All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Selfie in jail: Defenders of migrant children jailed over Trump’s genocide and torture of children at border

Screenshot%2B2018-06-29%2Bat%2B12.34.26%

Eleanor Chavez said, “In the jail cell at State Police on Cerrillos in Santa Fe. Arrested at the governor’s office.”
“We are in jail — but where are the children?”
The New Mexico Governor’s office was occupied on Thursday in protest of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez’ support of Trump separating migrant children from their parents at the border.

Iowa law forcing women to wait 72 hours before abortion ruled illegal

3000.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&f

  • Iowa supreme court finds law violates state constitution
  • Ruling does not affect new ban on abortions after 20 weeks

The Iowa supreme court on Friday blocked a law requiring a 72-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion.

Related: Abortion rights in ‘dire, immediate danger’ as Anthony Kennedy retires

Continue reading…

Massacre at Newspaper a Result of Trump’s Words

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa San Diego Publisher and CEO

Thursday’s shooting rampage at the Virginia Capital Gazette left five people dead and the world of journalism in fear of continuing to do its job of reporting the news of the day in today’s America.

A disgruntled man that had unsuccessfully sued the paper for libel in 2012 walked into the newspaper’s offices with a shotgun and began shooting employees, finally surrendering to police when confronted.

Although no one is sure yet of the killer’s true motives, journalists everywhere feared something like this would happen in our current political environment where the President nearly daily criticizes the media as purveyors of fake, misleading, and flat out slanderous news he’s labeled as “fake”’simply because he disagrees with the stories.

From the very first press briefing held by the Trump White House in January 2017, then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer aggressively confronted the media like adversaries, that day repeatedly making the obviously false claim that the crowd for Trump’s Inauguration was the largest ever. Period.

Spicer’s confrontational style was so bombastic and rude that Saturday Night Live famously spoofed him with comedian Melissa McCarthy playing an over-the-top version of the real press secretary’s dismissive interactions with White House correspondents.

Trump’s early morning tweets have often called out media outlets he detests, especially CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Trump calls them “fake news” for reporting the everyday happenings in politics, only agreeing with those outlets when they report news Trump likes.

Two days after his summit with the North Korean dictator, Trump claimed the greatest threat to our country is fake news. Not the nuclear missiles still held by the unpredictable Kim Jong-on, not terrorists, nor even Russian hackers that meddled in our elections.

No. The press. But not all the press, it seems.

Trump personally tweets glowingly about the news coverage from Fox News, and even promotes their upcoming shows with anchors he likes, and sometimes even tweets policy changes based on Fox News broadcasts that have just aired. Completely biased (admittedly so) hosts like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are fine, in the world according to Trump.

And just like he did during his presidential campaign in 2016, Trump continues to attack the mainstream media at every rally he attends, usually wrongly decrying that the media will misquote him, not show the rally, or in some way spin his message, even as CNN carries the event live.

As we’ve seen in other aspects of Trump’s messaging, his followers adopt his rhetoric and share his views in ways that very few politicians have ever experienced.

This week, during a campaign rally in South Carolina for the Republican governor seeking re-election, the crowd turned against CNN’s Jim Acosta, a constant presence at the White House briefings who often spars with current Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

People in the crowd chanted “Go home Jim” and called the well known reporter “Fake News Jim.” One person held up a huge cardboard sign that read “CNN SUCKS.”

Granted, some news outlets have made mistakes, gotten stories wrong, and a few have even made stories up from hole cloth, but to dismiss serious professional journalists from distinguished outlets as a whole is against all that this country stands for.

From the inception of what would later become the United States of America, probing and critical journalists have helped shape the outcome of this country.

Benjamin Franklin, who wrote letters in his brother’s newspaper that strongly criticized England’s tyrannical rule over the colonists, signed them under the pen name Silence Dogood, a fictional widow.

Some of Franklin’s Dogood letters upset the English Colonial Assembly so much that his brother James was jailed for months for refusing to identify the author of the letters.

Franklin would, of course, go on to print his own newspaper and humbly signed his letters “B. Franklin, Printer.” His letters would lay the foundation for the revolt that ultimately led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of this great country we all call home.

Since Franklin’s time, newspapers, radio, TV, and now all forms of digital media have continued the important work of not only criticizing, but also challenging our leaders.

A free press is so ingrained in our political DNA that it is enshrined in the protections of the First Amendment, along with our individual freedom of speech and religion.

The First Amendment protects the press from government censorship and control, but that’s only from official laws or actions of the government that would limit or control the press.

What Trump has done is far more dangerous.

Instead, Trump has set out to discredit the media, and make anything journalist say questionable to the general public. He has sown distrust in the media and has made everyday citizens suspicious of any story, especially ones that disagree with his views.

Now he has debased journalists so much that average Americans are openly cynical of the news media in a way never before seen in our country.

It was investigative reporting that discovered and exposed the Watergate scandal. In that case, when a sitting president said the stories were not true, an informed public and, eventually, Congress found out the truth only through the diligent work of tireless reporters.

Since Nixon’s resignation because of Watergate, dozens of other politicians from both parties have been exposed for wrongdoing, from Reagan’s Iran-Contra affair, Senator Gary Hart’s actual affair, John Edwards love child, and Governor Sanford’s illicit trip to Argentina. In each case, it was news reporting that ultimately surfaced hidden secrets that voters rightfully should have known.

In the nearly 300 years since Benjamin Franklin first used the power of the pen to check government’s actual power over its citizens, the press has continued to question, prod, and provoke our leaders to ensure a more transparent and accountable government.

In Trump’s world, that kind of examination of him, his administration, and his actions is a direct threat to his political and economic survival.

In his form of zero-sum politics, the press is the enemy. And in only 18 months in office, one of his most successful campaigns has been to pin Americans against the media.

We may not always agree with all news reports, but there is no denying that, as a whole, professional journalists try to get the facts out to the public.

Not counting political commentators, bloggers, and Internet trolls, the media is not the enemy, and reporters should not be harassed, threatened, or, as happened this week, killed.

Reporters have been killed in war zones, by drug cartels, and even by terrorist. But this week, it was a fellow American. That is unacceptable.

A misinformed public is far greater danger to the long-term survival of our democracy than any false news reports.

It’s our job as Americans, and more importantly as voters, to find out what’s going on, from whatever reliable source we can find. And always, always ask questions.

A. Castanares. Printer.

  • PUBLISHED THURSDAY, JUNE 28 AT 7:47 P.M.

US criticises Ireland for insufficient action on modern slavery

Stealing babies from Guatemala and El Salvador is new US slavery!

People trafficking report highlights forced labour in Irish fishing industry

Ireland has been downgraded by the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for failing to do enough to tackle modern slavery.

The 2018 TIP report, released on Thursday, gives Ireland a Tier 2 ranking, on a par with Indonesia and India, because of what it describes as the government’s failure to adequately protect victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and labour abuse, and failure to convict traffickers.

Related: ‘We thought slavery had gone away’: African men exploited on Irish boats

Continue reading…

‘What’s wrong with our society?’ Annapolis mayor voices concern at hostility to media

1600.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&f

Gavin Buckley says Capital Gazette ‘reports on our kids’ soccer games and good, local, interesting stuff’

Gavin Buckley, the mayor of Annapolis, was distraught in the wake of the mass shooting at his city’s local newspaper, telling the Guardian: “What’s wrong with our society that we’re this tightly wound that you can be this upset at a newspaper that reports stories on cats being stuck up a tree?”

Although Buckley made clear that the Annapolis Capital-Gazette, the newspaper where five people were shot dead on Thursday, was a good paper; he was just still in shock that it was a target. After all, when he was told that there had been a shooting at the Capital, his initial response was to think of Maryland’s state capital in the heart of downtown Annapolis.

Continue reading…

Birdbrainy: New Caledonian crows make tools using mental images

2326.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&f

Study finds birds have design templates in their minds and may pass them on to future generations

New Caledonian crows use mental pictures to twist twigs into hooks and make other tools, according to a provocative study that suggests the notoriously clever birds pass on successful designs to future generations, a hallmark of culture.

“We find evidence for a specific type of emulation we call mental template matching,” co-author Alex Taylor, director of the Language, Cognition and Culture Lab at the University of Auckland, told AFP.

Continue reading…

Don’t Shoot!

There always seems to be some wack job on the Right that has to open his mouth and show just how stupid they can be…..and it has happened…..

The far-right provocateur tells reporters he hopes angry conservatives start assassinating them, and the alt-right ’14/88ers’ love the idea.

Apparently, Milo Yiannopoulos didn’t get the memo about the need for civility in our discourse.

“I can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight,” the far-right provocateur texted a reporter for the New York Observer this week. When the reporter inquired further, Yiannopoulos explained that he had simply issued his “standard response to a request for a comment.”

But this wasn’t simply a toss-off remark. Yiannopoulos appears to be dead serious – that is, he sincerely believes that right-wing assassins should begin taking out targeted reporters. He’s been saying so on a number of forums, and it’s clear that he isn’t being simply “ironic” in the classic alt-right hall-of-mirrors fashion.

(splcenter.org)

You know you can just ignore these types especially those around the Trump camp…but this time it is just hard to do….

Multiple people were shot Thursday at a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, with a witness saying a single gunman fired into the newsroom. A reporter at the Capital Gazette tweeted that a single individual shot multiple people, the Baltimore Sun reports. Phil Davis, who covers business and politics for the newspaper, tweeted that the gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees, the AP reports. He added, “There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload.” The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it was responding to reports of the shooting. Fox News reports that a suspect is in custody.

Anne Arundel County Police Department spokesman Marc Limansky said officers were searching the building where the shooting was reported. He said the situation is “active and ongoing.” On TV reports, people could be seen leaving the building with their hands up, as police officers urged them to depart through a parking lot and officers converged on the building. Lt. Ryan Frashure, another spokesman for Anne Arundel County police, said on WJLA that officers are “doing everything to get people out safe.” He said they must look for other dangers, such as bombs and other shooters. The Capital Gazette and newspapers including the Maryland Gazette are owned by the Baltimore Sun Media Group.

I am not saying that this incident has anything to do with the stupidity of this Milo twerp……coincidental?

Sorry but I do not believe in a coincident.

Plus you were wondering just what would get Judge Kennedy off the front page…..and now you know.

Checking in on US Geopolitical Suicide

The pathetic thing about all of this? Trump’s “theory” of world politics and international political economy is completely unmoored from reality. The United States has supported greater European integration and cooperation since the Marshall Plan. The EU is the largest American export market, and the second-largest source of US imports; the fact that it runs a trade surplus does no harm to our economy. As bears repeating over and over again, the US reaps enormous strategic dividends from its European alliances.

Josh Rogin write in the Washington Post that:

Trump has been publicly trashing the E.U. and NATO since his campaign, but the pace and viciousness of his attacks have increased. Just this week, at a rally in North Dakota, Trump said: “The European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank.” He then complained about a $150 billion trade deficit with the E.U., inflating the figure.

Other reports note that Trump recently told Group of Seven leaders that “NATO is as bad as NAFTA,” suggested to the Swedish prime minister that America should leave the NATO alliance , and launched gratuitous public attacks on German Chancellor Angela Merkel at her weakest moment. It’s a deepening trend that leads to an unavoidable conclusion: Trump doesn’t believe in the continued sanctity of the European Union and NATO, as well as the United States’ commitment to both.

I’ve been arguing for some time that it simply does not matter if Trump is a Siberian Candidate. When it comes to wrecking core American alliances and partnerships, Trump serves the interests of American power-political rivals, including Russia.

As Rogin notes:

But these efforts to reassure Europe are failing. European officials no longer believe Trump’s words can be discounted. They don’t see the alliance rift as routine or temporary. They don’t believe it’s possible to repair the transatlantic bridge in the middle of a Trump-sized earthquake. European countries have no choice but to hedge and seek alternatives to U.S. leadership.

The pathetic thing about all of this? Trump’s “theory” of world politics and international political economy is completely unmoored from reality. The United States has supported greater European integration and cooperation since the Marshall Plan. The EU is the largest American export market, and the second-largest source of US imports; the fact that it runs a trade surplus does no harm to our economy. As bears repeating over and over again, the US reaps enormous strategic dividends from its European alliances.

Things are likely to get worse before they get better.

Already this month, Trump has said privately Crimea probably should belong to Russia and NATO is worse than NAFTA and has tweeted publicly Russia has denied meddling. To expect upcoming NATO/Helsinki summits to advance US interests defy the evidence. July will be worse than June.

— Jim Goldgeier (@JimGoldgeier) June 28, 2018

FacebookTwitterGoogle+Share