The Evening Blues - 10-23-24

Submitted by joe shikspack on Wed, 10/23/2024 - 3:47pm

eb1pt12

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: The 5 Royales

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b/doo wop group The 5 Royales. Enjoy!

^{The 5 Royales - I Got To Know}

"Beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing."

-- Aesop

News and Opinion

When The Holocaust Returned It Came Denouncing Anti-Semitism And Wearing A Star Of David

When the Holocaust returned it came denouncing anti-semitism and wearing a Star of David.

It was never going to look how we were expecting. It wasn’t going to show up in its old familiar costume with the bent cross and the tiny mustache, blaming all the problems on the Jews.

It had to look different. If it didn’t look different, we never would have let it in the door.

And that’s still what’s throwing a lot of people off: it looks different. It doesn’t look like what all all the World War II movies and Holocaust novels conditioned us to watch out for. In fact, it looks so different that the victims in the last story have the same religion as the antagonists in the new one.

Pointing to Gaza, an Israeli settler says it is akin to a cut in the body.

“When you have a cut, you have to take out the infection. Then it’ll be clean again…”

That’s how he describes the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/UdVP0Sq0s8

— Hamza Yusuf (@Hamza_a96) October 22, 2024

That old aphorism “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” is true because people don’t tend to make the exact same mistake in the same way twice, but the conditioning which led them to make the first mistake will often lead them to make a second similar one. We’ve all been made far too familiar with the Nazi extermination program to ever consent to Jews being rounded up and loaded onto trains again, but we also didn’t purge from our civilization all the murderousness, hatred and tyranny which made it possible. That’s why this new Holocaust has been allowed to happen.

We’ve all been conditioned to watch out for the next Hitler, but there’s never going to be another Hitler. We’ve been so focused on looking out for the Hitler who never comes that many of us missed when we started singing verses that rhyme with the ones we were hearing in Germany eight decades ago.

People assume what’s happening in Gaza can’t be an actual genocide, because the news media keep assuring everyone that’s not what we’re looking at, and so do the politicians in both parties.

“This can’t possibly be what it looks like,” people say. “If it was, we would have heard about it in the news.”

The villains in this new story don’t look like the villains in the old story, and, if you are a properly indoctrinated westerner, they might not look like villains at all. They might just look like Jews defending themselves from terrorists and western governments rightly defending their dear ally — which is exactly what they should do if they want to prevent another Holocaust!

But it’s that very misperception which is making today’s Holocaust possible. This mass atrocity is being tolerated by huge parts of the population exactly because we see it as intolerable for large numbers of Jews to be killed by those who hate them, not understanding that the people who were killed on October 7 were killed not because of their religion, but because they were part of a settler-colonialist project which is premised on the perpetual abuse of a preexisting indigenous population.

“I just think we need to kill them. Every last one of them”

Genocidal Israeli on Sky News pic.twitter.com/kHNrYDF4ew

— Stevie McGlinchey (@steviemcglinchy) October 22, 2024

People defend Israel’s actions on the grounds that Israel has reasons for doing things the way it’s doing them. They have to bomb Gaza — they suffered an unprovoked attack from a bunch of evil terrorists. They have to bomb all the hospitals and schools and mosques — that’s where Hamas are hiding. They have to bomb areas that are packed full of children — Hamas are using those children as human shields.

But those who commit mass atrocities always justify their actions. They always have reasons for doing them. They always frame it as a necessary act of self-preservation.

That was always what the next Holocaust was going to look like. It was never going to feature new bad guys who cackle and twist their mustaches saying “Haha, we are evil! Let’s kill a bunch of people because we are evil!” They were always going to frame themselves as the heroes and victims, and the other side as the villains and victimizers. They were always going to offer a bunch of reasons why what they’re doing is actually good and righteous, even though it looks evil on its face.

If we are to prevent genocidal atrocities, we need to be able to recognize what’s happening in real time, and we can’t do that if we’re expecting them to show up in familiar and instantly recognizable packaging. We need to be able to see through the manipulations and justifications in the here and now so we can stop it in its tracks instead of waiting for history to judge it in our rearview mirror after it’s already happened.

This is important to recognize when it comes to saving Gaza, and it’s important to recognize when it comes to preventing the Holocausts of the future as well. They will never look identical to the Holocausts of the past. Their form will be unprecedented, and they will have different justifications for their orchestration. But they will rhyme. And we need to be able to pick up on that as it happens.

Dennis Kucinich : Why Governments Kill

Israel confirms killing of Hashem Safieddine, presumed next leader of Hezbollah

Israel has confirmed the killing of the presumed next leader of Hezbollah in an airstrike on southern Beirut earlier in October. In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Israeli military said strikes in the suburb of Dahiyeh had killed Hashem Safieddine and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of the militant group’s intelligence branch, three weeks ago.

It was the first time Israel confirmed the killing of the most senior political official in Hezbollah after the former secretary general Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah had yet to comment on Israel’s claim.

Safieddine was the head of Hezbollah’s highest political decision-making body, the executive council, and was reportedly picked as the successor to Nasrallah some years ago. He was also a cousin of the former secretary general and was seen as having much of the same charisma that inspired the cult of personality around Nasrallah.

His fate was unknown after Israeli strikes on Dahiyeh on 3 October, which Israel said were targeting an underground bunker where the senior leader was living. Hezbollah had reportedly not been able to re-establish contact with Safieddine since the strike and rescue workers were prevented from reaching the site of the bombing.

With the killing of Safieddine, only Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, remains from Hezbollah’s public-facing senior leadership. Qassem has been the face of the group since the assassination of Nasrallah, but he does not enjoy the same popularity among Hezbollah supporters that the late secretary general had. It remains unknown who will take the helm as the next leader of the group.

Max Blumenthal : The Zionist View of Human Life

‘Utter ruin’: Gaza economy would take 350 years to return to pre-conflict level, UN says

Gaza’s economy has been left in “utter ruin” by the year-long war between Israel and Hamas, and it would take 350 years to return to its pre-conflict levels, the United Nations has warned. In a report on the economic costs of the war prepared by its trade and development wing (Unctad), the UN said the fighting since Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis on 7 October last year had devastated the remnants of Gaza’s economy and infrastructure.

The report, presented to last month’s UN general assembly, said economic activity across Gaza – which had been weak before the war – had ground to a halt, apart from minimum humanitarian health and food services provided under conditions of severe water, fuel and electricity shortages, and significant access constraints.

Construction output was down by 96%, agriculture output by 93%, manufacturing by 92% and services sector output by 76%. Meanwhile, unemployment reached 81.7% in the first quarter of 2024, a rate the UN said was likely to worsen or persist for as long as the military operation continued. “The intense military operations in Gaza resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian, environmental and social catastrophe and propelled Gaza from de-development to utter ruin,” the report said.

“Once a ceasefire is reached, a return to the 2007–2022 growth trend would imply that it would take Gaza 350 years just to restore GDP to its level in 2022.” The report said the past 12 months of military action had followed a period between 2007 and 2022 when the economy of Gaza had been severely affected by restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of goods and people.

The UN said the income loss caused by the restrictions and military operations was “staggering”.

Israel mulls using private security contractors to deliver aid to Gaza

Israel is weighing the use of private security contractors – possibly involving UK special forces veterans – to deliver aid to Gaza, as conditions in the north of the strip worsen dramatically, the Guardian has learned. According to an Israeli official, the security cabinet discussed the issue on Sunday, before an expected vote in the Knesset next week on two bills that would ban the UN relief agency, Unrwa, from operating in Israel. If passed, the bills would severely curtail the operations of by far the biggest aid operation in Gaza.

After more than a year of bombardment, all form of law and order has collapsed in Gaza, where the population is desperate and armed gangs run much of what is left of its urban areas. Security threats are a major obstacle to aid deliveries, including the threat of attack by Israeli forces. Aid agencies have resisted being part of militarised convoys, state or privately run, for fear of being targeted as being party to the conflict.

“There’s a reason that humanitarians don’t operate this way,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior aid official in the Biden administration, now president of Refugees International. “The US, during the peak ‘war on terror’ era, occasionally experimented with military contractors and this kind of militarised aid delivery, and it was always a disaster.” Konyndyk added: “US-funded contractors that took an armed security approach got hit a lot because they were seen as combatants.”

Mordechai “Moti” Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman whose firm, Global Delivery Company (GDC), is bidding for the Gaza aid delivery contract, said the Israeli cabinet did not formally make a decision on Sunday on the grounds that it was up to the defence ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). ...

A spokesperson for the US Agency for International Development said: “USAid has not been in contact with and is not funding GDC. We have not discussed any such plan with the GoI [Israeli government].” The USAid spokesperson referred to “trusted and experienced UN and NGO partners” and added: “Any type of security or political arrangement must ensure sustained access for humanitarians and freedom of movement for civilians, including voluntary, safe, and dignified returns or resettlement.”

Blinken is back for another round of fake peace-mission theatre.

Blinken meets Netanyahu in renewed US push for Gaza ceasefire

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Israel to encourage efforts to revive the stalled Gaza ceasefire negotiations after Israel’s killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, last week.

Meeting the Israeli prime minister, Blinken urged Benjamin Netanyahu to capitalise on the death of the Hamas leader by securing the release of the 7 October attack hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza.

A US state department spokesperson added that Blinken had also emphasised to Netanyahu on the need for Israel to boost humanitarian assistance into Gaza, during a two-and-a-half-hour meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Blinken, who has made multiple fruitless trips to the region, arrived to little evidence that either Israel or Hamas were open to movement on their preconditions for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than a year of an Israeli offensive has claimed more than 42,000 Palestinian lives.

With the US election just two weeks away, the US president, Joe Biden, asked Blinken to return to press for progress, seeing new hope after Israel’s killing of Sinwar.

'FLATTEN Gaza': Inside IDF Battalion Year Of Destruction

Netanyahu Declines Blinken Request To Publicly Reject Gaza Ethnic Cleansing Plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides rejected a request from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to publicly say that Israel is not implementing an ethnic cleansing plan in northern Gaza, known as the “general’s plan,” The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The report said Netanyahu and his top aide Ron Dermer told Blinken that the general’s plan was “absolutely not our policy” and that the perception has been “deeply damaging to us.” But when asked to state that publicly, they declined. ...

While Israeli officials have told the US they’re not carrying out the ethnic cleansing plan, Israeli soldiers told Haaretz last week that it’s already underway in northern Gaza, where Israel has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee to the south and imposed a full siege. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed by the renewed assault, which has been focused on the Jabalia refugee camp.

Excellent interview, worth a watch:

"We Have Lost All Credibility": Hala Rharrit on Quitting State Dept. & Ending Complicity in Gaza

Israel ethnically cleanses Jabalia refugee camp, as UN warns of “destruction of the Palestinian population”

Two weeks after Israel began its ethnic cleansing operation in northern Gaza, aimed at violently displacing the 400,000 Palestinians who remain there, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) forced the population of Jabalia refugee camp out at gunpoint Monday amid daily massacres and deliberate starvation. These scenes took place as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the representative of the country directing, arming, funding and overseeing the genocide, traveled to Israel to review the carnage in person.

The IDF published drone footage Monday of hundreds of people streaming from the rubble of the camp, with Israeli troops pointing weapons at them. “The IDF allows civilians to safely evacuate from the area via organized routes,” boasted IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee upon sharing the video of the ethnic cleansing operation in a post on X. In reality, Reuters reported, tens of thousands of men were rounded up while women and children were forced to move south at gunpoint.“We are facing death by bombs, by thirst and hunger,” Raed, a resident of Jabalia camp, told Reuters. “Jabalia is being wiped out, and there is no witness to the crime; the world is blinding its eyes.”

Israeli forces have killed 650 Palestinians in northern Gaza since the start of the assault 17 days ago, including 41 on Monday. “Genocide is unfolding in northern Gaza in its clearest form, in full view of the world,” the Palestinian Authority said in a statement Sunday. In one of its most bluntly worded declarations yet, the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories reported orders by the IDF are “leading to forced displacement” and “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governorate through death and displacement.” The statement added, “This is particularly the case around Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun.”

The UN statement declared that “For two weeks since October 6, the Israeli military has taken measures that make life in north Gaza impossible for Palestinians while repeatedly ordering the displacement of the entire governorate,” adding, “Israeli authorities prevented the entry of all essential supplies to north Gaza.” It noted further, “While the Israeli military has demanded that all civilians leave north Gaza, it has continued to relentlessly bomb and attack the area, especially in and around Jabalia Camp.”

The UN statement noted that “Palestinian men are being taken into custody by the IDF, raising fears that they may be subjected to arbitrary detention as well as torture.”

Why questions are being raised over the 'Greater Israel' ideology

Sanders Leads Call for DOJ Probe of Israel Targeting US Journalist

A dozen members of Congress led by Sen. Bernie Sanders sent a Tuesday letter demanding the Biden administration open an independent investigation into an Israeli attack on journalists, including U.S. citizen Dylan Collins, in Lebanon last year.

Collins, a Vermonter working for Agence France-Presse, was the only American in a group of reporters who endured Israeli tank fire on October 13, 2023, just days after the Hamas-led attack on Israel. He and five others were injured, and Lebanese Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed.

The journalists were covering cross-border fire between the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah and Israeli forces—armed with diplomatic and weapons support from the Biden administration and Congress—during the early stages of a retaliatory assault on the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip for which Israel is now on trial for genocide.

The lawmakers' letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Attorney General Merrick Garland came as Israel continued its war on Gaza and ramped up the operation against its northern neighbor, killing civilians and endangering peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In addition to Collins' members of Congress—Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.)—the letter is signed by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

"To date, Mr. Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability," the letter states, taking aim at Israel's leader. "Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident."

The journalists were "clearly marked as press and had selected an open and highly visible position on a hilltop near the Blue Line to minimize the risk of misidentification," the lawmakers wrote. "The group was clearly visible to several Israeli military positions, as well as to an Israeli Apache helicopter and drone circling overhead. There were no Hezbollah positions in the vicinity. The group had been filming from the position for close to an hour when, despite these precautions, they were struck twice by Israeli tank rounds, followed by a sustained burst of .50 caliber heavy machine gun fire."

"Six rigorous investigations—by UNIFIL, Reuters, AFP, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)—have all independently corroborated these details, based on video footage and multiple firsthand accounts, and concluded that it was an unlawful attack on civilians," they noted.

Referencing the Vermont delegation's May missive about Collins' case, the lawmakers highlighted that "in its June 27 response to our earlier letter, the State Department relied heavily on these investigations, indicating that the department finds them credible."

The new letter continues:

Unfortunately, this incident is part of a wider pattern of disregard by the Israeli military for the safety of civilians, including journalists and humanitarian aid workers. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 116 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli military strikes since October 7, 2023, an unprecedented number. The United Nations reports that 173 journalists and media workers have been killed, as well as 228 United Nations staff.

It is painfully obvious that the United States cannot rely on the Netanyahu government to ensure accountability for these attacks. For many years, the Israeli authorities have failed to investigate or account for attacks on journalists.

"We call on the U.S. government to immediately open an independent, impartial, comprehensive, and transparent investigation led by the Department of Justice into the attack," the lawmakers wrote. "This investigation is necessary to confirm the details of the attack, secure an explanation as to why it was carried out, identify those responsible throughout the chain of command, and hold to account those who ordered and executed the attack."

"Mr. Collins has done his part," the members of Congress added, detailing how he has met with various U.S. officials and provided video footage of the attack. "Mr. Collins deserves better from his own government."

They also emphasized the attack's relevance to the billions of dollars in security assistance that the U.S. gives Netanyahu's government, writing that "this is particularly important as the United States Congress considers joint resolutions of disapproval regarding the sale of additional arms to Israel, including 32,739 more 120mm tank cartridges, the same kind of tank rounds used against Mr. Collins and his journalist colleagues (and numerous other strikes on civilians)."

The Sanders-led letter came a day after McGovern and 64 other House Democrats called on Biden and Blinken to "take immediate action to advocate for unrestricted, independent media access" to Gaza.

The Monday coalition stressed that the "effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an overwhelming burden on local journalists who are documenting the war they are living through. Tragically, at least 130 journalists have lost their lives since the start of the war, and those who remain face conditions of extreme hardship and danger."

Also on Monday, Zeteo exclusively reported that Justice Department attorneys have sent a letter to Garland, urging him to "investigate‬‭ potential‬‭ violations‬‭ of‬‭ U.S.‬‭ law‬‭ by‬‭ Israel's‭ government,‬‭ military,‬‭ and‬‭ citizenry,‬‭ and‬‭ hold‬‭ the‬‭ perpetrators‬‭ to‬‭ account."

Specifically, according to Zeteo, they want to probe Israeli citizens and soldiers killing U.S. citizens—including Ayşenur Eygi, Kamel Ahmad Jawad, Jacob Flickinger, Tawfiq Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Omar Assad, and Shireen Abu Akleh—as well as Israel's illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and proof of troops committing war crimes and engaging in torture.

Ukraine & Israel On the Path to Defeat - John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

Hundreds more babies in US died than expected in months after Roe was overturned

In the 18 months after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, leading more than a dozen states to implement near-total abortion bans, hundreds more babies died than expected, new research has found. The study, which was conducted by researchers from the Ohio State University and published on Monday in Jama Pediatrics, compared data on infant mortality from the months before Roe’s downfall with data from afterward. Overall infant mortality, they found, rose by 7% in October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023.

On average, in those months, researchers found that there were roughly 247 more infant deaths a month than expected. In six out of those 18 months, mortality among infants with congenital anomalies rose by 10%. In those months, there were about 210 more deaths a month than expected. Infant mortality rates never dropped lower than expected.

This study is the latest to examine how Roe’s demise has affected babies’ health. In June, another study estimated that, after Texas outlawed abortions past roughly six weeks of pregnancy, the number of infants who died in their first year of life rose by 13%. The researchers behind that study also found that deaths among infants with congenital anomalies spiked.

These conditions can frequently be detected in utero and, in states where abortion is still legal, lead people to terminate their pregnancies, especially since they may be incompatible with life. However, that may no longer be an option for people living under abortion bans.

‘People don’t like to see poverty:’ inside San Francisco’s vicious race for mayor

When the supreme court’s conservative majority ruled this summer that cities could fine and jail unhoused people for sleeping on the streets, London Breed, the Democratic mayor of famously liberal San Francisco, greeted the decision as a victory. With more than 8,000 people in the city unhoused, Breed has increasingly embraced law-and-order policies. The supreme court’s ruling would “help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently”, she argued.

Homelessness has been an enduring challenge for San Francisco’s leaders, including for Breed. The relentless emergency is one of the top issues in this year’s elections in the city, and Breed’s re-election is uncertain. She’s facing a host of Democratic challengers – the most prominent of whom are echoing her law-and-order rhetoric. ...

“People in San Francisco don’t like to see poverty. They can be very liberal at a distance,” said Tony Sparks, an urban policy expert at San Francisco State University. The city is built on “a very boom and bust economy, and during the boom times, people don’t want to see the leftovers of the bust times”.

What is new is the growing political engagement of a generation of tech executives and investors in the region, many of whom have come to believe that progressive policies that guided the city during the pandemic and in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd uprising have set the city on the wrong track. They’re using their wealth and their public social media platforms – both sizable – in an effort to reshape the city’s politics, spending millions on local races.

Money’s always played a role in the city’s politics, but the mayor’s race is expected to be the most expensive in San Francisco history.

Joe ROGAN To Host Donald Trump Friday; Liberals FUME

the evening greens

A Colombian warlord became the Amazon rainforest’s most unlikely protector. Now he is cutting it down

In the Amazon states of southern Colombia, uniform patches of cattle pasture suddenly give way to trees so numerous and densely packed that the blots of emerald, lime green and white overlap as vines, leaves and tree trunks merge into one. According to official figures, this place is an international success story: the frontline of the country’s fight against deforestation, which it slashed last year by 36%.

But for those who live here, the future of the forest hangs in the balance. Many believe it will be decided on the whim of a violent militia leader, who last year became one of the world’s most unlikely forest protectors. “Only one man controls these regions: Ivan Mordisco,” says Miguel Tabares, who was displaced from Guaviare state when rebels threatened his life and murdered a colleague running an ecotourism project. “He is the one who is really in charge. And he does whatever the hell he wants.”

Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández – better known by the nom de guerre Ivan Mordisco – is leader of the Central General Staff (EMC), one of the largest armed groups in Colombia. A list of alleged crimes, including drug trafficking, the mass killing of civilians, and the forced recruitment of children, have earned him a place on the US terrorist list and made him one of Colombia’s top military targets. He also became one of the Amazon’s most unexpected protectors after implementing a total ban on deforestation, and policing it with deadly force.

Now, Mordisco looks poised to derail the country’s progress. As hundreds of environmental negotiators and political leaders flood the city of Cali, Colombia, for the Cop16 biodiversity summit, his militia has threatened to disrupt the proceedings, and there has been a series of violent attacks outside the city, prompting a substantial police and military presence on the streets. ...

When the government cut off negotiations with the EMC earlier this year, however, after its combatants bombed a police station and murdered an Indigenous leader, Mordisco revoked the [deforestation] ban. In the first three months of this year, deforestation was 40% higher than in 2023.

“The EMC have not only allowed deforestation, they have pressured farmers to make new roads and clear the forest for agriculture,” says Angelica Rojas, a liaison officer for Guaviare state at the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development, a Colombian environmental thinktank. A report by the International Crisis Group adds that the EMC is preventing rangers from entering national parks and tightening its grip on the areas under its control.

Florida reports 13 deaths from rare flesh-eating bacteria after hurricanes

Thirteen people have died from rare flesh-eating bacteria infections in Florida this year amid a spike in cases related to hurricane activity in the state. Florida health authorities said there have been 74 confirmed cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections in 2024, compared with 46 cases and 11 deaths in 2023.

Vibrio vulnificus is “a naturally occurring bacteria in warm, brackish seawater”, requiring salt to live, according to the Florida department of health.

Authorities attributed the surge to Hurricane Helene, which last month lashed Florida with breakneck winds and historic storm surge. The storm then traveled into southern Appalachia, ravaging western North Carolina with deadly flooding and landslides, killing about 100 people there.

Florida health authorities said “Vibrio bacteria, commonly found in warm coastal waters, can cause illness when ingested or when open wounds are exposed to contaminated water. After heavy rainfall and flooding, the concentration of these bacteria may rise, particularly in brackish and saltwater environments,” they added.

Once infected, Vibrio vulnificus can prompt the breakdown of skin and soft tissue, USA Today said. To prevent the infection from spreading, medics might have to amputate the infected limb, though the infection can prove deadly.