Category Archives: Fail!

Philippines’ ‘Duterte Harry’: the would-be president accused of using death squads | World news | The Guardian

“His programme would be the elimination of criminality. At the core of this is the use of extrajudicial killings,” he said. “It was already done in Davao, the so-called peace and order. It will continue.” In 2009, Human Rights Watch released a report calling for the Philippines to dismantle highly organised vigilante gangs it said were directly linked to government officials and police.

Source: Philippines’ ‘Duterte Harry’: the would-be president accused of using death squads | World news | The Guardian

Trumpish notes from the AP

Remember a movie named a  Face in the Crowd? Watch it. https://youtu.be/9lrmxkF-UKM

“I don’t necessarily know that that’s his role, to be a sticking point for the Republican nominee,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, one of a growing number of Trump supporters in the House. Added Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania: “The voters of our party have spoken loud and clear, and it’s their voice that matters.” Trump has criticized Ryan in the past and renewed his attacks Friday by arguing that Ryan and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, “lost a race that should have been won” in 2012. Trump and Ryan also have disagreements on policy, from immigration to Social Security to trade. In his latest surprising breach of orthodoxy on Friday Trump questioned whether the U.S. government would make good on its commitment to fully honor Treasury notes, suggesting he might try to get a better deal.

Source: News from The Associated Press

Koala extinction imminent in parts of south-east Queensland, report warns – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

What else is disappearing or growing – things like this do not occur in isolation.  It also found more than 50 per cent had disappeared in the Pine Rivers region north of Brisbane during the same period. “There are already a number of areas in which koalas [on the Koala Coast] … are at such low densities that they are effectively extinct,” the report said. “It appears the loss of koalas from many sites there is imminent.”

Source: Koala extinction imminent in parts of south-east Queensland, report warns – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Protest Movement Threatens TTIP Transatlantic Trade Deal – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Greenpeace published classified documents from the closed-door negotiations. Even if the papers only convey the current state of negotiations and do not document the end results, they still confirm the worst suspicions of critics of TTIP.The 248 pages show that bargaining is taking place behind the scenes, even in areas which the EU and the German government have constantly maintained were sacrosanct. These include standards on the environment and consumer protection; the precautionary principle, a stricter EU policy that sets high hurdles for potentially dangerous products; the legislative self-determination of the countries involved, etc. Even the pledge made on the European side that there would be no arbitration courts has turned out to be wishful thinking. So far, the Americans have insisted on the old style of arbitration court.The result is that Merkel’s grandly staged meeting with US President Barack Obama in Hanover eight days earlier had been nothing more than a show — one aimed at hiding the fact that the two sides are anything but united in their positions.The leaks have resulted in a failed attempt to bypass 800 million European citizens as they negotiate the world’s largest bilateral free trade agreement. From the very beginning, the government underestimated the level of resistance these incursions on virtually all aspects of life would unleash among the people.What began as a diffuse discomfort over opaque backroom dealings grew into a true public initiative, especially in Germany. It was fueled by an international alliance of non-government organizations that has acted in a more professional and networked way than anything that has come before.TTIP Protests a Part of Everyday LifeThree years after the beginning of negotiations, events protesting free trade agreements have become part of everyday life in Germany. In cities and towns, thousands of events are being held to express opposition to deals like TTIP, CETA, as the recently negotiated agreement with Canada is called, and TISA, an international deal covering trade in services.Here’s a sample of what this looks like in just a few places. In the city of Mainz, 150 orchestra musicians play the protest song “We’re not Merchandise,” a reworked version of Ludwig von Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” In Darmstadt south of Frankfurt, 230 people in a packed hall grill candidates in the local election on the issue of free trade. Meanwhile, in Cologne, where there are traditional “dance into May” celebrations marking the arrival of May 1, a “Dance against TTIP” was even held.In Bergisch Gladbach, a town located near Cologne, the city council approved a resolution opposing TTIP and CETA. A total of 310 cities, municipalities, counties, districts and regions have registered themselves with the Munich Environmental Institute as TTIP-free zones.

Source: Protest Movement Threatens TTIP Transatlantic Trade Deal – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Why Filipinos Are Voting for a New ‘Dictator’ – The New York Times

Drift to supporting trash-talking drones is same in US, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Japan… Not to be taken for granted that democracy can survive oligarchy – time for real problem solvers to step up and vote for civility and change!?!

This image as a brash, no-nonsense leader explains why nothing he says is able to damage him. He repeatedly described a rival using a homophobic slur. He called Pope Francis “a son of a whore.” He told human-rights groups to “go to hell.” He joked that he should have been first in the gang rape of an Australian missionary. “That’s how men speak,” Mr. Duterte explained. “I am not a son of the privileged class.” His supporters, who often threaten his critics on social media with death and rape threats, defended him with an offensive, but telling, rhetorical question: How can people get so upset at a rape joke when politicians have been raping the country for so long?

Source: Why Filipinos Are Voting for a New ‘Dictator’ – The New York Times

Report: Cops Tried To Memory-Hole Hasidic Jews’ Beating Of Black Man In Williamsburg: Gothamist

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Realizing the case was going nowhere, Patterson’s mother Zahra went on a publicity blitz, placing stories about the attack in several news outlets, and only then did the investigation pick up. Police arrested five men the following April, and in their indictment prosecutors claimed that the suspects were all members of the Williamsburg Safety Patrol, a Hasidic volunteer neighborhood watch group, members of which carry walkie talkies and sometimes drive imitation police vehicles. The group is supposed to notify the police of crimes in progress and sometimes make citizens’ arrests, but has been accused of vigilantism and other attacks on black and Latino people in the neighborhood.The revelation about the apparent mishandling of the investigation comes as high-ranking officers elsewhere in the NYPD are facing federal scrutiny for, among other things, allegedly taking bribes from a leader of the Williamsburg group’s Borough Park counterpart, the Boro Park Shomrim, to grant gun permits to people who would otherwise have been denied them. Mayor Bill de Blasio halted city funding to the Borough Park group and is reassessing whether it is a “responsible vendor.”

Source: Report: Cops Tried To Memory-Hole Hasidic Jews’ Beating Of Black Man In Williamsburg: Gothamist

About The Stereotype Busting High Median Incomes Of Trump Voters | Race Files

We need to get real about who really constitutes the current and projected base for right wing extremism. They aren’t mainly poor folk. Real poor folks are our current and immediate projected base of support and we need to start acting like it. Instead, they are those with relative privilege, living in the anxiety of losing that privilege in a society that punishes the poor. White privilege is eroding. We need to acknowledge this reality.  If we don’t, we will become the victims of nostalgia, trading rose colored pictures of a romanticized past for a sustainable, fair, and secure economic future.

Source: About The Stereotype Busting High Median Incomes Of Trump Voters | Race Files

In Kozhikode, They Mourn and Rage for Justice for Jisha – 

All over Kerala massive protests have broken out today demanding justice for Jisha, the law student who was brutally murdered in Perumbavoor, Kerala on May 2. The following photos of huge groups of women protesting the death of the young Dalit woman are from the city of Kozhikode and were shot by filmmaker Biju Ibrahim.

Source: In Kozhikode, They Mourn and Rage for Justice for Jisha – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

The Icarus Syndrome Strikes Again! Avian Flu Diary: Cell Host & Microbe: Wolbachia Blocks Zika Virus In Brazilian Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes

  1. Infecting many mosquitoes with Wolbachia will result in Wolbachia resistant mosquitoes.
  2. Pretending that mosquitoes are an enemy or pest that can/should be destroyed ignores why mosquito populations explode (human interventions) and what the role of the mosquito is in nature.
  3. Someone will profit greatly and will not pay for any unintended consequences.

“The idea has been to release Aedes mosquitoes with Wolbachia in the field over a period of a few months, so they mate with Aedes mosquitoes without Wolbachia living in the place and, over time, replace the mosquito population,” says senior author Luciano Moreira of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. He is also actively involved in the Eliminate Dengue Program, a non-profit that is testing the approach in 40 locations around the world.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: Cell Host & Microbe: Wolbachia Blocks Zika Virus In Brazilian Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes

Listeria linked to frozen vegetables sickens 8 in 3 states | CIDRAP

Epidemiologic and lab evidence suggests the likely source of the outbreak is frozen vegetables produced by CRF Frozen Foods, based in Pasco, Wash., and sold under different brands, the CDC said. Two patients reported buying and eating the same Organic Nature brand of frozen vegetables in the month before they got sick, and routine product sampling by the Ohio Department of Agriculture found Listeria in frozen organic sweet corn and green peas under the Meijer grocery store chain’s True Goodness brand, also produced by CRF Frozen Foods. Whole-genome sequencing showed that the Listeria strain in the frozen corn was closely related to seven Listeria isolates from sick patients, and Listeria from the frozen peas was closely related to an isolate from one of the people. Recall includes 358 products, 42 brands CRF recalled 11 of its frozen vegetable products on Apr 23, then expanded it on May 2 to include all of its organic and traditional frozen vegetable and fruit products processed in its Pasco facility since May 1, 2014. The recalled products, packaged in plastic bags, are distributed nationally and in four Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

Source: Listeria linked to frozen vegetables sickens 8 in 3 states | CIDRAP