Category Archives: Gun-violence

The caliphate′s cubs: ′Islamic State′ and child soldiers | Middle East | DW.COM | 15.10.2016

The increased appearance of child suicide bombers appears to coincide with IS losing more and more territory and fighters. American military sources say that the group lost 45,000 fighters in two years and has only some 15,000 left. The operation for the liberation of the IS’ capitals of Mosul and Raqqa is underway and over 50 percent of IS-held territories in Iraq have been liberated.To mask the defeat, IS has increased its bomb attacks using trucks. Pictures posted afterwards of the drivers show that many of them are teenagers.Sources say that as many as 60 percent of the IS fighters are under 18. Kirkuk police chief Sarhad Qadir thinks IS is playing its last card. “They know they will be defeated,” he says.

Source: The caliphate′s cubs: ′Islamic State′ and child soldiers | Middle East | DW.COM | 15.10.2016

How Nazi terminology is creeping back into politics – The Local – “Proof that death patterns can be revived – problem is that while the patterns may be strategic, mass death is its predetermined end.”

Some politicians too have been using racially charged words such as “völkisch”, a term meaning “ethnic” but used by the Nazis to describe people belonging to the superior German race, and “Umvolkung” – the fascist idea of replacing racially inferior populations with the German people.The leader of the anti-migrant right-wing populist party AfD, Frauke Petry, who has never been shy of controversy, last month suggested that “völkisch” be rehabilitated and wiped of its negative connotation.”I do not use this term myself, but I don’t agree that it should only be used in a negative context,” she told Die Welt daily, drawing a chorus of condemnation.Die Zeit columnist Kai Biermann pointed out that “the term völkisch was a synonym for extreme nationalism and racism. It is, until today, a symbol for Nazism and its ideology to exterminate and murder everyone who is not German.” The columnist charged that Petry had dug up the term because “it expresses the wish to reject everything that does not belong to one’s people”. “It stirs up the fear that too many foreign people are coming who can change the status quo,” he wrote. A politician belonging to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union went on to also use the term “Umvolkung”. While the Nazis had used the word to define the Germanization of people in regions seized by the Third Reich, today it is used in the far-right milieu as shorthand for immigration. Bettina Kudla drew fire when she said in a tweet that: “Merkel disputes it … The Umvolkung of Germany has already begun. Action is needed!”

Shift in identity

Hans Kundnani, political analyst at the German Marshall Fund, noted that politicians would not have used these controversial terms two decades ago. “There’s been a shift in German national identity over the last 15 years or so, and I think the use of these terms has reemerged against that backdrop”, he said. What has changed is that there has been a “resurgence in the collective memory of Germans as victims” in World War II.

Source: How Nazi terminology is creeping back into politics – The Local

Evangelical movement in Colombia: How Colombia’s Evangelists undermined the peace referendum | In English | EL PAÍS – (Politicized “religion” is as anti-peace, as it is anti-Christian…)

Colombia’s media has noted that Gina Parody, who led the government’s Yes campaign in the run up to the referendum, stepped down as education minister following the defeat. Parody, a lesbian, has faced a sustained campaign against from right-wing groups over her sexual orientation.The former minister had been in the eye of the hurricane in the months before the referendum after ultra-conservative Christians accused her of seeking the “gay colonization” of Colombia’s youth when issuing a teacher’s manual on how to deal with gender-related bullying.

Source: Evangelical movement in Colombia: How Colombia’s Evangelists undermined the peace referendum | In English | EL PAÍS

German prisoners (LOC)

German prisoners (LOC)

The Library of Congress posted a photo: Bain News Service,, publisher. German prisoners [between ca. 1915 and ca. 1920] 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.Notes: Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).Format: Glass negatives.Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbainHigher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.27895Call Number: LC-B2- 4765-13Original enclosures:

Six Reasons Conservatives Should Not Vote for Donald Trump

I come before you today, Hillary haters, as one of your standard-bearers. I find her utterly loathsome. I literally wrote a book on her failures — you can buy it for the low, low price of 99 cents on Amazon dot com. I started the first anti-Hillary super PAC of the presidential cycle back in 2013. My bona fides are real.But here is the painful reality. As truly awful as Hillary Clinton is, Donald Trump is far, FAR worse. It is not even close. Trump is a clear and present danger to our republic. And no matter how deep and abiding your mistrust is of Hillary, you cannot pull the lever for Trump. Let a charter member of the vast, right-wing anti-Clinton conspiracy convince you.

Source: Six Reasons Conservatives Should Not Vote for Donald Trump

′We′re living in an occupied country′ | Americas | DW.COM | 03.10.2016 – Why is it that most of this talk is from Arizona and not California and Texas?

 

It’s hard to get an overview of things around here; the many canyons offer excellent cover for the smugglers with their heavy rucksacks, weighing up to 30 kilos (66 pounds) and full of marijuana, cocaine or heroin. In addition, Jim explains, the cartel has set up sentries everywhere, and they have top-of-the-range equipment. They guard the area, and warn the smugglers. Once, he says, he came across one of these scouts, who dropped his radio telephone as he ran away. “It was worth more than $2,500. They’re better equipped than our border patrol guards.”The Sinaloa Cartel has assumed complete control of the land. “When I’m out here, I feel as if I’m in an occupied country,” says Jim. He stares down at his feet in their hand-stitched cowboy boots.For decades, he and his wife were staunch Democrats. After university, Jim even worked for Democratic Senator Carl Hayden. This year, Donald Trump will get the Chiltons’ vote. “We don’t agree with everything he says and does. But he’ll take care of us. Hillary Clinton’s Washington gave up on us long ago.”

Source: ′We′re living in an occupied country′ | Americas | DW.COM | 03.10.2016

El Salvador judge reopens case of 1981 massacre at El Mozote | World news | The Guardian

The reopening of the case follows formal complaints by local human rights groups and victims families seeking justice for those killed in El Mozote.Those pushing the case seek a truthful accounting of what happened and the facts surrounding who ordered the massacre, Gonzalez said. They are not seeking punishments such as jail terms, he added, but want those responsible to admit their roles and ask for forgiveness.Judge Guzman has ordered military records from the time of the massacre to be turned over, as well as additional records on 14 named ex-army and security officials.

Source: El Salvador judge reopens case of 1981 massacre at El Mozote | World news | The Guardian

www.german-foreign-policy.com – Blindfolded group of nations “see” a snake, a horse, a tree in the room filled by Syrian insurgent elephant!

Berlin’s ostensible “peace offensive” comes at a time when, various reports are exposing – independently from one another – that Washington is considering supplying the insurgents with man portable air defense systems (“MANPADS”) – or has already begun to do so. As was made known from US government circles as well as from insurgent militia contact persons, the “MANPADS” are supposed to be delivered to the militias via Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The Saudi government is convinced that the Russian military can be forced to retreat, as the Soviet troops had done in the 1980s in Afghanistan, say US government representatives. At the time, the “stinger” missiles had permitted the mujahidin the capability of shooting down Red Army helicopters, inflicting massive losses, which ultimately led to a Soviet troop withdrawal from the country. The fate of Afghanistan thereafter is well known. It was reported that Washington has enticed the insurgents with prospects of “MANPADS,” merely for shooting down Syrian helicopters, but not those of the Russians.[10] No one should believe that the insurgents will abide by this. Experts also warn that it is not only to be expected that if “MANPADS” are provided to Syrian insurgents, Iran, for example, could deliver “MANPADS” to the Houthi insurgents, its allies in Yemen, fighting Saudi troops. Above all, the Syrian insurgents could also use those “MANPADS,” they are due to be furnished, near airports, to shoot down civilian airliners.[11] It becomes that much more volatile, since from all experience, it can be expected that a large amount of the “MANPADS” will wind up in the hands of al Qaeda’s Fatah al Sham. Experts estimate that about half of the weapons that have been delivered to insurgent militias in Syria, have ended in the hands of jihadis. The same threatens to happen again.

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

By ‘saying nothing’ on his birther lie, Donald Trump re-embraces the deplorables: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

And by saying nothing, Donald Trump said everything.By saying nothing, he confirmed what any thoughtful person has known for months — that his campaign for president is really about racism.Unfair trade deals, tax cuts, job creation, phony chants of change? They’re all accessories.The real message of Trump’s campaign — the one that appeals to all the extremists and haters who help fill his gigantic basket of deplorables — is raw racism.There’s nothing the least bit complicated about Trump’s message, an unmentioned promise so powerful it’s capable of moving his supporters to violence. It goes like this: I’ll keep the blacks in their place and kick the Mexicans and Muslims out. Together, we’ll make America white again.But he won’t.Because he can’t.Top elected officials in Ohio, from Sen. Rob Portman on down, should be ashamed of themselves for openly supporting such a repugnant human being.It is profoundly disappointing that Republican members of Congress and four holders of Ohio statewide offices silently condone Trump’s unique brand of hate and racism. History will treat only Gov. John Kasich kindly on this issue.

Source: By ‘saying nothing’ on his birther lie, Donald Trump re-embraces the deplorables: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com