Category Archives: human rights

Elizabeth Warren Endorses Clinton and Goes Taunt-for-Taunt With Trump – The New York Times

“What she is doing right now, focusing on the outrageousness of Donald Trump is really important,” said Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin. “In the universal sense I am always saying, ‘Go, Elizabeth, go!’” Ms. Warren officially endorsed Hillary Clinton on Thursday. “I’m ready to jump in this fight and make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States and be sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the White House,” Ms. Warren told The Boston Globe. Never short on confidence, when asked on Thursday by Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC television host, if she believes that she herself could be commander in chief, Ms. Warren said, “Yes, I do.” Mrs. Clinton’s aides had been pressuring Ms. Warren for an endorsement, and the senator decided to do so after talking with Mr. Sanders over the weekend, aides close to her said. Ms. Warren shares Mr. Sanders’s dislike of superdelegates, who are typically longtime Democratic officials and activists. She waited until Democratic primary voters across the country had their say, but before the superdelegates formally cast their votes, to weigh in. Continue reading the main story Presidential Election 2016 Here’s the latest news and analysis of the candidates and issues shaping the presidential race. O.K. I’m With Trump. I Mean, He’s Almost the Nominee. JUN 10 Hillary Clinton Denounces Donald Trump as Untrustworthy on Women’s Issues JUN 10 Mitch McConnell Won’t Rule Out Rescinding His Endorsement of Donald Trump JUN 10 Obama’s Endorsement Leaves Hillary Clinton With a Balance to Strike JUN 10 Bill Clinton and Orrin Hatch Among Speakers at Muhammad Ali’s Memorial JUN 10 See More » Mrs. Clinton’s decisive victory in California’s primary on Tuesday and President Obama’s endorsement on Thursday provided additional impetus for her endorsement, people close to Ms. Warren said. Photo Senator Elizabeth Warren in Washington last month. Ms. Warren has called Donald J. Trump’s candidacy a “serious threat.” Credit Zach Gibson/The New York Times “She maintained her neutrality in the primary and that gave her a special space,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois. But her attacks on Mr. Trump were hatched in her own brain, and carried out with a combination of vehemence and apparent pleasure. Through speeches, carefully chosen television appearances and tweet storms designed to skewer the businessman’s remarks, policies and dynamism, Ms. Warren has gone taunt-for-taunt with Mr. Trump, calling him a “loser,” a “small, insecure money grubber” and “weak.” And she is only warming up.

Source: Elizabeth Warren Endorses Clinton and Goes Taunt-for-Taunt With Trump – The New York Times

Anti-migrant party makes foreigners face of PR push – The Local

The populist party have made a name for themselves bashing migrants, whether they be Muslims, or Bulgarians and Romanians, who AfD claim move to Germany with the aim of living off its welfare system. The two models, Carla Caucean and Adi Ene, both come from Romania, one of the EU’s newest member states, reports jetzt.de. It appears that the AfD, too, never meant to make Eastern Europeans the face of its campaign. The images were downloaded from the stock image website iStock. When contacted by weekly magazine Kontext, the AfD in Baden-Württemberg said they had been given the pictures by a branch of the party in another part of Germany. Shortly afterwards the advert disappeared from their Facebook page. The AfD have something of a talent for shooting themselves in the foot.

Source: Anti-migrant party makes foreigners face of PR push – The Local

Must-Read Links: Everything’s Coming Up Hillary Rodham Clinton | Dame Magazine

This week we witnessed history in the making, when Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman in America’s 240 years to secure the presidential nomination for a major political party. Even many of the feminists who solidly feel the Bern, couldn’t help but get a little verklempt listening to Clinton’s speech after the delegate-clinching Tuesday primaries. She began with a shout out to Seneca Falls, “when a small but determined group of women and men came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights,” and continued with a gracious celebration of that monumental crack in the political glass ceiling. Here, we relish in the groundbreaking nature of this week’s events, with a roundup dedicated solely to HRC.

Source: Must-Read Links: Everything’s Coming Up Hillary Rodham Clinton | Dame Magazine

Tel Aviv mayor says the occupation is a cause of Palestinian terror | +972 Magazine

“On the one hand the occupation has lasted 49 years, and I took part in it,” Huldai told veteran journalist Ilana Dayan, “I recognize the reality and know that leaders with courage must look to take action and not just talk. The fact that we are suffering does not lead to a change in understanding of what must be done… There is no courage to do what needs to be done in order to reach a [peace] agreement.” “There is no way to hold people in a situation of occupation and think that they will reach the conclusion that every thing is okay and they will continue to live like that,” Huldai added.

Source: Tel Aviv mayor says the occupation is a cause of Palestinian terror | +972 Magazine

The Long Shadow of Child Abuse: Guest Post by Wayne Campbell — Petchary’s Blog

My fellow blogger Wayne Campbell, who as an educator works with children every day, wrote a touching article looking back at Jamaica’s Child Month, which was in May. The hard-working agencies in Jamaica responsible for child welfare made huge efforts to get the word out on protecting and caring for our children. The issue of child […]

via The Long Shadow of Child Abuse: Guest Post by Wayne Campbell — Petchary’s Blog

Remembering D-Day — In Saner Thought

72 years ago today the Allies opened up their second front against the Nazi war machine…..D-Day….and it was the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany…. Source: Remembering D-Day | New Republic Probably the last legitimate war the US would participate in… Take a moment and remember those that gave their all to save the […]

via Remembering D-Day — In Saner Thought

Stanford Rapist’s Dad Says Jail Not Warranted For ’20 Minutes Of Action’; Petition Starts To Recall Lenient Judge: SFist

“Rape is not a joke, rape is rape – and guy should do lots more time for the crime!”

The San Jose Mercury News reports that with good behavior, he’ll likely only be in jail for three months. The details in the case are disturbing — captured in part by a powerful statement released by the victim (whose name has not been released). “[All] that I was told was that I had been found behind a dumpster, potentially penetrated by a stranger, and that I should get retested for HIV because results don’t always show up immediately,” she writes in the letter picked up by Buzzfeed.

Source: Stanford Rapist’s Dad Says Jail Not Warranted For ’20 Minutes Of Action’; Petition Starts To Recall Lenient Judge: SFist

A Response to George Will’s Latest: Campus Rape Is Not a “Fiction”

More than any other federal law today, Title IX is fundamentally concerned with guaranteeing all students access to education.Will does a disservice to accused and accusing students alike by misrepresenting the basic facts of the prevalence of campus rape, as well as the protections legally entitled to those who accuse and are accused of perpetrating it. It’s time we stop putting up with his rape apology and focus on what’s really at stake: students’ right to education.

Source: A Response to George Will’s Latest: Campus Rape Is Not a “Fiction”

Israel has destroyed $74 million worth of EU projects | The Electronic Intifada

An $11-million farming project in the Jordan Valley, a $61,200 playground near Nablus and an elementary school serving a Bedouin community east of Jerusalem: all have been destroyed by Israel.These are just a few examples of the at least 150 European-funded structures in the occupied West Bank that Israel demolished in the first three months of 2016.Israel has destroyed more homes, businesses and public infrastructure in these months than in all of 2015, according to a new report by the non-profit Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, or Euro-Med.Each month, an average of 165 privately and internationally funded structures were demolished or partially destroyed, representing a more than three-fold increase from the previous rate of 50 demolitions per month between 2012 and 2015.More than 900 Palestinians have been made homeless this year, according to UN statistics, and thousands more have had their livelihoods affected by the wave of destruction.Euro-Med says that the UN deputy coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Piper, has suggested the increase in demolitions is a response to the escalation of violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces that began in October 2015.But Israeli politician Moti Yogev, who has applied pressure on Israeli occupation forces to ramp up demolitions, said, “I have no doubt that the government’s firm stance is in part a result of the unilateral measures taken by Europe,” referring to the EU’s decision to label settlement products late last year.If so, the demolitions can be likened to the “price tag” attacks on Palestinians and their property carried out by settlers as a form of revenge for policies they don’t like.

Source: Israel has destroyed $74 million worth of EU projects | The Electronic Intifada

Berlin rebuffs Turkey in Armenian genocide row after Green MP receives death threats | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016

Steffen Seibert, spokesman to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said on Monday that the Bundestag – Germany’s lower house of parliament – “had reached a sovereign decision.””That must be respected,” he added.The comments from Berlin on Monday came in light of Turkey’s reaction last week to Germany’s decision to pass a resolution which refers to the mass deaths of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.”As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey officially denies that the events that started in 1915 amounted to genocide. Ankara’s official line is that ethnic Armenians represented a fifth column backed by Russia during World War I, and that the mass deportation and accompanying Armenian deaths were not premeditated or intentional – a key requirement in the legal definition of genocide.

Source: Berlin rebuffs Turkey in Armenian genocide row after Green MP receives death threats | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016