10 Times Donald Trump Supporters Were Blatantly Racist

10 Times Donald Trump Supporters Were Blatantly Racist

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huffingtonpost.com - Throughout his campaign, there has been much discussion about whether Donald Trump is racist or not. Like so many conversations about race in America, this particular dialogue has been oversimplifi...

Turkey purges the army of almost 1,400 military officers after coup

Turkey purges the army of almost 1,400 military officers after coup

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europe.newsweek.com - The Turkish government dismissed nearly 1,400 military personnel for suspected links to a cleric it blames for an attempted coup, state media said on Sunday, hours after President Tayyip Erdogan an...

Treatments that unleash the body's immune system to kill cancer are offering patients new hope, turning a medical dream into reality

Special Report: Treatments that unleash the body's immune system to kill cancer are offering patients new hope, turning a medical dream into reality.

Saturday, July 30, 2016 10:56 AM EDT

Remarkable stories of tumors melting away and terminal illnesses going into remissions that last years — backed by solid data — have led to an explosion of interest and billions of dollars of investments in the rapidly growing field of immunotherapy. Pharmaceutical companies, philanthropists and the federal government’s “cancer moonshot” program are pouring money into developing treatments. Medical conferences on the topic are packed.

All this has brought new optimism to cancer doctors — a sense that they have begun tapping into a force of nature, the medical equivalent of splitting the atom.

Read more »

[HISTORY] After 100 years World War I battlefields are poisoned and uninhabitable

After 100 years World War I battlefields are poisoned and uninhabitable

By Shelby Elphick | We Are The Mighty | July 27, 2016

No war in recent memory can compare to the meat grinder of World War I. Europe still bears the scars of the war, even almost a century later. The gruesome and terrifying type of warfare typical of the Great War had a lasting impact on those who witnessed and experienced it. It also created such carnage on the land where it was fought that some of those areas are still uninhabitable to this day.

The Battlefield at The Somme (Imperial War Museum photo)

The uninhabitable areas are known as the Zone Rouge (French for “Red Zone”). They remain pock-marked and scarred by the intense fighting at places like Verdun and the Somme, the two bloodiest battles of the conflict.
During the Battle of Verdun, which lasted over 300 days in 1916, more than 60 million artillery shells were fired by both sides – many containing poisonous gases. These massive bombardments and the brutal fighting inflicted horrifying casualties, over 600,000 at Verdun and over 1 million at the Somme. But the most dangerous remnants of these battles are the unexploded ordnance littering the battlefield.

The Battlefield of Verdun in 2016 (French Government photo)

Immediately after the war, the French government quarantined much of the land subjected to the worst of the battles. Those areas that were completely devastated and destroyed, unsafe to farm, and impossible for human habitation became the Zone Rouge. The people of this area were forced to relocate elsewhere while entire villages were wiped off the map.
Nine villages deemed unfit to be rebuilt are known today as the “villages that died for France.” Inside the Zone Rouge signs marking the locations of streets and important buildings are the only reminders those villages ever existed.

Photo by Olivier Saint Hilaire

Areas not completely devastated but heavily impacted by the war fell into other zones, Yellow and Blue. In these areas, people were allowed to return and rebuild their lives. This does not mean that the areas are completely safe, however. Every year, all along the old Western Front in France and Belgium, the population endures the “Iron Harvest” – the yearly collection of hundreds of tons of unexploded ordnance and other war materiel still buried in the ground.
Occasionally, the Iron Harvest claims casualties of its own, usually in the form of a dazed farmer and a destroyed tractor. Not all are so lucky to escape unscathed and so the French and Belgian governments still pay reparations to the “mutilée dans la guerre“– the victims of the war nearly 100 years after it ended.

Photo by Olivier Saint Hilaire

To deal with the massive cleanup and unexploded ordnance issues, the French government created the Département du Déminage (Department of Demining) after World War II. To date, 630 minesweepers died while demining the zones.
An estimated 720 million shells were fired during the Great War, with approximately 12 million failing to detonate. At places like Verdun, the artillery barrages were so overwhelming, 150 shells hit every square meter of the battlefield. Concentrated barrages and driving rains turned the battlefield into a quagmire that swallowed soldiers and shells alike.

Photo by Olivier Saint Hilaire

Further complicating the cleanup is the soil contamination caused by the remains of humans and animals. The grounds are also saturated with lead, mercury, and zinc from millions of rounds of ammunition from small arms and artillery fired in combat. In some places, the soil contains such high levels of arsenic that nothing can grow there, leaving haunting, desolate spaces.

Photo by Olivier Saint Hilaire

Though the Zone Rouge started at some 460 square miles in size, cleanup efforts reduced it to around 65 square miles. With such massive amounts of explosives left in the ground, the French government estimates the current rate of removal will clear the battlefields between 300 and 900 years from now.

Rev. Barber dares right-wing to go nuts: ‘Jesus was a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew’

WATCH: Rev. Barber dares right-wing to go nuts: ‘Jesus was a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew’ at DNC

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rawstory.com - The legendary civil rights activist behind the “Moral Monday,” Rev. William Barber just laid down some hard truth at the Democratic National Convention that right-wing evangelicals aren’t going to ...

Oldest Cancer Found in 1.7-Million-Year-Old Bone

Oldest Cancer Found in 1.7-Million-Year-Old Bone

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seeker.com - Cancer's roots go down deep into prehistory, says a new study into the fossilized bone of an early human who walked the Earth about 1.7 million years ago. Found at the cave site of Swartkrans, abou...

How Do Horses Sleep Standing up?

A horse has a "stay apparatus" in its legs that prevents them from
buckling, allowing the horse to stand effortlessly.

Equids -- specifically horses, donkeys and zebras -- are the only animals
that sleep standing up, an evolutionary talent that allows them to doze and
still be ready to flee from predators at a moment’s notice. Mature
horses, for example, frequently rest standing up, aided by what’s known
as the “stay apparatus” of the forelegs and the “check apparatus”
of the hind legs. This anatomical system lets them snooze without falling
down, with little or no muscular effort.

Read More: http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-horses-sleep-standing-up.htm?m

US & Saudi Arabia ‘Involved in Turkey’s Downing of Russian Su-24’ in Syria

US & Saudi Arabia ‘Involved in Turkey’s Downing of Russian Su-24’ in Syria

Sputnik | July 29, 2016

German former CDU politician and Vice-President of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Willy Wimmer told Sputnik Deutschland that he fears NATO involvement in the downing of Russia’s Su-24 bomber over Syria last November.

NATO was involved in last year’s downing of Russia’s Su-24 bomber in Syrian airspace, Willy Wimmer, former Vice-President of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), told Sputnik Deutschland on Friday.On November 24 2015 Turkish jets downed a Russian Su-24 bomber carrying out anti-terror operations in Syria. The plane’s two co-pilots parachuted from the plane but one of them, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov, was shot and killed by suspected Turkmen militants operating in Syria.
The incident caused a major diplomatic dispute between Turkey and Russia; the former said the bomber was shot for infringing Turkish airspace, but Russia maintains the Su-24 did not enter Turkish airspace, and was carrying out an anti-Daesh mission in Syria when it was downed.
The downing had been interpreted as a unilateral decision by Turkey, but Willy Wimmer contends that in fact, NATO and Saudi forces were involved in the incident.
“According to my information, Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft from the US and Saudi Arabia were involved,” Wimmer said.
“Aircraft like that Russian Su-24 bomber are not that easy to just shoot out of the sky. You need to take aim, and you can only do that with AWACS aircraft.”
The two AWACS planes involved in the incident took off from a US base on Cyprus, and an airbase in Saudi Arabia respectively, Wimmer said. He explained that according to NATO guidelines, if a plane is believed to be violating another country’s airspace then contact should made with the appropriate flight control center to draw the pilot’s attention to the error.In peacetime, the most military aircraft is allowed to do is to force a stray aircraft to make an emergency landing.
“What happened there does not comply with international regulations in any way. They brought the Russian plane down because they wanted to,” Wimmer said.
Wimmer believes that the motivation for enabling the otherwise inexplicable attack, was a desire on the part of Turkey’s allies to spoil diplomatic relations between Turkey and Russia.
“It must be assumed that if somebody breaks international rules, then political interests are at stake. This was about destroying the relations between the Turkish Republic and the Russian Federation, which were blossoming (back) then,” the politician said.
“Last year the construction of the South Stream pipeline (from Russia) through the EU was stopped because of American pressure. A few weeks later, Russia and Turkey successfully created a replacement, the Turkish Stream. Of course, that was diametrically opposed to the Americans’ sanctions politics against Russia. The reaction of the Americans can be interpreted accordingly,” Wimmer believes.
Last month Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote a letter of apology to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the downing of the Su-24. The Turkish President said that Turkey “never had a desire or a deliberate intention to down an aircraft belonging to Russia,” and expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the relatives of the deceased Russian pilot.

Would Harvey Milk Object to His Name on a Warship?

Would Harvey Milk Object to His Name on a Warship?

Posted: 29 Jul 2016 03:27 PM PDT

The late gay rights activist's antiwar record is at odds with the honor recently announced by the U.S. Navy

Turkish prosecutor claims CIA, FBI trained coup plotters

Turkish prosecutor claims CIA, FBI trained coup plotters

RT | July 29, 2016

A Turkish prosecutor has claimed that the CIA and FBI provided training for the followers of powerful US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the coup attempt earlier this month.
The indictment, prepared by the Edirne Public Prosecutor’s office and accepted by the local Second Heavy Penal Court, seeks the harshest possible punishment for 43 suspects that have allegedly been linked to the failed coup attempt on July 15, including the coup’s supposed mastermind, Fethullah Gulen, the arch-nemesis of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The prosecutor said on Thursday that members of what it describes as “the Fethullah Terrorist Organization” were trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“The CIA and FBI provided training in several subjects to the cadre raised in the culture centers belonging to the Gulen movement. The operations carried out by prosecutors and security officials during the Dec. 17 process can be taken as a good example of this,” the document says, referring to a high profile corruption probe that targeted senior government officials between December 17 and December 25 of 2013, as reported by the Turkish Hurriyet daily.
The investigation affected many officials linked to the Turkish Cabinet, which was headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan at that time. Erdogan, who is now Turkey’s president, called it “a judicial coup” attempt, while accusing Gulen and his movement of orchestrating it with the help of some “foreign forces.”
The indictment states that Gulen loyalists received US training and infiltrated judicial and security institutions.
“This [failed coup] attempt aimed to weaken the state with all its institutions by getting rid of the government completely. Those in the Gulen movement who work in the judicial and security institutions and who received the aforementioned training, took on this task and moved into action,” the document says, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.
It adds that some other foreign secret services were also involved in training the coup plotters, according to the Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper.
Relations between Washington and Ankara soured following the foiled coup attempt on July 15. Some Turkish media and even government officials, including the labor minister, have claimed that the US was somehow involved, despite an outright denial from the US.
Immediately after the failed coup attempt, the Turkish government criticized the US for providing safe haven for Gulen, saying that a country that harbors “the coup planner” is “no friend” to Turkey. Ankara has also repeatedly demanded that the US extradite Gulen to Turkey, while Washington has maintained that Turkey must first file a formal extradition request and provide solid proof of his involvement in the coup.
On July 25, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that Turkey-US ties could suffer unless Washington extradites Gulen.
On Friday, Erdogan once again slammed the US for harboring Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, and demanded his extradition. He also lashed out at the head of US Central Command, General Joseph Votel, who has criticized the detention of thousands of Turkish military personnel in the aftermath of the coup attempt and said that some of the military figures that the US had been working with are now in jail.
“It is not up to you to make that decision. Who are you? Know your place…” Erdogan said, as quoted by AP.
“Instead of thanking this nation that quashed the coup in the name of democracy, on the contrary you are taking sides with the coup-plotters,” he added, stressing that “the coup plotter is in your country anyway” and “you [the US] can never convince my people otherwise.”
Votel has strongly denied the accusations, saying that “Turkey has been an extraordinary and vital partner in the region for many years.”

Chelsea Manning threatened with indefinite solitary confinement for suicide attempt

Chelsea Manning threatened with indefinite solitary confinement for suicide attempt

Yesterday, (July 28) Chelsea Manning found out she is yet again being threatened with the possibility of indefinite solitary confinement.
In a jarringly callous move, Army officials are charging Chelsea with “offenses” related to her suicide attempt earlier this month.
If convicted, her punishment could be indefinite solitary confinement, reclassification into maximum security, and an additional nine years in medium custody. Her chance of parole may be negated.
Read the charge sheet here, dictated over the phone by Chelsea to a Support Network volunteer.
“It is deeply troubling that Chelsea is now being subjected to an investigation and possible punishment for her attempt to take her life. The government has long been aware of Chelsea's distress associated with the denial of medical care related to her gender transition and yet delayed and denied the treatment recognized as necessary,” said ACLU Staff Attorney Chase Strangio.
“Now, while Chelsea is suffering the darkest depression she has experienced since her arrest, the government is taking actions to punish her for that pain. It is unconscionable and we hope that the investigation is immediately ended and that she is given the health care that she needs to recover.” Read more here
Chelsea has already faced indefinite solitary confinement threats last year, for innocuous institutional offenses, such as having an expired tube of toothpaste.

Sign the petition

Our friends at Fight for the Future have created a petition where you can sign on to a letter condemning the US Army’s attack on Chelsea.

Write the Secretary of the Army

Pressure the Secretary of the Army to take a personal interest and dismiss these cruel and absurd charges against Chelsea.
SECRETARY OF THE ARMY JOHN MCHUGH
101 ARMY PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, DC 20310-010

Navy to name ship after gay rights hero Harvey Milk

Navy to name ship after gay rights hero Harvey Milk

	The gays rights activist already has a day, street and clothing line named after him.

A federal appeals court blocked North Carolina’s voter ID law months before the election, saying it was “discriminatory”

A federal appeals court blocked North Carolina’s voter ID law months before the election, saying it was “discriminatory”

Friday, July 29, 2016 1:34 PM EDT

The sweeping decision, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, was unusually speedy: A judge in Winston-Salem, N.C., upheld the law in April.

“In holding that the legislature did not enact the challenged provisions with discriminatory intent, the court seems to have missed the forest in carefully surveying the many trees,” the Fourth Circuit panel said of the district court ruling that upheld the law passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

Read more »

North Carolina Voter ID Law Targeted African-Americans

North Carolina Voter ID Law Targeted African-Americans, Appeals Court Rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a NorthCarolina law that required voters to show photo identification when casting ballots, ruling that it intentionally discriminated against African-American residents.

The ruling is likely to be seen as a boost for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton going into November’s election. The state is politically important as it does not lean heavily toward either Democrats or Republicans, and Clinton is heavily favored among black Americans over Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The court’s decision also canceled provisions of the law that scaled back early voting, prevented residents from registering and voting on the same day, and eliminated the ability of voters to vote outside their assigned precinct. Read more.

Save The Children Says Syrian Maternity Hospital Bombed

There was extensive damage to the building which is the only maternity facility for about 70 miles.

How 7,000 People Died in Custody in Texas—in One Decade

How 7,000 People Died in Custody in Texas—in One Decade

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theatlantic.com - “The custodian of the data could spin it however he likes, but if it’s out in the open then everyone could have access to it,” she said when I asked her about the impetus behind the work. “There is...

Arrest raids target Palestinians in Jerusalem, Nablus, refugee camps throughout West Bank

• Campaigns
• Imprisoned Students
• News

July 29, 2016

 

A series of ongoing pre-dawn arrest raids have targeted scores of Palestinians over the past week, especially in Jerusalem and its suburbs and in refugee camps throughout the West Bank.
On Thursday morning, 28 July, in the pre-dawn hours, Israeli occupation forces arrested and detained at least 18 Palestinians. These arrests included an invasion of Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, where Palestinian youth took to the streets to defend their camp against the invading soldiers; they were fired on with live ammunition, stun grenades, and tear gas.
Three Palestinian young people in Dheisheh camp, all former prisoners, were detained by the invading forces: Hamdi AlAtrash (26), Raghd Shamrukh (20), and Karam Abed Rabbo (24). Meanwhile, in Nablus,
In Nablus a number of former prisoners and students at An-Najah National University, including students active in the Islamic Bloc, were targeted in pre-dawn raids, including former prisoner Abdulrahman Bishtawi, Mujahid Ashour, Amin Alhiliouni, Baraa Thuqan, Fawzi Bashkar, Abdul Rahman Al-Wadi, and student Ehab Ashour were seized and detained by the invading occupation force.
In Shuafat refugee camp, Bassam Alhueini and his brother, Anas Alhueini, were both detained by occupation forces.  In Al-Khalil, four Palestinian young people were seized from the city, while two Palestinians in Qalandiya refugee camp were arrested; one Palestinian was arrested in al-Walaja village.
These detentions followed the mass arrest of 52 Palestinians, including 11 minors, in Jerusalem towns and communities. The mass arrests targeted Jerusalem families one day after 30 Israeli home demolitions destroyed Palestinian homes under the pretext of lack of permission to build.  Ma’an News reported that the arrest campaign was labeled “the 700 campaign” because it involved 700 Israeli occupation police officers.
33 of the detainees were taken from the neighborhood of Silwan. Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported that lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud of Addameer state that the Israeli forces transferred the detainees to Salah Eddin Street police station and Al-Maskobyeh, naming the Silwan detainees as:
Emran Amer Abu Sbeih, 14
Mohammad Issa Qutob, 14
Ibrahim Tamer Dandis, 16
Mohammad Salaymeh, 15
Mohammad Yousef Sharaf, 17
Sharif Emad Abu Mayaleh, 17
Taha Fawzi Abu Tayeh, 17
Jihad Nader Bazlameet, 17
Odai Samer Abu Tayeh, 17
Ammar Issa Atyeh, 17
Malek Abed Hamdan, 19
Mutasem Mohammad Abu Tayeh, 21
Riad Basem Abu Diab, 39
Karim Ishaq Abu Tayeh, 28
Mohammad Ibrahim Awwad, 33
Ahmad Tamer Dandis, 18
Ayoub Mousa Abbasi, 20
Fathi Khaled Njadeh Naser, 20
Abed Izz Barbar, 18
Ahmad Nader Bazlameet, 21
Amir Majed Najdi, 18
Ala’ Fawwaz Khatib, 21
Yousef Daoud Abbasi, 23
Khalil Khalaf Odeh, 21
Mousa Maher Jaber, 17
Ziad Kayed Hijazi, 27
Muntaser Yousef Shyoukhi, 25
Jamal Faraj Da’na, 22
Mansour Yousef Shyoukhi, 24
Rabee’ Omar Bashir, 29
Haron Rweidat, 17
Hasan Mohammad Rweidi, 19
Mohammad Ramadan Shallodi, 25
Throughout the week at least nine Palestinian young people, including five minors between the age of 15 and 17, were arrested by Israeli forces in Issawiya, on allegations that they threw stones at Israeli police patrols and colonial settlers traveling to the illegal Ma’ale Adumim settlement built on Palestinian land.
One of the Palestinian minors arrested in the ongoing raids on Issawiya village is Fadi Raafat Issawi, 15, the son of Raafat Issawi and the nephew of Shireen, Samer and Medhat Issawi, all currently imprisoned in Israeli jails. Fadi was arrested and beaten by undercover Israeli occupation officers in Issawiyeh, Jerusalem. He was interrogated for 12 hours without parents or a lawyer before his parents were informed that he was in the hospital with broken shoulder bones. He remains under occupation custody, injured.

Top 10 Reasons Why It's Just Fine for U.S. to Blow Up Children

Top 10 Reasons Why It's Just Fine for U.S. to Blow Up Children

By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/5226

Is it really necessary for me to explain to you why it's acceptable, necessary, and admirable for the United States and its minor allies to be blowing up houses, families, men, women, and children in Syria?
This latest story of blowing up 85 civilians in their homes has some people confused and concerned. Let me help you out.

1. Somebody mistook them for ISIS fighters, determined that each of them was a continuing and imminent threat to the United States, verified a near zero possibility of any civilians being hurt in the process, and determined that some more bombing was just the way to advance a cease-fire in Syria. So this was not only an accident, but a series of unfortunate events, mistakes, and miscalculations of such proportions that they're unlikely ever to all align again for at least a few days to come.

2. This isn't actually news. That the United States is blowing up civilians by the hundreds in Syria has been endlessly reported and is really of no news value, which is why you don't hear anybody at presidential conventions or on TV talking about it, and why you shouldn't talk aboiut it either if you know what's good for you.

3. Quite a lot of families actually got away without being blown up and are now refugees, which is truly the ideal thing to be in Syria, which is the most totally prepared place for more refugees in the history of the earth, or would be if liberal internationalist do-gooders would provide some aid and stop whining about all the bombs falling.

4. Who gets labeled a "civilian" is pretty arbitrary. The United States has killed thousands of people who clearly were not civilians, and who likely had no loved ones or anyone who would become enraged by their deaths. So why lump particular groups of families into the category of "civilian," and why just assume that every 3-year-old is a civilian, and then turn around and complain with a straight face when the government labels every 18-year-old male a combatant?

5. Houses do not actually have feelings. Why be so bothered that people are blown up in their houses? I'll let you in on a little secret: The word "battlefield" hasn't meant anything that looks like a field for decades. They don't even have fields in some of these countries that don't know any better than to get themselves bombed over and over again. These wars are always in houses. Do you want the houses bombed or do you want the doors kicked in? Because when the Marines start kicking in doors and hauling people off to torture camps you whine about that too.

6. People who live in an ISIS territory are responsible for ISIS. Even those who didn't vote in the most recent ISIS election have a responsibility to get themselves burned alive, and if not then they are responsible for the evil of ISIS and ought to be burned alive by Raytheon missiles which at least make somebody some money in the process for godsake. And if ISIS won't let people flee its territory, but won't burn them alive, then it's time for the international community to step in with efficient burning-alive systems that meet international standards.

7. Donald Trump has sworn he would start killing families. If the U.S. government does not continue its centuries-old practice of killing families, Trump might gain support and endanger us all by creating the new policy of killing families.

8. When airplanes take off from Turkey to commit mass murder in Syria, it helps to bring Turkey back into the community of the rule of law and international respect for human rights, following the recent coup attempt. Keeping U.S. nuclear weapons in Turkey serves a similar purpose.

9. Sometimes when you blow people up in their houses, their heads can remain on their bodies. When U.S.-armed moderates behead children, they're doing it for the goal of moderating the moderation of moderate allies and allied moderates. But when the United States kills directly, it is important that there be a chance of some heads remaining on bodies.

10. Unlike every other country on earth, the United States is not a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, so, in the words of the great Thomas Friedman, suck on this.

--
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015 and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.

U.S. Awards $1.7 Billion Contract to Buy Radios for Afghan Army

U.S. Awards $1.7 Billion Contract to Buy Radios for Afghan Army

By Peter Van Buren | We Meant Well | July 29, 2016

I always found myself giggling during the Democratic debates when Hillary would ask Bernie how he was going to pay for things like healthcare or college tuition, and then Bernie stammering to find an answer.
They both knew the secret but neither would say it — there’s plenty of money, we just don’t want to spend it on Americans.
We think of that as freeloading, unearned stuff. Go get a job, moocher. But then move the same question overseas and everything changes. There is always plenty of money, and the people getting free stuff from that money aren’t moochers. They’re allies.
So how much healthcare would $1.7 billion buy? Because that’s how much money the United States just laid out to buy radios for the near-useless Afghan Army. And while I don’t know how much healthcare the money would buy, I do know it will purchase a helluva lot of radios. Is everyone in Afghanistan getting one? Maybe we’re buying them for the Taliban, too.
Anyway, the $1,700,000,000 radios for Afghanistan contract was just recently awarded to the Harris Corporation. And here’s a funny thing: only one company — Harris — actually put in a bid for the contract.
But the Afghans must need more stuff than just radios, and so the U.S. has money ready for that.
The United States will provide $3 billion to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces from 2018 to 2020 for, well, we don’t really know. Meanwhile, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said the White House planned to ask Congress for about $1 billion a year in development and economic assistance for Afghanistan through 2020. And if that isn’t enough, the United States and its allies are expected to raise $15 billion for the Afghan National Defense and Security forces at a NATO summit scheduled for next month in Warsaw.
There’s money. You just can’t have any of it, moochers.

Palestinian children subject to solitary confinement, administrative detention

Palestinian children subject to solitary confinement, administrative detention

by samidoun

An escalating number of Palestinian children are being held in solitary confinement or detained without charge or trial under administrative detention. 16 Palestinian children have been detained without charge or trial under administrative detention since October 2015, reported Defense for Children International on 28 July.

DCI highlighted the case of Abdel-Rahman Kamil, 15, of Qabatiya in Jenin, arrested in February of this year. He was interrogated in the Salem military camp near Jenin without being allowed to consult a lawyer, and asked about alleged intentions to stab a soldier, throwing stones at invading Israeli occupation forces, or knowing young men from his town who participated in Palestinian resistance activities. Despite denying all of this, he was ordered to a six month administrative detention order without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence. Despite a court reducing the order to four months, his administrative detention was then again renewed for an additional four months in June. He was one of seven children whose administrative detention orders were renewed in the month of June.

DCI also reported that "from January through June, Israeli authorities held at least 13 Palestinian children in solitary confinement for two or more days, compared to a total of 15 cases during 2015." One 16-year-old boy from Yabad near Jenin spent 22 days in isolation. DCI noted that "the use of isolation for Palestinian child detainees is solely for interrogation purposes to obtain a confession and/or gather intelligence or information on other individuals."

They highlighted the case of Rami K., 18, who was held in solitary confinement for 16 days for interrogation purposes. He reported that he was interrogated for 45 hours over a period of days, and that his hands and feet were bound to a metal chair during interrogation in stress positions. Rami is currently serving a 10 month prison sentence and a 3000 NIS fine ($780). He will spend another three months in prison if his family cannot pay.

The Israeli occupation prosecutes nearly 700 Palestinian children each year in military courts, alongside its use of administrative detention against Palestinian child prisoners. Two debates have been held in the British parliament on Palestinian children in Israeli military custody in 2016,  while 20 members of the U.S. Congress urged President Obama to appoint a "special envoy for Palestinian youth," to address issues relating to the human rights of Palestinian children and youth. Meanwhile, the Israeli state is escalating laws used to punish and imprison Palestinian children.

As DCI notes:

"The amendments to the Israeli penal code in 2015 included stricter penalties in mandatory sentencing laws such as a maximum 10 year sentence for throwing a stone, or other object, at traffic, without intent to cause injury, and 20 years for throwing a stone, or other object, at traffic with intent to cause injury. While the 20-year maximum sentencing existed prior to 2015, the word “stone” was added to specifically target Palestinian society.

Minimum penalties for stone-throwing offenses, one-fifth of the maximum penalty, were also added to the penal code. In a controversial decision, the Knesset, or Israeli parliament, added to the scope of punishment the denial of National Insurance benefits to families whose members have been convicted of throwing stones.

According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), proposals are also in the works to impose life sentencing for children under the age of 14."

The Orange Man

The Orange Man

 By Uri Avnery

SO HERE we are. Either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be our next president.

"Our"? I am not a US citizen, and have no desire to be one.

But I live in a world in which the USA is the sole superpower, in which every decision of the US administration has an impact on the lives of every human being.

FOR ME AS a citizen of Israel, this impact is much greater than for most and much more immediate. I just saw a cartoon showing both Trump and Hillary crawling on the ground and licking the boots of an Israeli soldier. This is not too much of an exaggeration.

Both candidates claim to be unwavering supporters of "Israel". But what does that mean? Do they support all sections of Israeli society?

Certainly not. They support one certain part of Israel: the ultra-right-wing government of Binyamin Netanyahu, which is supported by the American Jewish billionaires who contribute to their coffers.

Supporting Netanyahu and his even more right-wing coalition partners means acting against me and millions of other Israelis who can see that Netanyahu is leading our state to disaster.

Yet I have no right to vote. It is a clear case of "no representation", imposed on me and some billions of other human beings.

BE THAT as it may, I have a clear interest in this election. So I want at least to express my opinion.

Right at the beginning, I wrote that Donald Trump reminded me in some ways of Adolf Hitler.

Now, after all the primaries and conventions, as the race assumes its final form, I am afraid that I must repeat that terrible assessment.

Of course, there are huge dissimilarities. The man looks different. He has orange-colored hair. His body language is different, and so is his style of speech.

Different times. Different countries. Different circumstances.

And, first of all, different media. Hitler was a product of the radio. It was his voice, a unique instrument, that conquered the German masses. I am told that today's German young people burst into laughter when they see old clips of Hitler's speeches.

Trump is a creation of the TV era. He dominates the small screen. He beat all his rivals on TV. He will easily beat Hillary on TV. If the battle were fought only on TV, it would already have been decided for good.

THE SIMILARITY between Trump and Hitler exists on a different level.

In the center of Trump's entire campaign there stands one word, indeed one letter: "I". There is no "We". No normal ideology. No real program.

It is all about "I", about Trump. Trump will come. Trump will fix everything.

That was the essence of Hitlerism, too. The man had no real program. (Yes, there was something called "the 24 points", put together by the party's ideologues, but Hitler ignored them completely. Once he exclaimed in despair: "I wish we had never heard of them!")

This was also true of the man who invented Fascism: Benito Mussolini. The Italian dictator, Hitler's teacher in many ways, did not know the word "we" either. The first of the "Ten Commandments" of fascism was: "Mussolini is always right".  So with Trump.

The absolute centrality of the Leader is the hallmark of fascism. Trump's program is Trump.

THIS BEING so, all of Trump's declarations and policy statements are totally unimportant. Pundits who analyze them, who turn them over and over, who look for hidden meanings, are just wasting their time. There is no real meaning, either open or hidden.

Statements are made on the spur of the moment because they suit Trump at that moment. They are forgotten the next, sometimes to be replaced by the opposite. They are an instrument, nothing more.

This is why it is so easy to catch Trump uttering a lie. I have seen lists of dozens of them, one more blatant than the next.

There again we have the example of Adolf Hitler. In his book "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") he speaks about this openly. The book itself is quite boring, the product of a third-rate mind, but it includes several chapters about "propaganda" which are fascinating.

(Many people credit Joseph Goebbels with the invention of Nazi propaganda. But the "little doctor" was only a disciple of the Fuehrer himself.)

As a front-line soldier throughout the four years of World War I (yet never rising above the rank of lance-corporal) Hitler was immensely impressed by the British propaganda effort aimed at the German lines. Hitler admired the British slogans, which to him were a pack of lies. One of his conclusions was that the bigger the lie, the bigger its chances of being believed, since a simple person cannot imagine that anybody would dare to lie so much.

(Actually, Hitler vastly overestimated the effectiveness of the British propaganda. It started to have effect only when the German lines were already crumbling.)

There seems to be no lie too big for Donald Trump. His followers do not mind. Truth means nothing to them. Trump trumps truth every time.

HILLARY CLINTON is a good, ordinary politician. Her outstanding attribute is that she is a woman. That, by itself, is very important. Though Golda Meir taught me that a woman can be as catastrophic as a man.

You can, with fair assurance, imagine what a Hillary Clinton presidency would look like. She is dependable, predictable. More of the same, though without the charm of Barack (and Michelle!) Obama.

No one can predict a Trump presidency. Every prediction is a leap in the dark.

One thing seems real: his admiration for Vladimir Putin. Though he is the very opposite of the cool, calculating, bold but cautious former KGB apparatchik, Trump seems to admire him.

There is not much evidence that the admiration is mutual, but it seems certain that today's successors of the KGB are interfering actively in the American election, doing their utmost to help Trump and sabotage Hillary.

Trump has already declared that he would not automatically come to the aid of Latvia, it [it if] this former Soviet and now NATO country were attacked by Russia. Has Latvia paid for its defense?

("Mr. President, the Russian army has just invaded Latvia! Shall we send our troops in?" – "Wait, wait! First check if the damn Latvians have paid their dues to NATO!")  

A US-Russian rapprochement may be a good thing. The present American knee-jerk enmity towards everything Russian is a remnant of the Cold War and bad for the world at large. I don't see why the two powers cannot cooperate in many fields.

Towards the third power, China, the Trump attitude is the opposite. He wants to annul the trade agreements and bring the jobs back home. Even I, a non-economist, can see that this is nonsense.

And so forth. It's all like seeing a man about to jump from the roof out of sheer curiosity.  

The Germans who voted in April 1933 for Adolf Hitler and his party did not dream about World War II, though Hitler was already resolved to conquer Eastern Europe and open it up for German colonization. They were hypnotized by Hitler's personality. And – unlike the President of the USA - the German Reichskanzler was not the most important leader in the world.

I HATE the choice of the Lesser Evil. In twenty Israeli election campaigns (except the four in which I was myself a candidate) I have voted for parties I did not like very much and for candidates I did not trust at all.

But this is a fact of life. If there is no candidate you can root for, you take the one who can cause the minimum damage. In 1933 my father voted for a German conservative party, because he believed that they were the only ones who had a chance of stopping the Nazis. As Pierre Mendes-France once said: "to live is to choose".

I want to say to all my American friends: Go out and vote for Hillary, whether you like her or not. Liking does not really come into it.

Don't stay at home. Not voting means voting for Trump.

An old Jewish joke speaks about a rich Jew, who was detested by everyone in the community. When he died, nobody was prepared to make the funeral speech, in which one is allowed by custom only to say positive things. At long last one person volunteered.

"We all know that the dear deceased was an awful person," he said. "But compared to his son he was an angel!"

Well, Hillary Clinton is not awful. She is an acceptable candidate. But compared to Donald Trump, she is an angel.