All posts by nedhamson

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

Six ill, 2 dead in Listeria outbreak tied to Vulto soft cheese | CIDRAP #LoserTrump will soon promote reducing inspections and standards for safe food – count on it and more unnecessary dead.

Six people have been sickened—two fatally—in a four-state listeriosis outbreak that began last September and has been traced to soft raw milk cheese made by Vulto Creamery of Walton, N.Y., which has issued a recall, federal officials said today.The outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes is known to cause serious, life-threatening disease.Deaths in Connecticut, VermontListeria specimens were taken from two of the patients in September, one in October, and the other three in January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its first statement on the outbreak today.Half of the patients are from New York, while Connecticut, Florida, and Vermont have each reported one case. All case-patients required hospitalization. The patients in Connecticut and Vermont died.

Source: Six ill, 2 dead in Listeria outbreak tied to Vulto soft cheese | CIDRAP

Trump is pushing American Jews away from Israel — and that’s a good thing | +972 Magazine

Now that the U.S. is being faced with a racist Trump regime, American Jews are being reminded of their own history of oppression, forcing them to make a choice: which side are we on when it comes to Israel? By Michael Sidman Blind support for Israel has kept American Jews from supporting Palestinian liberation for too long – but the Trump administration, in one of its accidental silver linings, has finally created the perfect incubator to bring American Jews and Palestinians together. For decades American Jews, guided in no small part by mainstream Jewish organizations, have actively and vocally lent their support to far-right…

Source: Trump is pushing American Jews away from Israel — and that’s a good thing | +972 Magazine

Health Groups Denounce G.O.P. Bill as Its Backers Scramble – The New York Times #dropthejoke

In a letter to lawmakers, major hospital groups wrote, “As organizations that take care of every individual who walks through our doors, both due to our mission and our obligations under federal law, we are committed to ensuring health care coverage is available and affordable for all.”The groups, including the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Children’s Hospital Association, said they could not support the bill “as currently written.”The hospitals and the American Nurses Association joined the American Medical Association and AARP, which rejected the bill on Tuesday.

White House Officials Say Trump Isn’t Target of Any Investigation – The New York Times #TraitorTrump aiming for the back-peddling world record!

Senators Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, to Mr. Comey and the acting deputy attorney general, Dana Boente. Mr. Boente is overseeing the Russia inquiry because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any cases involving the Trump campaign and Russia, after acknowledging he met with Russia’s ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak.“We request that the Department of Justice provide us copies of any warrant applications and court orders — redacted as necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods that may be compromised by disclosure, and to protect any ongoing investigations — related to wiretaps of President Trump, the Trump campaign or Trump Tower,” the senators wrote.With no evidence of wiretaps emerging, the White House has been forced into a defensive communications strategy.

China grants Trump preliminary approval for 38 trademarks, including one for escort services: Shanghaiist “TraitorTrump” who’s he working for US or just himself?

After being awarded the rights to a 10-year “Trump” trademark for building construction services in China last month, the commander in chief has now been given the go ahead on 38 more trademark requests, the Associated Press reports. The trademark requests are for businesses like hotels, insurance, security, and, most intriguingly, escort services (more on that later).They consist of a sizable chunk of the Chinese trademark applications that Trump’s lawyers filed during his presidential campaign. As long as no one objects to them, they will be formally rubber-stamped in 90 days.Trump has been embroiled in trademark disputes with Chinese companies for more than a decade, finding it difficult to defend his precious surname in China where loose copyright laws mean that trademarks are essentially “first come, first serve.” However, winning the US presidential election seems to have granted Trump an extra degree of protection in the murky field of Chinese trademark law.

Source: China grants Trump preliminary approval for 38 trademarks, including one for escort services: Shanghaiist

Berlin rebuffs Trump attempt to start trade talks, saying ‘speak to EU’ – The Local #LoserTrump just doesn’t get it!

“Trade policy is the responsibility of the European Union,” a spokesperson for the Economy Ministry told its US counterparts when they tried to open discussion on trade, Spiegel reported on Tuesday.Peter Navarro, who heads the White House’s new National Trade Council, called for bilateral talks to reduce the US trade deficit with Germany on Monday.The US recorded a $502-billion trade deficit last year, meaning it imported more than it exported. Germany meanwhile exported €253 billion ($270 billion) more than it imported in 2016.“Germany is one of the most difficult trade deficits that we are going to have to deal with,” the Financial Times reported Mr Navarro saying.“We are thinking long and hard about that and I know that Angela Merkel is coming here soon and perhaps we’ll be having some discussions about how we can improve the US-German economic relationship.” But the Economy Ministry spokesperson rejected the US argument that Germany’s large trade surplus could be eradicated through negotiations.The surplus is “the result of demand in the markets” and “a testament to the competitiveness of the German economy,” he said.The new US administration under President Donald Trump has been clear that it aims to reduce the country’s massive trade deficit, employing aggressive rhetoric against countries such as Germany which have large trade surpluses.

Source: Berlin rebuffs Trump attempt to start trade talks, saying ‘speak to EU’ – The Local

Donald and Ivanka Trump’s phony Baku Azerbaijan hotel was front for Iranian money laundering | 3CHICSPOLITICO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqMS4eJCjcY

 

the hotel deal had been struck with Ziya Mammadov, the corrupt Transportation Minister of Azerbaijan, who has a history of arranging shady real estate projects as money laundering fronts. Mammadov and his family have deep financial connections to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, making it almost certain that the Trumps were knowingly and illegally doing business with Iran. It also seems likely that Trump shuttered the project upon taking office in the hope it wouldn’t be investigated.

Source: Donald and Ivanka Trump’s phony Baku Azerbaijan hotel was front for Iranian money laundering | 3CHICSPOLITICO

WikiLeaks says it has obtained trove of CIA hacking tools – The Washington Post

The anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks (#TraitorTrump Pre-Election buddies) said Tuesday that it has obtained a vast portion of the CIA’s computer hacking arsenal, and began posting the files online in a breach that may expose some of the U.S. intelligence community’s most closely guarded cyber weapons.

Source: WikiLeaks says it has obtained trove of CIA hacking tools – The Washington Post

Israeli soldiers stand by as settlers attack civilians in West Bank village | +972 Magazine

 

Israeli photographer Haim Schwarczenberg, who has long documented Nabi Saleh’s struggle, told +972 Magazine that a settler pushed him from one of the terraces, causing him to fall from a height of around five feet. He was left bruised, and some of his equipment was damaged. Video shot by self-styled village documentarian Bilal Tamimi shows one settler walking through a group of soldiers to push Schwarczenberg. The soldiers did nothing to stop the him. Later on the soldiers refused to detain or even write down the attacker’s information, he recalled.

Source: Israeli soldiers stand by as settlers attack civilians in West Bank village | +972 Magazine

AfD accused of ′fake news′ over Sweden travel ban post | Germany | DW.COM | 06.03.2017

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office accused the far-right nationalist Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) of peddling fake news when it claimed the department had issued a “serious travel warning” for Sweden.”There is no travel warning for Sweden,” the Foreign Office wrote on its Facebook page. “For one year, (the department) has written in its travel and safety notes for Sweden that there is a terror alert level three – ‘Increased danger’. Prior to this, the terrorism warning was level 4 – ‘High risk.'”It suggested using the headline “The Federal Foreign Office has pointed out a year ago that the Swedish government has lowered the level of terrorism,” saying “we’re sorry, if that sounds less interesting.”

Source: AfD accused of ′fake news′ over Sweden travel ban post | Germany | DW.COM | 06.03.2017