Society's ChildS


Snakes in Suits

"To better serve the American people": Obama's behavioral science order


RT
Wed, 16 Sep 2015 18:27 UTC
Image
© © Jonathan Ernst / ReutersU.S. President Barack Obama
President Barack Obama ordered government agencies to use behavioral science insights to 'better serve the American people.' While insiders are praising the step as historic, critics are blasting the measure - and the president - as manipulative.

"To more fully realize the benefits of behavioral insights and deliver better results at a lower cost for the American people, the Federal Government should design its policies and programs to reflect our best understanding of how people engage with, participate in, use, and respond to those policies and programs," says the executive order issued by the president Tuesday.

Obama instructed federal agencies to identify policies and operations where applying behavioral science could improve"public welfare, program outcomes, and program cost effectiveness," develop strategies for using behavior science insights, and recruit behavioral experts as necessary.

Comment: "To Better Serve the American People" might cause one to recall this Twilight Zone episode:



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Heart

Russian engineers build first camp in Syria for internal refugees: Tons of humanitarian aid continuously arriving


RT
Fri, 18 Sep 2015 09:51 UTC
Russia camp for refugees
© Khalil Ashawi / Reuters
The first tent camp for internal refugees, constructed by Russian engineers, has been opened in western Syria, in a location safe from the raging civil war. Over the last four years more than 50 percent of the Syrian population has been displaced.

The camp site is situated on a racetrack, practically in the downtown of the city of Hama (Hamah), some 40km from the nearest warzone. This site is considered to be relatively safe in a country suffering from active military operations since February 2011.

The camp for 500 refugees consists of 25 army tents fully equipped for living, a field kitchen, a canteen, showers, two mobile power generators and a water-storage facility. The dwelling tents are equipped with beds and heating furnaces for cold weather. In case the number of refugees increases sharply, the camp is ready to accommodate up to 1,000 people. Everything needed to set up a camp was delivered to Latakia Airport on September 12 by an Antonov An-124 Ruslan jet. The flight also brought 50,000 sets of disposable tableware and 15 tons of provisions enough to feed 50 people for 30 days.
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Oscar

French mayor caught on film trying to evict Syrian refugees


RT
Wed, 16 Sep 2015 18:03 UTC
mayor
© www.dailymail.co.ukFrance's Mayor Menard and police escort routs out refugees.
As Europe continues to face the worst refugee crisis since World War II, a far-right French politician has been filmed storming in on squats inhabited by Syrian refugees, telling them that they are "not welcome in this town."

Angry that the refugees have allegedly broken into apartments and begun squatting there, Robert Ménard, mayor of the town of Beziers in southern France, is seen marching into a building while surrounded by police - including an armed guard.

Accompanied by a translator who delivers the messages in English, Ménard tells a Syrian man: "You are not welcome in this town. You came in this apartment breaking the door." He goes on to say: "You are stealing the water. People are paying for water, but you are just stealing electricity and water. It's not allowed in this town to just come in an apartment and live in it, without being allowed to it."

The right-wing politician says the Syrian refugees would be welcome if he "behaved correctly." He then continues his 'tour,' knocking on two more doors and telling a person that he "will be welcome only if he respects the rules of this country and city."


Comment: Oh no! These squatters were stealing water, stealing electricity, taking advantage of a shelter - something so hard to understand they must be evicted and criminalized for the most basic humanness of it. Country for country, an invasion for an invasion...perhaps it is worth some reflection.

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Calendar

Wave of refugees break police lines, push through Croatia's border

Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 23:07 UTC
Slovenia border refugee
© AFP
Riot police were forced to stand aside after they failed to hold back the latest wave of refugees and migrants that pushed into Croatia today.

Chaos broke out today as a mass of migrants broke through police lines on the border.

Migrants targeted Croatia after Hungary closed its border.
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Comment: The U.S. and UK warwhores are to blame for this crisis by invading and destroying the countries these people are from. Unfortunately, there's probably more to come. See: Syrian refugees in Europe, regime change in Damascus, and the mass migrations still to come

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Handcuffs

Arrest of 14-year-old student for making a clock: The fruits of sustained fearmongering and anti-Muslim animus

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:20 UTC
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There are sprawling industries and self-proclaimed career "terrorism experts" in the U.S. that profit greatly by deliberately exaggerating the threat of Terrorism and keeping Americans in a state of abject fear of "radical Islam." There are all sorts of polemicists who build their public platforms by demonizing Muslims and scoffing at concerns over "Islamaphobia," with the most toxic ones insisting that such a thing does not even exist, even as the mere presence of mosques is opposed across the country, or even as they are physically attacked.

The U.S. government just formally renewed the "State of Emergency" it declared in the aftermath of 9/11 for the 14th time since that attack occurred, ensuring that the country remains in a state of permanent, endless war, subjected to powers that are still classified as "extraordinary" even though they have become entirely normalized. As a result of all of this, a minority group of close to 3 million people is routinely targeted with bigotry and legal persecution in the Home of the Free, while fear and hysteria reign supreme in the Land of the Brave.

Comment: Read more by Joe Quinn: Hysterical police state USA: 14-year-old Muslim schoolboy arrested for taking homemade clock to school

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Arrow Down

Grand Jury charges fraternity members with murder for pledge hazing death

Michael Rubinkam
Yahoo News
Tue, 15 Sep 2015 20:53 UTC
michael deng, hazing
Five people, including the former national president of a fraternity, have been charged in the 2013 death of a New York City college freshman during a brutal hazing ritual in Pennsylvania, police said Tuesday.

Fraternity members at Baruch College physically abused Chun "Michael" Deng, then tried to cover it up as the 19-year-old lay dying in their rented house in the Pocono Mountains, police said.

A grand jury recommended charges for 37 people in Deng's December 2013 death. Pocono Mountain Regional police intend to arrest suspects in waves, moving from least to most culpable, to keep the courts from being overwhelmed.

Comment: Going to college should be about getting an education, but in US colleges, students are increasingly being harassed, raped and murdered. It's what you would expect of a society that has been ponerized by psychopaths which have embedded their violent, immoral values in the culture.

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Fire

Fuel tanker explosion in South Sudan causes over 170 fatalities

Caroline Mortimer
The Independent
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 20:59 UTC
Local hospitals are struggling to care for the injured as they lack 'facility to treat highly burnt people'
tanker explosion Sudan
More than 100 people are reported to have been killed in South Sudan after a fuel tanker exploded.

A local government official, Charles Kisagna, said at least 100 people were killed and a further 50 people were injured in the blast in Maridi in the country's heavily rural Western Equatoria state when the truck veered off the road.

The local county commissioner, Wilson Thomas Yanga, told the BBC that the death toll had risen to 176 and said officials were concerned that the true number of wounded was not currently known as many are believed to have fled the scene.Mr Kisagna said local hospitals had been overwhelmed by the injured saying: "We don't have medical equipment and these people may not survive because we do not have the facilities to treat the highly burnt people."

A local doctor told Sudanese radio station Radio Tamazuj that they were running out of basic medical supplies like oyxgen and pain killers.

Layal Horanieh, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in the South Sudanese capital of Juba, said the aid group had sent two burn kits to Maridi, each with enough equipment to treat at least 50 patients.

Comment: South Sudan is another country that has suffered due to Western meddling. Creating decent infrastructure is last on the list when power is up for grabs.

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Attention

Majority of Russians won't participate in anti-government protest rallies, think massive protests improbable


RT
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 20:37 UTC
russia protestors
© Artem Zhitenev / RIA Novosti
The proportion of Russian citizens who think mass anti-government protests are possible continues to fall, while those who say they would never take part in such events is constantly rising, reads the latest research by independent pollster Levada Center.

According to the research results 76 percent of Russians think that mass protests caused by the fall in living standards are currently very improbable. In April this year the share of respondents who held this opinion was 73 percent.

The share of those who expect mass protests with unspecified economic demands to the authorities was down from 20 percent in April to 17 percent in the end of August.

Overwhelming majority of Russians told researchers that they absolutely rule out personal participation in protest rallies (80 percent in late August and 78 percent in April). Those who said they were ready to protest was 13 percent (down from 15 percent in April).

Comment: Perhaps the reason that Russian citizens don't see the probability of mass protests is that they are quite satisfied by the way Putin has successfully handled Russia's challenges:

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Stormtrooper

Federal air marshals under investigation for filming sex with prostitute on government phones

Jana Winter
The Intercept
Wed, 16 Sep 2015 20:31 UTC
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[Update at 10:24 p.m. ET: TSA Spokesperson Bruce Anderson told The Intercept Wednesday night that a third air marshal was involved. "Two of the employees involved have been placed on an indefinite suspension without pay, and the third employee has resigned from the agency," he wrote in an e-mail.]
Two federal air marshals have been suspended without pay after allegedly using their government phones to film and share their sex acts with a prostitute while on assignment in Europe, The Intercept has learned. Four employees based in different locations and divisions within the Transportation Security Administration told The Intercept that supervisors throughout the Federal Air Marshal Service and its parent agency, TSA, were casually briefing staff about the incident on Wednesday in anticipation of the news becoming public.

None of these employees were authorized to speak to the media because the investigation by TSA's Office of Inspections and Office of Professional Responsibility is ongoing, and a criminal investigation is considered likely.

Congressional sources confirmed that an incident involving two air marshals who filmed sex acts on a government phone is expected to be raised during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on personnel failures within the Federal Air Marshal Service scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The two air marshals, based in Chicago, allegedly used their government-issued phones to record their own sexual encounters with a prostitute and then shared them using their personal email accounts, which they had connected to their work phones, according to TSA, government and law enforcement sources.
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Crusader

Iceland called 'volcano of hatred' after capital bans all Israeli products over occupation of Palestine


Sputnik
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 20:05 UTC
Iceland
© Flickr/ dom fellowes
In a symbolic move aimed at demonstrating support for Palestinian statehood, Iceland's capital city council voted on Tuesday in favor of boycotting Israeli made products.

The motion was put forward to the Reykjavik city council by Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, a councilwoman for the Social Democratic Movement. Its approval on Wednesday comes as Israel battles a motion by the European Union calling for labeling products made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

According to Iceland Magazine, a memorandum of the act describes it as a symbolic demonstration of the city's support for Palestinian statehood, and a condemnation of Israel's "policy of apartheid."

Comment: It's great to see Iceland boldly doing what no other nation dares to.

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