All posts by nedhamson

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

For Whites Sensing Decline, Donald Trump Unleashes Words of Resistance – The New York Times

This year, for the first time in decades, overt white nationalism re-entered national politics. In Iowa, a new “super PAC” paid for pro-Trump robocalls featuring Jared Taylor, a self-described race realist, and William Johnson, a white nationalist and the chairman of the American Freedom Party. (“We don’t need Muslims,” Mr. Taylor urged recipients of the calls. “We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump.”) David Duke, the Louisiana lawmaker turned anti-Semitic radio host, encouraged listeners to vote for Mr. Trump.Modern political convention dictates that candidates receiving such embraces instantly and publicly spurn them. In 2008, when it was revealed that a minister who endorsed the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, had made anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim remarks, Mr. McCain forcefully repudiated them.Mr. Trump did something different.Asked about the robocall, Mr. Trump seemed to sympathize with its message while affecting a vague half-distance. “Nothing in this country shocks me; I would disavow it, but nothing in this country shocks me,” Mr. Trump told a CNN anchor. “People are angry.”Pressed, Mr. Trump grew irritable, saying: “How many times you want me to say it? I said, ‘I disavow.’”Asked six weeks later about Mr. Duke’s support, he said he had been unaware of it: “David Duke endorsed me? O.K. All right. I disavow, O.K.?” Later, on Twitter, he repeated the phrase: “I disavow.”Mr. Trump has often used those words when confronted by reporters. The phrase is comfortingly nonspecific, a disavowal of everything and nothing. And whatever Mr. Trump’s intentions, it has been powerfully reassuring to people on the far right.“There’s no direct object there,” Mr. Spencer said. “It’s kind of interesting, isn’t it?”Mr. Trump’s new supporters took his approach as a signal of support. In an interview on a “pro-white” radio show called “The Political Cesspool,” Mr. Johnson, of the American Freedom Party, praised Mr. Trump’s handling of the controversy.“He disavowed us,” Mr. Johnson acknowledged, “but he explained why there is so much anger in America that I couldn’t have asked for a better approach from him.”

Source: For Whites Sensing Decline, Donald Trump Unleashes Words of Resistance – The New York Times

Space the final… #onewordprompt #fiction #amwriting

Vroooom!

penned in moon dust

space shuttle

I packed my bags and my books

looking back my spaceship shook

always forward never back

all I need in my backpack

letting go of things behind

journey toward the edge of time

space was once the final frontier

but now its just a normal year

thrusters on toward dreams

looking forward to space ice cream

Today’s One Word Prompt  at WordPress – “Journey”

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Alarming Antibiotic-Resistant Superbug Discovered In NYer’s Bacteria Sample: Gothamist

The authors of this most recent report say that “it’s not an immediate threat,” but rather a warning sign. But experts told the Huffington Post that it’s likely the bug is “already in the guts of people throughout the United States and will continue to spread” (through fecal contact and poor hygiene, in case you were wondering), and that “within the next two to three years, it’s going to be fairly routine for infections to occur in the United States for which we have no (effective) drugs available.”As for the NYC patient? Not too much is known, other than the fact that the sample with the Colistin-resistant bacteria was gastrointestinal. One of the laboratory’s research directors told National Geographic that the hospital where it was collected is investigating the patient’s clinical history. The city Department of Health didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but we’ll update if they do.In a fact sheet put out last fall, the World Health Organization called antibiotic resistance “one of the biggest threats to global health today,” and noted that it’s “putting the achievements of modern medicine at risk. Without effective antibiotics for the prevention and treatment of infections, organ transplantations, chemotherapy and surgeries such as caesarean sections become much more dangerous.”

Source: Alarming Antibiotic-Resistant Superbug Discovered In NYer’s Bacteria Sample: Gothamist

#In the Shadows of Men

As honest as one can get! Brava!

نادية حرحش

Love without adoration is like a matchstick. It ignites but does not give warmth, and if its spark is not put to a fuse or a candle, it extinguishes and has no use.

The rush of love, the flurry of the heart, the fumbling to be perfect… this is our experience in love. Therefore it is not easy to accept failure after such intense emotion. But this is life, I always try to remind myself. That now-distant person once shared moments with me that filled me with love and life. Even my ex-husband. I shared with him many beautiful moments … as well as the worst moments. The hardening of our emotions was brutal. A love that size can turn dry and stale.

The worst thing that can happen in relationships is the feeling of failure over what was once a major excitement. At first, our hearts burst with…

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 Follow the money and better understand the neo-cold war to counter-Russia

Germany’s Global Role

 

That the EU would cooperate more closely with NATO was not among the least the decisions taken at the Warsaw summit. This would be the case, above all, in areas where the EU is either significantly weaker than the USA, or where it wishes support. The former case applies to the domain of cyberwarfare and intelligence activities to be expanded, while the latter applies to the EU warding off migrants, wherein the military alliance will lend support. It also stipulates that the EU’s arms industry should be further bolstered and can possibly expect new orders from the United States. This reinforcement of cooperation was taken after German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had announced that Germany has become a “central player” on the world stage and takes on a “global role,” while the USA has “stumbled” and “the illusion of a unipolar world” faded.[7] Steinmeier, together with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, additionally call for an excessive EU arms buildup permitting the European confederation to become an “independent” and “global” actor – also “independent” of the USA.[8]

 

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

IRIN | Slave to the algorithm – Islamic scholar gave birth to computers and Silicon Valley!

The ninth-century polymath Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi began his most famous book: “When I considered what people generally want in calculating, I found that it is always a number.” A millennium later, people want a lot of calculating, and luckily al-Khwarizmi lent his name to the simple mathematical concept that helps us to meet that need: the algorithm.An algorithm is only a set of step-by-step instructions for carrying out a task. For example, my recipe for Plumpy’Nut Surprise is the algorithm I follow when I have Jan Egeland over for dinner. (Jan, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re feeling better.) Yet algorithms are more powerful than they first appear. Google’s internet search? Based on algorithms. Amazon’s book recommendations? Based on algorithms. Facebook’s news feed? Go on, guess.

Source: IRIN | Slave to the algorithm

Tim’s El Salvador Blog: When police kill

Salvadoran authorities have dismantled an alleged death squad partially made up of police and linked to around 40 killings of gang members since 2014, when a resurgence of gang-related violence began. Five civilians and five police were arrested Friday in the first crackdown in 20 years on a “social cleansing” group in El Salvador. Attorney General Douglas Melendez said the self-described “self-defense” organization was financed by local business leaders and Salvadorans living in the United States. Eleven other suspected members of the gang, which operated in the eastern province of San Miguel, remain at large. “We can’t allow our country to become the Old West and this case is an example of that, where we have evidence of summary executions carried out by the suspects,” Melendez said. Although the group has been linked to 40 homicides, the detainees will be charged with 9 killings, he added.

Source: Tim’s El Salvador Blog: When police kill

Ieshia Evans, woman in protest photo, describes Baton Rouge arrest as ‘work of God’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Ms Evans, the mother of a five-year-old son, travelled to Baton Rouge “because she wanted to look her son in the eyes to tell him she fought for his freedom and rights,” according to R Alex Haynes, who said on Facebook he had known Ms Evans since childhood.A jail log from the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office showed an Ieshia Evans, 35, was booked on a charge of simple obstruction of a highway and had been released from custody.Reuters could not reach Ms Evans for comment.After her arrest, Ms Evans ended another Facebook post with: “Peace, love, blk power!#blacklivesmatter.”She asked friends not to give interviews on her behalf, saying she wanted to tell her own story, but later said she was not ready to speak to reporters.”I want to get home to my son,” she wrote. “I’ve been through a lot.”

Source: Ieshia Evans, woman in protest photo, describes Baton Rouge arrest as ‘work of God’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Dismantle Fear and Ignorance to Eradicate Racism, Raise Consciousness, and Embrace Equality. | Rebelle Society

One night after leaving work with my manager, who was also a friend, she asked me to hail her a cab. “Hey, I follow your orders at work, but once we leave the building, we’re equals.” I felt annoyed by her demanding behavior.“Look,” she said, her eyes averted with embarrassment, “they won’t stop for me.”I didn’t get it. I totally thought she was messing with me.“And why won’t they stop for you?”“Because I’m black.”No way. That couldn’t be true. It was the late nineties. Surely, we had evolved to see beyond the color of someone’s skin. I told her as much.She sighed. “Okay, stand back and watch.”She stepped up to the curb and I stepped back by the building. One free cab passed her by, then another. When the third one passed, my jaw dropped and I had tears in my eyes.“See?” she said. She looked embarrassed, and I felt like the biggest jerk in the world for not believing her. Upset that humanity still didn’t seem to remember.We traded places. No sooner did I hold up my hand that a cab came to a screeching halt in front of me. I opened the door for her to climb in.  He looked back at her and then forward, rolling his eyes.

Source: Dismantle Fear and Ignorance to Eradicate Racism, Raise Consciousness, and Embrace Equality. | Rebelle Society