The one thing you can say about this President is that he has an impressive sense of timing. Unfortunately it tends to be bad timing. First there was the disastrous meeting with the Russians in the wake of his firing former FBI Director James Comey. The optics could not be worst . . . until the meeting got worse with the alleged disclosure of code name intelligence from an ally. That meeting was held at the request of Russian president Vladimir Putin and then the Russians releases pictures taken by its state-run media organization, Tass, to the embarrassment of the Administration. Now, after Trump has threatened to cancel daily press briefings and change libel laws to allow easier lawsuits against the media, he is meeting with one of the one of the world’s most authoritarian figures, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump was previously criticized for calling Erdogan to congratulate him for acquiring near dictatorial powers in a close referendum. The last leader that anyone would want commiserating with Trump at this moment is Erdogan who has arrested journalists and critics alike in a crackdown on free speech and the free press.
Category: International
The decision of the White House to host Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak on the day after the termination of FBI Director James Comey ranks as one of the worst political decisions of a White House in years. Kislyak is the very Russian diplomat at the heart of the allegations of influencing peddling and collusion with Trump officials. Just as every network was exploring allegations that Comey was fired to protect Trump was an investigation into his ties with the Russians, the White House guaranteed that the Russians would be shown huddling with Trump followed by grinning photos in the Oval Office. That can be attributed to a long litany of self-inflicted wounds by this White House. However, what was more disturbing was the fact that U.S. photographers were barred from the meeting. Only the photographers from Tass were allowed. Tass is state-run agency. So not only did Trump meet with the Russians at the height of the allegations over Russian influence but the American people only saw pictures given to them by the Russians.
Continue reading “Trump Met With Russians At The Request Of Putin”
When he played Gordon Deitrich in V For Vendetta, the television personality who challenged an authoritarian state, Stephen Fry exposed the terror of living in a state that reserved to itself the right to determine what speech was considered criminal. He now faces a criminal prosecution over a statement in Ireland that would be entirely protected in the United States as an exercise of free speech. Irish police are investigating him under the country’s infamous blasphemy law for asking why he should “respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world…. full of injustice.” Ireland allies itself with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other nations in prosecuting free speech deemed insulting or offensive to any religion. The law is a disgrace to all freedom-loving people and the Irish demean themselves in keeping blasphemy in the criminal code. The only thing missing is some menacing Irish Chancellor saying “Ireland Prevails.” Continue reading “B for Blasphemy: Stephen Fry Under Investigation For Sharing His Views Of Religion”
We recently discussed the scandal in Iran where a young girl was barred from an international competition for failing to adhere to Islamic rules requiring the covering of a girl’s hair. We now have another outrageous decision barring a girl under medieval Islamic principles. The head judge (and director) of the competition in Putrajaya, Malaysia forced a female competitor to withdraw after declaring her knee length skirt be “seductive.” Pretty sensitive for a sport with such term as
“exposed King”, “loose position,” and “flash the Queen.”
Today on Face the Nation, President Donald Trump said that he was not sure if North Korean Dictator Kim Jung-un is sane, but he is clearly “a pretty smart cookie” since he was able to hold and keep power at such a young age. The statement has people around the world stunned since Jung-un has spent years killing people in a paranoid rage, including feeding people alive to animals or shooting them with anti-aircraft weapons. One does not have to be smart to rule by terror. You just have to be a murderous maniac.
Continue reading “Trump: Kim Jung-un Is “Pretty Smart Cookie””
I am a notorious news junky who prides himself on keeping abreast of news and issues around the world, particularly stories dealing with free speech and human rights. It was therefore with some shame that I listened to presentations yesterday at the ABA’s program on the horrific treatment of Myanmar’s Muslims. I was asked to moderate a panel on Rohingya by the Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway, Judge of the United States Court of International Trade, who remains one of the most influential figures globally in bringing together legal, political, and academic figures to discuss pressing problems in our world. Judge Ridgway is not just a friend but an inspiration for her tireless work for the rule of law around the world. You do not say no to Delissa Ridgway if you want to have any shot at the afterlife. However, I was not prepared for the heart wrenching account of the killings, rapes, and beatings of Muslims by extremist Buddhists in Myanmar. It is an on-going crime against humanity being committed on a daily basis in plain sight. The panel entitled “While the World Stands Idly By: Myanmar and the Threat of 21st Century Genocide” met at the Capital Hilton and was sponsored by the ABA Section on International Law. Below is a videotape on their worsening conditions in government camps.
Continue reading “ABA Holds Panel On The Plight of Myanmar’s Muslims”
It appears that being shy could now be part of the ever-widening and ill-defined ranger of “micro aggressions.” Oxford’s Equality and Diversity Unit has issued a statement to student that avoiding eye contact or “not speaking directly to people” could be deemed a “racial microaggression.” Such a failure to maintain eye contact is cited as a possible cause for “mental ill-health”.
If you like your misogyny with a heavy serving of irony, you could do no better than the United Nations this week after Saudi Arabia was elected to a 2018-2022 term on the Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. agency that, according to its website, is “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.” As with Iran being put on the Commission, the irony would be humorous if there were not millions of victims over decades of abuse by these countries. Previously, Saudi Arabia taking over the top spot on the Human Rights Commission was viewed as unbelievable, but the entry on the Commission on the Status of Women sets a level of irony that may be unsurpassable.
Princess Cruises, owned by parent company Carnival Corp., has been sentenced to a record $40 million penalty after a truly astonishing level of knowing criminal conduct in illegally dumping oily water overboard and the falsifying official logs. What is astonishing is the failure to hit company officials with individual charges in long conspiracy to pollute U.S. waters.
We have previously discussed how the growing Chinese market for exotic animal parts is wiping out the world’s populations of endangered and threatened animals. This week the extent of that slaughter was brutally evident in Russia where poachers have killed over 20,000 reindeer . . . only to cut their tongues out and leaving miles of rotting carcasses.
Continue reading “Poachers Kill Over 20,000 Reindeer in Russia To Send Their Tongues To China”
The world has condemned the referendum that narrowly gave near dictatorial powers to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Not only was the government accused of tampering with the close results, but the referendum represents the final demise of democracy in Turkey. Erdogan is also responsible for destroying the separation of church and state. However, Erdogan did get one call of congratulations . . . from the President of the United States.
Pakistan continues to remind the West that it remains a country struggling with Islamic extremists — encouraged by the country’s lack of separation between mosque and state. The latest victim of such extremism is a college student named Mashal Khan who was accused of merely sharing a message on social media deemed blasphemous. The response of these self-professed godly men in the northern city of Mardan was to beat the victim to death in the name of Islamic morality. What is even more distressing is that the culprits appear to be fellow students. They no doubt learned this particular lesson from the government itself (and our ally) which still makes blasphemy a capital offense.
Continue reading “Pakistani Student Mob Beats Fellow Student To Death For Blasphemy On Social Media”