Surveillance cameras capture incredible tornado damage

submitted by Gabrielle Price

Having grown up in the Midwest and knowing how to prepare for severe weather and tornadoes was part and parcel of the Midwest experience.  But the strength of these storms has been alarming to say the least.
This surveillance camera footage shows several angles of the destruction from one of a reported 95 tornadoes in the Plains region of the United States.  In all my years as a photographer and former storm chaser – I’ve never seen footage like this.  I had to post it.
Please help those who are affected by these storms by looking up any of the cities listed below the video.

I’m quite certain there will be a lot of local aid organizations set up to help since our Federal Government is ill equipped to handle this kind of destruction – the economy is tanking under their watch while denying climate changes to boot.  Mother nature is in charge now.  Heed her warnings when weather services issue them.

[Footage stops at 6:50 where the camera remains stuck.]

Tornado producing storms ravaged parts of the Plains Saturday and Saturday night, killing at least five people and leaving behind incredible destruction.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, more than 95 tornadoes were reported from Oklahoma through Kansas, Nebraska and southern Iowa on Saturday.

The deadliest of the tornadoes ravaged the town of Woodward, OK, where at least five people were killed and 30 injured.

The tornado ripped through the northwest side of the city, destroying or damaging dozens of homes.

Another tornado tore through the southern portion of Wichita, KS, causing significant damage but no major injuries.

Wichita, Mid-Continent Airport recorded a wind gust of 84 mph just after the control tower evacuated.

Damage was recorded at the Boeing and Spirit Aerosystems plants. Six buildings at Spirit Aerosystems were heavily damaged while four others had major damage.

According to the Kansas City Star, damage in the Wichita area is estimated at as much as $283 million.

A tornado ripped through the town of Thurman, IA, Saturday evening, destroying around 75 percent of the town.

Amazingly, no major injuries were reported, but the remainder of the town is without power and has been evacuated until further notice.

OWS Week 4/11/12, Occupy DC/DC Now, Chicago Spring, Florida protests

Press TV’s new program; ‘OWS Week’ highlights 7 days of the protest movement’s happenings as viewed from American protesters’ eyes. The program also examines the wide range of social issues addressed by the ‘occupy’ movement in the US.

This episode of the show covers a range of actions across America. They included the Occupy DC/DC Now; a protest march in Washington against student fee hikes. Thousands of 99ers joined the transit Union workers in 20 US cities including New York and Boston. The Chicago Spring rallies against social, economic and political injustices were called to “educate, inspire and unite.”

And in Tampa Florida protests hit the “State of the City 2012” mayoral address against the coming Republican National Convention.

Disaster Capitalism Isn’t Racist ~ It Hates Everybody

The current capitalist mindset is that many want to believe that ‘business as usual’ is a good thing, growth without regulation is a good thing – but at what moral cost?  Not just outwardly but our own moral code.
We are all learning that a lot of rich people are unethical – but the dots not getting connected in this day of ‘free market/disaster capitalism’ is that people become rich by BEING unethical.  This system makes more by destroying, robbing, defrauding and marginalizing everyone. Me, you, your wife, husband, daughter, son…and it will be far, far worse for their kids if we ignore it. No matter what color you are.
There is no honor to be salvaged from this system.  Americans need to break ties in this co-dependent relationship with an abuser.  And stop defending it and apologizing for it because it DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU.  I know it comes back and says nice things but that’s what abusers do – lulling you into a false sense of security before it snatches your pension, your healthcare, or takes your house.  No matter what color you are.
And by defending the abuser, it has made a society not just financially but morally bankrupt.  Ready to sell our own souls, sell out our own neighbors, wives/mothers/sisters, our children to be what?  Part of the 1%?  Part of a cacophony of paid parrots?  What are we, trained monkeys pulling levers for an ‘atta boy’ moment of fleeting bottom-feeding jocularity?  Or are we really as delusional as Steinbeck described – a country of ‘temporarily embarrassed millionaires’ – no matter what color we are?
What happened to standing tall and proud of being from this country?  I’ll tell you what happened – our backs are hunched over trying to prop up a free market dead corpse with a flag in its hand.  It’s not one man’s fault.  It is the entire system – the entire two-party corporate  Frankenstein that we’ve created has run loose through our country, our media, our workplace, our environment, our homes – I have seen people who have been neighbors for decades that can barely talk to each other today.  Even people of the same color.
I personally think that many good people, both religious and secular are embarrassed by the Uncle Sam monster – the giant, lumbering, senile, oil addict that we no longer invite to parties or conversation – we pity it because we want it to stop stealing and molesting and abusing – we still love it because of what it once represented in us.  Now a shell of it’s former self, it is having a nervous breakdown – it’s time to move forward and quit encouraging the pity party.
People make a rule in some cases to refrain from speaking about politics and religion altogether before gathering – just to avoid the ugliness of discourse that seems to be rehashed every week of perpetual campaigning.  Aren’t we sick of it?  Aren’t we better than those political poo-flinging, rich dolts who have their speeches written FOR them?  The people who gather with this rule in place are able to enjoy themselves – but the system doesn’t want us to behave civilly with one another.  It prefers we abuse each other the way it abuses us.  No matter what color we are.
NOW they have us arguing with each other about basic things that we all should have learned in kindergarten!  Media asking us to believe that the law doesn’t work for all Americans – only white ones?  I mean, C’MON!  An American is an American.  Soldiers of all colors, creeds and denominations fight for ALL OF US.  No matter what color, creed or denomination YOU are, they take an oath to defend YOUR constitutional rights – not to defend politicians and media who would demean any soldier of color [and sex, I might add], so why ARE YOU participating in such UnAmerican hooey?!
If you say you support our troops – does that mean only some of them?  Only black soldiers or white soldiers?  Does that mean you only think that some parts of the Constitution apply or are worth dying for?  I can’t imagine any soldier taking a half-assed oath like that when it means possible loss of life, not just the liberty it affords us ALL to enjoy.  The only reason media spews the poison it spews is because they do it from on high, from a place of moneyed safety.  The owners of this system laugh while they watch us scramble and pick each other apart like pawns in some sick Roman game.  Mainstream media has offended and dishonored the place that was given to them by the Constitution.  They are paid poo flinging monkeys, just like politicians.  NO MATTER WHAT COLOR THEY ARE.
Why would you spew their garbage?  You aren’t paid to do the bidding of the 1%, are you?
So I ask, what if Zimmerman had shot a different man in a hoodie – a black soldier home from leave?  Do you still think he would have ‘stood down’ when the cops told him ‘not to pursue’?  No, because it is the hoodie that would have kept his identity hidden from view – it could have been anyone under that hoodie.  Zimmerman knew he was black…what other reason was given by him to pursue?
So, would we be talking about whether an unarmed soldier had problems in school, or if he looked like Michael Jackson compared to a different profile pic he didn’t like maybe?  We’ve all taken bad ID pics – a few of mine don’t look a damn thing like me.  
I saw the video of Zimmerman being brought in.  He claimed his nose was broken.  He lied.
Ask anyone who has had their nose broken or has seen one.  His shirt would have been soaked with blood and he would have been taken to a hospital.
I mean, really, if you want to nitpick about non-issues and avoid the larger picture – that an UNARMED YOUNG AMERICAN DIED – and think those non-issues have bearing on any actual critical investigation – you’re either A) a fucking racist or B) you are brainwashed by watching racist propaganda.
Here’s the kicker – no one can tell those things apart.  
We’re better than this system – we are NOT the system.  We are not robots or borgs, so please stop behaving like you don’t have a bit of sense to call your own – because you DO. 
I used to think the worst curse word in the English language was cunt.  Right now, it pains me to think that word is too good for Americans – we lack the depth and the warmth that word implies.  I no longer have pity for the The Uncle Sam monster or his old, pruned-faced, Jim Crow cheerleaders that should have retired after the cold war ended.
Yes.  The cold war is over.  Uncle Sam is still addicted to that, too.  If you get between him and the last of the oil that is running out, question his actions or exercise your right to free assembly – he’ll bully you and call you a terrorist.  He’s a dangerous, senile junkie who has been strung out by the 1%. He might even throw you in jail or shoot you if you piss him off.  I don’t know if he can be rehabilitated…but I do know that if Americans don’t get their collective shit together, he will take us all off a cliff with him.  No matter what color we are.
Disaster capitalism is an equal opportunity abuser.

Why Obama’s JOBS Act Couldn’t Suck Worse

via Rolling Stone – Matt Tiabbi / The Tiabblog

“Boy, do I feel like an idiot.  I’ve been out there on radio and TV in the last few months saying that I thought there was a chance Barack Obama was listening to the popular anger against Wall Street that drove the Occupy movement, that decisions like putting a for-real law enforcement guy like New York AG Eric Schneiderman in charge of a mortgage fraud task force meant he was at least willing to pay lip service to public outrage against the banks.
Then the JOBS Act happened.
The “Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act” (in addition to everything else, the Act has an annoying, redundant title) will very nearly legalize fraud in the stock market.“

Read more: Why Obama’s JOBS Act Couldn’t Suck Worse | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone