11/11/14 ~ The Raw Story

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Israel's illegal wall around Palestine maintained by U.S. commitment to terror

As seen in the above graphic from the , essentially every country recognizes the State of Palestine, except for Western Europe and some of the places it has conquered, such as North America, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as some US "partners" that "wouldn't want to ruffle Washington's feathers", including "South Pacific island nations like Kiribati and Nauru" ().

The US has for decades used terrorism to singularly prevent Palestine from becoming a full UN member state. Likewise, without the US providing the muscle and money, Israel would not be able to continue, in defiance of the world, to occupy, colonize, ethnically cleanse, and commit terrorism and massacres against Palestine.

Without US muscle backing its terror and expansionism, Israel, despite being the strongest force in the Mid East and in possession of the "world's best" air force and a large, rogue nuclear arsenal, would have no choice but to decolonize Palestine and remain within its own universally recognized borders, which are those that existed before June, 1967, when Israel illegally invaded and began colonizing and ethnically cleansing areas beyond those lines.

For approximately 40 years, the US has vetoed, generally alone (aside from Israel), every UN resolution demanding that Israel comply with this worldwide legal, democratic consensus. The vote is typically 165 countries against the US and Israel, and sometimes five or six other countries (European-conquered lands and some tiny islands such as Micronesia).

Obama has continued the reign of terror and expansion, specifically rejecting, at the UN, the demand for Israel to cease even settlement activities, let alone abandon its current illegal settlements, all war crimes. This particular resolution was brought at the 15 member Security Council, and received 100% approval aside from Obama's isolated vote of rejection, which is enforceable only due to the US dedication to terrorism and democracy-prevention.

On the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinians have tried to call attention to the wall that still exists, the illegal US-backed wall that Israel is building and using as one of its means of illegally annexing Palestinian territory. Dr. Noam Chomsky, for one, has pointed out that if the wall were about security and not illegal expansionism, it could simply be made gigantic and utterly impenetrable, and be put on Israel's legal border, which countries are allowed to do.

Dr. Norman Finkelstein has suggested that Palestinians physically break down the wall en masse, as a non-violent solution, since the highest court in the world ruled that the wall is illegal and must be deconstructed, but the USA is preventing UN member states from carrying out the legally required and universally supported task.

Since the recent US/Israeli massacre against Palestine, Israel has continued its ongoing cease-fire violations, and has also announced or built thousands of new illegal settlement units in Palestine, and has illegally stolen over 4,000 more acres of Palestine (see here and here).

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Note that although the Washington Post published the above map, a chief reason that the US is able to continue to illegally back Israel, and even increase illegal support for Israel as Obama has done (indefiance of the US population), is that US media never provides the full context of the situation, as Professor Edward Said pointed out (as noted by ):

It is simply extraordinary and without precedent that Israel's history, its record - from the fact that it..is a state built on conquest, that it has invaded surrounding countries, bombed and destroyed at will, to the fact that it currently occupies Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian territory against international law - is simply never cited, never subjected to scrutiny in the U.S. media or in official discourse...

Given the full and accurate picture of how Israel has come into existence and what it does, already dwindling US public support for Israel (much of which, however, is based on religious fundamentalism) would certainly decrease, as public support for US atrocities generally decreases as information about them increases.

The parallels between the false prosperity of 2007 and the false prosperity of 2014 are rather striking. If we go back and look at the numbers in the fall of 2007, we find that the Dow set an all-time high in October, margin debt on Wall Street had spiked to record levels, the unemployment rate was below 5 percent and Americans were getting ready to spend a record amount of money that Christmas season. But then the very next year the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression shook the entire planet and everyone wondered why most people never saw it coming. Well, now a similar pattern is unfolding right before our eyes. The Dow and the S&P 500 both hit record highs on Monday, margin debt on Wall Street is hovering near record levels, the unemployment rate has ticked down a little bit and Americans are getting ready to spend more than 600 billion dollars this Christmas season. The truth is that the economy seems pretty stable for the moment, and most people cannot even imagine that an economic collapse is coming. So why are so many really smart people forecasting economic disaster in the near future?

For example, just consider what the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center is saying. This is an organization with a tremendous economic forecasting record that goes all the way back to the Great Depression. In fact, it predicted ahead of time the financial trouble and the recession that would happen in 2008. Well, now this company is forecasting that there is a 65 percent chance that there will be a global recession by the end of next year...

In 1929, a businessman and economist by the name of Jerome Levy didn't like what he saw in his analysis of corporate profits. He sold his stocks before the October crash.

Almost eight decades later, the consultancy company that bears his name declared "the next recession will be caused by the deflating housing bubble." By February 2007, it predicted problems in the subprime-mortgage market would spread "to virtually all financial markets." In October 2007, it saw imminent recession -- the slump began two months later.

The Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, based in Mount Kisco, New York, and run by Jerome's grandson David, is again more worried than its peers. Its half-dozen analysts attach a 65 percent probability of a worldwide recession forcing a contraction in the U.S. by the end of next year.

Could they be wrong?

It's certainly possible.

But I wouldn't bet against them.

John Hussman is another expert that is warning of financial disaster on the horizon. He believes that we are experiencing a massive stock market bubble right now and that stocks are approximately double the value that they should be...

If you look at corporate profits and especially corporate profit margins, they're one of the most cyclical and mean-reverting series in economics. Right now, we have corporate profits that are close to about 11% of GDP, but if you look at that series you will find that corporate profits as a share of GDP have always dropped back to about 5.5% or below in every single economic cycle including recent decades, including not only the financial crisis but 2002 and every other economic cycle we have been in.

Right now stocks as a multiple of last year's expected earnings may look only modestly over valued or modestly richly valued. Really if you look at the measures of valuation that are most correlated to the returns that stocks deliver over time say over seven years or over the next 10 years the S&P 500 in our estimation is about double the level of valuation that would give investors a normal rate of return.

Could you imagine the chaos that would ensue if stocks really did drop by 50 percent?

Well, Hussman says that this is precisely what must happen in order for stock prices to return to historical norms...

Right now, like I say, we are looking at stocks that have been pressed to long-term expected returns that are really dismal. But more important than that, in every market cycle that we've seen with the mild exception of 2002, we've seen stocks price revert back to normal rates of return. In order to get to that point from here, we would have to have equities drop by about half.

If that does happen, it will make the crisis of 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.

Meanwhile, other very prominent thinkers are also warning that an economic nightmare is rapidly approaching.

Economic cycle theorist Martin Armstrong foresees major economic problems in 2015 which will ultimately lead to "civil unrest" in 2016...

It looks more and more like a serious political uprising will erupt by 2016 once the economy turns down. That is the magic ingredient. Turn the economy down and you get civil unrest and revolution.

And of course there are a whole lot of other economic cycle theorists that are forecasting that we are about to experience a massive economic downturn as well. For much more on this, please see this article and this article.

What is truly frightening is that we have never even come close to recovering from the last economic crisis. One poll that was taken just prior to the recent election found that only 28 percent of Americans said that their families were doing better financially. In addition, here are some more survey numbers about how Americans are feeling about the economy...

According to voter exit polls conducted by CNN, 78% said they are worried about the economy, with 69% saying that, in their view, economic conditions are not good. 65% responded that the country is on the wrong track vs. only 31% who believed that it is headed in the right direction.

Even though we are repeating so many of the same patterns that we experienced back in 2007, we are doing so with a fundamentally weaker economy. The last crisis did a tremendous amount of permanent damage to us. For an extensive look at this, please see my previous article entitled "12 Charts That Show The Permanent Damage That Has Been Done To The U.S. Economy".

And there are lots of signs that much of the planet is already entering another major economic slowdown. In a recent article, Brandon Smith summarized some of these. He says that we are currently witnessing "the last gasp of the global economy"...

Global exports, and thus consumer demand, are plunging. Germany, the only pillar left to prop up the failing European Union, has experienced a severe decline in exports not seen since 2009.

China, the largest exporter and importer in the world, and Chinese companies, have been caught in a number of instances using fraudulent invoices to artificially inflate their own export numbers, in some cases reporting 50% more exported goods than had actually existed.

China's manufacturing has also declined for the past five months, exposing the nature of its inflated export stats and indicating a global slowdown.

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of global shipping rates for raw goods, and thus a measure of demand for shipping, continues to drag along near historic lows.

The U.S. consumer (the only economic asset the U.S. has besides the dollar's world reserve status), has seen declines in spending as well as wages.

In the meantime, long term jobless Americans continue to fall off welfare rolls by the millions, making unemployment numbers look good, but the overall future picture look terrible as participation rates dissolve into the ether of government statistics.

How is such poverty being hidden? Foodstamps. Plain and simple. Nearly 50 million Americans now subsist on food stamp programs today, and this number shows no signs of dropping. In states like Illinois, two people sign up for food assistance for every citizen that happens to find a job.

From time to time, I get accused of "spreading fear" and of being obsessed with "doom and gloom".

But that is not the case at all.

I actually want our economy to stay stable for as long as possible. Many Americans don't realize this, but even the poorest of us live in luxury compared to much of the rest of the world. It would be wonderful if we could all live out our lives in peace and quiet and safety.

Unfortunately, it is simply not going to happen.

And it does not take an expert to see what is coming.

Anyone with half a brain should be able to see the economic disaster that is approaching.

There is hope in understanding what is happening and there is hope in getting prepared. Millions of Americans that are willingly blind to our problems are going to have their lives absolutely destroyed when they get blindsided by the coming crisis. So please use this brief period of relative stability to get prepared and to warn others.

Once this false bubble of hope runs out, all of our lives are going to dramatically change.

Russia, just like Malaysia, insists on a full-fledged and unbiased investigation into the tragic incident with the Malaysian passenger aircraft, which crashed in Ukraine's east over three months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in the Chinese capital on Monday.

"Russia just like Malaysia insists on a full-fledged, unbiased and all-embracing investigation into this catastrophe in full compliance with the UN Security Council resolution," Putin said, adding that "claims that the territory of the crash is under control of the so-called pro-Russian separatists are absolutely ungrounded."

Military forces are shooting constantly at the Boeing crash site in Ukraine's war-torn east, and that hampers full-scale operation at the crash site, Putin added.

"But in any case we welcome that Malaysian specialists are finally permitted to full-format participation in the probe, but not only in the work of the so-called technical committee. I am confident that our specialists will also make their necessary contribution in full-scale investigation of this tragedy," the Russian president noted.

Putin also offered condolences to the families of those who died in the air crash. "I would like to offer sincere condolences to the families of air crash casualties and all friendly people in Malaysia over the crash of the Malaysia Airline jet in east Ukraine on July 17," Putin said.

The crash and investigation

Boeing 777-200 of the Malaysia Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk Region, some 60 km (over 37 miles) from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operations between the Donetsk self-defense forces and the Ukrainian army. All the passengers and crewmembers onboard the aircraft - 298 people - died. Most of the passengers - 196 people - were Dutch citizens.

The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the investigation and coordinating the international team of investigators, said in its preliminary report in September that "Flight MH17 with a Boeing 777-200 operated by Malaysia Airlines broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside."

International experts from the Netherlands, Australia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began arriving at the airliner crash site near the settlement of Gabovo, 79 km (49 miles) north of Donetsk, since July 31 in search of the missing bodies of passengers and aircraft's remains. Before that, they had not been able to carry out their search operation for a week over incessant fighting between the local self-defense militia and pro-Kiev troops.

The search resumed after the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire around the airliner wreckage area and on a security corridor for the arrival of experts and their work at the crash site.

© Reuters/Stringer

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) helps put a blanket on Peng Liyuan (2nd R), wife of China's President Xi Jinping at National Aquatics Center, or Water Cube, in Beijing, November 10, 2014.

An apparently innocuous gesture from Vladimir Putin, who put a shawl around the shoulders of China's First Lady Peng Liyuan during a fireworks display, has attracted accusations of being Russia's "Don-Juan-in-Chief" from Western media.

The Russian president followed his country's cold-weather etiquette, when he offered what appeared to be a shawl or blanket to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping's wife during a chilly outdoor fireworks display at the APEC summit in Beijing. The camera caught the former renowned folk singer courteously accepting the offer, before exchanging the shawl for a coat handed to her by an assistant. Meanwhile, Xi sat a few meters away, talking animatedly to Barack Obama.

Monday's momentary humanizing episode might have passed without mention, but the image proved a boon for journalists possibly bored with the intricacies of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

[embedded content]

"'Putin' On the Moves: Vlad Cozies Up to China's First Lady," screamed NBC.

"Putin Hits on China's First Lady," asserted US magazine . "Russia's Don Juan-in-chief just got a little too friendly with Xi Jinping's wife."

"The first unspoken rule of diplomacy might be "Don't hit on the president's wife," but Russia's newly single president Vladimir Putin seems to have missed the memo," it continued.

Vladimir Putin divorced Lyudmila, his wife of 30 years, last year. The couple were said to have been separated for some time.

Several outlets went with the obvious 'Coatgate' concept.

Chinese audiences, to whom Xi and Peng are always depicted as a dream power couple, have not had a chance to savor the gossip.

Locals were able to see the moment live on national broadcaster CCTV, with the commentator noting the incident, which also sparked a hash tag on Chinese social networks.

Yet a few hours later, all mention of the incident were erased, and the videos taken down, presumably by one of China's thousands-strong team of censors.

"China is traditionally conservative on public interaction between unrelated men and women, and the public show of consideration by Putin may provide fodder for jokes, which the big boss probably does not like," commentator Zhang Lifan told the .

This is not the first time Vladimir Putin's manners have landed him in a mini-storm. A similar gesture last year, when Putin offered a shawl to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, provoked many of the same kind of comments.

Comment: Even if there will be hard times in Russia economically, the only people that will continue to whine will be the paid "5th column". That's what the West and its psychopaths fail to understand - that the key point of Putin's politics is giving people . That's why he talks about love and makes sure to give an example of thoughtful and appropriate behavior. And that's why he created the new Unity Day holiday.

It's because Russians are at their best during hard times, . Just look at WWII. That's why the '90s were so devastating: it was a time of total moral bankruptcy. And that's why despite all the foreign hooplah, Putin is going to succeed, simply because while Europe is promoting nihilism and various filth like giant green butt plugs, and while the U.S. has Miley Cyrus and her pornographic 'musical' performances to offer, Putin talks about mutual respect, friendship and love of motherland. And it doesn't matter if many Russians cannot afford to buy blue cheese, as long as they have something higher to believe in, something sorely lacking in the West.

Wounded U.S. veterans and family members of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq sued five European banks on Monday, seeking to hold them responsible for shootings and roadside bombings because they allegedly processed Iranian money that paid for the attacks.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, named Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Standard Chartered.

Barclays, Credit Suisse, RBS and Standard Chartered declined to comment. HSBC did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit was brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, a 1992 law that permits victims to bring private suits against alleged financiers of militant operations.

The lawsuit alleges the banks conspired with Iranian banks to mask wire transactions in order to evade U.S. sanctions. The Iranian banks then funneled more than $100 million to militant groups that operated in Iraq at Iran's direction, according to the suit.

The militant groups included a Shi'ite militia in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, as well as Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the suit says.

Since 2009, the five banks have agreed to pay about $3.2 billion to the U.S. government to resolve allegations that they handled money in violation of sanctions against nations such as Iran, Libya and Cuba. All the banks signed deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. Justice Department in addition to settlements with U.S. banking regulators.

The agreements did not allege a link between the transactions, which the U.S. government viewed as unlawful, and militant operations.

Patrick Farr, a California-based plaintiff whose son Clay was killed by a roadside bomb in February 2006, said the lawsuit has given him "a sense that I was able to do something, hold someone accountable for his death."

The case faces major obstacles, said Jimmy Gurule, a Notre Dame University law professor. The Anti-Terrorism Act does not specifically permit conspiracy claims, and federal courts in New York have previously refused to permit cases to proceed unless they allege a direct link between banks and militant attacks.

The law also bars claims for wartime injuries. "The law was not intended to give a private right of action to soldiers in a military conflict," Gurule said.

Unique use of 1992 law

The suit is the first case under the Anti-Terrorism Act in which former U.S. soldiers seek damages against international banks. It is also one of the first to be crafted as a conspiracy case.

The lawyers who filed the suit, Gary Osen and Tab Turner, were part of a team that tried an Anti-Terrorism Act case against Arab Bank earlier this year in Brooklyn. Jurors found Arab Bank liable for financing 24 Hamas attacks in Israel and the Palestinian Territories between 2001 and 2004.

That case linked Arab Bank specifically to wire transfers to alleged Hamas leaders and payments to Palestinians killed, injured and imprisoned in the anti-Israel uprising.

The new lawsuit does not assert a direct connection between the European banks and the allegedly Iran-directed attacks carried out in Iraq. Instead, the complaint claims that the banks indirectly facilitated the attacks by entering into agreements with Iranian banks to mask U.S. dollar wire transactions sent through the United States.

"Each defendant understood that their conduct was part of a larger scheme engineered by Iran," Osen said in an interview. At a minimum, he said, the banks were "deliberately indifferent" about the transactions they processed for Iran.

Osen said that through press accounts, declassified U.S. military reports and documents posted by WikiLeaks, he built a file on attacks on U.S. forces that were traceable to Iran. One of the boldest attacks took place in January 2007, when attackers dressed as American soldiers infiltrated a compound in Kerbala, Iraq, and killed five U.S. military personnel.

Charlotte Freeman, whose husband Brian was one of the soldiers killed in Kerbala, said she and her mother-in-law decided to join the case to make a statement. "I never suspected these big banks would turn a blind eye," she said. "Even if the case doesn't get that far, at least the story is told. It needs to be exposed."

© Reuters/Christinne Muschi

Modern police, striving to project that "we're scary, look like stormtroopers, and can hurt you" image - and succeeding!

A Canadian woman says a police officer beat her with a baton and smashed her face against a table, while the woman's nine-year-old son watched the incident.

Lara Sinclair from Winnipeg filed a report with Canada's Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA), hoping that it could prevent this happening to someone else.

Sinclair told CBS that police came to her house on the night of Halloween, after reports of a disturbance. Two policemen entered and one of them went to check on the son, while the other talked to the mother.

"He came up to me and poked me," Sinclair said. "I was sitting on a chair in the kitchen and I jumped up and said you don't need to touch me."

Then the officer took out his police baton and began beating her while she tried to defend herself.

"And he hit me and then I fell on the floor," she said.

But the officer wouldn't stop, and he allegedly smashed the woman's face against a table and then on the floor.

Sinclair's nine year old son was downstairs and witnessed everything. She said it was very traumatizing for him.

"We [my son and I] were both traumatized," she said. "I just hug him and kiss him and tell him it's okay. All I was thinking of was his safety, and how he was going to be traumatized and how he is going to see the police now."

"I don't have a record, even as a youth," she added. "I've always helped others to better themselves and their lives and myself. And my (other) son is a police officer."

Sinclair has filed a formal complaint to LERA, the police's professional standards unit. But LERA commissioner, Max Churley, said only four to six complaints out of the hundreds received every year can have a hearing. Many complaints ended up abandoned.

"There's also a number that would be closed as insufficient evidence is available in order to proceed," he said.

Sinclair said the police charged her with assault after the incident. So far, there has been no comment from police.

© Ruth Fremson/The New York Times.

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York was present as Dr. Craig Spencer, who contracted Ebola while working in West Africa, was released from Bellevue Hospital Center upon being declared cured.

New York City doctor Craig Spencer has been released from Bellevue Hospital Center after being deemed free of the Ebola virus.

"It's a very, very good day," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference Tuesday, at Bellevue Hospital Center. "Dr. Spencer is Ebola-free, and New York City is Ebola-free."

Spencer, 33, returned to the U.S. on Friday, Oct. 17 after working with Doctors Without Borders to treat Ebola patients in Guinea. After reporting symptoms of Ebola on Thursday, Oct. 23, he was transported to an isolation ward at Bellevue by ambulance, where he later tested positive for the virus. On Saturday, Nov. 1, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation updated Spencer's condition to "stable" from "serious but stable".

"I'm elated," said Ram Raju, M.D., president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, "because we were able to treat and cure a hero."

In what he said will be his only public statement, Spencer thanked Bellevue staff members for their "tremendous care and support" and expressed a sense of pride over his work and the work of his colleagues with Doctors Without Borders. He is a "living example", he said, "that early detection is critical in ensuring that [Ebola] is not transmitted to others."

Spencer was the fourth person diagnosed with the virus in the U.S. and the first in New York City.

He received experimental treatments, including antiviral therapy and a plasma transfusion from health worker Nancy Writebol, who survived Ebola after contracting it in Liberia. As his health improved in isolation, Spencer is reported to have passed the time playing his banjo, doing yoga and riding a stationary exercise bike.

"There's work to be done now," de Blasio said, "because the crisis continues in West Africa. We're so thrilled that Dr. Spencer is well, but that is not a cause for complacency." According to Nov. 4 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13,268 people have contracted Ebola during the current outbreak in West Africa and 4,960 people have died from it. "Complacency, false security and above all fear are Ebola's greatest allies," said Sophie Delaunay, the executive director of Doctors Without Borders.

New Yorkers wishing to help closer to home should first and foremost get a flu shot, de Blasio reiterated and support rather than stigmatize organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the health care workers affiliated with them.

"There is no cause for anyone to be treated with anything but respect for serving people in need," he said.

Do history books written by white folks tell the truth about Natives? We think not. Here are just some of the lies they tell.

Columbus NEVER landed in the Upper 48 - Ever

Every year across the country countless elementary school students recite: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" and many perform a play about him discovering Indians in America. The thing is Columbus never landed in what would become the United States, he actually landed in the Caribbean.

Basically Everything About Pocahontas

Pocahontas was about 8 years old when John Smith arrived, and was later married to another young Indian warrior. She also had a child that was given away before she married John Rolfe.

Sorry Disney, and many incorrectly written textbooks, Pocahontas never fell in love with John Smith. According to tribal oral histories as well asThe True Story of Pocahontas by members of the Mattaponi Tribe, Pocahontas' original young Native husband was killed and Pocahontas' newborn was given to relatives before she was forced into captivity at about 15 or 16 years of age.

The First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was named after an entire tribe's massacre - not a peaceful meal between pilgrims and Indians.

In 1621, Wampanoag Indians investigated gun and cannon fire at a Pilgrim settlement to see them celebrating a successful harvest. The Indians - all male warriors, were fed as a gesture of peace. The act was not repeated annually.

In 1636, when a murdered man was discovered in a boat in Plymouth, English Major John Mason collected his soldiers and killed and burned down the wigwams of all the neighboring Pequot Indians who were blamed for the murder.

The following day, Plymouth Governor William Bradford applauded the massacre of the 400 Indians, including the women and children. The Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Newell, proclaimed:

"From that day forth, shall be a day of celebration and thanks giving for subduing the Pequots."

For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.

This is a popular image of the first Thanksgiving, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. But this is definitely NOT what happened.

What is a Redskin?

"It was only five generations ago that a white man could get money for one of my grandfather's scalps," wrote 1491's comedian Dallas Goldtooth on Facebook. "At this time... it was 'Redskin' that was used to describe us."

In his post, Goldtooth also included a newspaper clipping from after the U.S. Dakota Wars of 1862:

"The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory."

A screen shot of Goldtooth’s Facebook page with the 1863 newspaper clipping and his comments that sparked discussion on Facebook.

Lincoln Ordered a Mass Execution

In the fall of 1862, Native tribes in Minnesota waged war on white settlers out of frustration from starvation, mistreatment and harsh conditions. After soldiers captured over 300 Indians, President Abraham Lincoln approved the largest mass execution in U.S. history on 38 Dakota men. On the day of their hanging, an estimated 4,000 spectators watched them hung. Their bodies were later taken and used as medical cadavers.

© Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

A print marking the execution of 38 Dakota men in December of 1862. They were sentenced November 5, 1862.

Hitler Studied Reservations

There are many accounts of the Nazis and Hitler studying Indian reservations for guidance in planning encampments for the Jewish. Perhaps Lia Mandelbaum says it best in her article found in the entitled "Hitler's Inspiration and Guide: The Native American Holocaust."

From 1863 to 1868, the U.S. military persecuted and imprisoned 9,500 Navajo (the Diné) and 500 Mescalero Apache (the N'de). Living under armed guards, in holes in the ground, with extremely scarce rations, it is no wonder that more than 3,500 Navajo and Mescalero Apache men, women, and children died while in the concentration camp.

During the film I learned about something that shook me to my core that I had not heard before. I learned that the genocidal mentality and actions of the U.S. policy makers would find similar expression years later when the Nazis, under Hitler, studied the plans of Bosque Redondo to design the concentration camps for Jews.

There Are 566 Federally Recognized Tribes in the U.S.

When I was a student in high school, I learned that George Washington saw Indians in Virginia and possibly heard once or twice about the Cherokee Trail of Tears. But in 18 years of public school (and a few of private Catholic Schools) - not once did I learn about the multitude of tribes, languages or cultures involved in this country. NOT ONCE.

Unwritten History of African Americans and Natives

Dr. Arica L. Coleman is the assistant professor of Black American Studies at the University of Delaware. She is African American and Native American (Rappahannock). Due to her ancestry, she has done a lot of thinking about the relations and interactions of blacks, Indians and whites on the East Coast, primarily in Virginia.

According to Coleman, who turned her Ph.D. dissertation into a book titled That the Blood Stay Pure, there was Indian slavery in Virginia.

"The first slaves in the Americas were Native American and this business that the Native Americans died off as a result of disease and war [is inaccurate] - those were not the only reasons for their demise, there was the Indian slave trade, which is something we do not discuss a lot," she writes.

Coleman also writes about Walter Plecker, a man who once worked as the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Records. A man who literally changed races in Virginia's birth records. His actions have been coined as "pencil genocide."

Similarly, William Loren Katz, the author of Black Indians has written how entire cities of blacks and Indians came together as a strong force against European settlers including huge factions of black Seminoles who created nearly impenetrable forces against those soldiers foolish enough to try and break into Florida, and suffered miserable defeats over several years.

A third of all UK councils have scrapped 'meals on wheels' services to their elderly and vulnerable residents due government to spending cuts, putting senior citizens at risk of malnutrition and social isolation, research showed.

Over half expect further service reductions in the year ahead. A study by the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition claims more than one million older people in the UK are malnourished.

The total number of meals provided by UK meals on wheels services and lunch clubs has dropped from 40 million to 19 million meals over the past ten years.

Half of all local authorities in the UK expect even further service reductions in the year ahead because social care budgets are being tightened and funding is being slashed, according to the National Association of Care Catering.

The Association says tens of thousands of elderly people living alone rely on the delivery of regular meals for nutrition, social interaction and safety checks.

The NACC National Chair, Neel Radia, said: "The Community Meals Service is a crucial preventative service that enables older people to live in their own homes for longer, whilst maintaining their physical and emotional wellbeing and reducing pressure on the NHS."

"The abolition of community meals services is incredibly short-sighted and cuts a lifeline for many older people who can face social isolation and loneliness," Radia added.

Dot Gibson, General Secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, says meals on wheels are a cost-effective lifeline for tens of thousands of older people.

"But it's not just about the food," said Gibson. "It's about the personal contact, relationships and the wider benefit that the service brings by keeping in touch with people and maintaining their wellbeing."

Community meals are not a statutory local government requirement, which means they are at risk of being cut as councils try to save money and focus on services they are legally obliged to provide.

Radia urged the government to enshrine community meals in law to guarantee councils protect services for older people.

Last month, research by the Local Government Association showed councils were forced to divert £900 million from other budgets in order to maintain current spending on adult social care services.

Lt. Col. Yocouba Isaac Zida, Pentagon puppet

This consensus among the political parties and mass organizations must now be negotiated with the military to set the terms of the transition.

Popular organizations had rejected the military's attempt to lead a transition team. Three leaders from Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal representing the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) visited the capital of Ouagadougou on Nov. 7 calling for a rapid process that would lead to national elections. The plan put forward from discussions among the opposition parties and mass organizations is calling for elections by Nov. 2015 after the appointment of an interim civilian president to guide the entire process.

Earlier on Oct. 30, demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands demanded the resignation of the 27-year dictator President Blaise Compaore. When members of parliament were set to approve a bill that would have provided legal cover for Compaore to run for another term of office, thousands gathered outside the Place de la Nation while many stormed the parliament, the ruling party headquarters and other symbols of authority, setting them on fire.

To prevent further unrest, Gen. Honore Traorewas selected by the military to head a new government, terminating the parliament and declaring a nighttime curfew. Eventually, Compoare resigned on Oct. 31 and fled to neighboring Ivory Coast.

Nonetheless, by Nov. 1, Gen. Traore had been removed by the military and replaced by Lt. Col. Zida. By the following day thousands re-entered the streets telling Zida that he must also go and pave the way for civilian control.

Burkina Faso and United States "Counter-terrorism" in West Africa

The ousted leader Compaore had come to power in Oct. 1987 after leading a coup against Capt. Thomas Sankara, a Marxist revolutionary leader and theoretician who had also taken charge through a seizure of power four years earlier. Sankara attempted to break with the legacy of French neo-colonialism advancing a program of self-reliance, women's liberation and international debt cancellation for Africa.

France and its allies in the region were suspected of being behind the overthrow and assassination of Sankara. In recent years the U.S. has escalated its military and intelligence presence in West Africa as well, even among those states previously considered within the strategic interests of Paris.

Compaore was a participant in the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) counter-terrorism operations in West Africa. These programs include a presence for Pentagon personnel within the country and the training of military officers in the U.S. so that they can be more effective in carrying out Washington's aims on the continent.

The wrote on Nov. 3 that

"In 2012, when he was a major, Zida attended a 12-day counterterrorism training course at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida that was sponsored by the Defense Department's Joint Special Operations University, said Army Lt. Col. Mark R. Cheadle, a spokesman for the U.S. Africa Command. That same year, Zida attended a five-day military intelligence course in Botswana that was financed by the U.S. government, Cheadle said."

This same article continues saying

"The U.S. military has developed a close relationship in recent years with Burkina Faso, which has allowed the Pentagon to operate a secretive Special Operations base that it uses to conduct reconnaissance flights across West Africa."

Interestingly enough, the U.S. government, which officially says that it cannot conduct normal relations with states where the military has seized power, has not labeled the current situation in Burkina Faso as a coup.

Pattern of U.S. Intervention Using Military Leaders

In recent African history, the leader of a military coup in Mali during March 2012, Capt. Amadou Sanogo, was also trained in several Pentagon bases in the U.S. Also the military seizure of power in Egypt during early July 2013 was carried out by Field Marshal Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, a former student in Pentagon training programs.

The Egyptian military has longtime ties with the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Similar to the current situation in Burkina Faso, the July 3, 2013 seizure of power by El-Sisi, who is now president of Egypt, was not described as a coup by Washington.

Over a billion dollars in assistance is provided by Washington to the Egyptian military every year. This state of affairs has prevailed for over three decades.

With respect to the Pentagon counter-terrorism program in West Africa, the noted in 2012 that "A key hub of the U.S. spying network can be found in Ouagadougou, the flat, sunbaked capital of Burkina Faso, one of the most impoverished countries in Africa. Under a classified surveillance program code-named Creek Sand, dozens of U.S. personnel and contractors have come to Ouagadougou in recent years to establish a small air base on the military side of the international airport." (June 13, 2012)

Burkina Faso is now an emerging mineral producer attracting foreign investment from firms in the leading capitalist states. The country is the fourth largest producer of gold on the continent and mining activities in other areas are underway.

These factors will largely determine the Pentagon and CIA role in keeping this West African state under U.S. and French influence. In order for the country to embark upon a genuine path towards development and sovereignty, the anti-imperialist forces among the opposition and mass organizations must end the state's collaboration with AFRICOM.

The events since Oct. 30 in Burkina Faso have sparked hope upon among the African workers, farmers and youth throughout the region and beyond. A political program of independence and anti-capitalist development must emerge in order for the gains of the popular struggle to win concrete results that benefit the majority of the poor and exploited population inside the country.

© Reuters/Kacper Pempel

Far-right protesters throw flares in front of the National Stadium during the annual far-right rally, which coincides with Poland's National Independence Day in Warsaw November 11, 2014.

At least 276 people were arrested and just under 50 injured after clashes broke out in Warsaw. Polish nationalists took to the streets to mark the nation's National Independence Day, throwing flares and stones at officers, who responded with water cannon.

Tens of thousands marched through the Polish capital Tuesday with many carrying the national flag, while flares and firecrackers were also let off. The march was attended by extremist nationalist groups, such as the Radical Camp and the All-Polish Youth.

[embedded content]

Marches through the city's capital have taken place every year since 2008 and have often led to clashes between rival political organizations.

For the fourth consecutive year the procession turned violent, with a group breaking away as they crossed a bridge over the Vistula river and reached the eastern bank, near the Polish national football stadium.

Video: #Poland's Independence Day and "happy" celebrations in Warsaw. Unrest turns into riots http://t.co/fqfi93NZfe http://ift.tt/1oGSPfJ

- Anna Zamejc (@stell7) November 11, 2014

According to Reuters, they tore up paving slabs and benches from a nearby bus station and started to throw them at police, who were dressed in riot gear.

Law enforcement officers responded by approaching the rioters and using a water cannon truck to push the marches back onto the bridge in the direction they had come. Some outlets report rubber bullets and tear gas was deployed.

Up to 23 police officers and 24 protesters were wounded in the clashes, while at least 276 people were detained, according to TASS.

Though the provocateurs were from the march by a police cordon, clashes still go on. Ruptly showed from the scene that police, armed with shields, again had to resort to water cannons to stop the crowd. The people at the stadium were waving flags and throwing flares.

[embedded content]

Nationalists march on Independence Day in #Warsaw, #Poland http://t.co/yt1RwTY20R @RT_com http://ift.tt/1oGWTMV

- Sputnik (@SputnikInt) November 11, 2014

In November 2013, police had to use rubber bullets and pepper spray to disperse a crowd of violent Polish nationalist demonstrators during an Independence Day march in Warsaw, who pelted the Russian embassy with firecrackers and bottles.

Thousands of Polish nationalists march in Warsaw to mark Poland's National Independence Day. Riot police ready -> http://ift.tt/1oGSRUK

- Emmanuelle (@_esaliba) November 11, 2014

Officers in riot gear formed a cordon around the building, as young shaven-headed demonstrators waving red-and-white flags tried to push through. The crowd shouted slogans directed against Russia, Poland's eastern neighbor, which the demonstrators blamed for World War II atrocities and occupation during the Soviet era.

Poland's foreign ministry criticized the action, saying "there is no justification for hooliganism."

National Independence Day has been celebrated since November 11, 1918, when the country gained independence after being partitioned between Russia, Prussia and the Habsburg Empire.

[embedded content]

© Reuters/Thierry Roge

A Greenpeace activist displays signs symbolising genetically modified maize crops during a protest in front of the European Union headquarters in Brussels November 24, 2008.

EU politicians on Tuesday backed a plan to allow nations to ban genetically modified crops on their soil even if they are given approval to be grown in the European Union, raising the chance their use will remain limited on the continent.

Widely grown in the Americas and Asia, GM crops in Europe have divided opinion, with opposition in many countries including France and Germany, while Britain favors them.

A previous compromise endorsed this year by EU ministers would have required negotiation with the relevant companies if a nation wanted to ban a GM crop in the event it had been approved for EU-wide use.

The plan voted through parliament on Tuesday would leave out that stage and allows member states to ban GM crops on environmental grounds. It drew praise from GM opponents.

"Today's vote would give European countries a legally solid right to ban GM cultivation in their territory, making it difficult for the biotech industry to challenge such bans in court," Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director, said.

Left-leaning politicians also welcomed Tuesday's vote, which kicks off formal negotiations on a legal text, saying it strengthened the grounds for opting out of any GM cultivation.

Conservatives were opposed.

"The parliament's position on GM cultivation risks inflicting untold damage to robust, science-based policymaking in Europe. We strongly oppose these proposals and voted against them today. We will continue to oppose them," Julie Girling, environment spokeswoman for the Conservatives in the European Parliament, said.

The executive European Commission said in a statement it was confident the law could be in place in 2015, once it had received final endorsement from the European Parliament and member states.

GM cultivation has provoked opposition in Europe for years. An earlier attempt to agree a compromise on GM cultivation failed in 2012, when EU ministers were unable to agree.

So far, EU authorities have approved only two GM crops for commercial cultivation, and one was later blocked by a court.

That leaves Monsanto's GM maize MON810 as the only GM crop grown in Europe, where it has been cultivated in Spain and Portugal for a decade.

The city of Rossville, Georgia has banned abortions - even in the case of rape and incest - because Mayor Teddy Harris said that the town did not need any "drama."

At a meeting on Monday, Council members asked Harris what had prompted him to call for a vote on two ordinances, one that banned abortion clinics and another that banned so-called "pill mills."

Harris said that a resident had questioned the legality of a methadone clinic, which made him think about what other businesses he would like to keep out of the town, according to the .

The mayor explained that abortion clinics could spark "drama" in the city.

"We want to be a peaceful city," Harris insisted. "We don't want to have any protesters."

None of the 19 Georgia abortion clinics are currently located in Rossville, and it wasn't clear that the ordinance would stand up to legal scrutiny if one tried to open there.

The measure did allow licensed physicians to perform abortions at a hospital if the life of the mother was at risk, and if doctors could certify that the fetus would not survive outside the womb.

In the end, the City Council passed the abortion ban, and an ordinance forbidding "pill mill" businesses which often provide pain medication to addicts without a prescription. However, pill mills had already been banned by state and federal laws.

Russia's economic difficulties intensified on Friday as the beleaguered rouble crashed during morning trading, stoking fears that the country was on the verge of a full-blown currency crisis reminiscent of the 1990s.

The rouble has fallen steadily in recent months amid rising tensions with the west, but it took a dramatic downward lurch earlier this week, plunging more than 10% in 48 hours.

The instability of currency is reviving uncomfortable memories among Russian people, many of whom suffered after the country's default in 1998 when savings were wiped out and queues formed at exchange points as the rouble was dramatically devalued amid spiralling inflation.

Economic problems in Russia even threaten to undermine the power base of the president, Vladimir Putin, who has built his political reputation on a promise of stability, the restoration of Russia's great power status and rising living standards. He has made few public comments about the rouble since declines began to accelerate last month.

As the rouble dropped on Thursday there was a growing physical shortage of dollars and euros in Moscow's banks and exchange points, according to Russian media.

The rouble's weakness has been exacerbated by the Kremlin's hardline stance over the crisis in Ukraine, which has caused investors to flee Russia, fearing a new cold war.

Western sanctions on Moscow for its annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea and support for pro-Russia rebels fighting the Kiev government have shut out Russian companies from western capital markets, forcing large debt repayments and prompting fears of a slow-motion credit crunch.

Once grouped with other dynamic emerging market economies, the Russian economy is now teetering on the brink of recession. Driven by fast-rising food prices, inflation has jumped to above 8% this year while capital flight is at levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.

Dependent on the tax revenue generated by commodity exports,Russia has also been hit by an oil price that has slid over 25% since June and is now hovering at a four-year low.

The rouble's troubles in recent days were triggered on Wednesday by a decision by Russia's central bank to cease its artificial support for the currency, reversing a policy of 15 years that mandated unlimited interventions on the market to hold the rouble within a certain price range.

In a statement this week, the central bank said that it would now only intervene to prop up the rouble if there were a threat to financial stability. Amid rumours of an emergency meeting of financial policymakers on Friday, experts said the bank had to act to preserve its credibility.

"The longer the regulator waits the harder it will be to find a solution able to stabilise the market, " said Dmitry Polevoy, chief economist for ING Bank in Russia. "Panic amongst the population is difficult to stop."

Comment: There's no doubt about it - a World War is playing out and the West has the hubris to believe that it can win through proxies, whether economic or "terrorist" or "Neo-Nazi". But while waging war by deceit might help bring the house crashing down, integrity is required to rebuild it. As Putin stated:

Paul Craig Roberts: Vladimir Putin is the leader of the moral world

Let's ask ourselves, how comfortable are we with this, how safe are we, how happy living in this world, and how fair and rational has it become? Maybe, we have no real reasons to worry, argue and ask awkward questions? Maybe the United States' exceptional position and the way they are carrying out their leadership really is a blessing for us all, and their meddling in events all around the world is bringing peace, prosperity, progress, growth and democracy, and we should maybe just relax and enjoy it all?

Let me say that this is not the case, absolutely not the case.

...

Colleagues, given the global situation, it is time to start agreeing on fundamental things. This is incredibly important and necessary; this is much better than going back to our own corners. The more we all face common problems, the more we find ourselves in the same boat, so to speak. And the logical way out is in cooperation between nations, societies, in finding collective answers to increasing challenges, and in joint risk management. Granted, some of our partners, for some reason, remember this only when it suits their interests.

Practical experience shows that joint answers to challenges are not always a panacea; and we need to understand this. Moreover, in most cases, they are hard to reach; it is not easy to overcome the differences in national interests, the subjectivity of different approaches, particularly when it comes to nations with different cultural and historical traditions. But nevertheless, we have examples when, having common goals and acting based on the same criteria, together we achieved real success.

The blast of arctic air spreading across the nation will set the stage for a winter storm to threaten the Northwest later this week.

Frigid air will not only spend this week pouring across the eastern two-thirds of the nation, but will also continue to spill into the Northwest.

As the cold air expands southwestward, gusty winds will create even lower AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures through Wednesday.

As the cold air squeezes through the Columbia Gorge, winds will pick up speed in a fashion similar to what happens between buildings in a city. Gusts of 40 to 60 mph can occur near the western mouth of the gorge into Wednesday.

The strongest winds will whip Troutdale, Oregon, with gusts of 50 mph expected in Portland.

Such winds could cause tree damage and power outages. Dangerous cross-winds will threaten high-profile vehicles, including those traveling Interstate-84 as it snakes along the Columbia River and the portion of I-5 in the Portland, Oregon, area.

As the winds die down later Wednesday, attention will then turn toward a new Pacific storm due to arrive late in the week.

While the storm will be far from the strongest to slam the region, the presence of the cold air will set the stage for snow and ice to fall outside of the mountains and create travel hazards.

Current indications point toward an icy mix developing along the I-5 corridor in northern Oregon and southern Washington Wednesday night through Thursday morning.

Portland and Salem, Oregon, lie in this zone and will have to prepare for treacherous travel to unfold and possible power outages.

Farther to the north, snowflakes may make an appearance just to the south of Seattle Thursday morning. A northward shift to the storm, however, could spread the wintry mix threat to Seattle.

A band of accumulating snow is also set to create slippery roads across eastern Oregon and southern Idaho Wednesday night through Friday. This includes The Dalles, Bend and Pendleton, Oregon, and Boise, Idaho. A few inches could fall in this swath.

Exactly how much snow falls in this area and over southeastern Washington will depend on how far north the storm tracks and how much warm air sweeps in above the ground.

Residents of the Northwest should continue to check back with AccuWeather.com as more precise details on this impending winter storm unfold.

Drier weather will return next weekend as the storm heads eastward to cross the remainder of the country. Through Monday of the following week, the storm may lay a swath of snow from the central Plains to the Northeast.

© Ben Potter

Stone projectile points and associated decorated antler foreshafts from the burial pit at the Upward Sun River site. The remains of two Ice Age infants, buried more than 11,000 years ago at a site in Alaska, represent the youngest human remains ever found in northern North America, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

An archaeology team has discovered the ancient burial site of a pair of infants near the Tanana River, a find that researchers say offers a new glimpse into life in Interior Alaska during the Ice Age.

The remains date back about 11,500 years and represent the youngest human remains ever found in northern North America. The site also gives insight into ancient burial practices, including grave offerings that included decorated stone weapons.

The discovery occurred in 2013 but is detailed for the first time by University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Ben Potter in a new paper published in the . Potter's team led the dig at a site known as the Upward Sun River, located near the Tanana River southeast of Fairbanks.

Archaeologists have explored a large sand dune in the area for nearly a decade and previously found the partly cremated remains of a 3-year-old child at the site in 2010. That discovery established a new milestone as the oldest human remains ever found in Alaska.

© Ben Potter

Members of the archaeology field team watch as University of Alaska Fairbanks professors Ben Potter and Josh Reuther excavate the burial pit at the Upward Sun River site. The remains of two Ice Age infants, buried more than 11,000 years ago at a site in Alaska, represent the youngest human remains ever found in northern North America, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The infants' burial site was unearthed about 15 inches below the cremated remains below a hearth in the same temporary dwelling, which was likely built from poles and animal hides. The well-preserved bones appear to belong to one child who died soon after birth and another who was stillborn.

All three children at the site appear to have died during the same summer. Potter said the care given to their burials - and the differing practices in each case - offers a rare window into an ancient culture that wasn't preserved through writing.

The infants were buried alongside stone spearheads and darts, which have shafts made of antler handles and decorated with geometric designs. Salmon bones are also prevalent at the site, showing how important the fish were to Ice Age diets in the Interior.

"Every bit of new information we're gathering from Upward Sun and other sites really show a sophisticated subsistence economy," Potter said. "People are really well-adapted to using all the resources that are present."

Joel Irish, a researcher from Liverpool John Moores University who also participated in the project, said the infants are clearly Native American. Little else about them has been established, including how they died.

Irish said the research team hopes to follow up with DNA tests to determine the gender of the infants and whether they were related.

Jerry Isaac, who served as Tanana Chiefs Conference president during the archaeological dig, gave his blessing to the project. Archaeologists worked with TCC and local tribes to establish rules for how to handle the remains.

Isaac acknowledged that disturbing ancient burial sites is controversial but said the knowledge gained from the Upward Sun remains could provide valuable links to Athabascan history.

Isaac said he's particularly interested in the subsistence practices of his ancestors and whether they may provide insight into some of the health problems that affect Alaska Natives today.

"The reason that personally I've supported it is one of curiosity and one of proof that our Native diets have connection to our health and well-being," he said.

Potter said much more work remains at the site, which sits on a dune roughly 20 meters wide and 600 meters long.

Unlike a lot of the history that has deteriorated in the acidic soil of boreal forests, the relatively deep sites at Upward Sun are well-preserved and abundant. Potter said there are six components to the site, which he said represents a "residential base camp." It includes at least 10 hearths and what appears to be a salmon processing site.

Viewed together, numerous sites in the Tanana River Basin could help provide insights into the technology and society of Alaska's indigenous people and how they adapted to thousands of years of climate change, Potter said.

"There really is no area in the New World comparable to this with this many well-dated, well-stratified sites," he said.

Gwent Police accidentally sprayed a class of four and five year olds with pepper spray at a school in Wales during a botched weapons demonstration.

The weapons were accidentally deployed during a visit from officers to Ysgol Gymraeg Gilfach Fargoed, in Bargoed, Caerphilly, while giving a lesson on police equipment.

The officers were reportedly intending to demonstrate the use of pepper spray using a mock PAVA spray, but accidentally discharged a real canister.

Eight pupils aged four and five were hit with the spray, which causes the eyes to close and is extremely painful.

None of the children required hospital treatment, but parents were urged to seek medical assistance if they had concerns about their children's welfare.

One parent said that although she was unimpressed with the officers' conduct, she believed the discharge of chemicals was "a genuine mistake."

"My son was in the class when the pepper spray was released. We had a phone call from the school to say it had happened. I'm not happy about it, but at the same time, it seems to be a genuine mistake."

A spokesperson for the police said that "parents were contacted by a senior officer to explain what happened, discuss any concerns, and offer our sincere apologies."

In a similar case, a 7-year-old girl was injured during a weapons demonstration on November 6 at a police station in Nottinghamshire.

The girl, who remains unnamed, reportedly received a cut lip after an ammunition cartridge fell and bounced as a gun was fired. She was touring a police station in Sherwood Lodge, the headquarters of the Nottinghamshire Police Force.

The incidents have sparked calls for an investigation into the safety of weapon demonstrations.

Caerphilly Council representative Tudor Davies said an inquiry into the incident was necessary, saying, "You don't pepper spray children, at the end of the day."

The accidental discharge of chemicals occurred on October 30, but details were not publicly available until the story got out on November 6.

The police spokesperson said modifications were being made to weapons demonstration procedure.

"Further enquiries into the error are now being undertaken and, as a result of yesterday's incident, school liaison officers will no longer be taking any demonstration (mock) PAVA spray into schools."

Today, on November 11, cities and towns all across the country will organize parades to "honor" the men and women who fought for America's freedom. In addition to the parades, Veterans will be given small perks at corporate chains, patriotic music and motivational themes will be played across television stations, and Americans will thank their veterans "for their service" as they have been instructed to do by their politicians and their television programming for the last several years.

Yet seldom do Americans ask what "service" they are thanking these veterans for since most Americans simply parrot the latest buzz terms without ever actually questioning them. Of course, there are some for whom no amount of war and slaughter will ever be enough to vicariously make them feel like bigger men or a great nation. Most, however, are simply ignorant.

The truth is that the service for which veterans are being thanked has nothing to do with the freedom of the American people. As the most decorated Marine in American history (at the time), General Smedley Butler, stated, "I served in all commissioned ranks from a Second Lieutenant to a Major General. And, during that time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism."

Butler discovered that he was a tool of the world oligarchy. Many others have since discovered the fact that they were nothing more than pawns, albeit of a much lower level, after their youth and health was spent in the process of slaughtering innocent people. Many soldiers from the world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan have come to the same conclusion and, no doubt, a number of those who have participated in the attack on Libya, Iraq, and Syria will do the same.

There is also no doubt that many of these soldiers signed up because they perceived their country to be under attack and that those people across the world were vicious enemies who wanted to see the American people destroyed. While skewed and tragically ignorant, many joined the ranks of the military for noble reasons. Unfortunately, even the noblest of reasons does not make a lie the truth.

Whatever one's reasons for joining the battle, the end result is the same. Thousands to millions of human beings - sons, fathers, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, cousins, wives, husbands - are killed in unimaginable ways because of the desires of international banks, corporations, and governments.

These people, despite the cynical and vile propaganda designed to portray them as subhuman savages, very much care about their families. They love them every much as Americans love theirs. They love their homes and the land they grew up on. Their hearts are ripped out of their chests when they lay their 2-year-old daughter in a shallow grave because Big Oil wanted a new pipeline. They lose a part of themselves when their ailing grandmother is stabbed to death because their village is just one step toward higher profits for international banks.

These are the "services" our veterans are performing while Americans are so far removed from reality that they foolishly attempt to suggest that what they saw on their television from the comfort of their homes on 9/11 somehow equates with the suffering that millions of Iraqis have felt and continue to feel on a daily basis.

It doesn't. So perhaps it would be wise to forgive Iraqis for not tearing up whenever they hear the Star Spangled Banner or standing at attention whenever they hear of a "fallen hero" from the United States.

Unfortunately, we shouldn't hold our breath that the general American public will realize anytime soon that Smedley Butler was right when he said that "War Is A Racket." To them, American blood is different from all other blood because American blood is right. American blood is always spilled to promote freedom and democracy. American blood is civilized.

But what about that American blood when it comes home? Or, I should say, IF it comes home?

If the veterans returning home can manage to keep their hair cut, their boots clean, and their delusional programming that taught them they fought for freedom and democracy, then things may fall into place. They can get jobs (maybe) and then be admitted into the circle of masturbation that constantly reminds the American people that these veterans "served their country" and thus demand respect for doing so. They can be thanked for their service every time the word "veteran" is uttered in a public setting.

Those who joined for the thrill and found war to be a pleasurable experience can then become police so they can continue to terrorize innocent civilians but, this time, do so closer to home.

But if their luck is not so fortunate; if they lost their legs, absorbed shrapnel, or injured their brain, then they will be forced into a future of disability and pain, substandard treatment, subsistence payments, unemployment, and despair. Talking about their wounds, of course, will keep Americans entertained at first, but only for so long. The general public simply does not have the attention span to hear war stories that end in wheelchairs and blindness, particularly if the story is told through stuttering lips and slurred speech. After all, John Wayne and Rambo never ended up in a wheelchair.

If, of course, they found war to be such a distasteful exercise that their own minds can no longer comprehend the experience and will no longer allow them to function in "normal society," they will face these obstacles and more. Not even the requisite "thank you for your service" will be uttered to these victims of American "foreign policy." Theirs will be a life of arrest, "psychiatric services," drug addiction and alcoholism. Like their unemployed counterparts, mental victims of war will be relegated to homelessness where they walk through a new war zone where, this time, they are the helpless civilians but men in uniforms remain the real terrorists.

On the street, the same people who sent them to war by their armchair support or by their apathy will look at them with disdain on their way to the local Starbucks or football game. After all, John Wayne never asked for a handout. Rambo never mumbled to himself. They came home and got jobs. They got told "Thank you for your service" and they accepted it. They never reminded us about the ugly truth of war, that it is a racket and a boon for banks and corporations. They never forced us to understand that the people we supported killing were more like us than we ever could have imagined. John Wayne and Rambo were good veterans. It's just a shame they weren't real.

After our wars in the past, the "bad" veterans were always left behind to remind us of the after-effects of a tragedy far away. They reminded us that war is a two-way street even if it is not perceived that way on the political front. In 2014, however, we have had enough of being reminded. It is time for the homeless and, in particular, homeless veterans to go away. In cities all across the country, homelessness is being criminalized. The victims and reminders of the results of an imperialist war policy and free trade economics are being swept away from public view.

In cities throughout America, feeding the homeless is now against the law, punishable by fines and even jail. The most basic expression of humanity, kindness, and compassion - providing food - is now considered a crime. Ironically, these crimes are prosecuted in the same cities that will no doubt fund and organize Veterans Day parades.

Americans, however, are not interested in the veterans on the streets of Myrtle Beach, Orlando, or other cities across the country that enforce the rules demanding that they "Don't feed the animals."

For most Americans, rules are rules. The signs say "Don't feed the animals" so they won't.

Instead, they will thank them for their service and enjoy the parade.

British Home Secretary Theresa May

A supposedly independent review of the Home Office's handling of allegations about decades of systemic child abuse that infiltrated Westminster has ruled that it's impossible to discern if there was an establishment cover-up.

Conducted by the chief executive of the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the inquiry examined whether the Home Office carried out an adequate and effective review last year into its handling of damning information relating to alleged historic child sex abuse.

Key findings of the report include a definitive lack of evidence the Home Office financed the Paedophile Information Exchange, and the government department's "chaotic" system for keeping records.

On the question of a potential cover-up, Peter Saunders of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood told the Home Affairs Committee he's unsure of whether documents relating to historic child sex abuse allegations were purposefully destroyed. But he added he wasn't surprised files had vanished when they identified "people at the top of the political tree" in relation to such alleged criminality.

While NSPCC chief PeterWanless' review found no evidence of a historic cover-up of child abuse supposedly carried out by establishment figures, May was unable to rule out the possibility.

"I cannot stand here and say the Home Office was not involved in a cover-up in the 1980s and that is why I am determined to get to the truth," she said on Tuesday.

Dickens Dossier

In 1983, the late Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens wrote to then-Home Secretary Leon Brittan warning he would expose the identities of eight public figures he suspected of engaging in child abuse unless concrete action was pursued. The information Dickens submitted allegedly contained the names of police officers and MPs suspected of being child abusers.

In 2013, senior civil servant Mark Sedwill launched a review into the Home Office's handling of abuse allegations between 1979 and 1999 - including the information submitted to Brittan by Dickens.

However, no official record of child sex abuse allegations made by Dickens surfaced. Rather, Sedwill's review revealed the Home Office had "lost or destroyed" 114 files - consisting of an array of child sex abuse allegations. In July of this year, May requested Wanless examine the review carried out in 2013, amid heightened concerns regarding its efficacy and integrity.

Wanless faced heated questioning from MPs on Tuesday as he offered evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, but May avoided direct questioning by addressing the findings of the review in a written statement.

The NSPC chief's report revealed files were routinely destroyed by the Home Office. It failed, however, to cast further light on allegations of systemic child sex abuse carried out by elite members of Britain's law enforcement and political establishment in the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

Wanless' inquiry mirrored findings of Sedwill's review into the missing Dickens files, which concluded there was no hard evidence to suggest they had been destroyed or removed inappropriately. It also also failed to uncover the fate of the missing Dickens dossier.

Speaking to the House of Commons on Tuesday, the NSPC chief executive told MPs the Home Office's filing system is "a mess." The absence of a logical and effective system for isolating and retaining files relating to cases of alleged child sex abuse made it "extremely difficult"to decipher whether enough was done to investigate these matters previously, he added.

Labour sharply criticized the Home Secretary's decision to avoid direct scrutiny and questioning by MPs with respect to Wanless' findings, warning her actions were shameful.

May's failure to face the house and answer questions "on a matter of this level of public concern" is utterly unacceptable, an anonymous Labour source told the Guardian.

The relative failure of Wanless' inquiry to cast any new light on the allegations, formerly made by Dickens, will fuel the ongoing debate over the need for an official and comprehensive national inquiry into claims of historic child abuse carried out by senior establishment figures. Home Affairs Committee chair, Keith Vaz, said there was strong reason to believe the broader inquiry into child sex abuse due to begin this week should become a statutory investigation.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has called upon May to clarify whether Wanless' inquiry was merely a formulaic review of old information or whether the NSPCC chief had been granted access to original files, had been allowed to pursue new lines of inquiry, and had been able to genuinely look for the missing Dickens files.

Cooper said absolute transparency is essential in this regard, particularly in light of allegations against the Home Office that claims of historic child sex abuse had been mishandled.

#Wanless The question still has to be asked, 'why was there no investigation at the time?'

- joanne stowell (@JOYOURPAPARAZZI) November 11, 2014

The Raw Story

A non-profit news blog, focused on providing independent journalism.

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