Category Archives: planetkillers

Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle | +972 Magazine

The most important clue to solve this puzzle is Trump and Netanyahu’s obsession with attacking, controlling and manipulating the news media (indeed, this is one of the major sources of Netanyahu’s recent legal troubles). Admittedly, even within their own camps, they are extreme outliers in terms of crudity and relentlessness on this issue — something that surely has to do with their individual psychological makeup. But they are also emblematic of a broader approach on the right, which has fueled the rise of rigorously partisan and uncurious media organs such as Israel Hayom in Israel and Fox News in the U.S.Journalists are a major problem for the Israeli and American extreme right because, despite all their flaws, they occasionally do provide information and cover actual events. In other words, they reflect reality — however partially and inadequately.Reality is the greatest foe of the extreme right wingers currently in power. In the real world, Palestinians, Mexicans, Muslims, and many other groups that they do not like continue to exist, despite travel bans and land grabs. In the real world, international relations are crucial for the prosperity of both countries and cannot be flippantly dismissed. “Alternative facts” are easily malleable. Actual facts cannot be so flexibly managed. The extreme right is not creating “facts on the ground,” it is being undone by them, bit by bit.Netanyahu, Trump, and their allies are fighting a losing battle. Deep inside, they know this. If they truly believed otherwise, their disposition would be sunny and confident, not dark and fretful.This is not cause for complacency. Part of the reason these agendas will be defeated is precisely because people are not complacent — they are mobilized and agitated (at least in the U.S.; this kind of mass opposition seems to be further down the road in Israel and Palestine). Until they are stopped, Trump and Netanyahu can do great harm, some of which will be irreparable. Nonetheless, the struggle against them must begin with the insight that we are not fighting an ascendant and secure power, we are opposing a desperate and fearful faction.

Source: Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle | +972 Magazine

Donald Trump: The Role of the Media in Addressing the Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE

So there we have it: Donald Trump, a misogynist and a racist businessman who verifiably made 87 false statements in the course of only five days of the election campaign, is no longer a candidate. He’s sitting in the White House. Here are three insights about this American president who has been in office since Jan. 20.First, in the two-and-a-half weeks since his awful inauguration speech, he has demonstrated that he will do what he said he would: He is ordering the construction of a wall on the border to Mexico, he is issuing xenophobic decrees and he is rattling America’s allies and international institutions and, by doing so, every aspect of global politics. He has already threatened Iran and North Korea. None of this comes as a surprise either, because even Trump’s voters knew that adviser Stephen Bannon is a man who considers wars to be useful.Second, Trump is also showing that he will do much that he did not announce in the campaign. He has ordered scientists not to conduct or publish research on topics of which he does not approve. He says climate change doesn’t exist and means it seriously. He stood by as one of his closest confidants invented the term “alternative facts” to create a parallel reality. Trump brings his children with him to high-level meetings, he hired his son-in-law as a White House adviser, he has spared countries in which he does business from his travel ban on citizens of predominately Muslim states, he has not divested himself of his company holdings, he has not released his tax filings (despite pledging to do so) and even had his adviser Kellyanne Conway claim that voters didn’t care. He now wants to undo banking regulations so that “friends of mine” can get easier access to money. Is he paving the way to cash in and further enrich himself while in office?Third, Trump has already proven some of the things we already knew about him. The perception people have of him is more important to Trump than anything else. Nothing was more important to him in his first two and a half weeks in office than the size of the crowd at his inauguration. Trump is a chronic liar and he proves this in one tweet after the other. Trump despises the media (he calls it the “opposition party” and says “As you know, I have a running war with the media”) as well as the judicial branch in the form of “this so-called judge” who didn’t rule the way that his ruler desired. Meanwhile, Trump claims the people protesting against him are “paid.”

Source: Donald Trump: The Role of the Media in Addressing the Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The age of Trump spells the end of the Zionist dream | +972 Magazine

When Israel backs an American regime that threatens our liberty as humans and our safety as Jews, the claim that Zionism protects Jews no longer holds.By Ben Lorber

Source: The age of Trump spells the end of the Zionist dream | +972 Magazine

How Long Can the Resistance Continue to Resist? | Dame Magazine

Align with Time-Tested Organizations

Alongside protest, however, Hunt says folks should align with existing groups rather than trying to recreate the wheel on your own. “It’s really important to work underneath people who have been doing the work, and that you can learn from,” she says. For most folks it makes the most sense to start locally within your own community, where most great acts of resistance begin. In doing this you can build what Hunt calls “alternative political apparatuses” which can empower people even when the government imposes oppressive laws. Connecting with existing organizations links small groups to more powerful activist engines, increasing the power to make change.Action: Find one to three organizations in your community, or online, that works around your three target issues and sign up to volunteer with or learn more about them. Check out The Resistance Manual and these politically-minded apps.Focus, but Keep Intersectionality in MindUndoubtedly you feel strongly about multiple issues, from women’s rights to civil rights, to the right for all to have affordable healthcare. In practical terms, you may only be able to focus on strategies to deal with one or two at a time. “The more that you can narrow down and be clear about what you can and cannot do, and are willing to do and are interested and curious about, that can help you identify where you want to connect,” Luz Guerra, a long time feminist and activist who has trained hundreds of organizers around the country and internationally, tells Dame.However, Davis points out that in her own realm of environmental work, “Long before white environmentalists began to focus on sustainability, environmental justice activists understand that…it is all connected.” So while you may focus your own activist lens in one direction, be open to “the broader realization of intersectionality,” she says. All of our rights are connected and we can effect more change when no one is excluded from the fight.

Source: How Long Can the Resistance Continue to Resist? | Dame Magazine

The Anti-Fascist Scouting Report: What The Left Can Learn From the Right | Race Files

The cutting edge of Trump’s offensive against civil and human rights has been attacks against immigrants, Muslims, and Black radicals, leading many to believe that Trump will go directly after those groups first. While that may be true, in many ways LGBTQ people are the low hanging fruit where targeting groups to make good on campaign promises is concerned. Producing wins like “hate the sin, love the sinner” religious exemptions that equate discrimination with religious freedom, as well as attacks on same sex unions, insurance claims for sex reassignment surgery, and queer-friendly bathrooms is a lot easier than, say, building a border wall or executing millions of deportations. But, success in attacking LGBTQ rights could set the stage for much deeper cuts into civil rights and civil liberties that may, in the end, clear the way for Trump to consolidate the kind of anti-democratic authority necessary to dig even deeper into his xenophobic and discriminatory agenda.If Trump comes good on the anti-LGBTQ front (and abortion), conservative evangelicals may well look the other way if he reaches for policies that victimize those more likely to be viewed by the broader Christian community as innocents. After all, no one, no mainline or evangelical Christian denomination, stood in the way when Japanese Americans and Alaska Natives were interned during WWII (supposedly for our own safety, which is an argument the Trump regime may be laying the basis for by inciting anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant hatred and inviting and even condoning violence).It’s a frightening prospect

Source: The Anti-Fascist Scouting Report: What The Left Can Learn From the Right | Race Files

Anne Applebaum Interview About President Donald Trump – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Applebaum: I don’t want to predict calamity. But I am afraid of a new Russian occupation of parts of Eastern Europe. Also of a new Russian campaign to exert influence in Germany or other parts Europe, aimed at making continental politics less democratic. I am afraid of a US trade war and even a shooting war with China.

Source: Anne Applebaum Interview About President Donald Trump – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Without Obamacare, I Will Get Sicker, Faster, Until I Die – The New York Times – But GOP does not care, not a whit!

My prognosis is not good, but Obamacare gets me the treatment I need so that I can be myself as long as possible. Without this insurance, my illness would progress more rapidly, until I died.Early on Thursday morning, the Senate voted to begin the process of repealing Obamacare. On Friday, the House followed suit. A repeal of Obamacare — without even knowing what the replacement would be — obviously makes me very scared. I used to be the one helping people as a social worker. Now I’m the one who needs help.17COMMENTSIt’s not too late for Republicans in Congress to change their minds and see reason. It will be at least a few weeks before Congress formally votes on the question of repeal.If one of the last meaningful things I can do is help even one person understand how important it is for millions of people to keep their Obamacare, then my illness will have served its purpose. For that I will be grateful.

Pan-resistant CRE reported in Nevada | CIDRAP

An aggressive infectionThe patient was a 70-year-old resident of Washoe County, Nevada who was admitted to an acute care hospital in August 2016 after an extended trip to India. She was given a primary diagnosis of systemic inflammatory response syndrome, likely resulting from an infected right hip seroma. The infection was serious; none of the 14 antibiotics physicians used to treat the woman worked.  After the CRE—identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae, one of the more common types of CRE—was confirmed by lab testing, an isolate from a wound specimen was sent to the CDC for further susceptibility testing and to determine the mechanism of resistance. That testing confirmed the presence of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1), an enzyme that directly breaks down carbapenems, a powerful class of antibiotics that are often used to treat multidrug-resistant infections.In addition, the CDC’s antimicrobial testing showed the isolate was resistant to 26 different antibiotics, including all aminoglycosides and polymixins—another class of last-resort antibiotics. It was also intermittently resistant to tigecycline, an antibiotic developed specifically to overcome drug-resistant organisms. Essentially, there were no treatment options.

Source: Pan-resistant CRE reported in Nevada | CIDRAP

Modern Benefits from Ancient Seeds: The Hunt for Wild Fava | Civil Eats

After considerable study, it turns out the seeds are wild ancestors of Vicia faba, commonly known as the fava bean. Fava is considered by the conservation organization Crop Trust to be one of the most important crops in some parts of the world. Fava’s health is a critical matter even in places where people don’t consume it very much: it’s the most effective natural nitrogen fixer known to agriculture.Nitrogen is essential to building nutrient-rich soil, but it’s quickly used up by cereal crops like wheat, which, when eaten in conjunction with fava and other legumes, provide an inexpensive, balanced diet to the world’s estimated 375 million vegetarians. Any crop’s wild ancestors hold important information about how to make modern domesticated varieties more resistant to disease, drought, and other devastating effects of climate change. But traces of a wild ancestor of Vicia faba, long presumed extinct, proved utterly elusive—until el-Wad.The six seeds, each measuring about 5 millimeters in length, were discovered by paleobotanist Valentina Caracuta; she published her findings in Scientific Reports this past November. Caracuta dug the seeds up from the earliest levels of an ongoing excavation of a Natufian habitation. The Natufians were a hunter-gatherer culture that inhabited the Levant (or eastern Mediterranean) from about 13,000 to 9,700 BCE.

Source: Modern Benefits from Ancient Seeds: The Hunt for Wild Fava | Civil Eats