Category Archives: terrorism

The Look On Nikki Haley’s Face Was Priceless When She Realized Trump Suggested Invading Venezuela

Trump is winging it as president. Send the military to Venezuela? Sure, why not?His own administration has no idea what’s going on. The look on Nikki Haley’s face said it all. Trump is ruling by whim, and his whims are endangering the American people by making policy commitments that not even the military knows anything about.

Source: The Look On Nikki Haley’s Face Was Priceless When She Realized Trump Suggested Invading Venezuela

Charlottesville: far-right crowd with torches encircles counter-protest group | World news | The Guardian

West said: “The crypto-fascists, the neofascists, the neo-Nazis now feel so empowered, not just by Trump but by the whole shift in the nation towards scapegoats. “I don’t like this talk about ‘alt-right’, that’s an unnecessary abstraction. These are neofascists in contemporary garb.”

Source: Charlottesville: far-right crowd with torches encircles counter-protest group | World news | The Guardian

Google’s sexist memo has provided the alt-right with a new martyr | Owen Jones | Opinion | The Guardian There is no “Alt-Right,” there are just fascists, racists and sexists trying to be a bit respectable with a neutral kind of re-branding – They are sick, hateful people that need to be called out for what they are and not “sanitized!”

Guardian columnist Owen Jones on how James Damore’s diatribe against women in tech is part of the male backlash that contributed to the rise of Trump

Source: Google’s sexist memo has provided the alt-right with a new martyr | Owen Jones | Opinion | The Guardian

Minnesota Mosque Hit by Early-Morning Explosion – The New York Times – Thanks #TraitorTrump!

“What I would say is an attack on a mosque is an attack on a synagogue, it’s an attack on a church, it’s an attack on all faith communities, so we stand with you, a million Protestants in Minnesota,” said the Rev. Curtiss DeYoung, the chief executive of the Minnesota Council of Churches.The mosque had recently been the target of harassment, receiving threatening and hateful messages, Mr. Omar told The Star Tribune.“People talking about us, telling us, accusing us that we shouldn’t be here, that we are like a burden to the community or we are like harming it,” Mr. Omar said.

Far-right attacking Trump adviser McMaster for being ‘controlled by Jews’ – U.S. News – Haaretz.com

President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser General H. R. McMaster is being targeted in recent days by a far-right campaign that is accusing him, simultaneously, of being controlled by rich Jews and of harming the state of Israel. The campaign is coming from media outlets and writers affiliated with Steve Bannon, President Trump’s senior political adviser, who has been accused in the past of making anti-Semitic comments.The campaign against McMaster intensified after he fired a number of mid-level officials from the National Security Council, who were considered loyal to Bannon and to the former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The latter was forced to resign after less than a month in office because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his ties to Russia. The driving force behind the campaign has been far-right blogger Mike Cernovich, who started sharing links to a website called, McMaster Leaks, which is devoted to attacks on McMaster, on social media.The website featured a brazen anti-Semitic caricature depicting McMaster and retired General David Petraeus, who is considered close to a number of senior NSC officials – as two puppets being controlled by Jewish billionaire George Soros, who himself is being controlled by “the Rothschilds,” the famously rich Jewish family of bankers. After the caricature was mocked on social media, the website edited it, replacing the word “Rothschilds” on the top of the pyramid with the word “Saudis,” but keeping in Soros depiction in place.Yet McMaster, according to his rivals on the far-right, isn’t only being controlled by the Rothschilds – it turns out he is also “hostile to Israel,” according to articles that have been published in recent days on Breitbart, the far-right website formerly edited by Bannon, and on the Conservative Review (by a reporter who used to work as an editor at Breitbart). These articles, quoting “administration officials” and a Facebook post by Israeli journalist Caroline Glick, accuse him of such “sins” as opposing an Israeli request to include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump’s visit to the Western Wall during his visit in Israel earlier this year.McMaster, it should be noted, was the Trump administration’s most senior representative and speaker earlier this year at the Israeli embassy’s annual Independence Day event. He was warmly received by the crowd and gave a speech in which he expressed the administration’s strong support for Israel, and promised to always safeguard the Jewish state’s security interests.

Source: Far-right attacking Trump adviser McMaster for being ‘controlled by Jews’ – U.S. News – Haaretz.com

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

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

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

Julie Negrin Will Die If the ACA is Repealed | Dame Magazine

You probably don’t know Julie Negrin’s name or her story, but if Trumpcare passes the Senate, she’s likely to become a viral sensation. The 45-year old nutritionist isn’t exaggerating when she says she will die if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed and replaced by Trumpcare. She’s been saying that since the GOP announced its replacement health care plan; after all, without insurance, or with substandard insurance, her body’s already compromised systems will collapse. Over the past week, however, she’s been saying she’ll die under Trumpcare for a different reason. Negrin has made a big, life-changing decision. If Trumpcare passes, she vows to become a martyr for the health care cause by suspending all medical treatment and, as she put it in a Facebook post, “leverag[ing] the fuck out of my slow, sad, suffering, death.” Her hope? “To activate a movement to restore our healthcare system.”It takes thousands of dollars each month to keep Negrin alive, and with her current ACA plan through Blue Shield*, insurance covers most of her medical expenses, even mental health appointments (“There’s a lot of trauma with having organs cut out”) and some naturopathic services. Without ACA coverage and under Trumpcare, her pre-existing conditions will most certainly mean she won’t be able to obtain insurance – not any she can afford, anyway. And there’s no way she can pay out of pocket for the dozens of monthly medical appointments and costly treatments, as well as the check-ups she needs to make sure her multiple cancers remain in remission and that her body hasn’t been invaded by new ones.

Source: Julie Negrin Will Die If the ACA is Repealed | Dame Magazine