Category Archives: Fail!

Opinion | Netanyahu Stoops to Survive – The New York Times

In Israel, Rabbi Benny Lau of Jerusalem, a leading voice of religious Zionism, repeatedly assailed the merger, likening Kahanism to Nazism, and nearly 90 modern Orthodox rabbis and educators, including prominent names in the religious Zionist community, denounced the deal as giving “a black eye to Israel and its standing in the world as a moral and democratic state.” Potentially more damaging to Israel, the pact between Mr. Netanyahu and the Kahanists was criticized in the United States not only but also by liberal Jewish organizations, but by some whose strong support of Israel rarely includes any public intervention in its boisterous politics. The influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee — Aipac — which almost never publicly criticizes Israel, endorsed a statement by the American Jewish Committee that called Otzma Yehudit’s views “reprehensible,” and added that “they do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the state of Israel.”

Avian Flu Diary: Nature: Bat Influenza Receptors In Other Mammals (Including Humans) Bats flourish and overpopulate when humans overproduce fruits that bats feed on! Game on! and who knows when we strike out!

,894 Exactly 7 years ago today ( Feb 27, 2012 ) we looked at an announcement from scientists from the U.S. CDC and the Universid…

Source: Avian Flu Diary: Nature: Bat Influenza Receptors In Other Mammals (Including Humans)

Unknown forces attack Butembo Ebola treatment center | CIDRAP (Could not be much more stupid and evil – set off massive ebola outbreak that can easily kill the attackers as well.)

“Tonight another deplorable attack on an Ebola treatment facility has taken place, this time in the city of Butembo,” said Hugues Robert, MSF emergency desk manager, in a news release. “This follows the attack last week on another MSF Ebola treatment center in nearby Katwa. This attack has not only put the lives of Ebola patients and their families in danger, but also those of MSF and Ministry of Health staff.”

Source: Unknown forces attack Butembo Ebola treatment center | CIDRAP

MSF suspends work at Katwa Ebola center as WHO seeks more support | CIDRAP

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said today that it has suspended all activities at the Ebola treatment center in Katwa, following a violent attack over the weekend, severely limiting access to care in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) main hot spot.

Source: MSF suspends work at Katwa Ebola center as WHO seeks more support | CIDRAP

A Groundbreaking Report Goes Deep On Black Homelessness In Los Angeles: LAist

Homelessness disproportionately affects black people in Los Angeles. Though about nine percent of Los Angeles County’s total population is black-identifying, black people make up about 36 percent of the county’s homeless population,

Source: A Groundbreaking Report Goes Deep On Black Homelessness In Los Angeles: LAist

The U.S.-Venezuela Aid Convoy Story Is Clearly Bogus, but No One Wants to Say It

In fact, no neutral observer of international aid thinks Bolton and Abrams’ convoy is anything but a mechanism to foment civil war and regime change. We know this because high-level administration officials and their allies on the right keep telling us that’s the case. As the New York Post recently proclaimed, “U.S. delivers aid to town bordering Venezuela to undermine President Nicolas Maduro.” Donald Trump delivered a long and rambling speech in Miami last week and didn’t once mention human rights, instead railing against the evils of socialism. Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe reflects in his new book that Trump has openly fantasized about overthrowing Maduro, something he has discussed in White House meetings. “That’s the country we should be going to war with,” Trump said, according to McCabe. “They have all that oil, and they’re right on our back door.” Determined to maintain U.S. hegemony and control over the world’s largest-known oil reserves, the Trump officials plotting this latest coup aren’t even bothering to take its humanitarian pretext seriously. Why, then, are purportedly centrist and liberal media outlets?

Source: The U.S.-Venezuela Aid Convoy Story Is Clearly Bogus, but No One Wants to Say It

China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise – The New York Times  “If you believe they did not know how they were helping Chinese inhumane rights – I have a bridge, I can sell you cheap!”

To bolster their DNA capabilities, scientists affiliated with China’s police used equipment made by Thermo Fisher, a Massachusetts company. For comparison with Uighur DNA, they also relied on genetic material from people around the world that was provided by Kenneth Kidd, a prominent Yale University geneticist.

El Mozote massacre triggers passions in Washington decades later

Rep. Ilhan Omar In a recent Congressional hearing first year member of the US House of Representatives Ilhan Omar challenged Elliott Abr…

Source: El Mozote massacre triggers passions in Washington decades later

Just a final comment — there seems to be a suggestion from some on the right that to challenge Elliott Abrams as a fitting US representative for anything involving Latin American policy is the same as supporting Maduro in Venezuela.   That’s a completely specious argument.    You can be opposed (as I am) to Maduro’s ruinous rule in Venezuela and his violations of human rights without needing to support Abrams who actively acted to cover up the human rights abuses of an oppressive regime in El Salvador and elsewhere.   You have more credibility and integrity if you denounce human rights abuses wherever they exist, not just when the human rights abuses are committed by a government on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Polish premier pulls out of Visegrad Israel summit after Nazi comments | News | DW | 17.02.2019 Autocrats have trouble cooperating, when truth gets in the way of their strategies.

Poland has downgraded its delegation to the Visegrad Group summit in Israel after premier Benjamin Netanyahu suggested “Poles cooperated with the Nazis.” The four-state group is a key element in Israel’s diplomacy.

Source: Polish premier pulls out of Visegrad Israel summit after Nazi comments | News | DW | 17.02.2019