Category Archives: Global Politics

jerk-off Rand Paul backs off vaccine comments after critics warn he ‘sort of ignores’ science | US news | The Guardian

Kentucky senator Rand Paul backpedalled Tuesday on comments he made about vaccines that quickly drew the condemnations of everyone from medical professionals to senior Republican party members to the formerly quarantined healthcare provider best remembered for calling out Paul’s potential rival for the White House.

Paul’s attempt at clarification landed as Republicans in Washington, from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to House speaker John Boehner to the dozen or so members of the prospective 2016 presidential field scrambled to describe their views on vaccination.

Following controversial comments by New Jersey governor Chris Christie regarding a measles outbreak spreading across the US, Paul set off another cascade of criticism when he told CNBC on Monday that vaccinations could lead to “profound mental disorders” and that parents “should have some input”.

In his follow-up statement, Paul sought to make a distinction between correlation and causation – the kind of science-minded distinction that some of his critics saw him as abandoning.

via Rand Paul backs off vaccine comments after critics warn he ‘sort of ignores’ science | US news | The Guardian.

Hounded, Sikh farmers fleeing Gujarat – The Times of India

Targeted by land mafia, attacked by goons and booked by cops, Sikh farmers who had made the inhospitable terrain in Bhuj area of Gujarat cultivable, are now forced to flee the land they had made their home.

The recent attack on farmers on January 25 has only reinforced their fears and they have no plans to return anytime soon. Farmer Jagjit Singh was seriously injured in an attack allegedly by a group of local farmers in Loria village of Bhuj district. This was the second attack on Sikhs in Gujarat within a month. Some Sikh farmers have alleged that local agriculturists in connivance with politicians want to drive them out of Gujarat. This attack triggered the exit of a dozen Sikh farmers.

via Hounded, Sikh farmers fleeing Gujarat – The Times of India.

rotflmao – French Police Question Boy, 8, After Remarks on Paris Attacks – NYTimes.com

Police officials in the southern French city of Nice questioned an 8-year-old boy who is believed to have made comments in school defending the gunmen who killed 17 people in terrorist attacks in and near Paris this month, a senior regional police official confirmed on Thursday.

The questioning of the boy, which occurred Wednesday, grabbed headlines across the country and spurred a debate on social media and elsewhere about whether France’s desire to combat terrorism was tipping over into hysteria. Since the attacks, France has moved to enforce tough new laws against the incitement of terrorism, fueling tensions between free speech and public order.

The boy was identified as a Muslim by the French National Observatory Against Islamophobia.

via French Police Question Boy, 8, After Remarks on Paris Attacks – NYTimes.com.

Happy Lunar New Year – Tet_ Avian flu rampages in Taiwan, hits China, India | CIDRAP

Taiwan yesterday reported more than 100 avian flu outbreaks of three different subtypes, affecting hundreds of thousands of poultry, while China and India reported fresh outbreaks as well.

In addition, Bulgaria reported finding the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus H5N1 in a wild bird, while Nigerian officials said H5N1 outbreaks have struck lately in 11 states around the country.

Scores of Taiwan outbreaks

In a report to the World Organization for animal Health (OIE), Taiwan officials said 108 waterfowl farms were struck by HPAI H5N8 outbreaks. The farms are in Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, and Pingtung counties and the cities of Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Taichung. Officials said 52 of the farms also were affected by HPAI H5N2 viruses.

via Avian flu rampages in Taiwan, hits China, India | CIDRAP.

16-year-old queer Latina Jessie Hernandez killed by Denver police

White supremacy is how. A system meant by design to exert control over communities can do little else.

Jessie Hernandez did not deserve to die. She did not deserve to have her bleeding, dying, body handcuffed and searched, being flipped lifelessly on the street, before she got any medical attention. Her friends did not deserve the lifetime of trauma this incident will provide them. Even if the car was stolen. Even if Jessie did injure an officer with the car.

“I mean, with everything that’s going on,” a friend said in tears at a vigil, “it wouldn’t be a surprise that she got scared, you know?”

Women’s deaths and abuse at the hands of the police rarely make the news in the same way that the deaths of some men do, but today we speak Jessie Hernandez’s name. Today we remember.

Rest in peace, Jessie.

via 16-year-old queer Latina Jessie Hernandez killed by Denver police.

Police Day and human rights – Daily News Egypt

I do not understand how the president can thank the police for “protecting human rights” or for “keeping the peace and security”. What do the powers in this country expect as a result from such brutality and impunity? How can a nation rise when it is down on its knees continually receiving the merciless whip lashes from those who should protect it? How can the January revolution die if its main cause still lives?

via Police Day and human rights – Daily News Egypt.

Bibi Netanyahu — aka ‘The Republican Senator From Israel’ — May Have Made A Fatal Political Mistake

It turns out, the plan to have the Israeli Prime Minister speak to Congress, without first discussing with the White House, was the brainchild of Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer who has, for weeks now, been endorsing the re-election of Bibi Netanyahu on American television programs despite explicit Israeli Civil Service regulations prohibiting him from doing so.

An example of Dermer’s breaking his nation’s rules to play politics?

As reported by Israli newspaper Haaretz, Dermer broke those rules while being interviewed by Jorge Ramos on American cable network, Fusion.

During the discussion, Dermer said, “I have no doubt that when they [the Israeli public] look at all the people that stand for the leadership of the country, that they will have confidence in the leadership of prime minister Netanyahu.”

Dermer’s words came despite an admonition issued by Israel Civil Service Commissioner Moshe Dyan noting that, “A state employee must be careful that his actions or behavior cannot be interpreted as being aimed at promoting the interest of any particular party or candidate.” Anyone violating these instructions, Dyan said, “will face criminal or disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the law.”

In addition to Dermer’s apparent violation of Israeli law, he also revealed his penchant for duplicitous behavior by meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry just one day before Speaker Boehner announced his invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu, yet never once mentioned to Kerry what was about to happen.

Making it all the more offensive, the White House has explicitly gone out of its way, since the announcement of the Israeli elections, to avoid saying or doing anything that could be interpreted as support for the Herzog/Livni ticket.

via Bibi Netanyahu — aka ‘The Republican Senator From Israel’ — May Have Made A Fatal Political Mistake.

RNC Turns Deaf Ear To Questions About Trip Funded by Hate Group | Hatewatch

Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) faxed and sent letters to every member of the Republican National Committee (RNC) regarding an upcoming trip to Jerusalem being organized by RNC Chair Reince Priebus.

The letters expressed concern about the organization paying for the trip, the American Family Association (AFA), which the SPLC has listed as an anti-LGBT hate group since 2010.

In particular, the letters asked RNC members not to lend their good offices to an organization with a long track record of making anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim and other hateful statements. An email to Priebus’ director of communications about this matter was not responded to.

via RNC Turns Deaf Ear To Questions About Trip Funded by Hate Group | Hatewatch.

Tests reveal H5N1 in Israeli turkeys, four countries report other strains | CIDRAP

{Will resist joke about Israeli turkeys and their upcoming elections – but too many have been looking the other way or have had heads in sand hoping that global trade in live chicks of ducks, turkeys, geese, chickens, quail did not

blow up in their our faces. Problem has now come home to roost and attempts to “blame” wild birds will not fly!}

Israel outbreak details

Israel’s agriculture ministry said tests have confirmed H5N1 as the cause of an outbreak at a turkey farm in Haifa, the largest city in the northern part of the country, according to a Jan 18 report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The event began on Jan 14 at a fattening facility, with deaths occurring in 5 of the farm’s 13 pens. Of 141,000 susceptible birds, the illness sickened 30,000 of them, killing 15,000.

via Tests reveal H5N1 in Israeli turkeys, four countries report other strains | CIDRAP.