October 29, 2015

The John Boehner playlist

October 29, 2015

"resource officers" .... rather than protect students, they are brutalizing them.

from truthdig:



By now the video of a black female high school student being brutalized by a white officer has gone viral, prompting the #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh social media hashtag to be used tens of thousands of times. Monday’s incident in Columbia, S.C., has underscored the ongoing police abuses of African-Americans, and, just as important, it has reminded us of the dangerous and overwhelmingly unnecessary presence of police on school campuses. The disproportionate disciplining of black children starts as early as preschool and continues through high school, relegating a good number of kids to a lifetime of association with the criminal justice system.

The Spring Valley High student in question apparently was caught by a teacher using her cellphone in the classroom and was asked to leave. Reports indicate that at no point did she become violent or belligerent, or even raise her voice. The teacher then called in the “school resource officer”—Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields—who proceeded to put the girl in a chokehold, slam her to the ground, despite the fact that she was seated, and drag her halfway across the room in one swift motion.

According to news reports, “the girl’s arm is in a cast, she has a rug burn on her forehead and has pain in her neck and back. She was hospitalized Monday night. ...”

The video showing the girl being brutalized is only 15 seconds long. But that is all that is needed to prove to any reasonable human being that what they viewed was a wholly unjustified assault by an armed, trained, well-muscled adult man against a small-statured girl who was quiet and seated. Indeed, to most social media users, that is precisely what the video shows, and the resulting public response is, rightfully, outrage.

.....(snip).....

Authorities continue to accept police officers’ distorted view of reality and coddle them, treating them delicately, as though society needs their permission to occasionally try to hold them accountable for barbaric violence. Despite the crisis of police violence, President Barack Obama, in a speech to a police officers’ union Tuesday, insisted that officers are victims. He said, “I reject any narrative that seeks to divide police and communities that they serve. I reject a storyline that says when it comes to public safety there’s an ‘us’ and a ‘them’—a narrative that too often gets served up to us by news stations seeking ratings, or tweets seeking retweets, or political candidates seeking some attention.” But are the media and Twitter pitting cops against people, or are officers like Ben Fields literally using their brute force against people?

In fact, media coverage all too often lets police officers off the hook. Just the headlines of two major outlets expose the bias. The New York Times’ main article about the incident Tuesday was titled, “Race and Discipline in Spotlight After South Carolina Officer Drags Student.” Why not something a bit clearer, such as, “Video Shows South Carolina Officer Assaulting Black Female Student”? ................(more)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/police_are_the_greatest_threat_facing_black_kids_in_school_20151028

October 29, 2015

Talk about night and day: Whistleblowers in Canada could receive $$$ for exposing wrongdoing.....

Whistleblowers in Canada could receive awards in excess of $1 million for exposing corporate wrongdoing as part of a formal policy being unveiled Wednesday by the Ontario Securities Commission.

Tom Atkinson, the commission’s director of enforcement, announced Monday that the awards could be larger in some cases, especially if more than $10 million in Canadian dollars was collected under the scheme.

Canada’s Financial Post reports:

(Atkinson) said he could not elaborate until the formal policy is unveiled, but suggested that qualifying for the higher amount would likely be tied to the collection of sanctions or settlement payments, rather than simply the assessment of money due.

The OSC surprised some market participants when the plan for a whistleblower program to encourage reporting of serious securities misconduct was unveiled in February. The original proposal stated that a whistleblower could receive up to 15 per cent of monetary sanctions or settlement payments of more than $1 million, up to the cap of $1.5-million.

During subsequent roundtables, some market participants argued that financial incentives should not be capped, and that they should be paid out to whistleblowers when their tips lead to any financial sanctions, even when those sanctions or settlement payments don’t exceed $1 million. .............................(more)

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/whistleblowers_in_canada_could_receive_awards_over_1m_for_exposing_corporat

October 29, 2015

Instead of Pardoning a Turkey This Year, Obama Should Free This Man

Instead of Pardoning a Turkey This Year, Obama Should Free This Man

Posted on Oct 29, 2015
By John Kiriakou / OtherWords





As Thanksgiving approaches, I’ve got a suggestion for President Barack Obama.

Instead of following the White House tradition and “pardoning“ a turkey destined for a holiday dinner table, Obama should extend that courtesy to some of the thousands of human beings caged up in America’s federal prisons.

Leonard Peltier should be one of them.

Peltier was a Native American activist on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1970s. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents went to Pine Ridge to look for a young man named Jimmy Eagle, who was wanted for robbery. Soon after they spotted his car, a shootout ensued.

Both agents and one of the occupants of the car were killed. A later shootout at the gunman’s home ended in two more deaths.

An FBI investigation turned up a gun with Peltier’s fingerprints on it, although there was no evidence he’d been involved in the murder of the agents. Peltier was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list and eventually captured in Canada.

His trial was controversial. ................(more)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/instead_of_pardoning_a_turkey_obama_should_free_this_man_20151029

October 29, 2015

Complicit in Neoslavery: Chris Hedges Calls Out Corporate America for Exploiting Prison Labor

Posted on Oct 28, 2015

Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges spoke Saturday at New York’s Rise Up October rally and march to end police violence.

In his speech, Hedges described the effects of police violence and mass incarceration on families. “There are husbands and wives severed, sometimes forever, from their spouses,” he said. “There are sisters and brothers that have been torn apart, but this morning we remember most the children, those whose mothers and fathers are locked behind bars or whose parents will never come home again, whose tiny lives have been shattered, whose childhoods have been stolen, who endure the painful stigma of loss or of having a mother or father in prison and cannot comprehend the cruelty of this world.”


http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_chris_hedges_calls_out_corporate_america_for_exploiting_prison_labor_

October 28, 2015

No, your apology is not accepted, you entitled little sociopathic prick

HARTFORD, Conn. — The food service worker on the receiving end of a obscenity-laced tirade by a former UConn student earlier this month that went viral penned a letter to the school's newspaper saying he does not accept the apology.

"I saw the video you posted on your YouTube channel. I am neither accepting nor rejecting an apology, because what you offered was not an apology. You sat on a comfy chair in a comfy den in a comfy home and spoke to a camera. Was I in that room? Have you reached out to me directly? A heartfelt apology is directed at a human being in their presence," David Robinson, the former manager of the Union Street Market seen on the receiving end of Luke Gatti's tirade over bacon-jalapeno macaroni and cheese, wrote in a letter to the Daily Campus dated Oct. 26.

In the initial video, Gatti can be seen berating Robinson for more than 9 minutes inside the student union on Oct. 4 before he makes physical contact with him and is taken to the ground and restrained by another worker at the market and Robinson.

The other food service worker involved, Bill McKay, a chef at the market, penned a letter to the student newspaper earlier this month forgiving Gatti but suggesting he join the military. ..................(more)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/victim-of-uconn-mac-and-cheese-tirade-says-he-does-not-accept-apology/ar-BBmvrd5?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=mailsignout

October 28, 2015

Sun Sentinel: Marco Rubio should resign, not rip us off

After five years in the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio does not like his job. A long-time friend told The Washington Post "he hates it." Rubio says hate might be too strong a word, but he sure acts like he hates his job.

Rubio has missed more votes than any other senator this year. His seat is regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and intelligence briefings. He says he's MIA from his J-O-B because he finds it frustrating and wants to be president, instead.

"I'm not missing votes because I'm on vacation," he told CNN on Sunday. "I'm running for president so that the votes they take in the Senate are actually meaningful again."

Sorry, senator, but Floridians sent you to Washington to do a job. We've got serious problems with clogged highways, eroding beaches, flat Social Security checks and people who want to shut down the government.

If you hate your job, senator, follow the honorable lead of House Speaker John Boehner and resign it. ....................(more)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-editorial-rubio-bush-gs1028-20151027-story.html

October 28, 2015

Trans-Pacific Partnership could undermine climate regulations, top economist warns

from Grist:




As a general rule, climate hawks are not jumping for joy over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a new trade deal between the U.S. and some Asian and Pacific nations. On Tuesday, in an interview with Democracy Now!, Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz gave them another reason to worry: He argued that certain provisions in the TPP would allow polluters to sue governments for setting carbon emission limits.

“This is a trade agreement that has all kinds of provisions intended to restrict regulations,” Stiglitz told Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman.

As an example of the absurdity of these types of provisions, Stiglitz cited Philip Morris suing Uruguay in 2010 under a different treaty. Uruguay had implemented a regulation that required tobacco companies to append health warnings to cigarette cartons — similar to what we have in the United States — and Philip Morris sued the country for a loss in expected profits. “In other words,” Stiglitz said, “the view is, they have the right to kill people, and if you want to take away that right, you have to pay them not to kill.”

The Columbia University economist warned that the TPP could spur similar litigation over climate regulations. “We know we’re going to need regulations to restrict the emissions of carbon,” argued Stiglitz. “But under these provisions, corporations can sue the government, including the American government, by the way, so all the governments in the TPP can be sued for the loss of profits as a result of the regulations that restrict their ability to emit carbon emissions that lead to global warming.” ......................(more)

http://grist.org/news/trans-pacific-partnership-could-undermine-climate-regulations-top-economist-warns/

October 28, 2015

Tonedeaf NYPD police union head calls for boycott of Tarantino films

The president of a union representing New York City police officers has called for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino’s films following remarks the director made Saturday at a rally against police brutality.

The Oscar-winning director flew in from California to join demonstrators who marched along the city’s streets as part of the three-day RiseUpOctober protest against killings by police across the U.S. He gave a speech accompanied by images including that of Justin Smith, who died in police custody in 1999 after spitting on police officers.

“I’m a human being with a conscience,” Tarantino told his fellow protesters, according to the New York Post. “And if you believe there’s murder going on, then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered. When I see murders, I do not stand by … I have to call a murder a murder and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”

In a statement Sunday, Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, denounced Tarantino. “It’s no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater too,” he said. “The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls ‘murderers’ aren’t living in one of his depraved big-screen fantasies—they’re risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem. ...............(more0

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/nypd_union_calls_for_new_yorkers_to_boycott_quentin_tarantino_20151026

October 28, 2015

And Now Trucking Is Suddenly Slowing Down

And Now Trucking Is Suddenly Slowing Down
by Wolf Richter • October 28, 2015


This comes at the totally wrong time. Trucking had been booming. 2014 had been a banner year. Capacity was squeezed, and rates were rising, so trucking companies went on a buying binge, ordering everything in the book in preparation for red-hot demand in 2015 and more banner years down the road. But then came 2015.

Among businesses, over-ordering and tepid sales caused inventories to rise and the inventory-to-sales ratio to spike to Financial Crisis proportions. And now businesses are trying to bring them down by trimming orders because they’re having trouble selling more to the middle class, the over-indebted modern proletariat whose stagnant incomes are being eaten up by skyrocketing costs of housing, healthcare, college, and the like – and they simply can’t spend that much on shippable items.

And now this is ricocheting through the industry.

Monday after hours, the largest US truckload carrier, Swift, announced earnings. And on Tuesday, it clarified the debacle. It’s suffering from indigestion. The high costs from its red-hot capacity increase – average truck count jumped by 831 trucks in the third quarter from a year earlier – are now slamming into swooning freight demand.

Operating revenue declined 1%, which Swift blamed on the disappearing fuel surcharge, though it didn’t explain why it is getting away with still charging $109 million in fuel surcharges when diesel prices have plunged to rock-bottom. ............(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/10/28/why-the-heck-is-trucking-slowing-down-swift-cummins-load-to-truck-ratio/