Category Archives: Fail!

Islamic extremists attack Christian village in Egypt, burn 80 homes

“Under Sisi the Coptic communities get protection from the military which then fuels sectarian attacks against Copts,” he said, adding that Egypt’s Christians have also been blamed for Sisi’s military coup because of their close ties with the army.Just last month, Egypt’s Christians were victim to a similar attack condemned by President Sisi in which 300 Muslims looted and torched Christian homes in the south, and stripped a 70-year-old Christian woman naked after accusing her son of having an affair with a Muslim woman, according to Reuters.President Sisi and other Muslim leaders have also spoken out about combating religious extremist ideology leading to incitement and sectarian violence.“Under (President Hosni) Mubarak we didn’t have as many cases against Copts as we have under Sisi,” Abdelmalak said.“I don’t think Sisi is personally pushing to marginalize Copts, but he’s not helping the situation either. He is living in denial about there even being a sectarian problem.”

Source: Islamic extremists attack Christian village in Egypt, burn 80 homes

Tim’s El Salvador Blog: Marco Rubio and the FMLN

Rubio seems to be referring to some stories about Merino which surfaced more than 8 years ago and attempted to establish links between Merino and the FARC guerrillas in Colombia after a laptop computer was captured from the FARC.   From time-to-time, conservative US politicians like Rubio trot out the accusation when they want to dump on the FMLN.  I am unaware of any authority having made a comprehensive investigation into the allegations surrounding Merino. The FMLN denounced the Florida senator this weekend.  The party launched an ad hominem attack on the senator, calling him “a reactionary politician with Cuban roots, known for his extreme positions, anti-immigrant, and associated with the Cuban-American mafia of Miami.” I’m not sure what Rubio was up to in specifically naming Merino.  Usually conservative Republicans only talk about El Salvador when El Salvador is about to have an election, in an obvious attempt to influence votes in the Central American country.

Source: Tim’s El Salvador Blog: Marco Rubio and the FMLN

Netanyahu asks to expel Arab MK, Hanin Zoabi, from Knesset – PNN

Earlier on Wednesday Zoabi caused an uproar on the Knesset floor when she strongly condemned the Israeli forces’ videotaped attack on Turkish activists who were killed during their participation in Freedom Flotilla in 2010. The murderer has to pay compensation for the families of Turkish victims, she said during a debate discussing the newly-signed deal between Israel and Turkey. Zoabi considered the deal as a “murder confession.”Zoabi demanded the Israeli government issue an apology both to the “political activists” aboard the Mavi Marmara, on which she sailed in solidarity, and to herself, from those who “incited against [her] for six years.”During the debate, Israeli MKs tried to physically attack Zoabi following her address. Several MKs began shouting and moved toward the podium to complain. “Come hit me! Come hit me!” Zoabi shouted to the MKs who were pointing and yelling at her.As MKs mobbed the stage, Zoabi shouted “they murdered” and “shut up” repeatedly.When Deputy Knesset Speaker Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beytenu) asked her to apologize, Zoabi said: “The Israeli soldiers who murdered are the ones who need to apologize! You need to apologize!” The Joint List strongly denounced the attack, considering it a “fascist assault.” It added, “The racist and bloody attack against Joint List MKs has notably escalated, calling for an end to the continued incitement against Arab MKs and Hanan Zoabi in particular”.

Source: Netanyahu asks to expel Arab MK, Hanin Zoabi, from Knesset – PNN

North Carolina’s Factory Farms Produce 15,000 Olympic Pools Worth of Waste Each Year | Civil Eats

Elsie Herring stays indoors on the days the industrial hog farm next door sprays manure from a lagoon-like holding pit across the field that ends eight feet from her kitchen window. Because a filthy mist coats her property if the wind is blowing from the west, Herring has learned to avoid activities like sitting on her porch, grilling outside, hanging laundry on the line, opening windows, and drinking water from the well. Herring lives in Duplin County, North Carolina, on a plot of land her family has owned for more than a century. Located in the eastern part of the state, Duplin contains more than 18.5 million confined animals, including 2.3 million hogs. In Herring’s part of the state, pigs outnumber people almost 40 to one. “You can smell the odor inside,” 67-year-old Herring says. “The feces, the ammonia—all that stuff—we have to breathe it in, because we have to breathe.” On top of physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, excessive coughing, watery eyes, and the urge to vomit, area residents often experience anxiety and depression from the sense of helplessness they feel and the lack of relief from the stench, Herring says. Last week, environmental groups including the Waterkeeper Alliance, Environmental Working Group, and North Carolina Riverkeeper organizations addressed what they see as “yawning gaps in the North Carolina state agricultural regulatory system” by releasing a collection of maps and data on the 6,500 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—and their accompanying waste lagoons—in the Tarheel State.

Source: North Carolina’s Factory Farms Produce 15,000 Olympic Pools Worth of Waste Each Year | Civil Eats

RNC demonstrators will be here to disrupt and get on TV, not to change minds: Ted Diadiun | cleveland.com “So why cover Trump tirades that are not aimed at changing minds but to get free coverage?”

It’s a twist on the old philosophical question: If a group of protesters chant, and there’s no TV camera there to record it, do they make a sound? They probably do, but none, blessedly, that the rest of us have to hear. That’s why, when my role was to make decisions about how to cover such “news,” I rarely sent a photographer to demonstrations and protest marches. Some people would gather in a public place with signs, and then stand around working on their counting skills (“One! Two! Three! Four! We don’t want your bloody war!”). Then a TV crew would obligingly show up and the people would become animated, and the 6 o’clock news would have its visual — a tight camera shot, of course, that masked the actual size and significance of the protest group.

Source: RNC demonstrators will be here to disrupt and get on TV, not to change minds: Ted Diadiun | cleveland.com

Pelosi Rips Into Apple CEO Tim Cook For Hosting Republican Fundraiser: SFist

Although Apple and other big tech companies have made a habit of donating money to both sides of the aisle, the fact that Tim Cook is the person in question is definitely turning heads. Cook, you surely recall, is an out gay man who has publicly come out against Republican-backed anti-LGBTQ legislation. Just last year he published an op-ed in The Washington Post condemning a host of legislation including a specific bill that “would strip the salaries and pensions of [Texas] clerks who issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.” “These bills rationalize injustice by pretending to defend something many of us hold dear,” wrote Cook. “They go against the very principles our nation was founded on, and they have the potential to undo decades of progress toward greater equality.” This fundraiser, it should be noted, is purely personal — Cook is not doing this on behalf of Apple. This fact was not lost on Congresswoman Pelosi. “Everybody has the right to do whatever they want to do,” Pelosi told the Chronicle. “But when they say, ‘We don’t like what Trump says, but we’ll donate to his party,’ they’re either naive or they think we’re naive.” According to The Almanac, the fundraiser is taking place at an undisclosed location in Menlo Park, and some of the money raised will go to a joint fundraising committee that helps fund Republican congressional campaigns.

Source: Pelosi Rips Into Apple CEO Tim Cook For Hosting Republican Fundraiser: SFist

A Brexit for English as EU language? | News | DW.COM | 28.06.2016

Danuta Hubner, a Polish politician and chair of the European Parliament’s constutitional affairs committee, has come out with a warning that a British exit from the European Union could also delete English from the EU’s list of 24 official languages. That possibility reverberated Tuesday far beyond the administrative levels of Article 50 – the provision allowing a member state to leave the bloc under EU treaty rules. Addressing the European Parliament on Tuesday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke only in French and German, clearly avoiding the use of English. During past crises, on the euro zone, for example, he had used English prominently as well. “We have a regulation … where every EU country has the right to notify one official language,” Hübner had told a press conference late on Monday. “If we don’t have the UK, we don’t have English (as an official language),” she warned, adding that keeping it would require assent by all remaining member states.

Source: A Brexit for English as EU language? | News | DW.COM | 28.06.2016

Researchers welcome discovery of rare helium gas in Tanzania | News | DW.COM | “Spin, hot air, destroy the earth for profit.”

Researchers say the discovery of as much as 54 billion cubic feet of the gas in southern Tanzania could satisfy total world demand for almost seven years at current rates.

Source: Researchers welcome discovery of rare helium gas in Tanzania | News | DW.COM | 28.06.2016

Brexit: Nigel Farage tells European Parliament ‘Britain won’t be the last country to leave the EU’ – Brexit: UK EU Referendum – ABC News Beneath contempt for his support of racism!

“What the little people did, what the ordinary people did, what the people who have been oppressed over the last few years and seen their living standards go down … they rejected big politics, and they said ‘actually, we want our country back’. “I make one prediction this morning: The United Kingdom will not be the last member state to leave the European Union. The UK Independence Party leader, who was a key supporter of the Leave campaign, was booed as he told Parliament: “I know virtually none of you have ever done a proper job in your lives or worked, worked in a business or worked in a trade.” After Brexit roadmap The British have spoken in their EU membership referendum and they want out. What happens to Europe now? Earlier, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker asked the UKIP leader why he had attended the session. The UKIP representatives had applauded after Mr Juncker had told Parliament: “We must respect British democracy and the way it has expressed its view.” “That’s the last time you are applauding here … and to some extent I’m really surprised you are here. You are fighting for the exit. The British people voted in favour of the exit. Why are you here?” Juncker said, breaking from his speech text.

Source: Brexit: Nigel Farage tells European Parliament ‘Britain won’t be the last country to leave the EU’ – Brexit: UK EU Referendum – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Zika Bill Is Blocked by Senate Democrats Upset Over Provisions – The New York Times

Democrats blocked the bill because they said Republicans were using the must-pass legislation to score political points, jam through unpalatable policy changes, or cut money from other programs. Among the provisions, they said, were efforts to hinder access to contraception for women, and to weaken environmental restrictions on pesticide use.

Source: Zika Bill Is Blocked by Senate Democrats Upset Over Provisions – The New York Times

Democrats charged that Republicans had booby-trapped the legislation by adding provisions that included a ban on any direct government financing for Planned Parenthood, the women’s health organization, to provide contraceptive services related to fighting the Zika virus, which is also transmitted sexually.

The Democrats also said that Republicans had inserted a provision cutting $500 million in financing for the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care law, and that they had stripped a House provision that would ban the flying of the Confederate battle flag in federal cemeteries.