All posts by nedhamson

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

Child Migrants and Media Half-Truths | La Prensa San Diego

So why does the mainstream press seek to place the blame on the parents and a supposed softening of immigration policy?

Because the alternative to blaming migrant families themselves is unpalatable to them.

The alternative is to accept that the Central American and North American Free Trade Agreements have left thousands of youth with no economic opportunities.

It is to accept that US security aid for drug wars has armed and aggravated violence in Mexico and Central America.

It is to understand the high cost of supporting the Honduran coup and how the Honduran people and the US population continue to pay that price, as out migration has surged over 500% in the past two years and human rights violations, instability and violence are skyrocketing.

In my travels to migrant shelters and interviews with migrants coming through Mexico I have found that, astoundingly, they do realize the risks and yet decide to make the journey anyway.

The public-awareness campaign we really need is one addressed to U.S. citizens and Congress regarding the impact of economic and security polices on their southern neighbors, and especially on the children.

Then we need a public action campaign to do something about it.

via Child Migrants and Media Half-Truths | La Prensa San Diego.

Disease of cultural appropriation infects Brits too! Glastonbury fashion: it’s all jumpers and headdresses at Worthy Farm | Music | The Guardian

As a three day party, tThere’s always a dress-up spirit at Glastonbury and the headdress has been making an impact. The takeup of Native American-style headdresses is controversial, with Chanel under fire from the Sioux Nation after putting similar feathered designs on the catwalk, but the message wasn’t received in Somerset..

via Glastonbury fashion: it’s all jumpers and headdresses at Worthy Farm | Music | The Guardian.

Tea party official charged in photos of US senator’s wife found dead; police suspect suicide

Police in Mississippi say an official in the conservative tea party movement arrested after photos were taken of U.S. Sen Thad Cochran’s ill wife has been found dead. They are treating the case as a suicide.

Police say the body of attorney Mark Mayfield was found Friday morning at his home in a gated community outside Jackson.

Authorities say Mayfield had been shot, and a suicide note was found.

via Tea party official charged in photos of US senator’s wife found dead; police suspect suicide.

Erdogan: ‘No one should expect me to provoke ISIS’ – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Brave enough to beat and arrest Turks protesting his heavy hands but take a stand against ISIS – nooooo!

Erdogan, for his part, in Ankara on June 25 said, “No one should expect me to provoke ISIS,” while blasting the opposition and its media that accuse his government of passivity in the hostage crisis.

via Erdogan: ‘No one should expect me to provoke ISIS’ – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Why Is the Wildlife Services Administrator So Proud? | Elly Pepper’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

While it’s true that the number of predators Wildlife Services does not match the number of birds it kills, this often-repeated statement obscures the real problem: Wildlife Services’ own reporting indicates that it kills 98% of the big carnivores like wolves, foxes, bears, and mountain lions that it interacts with.

The letter asserts that Wildlife Services is “fully transparent about all of [its] work—both lethal and nonlethal.” But examples showing otherwise are endless. A recently leaked audit shows that Wildlife Services recently lost $12 million dollars—it simply can’t find it.  NRDC’s report Fuzzy Math shows that “most economic analyses of predator control done by Wildlife Services …are inconsistent with economic analysis guidelines used by most federal agencies,” and often contain fundamental accounting errors. And, as they’ll tell you themselves, even Reps. DeFazio and Campbell have repeatedly been denied information they’ve requested from Wildlife Services.

The letter states that Wildlife Services is comprised of wildlife professionals who are “fully accountable to Congress and the public, comply with all laws, and are dedicated to preserving native ecosystems.” He can’t be talking about Jamie Olson, who posted pictures on Twitter (taken while on official duty) of his hunting dogs mauling a coyote caught in a leg-hold trap or Russell Files who intentionally captured his neighbor’s dog in multiple leg-hold traps, also while on duty. And he can’t be talking about the supervisors of the former Wildlife Services employees in films like NRDC’s Wild Things and Predator Defense’s Exposed, who were instructed not to report nontarget kills—in the words of one, to “shoot, shovel, and shut up.” So who is he talking about exactly?

via Why Is the Wildlife Services Administrator So Proud? | Elly Pepper’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.

Seasonal High Tunnels Support Conservation and New Farmers | National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

“It is amazing that 300 tomato plants in the high tunnel can produce the same yield as the 1,200 tomato plants growing outside,” Katie explained.  “Growing in the high tunnel takes up less space by growing vertically, helps regulate water usage, and we can produce more marketable tomatoes for essential wholesale markets.”

via Seasonal High Tunnels Support Conservation and New Farmers | National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Banned biter Suarez returns home, loses sponsor, receives support | Sports | DW.DE | 27.06.2014

Even Chiellini, whose shoulder bore the marks of Suarez’s jaw on Tuesday night in Natal, questioned the severity of the sanction for repeat-offender Suarez, who has made the headlines for biting in the past with both Liverpool and former club Ajax Amsterdam.

“Now inside me there’s no feelings of joy, revenge or anger against Suarez for an incident that happened on the pitch and that’s done,” Chiellini said in a statement on his website. “I believe that the proposed formula is excessive.”

via Banned biter Suarez returns home, loses sponsor, receives support | Sports | DW.DE | 27.06.2014.

Islamic State claims responsibility for Lebanon hotel bombing

The al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility Friday for this week’s Beirut hotel suicide bombing, warning that dozens of more men plan to carry out similar attacks.

The claim, in an online statement, was the first by the group for a suicide attack in Lebanon. It recently captured wide areas in northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a Beirut’s Duroy Hotel on Wednesday when security forces raided it to arrest him. His accomplice was wounded and was being questioned at a Beirut hospital.

via Islamic State claims responsibility for Lebanon hotel bombing.

June Bugs

Steve A. Wiggins

On my way to work yesterday, I came upon an overturned June bug clawing at the air, trying to regain its feet.  I’m always in a hurry getting to or from work, but I decided to stop, offering the insect a leaf to grip, and turning it back over.  I knew, as I spied birds flying overhead, that its chances weren’t good.  In the course of nature, insects are radically overproduced because so many get eaten.  In my apartment they can even be a source of sudden terror when they find their way inside.  I knew the June bug was probably nearing the end of its short time on the earth, but as I held out that leaf to it, I knew that in the act of struggling we were one.  That sounds terribly Buddhist of me, I know.  Insects and humans share, on the most basic level, the desire…

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“The Egyptian government knew their own secret service was making a huge mistake” – Egyptian Streets

Dutch journalist Rena Netjes sounds furious over the phone. She didn’t get much sleep last night.

“There are so many lies being spread, including by the Egyptian ambassador in the Netherlands,” says Rena. “I did have permission to do my job in Egypt. I had a temporary press card that was still accurate until December 31 2014, and by then I would’ve gotten a permanent one. Those are the facts.”

Last Monday, she was one of the convicted Al Jazeera English journalists that received a ten year prison sentence in absentia for ‘working, financing and falsifying footage for Al Jazeera in order to defame the Egyptian state’.

However, Netjes has never worked for Al Jazeera English, as the organization has confirmed and the proof against her is non-existent. “The fact that the Egyptian court failed to even get my name and passport number right represents [how] the entire trial [proceeded]. A non-existing Dutch name, ‘Johanna Indinienatta,’ with a non-existing passport number is convicted of being a terrorist. The Egyptians never made a connection to me, Rena Netjes. All they knew is that this person was a member of a terrorist network,” explains Rena.

“I cannot travel to any Arab or African country anymore. Even traveling to some European countries is not possible anymore. Let alone ever going back to Egypt where I lived for four years. I am not surprised, though. Justice does not exist in Egypt, nor does freedom of press.”

via “The Egyptian government knew their own secret service was making a huge mistake” – Egyptian Streets.