Casino magnate and Netanyahu backer Adelson has cancer, in ‘dire’ health

GOP donor unable to work full-time because of side effect from medication for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but plans to stay on as Las Vegas Sands CEO, company says

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Casino magnate and GOP donor Sheldon Adelson is being treated for cancer and has not been at his company’s offices in Las Vegas since around Christmas Day.

Adelson’s poor health was revealed earlier this week by one of his company’s attorneys during a court hearing in a years-old case brought by a Hong Kong businessman.

The founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. did not participate in the casino operator’s conference call with analysts and investors following its earnings report in January.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/casino-magnate-and-netanyahu-backer-adelson-has-cancer-in-dire-health/

Reminds me of Hyman Roth from Godfather 3

US-Proclaimed ‘Venezuelan President’ Announces Another Humanitarian Aid Provocation

On February 28th, the rival resolutions on Venezuela by US and Russia were both blocked at the United Nations Security Council.

The US proposal received the necessary 9 votes but was vetoed by Russia, China and South Africa.

“The US draft resolution called for the holding of new elections and a recognition of self-proclaimed interim President Guaidó. Nine voted in favour (Germany, Poland, Peru, US, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Dominican Republic, Kuwait), three against (Russia, China, South Africa) and there were three abstentions (Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire).”

The US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams commented on the block of the draft resolution:

“The Situation in Venezuela demands our action now,” the United States Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, told the Council. “The time for a peaceful transition to democracy is now…We look forward to genuine free and fair elections and to a Government that reflects the will and aspirations of the Venezuelan people.”

UK Ambassador Karen Pierce praised the US resolution, and criticized the Russian resolution as partially fiction. “There have been no threats to Venezuela’s political independence or territorial integrity,” she said.

The Russian draft received 4 votes in favor – from Russia, China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea. The resolution called for a dialogue between the Government and the opposition, in line with the Montevideo mechanism – a forum for talks, launched by Mexico and Uruguay earlier this February. It received 7 votes against (Germany, Poland, Peru, US, United Kingdom, France, Belgium) and 4 abstentions (Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Kuwait).

https://southfront.org/us-proclaimed-venezuelan-president-announces-another-humanitarian-aid-provocation/

This Supreme Court Justice Is About To Cause All Hell To Break Loose By Retiring

Donald Trump is about to be in for the fight of his life.

Last fall, the Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and conservatives thought they had finally shifted the court to the right for good.

But now, the last Supreme Court Justice anyone ever expected may retire—and it will cause all hell to break loose in Washington.

Justice Clarence Thomas is a hero in the conservative movement.

Thomas has served on the court since 1991—after surviving a smear campaign during his confirmation hearing where radical leftists tried to use Anita Hill’s decade-old allegations of sexual harassment to derail his nomination.

Since then, Thomas has established the most consistent conservative voting record of any judge in American history.

Now he is 70 years old.

If Donald Trump wins re-election, Thomas will be in his mid-80s during Trump’s successor’s second term.

Should that be a Democrat, conservatives would be faced with the panic liberals now confront with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Some liberals wanted Ginsberg to retire back in 2013 after Obama won re-election and the Democrats had control of the Senate.

That would have allowed Obama to install a younger leftist, putting three of the liberal bloc’s four Supreme Court seats safely out of reach for 30 to 40 years.

And there has been some speculation floating around Washington that Thomas may retire this summer.

That would allow Trump and the Republicans to tee up a confirmation fight heading into the 2020 election.

And the New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin – who serves as their legal correspondent – believes this may be the case.

https://www.americanpatriotdaily.com/featured/this-supreme-court-justice-is-about-to-cause-all-hell-to-break-loose-by-retiring/

Ex-Las Vegas illusionist FAINTS as he's jailed for 20 years in federal porn case which found 9,000 images and videos featuring 'very, very young boys' on his computer

Las Vegas magician Jan Rouven Fuechtener was jailed for 20 years

He pleaded guilty in a federal child pornography case and fined $500,000

FBI found more than 3,000 videos and 100 images at his home

The material depiced 'very, very young' boys engaged in sex with adult men

Fuechtener is a German citizen who performed under the name Jan Rouven at the Tropicana hotel-casino

His show closed following his arrest in March 2016

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6758891/Ex-Las-Vegas-headliner-gets-20-years-federal-porn-case.html

Do Members of Congress Take Too Many Private Trips to Israel With AIPAC?

41% now want their representatives to visit Palestinians

One of every three members of Congress boarding a jetliner on a privately-funded all-expense paid trip overseas has Israel as their final destination. Only one out of a hundred ever visits Palestinian territories as a final destination.

Analysis of Gift Travel Filings made to the US House of Representatives Office of the Clerk over the past half-decade reveals Israel is far and away their top foreign destination. House of Representatives members made nearly 1,400 trips to Israel, while total subsidized visits to foreign countries other than Israel were 2,500.

https://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2019/02/28/do-members-of-congress-take-too-many-private-trips-to-israel-with-aipac/

‘Free Trade’ is Globalism’s Trojan Horse

The EU’s foundations were laid with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, a trade agreement that harmonized supply chains of said critical resources. Not only would it be economically expedient, it was marketed by its architect Robert Schuman in 1950—and like many another vain hope before it—as something that would “make war materially impossible.” From the beginning, European technocrats realized that economic integration would inevitably lead to political integration.

History proved them right. Trade agreement after agreement followed, each justified on economic grounds, and supported by conservatives—who could say no to free trade or to the prosperity it promised? And perhaps the EU did enrich Europe, but at what cost? A single market requires a single law: European nations sacrificed their political independence upon the altar of economic interdependence—Europe now shares an increasingly powerful legislature, single currency, and constitution.

We laugh at the Left for its cognitive dissonance on a host of issues, but we should be careful not to commit the same sin. Make no mistake, political and economic globalization are more than siblings, they are the two faces of Janus—by placing our faith in one, we venerate the other. It is time we returned to the measured and deliberate isolationism that America’s Founders recommended.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/free-trade-is-globalisms-trojan-horse/

UN Council: Israel Intentionally Shot Children and Journalists in Gaza

Officials say killings are part of Israel's 'obligation'

Israel is furious at the UN Human Rights Council most of the time, but they are particularly furious whenever the body offers a report, as Israel tends to violate a lot of human rights. In this case, the council has announced an “independent inquiry” into the protests at the Gaza border.

Every Friday, for months now, Palestinian protesters have rallied near the Gaza border to protest the Israeli blockade. Every Friday, Israel shoots a large number of people. The investigation ruled that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel violated international law.

The report noted that 154 out of 183 people killed by Israel in that time were entirely unarmed. They noted Israel had repeatedly, deliberately shot children and journalists, as well as disabled protesters. International law, needless to say, frowns upon those sorts of deliberate killings.

While Israeli officials reacted with typical fury, it is noteworthy that they didn’t deny any of the content of the report. Instead, Acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz argued Israel has a “right of self-defense and the obligation to defend its citizens and borders.” In essence, he is arguing that Israel had an obligation to shoot those unarmed children.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/02/28/un-council-israel-intentionally-shot-children-and-journalists-in-gaza/

IDF Snipers Shoot at Children Playing on Rooftop in Gaza

Video not part of article but is absolute proof it happens

The U.S. is funding dangerous experiments it doesn’t want you to know about

In 2014, U.S. officials imposed a moratorium on experiments to enhance some of the world’s most lethal viruses by making them transmissible by air, responding to widespread concerns that a lab accident could spark a global pandemic. Most infectious-disease studies pose modest safety risks, but given that these proposed experiments intended to create a highly contagious flu virus that could spread among humans, the government concluded the work should not go on until it could be approved through a specially created, rigorous review process that considered the dangers.

Apparently, the government has decided the research should now move ahead. In the past year, the U.S. government quietly greenlighted funding for two groups of researchers, one in the United States and the other in the Netherlands, to conduct transmission-enhancing experiments on the bird flu virus as they were originally proposed before the moratorium. Amazingly, despite the potential public-health consequences of such work, neither the approval nor the deliberations or judgments that supported it were announced publicly. The government confirmed them only when a reporter learned about them through non-official channels.

This lack of transparency is unacceptable. Making decisions to approve potentially dangerous research in secret betrays the government’s responsibility to inform and involve the public when approving endeavors, whether scientific or otherwise, that could put health and lives at risk.

We are two of the hundreds of researchers, medical and public-health professionals, and others who publicly opposed these experiments when they were first announced. In response to these concerns, the government issued a framework in 2017 for special review of “enhanced” pathogens that could become capable of causing a pandemic. Under that framework, reviewers must consider the purported benefits and the potential risks and, before approving the work, determine “that the potential risks as compared to the potential benefits to society are justified.”

The framework also requires that experts in public-health preparedness and response, biosafety, ethics and law, among others, evaluate the work, but it is unclear from the public record if that happened. No description of who reviewed these proposals has been provided. It is not stated what evidence was considered, how competing claims were evaluated or whether there were potential conflicts of interest.

https://outline.com/g9B73h

Not only a racist rabbi, but a racist state

I have regularly written about the implications of the followers of murdered Rabbi Meir Kahane forming an official Israeli party called the Jewish Power party. This is a party that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently sought to include in the Jewish Home right-wing coalition consisting of Zionist religious movements.

Kahane is the founder of the Jewish Defence League as well as the fascist Kach gang, which has been outlawed by Israeli law. He served as a member of the 11th Knesset in 1988. His electoral list was then disqualified, and he was barred from running in the Israeli general elections for racism.

In this context, I cited an Israeli academic study published in 2002, concluding that the roots of Kahane’s blatant racism are deep within Israeli society and that right-wing extremism is not an abnormality in the practices of Zionist politicians, regardless of their political affiliations and where they fall on the spectrum. In fact, before 1948, nationalist movements were active in Palestine, foremost among which was the revisionist movement led by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and parts of it were influenced by fascism in Europe. The occupation in 1967 re-paved the way for its reinforcement and brought it to the forefront, and we saw more of it, such as the dissolved Tehiya, Tzomet and Moledet political parties, and the Kach gang. The study was based on a public opinion poll showing support for Kach’s barbaric ideas (including encouraging the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 and initiating an attack on them after acts of resistance) among voters for all Jewish parties, including those who portray themselves as being centre or left-wing parties, such as the Meretz Party.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190228-not-only-a-racist-rabbi-but-a-racist-state/

US Sanctions on Venezuela Possibly Worse Than Iraq Sanctions before War

News about humanitarian aid shipments to Venezuela almost never compare how tiny a fraction this aid is relative to the devastating damage that US sanctions against Venezuela have caused, which is now as draconian as the pre-Iraq war sanctions were, says CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot.

***

GREG WILPERT: It’s The Real News Network, and I’m Greg Wilpert, coming to you from Baltimore.

The conflict over Venezuela is heating up again. Thursday evening, the former head of Venezuela’s intelligence services, Hugo Carvajal, turned against Maduro in a video address. In a statement, he called on the military to reject Maduro, and said the government was completely beset by corruption. He also urged Maduro to take in the humanitarian aid that is being sent by the U.S. and international donors. Carvajal himself had long been under U.S. sanctions and allegations of being involved in drug trafficking. He’s currently a representative of Venezula’s National Assembly.

Then on Friday, dueling concerts are taking place on the Venezuela-Colombia border. On the Colombian side, the billionaire and Virgin Atlantic airline founder Richard Branson organized a fundraising concert for humanitarian aid for Venezuela. And on the Venezuelan side, the government organized a rival concert with government supporters. Then on Saturday, self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido is promising to deliver tens of millions of dollars of international aid, mainly from the U.S., Canada, Colombia, and Brazil, into Venezuela, with the help of opposition supporters. President Maduro has denounced the effort, saying it is a pretext for military action. International aid groups such as the Red Cross and the UN have declined to participate, saying that the aid has been politicized, and thus does not meet their criteria for involvement.

Meanwhile, U.S.-imposed sanctions continue to wreak havoc on Venezuela’s economy. Oil companies report that U.S. Gulf coast refineries are scrambling to find new supply sources for the heavy crude they once received from Venezuela. Venezuela itself says it can sell its oil to India and China instead of the U.S., but it’s not clear yet how the payments will be processed. Also, a battle has erupted over who controls Citgo when the U.S. said it would impose a new board of directors that interim president Juan Guaido has named.

Joining me now to discuss the effects of the sanctions and some of the most recent developments in Venezuela is Mark Weisbrot. Mark is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Thanks for joining us today, Mark.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/sanctions-venezuela-worse-iraq-sanctions/5670004

U.S. Condemns Venezuela’s Government Yet Commits Human Rights Abuses Across the Middle East

“Americans have no idea of the extent of their government’s mischief… the number of military strikes we have made unprovoked, against other countries, since 1947 is more than 250.’’ Gore Vidal

Last Saturday U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who is seen by many as being in charge of Trump’s policy towards Latin America, threatened Veneuela’s government with a military invasion for its numerous violations of human rights. The U.S. political elite is trying to exploit ordinary people’s disgust at alleged human right’s abuses to justify the potential invasion of another county.

Ordinary people taken in by humanitarian bombers such as Rubio need to be reminded that American loftiness over events in Venezuela stands in stark contrast to the indifference and complicity of the U.S. and its allies regarding human rights abuses in the Middle East.

Amnesty International has issued a new report, ”Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: A review of 2018’’. It reveals a grim picture of ruthless repression against civilian protestors, torture, and war crimes on a grand scale.

Saudi Arabia has been in the media spotlight since the murder of journalist Jamal Khosoggi in its Turkish embassy back in October 2018. Khasoggi’s murder by a Saudi hit squad provoked a global outcry yet the House of Saud dictatorship has not faced any punitive action from the United States. President Trump has made it clear that U.S. arms sales and military support for the Saudi’s genocidal war in Yemen will continue unabated.

Several European countries, such as Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Finland, took the rare step of suspending arms sales to the Riyadh dictatorship and its UAE partner in crime. Yet major powers such as France and the UK continue to not only sell arms to the Gulf dictatorships but have even lobbied Germany to resume its arms sales again.

Heba Morayef who is Amnesty’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa has commented:

“It took Jamal Khashoggi’s cold-blooded murder inside a consulate to prompt a handful of more responsible states to suspend arms transfers to a country that has been leading a coalition responsible for war crimes and has helped create a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. Yet even the global outcry over the Khashoggi case has not been followed by concrete action to ensure those responsible for his murder are brought to justice.”

On a domestic level Saudi Arabia continues to imprison human rights activists, government critics and women’s rights defenders. Many have been given lengthy prison sentences after being subjected to torture and grossly unfair trials that make a mockery of the term justice. Besides this, women and the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia continue to face systematic discrimination and violence. Freedom of expression and the right to peacefully protest offline and online are expressly forbidden.

Scores of government critics and human rights defenders are serving lengthy prison sentences. Meanwhile, the Saudi dictatorship routinely uses torture to obtain confessions, conducts grossly unfair secret mass trials and makes liberal use of death sentences to ‘crush dissent’. Saudi Arabia’s much vaunted reform allowing women the right to drive was somewhat diminished by the fact that many female activists who had campaigned for the right to drive remain in prison. Women still require the permission of a male guardian to seek employment, enrol in higher education, travel or marry.

On an international level Saudi Arabia and its coalition of the killing, that includes most of the Gulf dictatorships, continues to wage an illegal war in Yemen creating the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. The Saudi led coalition use weaponry supplied by the U.S., France and Britain to systematically destroy Yemen’s food infrastructure and its water irrigation systems along with the deliberate targeting of residential areas in towns and cities. To compound matters, the Saudi led coalition has imposed a land, sea and air blockade of Yemen which is a deliberate attempt to restrict humanitarian aid getting into the starving population. The Saudi led siege of the Red Sea port of Hodeidah is intensifying the famine that has enveloped the country.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/united-states-human-rights-abuses-middle-east/5669948

Has the Elite’s Slavish Pro-Israel Agenda Finally Gone Too Far?

Hezbollah’s defeat of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the July war of 2006 was heroic and an essential redress to the Middle East power balance. I supported Hezbollah’s entirely defensive action then and I continue to applaud it now. That, beyond any shadow of a doubt, makes me guilty of the criminal offence of “glorifying terrorism”, now that Sajid Javid has proscribed Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. I am unrepentant and look forward to the prosecution.

A large majority of the public, and certainly almost everyone who remembers that 2006 invasion, would revolt from my being prosecuted on those grounds. The very absurdity of it is a sure measure that Sajid Javid has simply gone too far in naming Hezbollah – the legitimate political party representing in parliament the majority rural population in Southern Lebanon – as a terrorist organisation.

Together with the largely manufactured “Corbyn anti-semitism” row, Javid’s move is aimed at achieving in the UK the delegitimisation of political opposition to Israeli aggression and absorption of the occupied territories and the Golan Heights, in the way that has been achieved in the USA. However, there is a much better educated population in the UK and a great deal of popular awareness of decades of Israeli crimes. In fact, the continuing resilience of the Labour vote shows that at least over a third of the British population does not buy the “anti-semitism” tag applied to all those concerned at the continued plight of the Palestinians.

Hezbollah has never been implicated in any terrorist attack on the UK. Its military posture in Southern Lebanon vis a vis Israel is entirely defensive; it evolved as a military force in reaction to wave after wave of Israeli invasion of Lebanon, in which the Israeli “Defence” Force casually decimated Shia communities en route to attacking Palestinian refugee camps. Hezbollah has never invaded Israel. Hezbollas played an effective and laudable role in assisting the defeat of Isis and their Jihadist allies in Syria.

Oh look, I just “glorified terrorism” again.

Javid’s move is primarily aimed at pleasing Israel and looking to score political points over Jeremy Corbyn, whose past contacts with Hezbollah can now be deemed terrorist. But it is also a move to please the UK elite’s other paymaster, Mohammed Bin Salman, by further forwarding his attempt to delegitimise and to subjugate Arab Shia communities. Coupled with the irony of announcing DFID support of £200 million for Yemeni victims of our very own bombs and “military support”, this is a shameful week for British foreign policy.

I first became devoted to the Palestinian cause as a first year student at Dundee University, when I watched a film about Israeli destruction of Palestinian olive trees in the occupied territories, to devastate their economic base and force families to leave. That film made me cry.

It is a matter of despair that, 42 years later, this practice continues, and indeed has been ongoing for that entire time. I find this almost as heinous as the continuing killing and imprisonment of Palestinian children. I find it a useful exercise every morning to ask yourself this question:

How many children has the Israeli “Defence” Force killed since the MSM last reported one?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/pro-israel-agenda/5670018

British Jewish organisation critical of Israel forced to cancel documentary screening

In what looks like the next chapter in the ongoing row over alleged antisemitism within the Labour Party, a British Jewish organisation critical of Israel has been forced to cancel the screening of a controversial documentary in the House of Commons. The film explores the background to the allegations and was due to be screened next month.

Labour MP Chris Williamson booked a room in parliament to screen the film about the suspended Jewish Labour activist Jackie Walker, although the screening was organised by Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), a network for Jewish members of the Labour Party. The group has backed party leader Jeremy Corbyn during the row over antisemitism, which started on his election as leader in 2015.

“A documentary film exploring the background to accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party, due to be screened in the House of Commons on Monday March 4, has been cancelled after an outcry from people who have not seen it,” explained JVL. The group revealed that Neve Gordon, Professor of International Law at Queen Mary University of London, was due to take part in a panel discussion after the screening. “This is outrageous,” Gordon apparently told JVL. “It certainly confirms the significance of the movie.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190227-british-jewish-organisation-critical-of-israel-forced-to-cancel-documentary-screening/

Violence is fundamental to Israel’s ‘democracy’ and always has been

Israeli soldiers hiding behind bunkers and using long-range sniper rifles have intentionally murdered 35 children, paramedics, journalists and disabled people during its ongoing assault against Palestinian civilian protestors along the Gaza border, a report released by the United Nations concluded this week. The UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) said that Israeli soldiers violated international human rights and humanitarian laws in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 in weekly Friday protests since they began on 30 March, 2018. According to Palestinian sources in Gaza, those figures are very conservative.

In the 25-page report, UN officials said that the killings “may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity” and urged that the evidence should be submitted formally to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

Rather than addressing the contents of the report, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responded in their usual way when confronted with overwhelming evidence of the mass murder of women, children and innocent civilians: they accused the UN of “anti-Semitism”, bias and hypocrisy. This is nothing new. The Israelis have been obfuscating and denying mass murder allegations since the ethnic cleansing and destruction of at least 400 Palestinian towns and villages during the “war of independence” between 1946 and 1949.

Israel’s history is built on terrorism and killing not just on the basis of race or ethnicity, but also on religion; what we might call “religicide”. Its murderous violence has continued throughout its seven decades of existence. The murder of Christians and Muslims by Israeli soldiers has always been justified by asserting that the Jewish soldiers were merely “retaliating” for attacks by Arabs. What’s more, news reports are censored and Israeli journalists are prohibited from reporting on the incidents.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190301-violence-is-fundamental-to-israels-democracy-and-always-has-been/

US to Withdraw All Troops from Afghanistan in Five Years – Report

The newly proposed peace plan suggests cutting the US contingent in half immediately and withdrawing the remaining forces in three to five years.

The US would withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan in three to five years, under a new peace plan proposed during the talks between US officials and the Taliban.

Under the peace plan, the US will reduce its military presence by half from 14,000 to 7,000 in the coming months, a report by The New York Times says. The remaining 7,000 troops will withdraw together with the remaining 8,600 European and international troops within three to five years.

Until then, US forces will refrain from training the Afghan military, delegating this task to the Europeans, while focusing primarily on counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda and Daesh remnants in the country.

"The Europeans are perfectly capable of conducting the training mission," James Stavridis, a retired American admiral and former top NATO commander, told reporters. "It is a smart division of labor to have the United States shift the bulk of its effort toward the special forces mission and having the Europeans do the training mission."

The plan has reportedly been well received in both the Pentagon and the NATO HQ in Brussels. However, US officials close to the talks warned journalists that due to his erratic nature, US President Donald Trump may cancel the plan at any moment.

Speaking of the president's erratic nature, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has been discussed with European military authorities, unlike Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw from Syria, the report says.

On Monday, US diplomats met with Taliban officials in Qatar in what the Times describes as the highest-level negotiations yet, in order to develop a framework plan for a withdrawal agreement decided in principle last month.

As a prerequisite for total withdrawal, the US reportedly seeks guarantees from the Taliban that the group will take responsibility for thwarting terrorist groups that may seek to attack the United States and who view Afghanistan as a safe haven.

The Western-backed Afghan government has not been a part of negotiations because of the Taliban's reluctance to speak with President Ashraf Ghani or his envoys.

The prospect of US military withdrawal has raised fears that Ghani's government will collapse, giving the Taliban — known for their hardcore view of Islam — full power over the country.

https://sputniknews.com/military/201903011072852524-us-withdrawal-afghanistan-plan/

Update: City welcome sign with islamist woman in hijab shot to pieces by enraged Swedes

An image of a Muslim woman wearing a hijab was recently published on a digital advertising board at the entrance to the Swedish City of Gävle.

“It is true that the board was vandalised on Friday, and completely destroyed during the weekend”, says Johan Adolfsson, director of communications at Gävle Municipality.

“We select people who have been nominated by the residents to represent those who live in Gävle. Suzan Hindi is one of the 100 Gävle residents nominated for the campaign”.

“There have been lots of reactions to the advertisement. People express that it’s wrong, that Islam is a threat and that there are big problems with the hijab, says Johan Adolfsson.”

“We received hundreds of emails and phone calls over the weekend. It is unpleasant because the insults are directed towards me and Suzan Hindi personally.”

What type of insults? Can you give examples?

“What a fucking knucklehead you are.” “Seek help dammit.” “You have insulted the city’s original inhabitants, and descendants of those who once built Sweden.” “How the hell can you post this, you fucking asshole” etc.

The board has three distinct bullet holes in the led panels, and the vandalism will be reported to the police. It is clear that this is related. In comments, people have suggested that the board should be shot at and wrecked completely.

Do you have plans to change the campaign?

“Absolutely not, everyone is welcome here”, Johan Adolfsson concludes.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/02/update-city-welcome-sign-with-islamist-woman-in-hijab-shot-to-pieces-by-enraged-swedes/

Ukraine backs out of Eurovision Contest – Its shameful terms exposed by contestants

The European Broadcasting Union received official notice from the National Public Television of Ukraine (NOTU) that they will not be participating in the Eurovision contest this year.

This happened as a consequence of all three of the winners of Ukraine’s national contest (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place) unanimously refused to represent Ukraine after learning of Ukraine’s ‘career ending’ and ‘highly politicized’ terms. Those winners were Maruv, Freedom-jazz in second, and Kazka Group in third.

First place winner Anna Korsun, known professionally as Maruv (alternatively, ‘MARUV’), is a Ukrainian singer, composer, poet and producer. She has officially rejected the offer on the basis of ‘not wanting to be a political tool’.

At issue is a self-defeating law passed by the U.S coup-installed Rada of Ukraine, which prohibits Ukrainian performers (actors, singers, artists, etc.) who in anyway are the recipient of grants or public moneys from Ukraine, to perform in the Russian Federation.

This creates an impossible deal for the vast majority of Ukrainian artists who by and large perform in the Russian language, which is spoken by nearly all Ukrainians, and is still the de facto language spoken in the largest Ukrainian cities, Kiev and Odessa. Recent language laws by the same ultra-nationalist Ukrainian Rada have created ‘Ukrainian language only’ laws within the public sphere, but private businesses continue to operate using the Russian ‘lingua franca’.

Popular Ukrainian performers are also often popular in Russia – after all, the present ‘conflict’ between Ukraine and Russia is highly politicized, but does not reflect the last century of heavily fraternal relations between these peoples, whom many experts and citizens on both sides alike in fact view as a single people.

It would be ‘career suicide’ for an otherwise popular Ukrainian performer to agree to anything that would bar them from performing in Russia.

Furthermore, it was believed by many in the industry, that Ukraine’s entry into the Eurovision contest would resemble last year’s – a heavily politicized performance which violated Eurovisions own rules against performances that politicize cultural and historical matters in light of contemporary challenges and conflicts. Russia, at the time, made an official complaint about Ukraine’s entry last year, a revisionist approach to the history of Ukrainian Tatars which effectively demonized the USSR’s WWII era provisions, and were seen as de facto legitimization of the Nazi German war effort, widely lauded in contemporary Ukrainian ruling parties in parliament.

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/02/ukraine-backs-out-of-eurovision-contest-its-shameful-terms-exposed-by-contestants/

Wisconsin Man Sentenced for Threatening Jewish Community Center

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wisconsin-man-sentenced-threatening-jewish-community-center

ICE arrests 3 released in western Michigan after detainers ignored

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Deportation officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) have arrested three criminal aliens in western Michigan over the last several weeks after they were released from Kent County Sheriff’s custody with an active immigration detainer in place.

"The release of criminal aliens back on west Michigan streets continues to pose a serious threat to our communities,” said Rebecca Adducci, ERO field office director for Detroit, which covers the two-state region of Michigan and Ohio. “ICE remains committed to arresting and removing criminal aliens in the interest of public safety and national security, despite local decisions to not honor detainers and jeopardize the safety of its citizens.”

Case examples:

Kent County: Unlawfully present Honduran national arrested locally for assault with intent to murder; after subject repeatedly stabbed another man in the head with a broken beer bottle in an apparent fight. On Feb 26, subject was convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon (felonious assault). Released, despite ICE’s issuance of a detainer.

Kent County: A previously-deported Mexican national arrested locally for DUI. Released, despite ICE’s issuance of a detainer.

Kent County: A previously-deported Mexican national arrested locally for operating while intoxicated. He had been convicted previously for battery, battery 2nd, fraud-false info to law enforcement, felony-reentry after deportation. He is currently in U.S. Marshals custody pending additional felony charges. Released despite ICE’s issuance of a detainer.

ICE Detroit Operations:

In Fiscal Year 2018, the Detroit field office made more than 3,600 arrests in the two-state region – approximately 75 percent of those individuals either had a prior criminal conviction or came into ICE custody pursuant to their criminal arrest on pending charges. These statistics make clear that the agency only conducts targeted enforcement focused first on criminals and public safety threats. Claims of any type of random or indiscriminate enforcement are false.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-arrests-3-released-western-michigan-after-detainers-ignored

Where has $850m gone? Bill de Blasio's wife can't account for staggering amount of taxpayer money that the NY Mayor gave her for mental health project

Chirlane McCray was assigned a $850million budget for her ThriveNYC program

But records show scheme has failed to keep track of what it spent the money on

The small amount of data that was collected shows it fell far short of targets

Despite that, organizers have expanded the budget to $1billion over five years

Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray cannot explain where $850million given to the mental health program she champions has gone, according to reports.

In the three years it has been running, organizers at ThriveNYC have largely failed to keep records of the initiative's achievements - and data that has been collected shows it lagging well behind targets.

Despite that, the program has been granted an even bigger budget going forward and is now on track to spend $1billion over five years.

The data comes from a Politico report that shows those running the scheme have largely failed to measure its impact or keep track of spending.

Thrive said it has developed a list of 417 metrics to measure how effective the program is moving forward, but asked to assess its impact so far, Politico said the data was piecemeal and showed a largely failing picture.

For example, 29 hospitals had agreed to screen almost 78,000 new mothers for post-natal depression each year as part of the scheme.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6760503/Bill-Blasios-wife-account-850m-given-mental-health-project.html

The art of no deal: Why can’t Washington reach agreements with…anyone?

The much-anticipated second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un was cut short this week, with both leaders leaving Vietnam early before an expected signing ceremony. Sometimes you just have to walk away, Trump said.

The negotiations ultimately floundered when it came to the question of lifting US sanctions on North Korea. Kim wanted partial sanctions relief in return for its “realistic proposal”to halt nuclear and missile tests and dismantle a nuclear facility at Yongbyon, but Trump was not prepared to compromise.

Murray Hunter, an associate professor at the University Malaysia Perlis, told RT the result was a “catastrophic failure” given the “high expectations” the White House had put on the meeting. So, what does it really take to reach a deal with the United States?

The most obvious criteria for successful negotiations with the US seems to be that a country’s name must either be ‘Israel’ or ‘Saudi Arabia’ — but beyond that, problems plague Washington’s efforts at diplomacy and deal-making.

Iran: Deal! Wait, no deal

One major impediment to Washington’s deal-making skills might be its tendency to renege on the deals it actually does make, thus rendering confidence in its promises fairly pointless.

Trump, who has long prided himself on his ability to close deals, decided last May to rip up the 2015 Iran nuclear negotiated by seven countries, despite lacking any evidence that Tehran had broken the terms. The UN and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) both said Iran had abided by the deal and European countries were left begging Trump to keep the US in, to no avail. With the stroke of a pen, a deal that took years of trust-building to conclude, was cast aside.

Since then, Trump has seemed determined to take an ever more antagonistic tone toward Iran, slapping the country with more sanctions and angling toward regime change.

https://www.rt.com/usa/452706-why-washington-cant-make-deals/

Why Should My Newspaper Pledge Not to Boycott Israel?

LAST YEAR, LETTERS FROM THE STATE of Arkansas began drifting across my desk, demanding that our weekly newspaper, the Arkansas Times, either sign a pledge not to boycott Israel or forfeit all state advertising.

The letters were the result of an obscure, cookie-cutter law passed in 2017 by our Republican-controlled legislature. Specifically, it requires any company entering into a contract with a public entity to certify that it “is not currently engaged in, and agrees for the duration of the contract not to engage in, a boycott of Israel.”

Initially, we and our longtime state agency clients simply ignored it and went about our business of producing a newspaper. But when the University of Arkansas System began strictly enforcing the law last fall, it told us that we had to sign the anti-boycott pledge in order to continue running advertisements for the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College.

At that point, we had a decision to make. Times are hard in the publishing industry, and we really needed the business. But at what price? It had never occurred to us to boycott anyone, but the idea that the state would force a publishing company to take a political position in return for business was offensive.

We then learned the law offered to let us continue to do business without signing the pledge, so long as we accepted a 20 percent cut in our ad rates. I said, “Well, to hell with them.” We were not going to pay a 20 percent tax for the right to hold beliefs independent of the Arkansas Legislature, at least not without a fight.

So, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, we sued the state to have this law overturned on free speech grounds. Our hearing to get an injunction against enforcement of the law was on Friday, Jan. 4. In other states where similar laws have been passed, citizens have sued because they support the boycott against Israel based on how that country is treating the Palestinians. We’re focused on Arkansas at the Arkansas Times and have never editorially advocated for a boycott of Israel. But as journalists, citizens and taxpayers, we dispute the right of the state to impose any ideological litmus test on a publisher or other business, when the only consideration in awarding a state contract should be merit.

https://www.wrmea.org/2019-march-april/why-should-my-newspaper-pledge-not-to-boycott-israel.html

>>5451079

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