US Syria Strikes: A 'Very Mixed' Message to Iran & Return to Regime Change Op Against Damascus
On 25 February, the US conducted airstrikes against alleged "Iranian-backed militia" targets in eastern Syria in what is claimed to be retaliation for rocket attacks on American facilities in Iraq over the past two weeks, according to the Pentagon.
On Friday, US Defence Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the strikes were "very much defensive" in nature and sent a "very clear signal that the US is going to protect its people, it's going to protect its interests and it's going to protect its partners". For his part, President Joe Biden said that the US missile attack had informed Iran that it "can't act with impunity". In response, the Iranian Foreign Ministry denounced the American operation, stressing that it violated both the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.
US Syria Strikes and Iran Nuclear Deal
"The [Biden] administration wanted to send a message that it is not weak, and also wanted to strengthen its hands in the lead up to discussions with Iran regarding the [2015] Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)", says Dr Mehran Kamrava, director of the Centre for International and Regional Studies and Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Georgetown University-Qatar.
At the same time, the attack cannot be seen as an "escalation" and that "its measured nature sends a more subtle signal that the US does not necessarily want to escalate tensions with Iran", the scholar suggests.
On 18 February, the Biden administration announced that it was ready to restart talks with Iran over the resumption of the 2015 JCPOA unilaterally torn apart by the Trump administration in May 2018. Washington and Tehran, however, have yet to agree on who should make the first move.
"In the context of what was supposed to be pending rapprochement between Washington and Tehran, with this illegal strike Biden is sending incredibly mixed messages to Iran", argues Max Parry, an American independent journalist.
On the one hand, Biden signalled he wants to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal framework, but on the other, he is still unwilling to lift sanctions on Tehran, and has even resorted to bombing facilities allegedly belonging to "pro-Iran" Shia militias, the journalist notes. Furthermore, "there is no proof the group which claimed responsibility for the attack on 15 February has ties to the Iranians", Parry says.
'US Reaps What They Sowed in Syria and Iraq'
Thursday's strikes are not "an action" but "a reaction from the United States' perspective", says Lorenzo Trombetta, Beirut-based scholar, analyst, and journalist specialising in contemporary Syria and the Middle East.
"The airstrikes committed last night are nothing but a reply to other rocket strikes committed by Iraqi armed groups against three different targets in the last 10 days, namely the Erbil US airbase, the Al Balad Iraqi military base, where the US has firm interests", he says.
At the same time, in contrast to Trump's "pull-out" rhetoric, the Biden administration has signalled that Washington will remain present in the region and will "continue to exert a certain level of influence and control, both in Iraq and on the eastern regions of Syria and bordering regions with Iraq", according to the Beirut-based scholar.
The Pentagon's assertion that the latest attacks are "defensive" in nature does not hold water, argues Basma Qaddour, a Syrian journalist, co-author of "Voices from Syria", and head of the news department at The Syria Times. US military deployment in Syria and Iraq is regarded as illegal occupation by Syrians and Iraqis, hence sporadic attacks against American installations are likely to continue, she suggests.
"Thursday's attack on the Syrian-Iraqi border is not the first US attack on this area, but it is the first military action undertaken by the Biden administration, which means that US policy and goals in the region will never change", she says. "Do the US occupation forces expect that they will receive a warm welcome and flowers in Syria or Iraq where they sowed chaos and destruction? They have to keep in mind that they will harvest what they plant".
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202102271082206197-us-syria-strikes-a-very-mixed-message-to-iran–return-to-regime-change-op-against-damascus/
Echo Chamber: D's Now Dominate R's on Social Media Thanks to Mass Bannings, Algorithmic Suppression
The biggest social media sites are now leftist echo chambers thanks to the banning of Donald Trump and tons of his supporters, data from CrowdTangle has revealed.
The bias is so extreme it's downright comical.
From Axios:
- The combined Twitter following for the 10 elected Democrats with the biggest audiences is 102 million compared to 23 million for the top 10 Republicans. Even taking President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris out of the equation, Democrats' following is nearly triple Republicans'.
- On Instagram over the last 30 days, the 10 most-engaged Democrats drove 76 million interactions vs. 6 million for the 10 most-engaged Republicans, according to CrowdTangle data. Take away Biden and Harris and the advantage is still double.
- On Facebook, the top 10 Democrats have generated 2.5x more interactions than top 10 Republicans over the last 30 days, per CrowdTangle data.
The Republicans who are left excluding the heroic Sen. Rand Paul are all cringe.
- Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul — all of 2016 GOP primary fame — currently have the three biggest Twitter followings among elected Republicans.
The picture for Republicans is particularly grim on Instagram, which has become a home for young, progressive politics.
- While AOC has 8.9m followers and Sanders has 6.7m, Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw (2.3m) is the only elected Republican over a million.
Yes, but: Outside of elected officials, Republicans have a bigger bench of social clout, including the Trump family, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo and the potent right-wing media ecosystem.
As I highlighted over the weekend, Big Tech went from approval ratings in the 90s to majority opposition in just the past few years:
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62069
4 Retailers That Announced They’re Closing Stores In February 2021
As consumers continue to make the shift to online shopping amid the coronavirus pandemic, more retailers are making the decision to reduce the number of brick-and-mortar locations they hold in their portfolio of stores.
Here’s a look at all the retailers that announced in February that they are closing stores this year.
Sears And Kmart
Several hundred Sears and Kmart stores have quietly closed their doors since the company filed for bankruptcy back in October 2018.
While the company emerged from Chapter 11 in 2019, in a $5.2 billion deal with its former chairman’s hedge fund, Sears and Kmart stores have been slowly whittling away.
According to Forbes, in 2019, there were 489 Sears and 360 Kmart stores, which has now been reduced to a meager 36 Sears and 30 Kmart locations.
By mid-April, another 12 Sears locations and another six Kmart stores will close, USA Today reported. Sears locations to close are located in California, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, Texas, and Virginia, while Kmart stores to close are set in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico.
In mid-January, Transformco, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, also sold five Kmart stores located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina; Jackson, Wyoming; Scotts Valley, California; Wall, New Jersey; and Auburn, Maine to Target.
Fry’s Electronics
Fry’s Electronics announced on Wednesday that it was winding down its operations and closing all of its stores after 36 years of business.
https://www.ibtimes.com/4-retailers-announced-theyre-closing-stores-february-2021-3152948
Our job is to wake up the masses.
Everything being easy and comfortable is not going to achieve the above
Boston Schools Will Suspend New Advanced Learning Classes Because They Have Too Many Whites and Asians
A program at Boston Public Schools (BPS) for high-performing 4th, 5th, and 6th graders will be suspended for a year while administrators figure out how to reduce the number of whites and Asians in the selective program.
Boston schools are nearly 80 percent black and Hispanic while the program, known as Advanced Work Classes, has 70 percent white and Asian enrollment. Obviously, the reason for that is plain-as-day racism… or something.
Boston PBS station GBH:
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius recommended the one-year hiatus for the program, known as Advanced Work Classes, saying the district would not proceed with the program for new students next year.
“There’s been a lot of inequities that have been brought to the light in the pandemic that we have to address,” Cassellius told GBH News. “There’s a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist and have policies where all of our students have a fair shot at an equitable and excellent education.”
New students will be admitted in the fourth grade by standards to be determined at the school level, according to a BPS spokesman.
There will be no new students admitted in the fifth or sixth grades, the spokesman said, but those already in advanced work will be allowed to continue.
Maybe there’s racism in the way the kids were chosen for the advanced learning classes?
The program was open to all students in the Boston Public Schools who took a test known as Terra Nova in the third grade and received a high score. Those students were placed in a lottery conducted by the central administration office, and lottery winners received letters inviting them to apply to the program. Last fall, 453 students received invitations, 143 students applied and 116 enrolled this year, officials said.
If they look hard enough, I’m sure they’ll find racism in the lottery.
The fallback position when playing the numbers game is always racism. There can be no other rational explanation. And if there is, it’s because the person pointing out the rational explanation is racist.
A rational person might look at the 453 students receiving invitations and ask why more blacks and Hispanics didn’t even apply. Not all of those 453 students could have been white and Asian. Why did black and Hispanic kids not want to take the advanced classes?
As far as the method of choosing candidates, the idea that the Terra Nova test is racist is so 20th century. Testing companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to hire experts and develop questions to remove all possible biases from these standardized tests.
Once again, we’re faced with the uncomfortable truth that maybe — just maybe — it is differences in the culture that account for the discrepancy in numbers. It shouldn’t and doesn’t suggest inferiority. It suggests that other forces are at work in some communities of color that make appearing to be intelligent something to avoid — even a stigma — and high achievement is frowned upon by peers.
Perhaps you could blame those attitudes on the impact of racial inequities over the centuries and how it affects children. But to make the argument that there is something inherently racist in encouraging excellence is wrong for any reason. That’s the message Boston schools are sending to children and parents of all colors.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/02/27/boston-schools-will-suspend-new-advanced-learning-classes-too-many-whites-and-asians-n1428859
Researchers Sound Alarm About Harmful Chemicals in Common Disinfectants
Disinfectant use has exploded during the coronavirus pandemic as people try to keep their hands and surfaces clean. But one family of cleaning chemicals is receiving scrutiny for potential health concerns.
Quats, or quaternary ammonium compounds, are charged molecules that can kill bacteria, fungi and viruses. Quats are effective disinfectants, but some researchers are raising alarm given recent research on the compounds’ possible human health and environmental effects, including fertility issues, endocrine disruption, occupational asthma, marine toxicity and potential to spur antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
And, while industry defends quats as safe, some states are taking notice and looking into regulations.
Bacterial resistance
The pandemic has increased demand for products like Lysol wipes that use quats as active ingredients: Sales of Lysol wipes were up nearly 50% in spring of 2020 compared to 2019. Other cleaning products are also in high demand — aerosol disinfectant sales as a whole have doubled in 2020 in the U.S., a large fraction of which also contain quats.
All those additional sales mean quats are becoming more present in the environment. “We’re in an era now where the concentration [of quats] is certainly higher than ever before,” William Arnold, an environmental engineer at the University of Minnesota, told Environmental Health News (EHN). He published a paper in June that revealed an increased load of quats may be ending up in wastewater plants, with some worrisome implications. Quats can end up in wastewater plants after they’re flushed down the drain — at the levels of use during the pandemic, some plants can’t keep up, so quats have the potential to pollute waterways. There, they might disrupt marine food chains, as quats have been found to be toxic to small invertebrates like plankton in lakes.
The ingredients also may be spurring antibiotic-resistant germs, Arnold said.
Bacteria are constantly working to shore up their defenses against the antiseptics we use. “We’ve had an 80- or 90-year head start, but we really need to keep innovating” to stay ahead of microbial evolution, Kevin Minbiole, a Villanova University chemist who studies how quats affect bacteria and viruses, told EHN.
Quats work like spears, penetrating the shell on the outside of a bacteria or virus. But some bacteria are getting better at recognizing quats and getting rid of them, or becoming resistant, said Minbiole. He and his collaborator, Emory University chemist William Wuest, are experimenting with new antimicrobial ingredients and recently patented their own quats that can mount multiple attacks on a single microbe. These quats are likely even more effective antiseptics than current quats on the market, but the new chemicals haven’t yet been tested for safety, so it’s not clear how their health or environmental impacts might differ, or not, from current quits, according to Wuest.
https://www.naturalblaze.com/2021/02/researchers-sound-alarm-about-harmful-chemicals-in-common-disinfectants.html
Billboard in Albany Calls for Disgraced New York Governor Cuomo to Be Impeached
A billboard was put up in Albany earlier this week calling for disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to be impeached.
The billboard was paid for by Albany gun-store owner Brian Olesen, who is angry that no one has been held accountable to “defend these people that passed away and their families.”
“The purpose is to demand that he be held accountable for the mass deaths at the nursing homes. Our original message was ‘He lied, they died,’ but the billboard company rejected it,” Olesen told The New York Post.
“I can’t believe nobody defended these people that passed away and their families,” he said. “Where were our elected officials? How did they let this go on?”
Cuomo was recently accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer and hid data about deaths of nursing home residents after he ordered them to accept Covid-19-positive patients.
Olesen also spoke of the sexual harassment claims and said the deaths “combined with these sexual allegations, I think people in this state have had it. And people are going to take the initiative now to seek this guy’s removal.”
He said that people have been calling his store, American Shooter Supply, and warning that the state might come after him over the $8,500 a month billboard.
“I had customers calling up saying, ‘You obviously don’t want to stay in business,’” Olesen said. “Look at what happened to anyone with state liquor license who spoke up about the lockdowns.
“I told them, I do want to stay in business, but enough’s enough,” he said. “When you feel this huge frustration you have to stand up.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/billboard-albany-calls-disgraced-new-york-governor-cuomo-impeached/
Judge "Disturbed" To Learn Google Tracks 'Incognito' Users, Demands Answers
A US District Judge in San Jose, California says she was "disturbed" over Google's data collection practices, after learning that the company still collects and uses data from users in its Chrome browser's so-called 'incognito' mode - and has demanded an explanation "about what exactly Google does," according to Bloomberg.
In a class-action lawsuit that describes the company's private browsing claims as a "ruse" - and "seeks $5,000 in damages for each of the millions of people whose privacy has been compromised since June of 2016," US District Judge Lucy Koh said she finds it "unusual" that the company would make the "extra effort" to gather user data if it doesn't actually use the information for targeted advertising or to build user profiles.
Koh has a long history with the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, previously forcing the Mountain View, California-based company to disclose its scanning of emails for the purposes of targeted advertising and profile building.
In this case, Google is accused of relying on pieces of its code within websites that use its analytics and advertising services to scrape users’ supposedly private browsing history and send copies of it to Google’s servers. Google makes it seem like private browsing mode gives users more control of their data, Amanda Bonn, a lawyer representing users, told Koh. In reality, “Google is saying there’s basically very little you can do to prevent us from collecting your data, and that’s what you should assume we’re doing,” Bonn said.
Andrew Schapiro, a lawyer for Google, argued the company’s privacy policy “expressly discloses” its practices. “The data collection at issue is disclosed,” he said.Another lawyer for Google, Stephen Broome, said website owners who contract with the company to use its analytics or other services are well aware of the data collection described in the suit. -Bloomberg
Koh isn't buying it - arguing that the company is effectively tricking users under the impression that their information is not being transmitted to the company.
"I want a declaration from Google on what information they’re collecting on users to the court’s website, and what that’s used for," Koh demanded.
The case is Brown v. Google, 20-cv-03664, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose), via Bloomberg.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/judge-disturbed-learn-google-tracks-incognito-users-demands-answers
Who’s the Boss? Dr. Jill Jumps in to Answer Question as Joe Biden Asked about Warehousing Migrant Kids in Tents — Says Biden’s Children Camps “More Humane”
Dr. Jill Biden jumped in to answer a reporter’s question to Joe Biden during an interview with Univision on Friday about the treatment of migrant children in camps. The open borders Biden administration reopened a child migrant detention center once used by the Trump administration to handle a surge of thousands of child migrants illegally pouring over the border. This is in response to Biden reversing Trump’s policy of not allowing unaccompanied minors into the country.
Univision reporter Ilia Calderon asked specifically about a report the children would be placed in tents.
Video posted by MRC Latino shows Jill Biden cutting off Joe Biden as he speaks so she could give a better answer than the stock answer he was giving.
Jill Biden defended her husband’s policy saying it’s “more humane” than the previous administration.
It’s not.
Joe Biden also stumbled during his answer as he tried to avoid saying “Trump.”
Joe Biden: “Right now there’s thousands of unaccompanied children coming across the border. In Texas they opened up one, one that was a former uh, one used in the, in the administration, the last administration. Our hope and expectation is that won’t stay open very long, that we’ll be able to provide for every kid who comes across the border safely to be housed in a facility that is licensed…”
Jill Biden: “And this administration is doing it in a humane way. And that’s really important. I mean we want to make sure that these children are safe, that they get mental health services, they get physical health services, they get education.”
This version of the interview shows that Univision edited out Biden fumbling at the start of his answer with Jill correcting him and also Biden saying his goal is to unite illegal alien migrant children with their families already in the U.S. In other words, making the Biden administration a complicit partner in the trafficking of migrant children.
Joe Biden, “Well, what I can confirm is there’s over seventy th…, right, right now there’s thousands of immigrants, uh, thousands of unaccompanied children coming across the border. We’ve been able to place a significant number of ’em in, in licensed facilities throughout the country..”
Jill Biden, “Shelters.”
Joe Biden, “…shelters throughout the country. But what happened is in Texas they opened up one. One that was a former uh, one used in the, in the administration, the last administration. Our hope and expectation is that won’t stay open very long, that we’ll be able to provide for every kid who comes across the border safely to be housed in a facility that is licensed. And, and what we’re trying to do and we have literally hundreds of people doing now, connect then with families in this country. Get them to the families that they, that they came to see or they’re looking for. And we’ve already connected thousands of them that way. And so that’s what, that’s our, our hope is to unite these children with families while they wait to have a hearing.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/boss-dr-jill-jumps-answer-question-joe-biden-speaks-warehousing-migrant-children-tents/
Supreme Court Slaps Down California County's Ban On Indoor Church Services
The US Supreme Court on Friday invalidated a California county's ban on indoor religious services, ruling that Santa Clara County must allow five churches to hold indoor services, according to Mercury News.
The ruling, which comes less than three weeks after the country ordered places of worship to remain shut in defiance of a previous US Supreme Court ruling allowing indoor religious services at 25% capacity, stems from a November lawsuit brought against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), the county, and County Health Officer Sara Cody.
The new ruling by a 6-3 vote requires indoor worship services to resume at 20% capacity in the county, tossing an "erroneous decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (located in San Francisco).
"This outcome is clearly dictated by this court’s decision in the South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom," reads the Supreme Court decision.
The churches are San Jose’s Gateway City Church and The Spectrum Church, Campbell’s The Home Church and Orchard Community Church, and Morgan Hill’s Trinity Bible Church. They have argued the county has lacked scientific backing to justify its ban on indoor worship services and that it is unlawfully denying the churches’ rights to peacefully assemble and freely exercise their religion.
Following the high court’s lifting of California’s statewide ban on indoor religious services, Santa Clara County argued that it was not subject to the ruling because it prohibited all indoor gatherings — regardless of whether they’re related to religion — rather than instituting a specific ban on indoor religious services.
Shortly after, the five Santa Clara County churches filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to attempt to block the county’s ban, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling must apply to the county. A U.S. district court judge granted an injunction to temporarily block the county’s ban on indoor worship services.
But in an abrupt reversal less than two days later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit temporarily suspended the order, concluding that the county’s prohibition on all indoor gatherings — including indoor religious services — could remain in place for the time being. -Mercury News
"The Supreme Court order was issued without any analysis at all of the County’s gathering rules, which have always been neutral and applied equally to all gatherings across-the-board," said attorney James Williams, counsel for Santa Clara County. "Indoor gatherings of all kinds remain very risky, and we continue to urge all religious institutions to carefully follow the public health recommendations to avoid spread of COVID-19 among their congregations and the broader community."
Bishop Oscar Cantú disagrees, saying that he joins "all Catholics and people of faith in Santa Clara County in expressing our satisfaction," adding in a Friday night statement: "Banning indoor worship and yet allowing people to gather at airports, personal services establishments, and retail shopping is unconstitutional — and the Supreme Court has said so several times."
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/supreme-court-slaps-down-california-countys-ban-indoor-church-services
Myanmar junta sacks UN envoy who called for his compatriots to keep fighting and win as crackdowns continue
Myanmar's junta has fired its United Nations ambassador for breaking ranks to denounce the military's ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as police stepped up a crackdown on protesters across the country.
Key points:
Myanmar's UN ambassador pleaded with people across Myanmar to keep fighting and said: "This revolution must win"
State TV announced his sacking, saying her did not follow orders and had "betrayed" the country
Some media workers in Myanmar have been detained for filming protests and stun grenades have been fired at protesters
The country has been shaken by a wave of demonstrations since a coup toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.
Authorities have ramped up the use of force to suppress dissent, deploying tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse some protests. Live rounds have been used in isolated cases.
In justifying its seizure of power, the military has alleged widespread fraud in the November elections, which Ms Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide, and promised fresh polls in a year.
But its ambassador to the United Nations on Friday broke ranks and made an emotional appeal to the international community for "the strongest possible action … to restore democracy".
Kyaw Moe Tun also pleaded with his "brothers and sisters" in Burmese to keep fighting.
"This revolution must win," he said, flashing the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of resistance against the junta.
By Saturday night, state-run TV announced Kyaw Moe Tun was no longer Myanmar's UN ambassador.
"[He] didn't follow the order and direction by the state and betrayed the country," according to an MRTV broadcast.
"That is why he is revoked from his position starting from today."
I applaud my colleague Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun today on his courageous and powerful statement to the @UN General Assembly today.
We stand with the people of #Myanmar against the military coup. pic.twitter.com/5H7KZfhuGE
— Ambassador Barbara Woodward (@BWoodward_UN) February 26, 2021
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-28/myanmar-un-envoy-fired-for-denouncing-junta-crackdown/13200692
big difference between fighting off someone coming to your house than going into the streets looking to start shit. I'm all for fucking up anyone who comes knocking trying to force anything on you.
Top prosecutor calls for jail discounts for guilty pleas to slash massive court backlog
Jail terms would be cut by up to 30 per cent for an early guilty plea under a range of measures proposed by Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions to clear a pandemic-driven backlog of more than 150,000 court cases.
Criminal matters waiting to be finalised before the Magistrates Court have doubled due to the pandemic and about 1600 trials are waiting to start in the County Court after jury trials were suspended due to the COVID-19 risk, according to Department of Justice figures released this week.
Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd’s proposals also include removing pre-trial hearings for sexual offences and special hearings to test cross-examinations before they happen.
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Age, Ms Judd said her proposals were aimed at both reducing court delays and improving the court process for victims of sexual offences.
She suggests a temporary discount (such as 20 to 30 per cent) on sentences for criminals who plead guilty within a prescribed time, a proposal she acknowledged could lead to “an outcry”.
Ms Judd’s concern with the delay is that more accused criminals could spend more time on remand than the sentence they would otherwise serve; and more serious offenders could be released while awaiting trial due to the long time they would spend in prison without being found guilty.
“Some offenders who would otherwise be remanded will be granted bail based on projected delay,” Ms Judd said.
Pre-trial hearings, called committal hearings, for sexual offences would be abolished to speed up the court process and to prevent victims from having to be cross-examined twice.
Committal hearings take place in the Magistrates Court before a magistrate who tests whether there is enough evidence to go to trial before a jury in the higher courts.
Often questioning of victims and witnesses is harsher in these kinds of hearings, particularly from defence lawyers, because there’s no jury present. There’s an assumption that juries have an aversion to aggressive questioning.
Legislation prevented certain types of questioning, including about a victim’s sexual history, but inappropriate questions still happened, Ms Judd said.
She also said ground rules hearings, ordinarily used to decide how a child or someone with a cognitive impairment could be questioned, could be expanded to allow for cases involving vulnerable adult victims of sexual and family violence offences.
Ms Judd said judges could be given increased powers to indicate to an offender what their sentence would be when they were weighing up whether to plead guilty or press ahead with a trial, which could prompt more guilty pleas and reduce court lists.
At the moment, judges can indicate if they’d impose an immediate term of imprisonment, but not how long.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/top-prosecutor-calls-for-jail-discounts-for-guilty-pleas-to-slash-massive-court-backlog-20210226-p5760r.html
that is usually what it takes to get one….maybe a few drone strikes on woman and children will get them over the line
((()))