Does the Israeli government know or care what it’s doing? And what if it does? (via The Guardian): Virtually all we know we get from reports like these. U.S. medics trapped in Gaza share emotional testimonies Perhaps one of the American doctors from the group tells NPR: Dr. Adam Hamawy, a U.S. doctor and former U.S. Army combat surgeon who is currently in Gaza, says he has “never in my career witnessed the level of atrocities and targeting of my medical colleagues as I have in Gaza.” Hospitals in Gaza are reported on the verge of collapse. “The weight of it all” Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan shares with Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo her experience working two weeks in Gaza. It’s not pretty (40 min video): “What I saw [in Gaza]… was utter and complete carnage,” Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan tells author and Zeteo contributor Fatima Bhutto in the latest episode of ‘The Exchange.’ Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor, recently spent two weeks in Gaza working at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central part of the enclave.
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Q: Viktor Orbán seized control of universities and put them in foundations that were run by his allies. He rewrote the Constitution, he neutered the courts, and he has tried to control the media. Is that what you’re advocating for in the US? Trump VP contender Vance: I think he’s made smart decisions that we could learn from in the United States There you have it. As Michael Tomasky writes in the intro to The New Republic’s issue on American fascism: [A]nyone transported back to 1932 Germany could very, very easily have explained away Herr Hitler’s excesses and been persuaded that his critics were going overboard. After all, he spent 1932 campaigning, negotiating, doing interviews—being a mostly normal politician. But he and his people vowed all along that they would use the tools of democracy to destroy it, and it was only after he was given power that Germany saw his movement’s full face. Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism.
Into your life it will creep Is anyone keeping a list? A list of the “I know you are but what am I?” behaviors of which the right accuses its adversaries while indulging in same with gusto? Indoctrination? Extremism? Propaganda? Intimidation? There must be a listing somewhere, but I’m too tired of the BS to go looking just now. The breaking news Thursday night was a photo of an upside down American flag flown outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va. on January 17, 2021. Days after the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol by MAGA extremists on January 6 and three days before Joe Biden’s inauguration as Donald Trump’s replacement. Alito blames his wife. Election rigging? Death threats? Political violence? Hating America? Upside down display of the American flag is a considered a signal of distress. Donald Trump’s Stop the Steal cult appropriated the signal as a sign of alarm that a Democrat was about to occupy the Oval Office in his place. It is unclear how many days it flew outside Alito’s home, The New York Times reports.
No, not Lieberman Only a fraction of American adults are stock investors, but it’s a large fraction (61%). Many of the more heavily invested will be cashing dividend checks while claiming the economy has gone bust under Joe Biden. So it goes. The news has yet to trickle down to others that, yeah, people’s lives are improving under Joe Biden, as Michael Tomasky wrote this week: Politico and Morning Consult asked respondents a series of questions about all the major economic legislation Biden has signed. Majorities know little or nothing at all about the infrastructure bill, the CHIPS act, the American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act. And get this: While 40 percent said Biden has done more than Trump on infrastructure, 37 percent said Trump had done more. In January, NBC found that Trump has a 22-point advantage over Biden on the question of whom voters trust more with the economy—up 15 points from the same poll in 2020. […] It’s largely a media problem.
It’s almost quaint now to look back at the shock we all felt at presidential candidate Donald Trump attacking the judge presiding in the Trump University fraud lawsuit as biased because he was Latino and Trump was talking about building a border wall. Most Americans assumed that it would be impossible that such a disrespectful and, frankly, racist person could be elected in the 21st century but as it turned out that was just a preview of many such attacks to come. (That lawsuit eventually settled for $25 million) Because Trump is such an inveterate lawbreaker, he has been the subject of many legal cases over the years and biographers and armchair psychologists have speculated that his strategy has always been to publicly denigrate the judges and the prosecutors in these cases due to his father’s admonition that one must always fight with everything they have. But it’s just as likely that he’s following the advice of his mentor, the odious attorney Roy Cohn who has been called “one of the most reviled men in American history.” If anything it was Cohn who pulled Trump out from under his father’s shadow.
Well this is scary… Dairy farmers are hiding likely bird flu cases from government officials, coping with the virus’s symptoms in their herds while avoiding testing, one dairy industry representative told NOTUS. Already distrustful of government, worried about economic and reputational damage and increasingly skeptical of public health officials following the COVID-19 pandemic, many farmers see no reason to test their cattle or engage with federal officials, Rick Naerebout, the CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, said. “Nationwide, the vast majority of cases are not reported,” Naerebout said. “Dairymen understand they have it based on the symptoms, but they don’t get a confirmation. They’re just managing through the disease.” Cattle have tested positive in 42 herds as of May 10, but the actual number of affected herds is unknown. The USDA now requires a negative test for cattle to move across state lines, but no federal agency can mandate testing on the farms or go onto the farms without permission from the owners. Government requests to test farmers’ cows have mostly been ignored.
We have has the rather stomach churning experience of watching stars of the GOP establishment descend on Donald Trump’s criminal trial this week to defy a judge’s order and claim that the justice system is corrupt because it deigns to hold their Dear leader to account for his crimes. If you want to see how this degradation of the rule of law is playing out in everyday life, witness this shocking move in Texas. You may recall the case of Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran who was attending a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 and was, as is legal in Texas openly carrying a rifle. A man named Daniel Perry drove his car into the protesters and Foster (who was white) confronted him without raising his gun, Perry shot him five times. As JV Last points out in his piece on this at The Bulwark: The case had everything Republicans love: A peaceful protest with people exercising their First Amendment rights. A veteran lawfully exercising his Second Amendment right. And before the murder the killer had been searching the internet for young girls and sending sexually explicit texts to a minor. The only problem was the protest itself: It was a Black Lives Matter protest.
Baby Snow Leopards! The forecast was right: we have snow in May! Your Guardians of Wild are proud to share that overnight on Monday May 13th, three-year old snow leopard Jita gave birth to two cubs after a 97-day pregnancy. Jita and her new cubs are NOT currently visible to guests visiting the Toronto Zoo, but updates will be shared in the days and weeks to come about how and when guests will be able to view these little snowballs. Jita’s cubs, sired by nine-year-old Pemba, came into the world following a few hours of labour. Wildlife Care, watching on remote cameras, observed her laboured breathing as well as circling and rolling (signs of impending birth) around 7:30pm. The first cub was born at 7:45pm, followed by the arrival of her second cub in the early hours of Tuesday, May 14th. Jita is doing very well as a first-time mother and is diligently nursing, grooming, and cuddling her “snowballs.” Her Wildlife Care team is monitoring the new family closely via CCTV cameras to minimize any disturbance, and will be closely observing the development of the cubs. More information will be shared as it becomes available.
Y’all need no more context ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.