Category Archives: Fail!

Bryan Fischer Again Falsely Claims The U.S. Banned Travel During The 2014 Ebola Crisis | Right Wing Watch – Liars and Trump Supporters do what they do best – lie!

Fischer’s analogy is total nonsense, especially when you recall that during the outbreak, he accused Obama of intentionally refusing to impose a travel ban because he wanted the disease to come to America as punishment. As we pointed out before, the United States never imposed any sort of travel ban during the Ebola crisis because doing so would have been counterproductive. Instead, the government put in place protocols requiring that anyone traveling to the U.S. from Ebola-affected nations enter through one of five specific airports where enhanced screening would take place:The Department of Homeland Security has announced that all passengers arriving from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa must go by way of a handful of U.S. airports as part of measures to control the spread of Ebola.”Today, I am announcing that all passengers arriving in the United States whose travel originates in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will be required to fly into one of the five airports that have the enhanced screening and additional resources in place,” Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in a statement.Starting on Wednesday, those passengers will then be subject to “secondary screening and added protocols, including having their temperature taken, before they can be admitted into the United States,” the statement said.The airports are: New York’s JFK; Newark, N.J.; Washington, D.C.’s Dulles; Atlanta; and Chicago O’Hare.

Source: Bryan Fischer Again Falsely Claims The U.S. Banned Travel During The 2014 Ebola Crisis | Right Wing Watch

Civil society chilled by Egypt’s asset freeze – IFEX

The re-activation of case 173 and ongoing use of the Mubarak era Law 84 are part of a larger crackdown targeting not only human rights defenders, but also the media, trade unions, and peaceful protesters. Other measures of the case have included travel bans against 12 NGO members, including Eid and Bahgat, asset freeze requests against 13 NGO members, interrogation of 5 NGO heads in connection with the case, and the interrogation of 17 human rights defenders in connection with their human rights work. The ruling on 17 September in favor of the investigative judge’s asset freeze request indicates that the five-year-old investigation into the funding and registration of independent human rights groups could soon result in criminal charges. Under Egyptian law, prosecutors could charge human rights defenders for working without official registration or accepting foreign funding without government authorization. An amendment to the Penal Code passed in September 2014 by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi provides for a sentence of up to life imprisonment, which equates to 25 years in prison in Egypt, for the latter charge. We firmly believe that the current push against Egyptian civil society is not only unconstitutional, but also fundamentally misguided. The work of civil society groups contributes to a healthy, vibrant political climate that allows for open and critical debate of important social issues where all Egyptian citizens can be freely heard.

Source: Civil society chilled by Egypt’s asset freeze – IFEX

Video: Israeli sniper shoots youth during assault on refugee camp | The Electronic Intifada

 

This video shows part of an incident in which an Israeli military sniper severely wounded 22-year-old Palestinian Muhammad al-Amsi during a massive army raid on al-Fawwar refugee camp in the southern West Bank city of Hebron in mid-August.Al-Amsi was standing on his roof talking on the telephone when the sniper shot him four times.It was filmed by Mahmoud Abu Yousef, a videographer with the Ma’an News Agency, and published on Friday by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem as part of a report into the Israeli raid in which another youth, 19-year-old Muhammad Abu Hashhash, was shot dead by Israeli forces.A separate B’Tselem investigation has found that Abu Hashhash was killed as he posed no danger to anyone.Meanwhile, two Palestinians and a Jordanian citizen – one reportedly 15 years old – were shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday in separate incidents. Another Palestinian was shot dead on Saturday morning. On Thursday, a person died from wounds he received when Israeli forces shot him during a raid on his village. Last week, a Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Source: Video: Israeli sniper shoots youth during assault on refugee camp | The Electronic Intifada

Florida sinkhole causes vast leak of wastewater into drinking water source | World news | The Guardian – Oops! Not to worry, we are taking care of you – “not!”

The sinkhole, discovered by a worker on 27 August, is believed to reach down to the Floridan aquifer, the company said in a news release. Aquifers are vast, underground systems of porous rocks that hold water and allow water to move through the holes within the rock.The Floridan aquifer is a major source of drinking water in the state. One of the highest-producing aquifers in the world, it underlies all of Florida and extends into southern Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.According to the University of Florida, it’s the principal source of groundwater for much of the state, and the cities of Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Tampa, and St Petersburg all rely on it. The aquifer also supplies water to thousands of domestic, industrial and irrigation wells throughout the state.Mosaic began diverting the pond water into an alternative holding area to reduce the amount of drainage when the problem was first detected. The company said it had been “recovering the water by pumping through onsite production wells”.“We have an extensive monitoring system,” Jellerson said. “It’s already indicating that it’s recovering the material, but it will take some time for that process to complete.”

Source: Florida sinkhole causes vast leak of wastewater into drinking water source | World news | The Guardian

Trump hints at Clinton’s assassination again after retracting ‘birther’ theory | US news | The Guardian

In a sometimes bizarre 45-minute speech on Friday night, which opened with the unfurling of a new “Les Deplorables” battlefield flag backdrop, the Republican nominee went off-script to call for his opponent’s bodyguards to “disarm immediately” – adding, “Let’s see what happens to her.” “Take their guns away!” Trump demanded to loud cheers during a section of the speech in which he said his rival wanted to “destroy your second amendment” and he accused Clinton of “arrogance and entitlement”. In a statement, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook denounced Trump’s comments: “Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President, has a pattern of inciting people to violence. Whether this is done to provoke protesters at a rally or casually or even as a joke, it is an unacceptable quality in anyone seeking the job of Commander in Chief.”“But we’ve seen again and again that no amount of failed resets can change who Donald Trump is.” The call to leave the Democratic nominee protected by unarmed secret service agents, first made by Trump in May, raised eyebrows as a reversion to the undisciplined candidate of the primaries rather than the more scripted one of recent weeks. Trump also suggested in August that if Clinton was elected president, “the second amendment people” might be able to stop her from appointing judges. That statement was widely interpreted as a veiled assassination threat as well at the time.

Source: Trump hints at Clinton’s assassination again after retracting ‘birther’ theory | US news | The Guardian

Hillary, ‘weak’? Not from where I’m standing | Jessica Valenti – “Women are stronger – if you do not believe it guys, try being nine months birthing a new human? Give up your false biases!”

Women’s supposed fragility was used as an argument against giving us the vote. The debate about Clinton’s pneumonia plays into the same old prejudices

Source: Hillary, ‘weak’? Not from where I’m standing | Jessica Valenti

The link between women’s mental and physical fitness to political engagement was so strong, in fact, that Susan B Anthony once said that bicycles had “done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world”. They not only quite literally got women out of the house and into more comfortable clothes, but they chipped away at the notion that women were physically weak.

Decades later, the notion that women’s bodies are somehow less suited for political life remains. After all, it wasn’t merely boorishness that led Donald Trump to criticize Megyn Kelly by alluding to her period – there’s a longstanding myth about women’s hormones making them unfit to lead. (Comedian Hari Kondabolu has my favorite response to sexists who think a woman’s judgement is impaired once a month: “I’m a man with a penis and testicles, my judgement is impaired every five to seven minutes.”)

It wasn’t a coincidence, either, that when Politico reported on Clinton’s illnessthey described her dizzy spell as “swooning” – a term rarely used to describe men. Even Trump’s comments that Clinton doesn’t have a “presidential look” signal a particular sexist disdain.

The truth is that the campaign trail is brutal, and working all hours through an illness like Clinton’s shows strength, not weakness. That we would see it as anything but stamina reveals a tired double standard. Besides, what’s more important right now than an individual’s health is the health of our nation. Coughs aside, I think we all know whose hands that would be safer in.

So blue. The heartbroken case for Hillary Clinton – Medium – I am for her but for those who doubt – read this, please.

Hillary Clinton will provide some small, inadequate measure of assistance to the growing masses of victims even while she continues to pander to the very forces of their destruction. She’s oblivious to techno-capitalism’s looming dead end, because it contradicts the story of human infallibility, and she’s too cynical to believe that a post-capitalist future is possible. But she won’t (overtly) suppress dissent or work to attack, disrupt and destroy progressive people’s movements or to terrorize and ruin the lives of immigrants (at least, not as aggressively as Trump surely would with a helping hand from ALEC, the NRA, the KKK and legions of confused, scared, heavily-armed white men). That doesn’t give us much breathing room, but it’s something.I won’t belabor the Trump-Hitler comparison here, but read this if you harbor any doubts about the nature of Trump’s personality disorder and intentions. This is a nihilistic man punch drunk on ego and power, hungry for violence, all in for cutthroat competition, incapable of self-reflection, one hand on the nuclear button and the other on Mein Kampf, capable of the unthinkable. What he cannot create he will destroy — such is the nihilist’s endgame.That, in the end, is why I’ll vote for Hillary Clinton — because she isn’t Donald Trump. I will vote for Clinton* and, if she wins, I will not be excited or happy, not even a tiny bit.

Source: So blue. The heartbroken case for Hillary Clinton – Medium

The Woman Who Wasn’t To Be Believed | Dame Magazine

Hillary Clinton’s aggregate truth rating on PolitiFact is 72% (this includes True, Mostly True, and Half True ratings). In spite of this, her Republican opponent Donald Trump has coined the nickname “Crooked Hillary,” a reflexive attack on her honesty.       And his campaign even launched the website Lying Crooked Hillary this year, which accuses her of, “Spinning lies and weaving a tapestry of deceit that she hopes will cover the truth.” Donald Trump’s aggregate truth rating on PolitiFact is 30%.  Thirty Percent.So how can he get away with calling her a liar?

Source: The Woman Who Wasn’t To Be Believed | Dame Magazine

Donald Trump and 9/11: the lies, exaggerations and eye-popping claims | US news | The Guardian

Immediately after the attacks, the lifelong New Yorker spoke with a local news anchor who asked whether, given his property in the financial district, he had learned anything about the devastation. Trump’s mind turned to his buildings.“It was an amazing phone call,” Trump replied. “I mean 40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan. And it was actually before the World Trade Center was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center it became known as the second tallest. And now it’s the tallest.”Trump later collected a $150,00 grant for 40 Wall Street, from a state recovery program meant to help small businesses after 9/11. In April 2016, he claimed that the funds were “probably a reimbursement for the fact that I allowed people, for many months, to stay in the building, use the building and store things in the building”.Officials who helped with the recovery have disputed Trump’s account to the New York Daily News, and questioned what help the businessman ever provided. But at recent rallies Trump has continued to take credit, saying at one campaign stop: “Everyone who helped clear the rubble, and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit.”

Source: Donald Trump and 9/11: the lies, exaggerations and eye-popping claims | US news | The Guardian

The Multiple Abuses of Reina Maraz – Intercontinental Cry

Sexual Violence and ‘that night’

Maraz told in court how one night Limber Santos and Vilca went out drinking. Around 5am, Vilca came back to the kiln and into Maraz’s room, where she was sleeping with the children. He woke her and horrifyingly told her ‘your husband owes me a debt, and he gave me you.’ Then he raped her in front of her children.The lead judge, Marcela Alejandra Vissio, described the incident as improbable in her verdict because Maraz did not make a police report.  But not filing a police report for rape is not unusual for women, who face significant barriers in the legal system such as reliving trauma and being victim-blamed. Data on unreported rape is hard to find in Argentina, as in many countries, but it is likely to be far under-reported. On top of the usual barriers, Maraz has the additional barrier of not fully understanding or speaking Spanish.The aftermath of Maraz’s rape included a vicious beating at her husband’s hands. It also sparked violent conflict between Vilca and Santos.On the morning of her husband’s death, 14 November 2010, Maraz got up at 4am to help him prepare for a trip to visit his sister to pay her back a debt. Maraz explained in court that Vilca was also up that morning, drunk. Limber Santos and he started arguing through the window of the room, and then Santos went out. At that moment, Maraz heard the sound of a padlock locking her and the children into the room.The person who removed the lock and came into the room shortly after was not Maraz’s husband, but Vilca. She asked him where her husband was, and Vilca said Limber Santos had left for his sister’s. Then he raped her again, again in the presence of her two children.The Aftermath of Limber Santos’ deathMaraz had no idea that her husband was dead at that moment. When there was no sign of him, she went to stay at her father-in-law’s house with her sons. She testified that she was afraid to stay at the brick kiln because of Vilca’s presence. And she went to the police and reported her husband as missing – she was worried he had been robbed when he didn’t appear at his sister’s.Limber Santos’ body was then found in a rubbish heap on the grounds of the brick kiln. Maraz and Tito Vilca were arrested and jailed as responsible. In jail, Maraz discovered she was pregnant. Her little girl was born in Unit 33 of Prison Los Hornos of Buenos Aires.It took nearly a full year until Maraz was informed of the charges against her in her own language. The Argentine human rights advocacy organization La Comisión Provincial por la Memoria —‘The Provincial Commission for Memory’ — carried out one of its regular prison inspections in Prison Los Hornos and realized that Maraz was unable to communicate well in Spanish. They brought a Quechua speaker to visit her.

Source: The Multiple Abuses of Reina Maraz – Intercontinental Cry