Category Archives: Viva!

Former Shin Bet chief: Netanyahu’s annexation of Area C would lead to “bloodbath”

PNN / Bethlehem

The former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Yoram Cohen, warned of the annexation of so-called “Area C” in the West Bank to Israel,  would lead to “an unnecessary bloodbath”.

“Steps should be taken to reduce the occupation in the West Bank, improve transportation, improve work, and transfer areas from Area B to Area A, which is entirely under the control of the Palestinian Authority,” Cohen said.

Area B is under Palestinian civilian control and Israeli security control. Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the West Bank, is under full Israeli control under the Oslo Accords. Earlier this week, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to build 6,000 housing units in Israeli settlements in area C and only 700 housing units for Palestinians.

Cohen referred to the armed clash at the security fence in the eastern Gaza Strip last night, during which Hamas fighter Hani Abu Salah was killed when two officers and two soldiers were moderately wounded. “The state is investing billions in manpower, technology and intelligence to prevent such events. But in this case the work was done well. ”

He added that launching an Israeli attack against the Gaza Strip in the wake of such an operation could lead to another round in which hundreds of rockets were fired at the “Gaza envelope” (the region of Israel surrounding the Gaza strip). “Our deterrence may have been damaged by the fact that we did not want to degenerate into a major battle or a war,” he said.

Cohen added that, during the Gaza offensive in 2014, “we did not know the places of the tunnels on the Israeli side, and we were not able to correctly estimate the intentions of the other side for the war.”

Opinion | Kirsten Gillibrand Is Right: Racism Is About White People – The New York Times

white women in the suburbs that voted for Trump and explain to them what white privilege actually is.” “When their son is walking down the street with a bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a hoodie, his whiteness is what protects him” from being shot, she said, invoking Trayvon Martin. “When their child has a car that breaks down and he knocks on someone’s door for help and the door opens and the help is given, it’s his whiteness that protects him from being shot.” She also made clear that it is not the sole responsibility of candidates of color to talk about racism.

Joe Biden Op-Ed Referenced by Kirsten Gillibrand During Debate: Read

On Wednesday night, Kirsten Gillibrand got into it with Joe Biden, whose decades-long record is basically a menu of terrible shit that is very worth getting into it over. The topic was Biden’s lone opposition to expanding a childcare tax credit while in the Senate in 1981, and a companion op-ed he wrote that argued day care centers and nursing homes were somehow emblematic of people’s “desire to avoid individual responsibility.”

Source: Joe Biden Op-Ed Referenced by Kirsten Gillibrand During Debate: Read

Injecting yourself with dog insulin? Just a normal day in America | Alan MacLeod

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The media invites us to be inspired by wholly unnecessary crises like UFC hopeful Jordan Williams, who uses dog insulin because he doesn’t have insurance

Sports media giant ESPN recently published an in-depth and supposedly inspirational feature on Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hopeful Jordan Williams, who fought for a lucrative UFC pro contract, on 23 July. It described how the true fighter has persevered through difficulties, training hard and smart to rise to the top despite many setbacks, including his type 1 diabetes.

“I’ve been an athlete my whole life, even before I was diagnosed as a diabetic and now long after. I always try to go my hardest and always try to train and push myself to the limit,” Williams explains.

Continue reading…

Federal Appeals Court Overturns Mother’s Conviction in Texas Child Murder Case That May Have Been an Accidental Death

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Citing trial court interference in her right to present a defense, a federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Texas mother who was sentenced to death on charges that she had murdered her two-year-old daughter. In an unpublished, unsigned opinion issued on July 29, 2019, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said that trial court rulings that blocked Melissa Elizabeth Lucio (pictured) from calling an expert witness to challenge the reliability of statements she gave to police violated Lucio’s right to present a “complete defense.” The appeals court reversed a federal district court decision that had upheld Lucio’s conviction and death sentence and returned the case to the lower court to grant Lucio a new trial.

The prosecution alleged that Lucia had physically abused her daughter, Mariah, over a period of time and that the child had been beaten to death by her mother. Lucia’s lawyers contested the cause of death, presenting expert testimony from a neurosurgeon that Mariah may instead have died from head trauma caused by falling down a flight of stairs. The primary evidence implicating Lucio was a recording of statements she made to police during lengthy interrogation the night her daughter died. During that interrogation, Lucio admitted to spanking Mariah, but denied ever having abused her. Late into the night, after hours of continuous interrogation, Texas Ranger Victor Escalon pressured Lucio to say more. She responded with: “I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m responsible for it.” When Escalon later asked her about specific bruises on her daughter’s body, Lucio said, “I guess I did it. I guess I did it.”

The prosecution characterized Lucio’s interrogation as evidence that she had abused her daughter, and therefore must have killed her. Lucio’s lawyers sought to present testimony from a psychologist to explain the coercive effect of the police interrogation on Lucio, whom Dr. John Pinkerman described as a “battered woman” who “takes blame for everything that goes on in the family.” The trial court barred Pinkerman from testifying, asserting that his testimony was irrelevant because Lucio had “denied ever having anything to do with the killing of the child.”

The Fifth Circuit rejected the factual and legal basis for the trial court’s finding, holding that the exclusion of the evidence was “of such a magnitude or so egregious that [it] render[ed] the trial fundamentally unfair.”