Category Archives: Fail!

For Josh Mandel, no gutter is too deep, no shot too cheap: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

Back in 2003, it was hard not to be impressed with the polite young man who launched his political career with a tireless, door-to-door campaign for a seat on Lyndhurst City Council. Eddie Haskell had nothing on the fresh-faced kid who sat in the kitchen of then-Mayor Joe Cicero and broke bread with his family. Looking back, Cicero now knows: “Josh was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”He fooled everyone in the city. He was opportunistic from the start, one of the worst things that ever happened to Lyndhurst. Josh Mandel is inadequate as a human being.”

Source: For Josh Mandel, no gutter is too deep, no shot too cheap: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

Gulf of Mexico dead zone is largest on record | Ars Technica

This year’s “dead zone,” where oxygen levels are so low they threaten fish and other small aquatic life, is about 50 percent larger than normal. The average size of the dead zone over the last 31 years has been 14,037 square kilometers, according to Nancy Rabalais, a researcher at Louisiana State University who has long studied the issue. The dead zone was likely even larger than what the scientists found, but there was insufficient time on board the ship to measure its entire extent.

Source: Gulf of Mexico dead zone is largest on record | Ars Technica

The Earth is exhausted – we′re using up its resources faster than it can provide | DW Environment | DW | 01.08.2017

We’ve already used up more resources this year than our planet can regenerate. That’s bad news for our climate and for poorer countries in the Global South, which stand to lose out the most. Anne-Sophie Brändlin reports.

Source: The Earth is exhausted – we′re using up its resources faster than it can provide | DW Environment | DW | 01.08.2017

Anti-vaccine protester punches doctor after hotly-contested law gets approved – The Local – Anti-vaccine folks need for control and blame is delusional in the extreme, even if they “believe” they are getting revenge or protecting children.

Meanwhile, Italy’s top court last week ruled against a claim for damages from a father who argued his son’s autism was caused by the polio vaccine, Sabin.The decision by the Court of Cassation upheld earlier verdicts from lower courts in the Campania city of Salerno, ruling out a link between the vaccine and autism.

Source: Anti-vaccine protester punches doctor after hotly-contested law gets approved – The Local

Palantir: the ‘special ops’ tech giant that wields as much real-world power as Google | World news | The Guardian – “Predictive programs cannot help but build in biases/beliefs of the designers because the designers are either unaware of their biases or believe them to be true..”

Data merely becomes a new way of reinforcing old prejudices. Critics of these analytics argue that from the moment a police officer with the pre-crime mindset that you are a criminal steps out of their patrol car to confront you, your fate has been sealed. In 2013, TechCrunch obtained a leaked report on the use of Palantir by the LA and Chicago police departments. Sgt Peter Jackson of the LAPD was quoted as saying: “Detectives love the type of information [Palantir] provides. They can now do things that we could not do before.” Palantir is immensely secretive. It wields as much real-world power as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, but unlike them, Palantir operates so far under the radar, it is special ops.

Source: Palantir: the ‘special ops’ tech giant that wields as much real-world power as Google | World news | The Guardian

Persian Gulf Rivals Competed to Host Taliban, Leaked Emails Show – The New York Times

American officials have regularly said that Qatar agreed to host the Taliban embassy as part of a broader American-led effort to facilitate peace talks in Afghanistan, not because of any support for the Taliban or their ideology. (The opening of a Qatar office of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was also arranged with American approval.)The former American officials, recalling the negotiations over locating the Taliban embassy, said that both the U.A.E. and Qatar wanted to enlarge their status as players in international affairs, and that neither wanted its rival to have the chance to host the peace talks.

Israeli forces target journalists, raid media offices in midst of Aqsa crisis – IFEX

Amongst those journalists who were attacked by the Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem were the following colleagues: Muhammad Musa Abu Hadwan, a cameraman for Sky News Arabia; Ali Mohammed Dwayani, a cameraman for the Ru’ya channel in Jerusalem; Diala Juyehan, reporter and photographer of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper in Jerusalem; Sinan Abdullah Abu Mizar, a Reuters cameraman in Jerusalem; Ali Sami Yassin, Palestine TV cameraman in Jerusalem; photographer Said Abdel Nasser Rokon; Mohammed Kamel Sadiq, Director of the Jerusalem Media Center; Latifa Radwan Abdel Latif, cameraman for the Al Jazeera Live Channel in Jerusalem; Dalia Jamal Numarry, Russia Today reporter; Fatima Abd Al Bakri, correspondent and videographer for the Al-Quds satellite channel; Liwa’a Abu Rmeleh, correspondent for PaltodayTv; and many other Palestinian and foreign journalists who were attacked.

Source: Israeli forces target journalists, raid media offices in midst of Aqsa crisis – IFEX

The mask is off: Trump is seeking war with Iran | +972 Magazine

But Trump’s confidence may be misplaced on two levels. First, abusing the inspection mechanisms of the deal may prove harder than Trump has been led to believe. The inspections are the cornerstone of the deal, and Iran’s ability to cheat on the deal is essentially non-existent as long as the integrity and efficiency of the inspections remain in tact. But if Trump begins to abuse the mechanism to fabricate a conflict, he will end up undermining the inspections regime and actually enhance the ability of those in Iran who would like to pursue a covert nuclear program. Precisely because of the commitment of Europe and others to non-proliferation, they are likely to resist Trump’s efforts to tinker with the inspections.Second, by revealing his hand, Trump has displayed his duplicity for all to see. That includes the American public, whose anti-war sentiments remain strong and are a key reason they supported the nuclear deal in the first place.The American public knows the Iraq playbook quite well. Trump’s own supporters remain enraged by the disastrous war with Iraq. They know how they got played. It’s difficult to imagine why they would allow themselves to get played again by a president who has left little doubt about his intent to deceive.

Source: The mask is off: Trump is seeking war with Iran | +972 Magazine

Settlers take over Palestinian home in Hebron | The Electronic Intifada

More than 100 Jewish settlers under Israeli military escort took over a Palestinian building in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron earlier this week.After barricading themselves in, the settlers dropped Israeli flags from the building.The building, owned by the Abu Rajab family and located next to the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron’s Old City, has been targeted by settlers for years.The site has been the subject of an ongoing legal battle, with settlers claiming they purchased the building from its Palestinian owners.Violent raidSettlers raided the building on Tuesday and returned the following day, taking over two of its three floors and moving in furniture.Videos show Israeli soldiers dragging Palestinians away from the home, while a crowd of young settlers looks on, singing and dancing to celebrate the eviction of the Abu Rajab family.

Source: Settlers take over Palestinian home in Hebron | The Electronic Intifada

The Trump Assault on Trans Rights Is the Canary in the Coalmine | Dame Magazine Worse than even depicted here – it is just about perceived political advantage to be anti-women, POC, “foreigners,”LGBTQ,” Muslim… and whatever wingnuts fear or hate next.

The tiniest of silver linings here is that Trump probably expected all conservatives to line up joyfully to support this latest bit of awful. And the social conservatives like creepy Steve Bannon and ghoulish Mike Pence are indeed overjoyed. But when someone as conservative and military-fetishizing as Orrin Hatch (!!) issues a statement that you’re wrong to discriminate against transgender people serving in the military, you’re as far on the wrong side of history as it is possible to be.

Source: The Trump Assault on Trans Rights Is the Canary in the Coalmine | Dame Magazine