Category Archives: Fail!

Native American and indigenous rights: “There is no word for wall in our language” | In English | EL PAÍS

The Tohono O’odham – the name means desert people – have lived on both sides of the border since their lands were arbitrarily divided between the United States and Mexico some 160 years ago. Around 30,000 members of the nation live in Arizona. Meanwhile, several thousand more – and the majority of the nation’s sacred sites – can be found in Mexico.Trump’s wall would be a coup de grace for a nation whose territory doesn’t respect international borders and the Tohono O’odham have taken the fight to protect their lands to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

“If they build the wall, it will be over my dead body,” says Verlon José, Vice President of the Tohono O’odham nation.

Source: Native American and indigenous rights: “There is no word for wall in our language” | In English | EL PAÍS

Canadian church group denied entry to US over fears they would ‘steal’ jobs | World news | The Guardian – to please “#LoserTrump” boss – they will do anything!

“This trip falls in the ‘love your neighbour’ category,” said Erik Hoeksema of the group. “We typically send groups down every two or three years to do similar projects.”The 12-member group set off on Saturday. But their road trip came to an abrupt halt at the US border, after officials told them the host church in the US should have provided documentation in advance outlining exactly what they would be doing while in the US.“This was a bit of mistake on our part, and the reason why we got ‘red-flagged’ to start with,” said Hoeksema. “But in the end, I was told that this was not the reason for us being denied entry.”Members of the church had volunteered south of the border before, taking part in projects in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Canadians do not need a visa if they are volunteering in the US, as long as they are able to show that they will not be compensated for their work.The Reformed Church of Highland Park in central New Jersey responded immediately, sending over a letter that explained that the group was going to join the 3,000 volunteers who have so far helped 200 families get back into homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy.AdvertisementBorder officials said the letter was not specific enough. Hoeksema asked the host church to send another letter, this time specifying the types of duties that the group would be carrying out.A second letter soon arrived, explaining that mission groups who travel to New Jersey carry out team building, tour programs that range from food pantries and thrift shops and assist with neighbourhood cleanup projects.It was this last line that border officials seemingly took issue with, said Hoeksema. “This was interpreted as ‘work for hire’ and since we are foreigners, this would be stealing American jobs.”Some five years after Hurricane Sandy hit the region, the need to carry out relief work was also questioned. “We were told that when there is an immediate need, volunteer groups usually are granted entrance,” said Hoeksema.After more than two hours spent at the border, the group – all of whom were carrying Canadian passports and who had travelled to the US before with no incident – was denied entry.

Source: Canadian church group denied entry to US over fears they would ‘steal’ jobs | World news | The Guardian

Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming | Global development | The Guardian

An Italian migrant rights organisation, the Proxyma Association, estimates that more than half of all Romanian women working in the greenhouses are forced into sexual relations with their employers. Almost all of them work in conditions of forced labour and severe exploitation.Police say they believe that up to 7,500 women, the majority of whom are Romanian, are living in slavery on farms across the region. Guido Volpe, a commander in the carabinieri military police in Sicily, told the Observer that Ragusa was the centre of exploitation on the island.“These women are working as slaves in the fields and we know they are blackmailed to have sex with the owners of the farms or greenhouses because of their psychological subjugation,” he says. “It is not easy to investigate or stop this from happening, as the women are mostly too afraid to speak out.”Many of the Romanian women leave children and dependent families at home and feel forced into making the desperate choices that have carved deep lines of grief into Bolos’s face.“Where I come from in Romanian Moldavia, nobody has a job,” says Bolos, as she nurses her five-month-old daughter in a dark warehouse that is now her home on another farm in Ragusa province. “The average salary there is €200 a month. Here you can make much more, even if you need to suffer.”

Source: Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming | Global development | The Guardian

Inoreader – #Maddow: Impossible Mike Pence didn’t know about Michael Flynn

 

This means that the Donald Trump administration went on to appoint Michael Flynn as its National Security Adviser even though Mike Pence knew Flynn was taking Turkish money. It also means Mike Pence was lying this week when he claimed in this interview with Fox News host Bret Baier that he wasn’t aware of Flynn’s Turkey situation until he heard about it from the media. This is a remarkable development considering that the Trump administration framed Flynn’s firing last month as having been a result of Flynn lying to Pence about his repeated phone calls with the Russian Ambassador.

Source: Inoreader – #Maddow: Impossible Mike Pence didn’t know about Michael Flynn

Ebola vaccine promising in chimps but may never be used | New Scientist – Spin to reopen research using captive simians for whatever…

A new oral Ebola vaccine seems to works in apes – but that doesn’t mean Africa’s great apes are now safe from the virus, which poses a grave threat to endangered gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees.

Source: Ebola vaccine promising in chimps but may never be used | New Scientist

Republican lawmaker says cancer patients can go to the ER for health care – Shareblue

Like many Republicans, DeSantis either does not know or does not care that 73 percent of Medicaid recipients do, in fact, work, or that the whole point of medical insurance is that even “able-bodied” people like Tiffany Koehler are only “able-bodied” until they are not.Neither the current GOP plan nor the potentially harsher options waiting in the wings recognize the fundamental fact that under repeal, millions of Americans will lose insurance — a life or death prospect for thousands of people.

Source: Republican lawmaker says cancer patients can go to the ER for health care – Shareblue

E.P.A. Head Scott Pruitt Falsely Asserts That Carbon Dioxide Is Not A Primary Cause Of Climate Change: Gothamist – when your children and grandchildren gasp for air, make sure they gasp Pruitt You!

Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt said that there needs to be more debate about whether carbon dioxide is a primary driver of global warming and that “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”

Source: E.P.A. Head Scott Pruitt Falsely Asserts That Carbon Dioxide Is Not A Primary Cause Of Climate Change: Gothamist

Here’s the Outline of the Garbage Known As Trumpcare…. | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Let us be clear.1. 20 million people will lose healthcare2. The bad old days will be back3. You will be bankrupt once again from one illness4. The working poor, who got access to healthcare because of Medicaid Expansion – THEY ARE SCREWED5. Grandma and Grandpa in the nursing home paid by Medicaid-you better have a place in your house when they’re kicked out of the nursing home6. Preventive care measures – those wellness measures that have been so popular – GONE7. The subsidies which help the working class/middle class get Obamacare – GONE8. This WILL make Medicare insolvent, which folds into the plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system9. THIS IS A HUGE TAX CUT-$600 BILLION- FOR THE WEALTHY. THEY ARE TAKING AWAY FUNDS FROM THE POOR AND GIVING THEM TO THE WEALTHY.10. GOP health bill includes tax break for insurance execs making $500,000+11. Health insurance isn’t the end goal of #TrumpCare. Tax cuts for the rich is.And, for those of you who are smug, because you don’t think that Trumpcare will affect your Employer Given Healthcare?

Source: Here’s the Outline of the Garbage Known As Trumpcare…. | 3CHICSPOLITICO

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.

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