Society's ChildS


Question

Why are record numbers of American farmers killing themselves?

Cristina Abellan Matamoros
The Guardian
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 17:47 UTC
The suicide rate for farmers is more than double that of veterans. Former farmer Debbie Weingarten gives an insider's perspective on farm life - and how to help

Debbie Weingarten
It is dark in the workshop, but what light there is streams in patches through the windows. Cobwebs coat the wrenches, the cans of spray paint and the rungs of an old wooden chair where Matt Peters used to sit. A stereo plays country music, left on by the renter who now uses the shop.

"It smells so good in here," I say. "Like ..."

"Men, working," finishes Ginnie Peters.

We inhale. "Yes."

Ginnie pauses at the desk where she found her husband Matt's letter on the night he died.
Read More...
Bulb

China looking to deploy 'swimming pool' sized nuclear plants to provide reliable winter heating

David Stanway
Reuters
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 13:17 UTC
china nuclear power
With its smog-prone north desperate to slash coal consumption, China is looking to deploy nuclear power to provide reliable winter heating, raising public safety concerns - though developers say the risks are minimal.

State-owned China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) recently conducted a successful 168-hour trial run in Beijing for a small, dedicated "district heating reactor" (DHR) it has named the "Yanlong".

With the north facing natural gas shortages as cities switch away from coal, CNNC presented the "DHR-400" as an alternative heat supplier for the region, with each 400-megawatt unit capable of warming 200,000 urban households.
Read More...
Attention

Israeli security guard wounded in knife attack; unnamed Palestinian man taken into custody


RT
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 17:45 UTC
Israeli police
© Ronen Zvulun / ReutersPedestrians stand behind a police cordon as Israeli police patrol the area where a man was stabbed at the central bus station in Jerusalem December 10, 2017.
An Israeli security guard has been severely wounded in a stabbing attack outside Jerusalem's central bus station, paramedics say. The knifeman has been taken alive into custody.

Medics at the scene treated a 25-year-old man for a stab wound to his upper body, Magen David Adom (MDA), head of Israel's national medical emergency service, said on Twitter. The attack occurred on Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem.

Little is known about the attacker beyond the detail that he was neutralized and sustained a head wound, but survived.

Comment: Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital - makes it official, Israel controls USA

Read More...
Attention

Russian police search for man with grenade launcher seen in St. Petersburg metro station


RT
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 14:45 UTC
St. Petersburg Metro
© Alexei Danichev / SputnikA train arrives at station of the St. Petersburg Metro.
Russian police are looking for a man who was reportedly seen riding the St. Petersburg Metro with what appeared to be a rocket launcher. The manhunt was launched after other passengers reported the issue to police.
Read More...
Eye 1

Trump administration sued by Center for Biological Diversity for allowing 'unlimited' dumping of fracking waste into Gulf of Mexico


RT
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 10:30 UTC
Oil rig
© Henry Romero / ReutersA general view of the Centenario deep-water oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico.
The Trump administration is being sued by an activist organization for allegedly allowing oil companies to dump waste from fracking and drilling into the Gulf of Mexico, without considering the detrimental effect it will have on marine life.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice of intent Thursday, after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a Clean Water Act permit in September for new and existing offshore oil and gas platforms operating in federal waters off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Center allege that the Trump administration approved the permit - which allows unlimited amounts of waste fluid and chemicals to be dumped into the Gulf of Mexico - without evaluating the effect it will have on sea turtles, whales and other marine life.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Newspaper

IBU strips rights of Russian Biathlon Union to vote


TASS
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 16:49 UTC
IBU President Anders Besseberg
© EPA/MARTIN SCHUTT, archiveIBU President Anders Besseberg
The Executive Board of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) has decided to abridge the rights of the Russian Biathlon Union over doping abuses, IBU President Anders Besseberg said on Sunday.


Comment: Where is the evidence? Also, if a member of the Russian Biathlon Union has been found to be doping, why is the RBU being punished for it? Does every union get punished this way when one of their members inevitably gets caught doping? No they don't. This is just more politicized nonsense emanating from the West to demonize Russia.


According to Besseberg, the Russian Biathlon Union has been stripped of the right to vote at congresses and nominate its candidates.

The IBU Executive Board met on Sunday to discuss the situation following the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision of December 5 to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee's membership over multiple doping abuse allegations, thus banning the Russian national team from taking part in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea's PyeongChang under the national flag.

The IOC accused Russia of systematic abuse of anti-doping rules at various sporting events, including the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The IOC vowed however to observe the rights of clean athletes. Those who match the proposed criteria may be invited to the 2018 Games as "Olympic athletes from Russia," under a flag with five rings, it said.
Read More...
Fire

Sweden: Masked youths pelt Jewish synagogue with Molotov cocktails during pro-Palestinian demonstration


RT
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 17:22 UTC
Swedish police
In Gothenburg, Sweden, group of masked youths have attacked a synagogue with Molotov cocktails, amid a global backlash against the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Three people were arrested following the incident, prosecutors say.

"A burning object has been thrown" just outside the synagogue building, Lars Tunefjord, commanding officer at the police regional management center told Sveriges Radio. The officer added that police are currently at the scene conducting a "technical investigation and searching for the perpetrators."

Three people were arrested early on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority said, according to Reuters. The official did not report any motive for the attack. It was also unclear whether the attack was linked to Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

According to witness accounts, a fire started in the yard of the synagogue shortly after 10:00pm local time, after pro-Palestinian protesters, demonstrating against President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, pelted the building with burning projectiles. One of the firebombs landed just outside the synagogue compound where local Jewish students were holding an event.

Comment: Palestine, Turkey and Jordan outraged at Trump's decision for US to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital (VIDEOS)

Read More...
Heart - Black

Diabetic amputee honks at unmarked police car; cop takes his car and leaves him stranded on the street

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 09 Dec 2017 16:58 UTC
police road rage victim
© NJ.com/Reena Rose Sibayan
Road rage is a very real and very dangerous issue in America today. All too often a simple honk of the horn can end in a wreck, violence, or worse. However, when the person who rages carries a badge and a gun, they can claim legal authority to ticket, kidnap, cage, or kill you. Kieran Walsh, a 59-year-old Marine veteran, and partial amputee learned the hard way what a cop's road rage looks like when he was left stranded on the side of the road last month.

Walsh, who suffers from diabetes was on his way to pick up medication on November 27 when he noticed a car barrelling dangerously toward him. Walsh then briefly honked his horn as the car came "flying down" the street. It was an unmarked police car, occupied by Officer Stephen Salot.

Because Salot claims the authority to detain people for victimless crimes, he moved to pull the person over who would dare to honk at him. "Evidently he didn't like that," Walsh said of the brief horn beeping.

Since he can't exactly tell Walsh that he pulled him over in a fit of road rage, Salot told Walsh that he pulled him over because his handicap placard was hanging from his rearview mirror while he was driving and this allegedly obstructed his view.

After Salot had him pulled over for the non-crime of a hanging handicap tag, he then noticed that the sticker on Walsh's license plate had expired-music to the ears of this would-be tyrant.
Read More...
Sheriff

Chief pathologist exposes Sheriff's falsification of autopsy reports to protect killer cops

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 16:33 UTC
homicide accident
The resignation of a chief autopsy doctor has raised questions as he is now claiming that he chose to resign because he no longer wanted to stand by and watch the sheriff override his findings from death investigations, in order to protect law enforcement.

Former Chief Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu, claimed that when he was conducting autopsies on individuals who were killed by police officers, Sheriff-Coroner Steve Moore attempted to influence his medical findings, according to a report from KQED News.

Based on a series of documents that include memos from Omalu, the report claims the doctor said some of the most alarming death investigations Moore tried to override were those of people who "died in the custody of law enforcement officers who used Tasers or other types of force."
"The sheriff was using his political office as the coroner to protect police officers whenever someone died while in custody or during arrest. I had thought that this was initially an anomaly, but now, especially beginning in 2016, it has become routine practice."
Read More...
X

7 times CNN caught faking news in 2017 and there's still 21 days to go

Peter Hasson
The Daily Caller
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 22:07 UTC
CNN blue bg
CNN has had a rough 2017 and it's not even over yet. The news network has repeatedly made key errors when breaking big stories, only to get embarrassed when the facts come to light.

Here are seven times CNN botched the news in 2017.

Comey Testimony

CNN ran a story on June 6 that claimed former FBI Director James Comey would use his testimony the next day to refute President Donald Trump's claim that Comey had assured him three separate times that he was not under FBI investigation. That story was debunked the same day when Comey's prepared remarks were released to the public, showing that Comey would actually confirm, rather than refute, Trump's assertion.

The botched story had four bylines, including those of three veteran journalists: anchor Jake Tapper, chief political analyst Gloria Borger and executive editor Eric Lichtblau, who had recently joined CNN from The New York Times. CNN was forced to rewrite the piece with a correction noting the error.

CNN Smears Scaramucci

Later that month, CNN.com published, deleted, and then retracted and apologized for an article that claimed Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci was the subject of a Senate investigation for his ties to Russian bankers. After an intense public backlash, three key members of CNN's investigative team resigned over their role in the retracted story. The network pulled its investigative team off the Russia story shortly afterwards.


Comment: See also:

CNN retracted Scaramucci story over possibility of $100 million libel suit
CNN retracts story on investigation into Scaramucci's meeting with CEO of Russian fund


Comment: For more on their "bombshell" of a botch see: Fake News! CNN Launches Bombshell Dud Over False Trump-Wikileaks Story

Read More...