Tag: Death

Turkey

Is Turkey’s Prosecution of Shady Builders after 12,141 Structures Collapse in Earthquake a Model for going after Big Oil for Climate Disasters?

Just as shoddy construction was responsible for many of the earthquake deaths, carbon dioxide emissions will be understood to have provoked the climate-related disaster. At that point the government may well be under enormous pressure from the public to issue arrest warrants for officials at Big Carbon corporations.

Remember that Hollywood Mogul Harvey Weinstein, a serial abuser of women, was untouchable until he wasn’t. Likewise, judges used to throw out suits against Big Tobacco by surviving relatives of lung cancer victims, but then in 2000 Philip Morris lost such a case and had to pay out $51.4 million to a single family.

The carbon polluters day is coming, too.

 

Source: Is Turkey’s Prosecution of Shady Builders after 12,141 Structures Collapse in Earthquake a Model for going after Big Oil for Climate Disasters?

Republicans

Republicans Are The Party Of Sickness And Death | Crooks and Liars

We know that Republicans want schoolchildren and other Americans to keep dying in mass shootings, because preserving easy access to AR-15s is much more important than preventing massacres. We know that Republicans want women who are experiencing ectopic pregnancies not to have access to appropriate care, because women’s deaths are the inevitable collateral damage that comes from banning all abortions. We know that Republicans hate vaccines now. But they never stop trying to find new ways to hurt people, because when they do, we howl in outrage, and there’s no sweeter sound to a Republican voter.

Republicans Are The Party Of Sickness And Death | Crooks and Liars
Russians

‘Evil that knows no bounds’: Russians strike busy train station

Ukraine is again collecting dead civilians and body parts after the Russians launched a strike on a busy train station where thousands of people were trying to flee the onslaught of invaders. Ukraine said at least 50 people were killed and 100 injured in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, by the impact of the missile which reportedly had the Russian words ‘For children’ written on its side.

Source: ‘Evil that knows no bounds’: Russians strike busy train station

America

Are we normalizing the “death of democracy” by talking about it so much? Definitely not | Salon.com

Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

As much as we may critique the democratic system in the United States for not living up to its name, or the Democratic Party for not getting enough done, what we now face is dire. Trump himself may not precisely fit the “classic” definition of a fascist leader — we can quibble about that around the edges — but he’s close enough for many experts. More to the point, he is a nonstop liar, a conman and a sociopath. He doesn’t care about his own followers, only about himself. No such person should be in a leadership position at any level.

Source: Are we normalizing the “death of democracy” by talking about it so much? Definitely not | Salon.com

COVID-19

Trump and his regime committed — or at least condoned — mass murder. America just doesn’t care | Salon.com

Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Here’s a thought experiment: If these same events, meaning Trump’s handling of the pandemic and his regime’s numerous other crimes against democracy and human decency, had taken place in another country, how would the American people and news media respond?

Such a country would be labeled as an international pariah. The regime and its leaders would be described as tyrants and criminals. There would be calls for regime change, and many members of the international community would demand that the wrongdoers be brought to trial for crimes against humanity at the Hague.

Here’s a thought experiment: If these same events, meaning Trump’s handling of the pandemic and his regime’s numerous other crimes against democracy and human decency, had taken place in another country, how would the American people and news media respond? Such a country would be labeled as an international pariah. The regime and its leaders would be described as tyrants and criminals. There would be calls for regime change, and many members of the international community would demand that the wrongdoers be brought to trial for crimes against humanity at the Hague.

Source: Trump and his regime committed — or at least condoned — mass murder. America just doesn’t care | Salon.com

Climate Change

Record-breaking US Pacific north-west heatwave killed almost 200 people | US weather | The Guardian

People sleep at a cooling shelter set up during an unprecedented heatwave in Portland, Oregon, 27 June.

The death toll from the record-breaking heatwave that struck the US Pacific north-west last week has risen to nearly 200, with health authorities reporting 116 deaths in Oregon and 78 in Washington state.

Source: Record-breaking US Pacific north-west heatwave killed almost 200 people | US weather | The Guardian

Democracy

Supreme Court Ruling Delivers ‘Dark, Dark Day for Democracy’ | Common Dreams News

SCOTUS

“We are now on a clear path to enshrining a constitutional right to anonymous spending in our democracy, and securing an upper hand for dark-money influence in perpetuity.”

Source: Supreme Court Ruling Delivers ‘Dark, Dark Day for Democracy’ | Common Dreams News

America

Man Dies In Police Custody For Failure To Produce ID | Crooks and Liars

Man Dies In Police Custody For Failure To Produce ID

On April 19, 26-year-old Mario Gonzalez, a father living in Oakland, California, died after what Alameda police originally called a “medical emergency.” Gonzalez, according to police, had suffered this emergency after a “scuffle” with police, who were attempting to arrest Gonzalez for not being able to produce identification. On April 27, the City of Alameda posted an hour-long video of the events from one of the police officers’ body cameras. As with most of these tragic stories, what the police initially told Gonzalez’s family does not line up with what is on the video.

Source: Man Dies In Police Custody For Failure To Produce ID | Crooks and Liars

India

In Delhi alone, COVID kills another Indian every 4 minutes

India coronavirus

Overwhelmed hospitals in India are begging for oxygen supplies as the country’s coronavirus infections soars again in a “tsunami” of disease, setting a world record for cases for the third consecutive day.

Source: In Delhi alone, COVID kills another Indian every 4 minutes

drugs, War on Drugs

As Overdoses Reach New Highs, Messaging on Addiction Needs More Nuance | Washington Monthly
Homeless Depressed Man Sitting in Cold Subway Tunnel

While Portugal fixes it’s drug problems. The LNP have allowed ourselves to become a carbon copy of America in every way and it’s cost lives (ODT)

Now is a good time to do some rethinking. Soon there will be new directors of key federal agencies with major public outreach responsibilities — the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration the Office of National Drug Control Policy (aka the office of the Drug Czar). We urge them and the Biden Administration to heed this insight on shaping public opinion about addiction and its treatment.

As Overdoses Reach New Highs, Messaging on Addiction Needs More Nuance | Washington Monthly
Yemen

‘Famine Not Seen in 40 Years’: UN Warns Pompeo Decision in Yemen Could Lead to Hundreds of Thousands—If Not Millions—Dead | Common Dreams News
A malnourished child receives medical treatment at Al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen on December 13, 2020. (Photo: Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“It literally is going to be a death sentence,” said the World Food Programme chief about the U.S. Secretary of State’s decision to label the Houthis a terrorist organization.

‘Famine Not Seen in 40 Years’: UN Warns Pompeo Decision in Yemen Could Lead to Hundreds of Thousands—If Not Millions—Dead | Common Dreams News
Coronavirus

Coronavirus: Hospitalised COVID-19 patients hit record 90,000 in US ahead of expected surge
Medical staff wear their photos outside their PPE in COVID ICU at a hospital in Texas.

Deaths Rate has increased by 68%

The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States has reached 90,000 after nearly doubling in the past month, just as holiday gatherings are expected to propel the next wave of infections.

Coronavirus: Hospitalised COVID-19 patients hit record 90,000 in US ahead of expected surge
Trump, Trumpland

Trump’s Republican death cult soon to lose office

THE STATES IN THE USA which have most avidly supported soon-to-be-ex-President Donald Trump have paid a heavy price for their fealty. Deaths from suicide, gun violence and the COVID-19 pandemic have been much higher there than where Trump’s toxic authority has been rejected.

Trump’s Republican death cult soon to lose office
Australia's Shame

‘National emergency’: urgent leadership needed after fifth Aboriginal death in custody since June | Australia news | The Guardian
large group of marchers with placards protesting deaths in custody

Five Aboriginal deaths in custody since June is a national emergency that needs urgent leadership, the national Aboriginal and islander legal services has said. The death of 49-year-old Sherry Fisher-Tilberoo last week while on remand in the Brisbane watch-house is the fifth Aboriginal death in custody since June, bringing to at least 441 the number of people who have died in custody since the royal commission handed down its final report in 1991.

‘National emergency’: urgent leadership needed after fifth Aboriginal death in custody since June | Australia news | The Guardian
Coronavirus, Uncategorized

As Covid-19 persists around the world, death is not the only outcome to fear | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian

Covid testing

Unfortunately, the damage that Covid-19 causes is almost certainly not confined entirely to the death rate. We may not know for some time exactly what else it causes, but even now we have enough evidence to know that there are other problems out there. Letting everyone get infected is a strategy that, even ignoring the enormous death toll, could leave us much worse off as a society.

via As Covid-19 persists around the world, death is not the only outcome to fear | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian

Trump, Trumpland, Uncategorized

The Assassin-in-Chief Comes Home

The act of encouraging members of his base to court death is clearly that of a man without an ounce of empathy, even for those who love and admire him most — and so of a stone-cold killer. You couldn’t ask for more proof that the only sense of empathy he has lies overwhelmingly in his deep and abiding pity for himself (which matches his staggering sense of self-aggrandizement) and perhaps for his children, other billionaires, and fossil-fuel executives. Them, he would save; the rest of us, his base included, are expendable. He’d sacrifice any of us without a second thought if he imagined that it would benefit him or his reelection in any way.

But there’s no point in leaving it at that. After all, as he pushes for a too-swiftly reopened country, he’s declaring open season on Americans of all sorts. And every one of us who will die too soon should be considered another Covidfire missile death and chalked up to a president who, by the time this is over, will truly have given a new meaning to the phrase assassin-in-chief.

via The Assassin-in-Chief Comes Home

Economy, Uncategorized

Saving the economy or lives: The new neoliberal ‘debate’

The Economy is a system of institutionalised patterns of behaviours that have changed over the years. This pandemic has brought out its current inability to serve all Australians and is in need of serious change. People have always been sacrificed for “the economy” it’s time the economy was sacrificed to accommodate all Australians so death isn’t structured to simply serve it. The economy isn’t an Aztec God. The Aged, immune-deficient, Indigenous, homeless addicted and poor aren’t simply expendables. All parents would sacrifice themselves for the children’s future if given the choice. However, all parents don’t have that privilege some are simply systematically made to. America is finding that COVID-19 is shining a light on their Racism. 40% of deaths are Afro-American in areas where they are only 20% of the population. Equality is the myth, the economy its agent of death. (ODT)

Saving the economy or lives: The new neoliberal ‘debate’

Trump, Uncategorized

Trump Officials Had No Idea When Or Where ‘Imminent’ Iran Attacks Would Happen | HuffPost Australia

This is the man who pulled the trigger on the death of 176 Passengers a global terrorist posing as a President needs to be sacked and tried. (ODT)

Trump Officials Had No Idea When Or Where ‘Imminent’ Iran Attacks Would Happen
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Friday that despite the lack of specifics, the attacks were really, really imminent.

via Trump Officials Had No Idea When Or Where ‘Imminent’ Iran Attacks Would Happen | HuffPost Australia

Israel

Are Palestinian Journalists Being Censored by Murder?

For years the Israeli censorship office, as it is called, has used tactics to try to punish journalists covering Israel’s occupation of Palestine. For example, Israel threatened to close down the BBC for its airing of a documentary on Israel’s nuclear weapons. Israel is now threatening to close down the offices of Al Jazeera for doing their job: reporting critically on Israel’s denial of freedom. The targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza is an extension of this: in the eyes of Israel’s military establishment there ‘are no innocents in Gaza’ including journalists.

via Are Palestinian Journalists Being Censored by Murder?

Poverty Industry

When industries come first, people die – » The Australian Independent Media Network

As we watch the ridiculous debate about coal unfold again, driven by the resources and manufacturing industries with nary a mention of the economic and social cost of climate change and pollution, governments around the world collude with another industry to cause even greater immediate harm and the death and displacement of millions of people.

In 2016, total world military spending was $1.69 trillion. Sales of arms and military services across the world totalled $374.8 billion.

via When industries come first, people die – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel

Brutality is the only answer Israel has to Gaza’s civil disobedience | +972 Magazine

Palestinians youth collect tires to burn them during demonstrations in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, April 4, 2018. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Israel issues the Death Penalty for Civil Disobedience

It is impossible to know what will happen along the border with Gaza in the coming weeks. But one thing is certain: Israel will continue to respond with brutality and arrogance in the face of Palestinian nonviolent civil disobedience.

via Brutality is the only answer Israel has to Gaza’s civil disobedience | +972 Magazine

Immigration

When Deportation is a Death Sentence: The Fatal Consequences of U.S. Immigration Policy | Democracy Now!

s1 immigrant deporation deaths

Despite living her whole adult life in Texas, she was deported to Mexico after a traffic stop. She warned a U.S. Border Patrol agent, “When I am found dead, it will be on your conscience.” Within a week of her deportation, she was murdered by her ex-husband.

via When Deportation is a Death Sentence: The Fatal Consequences of U.S. Immigration Policy | Democracy Now!

Racism

Racial bias found in Texas death penalty cases, Harvard Law School study says | US news | The Guardian

Harris County was named one of 16 ‘outlier’ counties in the US, where five or more death sentences were assessed between 2010 and 2015

Source: Racial bias found in Texas death penalty cases, Harvard Law School study says | US news | The Guardian

human story

Police brutality and homelessness collide in aftermath of San Francisco killing | US news | The Guardian

luis gongora san francisco homeless police killing blue tent

The story of Luis Gongora, shot dead by police this week, reflects city’s twin crises and raises alarming questions about the official and witness accounts of the shooting

Source: Police brutality and homelessness collide in aftermath of San Francisco killing | US news | The Guardian

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison “facilities on Manus are the equivalent of the mainland.” Why wasn’t his cut attended to? Why weren’t people warned? Morrison stays silent.

Hamid Kehazaei was evacuated to the mainland.

Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei died from rare bacterial infection from Manus Island

Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei is reported to have died on Manus Island from a rare bacterial infection that has a high mortality rate.

A worker on the island told Fairfax Media Mr Kehazaei died from severe septicemia after having been kept for a week on the island by the International Health and Medical Service after cutting his foot.

The bacteria was found in tropical and subtropical climates in soil and stagnant water mostly during summer, and cases of infection had been reported in Australia, south-east Asia, India, Argentina and south-east United States.

A man who said he was a former Manus Island detainee, Ali Mesbahi, told the ABC they were told to be vigilant about covering up cuts to prevent infections but doctors were not able to assess Mr Kehazaei’s condition because they were booked out.

Leaked documents, obtained by Fairfax Media and reported at the time of Mr Kehazaei’s death, revealed a pattern of medical negligence on the island, including untreated skin infections, tooth decay and tropical diseases.

Mr Morrison said the government would wait until the coroner’s report before issuing a statement about Mr Kehazaei’s death.