Stephan: Here is a story from London revealing the dirty little secret American law enforcement doesn't want you to know. No other other developed country has the kind of police violence that is routine in the U.S.. Instead they have variations of this. Just under a thousand people a year are shot and killed by police in the U.S., based on the last several years' numbers. In London most police on the street are not armed. In polls 82% do not want to be armed.
Police in London control street violence with using guns.
A video showing British police officers brawling with a group of unruly men shows how violent attacks can be stopped without gunfire or even serious injury.
The video shows officers arguing with a group of increasingly aggressive men during a traffic stop in London, reported the Independent.
The men surround the officers as they try to remove two friends from police custody, and then a fight breaks out.
One officer is pulled to the ground during the fracas, and police use chemical irritant spray to subdue the men until backup arrives.
Online commenters at Reddit noticed how the officers were able to take the assailants into custody without shooting or seriously harming anyone.
“Imagine how differently this would have been if this happened in America,” said one Reddit user.
Another commenter pointed out that police even warned the men they would use chemical irritant despite the lengthy scuffle.
“Top of Form British police officers making American police officers look […]
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Wednesday, August 10th, 2016
Andrew Khouri, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: Here is some good news for older couples. Under this new rule when one partner dies and is the only one on a mortgage the widowed partner's home ownership now will be better protected.
And as is often the case California is leading the way in this wellness increasing social policy. The difference between Jerry Brown's California and Sam Brownback's Kansas is the living proof, paid for in Kansas suffering, that programs that are wellness oriented are superior, cheaper, more efficient, and fairer.
CFPB Director Richard Cordray, shown in March 2015, has announced new protections against foreclosure.
Credit: Steve Helber / AP
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued new rules aimed at protecting widowed homeowners from a red-tape nightmare that has caused them to lose their homes to foreclosure. (emphasis added)
The regulations, announced Thursday, generally give surviving spouses who are not on a mortgage note the same protections borrowers have. Those include a ban on so-called dual tracking in which mortgage servicers negotiate with clients to modify a mortgage while simultaneously pursuing foreclosure.
The rules, which expand and clarify existing guidance from the agency, were long awaited by consumer groups that are pushing similar regulations in a pending California Senate bill.
Those advocates say survivors — who already owned their homes or inherit them after a death — face considerable resistance from servicers when they seek loan modifications after losing their spouse’s income.
Often companies won’t allow a modification until the surviving spouse assumes the loan, […]
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Wednesday, August 10th, 2016
Larry Schwartz, - The Raw Story/Alternet
Stephan: Here is some very useful information about the prostate.
Credit: www.drstandley.com
If there is one organ that elicits mixed reviews from men everywhere, it is the prostate. The prostate is the gland that produces semen, the fluid medium that protects and nourishes sperm cells. On the one hand (no pun intended), the prostate can be an integral part of any intensely pleasurable orgasm. On the other hand, other than skin cancer, no other cancer is as prevalent in men than prostate cancer, which afflicts 1 in 7 men in their lifetimes. If you are African American, your chances are even greater that you will get it (and 2.5 times more likely you will die from it). Overall, more than 180,000 men will develop this cancer in 2016, and of those, over 25,000 will die from it. The bad news for men about prostate cancer is that the older you get, the more likely it is that you will develop it. The good news is that your chances of survival are actually pretty decent.
Even for those men who don’t get prostate cancer, many will find themselves dealing with BPH, or benign […]
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Wednesday, August 10th, 2016
Kate Brannen, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: We're really into late empire here: hiring mercenaries, oh, excuse me "private intelligence contractors." Part of the privatization of war, so some more beaks can get into the public money pool. Really, I should be writing this in Latin. And of course its all been secret up to now.
US Muslim mercenary Credit: Daily Beast
Every day at 5 p.m., the Pentagon releases a list of that day’s contracts worth more than $7 million. On July 27, buried in the daily email was an eye-catching detail: Military contractors would be working inside Syria alongside the roughly 300 U.S. troops already deployed there.
This appears to be the first time the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged that private contractors are also playing a role in the fight against the so-called Islamic State inside Syria, and it’s one more signal that the U.S. military is deepening its involvement in the fate of the country.
The contract announcement said Six3 Intelligence Solutions—a private intelligence company recently acquired by CACI International—won a $10 million no-bid Army contract to provide “intelligence analysis services.” According to the Pentagon, the work will be completed over the next year in Germany, Italy and, most notably, Syria.
Beyond this, details are scant. For example, it is difficult to […]
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