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Mon, 08 Nov 2021
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Snakes in Suits

Jury to decide Senator Menendez's fate in corruption & bribery trial

Senator Bob Menendez
© Joe Penney / Reuters
Senator Bob Menendez
The judge overseeing the corruption case involving US Senator Bob Menendez said he won't dismiss any of the charges against the New Jersey Democrat. Menendez is facing 12 federal charges, including bribery, conspiracy and fraud.

Prosecutors say that Menendez accepted free flights on a private jet and other gifts from a wealthy Florida doctor in exchange for lobbying the government on his friend's behalf and securing improper Medicare reimbursements.

On Monday, US District Judge William Walls rejected the defense lawyers' motion to drop the charges. Menendez's defense team argued the charges did not meet the narrow definition of bribery established by the 2016 US Supreme Court ruling that reversed the conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.

Handcuffs

Spain detains Catalan separatist leaders amid sedition investigation

Catalan demonstration
© Reuters/Albert Gea
Spain's High Court has remanded two leaders of a Catalan separatist organization on suspicion of sedition. The prosecution alleges them to be the key figures in organizing the recent independence referendum, which was deemed illegal by Madrid.

The leader of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Jordi Sanchez, and Jordi Cuixart of the Omnium Cultural group were jailed on Monday after questioning.The two men will not be allowed to post bail and remain in custody.

The Catalan regional police chief, Maj. Josep Lluis Trapero, and colleague Lt. Teresa Laplana were also questioned on Monday, but unlike the Catalan independence activists they have avoided jail. The police officials, however, were forced to give up their passports and have to appear in court every two weeks.

Fire

7 injured, 1 missing in Louisiana after an oil rig caught fire and exploded (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Oil rig explosion
© Roger Fernandez / Reuters
Flames are seen after an explosion at an oil rig in Lake Pontchartrain, in Louisiana October 15, 2017.
Several people have been injured and at least one remains missing after an oil rig caught fire and exploded in Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans, local authorities said.

"Several people have been rescued from the active fire on the rig," Jefferson Parish spokesman Antwan Harris said.

While there were "a lot of injuries," according to Kenner Police Department spokesman Sgt. Brian McGregor, no deaths have been reported. At least seven people have been injured and one is missing.

Attention

Disabled children suffer 150% rise in verbal, physical & online abuse in 2yrs

Disabled children
© Walter G / Global Look Press
Hate crimes against disabled children including verbal, physical and online abuse have risen nearly 150 percent in two years, new figures suggest.

Figures obtained from police forces by the BBC under freedom of information rules reveal that there were 450 such incidents reported last year, up from 181 in 2015.

Only 29 of the 45 forces across the country provided full responses to the request, meaning that the actual number of reported incidents is likely to be much higher.

Amanda Batten of the Disabled Children's Partnership told the BBC: "Families often feel like they can't go into busy public spaces or post images on social media for fear of being publicly shamed or having to be submitted to people telling them that their child must lack quality of life because of their disability.

Blackbox

German town filled with refugees: "Who is integrating whom?"

Nadine Langer
© LENA MUCHA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Nadine Langer with her daughters at their home in Lebenstedt, Germany.
Late this summer, Nadine Langer took her six-year old to her first day at school. The girl was one of two German children in her class, she said, amid 20, mostly Syrian, refugees.

"I am not against foreigners," said Ms. Langer, 41. "But there is a point where we have to wonder who is integrating whom."

Germany's 2015 refugee crisis has largely disappeared from the headlines. But in this and other midsize towns, it is continuing to unfold, putting communities under stress, pressuring local coffers and feeding concerns about safety, jobs and the quality of education.

Some 140,000 asylum seekers have entered Germany so far this year-a sharp drop from the 1.2 million who arrived in the past two years. But in places such as Salzgitter there is a sense that the government, having housed and fed the newcomers, is failing in the longer-term effort to integrate them in German society.

This unease, pollsters say, boosted the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany at last month's election, making it the first far-right party to enter parliament in half a century. This shock means immigration will loom large when Chancellor Angela Merkel kicks off negotiations on Wednesday to form a three-party ruling coalition.

Question

Will there be renaissance of macro investment?

world currencies
© Greg Mably for Barron's
The petrodollar system is being undermined by exponential growth in technology and shifting geopolitics. Coming: a paradigm shift.

In the summer of 1974, Treasury Secretary William Simon traveled to Saudi Arabia and secretly struck a momentous deal with the kingdom. The U.S. agreed to purchase oil from Saudi Arabia, provide weapons, and in essence guarantee the preservation of Saudi oil wells, the monarchy, and the sovereignty of the kingdom. In return, the kingdom agreed to invest the dollar proceeds of its oil sales in U.S. Treasuries, basically financing America's future federal expenditures.

Soon, other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries followed suit, and the U.S. dollar became the standard by which oil was to be traded internationally. For Saudi Arabia, the deal made perfect sense, not only by protecting the regime but also by providing a safe, liquid market in which to invest its enormous oil-sale proceeds, known as petrodollars. The U.S. benefited, as well, by neutralizing oil as an economic weapon. The agreement enabled the U.S. to print dollars with little adverse effect on interest rates, thereby facilitating consistent U.S. economic growth over the subsequent decades.

An important consequence was that oil-importing nations would be required to hold large amounts of U.S. dollars in reserve in order to purchase oil, underpinning dollar demand. This essentially guaranteed a strong dollar and low U.S. interest rates for a generation. Given this backdrop, one can better understand many subsequent U.S. foreign-policy moves involving the Middle East and other oil-producing regions.

Comment: The dog-eat-dog world of predatory capitalist investment is imploding on itself, but "in crisis, lies opportunity." Cooperation and inclusive fair-dealing between countries, as exemplified by China and Russia will be the builder of wealth in the future.


Black Cat 2

California passes legislation requiring pet stores to sell rescue animals

Puppy in a cage
© P. Wegner/Global Look Press
California has passed legislation making it the first state to require pet stores to sell rescue animals.

Governor Jerry Brown signed bill Assembly Bill 485 into law on Friday, forcing animal stores to transition to selling rescue animals starting in 2019.

Animals like cats, dogs and rabbits must come from shelters or adoption centers in a bid to stamp out mass breeding of animals in so-called "puppy mills."

"This is a big win for our four-legged friends, of course, but also for California taxpayers who spend more than $250 million annually to house and euthanize animals in our shelters," Democratic assemblyman and co-author of the bill, Patrick O'Donnell, said in a statement.

Bulb

Yanis Varoufakis on his new book, the iniquity of capitalism, Assange and the European political crisis

Yanis Varoufakis
© Nikos Pilos for the Observer
Yanis Varoufakis at home on the Greek island of Aegina.
Greece's former finance minister on talking politics with his 12-year-old daughter, Europe's capitalist crisis, and his fears for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

The economist Yanis Varoufakis was the finance minister in Greece for six tumultuous months in 2015, before resigning from the Syriza government. Last year he launched the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25). He is also the author of several books. His latest is Talking to My Daughter About the Economy.

Your new book, explaining the history and iniquity of capitalism, is addressed to your 12-year-old daughter, Xenia. What did she think of it?

My daughter is my worst critic, so even if she likes something I do or write she is very averse to complimenting me. In this context her words of encouragement were the best I could have hoped for. Something like: "Not too bad."

Handcuffs

Man arrested after abusing stepdaughter, keeping her captive for 19 years as his "wife"

Rosalyn McGinnis and Henri Michele Piette
© Facebook
Rosalyn McGinnis and Henri Michele Piette
An Oklahoma man accused of holding his stepdaughter captive for nearly two decades and repeatedly raping her has been arrested, according to the district attorney in the case.

Henri Michele Piette, 62, is accused of keeping his stepdaughter captive for 19 years after "marrying" her when she was around 11 years old, according to court documents provided to Fox News. His other children told investigators that he began sexually assaulting Rosalynn McGinnis when she was very young, the court documents said.

McGinnis was repeatedly raped, stabbed, choked until unconscious, shot and beaten with baseball bats while she was allegedly held captive by Piette, the Oklahoman reported.

Investigators said McGinnis was taken from a school in Poteau, Okla., by Piette's son in 1997 after her mother had left Piette, allegedly because he abused her. McGinnis was then introduced to Piette's other children as "their new mother," an FBI agent said, according to the Oklahoman.

Piette moved around the US and Mexico with McGinnis, but to make it seem as though they were still in Oklahoma, Piette would drive the young girl to the Sooner State to mail letters, court documents alleged. In June 2016, McGinnis, now 33, was able to escape from a tent in rural Mexico with eight of her nine children, she told People. She went to a US embassy and was able to be brought back to America with her children, according to court documents.

Heart - Black

Survivors say ISIS moral police 'whipped, beat & jailed' defiant Al-Mayadin residents

sharia law al mayadin
© AlBaraka News/Twitter
IS soldiers in al Mayadin
Islamic State terrorists' efforts to whip, beat and torture people into submission for the tiniest violations of their perverted laws failed, locals in recently-liberated Al-Mayadeen in Syria told RT, recalling their disturbing experiences.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists captured the city of Al-Mayadeen, located just 45km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, in July 2013. Raising their black standard, the Salafi jihadist group went on to impose a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam, violations of which were punished under Sharia law.

While many civilians left the city prior to the jihadists' arrival, those who stayed were forced into following IS law and social conduct. A veil of prosecution and torture descended on Al-Mayadeen for over four years, until the Tiger Forces commanded by Syrian Army Brigadier General Suheil Salman al-Hassan pierced through IS defenses last Saturday, liberating the city from the Islamists' yoke.