HuffPo:
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the much-followed "cakeshop" case, siding with the bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in 2012.
In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Supreme Court justices split 7-2. And in her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, made a notably different argument from Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion.
Specifically, she pushed back against a key part of the majority’s argument by saying there was an important difference between a bakery that refused to make a cake for anyone with anti-LGBTQ language on it and a bakery that refused to make a cake for someone in particular ― which they would have made for others ― because that someone was a member of the LGBTQ community. While the former was not discrimination, the latter was.
"When a couple contacts a bakery for a wedding cake, the product they are seeking is a cake celebrating their wedding ― not a cake celebrating heterosexual weddings or same-sex weddings ― and that is the service [the couple] were denied," Ginsburg wrote in her dissent.
It’s worth noting that while the court’s decision was certainly a disappointment to LGBTQ rights advocates, the ruling in this case was "narrow," according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s Louise Melling ― meaning it doesn’t set a broader precedent for future cases on religious freedom and LGBTQ rights. Also importantly, in its majority opinion, the court reaffirmed the basic principle that businesses should not discriminate, including against LGBTQ people.
Here’s a rundown of what exactly Ginsburg was fiercely dissenting to, and why.
With its Monday ruling, the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling, which had found in favor of same-sex couple David Mullins and Charlie Craig, and against Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, who refused to serve them based on his Christian religious beliefs.
In Monday’s majority opinion, Kennedy wrote that it reversed the ruling on the grounds that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ― a party arguing against Phillips in this case ― had shown "hostility" toward religious freedom arguments in the past and was not a "neutral" decision-maker. Specifically, the justices pointed to a previous complaint that had come before the Colorado Civil Rights Division, in which it had supported bakeries’ rights to refuse to make a cake that would have had "decorations that demeaned gay persons or gay marriages."
In this 2014 case, which was detailed in the court ruling, a certain William Jack had complained to the Colorado Civil Rights Division that bakeries were discriminating against his religious beliefs by refusing to make a cake for him. The cake he had asked for included an image of two groomsmen holding hands with a red ’X’ over them, and included: "Homosexuality is a detestable sin. Leviticus 18:2." One bakery refused to make the cake, saying the inscriptions were "hateful," another saying that it would not discriminate. When Jack brought his complaint before the state’s Civil Rights Division, arguing they were discriminating against him for being Christian, the state found no probable cause of unequal treatment based on his religious beliefs.
Flash forward to Monday’s ruling, and the court’s majority opinion argued that the Colorado Commission’s lack of neutrality and "hostility" could be seen, in part, in this differing treatment of the Masterpiece case and this 2014 case of bakeries refusing to make a cake with anti-gay messages.
That’s where Ginsburg’s dissent came in. While there was "much in the Court’s opinion" that she agreed with, she wrote: "I strongly disagree, however, with the Court’s conclusion that Craig and Mullins should lose this case." She notably didn’t agree that the Masterpiece case and the other bakeries’ refusals were comparable, for a key reason: In one instance, the bakeries were refusing to make a cake because the language was offensive ― and they wouldn’t have made that cake for anyone else. In this Masterpiece case, he was refusing to make a wedding cake, which he would have made for others, based solely on the fact that those buying it were queer.
"The cases the Court aligns are hardly comparable," she wrote. "The bakers would have refused to make a cake with Jack’s requested message for any customer, regardless of his or her religion. The bakeries’ refusal to make Jack cakes ... scarcely resembles Phillips’ refusal to serve Craig and Mullins: Phillips would not sell to Craig and Mullins, for no reason other than their sexual orientation."
"Jack, on the other hand, suffered no service refusal on the basis of his religion or any other protected characteristic. He was treated as any other customer would have been treated ‐ no better, no worse," she added.
What the court’s ruling will mean for future cases that could pit LGBTQ rights against religious freedom rights remains to be seen.
"We can expect to see many more instances of public businesses refusing to provide services to gay people in the name of religious freedom," JoLynn Markison, labor lawyer at law firm Dorsey & Whitney, said in a statement to the media. "The Supreme Court may have dodged the issue for now, but it will not be able to avoid it forever." I still don't get it. A private bakery is not a government institution. It seems a private business can do what it wants as long as it doesn't harm someone. The government on the other hand cannot discriminate. What am I missing?
#2
It seems a private business can do what it wants as long as it doesn't harm someone
When we had rental properties back in the 1980s, we could not discriminate against potential tenants on the basis of race, creed, or color. We could only discriminate on the basis of whether or not they could afford to pay and had a credit history showing they could be trusted to do so. Since then, many states have added sexual orientation to the list.
The question then becomes whether your legal right to buy a product or service trumps my religious freedom right not to sell a particular good or service to someone like you. I seem to recall that the baker was willing to sell a premade cake to the gay couple but not to design one especially for them.
#3
I 'discriminate' all the time. You're gonna bring up price multiple times before we talk about the size & scope of the job? Get lost, cheapskate. You're gonna be a pain in the ass and ask the same fucking question six times? Piss off. You're gonna ask me snotty, pretentious questions like 'what value can you add to my business?' right off the bat? Take a hike, like keeping your ass out of the IRS' crosshairs isn't 'value added' enough for Mr. Former IBM employee (figures).
#4
When we had rental properties back in the 1980s, we could not discriminate against potential tenants on the basis of race, creed, or color.
But that's housing, which makes sense that you shouldn't discriminate. Should this extend to some guy who wants to make cakes?
He didn't create a business so the government could tell him what to do so much as follow health codes and pay taxes and wall off his personal finances from company liability. Why should the government intrude into the personal reasons he got into baking cakes? I just don't get it. Why bother to go into business at all if it's going to be like this? If this got bad enough, nobody would bake cakes. Or start any other small businesses for that matter.
#5
I 'discriminate' on my rental as well. Since I live here, I simply have to say 'No, I don't like you' and that is that. I've been told I cannot reject based on Section 8 status, so I dodge that stuff and just go with the above response, which comes pretty naturally to me!
#6
Can I demand that a Muslim halal deli, or a Jewish Kosher deli for that matter, prepare, stock and serve 'haram' foods?
"I want a pizza with cheese, canadian bacon and EXTRA pepperoni to Go."
Is Dr. Steve around to translate this into English? To me it looks like some protective packaging around beta cells malfunctions and exposes them to forces that revert them to a pre-productive state.
Diabetes affects more than 400 million individuals worldwide. In what is becoming a paradigm shift, researchers have begun to find that the disease may result in part through pancreatic beta cells losing their functional identity and shutting down their ability to release the blood sugar-lowering hormone, insulin. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg find evidence for a new model underpinning this "de-differentiation". In addition to metabolic stress, Andrew Pospisilik and his team show that breakdown of an epigenetic barrier is required, and indeed sufficient, to drive de-differentiation. Patient data suggest a central role for such impaired epigenetic control in the development of the disease in humans. The new insights, especially relevant for patients sensitive to de-differentiation diagnostically, have strong therapeutic potential.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), diabetes mellitus affects more than 6.5 million people in Germany. With a share of over 95 percent, most patients are suffering from type 2 diabetes, which usually occurs in old age and is associated with obesity and cardiovascular problems. Faulty insulin regulation triggers the widespread disease. When blood sugar levels rise after a meal and insulin is needed quickly in high quantities, the pancreas of patients releases the hormone too slowly leading to dangerously high levels of glucose in the blood.
It has long been thought that reduced insulin production by the pancreas is due to the death of the organ's beta cells that secrete the insulin. However, there has been evidence that beta cells do not die but rather change into a different cell type. Beta cells in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes losing their identities by undergoing a process called de-differentiation. They lose their most specialized functions and revert to a state similar to their immediate developmental precursor, a progenitor-like endocrine cell lacking the ability to secret insulin.
"Metabolic stress has been thought of as the primary trigger of de-differentiation. Here, we show that a second arm is required, namely breakdown of an epigenetic barrier that normally hones beta-cell functional identity. Two independent pathological mechanisms appear to be required. This strong buffer for identity makes sense," says Andrew Pospisilik, "in humans beta-cells can live upwards of 40 years, so the cells need strong mechanisms to continuously reinforce functional acuity".
Role of epigenetics in complex diseases
The team around the epigeneticist at the Max Planck Freiburg is driven by the interest in understanding of epigenetic effects in complex diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cancer. They are called complex because they result from a complex genetic predisposition but also significant non-genetic components, often termed 'environmental influences'. This non-genetic regulation is believed to converge upon chromatin-dependent processes. In our cells DNA is packaged around histone proteins to make this chromatin structure. The packaging of the DNA plays a crucial role in cell type-specific gene regulation, in which genes can be either switched 'on' or 'off'.
"In the end, healthy and de-differentiated beta cells both contain the same DNA. What makes the difference are epigenetic identity barriers that are mediated by modifications of the DNA packaging. In some ways, these processes are like sheet music for an orchestra. They focus and coordinate how and when genes are activated or silenced," explains Tess Lu, first author of the study.
Chromatin alterations in diabetes
By profiling thousands of beta cells from non-diabetic and type-2 diabetic individuals in mice and humans the team found that two out of about 25 different types of chromatin packaging the DNA, track with beta cell dysfunction: one kind of chromatin was dysregulated specifically in diabetic individuals and another one was surprisingly up-regulated, which is normally supposed to be very silent.
"If you start swapping the sheet music between the instruments of an orchestra, you still get sound, you still get melody, but the music would change dramatically. Similarly in cells, if the genetic programs aren't correctly coordinated cellular identity changes, and functional specializations fade. Over time this leads to beta cells forgetting who they are and what they are supposed to do," explains Andrew Pospisilik.
To validate their observations, the researchers triggered these switches to recapitulate the human disease etiology in mice. Animals with this modification were first healthy and developed regular insulin-producing beta cells. But at around middle-age, cells de-differentiated and the animals could not control their blood sugar anymore.
New subtype of type 2 diabetes?
Most interestingly the researchers from Freiburg add a new level of understanding to how we think of de-differentiation in diabetes. Previously thought to be a one-hit process, downstream of metabolic stress or high glucose, the Max Planck team were able to show that a second, epigenetic "failure" is also required, and is indeed sufficient to drive beta-cell de-differentiation and dysfunction.
For the Max Planck researchers, it is a huge step forward in understanding this widespread disease. The findings suggest novel therapeutic strategies at least for type 2 diabetes, but potentially also for type-1. It raises questions whether patient populations may exist that are more sensitive or resistant to the process. "In theory, these epigenetic systems are pharmacologically tractable as any other enzymatic components in a cell. Indeed, such epigenetic therapies are already used in cancer. Targeting epigenetic maintenance of beta cell identity should be actively explored," says Andrew Pospisilik.
Miss America is scrapping its swimsuit competition and will no longer judge contestants based on physical appearance, the organization announced Tuesday. Now we know where Howard Schultz landed.
"We are no longer a pageant," Gretchen Carlson, the first former Miss America to be named chair of the Board of Trustees of the Miss America Organization, said on "GMA." "We are a competition." I wonder how this is going to work out with the Miss Universe competition. I don't think anyone thought this through past the PC aspects. Or maybe they're just having a fit of denial.
In place of the swimsuit portion of the competition, Miss America contestants will now take part in a live interactive session with the judges, according to the organization. Uh oh. Who sounds the least canned and/or dumb?
The contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will be asked to demonstrate their passion, intelligence and overall understanding of the job of Miss America. Maybe the "live interactive" part will have them sitting there in a swimsuit?
The organization is also getting rid of the evening gown portion of the competition and instead asking contestants to wear attire that makes them feel confident, expresses their personal style and shows how they hope to advance the role of Miss America. Maybe they could wear an evening gown instead? "We’ve heard from a lot of young women who say, ’We’d love to be a part of your program but we don’t want to be out there in high heels and a swimsuit,’ so guess what, you don’t have to do that anymore," Carlson said. "Who doesn’t want to be empowered, learn leadership skills and pay for college and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul."
She continued, "That’s what we’re judging them on now."
In addition to being crowned Miss America in 1989, Carlson has more recently been an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual harassment and a champion of the #MeToo movement. In 2016, she settled a lawsuit against former Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, who stepped down from his role after mounting pressure from additional employees with similar accusations.
"I could have never expected what would happen when I sued my former employer at Fox News for sexual harassment 22 months ago, but look what has happened," she said. "Thousands of women have been inspired to know that they can stand up and speak up and their voices will be heard."
Carlson added, "If I’ve been a beacon of hope to any woman in that process, it has been worth it." Madeline Albright never complained about getting harassed. Just sayin'. Or Janet Reno. Or Donna Shalala
The sweeping changes to Miss America aim to help the organization be more inclusive and empowering for all women. Carlson also said that she hopes the revamped competition will resonate more with young people.
"We are now open, inclusive and transparent and I want to inspire thousands of young people across this country to come and be a part of our program," she said. "We want you and we want to celebrate your accomplishments and your talents and then we want to hand you scholarships."
The Miss America organization courted controversy earlier this year when internal emails were released from the group's former CEO Sam Haskell. In the leaked emails, Haskell, who later resigned, and others were insulting the appearance, intellect and personal lives of former pageant winners, including Carlson.
Carlson is now part of an all-female leadership team at Miss America. What could possibly go wrong?
"This is a new beginning and change can sometimes be difficult but I know a lot about change," she said. "My life has worked in mysterious ways. I never thought I’d be the chairwoman of the Miss America Organization, but here I am and we’re moving it forward and we’re evolving in this cultural revolution."
The 2019 Miss America Competition airs live on ABC on Sunday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. EST. Sorry, gotta wax the dog that day.
#6
"Who doesn’t want to be empowered, learn leadership skills and pay for college and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul."
Good luck selling that on TV. Especially if beach volleyball is on.
On the plus size, er.. plus side, since they will eventually have to include trans-persons and even men because SEXISM!!!, I am one day closer to my lifelong dream of becoming Miss America. I just hope they let me wear my Doc Martens in the evening gown competition because those high heels are murder on the feet.
;-)
The Pakistani Taliban has debuted a new uniform that combines decades of punk rock, splashes of Gwen Stefani ‐ and a dash of dominatrix.
Flawlessly blending a combination of camo pants, black shirts, fingerless leather gloves and a total disregard for parental authority, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) strutted their stuff in a new training video featuring rocket-propelled grenades, white board instruction and standing around in mid-"La Macarena" poses.
There’s no official word yet on the meaning behind "No Tension," but if it’s a band name as we assume, it sounds rad.
By tucking camo pants into knee-high white socks, TTP fighters now have greater aerodynamic maneuverability when firing RPGs, as well as the added flexibility required to break into an impromptu mosh-kick whenever No Doubt’s "Just a Girl" blares from the speakers of a gun-mounted Toyota pickup.
Add in the fingerless leather gloves and high-top sneakers, and you’re guaranteed a seamless transition whenever going from firing a Kalashnikov to hopping on a skateboard and dropping into an empty pool.
Sick ollie, brah!
No Tension’s shirts don’t feature any sex pistols. And they may appear distorted ... socially. But there’s no clash between the ideologies of these misfit offspring. Black flags and bad religion ‐ that’s what No Tension does.
Are those puttees wrapped round their legs? And why in earth would lads who can’t read their native Urdu have t-shirts that say “No Tension” in English?
[AAWSAT] Nigerian police on Sunday summoned the head of the upper house of parliament for questioning after members of a criminal gang implicated him following a brutal bank robbery that left 33 people dead.
Senate President Bukola Saraki, the third-most powerful politician in the country who has denied the allegation, served from 2003 to 2011 as state governor of Kwara, where the brazen daylight robberies took place in the central town of Offa on April 5.
National police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood said 22 suspects have been jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! over the robbery of six Offa banks, including five ringleaders who alleged Saraki's involvement in the gang.
"Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki is being invited by the Nigeria Police Force... to answer to the allegations leveled against him from the confessions of the five gang leaders," Moshood said in a statement.
He said the gang leaders confessed to be working for Saraki as "political thugs under the name Youth Liberation Movement a.k.a. 'Good Boys'."
They also "admitted and confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki and the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed."
Moshood said a Lexus jeep purportedly owned by Saraki and used during the robberies had been traced to the government office in Ilorin, Kwara's state capital, and two of the governor's personal aides had also been arrested.
"Investigation is ongoing and effort is being intensified to arrest other suspects still on the lam. All suspects involved will be arraigned in court for prosecution on completion of investigation," he added.
In a statement on Sunday, the Senate president promised to honor the police summons, but insisted he had no link with the robbers.
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06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on members of the Organization of American States (OAS) to suspend Venezuela from the group and bolster sanctions against Nicolas Maduro's government. ... as it edges ever so much more snugly into the same category as North Korea...
In his remarks on Monday, Pompeo again condemned last month's elections that returned Maduro to power as a "sham" and said the government had "exhausted all options for dialogue".
Ejecting Venezuela "would show that the OAS backs up its words with action and would send a powerful message to the Maduro regime", Pompeo told the 34-member OAS assembly in Washington, DC.
"Only real elections will allow your government to be included in the family of nations," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Venezuela has been a failed state for quite some time now. They have been, in fact, already ejected.
#2
... as it edges ever so much more snugly into the same category as North Korea...
They have the starvation diets and ChiCom/Cuba influence. All they need now is nukes
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/05/2018 15:29 Comments ||
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#3
I'm not sure Venezuela rises to the level of a state anymore, failed or otherwise. Looks to me like just another f**ked-up place on a map.
Back during the Presidential election when Bernie Sanders was barnstorming thru Michigan making everyone giddy, I happened to be at a tech meet-up talking with some 20-30-somethings. Over the course of the evening, the subjects of PHP and socialism came up (tl;dr: PHP bad. socialism good) They were totally geeked on socialism. Funny thing, none of them had ever heard of Venezuela.
[RFE/RL] The top Islamic official in Tajikistan has declared boxing and fighting sports "without rules" to be forbidden under Islamic law. Saidmukarram Abdulkodirzoda, the head of Tajikistan's Ulema Council, said during Friday prayers in Dushanbe's central mosque that such fighting sports were forbidden because they can damage a person's health.
"Especially boxing and fighting [sports] without rules are considered, from the religious point of view, haram, as they can damage health, disable someone," said Abdulkodirzoda, who is appointed to his post by the government.
He said, "All kinds of games and duels [done] for money are haram. [They are a waste of] time, without benefit to the mind and body. This is haram."
Abdulkodirzoda said he believed Tajik youth should engage in what he called "normal" sports, for example wrestling, to "develop physically and spiritually."
There you go.
Such sports require the "achievements of our youth, so that they proudly raise the flag of the country and enhance the image of the nation and state."
Nosir Azimov, a successful Tajik boxing trainer, said it was the first time he'd heard a religious official call boxing haram. Azimov, who trained 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Mavzuna Chorieva, said that as far as he knows, all Muslim countries officially accepted boxing and do not consider it haram.
"I have been to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Dagestan; and they all have boxing. I had heard about MMA and that some consider it haram. That type of fighting doesn’t have rules. But boxing is based on rules."
Last autumn, Tajikistan's Youth and Sports Committee banned nine sports at publicly funded sports clubs and institutions. Among these were mixed-martial arts (MMA) and boxing. MMA is often criticized for its lack of restrictions on what a fighter can do.
[AnNahar] North Korea 'Military Reshuffle' Raises Eyebrows in Seoul
Seoul is monitoring developments in the North's military, it said Monday after reports Pyongyang replaced three of its top military officials ahead of a summit with the United States.
President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... is due to meet with North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... on June 12 in Singapore with Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal high on the agenda and reports said that the reshuffle could be aimed at taming the military.
Late last month the North's state media revealed that Kim Su Gil had been appointed as director of the military's powerful General Political Bureau (GPB), replacing Kim Jong Gak.
According to Yonhap news agency, which cited intelligence sources, the chief of the general staff Ri Myong Su has also been replaced by his deputy, Ri Yong Gil.
And defence minister Pak Yong Sik has been succeeded by No Kwang Chol, previously first vice minister, it added.
The wholesale reshuffle would be unusual if confirmed, Seoul's unification ministry said.
"We will monitor related developments," ministry front man Baik Tae-hyun told news hounds.
Pyongyang's military, known as the Korean People's Army, is immensely influential in the North and a centre of power in its own right, symbolised by the way Kim is habitually flanked by generals on one side and civilians on the other when attending major ceremonial events.
According to researchers at NK Leadership Watch, the change at the top of the GPB "represents a continuation of tightening Party control over the KPA".
The political bureau could be in a position to resist policy decisions by the leadership or try to profit from future South Korean economic aid, it said.
But new GPB director Kim Su Gil was a "highly trusted" lieutenant of leader Kim Jong-un, it added, who appointed him to the Pyongyang party committee -- once a powerbase for his uncle Jang Song Thaek -- after having the older man executed for treason in 2013.
Reports said the wider changes could be aimed at preventing objections in the North's senior military ranks to any sudden changes in the country's nuclear policy.
No Kwang Chol, the new defence minister, was known as a "moderate", Yonhap cited the intelligence source as saying.
"The North appears to have brought in new figures... as the previous officials lacked flexibility in thinking," the source said.
#3
Trump's sanctions have cut off the supply of largesse that Kim can distribute to ensure loyalty. That's why he's coming to the table in the first place. The angry old America-hating generals have to go, for the survival of the whole system.
We just need to engage with the Norks. It's not like we don't have a history of dealing with tyrants. The day the first McDonald's opens in Pyongyang is the day we win. And then we can finally pull our troops out because the war is over.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
06/05/2018 4:32 Comments ||
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#4
The day the first McDonald's opens in Pyongyang is the day we win.
#7
...the day we win? We win when the ChiComs determine that it is no longer cost effective to prop up the NoKors. Currently the calculus is that for every dollar they invest in NoKo the SoKo, Japanese, and US each have to spend more -- so why should they stop 'setting barbarian to fight barbarian'?
[PRESSTV] Israel will for the first time take part in US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... military exercises that kicked off in the alliance's eastern flank near Russia, amid tensions between Moscow and Tel Aviv over Syria.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday that several dozen Israeli paratroopers were being dispatched to Eastern Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... to take part in the Saber Strike for the first time.
The unprecedented move follows Moscow’s condemnation of Israeli Arclight airstrikes in Syria, amid a relentless fight to recapture remaining territories still under the control of foreign-backed Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... hard boyz and other turbans.
NATO officials marked the beginning of the Saber Strike maneuvers in a ceremony in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Sunday. Some 19 countries, mostly from NATO, have stationed around 18,000 troops in Poland and three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
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06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] The new Socialist-led government in Spain that came to power with the help of the Podemos party will not include any ministers from the far-left group, a top party official says.
The Socialist party's deputy secretary general, Adriana Lastra, said on Monday that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez would have no ministers from Podemos in his future cabinet.
Lastra said the new government in Spain, which took power after Conservatives led by former prime minister Mariano Rajoy were ousted, would be an "essentially Socialist" administration.
"In a few days, the names of those who will form part of the government will be made public," she said in an interview with public television TVE.
Podemos which, with a regional ally, has 71 seats in parliament, contributed a great deal to a Socialists’ motion to impeach and depose Rajoy over corruption allegations that had gripped members of his Popular Party.
Podemos spokeswoman Noelia Vera said Sanchez had not invited "for now" anyone from the party to be part of his government, adding, however, that such a decision would harm the Socialists in their future plans for reforms.
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06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The inflation rate in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... jumped in May, official statistics showed Monday, increasing pressure on the central bank to again raise interest rates as fears persist over the strength of the economy.
Three weeks ahead of snap presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, which would give President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... beefed up powers, consumer prices climbed 12.15 percent from the same period in May last year, according to the Ottoman Turkish statistics office.
The figure was up sharply on the 10.85 percent reading in April.
Investors have raised concerns that the government is not doing enough to fight inflation amid signs the economy is overheating, with the lira down almost 20 percent for the year to date.
The central bank last month sought to prop up the currency with an emergency 300 basis points rate hike and also by simplifying its monetary policy.
The currency slightly gained 0.7 percent in value against the dollar to trade at 4.6 against the greenback.
Ratings agency Moody's on Friday said it would consider downgrading Turkey again -- already in junk territory -- citing concern over economic management and erosion of investor confidence.
Erdogan has repeatedly called for lower interest rates to stimulate growth, a stance analysts say has undermined the independence of the central bank.
But last week Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the central bank governor Murat Cetinkaya assured foreign investors in London that the country was committed to fighting inflation and implementing reform.
Monday's data also revealed the highest annual increase in transportation costs -- up by a fifth since last year.
The central bank is due to hold its next scheduled meeting on Thursday with all eyes on whether it will follow the emergency rate hike with a new move.
But London-based Capital Economics said the sharp rise in inflation is unlikely to spur another rate hike.
"Despite the sharp rise in Ottoman Turkish inflation in May ... the rally in lira over the past week or so means that we think that the central bank will decide to stand pat at its MPC meeting," it said in a note.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/05/2018 01:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] Any attempt by US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... to pardon himself from any charges stemming from his alleged collusion with Russia in the 2016 US presidential election can lead to his impeachment by Congress and would be a "public relations disaster," an American writer and researcher in Washington says. Sequence: Impeachment by the House, conviction by the Senate.
Article 2.4: "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Article 2.2: The President ... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
That's pretty straightforward. If he were to be impeached, he'd be constrained by pardoning himself. There's no prohibition against a successor doing it, witness the pardon of Jack Johnson, long dead and in his grave.
A hundred years or so from now, expect Clinton to be pardoned.
"There is speculation that if Trump attempted to pardon himself, this act could lead to impeachment proceedings; it would also likely be a public relations disaster for Trump," Walt Peretto said during an interview with Press TV on Monday.
"If Trump was able to pardon himself and the whole issue just went away---the corporate mainstream media would suddenly be void of it's biggest news distraction in the last year and a half. Virtually every weekday evening on stations like MSNBC --- the time slots are filled to the brim with the so-called Russiagate investigation. Each days events regarding this story is scrutinized to the most minute detail while more relevant news and information is systematically ignored," Peretto said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Translation: "Nothing has worked so far. Maybe we can bait him into doing something stupid. The 500th time's the charm!"
#2
Mueller lives behind an iron curtain.
He never says anything publicly.
He never talks to anyone outside the walls of his office.
He is as quite as a mouse during all of this.
He keeps his thoughts to himself.
He keeps everyone in the dark about everything.
The only communications is via formal court filings.
When the VP tells him to wrap it up, he says nothing.
When Congressional committees hold hearings and then says there was no collusion, he says nothing.
When Guilliani says we will fight you in court he says nothing.
A martial arts instructor once told his class "The big mouth in the gang is the fool, the guy in the gang you want to be wary of is the quite one."
Someone needs to drag Mueller before Congress and start telling him to respond for the record. Only then will he have to admit that he has nothing and this witch hunt ends.
#4
No, he plays the Deep State leaking game with his allies in the Legacy Infotainment Enterprises.
That's it - as soon as I heard about the 'revelation' of Trump's response (in January) to Mueller a few days ago, the first thing I thought about was 'Mueller leaked again'. My only question was 'why the long delay?', since it didn't have the impact that other leaks 'revelations' had.
#5
Congress is the only body that can impeach Trump. That's not going to happen unless the Dems win Congressional elections or unless Rinos and Dems unite. Besides, what impeachable crimes have been committed?
Mueller's activities fall under the DOJ which falls under the Exective Branch. Trump can fire anyone in the Exective Branch for cause or no cause at all--at least that's how it is supposed to work.
Insideously, like a cancer, the deep state and fourth branch of goverment has been created and metastasized. It has become an albatross around our necks.
#6
Trump's name staring with a 'T' and ending with 'rump' can lead to impeachment.
Impeachment and conviction are purely political, if the necessary majorities and Congress want the President gone, he is gone. No judicial review or recourse.
#8
"If Trump was able to pardon himself and the whole issue just went away---the corporate mainstream media would suddenly be void of it's biggest news distraction in the last year and a half."
That seems a bit naive. They'd have a decades worth of frothing over a pardon.
[DAWN] Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Monday ordered the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to decide on the appeals filed by Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen ‐ the husband and wife duo that were each handed one-year prison sentences and fines after being found guilty of torturing Taiba ‐ a juvenile housemaid.
Raja Khurram, an additional district and sessions judge, and his wife Maheen were accused of keeping the then 10-year-old Taiba in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in a storeroom, and threatening her of "dire consequences".
Before the IHC delivered its verdict, the case had loitered in the court for more than a year and had only picked up pace after the chief justice took suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice at the turn of the year.
On April 17, the IHC, in its verdict, had sentenced the couple in addition to levying a fine of Rs50,000 each. The accused had subsequently challenged the verdict on April 23 and also had their bail applications approved against surety bonds of Rs50,000, following which the case was adjourned.
The chief justice, when told by advocate general Islamabad today that the accused have been sentenced and that the appeals on the verdict are currently pending, set a one-week deadline for IHC to settle the appeals.
Justice Nisar also questioned why the recently dissolved parliament did not legislate to curb cases of violence against children.
"The parliament was supposed to legislate but it has completed its term," he said. "The rights of children need to be safeguarded."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] An alleged frontman of property tycoon Malik Riaz, tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! last week by the Anti Corruption Circle (ACC) in Rawalpindi, was presented before an accountability court on Monday where some men ‐ said to be the suspect’s accomplices ‐ beat up the plaintiff who had filed the complaint against him.
The incident took place in the court of Anti-Corruption Judge Mushtaq Ahmed Tarar, where men believed to be accomplices of arrested suspect Fazal Inam, alias Saeen Inam, severely beat up complainant Syed Nasir Abbas.
The anti-corruption judge called the police, but by the time SHO Civil Lines cop shoppe arrived with security personnel, the attackers had fled from the scene.
Abbas later went to the cop shoppe and filed a case against the attackers, stating that he believed them to be accomplices of Inam.
Inam had been arrested along with other accomplices last month after the authorities found that 732 kanals of land near Islamabad's Rawat area, worth tens of millions of rupees, had been transferred to his name without any revenue record.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] Law student Khadija was stabbed 23 times in front of witnesses including her sister, leaving her in critical condition.
"The only defence [of the accused] was mudslinging and slut-shaming," Khadija alleged. She said today's judgement is a blow to not just her case but to the security of women in the society at large because she was attacked in broad daylight.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Al Jazeera] Opposition senator says the president's action 'was a despicable display of sexism and grave abuse of authority'. "Ew! He kissed a girl! (Ptui! Ptui!)"
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#2
Hoax anything should be treated as the real thing. Especially Swatting because people have been killed by SWAT after some psycho joker called in a hoax hostage crisis.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Miss America is scrapping its swimsuit competition and will no longer judge contestants based on physical appearance, the organization announced Tuesday. 
"We’ve heard from a lot of young women who say, ’We’d love to be a part of your program but we don’t want to be out there in high heels and a swimsuit,’ so guess what, you don’t have to do that anymore," Carlson said. "Who doesn’t want to be empowered, learn leadership skills and pay for college and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul." 
[RFE/RL] The top Islamic official in Tajikistan has declared boxing and fighting sports "without rules" to be forbidden under Islamic law. Saidmukarram Abdulkodirzoda, the head of Tajikistan's Ulema Council, said during Friday prayers in Dushanbe's central mosque that such fighting sports were forbidden because they can damage a person's health.
North Korea
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday that several dozen Israeli paratroopers were being dispatched to Eastern 
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
