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Russian court denies Navalny's appeal for violating terms of suspended sentence, confirms incarceration until 2023

Jonny Tickle
RT
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 09:02 UTC
Navalny
© Sputnik/Pavel BednyakovAlexey Navalny attends a hearing in Babushkinsky district court. Moscow, Russia
A Moscow court has rejected Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny's appeal against a three-and-a-half-year jail term, handed down for breaking the conditions of a suspended sentence over a contested 2014 embezzlement charge.

He was found guilty two weeks ago, following a dramatic sequence of events when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had been living since an alleged poisoning attempt last summer.

Moscow City Court Judge Dmitry Balashov agreed with the prosecutor that the judgment should be upheld, and Navalny should be sent to prison, with the suspended sentence converted to a real custodial spell. Balashov took almost two months off the term, which means two and a half years, in practice, for Navalny, allowing also for time already served.

The three-and-a-half year sentence was initially handed down six years ago, after Navalny was found guilty of embezzling 30 million rubles ($400,000) from two companies, including the French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher. Navalny claims the case was politically motivated, and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has called the conviction "arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable."

Comment: Navalny found guilty of defamation:
A Moscow court has ruled that activist Alexey Navalny must pay a 850,000 ruble ($11,500) fine after finding that he libeled a 94-year-old World War II veteran last summer by smearing him as a "corrupt lackey" and a "traitor."

In court, Navalny was allowed a final speech, which he used to tell all those involved in his case that they would "burn in hell." Referring to Artemenko, he said:
"You have used the man as a puppet. He is not a living person in your mind. To you and your power, he is just a mechanism, a puppet that you want to use for yourself."
The activist, and his supporters, had claimed the process amounted to a "show trial."
"Oh, here they are, darlings. I must admit that the team of corrupt lackeys looks rather weak. Look at them: this is the shame of the country. People without a conscience. Traitors."
This twitter post led to "charges that he had posted deliberately false information" about Artemenko.

In court, Judge Vera Akimova rehashed the prosecution's evidence, including the testimony of Artemenko's neighbour and nurse, as well as his grandson. She also noted the words of linguistic expert Albina Glotova, who studied Navalny's tweets and supported the prosecution's case.

Navalny accused the veteran's family of selling their relative and called Judge Vera Akimova "Obersturmbannfuhrer," saying that she would look good next to a machine gun.


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Attention

Lawyer who filed suit to reverse 2020 election results referred by judge for discipline

Celine Castronuovo
The Hill
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 08:10 UTC
Kaardel/Boasberg
© Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune/Diego M. Radzinschi/The National Law Journal/KJNMinnesota Lawyer Erick Kaardel • US District Judge James Boasberg
An attorney who filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in at least five battleground states was officially referred on Friday to receive potential disciplinary action.

In the court order, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg for the District of Columbia argued that the lawsuit brought by Minnesota lawyer Erick Kaardal on behalf of voters in several states contained "numerous shortcomings," including the "flimsiness of the underlying basis for the suit."

Boasberg added that the action requested by the lawsuit
"to invalidate the election and prevent the electoral votes from being counted" is "staggering. When any counsel seeks to target processes at the heart of our democracy, the Committee may well conclude that they are required to act with far more diligence and good faith than existed here."
Boasberg said that Kaardal's explanations for bringing the lawsuit were inadequate, adding that the attorney will be referred to the court's Committee on Grievances "so that it may determine whether discipline is appropriate."
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Clipboard

Gavin Newsom edges toward recall as officials accept more than 80 percent of signatures

Benjamin Fearnow
Newsweek
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:15 UTC
Newsom
© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom
Political opponents of California Governor Gavin Newsom are celebrating as state officials have accepted more than 80 percent of signatures in support of a recall election.

More than 668,000 signatures have been accepted by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber as valid in the latest recall campaign aimed at unseating Newsom. Under California state law, 1,495,709 valid signatures are required by March 17 in order to get the recall on the ballot. That number makes up 12 percent of the 12,464,235 votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election and is being closed in on by the nearly 1.1 million signatures that have already been submitted as of February 5, the Los Angeles Times reports. More than 296,000 of the 1.1 million turned in simply haven't been reviewed by election officials across the state's 58 counties.

Compared to past California recall efforts where signature verification only hovered between 40 and 60 percent, this latest recall effort has seen election officials verifying more than 80 percent of the submitted signatures. At least 130,108 signatures have been deemed invalid during the review process.

There have been 55 attempts in California history to recall a governor, but the only successful one was Gray Davis in 2003.

Comment: See also:

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Airplane

Airlines plan to ask passengers for contact-tracing details


The Washington Times
Fri, 19 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Passenger screening
© Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPassengers go through TSA screening
The U.S. airline industry is pledging to expand the practice of asking passengers on flights to the United States for information that public health officials could use for contact tracing during the pandemic.

An industry trade group said Friday that the carriers would turn over the information to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which could use it to contact passengers who might be exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19.

Delta and United have been doing that since December. On Friday, an industry trade group said that American, Southwest, Alaska, JetBlue and Hawaiian will also ask passengers to make their names, phone numbers, email and physical addresses available to the CDC.

Comment: What used to be unlimited access to travel no longer exists. Desperate airlines voluntarily comply instead of standing their ground. Will travelers, who refuse new rules, find their country is the new lockdown?

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Heart - Black

Lockdown related suicides rise in Japan, women hit hardest

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC
Sun, 21 Feb 2021 17:31 UTC
suicide
Japan reports suicides faster and more accurately than anywhere else in the world. Unlike most countries, here they are compiled at the end of every month. During the Covid pandemic the numbers have told a disturbing story.

In 2020, for the first time in 11 years, suicide rates in Japan went up. Most surprising, while male suicides fell slightly, rates among women surged nearly 15%.

In one month, October, the female suicide rate in Japan went up by more than 70%, compared with the same month in the previous year.

What is going on? And why does the Covid pandemic appear to be hitting women so much worse than men?

Comment: The question the author is asking has already been answered: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Ice Cube

Reports says close to 70 dead in states with severe winter weather

Celine Castronuovo
The Hill
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 19:04 UTC
texas sign frozen rain winter storm
While temperatures are already on the rise in Texas and other states battered by this week's severe winter weather, the freezing temperatures and extreme conditions have left approximately 70 people dead, and many more without power and potable drinking water.

The Associated Press reported the updated death toll Friday, including fatalities across the country from car crashes, carbon monoxide poisoning, drownings, house fires and hypothermia.

In Fort Worth, Texas, ambulance provider MedStar has continued to receive reports of hypothermia, most of which were from people in their own homes, according to the AP. The emergency provider reached a peak of 77 hypothermia calls on Wednesday.

Authorities suspect that the death of an 11-year-old boy in his bed in Conroe, near Houston, Tuesday was likely caused by hypothermia after his family's home lost power amid the storm.

Comment: Will this weather disaster be a one-off for the record books? Unfortunately history may point to it being a trend.

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Syringe

Fauci hints masks could still be around in 2022: 'It's possible'

Virginia Kruta
The Daily Caller
Sun, 21 Feb 2021 18:33 UTC
Fauci cnn masks 2022
© CNNCNN anchor Dana Bash and Dr. Antony Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he could see face masks being a part of culture going into 2022.

Fauci joined CNN anchor Dana Bash on State of the Union to discuss the state of the coronavirus pandemic and what he believes will be the next steps and the timeline going forward

Bash began the interview by asking Fauci what he thought about family gatherings now that people were beginning to get the vaccine, and he said that he personally was not ready for large family gatherings until more of his family members were vaccinated.

Comment: It will be interesting to see how Fauci's views will square with the states that are making the decision to lift restrictions on their residents.

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Cheeseburger

Not lovin' it - Inflation wake-up call

Eric Peters
Eric Peters Auto
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:16 UTC
McDonald's Sign
© Eric Peters Auto
Fast food has always had one thing going for it - cheapness. A lot of food for not much money. It is why fast food is popular, especially with people who haven't got much money.

McDonald's food, for instance, certainly isn't good food.

Now it's also expensive food - as anyone who has meandered through the drive-thru recently already knows.

A Big Mac - which is mostly bread, some stale lettuce, thousand island dressing and two meager "beef" patties - costs $4. Plus tax. A quarter-pounder costs about the same. Two dollars more buys you one large order of french fries. Add two medium sodas and this marginal meal for two costs almost $15.

Which isn't cheap given the food - both quality and quantity.

A meal for four on the same basis and there goes $40 if everyone gets their own french fries. For McDonald's.

If fast food is the food of the poor, the poor are in trouble - nutritionally and financially. Today's $4 Big Mac sold for $2.39 in 2000, which even adjusted for inflation is "only" $3.41 in today's money. Put another way, the clown has jacked up the real cost of the Big Mac by about 60 cents since 2000.

Vito the loan shark would be ashamed.
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Handcuffs

Man who killed wife 'in act of great violence' jailed for just five years in UK, judge felt lockdown affected his mental state

Damien Gayle
The Guardian
Thu, 18 Feb 2021 18:33 UTC
Anthony
© PA/GwentRuth and Anthony Williams.
Domestic violence campaigners have raised concerns over the leniency of a five-year jail sentence given to a man who strangled his wife days into the first coronavirus lockdown.

Anthony Williams, 70, who was on Monday found not guilty of murder, appeared for sentencing at Swansea crown court after admitting manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. The judge, Paul Thomas, said it was a "tragic case on several levels", but in his view Williams' mental state was "severely affected at the time".

"The overwhelming greatest tragedy here is a lady of 67, who had so much to live for, had her life ended by an act of great violence at the hands, literally, of a man she loved for very nearly 50 years," the judge said.
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Bad Guys

Kiwi MP says sorry for tweeting 'women's rights are human rights', getting 'terfs excited'


RT
Sun, 21 Feb 2021 17:27 UTC
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman
© 1 NewsNew Zealand Green MP Golriz Ghahraman
New Zealand will provide free period products at schools, but don't you dare call it a win for women's rights! Not if you are in the Green Party, whose MP was quickly reminded to use the expression "people with uteruses" instead.

Golriz Ghahraman, an Iranian-born legislator who serves as the Green Party's foreign affairs spokesperson, cheered on the government's decision to make the pilot program, which offers school students free period products, nationwide. "Women's rights are human rights!" she tweeted.

While nobody would argue that the news wasn't good, some commenters picked on the motto itself, saying Ghahraman should have said "people with uteruses" instead. Others welcomed her for not shying away from the word "women," but they were soon disappointed, as the MP corrected herself.

Comment: Gharhraman was quick to realize that not issuing a "correction" (to basic facts, no less) would be political suicide. The trans lobby is small but powerful.

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