The immigration floodgates are closing

Salvini quotes Ezra Pound, “If a man is not ready to fight for his ideas, either his ideas are worthless, or he is,”

Italian ethnonationalist leader Matteo Salvini is to stand trial on charges of illegally detaining migrants at sea after senators voted Wednesday to strip him of his parliamentary immunity.

The Globe Post, 12 Feb 2020:

A court in Sicily recommended that former interior minister Salvini stand trial for blocking migrants from disembarking from a coast guard boat last July.

But ministers cannot be tried for actions taken while in office unless their parliamentary immunity is revoked.

The Senate’s decision sends the chief of the anti-immigrant League party to trial for abuse of power and illegal detention, charges for which he faces up to 15 years in jail.

“I have defended Italy. I have full and total faith in the justice system,” Salvini told ANSA news agency after the vote.

“I am not worried at all, and I’m proud of what I’ve done,” he said, adding he would “do it again when I get back into power.”

Salvini had refused to allow 116 rescued migrants to leave the Gregoretti coast guard boat – where they had been languishing for about a week in insalubrious conditions – until a deal was reached with other European states to host them.

A Catania court accused him of “abuse of power” in blocking them on board from July 27 to July 31 last year, and of illegally detaining them.

Salvini insists the decision had the backing of the government and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

‘Head Held High’

Before the debate began, Salvini took to Facebook to say he had his “head held high, with the calm conscience of those who have defended their land and people.”

“If a man is not ready to fight for his ideas, either his ideas are worthless, or he is,” Salvini wrote, quoting Ezra Pound, a 20th-century American poet known for his fascist sympathies.

The Gregoretti on July 25 took on board 140 migrants who were trying to make the perilous crossing from war-torn Libya to Europe – the same day 110 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast.

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This plaque commemorates the first Boy Scout-Troop in America, “The Lord Baden-Powell Troop”, Troop 4, which gathered there, at Nishuane School, Montclair, New Jersey. My Boy Scout Troop, 12, met on the other side, the White side of Montclair at Watchung School. But Nishuane shool is not only the initial gathering place of the massive institution of Boy Scouts of America, which was ultimately subverted by liberalism, viz. as it opened the gate for pedophilia; but Nishuane also happens to be the majority black school where I got bused for the liberal social engineering program of “integration” of White kids with blacks, back in September 1971, when I was ten years old. A trauma of another kind for kids, an awakening indeed to the harrowing nightmare of imposed integration with blacks.  DanielS

Boy Scouts bankruptcy: What we know about victims, assets and the future of scouting

USA Today, 18 Feb 2020:

The Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Tuesday as the organization faces 275 abuse lawsuits and potentially an additional 1,400 cases to come.

Having already paid more than $150 million in settlements and legal costs between 2017 and 2019, the Boy Scouts hopes to contain the financial damage of the abuse scandal and emerge as a more sustainable organization.

Bankruptcy was “the only viable option” for the Boy Scouts to consolidate numerous cases in one proceeding, pay its victims and emerge as a sustainable entity, the organization said.

But some victims attorneys have said the nonprofit is is turning to bankruptcy court to escape its obligations.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy: Boy Scouts files for court protection in the face of thousands of child abuse allegations.

More than 130 million Americans and more than 35 million volunteers have participated in the Boy Scouts since it was chartered by Congress in 1916. The Irving, Texas-based group currently has about 2.2 million youth participants, 800,000 adult volunteers, 261 local councils and 81,000 Scouting units.

Tuesday’s court filing raises questions that are not likely to be answered soon. Here’s what we know about how the bankruptcy process could unfold:

Could the Boy Scouts go away?

Bankruptcy is a legal process provided for in the U.S. Constitution that allows organizations that can no longer pay their debts a chance to reduce their liabilities. It’s designed to give organizations a second chance, and many major companies have survived the process, such as General Motors and United Airlines. Others have gone out of business, such as Toys R Us and Circuit City.

Theoretically, the national Boy Scouts organization could be dissolved as a result of the bankruptcy. Chapter 11, the type of bankruptcy the Boy Scouts seeks, allows an organization to be liquidated to pay off creditors, which in this case would include abuse victims. If that happens, the organization’s assets would likely be sold off piece by piece. Local councils could form a new entity to oversee themselves or operate independently.

It’s more likely that the Boy Scouts will reach a broad settlement with victims and emerge from bankruptcy as a more financially viable enterprise, though likely one with fewer assets.

How many abuse victims are there?

That’s hard to say. The Boy Scouts currently faces 275 lawsuits. Victims’ attorneys have notified the group of another 1,400 claims likely to be filed, according to a court document.

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More than a quarter of NHS patients have reported being bullied, harassed or abused.

NHS staff can refuse to treat racist or sexist patients under new rules.

Skye News, 18 Feb 2020:

The NHS will soon bar discriminatory patients from non-critical care - powers that currently only cover aggression or violence.

More than a quarter of NHS patients have reported being bullied, harassed or abused.

But these protections will extend to any harassment, bullying or discrimination, including homophobic, sexist or racist remarks.

Ambulance workers are among those worst affected by abuse

Health Secretary Matt Hancock wrote to all NHS staff on Tuesday to announce stronger measures to investigate abuse and harassment towards staff, saying “no act of violence or abuse is minor”.

“Being assaulted or abused is not part of the job,” he said.

“Far too often I hear stories that the people you are trying to help lash out. I’ve seen it for myself in A&Es, on night shifts, and on ambulances.”

Mr Hancock said he was “horrified that any member of the public would abuse or physically assault a member of our NHS staff but it happens too often”.

Prior to his arrest in 2003 Khodorkovsky (in photo with first Russian President Boris Yeltsin) funded several Russian parties, including the Communist Party, most of which were in competition with each other. Voltairenet.org

EURACTIV.com with Reuters, 18 Feb 2020:

A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday (18 February) overturned the annulment of a $50 billion award to shareholders in the now defunct Russian oil giant Yukos, a surprise ruling 13 years after the assets came under control of the Kremlin.

Yukos Oil went bankrupt in 2006 after its former chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky fell out with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the government began demanding billions of dollars in back taxes that ultimately resulted in its being expropriated by the state.

Tuesday’s verdict reinstates a decision by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ordering the Russian state to compensate shareholders in the company once headed by fallen oligarch Khodorkovsky. That decision had been overturned in April 2016 by The Hague District Court.

Russia’s Justice Ministry has said it will challenge the appeals court ruling at the Dutch Supreme Court.

“The (lower) court ruled in favour of the Russian Federation, but the court of appeal in The Hague today ruled that the court’s verdict is incorrect. This means that the arbitral award is again in force,” the appeals court said in a statement.

Most of Yukos’ assets were absorbed by the Kremlin’s flagship oil producer Rosneft, and its former owners have for years been trying to recover their possessions.

Legal proceedings seeking damages have been brought by GML, formerly known as Group Menatep Ltd., which held around 70% of shares in Yukos.

Rule of law

Tim Osborne, GML’s chief executive, said the latest ruling was “a victory for the rule of law.”

“The independent courts of a democracy have shown their integrity and served justice. A brutal kleptocracy has been held to account,” he said.

The PCA had ruled in July 2014 that four plaintiffs – not including Khodorkovsky – were entitled to compensation for the loss of their holdings, enabling them to go after Russian state assets.

France, Belgium seize Russian assets to compensate Yukos shareholders

Russian government assets in France and Belgium including bank accounts have been frozen in a row over compensation for shareholders of defunct oil giant Yukos, officials and a claimant representative said yesterday (18 June).

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DAILYKENN.com—Had a 29-year-old black woman been shot to death by her white boyfriend, it would likely be national news. Had the victim been white and the suspect black, the story would be limited to local media and race would not be mentioned.

Cassia Renee Duval, 29, was seven months pregnant when she was found shot to death. Her unborn baby was also killed. Arrested is James Isaac Jones Jr. 33. Jones and Duval lived together, reports say.

Why was she killed? We can only speculate. Is it because she mated with an individual with low impulse control, low intelligence, low affective empathy, and psychopathic tendencies? We can’t say for certain.

Why do you think she was killed?

Read more here.

MintPressNews.com: February 10th, 2020

By Alan Macleod

After refusing to sign a pledge of allegiance to the state of Israel, the state of Georgia shut down a media literacy conference featuring journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin at Georgia Southern University. Martin had recently released a documentary critical of the Israeli government called “Gaza Fights for Freedom.” Now she is suing the state, claiming the decision is a violation of the First Amendment. Along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), today she filed a federal free speech lawsuit against the university system of Georgia.

Martin was dismayed by the university’s decision: “This censorship of my talk based on forced compliance to anti-BDS laws in Georgia is just one level of a nationwide campaign to protect Israel from grassroots pressure. We must stand firmly opposed to these efforts and not cower in fear to these blatant violations of free speech,” she said.

Abby Martin
✔
@AbbyMartin
After I was scheduled to give keynote speech at an upcoming @GeorgiaSouthern conference, organizers said I must comply w/ Georgia’s anti-BDS law & sign a contractual pledge to not boycott Israel. I refused & my talk was canceled. The event fell apart after colleagues supported me

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2:49 AM - Jan 11, 2020
3,013 people are talking about this

Twenty-eight states have already mandated loyalty pledges to Israel as a means to outlaw dissent. But in December, President Trump passed legislation effectively criminalizing the Boycott Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement that aims to put pressure on the Jewish state through economic action, along the lines of the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa. The law mandates that any public institution would be subject to losing all funding if the government deems that they are not doing enough to stamp out anti-Semitism, which, it explicitly states, includes any criticism of the Israeli government. In December, MintPress reported that the British government under Boris Johnson is planning to introduce similar legislation.

“The hyperbolic notion that conservatives are the ones being persecuted on college campuses has made blatant censorship campaigns against people for criticism of Israel, or other progressive protests, go completely ignored,” Martin wrote:

CAIR’s Legal Defense Fund Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas said,

“There is no place where free speech is more important than on campus. And this attempt to suppress Abby’s views ­– denying students, academics, and others from hearing her lecture – is as brazen as it is illegal. In adopting this anti-BDS law, Georgia has prioritized the policy preferences of a foreign country over the free speech rights of Americans, like Abby, who speak on this state’s college campuses.”

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