Hillary Clinton kicks off the 'stop Sanders' movement. Will Obama follow her lead?

Andrew Romano

West Coast Correspondent

,

Yahoo News•January 21, 2020

 

0:33

 

1:17

 

 

 

Clinton slams Sanders: 'Nobody likes him'

 “Nobody likes him,” Clinton says.
 “Nobody wants to work with him; he got
 nothing done. He was a career
 politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel
 so bad that people got sucked into it.” 

Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race with one key takeaway every weekday and a wrap-up each weekend. Reminder: There are 13 days until the Iowa caucuses and 287 days until the 2020 election.

Nothing the Clintons do is accidental. And so when the news broke less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses that in a forthcoming Hulu documentary, Hillary Clinton badmouths her 2016 rival Bernie Sanders as a “career politician” whom “nobody likes,” it didn’t just call attention to the ill feeling still lingering from that year’s bitter primary campaign.

It also signaled that Clinton has thrown her weight behind the nascent “Stop Sanders” movement gaining steam among Democratic power brokers. 

The question now is whether Democratic voters will follow her lead — and whether Barack Obama himself might come out of semiretirement to join the cause. 

Asked by the Hollywood Reporter whether she would endorse and campaign for Sanders if he were to win the nomination, Clinton refused to commit. “I’m not going to go there yet,” she said.

Clinton immediately added, however, that her beef is “not only” with Sanders but with “the culture around him” — a culture she considers sexist.

“It’s his leadership team,” Clinton said. “It’s his prominent supporters. It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it. And I don’t think we want to go down that road again where you campaign by insult and attack and maybe you try to get some distance from it, but you either don’t know what your campaign and supporters are doing or you’re just giving them a wink and you want them to go after Kamala [Harris] or after Elizabeth [Warren].”

Hillary Clinton listens as Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a September 2016 event at the University of New Hampshire. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Then Clinton twisted the knife: “I think that that’s a pattern that people should take into account when they make their decisions.”

Clinton’s timing is conspicuous. Since the start of the 2016 primary, pundits and mainstream Democrats have refused to consider Sanders a serious threat for the nomination. That’s changed in recent weeks as Sanders has surged to the top of the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, cementing his status as the nearest competitor to frontrunner Joe Biden while also out-fundraising the entire field. Meanwhile, the headlines about Clinton’s remarks come on the heels of Sanders’s clash with Warren over the same subject: his (and his campaign’s) alleged sexism.

In other words, this isn’t coming out of nowhere: Clinton is piggybacking on a fresh controversy at a pivotal moment.

“This argument about whether or not or when [Sanders] did or didn’t say that a woman couldn’t be elected, it’s part of a pattern,” Clinton opined. “If it were a one-off, you might say, ‘OK, fine.’ But he said I was unqualified. … I just think people need to pay attention because we want, hopefully, to elect a president who’s going to try to bring us together, and not either turn a blind eye, or actually reward the kind of insulting, attacking, demeaning, degrading behavior that we’ve seen from this current administration.”

Clinton and Sanders listen to singer Pharrell Williams during a campaign rally in Raleigh, N.C., in November 2016. (Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images)

Clinton’s decision to go nuclear on Sanders by comparing him to Donald Trump is undoubtedly personal. Clinton and her allies have never gotten over the fact that in 2016 Sanders continued campaigning well past the point when he was mathematically eliminated from contention and did not formally endorse her until 10 days before that year’s Democratic National Convention. They also remain disturbed by allegations of sexism on Sanders’s 2016 campaign and blame the “Bernie Bro” phenomenon, in part, for Clinton’s loss that November — the theory being that some significant number of misogynist “Never Hillary” Sanders supporters stayed home, voted for minor-party candidates or even cast ballots for Trump.

The response from Sanders supporters feels personal as well. They are already arguing that their candidate campaigned vigorously for Clinton after the convention; that his base is far more diverse than suggested by the Bernie Bro caricature; and that the “Never Hillary” numbers just don’t add up. Precisely zero hardcore Sanders fans — and Sanders has more hardcore fans than any other 2020 Democrat — will be swayed by Clinton’s naysaying. In fact, they’ll almost certainly double-down on antiestablishment, pro-Sanders sentiment instead.

Sanders himself has been dismissive of Clinton’s comments. “My focus today is on a monumental moment in American history: the impeachment trial of Donald Trump,” he said in a statement. “Together, we are going to go forward and defeat the most dangerous president in American history.” When NBC News asked Sanders why he thought his former primary opponent was still harping on 2016, he scoffed. “That’s a good question,” he said. “You should ask her.”

A former Bernie Sanders delegate wears a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign sticker over his mouth as he protests during the third session at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July 2016. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Clinton’s purpose seems to dovetail with that of Warren, who chose to “attack” the issue “head on” at last week’s debate in Des Moines: Galvanize Democrats along gender lines right before the caucuses and perhaps stir up enough anti-Sanders solidarity to block him from winning. We’ll know in 13 days whether the strategy worked.

But if not — if Sanders wins Iowa and barrels toward the friendly states of New Hampshire and Nevada with a realer-than-ever shot at the nomination — then the true anti-Bernie backlash will likely begin. And it will dwarf whatever Clinton is doing now.

In Tuesday’s New York Times, liberal columnist Paul Krugman accused the Sanders campaign of having “flat-out lied about things Biden said in 2018 about Social Security,” calling the “smear” of Biden “almost Trumpian.”

“The last thing we need is another president who demonizes and lies about anyone who disagrees with him, and can’t admit ever being wrong,” Krugman scolded — an unusual move by a writer who generally aligns with progressives like Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist.”

Earlier in January, Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, sent Washington insiders a two-page memo titled “Bernie Sanders and ‘Electability’” that highlighted national polling on the unpopularity of socialism and noted that surveys showing Sanders running ahead of Trump may not hold up in a general election.

“A January 1984 Gallup poll had Walter Mondale tied with Ronald Reagan,” the memo began. “Eleven months later, Reagan crushed Mondale 59-41%, winning by the biggest Electoral College margin ever.”

Shortly after, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina told Politico that “if I were a campaign manager for Donald Trump and I look at the field, I would very much want to run against Bernie Sanders.”

“I think the contrast is the best,” Messina added. “He can say, ‘I’m a business guy, the economy’s good and this guy’s a socialist.’” 

President Barack Obama walks with Sanders at the White House in 2016. (Photo: Pablo Martinez/AP)

And then there’s Obama himself to consider. In November, the former president cautioned against putting too much stock into “certain left-leaning Twitter feeds or the activist wing of our party.”

“Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision we also have to be rooted in reality,” he said. “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”

Around the same time, Politico’s Ryan Lizza reported that while Obama “sees his role as providing guardrails to keep the process from getting too ugly and to unite the party when the nominee is clear,” there is “one potential exception”: Bernie Sanders.

“Back when Sanders seemed like more of a threat than he does now, Obama said privately that if Bernie were running away with the nomination, Obama would speak up to stop him,” Lizza wrote.

“Yeah, if Bernie were running away with it, I think maybe we would all have to say something,” one Obama adviser added. “But I don’t think that's likely. It’s not happening.”

Maybe it wasn’t happening in November. Now, however, it might be — and Sanders’s chances will only improve if he wins Iowa. At that point, we may look back on this week’s skirmish with Hillary as the first shots in a much larger war.

---30---

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/gabbard-knocks-clintons-jab-at-sanders.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/sore-loser-her-slanders-against-sanders.html

Prince Harry and Meghan's arrival could mean 'new grounds' for Canada's privacy laws

Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visit Canada House in London, Britain January 7, 2020.

British paparazzi may soon come face-to-face with Canada's privacy laws as the arrival of Prince Harry and Meghan has already prompted a warning to the U.K press to back off or face legal action.

But it's unclear what legal recourse the royal couple will have to keep news photographers away from their family.

David Fraser, a Halifax-based privacy lawyer, says, when it comes to privacy claims in Canada, he hasn't found any related to celebrities and paparazzi.

The lawsuits here that relate to invasions of privacy, most recently, deal with large-scale business data breaches, or hidden cameras, he said.

"So this is relatively new grounds that we're looking at, maybe because we don't have the same sort of paparazzi culture or the same sort of celebrity culture in Canada. But so far, a claim like this has not been made or at least hasn't gone to a published decision," he said.

"It's not something that's really been tested a whole lot in Canada. We don't have a paparazzi culture."

Buckingham Palace announced Saturday that the prince and his wife will give up public funding and try to become financially independent. The couple is expected to spend most of their time in Canada while maintaining a home in England near Windsor Castle in an attempt to build a more peaceful life. 

Video from Sky News showed Harry landing at Victoria's airport late Monday. The prince, Meghan and their eight-month-old son Archie were reportedly staying at at mansion on the island.

Lawyers for the couple sent a letter to British new outlets, accusing photographers of "harassment," and claiming that paparazzi have permanently camped outside their Vancouver Island residence, attempting to photograph them at home using long-range lenses.

They also allege that pictures of Meghan — on a hike with Archie and her two dogs, trailed by her security detail, on Vancouver Island on Monday — were taken by photographers hiding in the bushes.

"There are serious safety concerns about how the paparazzi are driving and the risk to life they pose," the letter read.

When it comes to privacy issues in Canada, there are a few ways Canadians can take action, says Iain MacKinnon, a Toronto-based lawyer.

One can argue "intentional infliction of mental stress" in which the conduct of the defendant has to be proven to be flagrant and outrageous; calculated to produce harm, and results in visible and provable illness, he said.

There's also what's known as "intrusion upon seclusion" in which the defendant's conduct must be intentional or reckless and have invaded the plaintiff's private affairs "without lawful reason." Also, a "reasonable person would regard the invasion as highly offensive causing distress, humiliation or anguish," MacKinnon said.

And there's public disclosure of private facts, when one publicizes an aspect of another's private life — without consent — that would be highly offensive to a reasonable person. The publication also would not be of legitimate concern to the public.

"And Meghan Markle walking her dog in a public space … would not fall under any of those," MacKinnon said.

They may seek recourse under the B.C. Privacy Act which specifically says it's a violation for somebody to willfully and without a legal basis violate the privacy of someone else, and allows for someone to sue the alleged perpetrator.

In making that determination, a judge is required to take into account the circumstances of the situation, the relationships between the parties and other people's rights and interests. There is an exemption, however, for journalistic publications and if the matter is of public interest.

"Up until now, certainly when they've been part of the Royal Family and are highly public figures and are paid, their whole and entire lifestyle is paid for by public funds, then that's certainly one justification for arguing that what they do is a matter of public interest," MacKinnon said.

"As they may recede from public life and become more private citizens, that argument may be more difficult to make. But certainly today, this is headline news, them leaving England, leaving the Royal Family, moving to Canada. It's tough to say that this is not a matter of public interest."

Most people won't consider it to be highly offensive that someone took a picture of Meghan in public park because there isn't a reasonable expectation of privacy, MacKinnon said.

"Now, if they're shooting with telephoto lenses into a house where Harry and Megan are staying and they're photographing them in their private lives inside a house, that might be a different story."

Fraser says, under the act, an invasion of privacy can also include surveillance.

"It's really going to depend upon the exact circumstances of what's alleged. But it certainly sounds like a group of photographers, paparazzi following them around might fit into the category of surveillance," he said.

Fraser said even if one is in a public place, there's still an expectation of privacy.

Being in a public park, there's a significantly reduced expectation of privacy. But when it comes to a photographer hiding in a bush, a court might say it's arguable that one has an expectation of privacy if they are in a place, looking around, not seeing other observers and somebody has hidden themselves, Fraser said.

"There would also probably be an element of kind of additional intrusion based on the fact that the person has hidden themselves and is covertly trying to surveil somebody," Fraser said.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms doesn't give anybody a particular privacy interest among individuals — only against the state. It does, however, provide a right for freedom of expression, which would be the right that the photographers have, Fraser said.

"So any court considering these issues would have to balance those interests which includes the rights of journalists to collect information, to disseminate that information, against a particular privacy interest."

Still, Fraser believes Harry and Meghan could find a "level of sympathy" in the courts

"Given that, it seems that they're moving from the United Kingdom to Canada, least part time, in order to get away from this glare and get away from these invasions of privacy," he said.

It's unlikely that the royals would see a big cash windfall in the event their legal claims were successful. Privacy damages are relatively low or modest in Canada, Fraser said.

"But I would expect that an injunction so a court order requiring the paparazzi to stay away might be something that they would seek as well."

And as MacKinnon noted, Harry and Meghan, through their lawyers, are probably attempting to set new ground rules.

"My guess is that they're trying to draw a new line in the sand here with both the Canadian media [and], more likely, the Fleet Street tabloids."

Panamanian village sleepless with fear after ritual killings

AFP

Panamanian authorities have sent police reinforcements to patrol the area where a shady religious sect murdered seven people in an apparent human sacrifice ritual
5 SLIDES © Luis ACOSTA

Panamanian authorities have sent police reinforcements to patrol the area where a shady religious sect murdered seven people in an apparent human sacrifice ritual

A week after six children and a pregnant woman were sacrificed in a brutal religious ritual, the inhabitants of a remote village in northwestern Panama fear they might be next.

No-one can sleep. As soon as they hear a cricket or a cockroach everyone's on high alert," said Pacifico Blanco.

Blanco lives in Altos del Terron, an isolated indigenous community where the victims of the ritualistic killings were found last week in a mass grave.

Bibles, messages alluding to the devil and a heap of rope can still be seen at the site of the massacre -- a makeshift church in dense jungle that was used by an obscure sect that called itself "God's New Light."

Police raided the church on January 15, arresting 10 people and rescuing 15 captives, including children, they believe were being prepared for sacrifice.

The mass grave was found a day later, about an hour away from the church.

Vegetation and walls kept the church almost invisible to the outside world and the local community had no idea what was taking place inside.

The massacre has left locals "terrorized," said Enrique Martinez, police chief for neighboring Veraguas province.

Police reinforcements were flown in by helicopter to the village, around 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Panama City and hard to reach.

Besides protecting the local community, the police are looking for other such sects.

This latest incident came just a month after 17 foreigners belonging to another sect were arrested in the coastal town of San Carlos.

The police presence in Altos del Terron has brought little relief to residents who fear there may be more murderous sect members lurking in their midst.

"We don't sleep, either by day or by night, nor do we rest," the local indigenous chief, Evangelisto Santos, told AFP.

- Sad, sleepless nights -

Since the murders of the six children aged between one and 17, and the pregnant woman -- the mother of five of the victims -- many villagers have taken to living together in the deeply religious community.
Safety in numbers, they believe, will help protect them from any other potential sects in the area.

"Honestly, I spend my nights sad and worrying about the fate of the nephews and nieces that have been left with me," said Edison Rios, the dead woman's brother.

"Its upsetting to think about them. Who knows if they will come back today or tomorrow and finish off the remaining children?"

According to the public prosecutor, the 10 suspects, now in preventive detention, tied up their victims and beat them to death with Bibles, sticks and machetes.

The pregnant woman was killed in front of her children, who were then murdered too.

Survivors said the sect leader claimed he was carrying out God's orders to "remove the demon" from the victims in a violent exorcism.

"They used God's name here to catch and kidnap people, to carry on killing," Pacifico Blanco told AFP at the church.

Neighbors said they suspected nothing because the church had carried out noisy, animated religious rituals in the past without major incidents.

For that reason, they thought nothing of the sounds coming from the compound, even screams, at the time of the massacre.

"We heard the racket," said Diomedes Blanco, but paid no heed because they thought people "were praising God."

- Devil's work -

Everything changed when several injured hostages managed to escape and alert the authorities.

That's when the locals found out that "they were capturing people to take them to the church and massacre them, and the people became alarmed," said Santos.

"From now on we're not going to believe any religion that enters our region because it's a danger to us. We're afraid of what we've seen," said Pacifico Blanco.

For Narciso, a retired police officer who now ferries passengers on his boat, "This was the work of the very devil himself."

jjr/lda/bc/jm

It's so cold in Florida that Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park is also closed.  

MISNAMED 

 USA TODAY•January 21, 2020

Heads up if you're vacationing in Florida this chilly week: Several water parks in Florida are closing due to cold temperatures in the Sunshine State.

Volcano Bay at Universal Orlando Resort and Aquatica Orlando have shut down, according to the parks' respective social media platforms. Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park is also closed.  

On the whole, the Southeast had been experiencing a warmer winter, according to AccuWeather. However, cold air has now made a pit stop. As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, the temperature in Orlando was 45℉, according to Accuweather. 
The high will only hit the low 50s.

ROFLMAO HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF THE POLAR BEAR SWIM 

AOC criticises Democratic Party: ‘We don’t have a left party in the United States’

AND CANADIANS WOULD AGREE WITH THAT
 I KNOW I DO 

SINCE WE HAVE A LEFT PARTY A UNION BASED PARTY OPENLY SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC WITH DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN THE MINORITY THE NDP

Alex Woodward, The Independent•January 21, 2020

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referenced Donald Trump's

 remarks in a fiery Democratic rally speech: Alex Wong/Getty Images

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained that the Democratic party does not represent the political left in the United States, calling the organisation a “centre or centre-conservative” party that “can’t even get a floor vote” on nationalising health care.

She said: “We can’t even get a floor vote on Medicare for All — not even a floor vote that might get doubled down.”

In an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates during an event honouring Martin Luther King Jr Day, the progressive politician said there are “left members inside the Democratic party” — including freshman congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, among others — ”who are working to try to make that shift happen”.

But the establishment party’s ideology remains firmly within the economic realities of capitalism as a means to address systemic issues like poverty in the US, she explained, saying, “We don’t have a ‘left party’ in the United States.”

She said: “There are a lot of true believers that we can ‘capitalism’ our way out of poverty. If anything, that’s probably the majority.”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez said she agreed with the late civil rights leader, who warned in speeches and in interviews that there is “something wrong with capitalism” and questioned the economic status quo and whether a broader distribution of wealth could begin to repair its failures.

Two weeks before his death, Dr King warned that if America “does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell”.

During her interview at Blackout for Human Rights: MLK Now 2020, Ms Ocasio-Cortez also questioned whether the US is more interested in protecting “capital over human beings”, pointing to the 20 January protest in Virginia that attracted thousands of armed protestors, including far-right militia members, demonstrating against the state’s proposed gun-control legislation.

The congresswoman said protesters who took to the streets to call for justice following the police killings of black men were met with a larger display of force from US police than the armed and armoured demonstrators in Virginia.

She said: “There’s this gun rights protest that’s happening down in Richmond ... on MLK Day, but here’s the image that has struck me the most about that, is that when we go out and march for the dignity and the recognition of the lives of people like Freddie Gray and Eric Garner, the whole place is surrounded by police in riot gear without a gun in sight. And here are all of these people flying Confederate flags with semi-automatic weapons, and there’s almost no police officers at that protest. So who or what are our institutions protecting, from whom? That image conveys it all.”

AND FOX NEWS GETS ALL HER GREAT QUOTES RIGHT

AOC: 'No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars'

Evie Fordham

,

Fox Business•January 21, 2020

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said that "no one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars" during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day discussion with author Ta-Nehisi Coates on Monday.

"No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars," Ocasio-Cortez said, receiving applause. "I'm not here to villainize and to say billionaires are inherently morally corrupt. ... It's to say that this system that we live in, life in capitalism always ends in billionaires."

Ocasio-Cortez said billionaires make their money "off the backs" of "undocumented people," "black and brown people being paid under a living wage" and "single mothers."

She addressed a hypothetical "widget" billionaire in her remarks.

WALL STREET THINKS A WARREN PRESIDENCY COULD BE CATASTROPHIC, NEW REPORT FINDS

"You didn't make those widgets, did you? Because you employed thousands of people and paid them less than a living wage to make those widgets for you," Ocasio-Cortez said. "You didn't make those widgets. You sat on a couch while thousands of people were paid modern-day slave wages, and in some cases real modern-day slavery."

Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates for democratic socialism, is not the only Democrat in Washington, D.C., honing in on billionaires these days.

Ocasio-Cortez joined in on presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren's criticism of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in November by saying he's a billionaire "asking for a safe space" amid Democrats' desire for economic disruption.

AOC ACCEPTED TOM STEYER CONTRIBUTION, DESPITE ACCUSING BUTTIGIEG OF 'BEING FUNDED BY BILLIONAIRES'

"Y'all, the billionaires are asking for a safe space — you know, in addition to the entire US economy and political lobbying industry," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.

Ocasio-Cortez's tweet included a link to a news article about Dimon responding to Warren's criticism by claiming she "vilifies successful people."

The Massachusetts senator frequently rails against the ultra-wealthy and has proposed a wealth tax to fund a number of sweeping plans, including Medicare-for-all, canceling student loan debt for the majority of Americans and providing universal child care, that she’s introduced.

---30---

COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF

Swiss police say Davos 'plumbers' were Russian spies sent to install surveillance gear at key facilities

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WATERGATE 

Alerted to their unusually long stay in the high-end resort, police picked up two Russian men in Davos in August

BUT THEY ONLY TELL US NOW
 

The sun rises behind snow-covered mountains as morning breaks on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

National Post Wire Services
Sam Jones, Financial Times
January 21, 2020

Russian plumbers do not tend to summer in Davos. Even those with diplomatic passports.

Five months before world leaders began their pilgrimage to the annual World Economic Forum this week — among them U.S. president Donald Trump — Swiss police interrupted what reports on Tuesday claimed was the beginnings of a Russian spying operation in the secluded Alpine town.

Alerted to their unusually long stay in the high-end resort, police picked up two Russian men in Davos in August, the Graubünden cantonal police department confirmed to the Financial Times.

The men claimed diplomatic protections, but had not been registered as official diplomats with Bern, the police said.

No indications of criminal acts were found at the time, the police added.

Donald Trump takes veiled swipe at environmental ‘alarmists’ in Davos as Greta Thunberg looks on

According to Zürich’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, which carried a detailed report of the incident, police and Swiss federal officials suspected the pair of being Russian intelligence agents, posing as tradesmen in order to install surveillance equipment at key facilities around the town to monitor the private conversations of the world’s powerful and wealthy during the World Economic Forum on behalf of the Kremlin.

The Russian embassy in Bern did not respond to a request for comment.

Though many may doubt how much actionable intelligence even the most subtle of agents could lift from the World Economic Forum, the gathering is nevertheless a rare concentration of global power and influence that is tempting to spymasters. Alongside Mr Trump — and his retinue, among them his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner — other leaders of potential interest to the Kremlin attending this year include president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky and Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam, not to mention hundreds of chief executives and senior government officials.

Attendees spend tens of millions on their personal security at Davos. The total costs for Mr Trump — who gave the conference’s keynote speech on Tuesday — are not fully broken down, due to their classified nature. But some disclosures give a sense of their scale: the cost of car rental alone for officials from the White House Communications Agency — who ensure the integrity and encryption of presidential communications — will be $266,000 for the two-day trip.  

 

World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab attends a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of World Economic Forum during the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, on January 20, 2020. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

Switzerland’s security services have been particularly jumpy about increased Russian intelligence activity in the country in recent years. While Switzerland has long been a playground for Russia’s wealthy émigrés, more recent reports have identified the state — by long tradition a diplomatically neutral no man’s land, at the heart of Europe — as a hub of Russian intrigue.

The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service concluded in a 2018 report that one in four Russian diplomats based in Switzerland was a spy.

Since 2017, a probe by the Swiss attorney-general has been investigating a huge Russian spying organisation against the World Anti-Doping Agency and other sporting bodies, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Lausanne.

Russia’s feared military intelligence directorate, the GRU, has been particularly active in the country: as well as hitting WADA, agents it sent to target the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague were working from Swiss bases in 2018.

The open-source investigative website Bellingcat has showed that Switzerland was a key liaison ground for GRU operatives responsible for the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal — and the inadvertent killing of Dawn Sturgess — in Britain in March 2018 using the lethal nerve agent novichok. The two principal suspects in the incident — Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — claimed to run a sports nutrition business and said the six trips they had made to Geneva immediately before the assassination attempt in Salisbury were in order to relax.

— The Financial Times

OR MAYBE THEY WERE FORMER BRIT POLISH EMIGRE PLUMBERS PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER BREXIT

Ex-reservist wished he had booby-trapped his home to blow up RCMP officers: U.S. court document

FOR MORE ON PATRIK MATHEWS SEE Anti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/fascists-march-in-virginia.html

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/fbi-busts-members-of-neo-nazi-group.html

 

© FBI; RCMP via AP Law-enforcement agents obtained videos of former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Mathews espousing violent, anti-Semitic and racist language. In one he is wearing a gas mask and attempting to distort his voice.

A Canadian ex-soldier and alleged white supremacist told cohorts in the U.S. that he wished he had booby-trapped his Manitoba home before RCMP searched it last year so the officers “got f—ing exploded,” say dramatic new court documents filed by American prosecutors.

Patrik Mathews and fellow alleged members of the hate group The Base also talk graphically about shooting civilians and police at an event in Richmond, Va., this week, the Canadian suggesting they could “be literally hunting people,” says the bail motion.


Unspecified intelligence about possible violence at a Richmond gun rally Monday prompted the state’s governor to declare a state of emergency around the demonstration.

Mathews, 27, and two co-defendants were arrested last week just days before the event started, with another three members of The Base picked up a day later in Georgia. Despite the presence of thousands of protesters, many toting firearms, the rally unfolded peacefully.
FBI arrests fugitive Canadian reservist after tapping into encrypted neo-Nazi chatroom
Three alleged neo-Nazis caught with machine gun ahead of Virginia gun rally: FBI
RCMP, feds pressed to find missing reservist with alleged links to neo-Nazis

The new court document submitted by a U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland also details one of several videos allegedly made by Mathews. Wearing a gas mask, the former Manitoba-based reservist promotes derailing trains, murdering people and poisoning water supplies as part of a “revolution” to save the white race.

Mathews and alleged accomplices Brian Mark Lemley, 33, and William Bilbrough, 19, appear in court Wednesday for a bail hearing. Prosecutors indicate in the motion they want the trio be kept behind bars until their trial.

“The defendants in this domestic terrorism investigation must be detained,” said the memorandum. “No condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of any defendant or the safety of any other person.”

Mathews was exposed as an alleged member of The Base – a new but seemingly burgeoning group that espouses trying to trigger a race war – last August after a Winnipeg Free Press reporter infiltrated the organization.

He had been a combat engineer with a Winnipeg-based reserve unit but was released by the Armed Forces after the allegations surfaced.

RCMP later searched his home in Beausejour, Man., and briefly detained him. Soon after, he disappeared. His whereabouts were a mystery until his arrest last week.

The freshly filed motion provides more detail about the extensive U.S. police investigation, which included a “sneak-and-peak” warrant that allowed officers to enter the apartment where Mathews and Lemley stayed until their arrest.

They also installed a hidden camera and microphone in the apartment, which allegedly captured Mathews’ discussion of the RCMP raid of his home last Aug. 19.

“I could really wish they f—ing all started searching my place, accidentally trip a pin, and boom and the whole house goes boom,” the document quotes him as saying. “Boy, wouldn’t that be terrible, a bunch of f—ing RCMP search experts got f—ing exploded.”

© Handout-RCMP Patrik Mathews

He then muses that “you reach the most violent extreme solution first and you talk yourself out of doing that and then little by little you lose all inhibitions.”

The physical search of the apartment and electronic devices in it turned up several videos in which he espoused violence and used anti-Semitic and racist language, the prosecutors allege.

The filing includes a transcript and screengrab from one video in which he wears the gas mask in an attempt to disguise his voice. He says violent revolution is needed for the white race to survive.

“Derail some f—-ing trains, kill some people and poison some water supplies,” he says, according to the document. “You better be f—ing ready to do those things.”

But perhaps the most ominous evidence contained in the memorandum details statements the men allegedly made about an event in Richmond, Va., Monday, an apparent reference to the gun rally.

Mathews is quoted as saying into the concealed recording device that while events are unfolding in Virginia, they could shut down shut down highways and derail trains to create instability.

“You can kick off the economic collapse of the U.S. within a week,” he says, according to the motion.

Experts call The Base an “accelerationist” white supremacist group, meaning that its purported goal is to bring about social collapse and a race war.

The document also sheds more light on the police investigation of Mathews and his cohorts. It traces the Canadian’s journey across the Manitoba-Minnesota border late last August, with Lemley and Bilbrough eventually picking him up in Michigan. He then travels first to Georgia, spending time there with other Base members, then Maryland and Delaware.

The filing includes security-camera screen grabs of Lemley and Mathews in a truck passing through a tunnel near Norfolk, Va., and of the pair exiting a store where they had bought ammunition for an assault rifle they made.

It also reports that the secret camera at one point caught Mathews manipulating the home-made rifle “while making imaginary gunshot noises.”

---30---

3-year-old boy has just become the youngest member of Mensa UK, the largest international high IQ society
 I THOUGHT MENSA WAS THE ONLY HIGH IQ SOCIETY (OF SELF DESCRIBED ELITISTS)

A THREE YEAR OLD FINALLY MAKES A MOCKERY OF THE FAKERY OF THESE

IVORY TOWER EGOS 

 

© Mohd Hilmy Naim Haryz with his mom, Nur Anira Asyikin.

A 3-year-old Malaysian boy living in the UK has become the youngest member to join Mensa UK, the largest and oldest international high IQ society in the world, Mensa officials said.

Muhammad Haryz Nadzim was invited to join Mensa after meeting with a psychologist and scoring 142 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test, placing him in the 99.7th percentile, his mother, Nur Anira Asyikin, told CNN.


"Well done to Haryz on his invitation to join Mensa," John Stevenage, the chief executive of British Mensa, said in a statement to CNN. "He is obviously a very bright young man and we are delighted to welcome him to Mensa."

To become a member of British Mensa, an individual must "demonstrate an IQ in the top two per cent of the population," according to their website.

The supervised Mensa IQ test is designed for children and adults above 10 and a half years old. For children less than 10 years, they have to be assessed by an educational psychologist to determine their IQ score.

Along with his evaluation by a psychologist, Haryz' score on the Stanford-Binet played a large role in his acceptance to British Mensa, Mensa spokesperson Charles Brown told CNN. The test consists of a combination of math, reading, memorization, and logical thinking questions.

Just your 'typical' 3-year-old

Haryz mom, an engineer living in Durham, England, says her family knew that he was special even before Mensa. At Kumon, the after school math and reading program, he was named last September to the honor roll for advanced students in both subjects. Although she refers to him as her "mini brainbox," the little genius is a normal kid by all other standards.

"He's very much your typical 3-year-old," Asyikin said. "He really loves painting and reading books, really anything arts and crafts. He loves playing with Legos and Play-Doh especially ..."

ANNUAL MENSA MEETING WILL NOW INCLUDE PLAY-DOH SESSION
And when he isn't painting or building, Haryz enjoys singing.

"We are so proud and happy for Haryz," Asyikin told CNN. "He's not only good at academics, but he's just like other children who loves playing and growing up. We know he will give so much back to society in the future."

 

© Nur Anira Asyikin

Abused circus animals arrive at South African sanctuary

LIONS, TIGERS, AND CHEETAHS, OH MY

HOW ABOUT SENDING THE STARVING LIONS AT THE KHARTOUM ZOO THERE

A campaign under the hashtag #SudanAnimalRescue calling for help to save the lions is growing. https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/one-of-five-sick-and-starving-lions.html

MOGOMOTSI MAGOME,Associated Press•January 21, 2020




Guatemala South Africa Animal Rescue
Stripes, one of 17 rescued tigers and lions from Guatemala circuses is released at the Animal Defenders International Wildlife Sanctuary in Winburg, South Africa, Tuesday Jan. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

WINBURG, South Africa (AP) — Twelve tigers and five lions have been relocated to a sanctuary in South Africa after being rescued from circuses in Guatemala following years of abuse and confinement.

The animals, both cubs and adults, are among 200 that have been rescued from the circus industry in Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia since 2018. The countries have banned the use of animals in circuses.

Enforcement of the law in Guatemala has been a challenge, so the government has partnered with animal rights groups such as the London-based Animal Defenders International to help.

"These animals have suffered a lifetime of deprivation and abuse," ADI president Jan Creamer said in a statement. The group runs the South Africa sanctuary, which is already home to 26 rescued lions.

The lions and tigers were transported with chartered aircraft to South Africa, arriving Tuesday morning, then were carried to the sanctuary in large trucks.

They were released into their new habitat soon after their arrival. As rain poured down, they calmly walked around their enclosures on the 455-acre (184-hectare) farm, enjoying their first encounter with nature after years of confinement.

According to the ADI, the animals were kept at a vehicle scrapyard in Guatemala for years and physically abused to make them submissive.

All have needed veterinary treatment for health issues due to inbreeding, and some needed dental surgery to repair smashed teeth. Some had had their claws and teeth removed. Some have scars from the abuse.

Because of the rough treatment and confinement, the animals will not be released into the wild.

“South Africa obviously has the perfect climate for the lions, and it's an advanced country in that it has good infrastructure, airports and roads so it helps us to manage the animals and to bring them here,” Creamer said.

---30---



The Aspinall Foundation: World First as Cheetah Brothers Are Relocated From UK to South Africa

PR Newswire•January 21, 2020

The Aspinall Foundation are leading the groundbreaking project to 'rewild' two cheetahs from Howletts Wild Animal Park, Kent

HYTHE, England, Jan. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Two 2.5 year-old cheetahs from Howletts Wild Animal Park, near Canterbury will leave the park in early spring 2020 for a new life in South Africa.
 

Saba and Nairo at Howletts Wild Animal Park

After a 6,000 mile flight, the pair will first settle in at Ashia's Cheetah Center in South Africa's Western Cape before eventually moving to Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve, a 14,000 hectare property in Great Karoo. There, they will undergo a rewilding process developed and successfully applied by Ashia over the last two years. Mount Camdeboo is home to many rescued and rehabilitated animals, including a bull elephant rescued by The Aspinall Foundation in partnership with the Mount Camdeboo team in October 2019.

Saba was hand-reared by Aspinall Foundation Chairman Damian Aspinall and his wife, Victoria in their home.

Damian and Victoria will accompany Saba & Nairo on their journey from the UK to South Africa and will personally release them into their new home. The groundbreaking project is the first time a captive-born, hand-raised cheetah has left the UK for rewilding in Africa.

Cheetahs are listed as Vulnerable by the ICUN, with an estimated 6,674 individuals remaining in the wild. Habitat loss, conflict with humans and increasing pressure from the illegal pet trade means that cheetah only inhabit around 10% of their historic range. Saba & Nairo's rewilding and participation in a breeding programme will bring vital new genetics to the South African population.

A major fundraising campaign has been launched to support the move. Big cat-fans will have the opportunity to donate, adopt Saba & Nairo or purchase limited edition merchandise on The Aspinall Foundation website. All profits will go directly to the move and ongoing care and monitoring of Saba & Nairo.

Damian Aspinall, Chairman of The Aspinall Foundation said: 'It will be difficult to say goodbye to Saba & Nairo but finding ways to return animals to the wild is something I believe in passionately. This approach may challenge the zoo community, but it is the right thing to do and I sincerely hope more zoos around the world finally take notice and follow suit.

With fewer than 7,000 cheetah remaining in the wild, it is more important than ever to support the wild population by bringing captive bred animals back to their ancestral homes for rewilding. We at The Aspinall Foundation have proven time and time again that it can work. We have already successfully rewilded animals in Congo, Gabon, Java, South Africa, Tanzania and China.

We have selected our partners for this project very carefully and I have complete faith in the teams at Ashia and Mount Camdeboo Private Reserve, who we will work closely with every step of the way.'

For further information about The Aspinall Foundation, please visit www.aspinallfoundation.org

Editors' Notes

The Aspinall Foundation manages conservation projects in Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Madagascar and Southern Africa, as well as providing financial support to various partner projects around the world. The conservation charity's important work helps prevent some of the most endangered species on the planet from becoming extinct.

The Aspinall Foundation works closely with two wildlife parks in Kent - Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve and Howletts Wild Animal Park. The parks are breeding sanctuaries for some of the world's most endangered species. Where possible, animals born at the parks are released into protected areas of their natural habitat, as part of The Aspinall Foundation's Back To The Wild programme.

The Aspinall Foundation team are working closely with Ashia (www.ashia.co.za) and Mount Camdeboo Private Reserve (www.mountcamdeboo.com) to rewild Saba & Nairo.

Ashia, a world-class cheetah centre near Cape Town in South Africa's Western Cape, was founded to help prevent the further decline of cheetah populations and to increase the genetic gene pool through its captive Breeding, Wilding and Release Program. Ashia is successfully returning captive born cheetahs into the protected wild of South African game reserves and national parks. The relatedness of the reserve populations is becoming an issue and preventing inbreeding without supplementation from outside will be practically impossible.

Mount Camdeboo, which will be Saba & Nairo's final home, is a 14,000 hectare private reserve.

Information:

The Aspinall Foundation
Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve,
Aldington Rd,
Nr Hythe,
Kent,
CT21 4PD

Photo - https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/18a251d84bf527f93ea88a16176d1137
Photo - https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/3594d4d604be0c574d47631cee118a9e
Photo - https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/a5e8ba42c5f2e4f3766b6ebc9be3ca37

Saba and Nairo at Howletts Wild Animal Park

Saba and Nairo at Howletts Wild Animal Park