank.


Read More...