Society's Child

Pesticide drift: Farmers at the mercy of Monsanto as new weed-killer ravages soy crops

RT
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:47 UTC

Farmers in Arkansas, Tennessee and southern Missouri are angry at their neighbors - and agrochemical giant Monsanto - over a new weed-killer that has ravaged 200,000 acres of soybean fields. The herbicide is used to treat Monsanto's new strand of soy.

As controversies mount over its glyphosate-based herbicide, also known as Roundup, the Missouri-based Monsanto has rolled out a new soybean seed intended to be resistant to another weed-killer, known as dicamba. While the "Roundup Ready 2 Xtend" soy has been approved for planting in 2016, US federal regulators have yet to approve the use of dicamba.

Farmers who bought Monsanto's seeds have taken to spraying their crops with dicamba obtained from other vendors - which is prone to drifting into neighboring fields, severely damaging the non-Xtend crops. Officials across the three states cite a "rough figure" of 200,000 acres affected by the drift, Delta Farm Press reported.

"Dicamba is a chemical that really blows easily in the wind. And it is really toxic to regular old soybeans," according to Dan Charles of National Public Radio. "A lot of people are quite angry, mostly at their neighbors but also at Monsanto for putting this seed out there on the market."

Comment: Monsanto: Contamination by all means necessary

Horrifying 'rape videos' become best sellers in illicit Indian market

Sputnik
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:45 UTC

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has become infamous due to the increasing incidents of rape but what is more disturbing is that many of these rapes are recorded and sold as 'rape videos' brazenly in the market at throw away prices.

'Rape videos' have become a new trend in the state of Uttar Pradesh and they can be found all over the state. These rape videos are in high demand and they are being sold with a price tag from 75 US cents to $3, depending upon the exclusivity of the clips.

Real life rape videos have become a craze among the youth, surpassing the demand for regular porn clips. Shopkeepers sell the videos by directly downloading them into smartphones or put them in a thumb drive.

It has been observed that in several cases, culprits involved in rapes take video of the crime and post them online.

Comment: This shows the horrifically shocking state humans have reached on this blue planet!

Police asked Facebook to suspend Korryn Gaines' account during fatal standoff

RT
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:40 UTC

During a five-hour standoff that ended in the death of a Maryland mother, police asked Facebook to suspend her social media accounts. Korryn Gaines had been streaming the confrontation and previously posted recorded encounters on Instagram.

Gaines, 23, was killed and her five-year-old son wounded, when police opened fire around 3:00pm on Monday. They arrived at her apartment in Randallstown, northwest of Baltimore, that morning, attempting to arrest Gaines for not appearing in court over a traffic stop in March.

The police request, which may be without precedent, is particularly interesting in light of the fact that Gaines had been a prolific Instagram and Facebook user, posting many videos of her encounters with the law on social media.

"We did in fact reach out to social media authorities to deactivate her account," Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson told reporters Tuesday. "Why? In order to preserve the integrity of the negotiation process with her and for the safety of our personnel [and] her child. Ms. Gaines was posting video of the operation as it unfolded. Followers were encouraging her not to comply with negotiators' request that she surrender peacefully."

Comment: During the coup attempt in Turkey, social media was shut down. Luckily the mosques' call-to-prayer speaker systems were utilized to inform neighborhoods about the events, calling the people to action. Without this means of communication, the people might not have turned out in the numbers they did to oppose the coup. Does the U.S. have anything in place to serve the same purpose in a similar situation? Short answer: nope.

Use once, then throw away: 40,000 U.S. veterans are homeless

RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 15:31 UTC

The Obama administration's six-year effort to completely eradicate veteran homelessness has met half of its goal, reducing it by 47 percent. However, despite coordinated federal, state and local efforts, 40,000 veterans are still homeless.

"[We've] got to keep fighting for the dignity of every veteran. And that includes ending the tragedy, the travesty of veterans' homelessness," said commander in chief, Barack Obama, before an audience at the Disabled American Veterans annual convention in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday. "Two states, Virginia and Connecticut, as well as 27 cities and towns across the country have effectively ended veteran homelessness."

Comment: Obama is right. But doesn't it speak volumes that there was a problem in the first place? What kind of country treats its soldiers like this? First they send them off to fight in illegal wars of aggression, then throw them to the wolves if they manage to come back alive. There's no dignity in being cannon fodder for the Empire.

The White House goal was to eradicate veteran homelessness over five years under an initiative known as Opening Doors, launched in 2010 and involving federal and state actors and nonprofit organizations and institutions. The administration spent $16 billion the program, and increase the overall Veterans Affairs budget by 85 percent, according to the Washington Times.

Disturbing video shows police knock on door and kill innocent woman's elderly dog as it ran away

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:55 UTC

© Brandee Buchman
The dog's owner set up surveillance cameras to keep a close eye on classic cars in their driveway. They never imagined capturing video of their dog being shot and killed.

Disturbing video from a homeowner's surveillance cameras shows the moment police "murdered" her beloved dog.

In an instant, over a decade of companionship with the dog she rescued from a shelter ended with a bullet.

Northland, Missouri, resident Brandi Buschman is the latest to mourn a beloved pet because police officers reacted with gunfire instead of restraint — a law enforcement response so common, it has been given a name: puppycide.

"They killed her, and she died right there in front of my steps," Buschman lamented in an interview with local CBS affiliate KCTV5. "She ain't deserve that."

Woman calls 911 during traffic stop over fears of Houston cop - who then attacks her

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 07:49 UTC

Earledreka White and Officer Gentian Luca

Newly released video disputes police claims about a black social worker's violent arrest earlier this year while talking to a 911 dispatcher during a traffic stop in Houston.

A police officer pulled over Earledreka White in March for crossing the double white line, and she called 911 to ask for police backup because she was afraid of the officer who stopped her, reported the Houston Chronicle.

"I would like another officer to come out here," she says to the dispatcher. "My heart is racing. I'm really afraid."

The 28-year-old White was placed in handcuffs and charged with resisting arrest during the encounter, and then jailed for two days — where she feared she might end up dead like Sandra Bland, another black woman arrested in Texas following a routine traffic stop.

White said she remained calm throughout the encounter, and she has accused the officer of unnecessarily escalating the situation.

"Being pulled over is not the troubling part — what happened after being pulled over is what baffles me," White told the newspaper. "As I tell the dispatcher that this man is threatening to 'Tase' me, he backs away, then comes back and literally tries to break my arm."

Gallup poll: Americans' interest in watching Summer Olympics drops to new low

Art Swift
Gallup, Inc.
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 14:52 UTC

Forty-eight percent of Americans say they plan to watch a "great deal" or "fair amount" of the 2016 Summer Olympics. This is a sharp drop from 59% in 2012 and easily the lowest percentage planning to watch compared with the past four Summer Games.

Thirty percent say they plan to watch "not much" of the Olympics, and 21% say "none at all" -- the highest percentage saying so since Gallup began asking this question in 2000.

These results come from a July 13-17 Gallup poll asking Americans about their plans to watch the Olympics, which begin this week in Rio de Janeiro. Many athletes' decisions to opt out of the games because of concerns about the Zika virus have already blemished the Rio Olympics. Other controversies have marred the games, including the banishment of the Russian track and field and weightlifting teams due to their widespread drug use. Reports of rooms in the Olympic Village smelling like gas, along with blocked toilets and exposed wires -- as well as accounts of sewage in the waters that athletes will swim and row in -- have dominated headlines. All of these issues may explain why Americans find the idea of watching the Rio Olympics less appealing than previous Summer Games.

Sharp Decline Among Women Fuels Drop in Viewing

Men (49%) and women (47%) have roughly the same interest in watching the Rio Olympics. Yet the decline in interest among women is stark: For the 2012 London Olympics, 63% of women said they planned to watch the Olympics a great deal or fair amount.

Arizona woman who faked cancer for free abortion found guilty of cheating veterans' organization of $25,000

RT
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 14:44 UTC

An Arizona woman, previously accused of faking her cancer to make the government pay for an abortion, has now been convicted of scamming a veterans' organization for tens of thousands of dollars.

Chalice Renee Zeitner was found guilty of defrauding charities at Veterans Hope and Armed Forces Racing and spending $25,000.

Zeitner, 31, used multiple identities to forge relationships with the organizations. In one case, she claimed to be a Marine Corps veteran, in the second a race-car driver, and a South African attorney in the third.

She also opened a credit card account using personal information from the founder of Veterans Hope.

Rattled investors seek shining path to gold and silver

RT
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 14:20 UTC

Gold coins in the Austrian auction house

Gold prices have surged nearly 30 percent this year, proving the commodity to be a commonly favored safe-haven for investors in the face of increased market volatility and uncertainty.

On Wednesday, gold reached its highest level in 33 months outperforming many other commodities as well as S&P 500 index. The precious metal peaked at $1,372 per troy ounce.

The rally of another precious metal has been even more impressive. The price of silver since the beginning of the year has gained almost fifty percent, trading at over $20 per ounce as of Thursday.

Comment: This news will also propel the gold and silver prices higher: Desperation? Bank of England cuts interest rates for first time in seven years, extends QE

Cryptocurrency exchange hack steals $72 million worth of Bitcoins

RT
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 13:42 UTC

The price of Bitcoin has plummeted once more after a major digital currency exchange in Hong Kong admitted that over $72 million worth of the cryptocurrency might have been stolen following a cyberattack on the company's systems.

Hong Kong-based exchange Bitfinex halted trading after discovering a "security breach" that resulted in "some" of their clients losing their bitcoins. While the company did not announce the scale of the attack, some estimates show up to 120,000btc have been moved out of the users' online wallets, which equals to roughly $65 million at current prices.

"We are investigating the breach to determine what happened, but we know that some of our users have had their bitcoins stolen," the company said. Also stopping any withdrawals and deposits, the company said it is now working with authorities to investigate the matter.

"We will look at various options to address customer losses later in the investigation. While we are halting all operations at this time, we can confirm that the breach was limited to bitcoin wallets; the other digital tokens traded on Bitfinex are unaffected," Bitfinex said in a statement.

Their were saints in Catholic history who most have heard about and others not so much. Now you have Saint Francis of Assisi, but you also have...

Buffalo_Ken

I have a different definition for the "global commons". It is in the definition of "the commons" definition in the link provided below. Here is a...

Buffalo_Ken

Biden the child-killer. Think of the children, vaxxers, think of the children.

hobnyeba

Thanks, all, for great comments and links. Lots to think about.

ReRan

I ran a search on "Archbishop Viganò" for the last week - just 22,500 results and obviously nothing MSM related Even this SOTT article makes it to...

HashAttack2

Society's Child

Pesticide drift: Farmers at the mercy of Monsanto as new weed-killer ravages soy crops

Horrifying 'rape videos' become best sellers in illicit Indian market

Police asked Facebook to suspend Korryn Gaines' account during fatal standoff

Use once, then throw away: 40,000 U.S. veterans are homeless

Disturbing video shows police knock on door and kill innocent woman's elderly dog as it ran away

Woman calls 911 during traffic stop over fears of Houston cop - who then attacks her

Gallup poll: Americans' interest in watching Summer Olympics drops to new low

Arizona woman who faked cancer for free abortion found guilty of cheating veterans' organization of $25,000

Rattled investors seek shining path to gold and silver

Cryptocurrency exchange hack steals $72 million worth of Bitcoins

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us