All posts by nedhamson

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

Egypt mosque attack: state TV raises death toll to 155

Of the sickest murders, those committed under the guise of religious belief are I think the vilest. Those murdered are gone and good people in the same religion, are cut as well.

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Dozens more wounded after suspected militants target al-Rawdah mosque in north Sinai

At least 155 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a devastating bomb and gun attack targeting a mosque in Egypt’s north Sinai, state television has reported.

Ambulances ferried casualties from the scene to nearby hospitals after the attack on al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of Arish city. At least 85 people were injured, the Mena news agency reported. The death toll rose repeatedly on Friday afternoon as more details emerged.

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Fuego Libre

A pocas horas de que se conozcan los resultados de la autopsia de Santiago Maldonado reconstruimos el minuto a minutos del operativo que terminó con su muerte. Los gendarmes avanzaron a los tiros cuando la ruta ya estaba despejada, persiguieron a los manifestantes hasta el río y uno de ellos estuvo a punto de tirarse…

The post Fuego Libre appeared first on Cosecha Roja .

How a North Carolina meteorologist abandoned his climate change skepticism

Read other Survival Stories from around the country.

I became a broadcast meteorologist for WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1981, and have worked there ever since. At that time, the topic of global warming had begun to receive some minor attention,  even though the science behind it went back to the 1800s. I was also undergoing a political transformation at the time, from Democrat to Republican—which, I believe, played an unfortunate role in my thought processes for years to come.

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Though I’d been educated as a scientist at Pennsylvania State University, my opinions were increasingly dictated by my burgeoning conservative political ideology. I rarely conversed with anyone who had a different opinion. I had just enough scientific arguments in my possession to make my positions on climate change sound credible, or so I thought. And I enjoyed poking fun at the very industry in which I found employment, by accusing reporters of not being “balanced” in their coverage, and always equating the worst-case scenario with the most likely scenario.  

When I spoke about global warming on WRAL, for example, I would point to the satellite temperature record showing little or no warming, and that what little warming there was had been detected only in the polar regions at night. Why was that a bad thing? Finally, I’d posture that plants love carbon dioxide, and so more CO2 would actually green up the planet!

But if I’m truly honest with myself, little by little and over a period of several years, I began to wonder if I was being fair and objective in my assessment of global warming. I wanted others to admit they were wrong, but was I willing to do the same? Finally, around 2005, everything came to a head. I woke up one morning convinced of my own confirmation bias. I felt I’d abandoned my work as a scientist to be an ideologue. I had always embraced science. I was a space program junky in the ’60s and early ’70s. I attended Penn State University to get a degree in Meteorology. Why with this one issue was I so willing to abandon science?

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ICYMI: The shocking observation a HuffPost editor made about recent sexual harassment stories

I didn’t change my mind about global warming that day. Instead, I committed to talking with scientists who were actually involved in research and who published peer-reviewed literature in respected scientific journals. I also read many of those papers, and went back to my old Penn State textbooks and reviewed topics like how visible and  infrared radiation were emitted and absorbed by various gases in the atmosphere. My argument that global warming had nothing to do with human activity was, I realized, an argument I would lose in the scientific court of law. In fact, it would probably be thrown out. Perhaps I could debate how much of an effect humans were having, but no effect? I was just plain wrong. It was time I admitted it publicly.

I didn’t make a big splash at first. I simply made a few comments during my weather broadcasts and participated in a 2007 WRAL-TV documentary on climate change. I nursed my interest in climate science for another seven years before I took my first substantial approach to the subject: I suggested to our management that I produce my own documentary on climate change. I have been fortunate over the years to work for Capitol Broadcasting Company CEO Jim Goodmon, the forward-thinking and risk-taking owner of WRAL. He liked the idea and told me to go ahead with it.

I visited Barrow, Alaska, which is one of the locations where greenhouse gas concentrations are measured daily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I also traveled to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, both in Boulder, Colorado, where I interviewed prominent climate scientists Kevin Trenberth and Pieter Tans. Both of these scientists provided me with a wealth of information that assisted me in my search for scientific truth.

But this search sparked a flurry of other questions. Why was the country so polarized on issues of science, and why did it appear that religion was at war with science? I argued vehemently that we discuss politics and religion within our documentary. I’ll never forget the look on our producer’s face when I first made the pitch. But we did it.

Out of that research and filming, one primary culprit for this polarization emerged: unconditional loyalty to one’s tribe, a quality that is remarkably common. We believe what the people we align ourselves with believe, and rather than look for common ground with those who fall outside of that tribe, we seek the disparities.

When the documentary aired in May 2015, I was accused of drinking the liberal Kool-Aid, as well as being a Marxist and a Socialist—interesting labels to apply to someone who was a registered Republican for 30 years.

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Now, I’m proudly unaffiliated. When I speak to audiences, I urge them to test their hypotheses, and to develop a willingness to be wrong. I try to encourage them to find solutions to issues that can appease groups with very different priorities. When speaking with people of faith, I advise them to think of science as a tool for discovering more about their community, rather than threatening it.

I have to be willing to be wrong again and again. If I’m not, then I’ve fallen into the same trap I existed in before. Tribal loyalty has no place in science, but reporters will inevitably confront such loyalties in their audiences. I have to risk speaking to folks who don’t agree with me. And if I can’t make them change their minds, then the best I can do is provide them with ways of thinking that will empower them to change their minds on their own, when they encounter their own doubts.

Survival Stories is a series of local climate change dispatches.

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Greg Fishel is the chief meteorologist at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina.

What I Bullsh*t Speech!

“Not a speech to the troops that are away from their loved ones fighting in whatever worthless war they are fighting…..

This was a goddamn campaign speech….but if he had ever served his country he would know this was a worthless waste of time.”

Our Fearless Leader has addressed the troops on this T’Giving Day and it will make you puke.

And he spoke……

U.S. President Donald Trump gave a bullish Thanksgiving address to troops overseas on Thursday, hailing progress in Afghanistan and against ISIS, and telling them they were fighting for “something real,” including a stock market at record highs and his promised “big, beautiful fat tax cuts.”

Speaking in a live video teleconference from Palm Beach, Florida, with military personnel serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, Trump told them they were “very, very special people.”

He called troops in Afghanistan “brave, incredible fighters” who had “turned it around” in the past three to four months.

We opened it up; we said go ahead, we’re going to fight to win,” he said. “We’re not fighting any more to just walk around, we are fighting to win.”

Trump told the troops they could look forward at home to the benefits of “big, beautiful fat tax cuts,” a stock market at record highs, jobs and economic growth.

“We’re doing well at home, the economy is doing great,” Trump said. “You’re fighting for something real, you’re fighting for something good.”

Trump said he had told the troops overseas the country was “doing great,” thanks to his cuts in “regulation and all the waste and all the abuse.”

“I told them … you folks are fighting so hard and working so hard, and it’s nice that you’re working for something that’s really starting to work.”

(politicususa.com)

Not a speech to the troops that are away from their loved ones fighting in whatever worthless war they are fighting…..

This was a goddamn campaign speech….but if he had ever served his country he would know this was a worthless waste of time.

Israel is so confident of its ability to expel Palestinian communities

Jerusalem/PNN/

Over the past month, the Israeli state has informed three Palestinian communities that it intends to expel them from their homes and land.

According Israeli human rights center B’Tselem The notification was made by leaving orders on the roadside.

In the northern Jordan Valley, on 9 November 2017 the state notified two communities – Umm a-Jamal and Ein al-Hilweh – that they must leave their homes within eight days. These communities total 20 families, five of whom live in the area on a seasonal basis.

The total number of residents is 130, including 66 youths and children under the age of 18.

In the Ma’ale Adumim area, on 16 November 2017 the state informed the residents of Jabal al-Baba that they must leave their homes within eight days.

This community numbers about 60 families, and has a total of 284 residents, including 151 youths and children under the age of 18.

Israel has acted for years to expel communities around the West Bank. In the past, its efforts were based mainly on military orders concerning planning and building. However, the proceedings concerning such orders are protracted and require the precise mapping of the land and buildings, as well as the issuing of separate demolition orders for each building.

Now the state has found a new mechanism it hopes will enable it to circumvent such proceedings and accelerate the expulsion of residents: the Order concerning Unauthorized Buildings (Temporary Provision) (Judea and Samaria) (No. 1539), 5744-2003.”

This order was originally intended for the expulsion of settlers from “outposts” established around the West Bank, although the state very rarely used it for this purpose.

The order allows the Military Commander to declare an area in the West Bank a “confined area,” and to order the eviction of all property in that area.

On this basis of this order, GOC Central Command Major-General Roni Numa signed the new orders concerning the Palestinian communities.

It seems that Israel is so confident in its ability to expel entire villages without incurring judicial or international criticism that it is no longer bothering to create even the illusion of legal proceedings. However, the difference between the proceedings is purely technical.

The planning and building proceedings never stopped the state; even if they managed to postpone expulsion, they never removed the threat of expulsion from thousands of people.

Over many years, thousands of Palestinians in dozens of communities have lived under a constant and real threat.

The state has refused to regulate their status, allow them to connect to the water and electricity infrastructure, establish educational institutions for their children, pave roads to their living areas, and maintain a reasonable living routine.

The state has recently declared its intention to expel two additional communities over the coming months – Susiya in the southern Hebron Hills and Khan al-Ahmar close to Ma’ale Adumim.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that in the absence of opposition from the American Administration, these communities will be expelled by April 2018. The expulsion proceedings against these communities have continued for years before the Supreme Court, which has refrained from prohibiting their expulsion.

Whatever the proceedings used by the state in its attempt to expel Palestinian residents from their homes, the crime is the same: the forcible transfer of a protected population, which amounts to a war crime.

This is the case whether the violence used is direct or indirect, physical or administrative. Whether the expulsion is undertaken by force or by creating an intolerable reality that forces the residents to leave their homes and land – the essence is the same. All those involved in committing this crime – including the Prime Minister, Defense Minister, the justices who approve the expulsion, and the GOC who signs the orders – bear personal liability.

United States Government Putting an End to Protection for Haitians

US ethnic cleansing 2.0…

By Alexandra Mendoza

Nearly 60,000 Haitian immigrants living and working in the United States are living with uncertainty once again after the federal government granted them 18 months to leave the country by ending their Temporary Protected Status.

This immigration program that was enacted in the 1990s to protect nationals from countries affected by natural disaster or civil wars was granted to Haitians in the wake of the earthquake that devastated their country in 2010.

However, the Department of Homeland Security announced that this benefit will expire on July 22, 2019, considering that living conditions have improved significantly in Haiti so is is time for the to return to home or apply for an alternative immigration status.

But Haitians and human rights activists in San Diego disagree with that observation and believe that this decision is based on politics and not facts.

“Many natural disasters have happened in Haiti, so people try to rebuild, so that could take a long time,” said Jean Elise Durandisse, minister of the United Methodist Church of Christ.

If Haitians are forced to leave the U.S., they most likely seek to settle in another country, because for many of them, Haiti is still in precarious conditions.

“If they return to Haiti it is because they have no other option, people will try to find another place for themselves and their families,” he said.

The decision of the U.S. government also puts the Haitian economy in check, since much of the reconstruction efforts depend on the remittances that come from abroad.

Hope now falls on Congress to intervene to protect the temporary status of the nearly 60,000 Haitians living in the country, half of which have American children.

“(Haitians) who live here pay taxes, work, take care of themselves, have children here, so at least the government could sit down and think about what can be done so that both parties win,” he said.

Although it is estimated that around 100 Haitians reside in San Diego, last year this region of the border was the gateway for thousands who arrived at the San Ysidro Port of Entry requesting entry into the U.S.

Once they were granted a stay, most of them moved to other parts of the country, such as Florida, where an estimated 32,000 Haitians live.

For Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Comittee, this decision by the federal administration goes against the spirit of the Country.

“Even the Statue of Liberty says to open the doors to all people who are seeking refuge and unfortunately, these policies say the opposite,” Rios said.

The decision comes weeks after the Department of Homeland Security announced the elimination of the Temporary Protected Status for 2,500 Nicaraguans and delayed a determination on 57,000 Hondurans residing in the country under the same program.

US calls Myanmar treatment of Rohingya ‘ethnic cleansing’

Of course, he is a part of an administration that continues several hundred years of ethnic cleansing of the people who lived on this land by invading refugee and adventurer Europeans. And these same people will try and use their newfound sympathy for these refugees to fend off criticism of how they support the ethnic cleansing by the right-wing governments in Saudi Arabia (against Yemen), Israel (against Palestinians) and Iraq/Turkey (against the Kurds).

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Rex Tillerson also hints at possible sanctions as UN envoy on sexual violence condemns ‘war crimes’

The United States has called the Myanmar military operation against the Rohingya population “ethnic cleansing” and threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for what it called “horrendous atrocities”.

“The situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” secretary of state Rex Tillerson said in a statement, using a term he avoided when visiting Myanmar last week.

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