Category Archives: terrorism

Ohio grand jury clears police in fatal shooting of 12-year-old | Reuters { Just so wrong in so many ways}

The Ohio grand jury had heard weeks of testimony on the Rice shooting, which occurred within seconds after police reached a park next to a Cleveland recreation center in response to reports of a suspect with a gun. Rice died the next day.ADVERTISING The shooting was one of several that have fueled scrutiny of police use of deadly force, particularly against minorities. The officers are white and Rice was black.Rice was holding a replica handgun when Officer Timothy Loehmann shot him within seconds of reaching the park in a squad car driven by his partner, Frank Garmback.

Source: Ohio grand jury clears police in fatal shooting of 12-year-old | Reuters

Gang-raped to avenge poll defeat, girl ends life – Times of India

Panchayat poll rivalry took a hideous turn in a village in Mirzapur district when the minor daughter of a winning woman block development council (BDC) candidate was allegedly gang-raped by her mother’s rivals. She later killed herself following police inaction.

Source: Gang-raped to avenge poll defeat, girl ends life – Times of India

Chris Christie Loosens NJ Gun Restrictions To Show What A Great Republican He Is: Gothamist – The Blood from the Next Gun Murder Will Be on Governor Christie’s Hands

Permitting was found to have been “unevenly” applied across New Jersey’s townships, so regulations will be broadened to apply to more people who desire firearms for protection. The qualifications for “justifiable need” have also been expanded, and applications from victims of domestic violence will be expedited.In some cases, out-of-state residents passing through New Jersey with firearms legally owned in their home states will not be prosecuted. For instance, gun owners are required to go from point-to-point unless a stop is deemed “reasonably necessary,” the criteria for which does not currently exist.Lastly, the Attorney General will crack down on towns that fail to speedily process gun permit applications, and processing times will be collected and published in an effort to create greater transparency.”New Jersey citizens should be permitted to defend themselves and not encounter unlawful delays and impediments,” Christie said a statement released to media, adding that the commission provided “a set of recommendations that I am proud to wholeheartedly embrace. We will work through the Attorney General to put these changes into effect as quickly as possible.”

Source: Chris Christie Loosens NJ Gun Restrictions To Show What A Great Republican He Is: Gothamist

Turkey intensifies military operation against Kurds | News | DW.COM |{Turkish Genocide Part Two – After the Armenians, the Kurds become target for Turkish Ethnic Cleansing by death?}

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed to continue the operations and pursue the militants “neighborhood by neighborhood, house by house, and street by street.””We will turn … every piece of our homeland into an area of peace, stability and freedom,” the premier said on Tuesday.The conflict between the PKK and Ankara has killed over 40,000 people since 1984. The Kurdish minority, which comprises 15 percent of Turkey, complains of systematic discrimination by the state.The renewed violence also coincided with two general elections in Turkey this year; in the first, a pro-Kurdish party cleared the prohibitive 10-percentle hurdle to win seats in parliament. Davutoglu’s ruling AK Party, unwilling or unable to form a coalition afterwards, ultimately called a fresh ballot – whose build-up was overshadowed by clashes between the PKK and the military. Second time around, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) fell short of the 10 percent of the vote needed to enter parliament.Escalating violenceThe army offensive in Turkey’s southeastern towns has angered the residents as they protest against search operations, curfews and barricades set up by the authorities.Three police officers were killed in a roadside bombing on Tuesday. Ankara blamed the attack on Kurdish rebels based in the Diyarbakir province. The attack came after two Kurds were shot dead on Monday during violent clashes between local Kurds and security forces in the Sur district of Diyarbakir.

Source: Turkey intensifies military operation against Kurds | News | DW.COM | 16.12.2015

Garbage Human Martin Shkreli Once Again Plans To Massively Raise Cost Of Lifesaving Drug: SFist

Much reviled pharma guy Martin Shkreli has yet again revealed himself to be operating from a place of questionable morality. The 70 percent owner of South San Francisco-based KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. has announced plans to increase the two-month treatment price of a lifesaving drug from $100 to an estimated $80,000.Shkreli’s Turing Pharmaceuticals was in the news earlier this year, when the founder announced he would raise the price of a drug used by AIDS patients to treat parasitic infections from $13.50 to $750 per pill.Tech Times notes that the more recently proposed price increase, announced in an investor conference call last week, would target a drug used to treat Chagas disease, a particular parasitic infection that can be fatal.The two-month course of the drug, benznidazole, is currently available at the cost of $50 to $100 in Latin America, notes the Times, but at present is only available in the United States directly from the Centers for Disease Control (the CDC makes the drug available for free).Shkreli’s move, suggests the New York Times, is part of a larger scheme to acquire a FDA voucher for expediting the review process of another drug. By bringing benznidazole to the US commercial market, albeit at an exorbitant rate, Shkreli would be eligible for a voucher originally intended as a reward to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for neglected diseases. His company could then sell this voucher (vouchers have sold for as much as $350 million, notes the New York Times) to another pharmaceutical company.“It’s caused a lot of angst in the Chagas community,” says Dr. Sheba Meymandi, the director of a Chagas treatment center. “Everyone’s in an uproar.”It is estimated that 300,000 people in the United States suffer the disease.

Source: Garbage Human Martin Shkreli Once Again Plans To Massively Raise Cost Of Lifesaving Drug: SFist

Video: Israeli settlers blast “Muhammad is dead” song at Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obH84k46g_k

This video shows a group of Israelis from the Kiryat Arba settlement “playing hate songs through a loud speaker to residents of the Hebron neighborhood of Jabal Johar,” according to Israel’s B’Tselem human rights group, which published it last month.The song heard in the video, filmed by Mai Dana on 11 October, includes the repeated refrain “Muhammad is dead” – disparaging the prophet. Its lyrics say:He is no prophetJust another ArabHe has a moustache with fleasAnd he eats goat cheeseHe is a construction laborerEven when he’s fasting on RamadanAnd he has an orange ID cardMuhammad is gay and the son of a prostitute.The video shows many settlers, including young children, laughing, singing and pumping their fists as the music blasts.The song refers to the Israeli-issued ID – which used to come in an orange-colored case – carried by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank which restricts their movements, in contrast to settlers who can go where they please.In other words, the settler song celebrates apartheid.

Source: Video: Israeli settlers blast “Muhammad is dead” song at Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

Community on Racist Mascot: “This is Who We Are”

Despite this hostile atmosphere, this courageously 14-year-old girl, took the microphone, to explain what it is like to be a Native student in a school with a racist mascot. She bravely told them about harassment, despite her voice shaking. When speaking about the killing of Native men, women, and children, and the selling of their scalps (known as r*dskins), she became emotional and had to stop for a moment to compose herself. Because of this pause, her time ran out, but she tried to conclude her thought, just as the many of adults who spoke prior to her had.However, adults in the crowd began shouting at her, just as they had us, prior. She courageously told them “I’m almost finished”, to which someone in the crowd shouted “Get off the stage, squ*w!” Understandably upset at being called the worst vulgarity that can be directed towards a Native women, she expressed her disgust at the barbaric behavior and returned to her seat, as the crowd yelled “Go, R*dskins!” at her.So, yes, she did become emotional and stormed off, for which she personally apologized to each board member. However, as a Native women, I think that her response showed a great deal of restraint and grace, considering the verbal assault that she had just been subjected to. That the board would tolerate such verbal violence in their presence, and still characterize keeping the very mascot that embodies and encourages such racism as an “ethical” choice, gives me grave concerns for the safety and welfare of Native children in their district.You see, the emotional pleas from mascot supporters who tearfully said “it’s more than a mascot” are absolutely correct. It is more than a mascot. It is evidence of a much deeper problem that continues to divide our communities, and plague our future generations. When towns like McLoud, and many others, are presented evidence of the harms, yet take the stand that “this is who we are”, embracing the racism and accepting the resulting victimization of members of their community, the impact is not limited to only their closed minded communities. We all have to interact in this world with the generations who are reared in that environment. Racism and division hurt us all.

Source: Community on Racist Mascot: “This is Who We Are”

Humans of New York

“This is a photo of me right before the war came. Maybe my parents knew the war was coming, but they didn’t tell me. I wouldn’t have understood. I didn’t even know the meaning of war. Bombs started falling all around us. We lived very near one of Saddam’s castles. My mother told us: ‘It will be very loud, but nothing bad will happen to us. We will all be here together.’ Many houses in our neighborhood were destroyed, but I’d close my ears and sing songs whenever the bombs came close. In the cartoon shows, the good always wins, so I thought that we were good and nothing would happen to us. Then one day I heard a big sound and I saw that my best friend Miriam’s house had been destroyed. We walked to school together every day. I went to see if she was OK and I saw Miriam on the ground. She didn’t have any legs and she was screaming and I can still hear that sound now. They pulled me away but I saw everything. I don’t think it was good for a child to see this.”

(Gaziantep, Turkey)

Source: Humans of New York

ISIS launches app to spread terror agenda – Times of India

For IS, social media is prominent in formulating recruitment strategies.According to theconversation.com, Facebook is a key platform to gather young fans, supporters and recruits to incite them to acts of violence by the means of propaganda and the use of Islamic grievance.When it comes to real-time orchestrating of terror strikes, IS network works with encrypted messaging applications — including Kik, Surespot, Wickr and Telegram — that are very difficult to hack.

Source: ISIS launches app to spread terror agenda – Times of India

Why Fascism is Rising Again (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium

My story is nuanced. I have tried to distinguish between proximate cause, and ultimate cause. The ultimate cause of fascism is the right — but the proximate cause is the left. More simply, the origins of fascism are in the right’s extremism — but it is the left’s self-imposed irrelevance that allowed it to rise, and perhaps propelled it. You may disagree with my story, and you are welcome. It is just one synthesis among many. And yet, I caution you against the oppositional extremism that so defines our age. To fully account for fascism’s rise, because it is the most poisonous alloy of both, we must speak openly and honestly about the failures of both the left and right.For in the story of the rise of New Fascism, we see precisely the same elements at work as in Eternal Fascism. The pie shrinks. Leaders and institutions squabble — while the pie keeps shrinking. And then, the critical moment. The center breaks. The demagogue is free to sing his song of darkness. Night falls. And the golden age of the volk, the long march to the promised land, through the valleys of blood and despair, begins.I have written too much. I am tired now, as are you. So let us stop here to pause and reflect. Fascism, the poisonous admixture of the worst of both left and right, is a cancer that may infect the body politic at anytime that body is dulled and slowed, rendered infirm and frail, by stagnation. And the obligation of all reasonable people is to fight it. Not just because it destroys, and calls destruction glorious destiny, nor because it kills, and calls murder noble justice. But because in its glorification of destruction is the end of all that civilization can be said to stand for. Not just the fabric of our societies, but the possibility of our humanity.

Source: Why Fascism is Rising Again (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium