#deploying the national guard without state request is illegal

[fine-fletchings]

[dankusner]

Shutter Operation Lone Star

Washington has made it obsolete, and Texas has more pressing needs than duplicating Border Patrol

The bad old days along the U.S.-Mexico border were very, very bad.

At its worst, in December 2023, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered approximately 250,000 migrants trying to cross the southern border.

That averaged out to 8,064 apprehensions and expulsions per day — a level that challenged authorities and strained public and private resources in border cities.

Gov. Greg Abbott deserves credit for sending in state resources when the federal government was failing to police the border.

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, deploying the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety to help detect and deter unauthorized entrants and drug smugglers.

The program is controversial — it has included busing migrants to heavily Democratic cities — but it did help maintain order along a frontier that was devolving into chaos.

President Joe Biden belatedly cracked down on asylum claims in June of 2024, and crossings began to decline.

In February, Border Patrol agents encountered only 8,347 migrants attempting to cross into the United States.

Immigration reform remains a distant dream, but the U.S.-Mexico border is under control.

And yet, the Texas Senate’s recently passed budget includes $6.5 billion to continue Operation Lone Star for another biennium.

That seems wasteful, like continuing to pay for collision insurance on a car you no longer own.

Joe Biden is gone; Donald Trump is president now.

His administration is energetically working to fortify the border, prevent illegal entries and deport anyone who is in this country without authorization — and even some who have it.

Border security is no longer the pressing issue it once was.

At the same time, Abbott has asked the federal government to reimburse Texas for the $11 billion he says it already has spent on border security.

As long as an outside audit supports that figure, his request is reasonable, but it further erodes the need for another appropriation.

The Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety should be resuming their previous duties, not permanently expanding them.

That’s mission creep.

Texas has other needs, with public education at the top of the list.

Lawmakers are wrangling about vouchers, teacher pay raises, funds for previous security mandates — but they’ve barely addressed the basic allotment.

That’s the amount each school district receives per student based on attendance.

That amount is currently $6,160, and it hasn’t changed since the 2019-20 school year. Inflation has eroded the value of the basic allotment by at least $1,300.

We did the math. Texas had 5.5 million public school students last year.

If Texas redirected Operation Lone Star’s $6.5 billion appropriation to the basic allotment, it would rise by $1,182 per student.

That’s just about right.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 3, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

We’re in this weird eddy where Republicans are trying to cling to past politics to gain advantage and the Biden administration is trying to move forward. On top of this struggle are stories about how the previous administration pushed the boundaries of our laws or, worse, broke them.

Yesterday, two Republican governors, Greg Abbott of Texas and Tate Reeves of Mississippi, ended the mask mandates and other coronavirus restrictions for their states. So far today, the Johns Hopkins University tracker has reported 88,611 new cases and 2,189 new deaths. The numbers are dropping, but they are still wildly high compared to other nations. Texas and Mississippi are both in the top ten states in terms of deaths per capita.

It is hard not to see the reopening of Republican-led states as a deliberate affront to President Joe Biden, who asked for a 100-day mask mandate and who has sped up vaccine production to end the pandemic before new variants throw us back into a crisis. The Biden administration has tried to take politics out of the national response to the coronavirus, and made it a point to respond quickly to the crisis in Texas two weeks ago, when the unregulated Texas energy system froze. Health officials worry that a rush to reopen will undo all the progress we have made against the virus, and they are begging Texas and Mississippi to reconsider.

Nonetheless, Abbott has reopened his state and today tweeted: “The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities. The Biden Admin[istration] must IMMEDIATELY end this callous act that exposes Texans & Americans to COVID.”

While Abbott is mired in past politics, the Biden administration today laid out a new approach to foreign affairs. Shortly before the White House released a paper explaining its national security policies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a speech reiterating the administration’s belief that the world needs American leadership and engagement to help create order, and that countries must cooperate with each other.

Blinken promised to stop Covid-19 both at home and abroad, and to invest in global health security. He said we would address the economic crisis and the climate crisis and create a more stable, inclusive global economy. We will “renew democracy,” he said, “because it’s under threat.” Blinken promised to “incentivize democratic behavior” overseas without “costly military interventions or attempting to overthrow authoritarian regimes by force.”

Blinken identified China as the greatest modern rival of the United States and promised to “engage China from a position of strength,” working with allies to counter that nation’s rising power through diplomacy.

The Secretary of State emphasized again how the Biden administration sees domestic and foreign issues as complementary. “Beating COVID means vaccinating people at home and abroad,” he said. “Winning in the global economy means making the right investments at home and pushing back against unfair trading practices by China and others. Dealing with climate change means investing in resilience and green energy here at home and leading a global effort to reduce carbon pollution.”

“[D]istinctions between domestic and foreign policy have simply fallen away,” Blinken said. “Our domestic renewal and our strength in the world are completely entwined.”

Biden’s paper was even clearer, noting that we are at an inflection point that will determine whether democracy will fall to autocracy. “I firmly believe that democracy holds the key to freedom, prosperity, peace, and dignity,” he wrote. “We must now demonstrate — with a clarity that dispels any doubt — that democracy can still deliver for our people and for people around the world. We must prove that our model isn’t a relic of history; it’s the single best way to realize the promise of our future.”

Meanwhile, stories continue to break about the previous administration.

Tonight, we learned that the Department of Justice under Trump loyalist Attorney General William Barr refused to investigate or prosecute Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, even after that department’s inspector general asked for a review of what it said was a misuse of her office. The inspector general found repeated instances of Chao using her office to benefit the Chao family company, Foremost Group, a shipping company run by Chao’s sister. Chao is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Also, today, the inspector general for the Department of Defense issued a review of Representative Ronny Jackson, who was Trump’s White House physician before he was elected to Congress from Texas in 2020. The review says he has an explosive temper, made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a woman who was his subordinate, created a hostile work environment, and drank alcohol and took Ambien while on duty. The inspector general recommended that the Navy take “appropriate action” with regard to the retired officer. Jackson said, “Democrats are using this report to repeat and rehash untrue attacks on my integrity.”

Today’s biggest story about the previous administration, though, came from the Senate hearings about the January 6, 2021, attack, held before the committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the committee on Rules and Administration. While there is still confusion about what happened when, it became clear that there were some serious lapses in the protection of the Capitol, and it appears those lapses originated with Trump appointees in the Pentagon.

Because the District of Columbia is not a state, its National Guard is under the control of the Defense Department, and it is overseen by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. The Commander of the D.C. National Guard, Major General William Walker, told the Senate that, in response to a request from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the director of D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Christopher Rodriguez, Walker requested approval for the mission from McCarthy on January 1.

McCarthy’s approval did not come until January 5, when the event was already upon them. And, in what Walker saw as an unusual move, McCarthy withheld approval for Walker to deploy the Quick Reaction Force, guardsmen equipped with helmets, shields, batons, and so on, to respond to civil disturbance, without the approval of the Secretary of Defense.

Then, at 1:49 pm on January 6, then Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Steven Sund, called Walker to say that the Capitol had been breached. “Chief Sund, his voice cracking with emotion, indicated that there was a dire emergency on Capitol Hill and requested the immediate assistance of as many guardsmen as I could muster,” Walker told the Senate. Walker immediately called the Pentagon for approval to move in his troops, but officials there did not give the go-ahead for 3 hours and 19 minutes. Once allowed in, the National Guard troops deployed in 20 minutes. But by then, of course, plenty of damage had been done.

The delay in deployment stood in dramatic contrast to the approval accorded to the National Guard to deploy in June 2020. Today’s testimony suggests that the Pentagon placed unprecedented restrictions on the mobilization of the National Guard on January 6, preventing it from responding to the crisis at the Capitol in a timely fashion.

The House will not meet tomorrow out of fears that militants will attack the Capitol again, expecting that March 4 will see former president Donald Trump sworn in for a second term.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[reading-writing-revolution]

August 26, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

There is a profound disconnect between the reality of what is happening in America right now and what we are hearing from the White House.

Tonight, Hurricane Laura is barreling toward the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. The storm is on the verge of becoming a Category 5 hurricane, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall in the continental U.S. Its winds have reached 150 miles per hour and the National Hurricane Center has warned of an “unsurvivable” storm surge of up to 20 feet, as well as anywhere from 5-10 inches of rain. Forecasters warn that half of Lake Charles, Louisiana, home to almost 80,000 people, might be submerged. More than half a million people have been ordered to evacuate the region, but this will be a tall order for the 23.3% of the population there that lives in poverty.

Iowa is trying to rebuild from the August 10 derecho which brought winds of up to 140 miles an hour, left more than 400,000 Iowans without power, and damaged homes, businesses, and more than ten million acres of crops. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds asked for about $4 billion to cover the cost of the damage; Trump approved the portion that covered federal buildings and utilities but not assistance to homeowners and farmers.

Western wildfires have burned more than 1.8 million acres in August—an area almost double the size of Rhode Island. Fourteen states, including California, Arizona, Oregon, and Colorado, have suffered from the extreme events. While firefighters are gaining control over many of the fires, red flag warnings are still in effect in Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, and Montana.

A disaster of a different sort is burning in America as coronavirus continues to spread. New CDC guidelines quietly put out on Monday no longer recommend testing for asymptomatic people even if they’ve been in contact with someone who has the coronavirus. This new rule appears to reflect Trump's frequent complaints that widespread testing is responsible for our climbing numbers of coronavirus cases. (He is incorrect.) He has repeatedly said we should slow the testing down. A White House spokesperson said the decision was science-based and not political; American Medical Association President Dr. Susan Bailey asked the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Department of Health and Human Services to "release the scientific justification" for the changes.

The spokesperson told reporters that the White House Coronavirus Task Force had signed off on the new guidelines, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the task force told CNN that he was not part of any such discussion. “I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is,” he said. Other members of the task force also expressed alarm about the new rules.

And there is yet another kind of fire burning. On Sunday afternoon, August 23, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Rusten Sheskey, fired seven shots into Jacob Blake’s back as he opened his car door, leaving the 29-year-old father of five gravely wounded, likely paralyzed from the waist down.

Protests erupted in the wake of the shooting of yet another Black man, with the same pattern we saw in Portland: peaceful protests by day, riots by night. Armed militia members and counter protesters rushed to Kenosha and clashed with protesters, and after rioters looted and burned businesses, civilians armed with AR-15-style rifles took to the streets claiming they would back the police and restore order. Video shows police officers thanking the armed men for their help, despite the fact they are on the streets after the city’s curfew, and handing them water bottles.

Rather than restoring order, on Tuesday, a 17-year-old white man, Kyle Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, about 20 miles southwest of Kenosha, shot and killed two people and wounded a third. Rittenhouse’s social media is full of support for “Blue Lives Matter,” and shows him posing with weapons. Video from January 30, shows him in the front row of a Trump rally in Des Moines, Iowa; video from Tuesday shows him trying to get the attention of law enforcement officers before the shooting.

This afternoon, the Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team refused to play game five of their first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic. This is what’s known as a “wildcat strike” because it does not have the approval of union leadership—the NBA collective bargaining agreement bans strikes. The Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder joined in, and by 5:00 the NBA postponed all the evening’s games. All the WNBA games were also called off, and several Major League Baseball teams have struck in solidarity.

In a statement, the Bucks said, “Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.” They asked the Wisconsin legislature to reconvene and pass “meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.” They also asked people to vote. Basketball superstar LeBron James was more straightforward: “F**K THIS MAN!!!!!” he tweeted. “WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT[.]”

In Washington, tonight, at the third night of the Republican National Convention, speakers painted an image of the nation that did not square with this reality. There was scarce mention of the natural disasters that, in any other administration, would be headline news. The sentence “May God bless and protect the Gulf states in the path of the hurricane," offered by Eric Trump's wife Lara, was about the extent of it.

There was scarce attention paid to the coronavirus, either, which has, to date, killed more than 180,000 Americans. Twenty-five percent of the world's deaths from Covid-19 come from the U.S., which has 4% of the world’s people. From Fort McHenry, Maryland, Vice President Mike Pence congratulated Trump for suspending travel from China and saving “untold American lives.” White House officials continue to talk of the virus in the past tense, as if it is over. Images from the RNC of attendees sitting together, unmasked, send a signal that things are back to normal, when they are decidedly not.

There was no mention of Jacob Blake or the Kenosha shootings of Tuesday tonight, although Trump appeared to take the part of the Kenosha police and the civilian militias when he tweeted today that he was sending federal troops to Kenosha to restore “LAW and ORDER!”. (Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, instead deployed 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha.)

From Fort McHenry, Maryland, Vice President Mike Pence talked of the “heroes” who have died in unrest around the country without mentioning the events that have sparked the unrest: the shootings of Black men and women at the hands of police officers, people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake. He lamented the death of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, “shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California,” implying he was killed by protesters. In fact, Officer Underwood died in a drive-by shooting by a Boogaloo supporter on a nearly empty street. And Pence claimed that Democratic nominee Joe Biden has said he would cut funding to law enforcement; this is a lie from a super PAC ad that spliced together video footage to change its meaning.

A million years ago, during the George W. Bush administration, a White House official dismissively told journalist Ron Suskind that people like Suskind lived in “the reality-based community,” meaning that they believed solutions to the nation’s problems came from studying reality and finding answers. “That's not the way the world really works anymore,” the official told Suskind. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality…. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Creating their own reality might have worked for Bush’s people in 2004, but sixteen years later, with the country in conflagrations both natural and manmade, it seems that approach is no longer viable.

—-

Notes:

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/hurricane-laura-storm-track-path-forecast-today-2020-08-26/

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-misleading-biden-ad-defund/fact-check-political-ad-saying-biden-wants-to-defund-the-police-is-misleading-idUSKCN252248

Underwood: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/gopers-keep-falsely-implying-a-protester-killed-a-federal-officer-in-oakland

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/live-blog/hurricane-laura-updates-news-live-hurricane-path-tracker-n1238184/ncrd1238314#liveBlogHeader

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/rnc-night-three-pence-conway-hatch-act

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/lakecharlescitylouisiana

Iowa: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/25/iowa-gov-kim-reynolds-holds-news-conference-cedar-rapids-schools-storm-derecho/5627303002/

https://www.kcrg.com/2020/08/18/trump-signs-only-a-portion-of-iowas-disaster-relief-request/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/us/california-fires-tuesday/index.html

wildcat strike:

Matt Pearce 🦅 @mattdpearceThe NBA collective bargaining agreement bans strikes, which means the Bucks are breaking their own contract to stop playing in protest of police violence. (But this is your reminder that there aren't really illegal strikes, just unsuccessful ones.)

cosmic-s3.imgix.net/3c7a0a50-8e11-…

August 26th 2020

2,026 Retweets5,544 Likes

https://www.thedailybeast.com/america-doesnt-deserve-sports-right-now

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/08/nba-teams-strike-for-black-lives.html

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/kenosha-suspect-kyle-rittenhouse-trump-rally

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WIGOV/bulletins/29beffc

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-08-26/trump-pledges-to-restore-law-and-order-in-wisconsin-amid-jacob-blake-protests

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/testing-overview.html?referringSource=articleShare

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/fauci-coronavirus-cdc-testing/index.html

[go-redgirl]

The History of Presidents Using Military to Restore Order Within US

The National Guard has stepped in to quell the violence in Minneapolis in the wake of riots that occurred over the death of George Floyd.

President Donald Trump tweeted, “The National Guard has arrived on the scene. They are in Minneapolis and fully prepared. George Floyd will not have died in vain. Respect his memory!!!”

Trump also tweeted last week, “Just spoke to Gov. Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way.“

The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution.

In a statement Sunday, Attorney General William Barr said:

It is the responsibility of state and local leaders to ensure that adequate law enforcement resources, including the National Guard where necessary, are deployed on the streets to reestablish law and order.  …

Federal law enforcement actions will be directed at apprehending and charging the violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law.

Since the military is supposed to fight international conflicts and not be engaged in domestic law enforcement, the use of federal troops has been rare. However, it has happened under several presidents, not just Abraham Lincoln, who had to use the military to stop a full-scale rebellion.

Both Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, respectively invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, sent federal troops to respond to emergencies. President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the act to have federal troops enforce federal civil rights laws. Before that, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson used federal troops to respond to emergencies.  

Two laws deal primarily with federal troops in domestic matters, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Under the Insurrection Act of 1807, Congress delegated authority to the president to call the military during an insurrection or civil disturbance. Under one provision of the law, a president can use the military to suppress an insurrection at the request of a state government in order to protect states against “domestic violence.”

After the passage of the 14th Amendment, another provision was added to the Insurrection Act that allows the president to use the military without the consent of a state government to suppress any “insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”

This is only if state law enforcement is unable to protect citizens and the criminal conduct “obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”

This section was enacted to implement the 14th Amendment, which gave citizenship and other legal rights to African Americans, and does not require a request from or even the permission of the governor of the affected state.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 further defined but didn’t supplant the Insurrection Act. The law was enacted as post-Civil War reconstruction was winding down in the south, and outlawed the use of the military for law enforcement.

This law made it illegal for civilian law enforcement to use military investigators, prohibits use of the military if it “pervades the activities” of the civilian officials and prohibits subjecting citizens to military power that is “regulatory, prescriptive, or compulsory in nature.”    

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to place armed soldiers throughout U.S. airports.

His father, President George H.W. Bush, used the insurrection law to send federal troops to Los Angeles in 1992 to restore order in the city after the riots that erupted after a jury acquitted police officers who were caught on camera beating up Rodney King, an African American.

The elder Bush also sent federal troops to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, at the request of the territorial government, in 1989 to restore order from civil unrest after Hurricane Hugo.

Among the most dramatic events occurred in 1957 when Arkansas’ Democrat Gov. Orval Faubus tried to face down Republican President Dwight Eisenhower over desegregation of schools.

In 1957, the Little Rock, Arkansas, school board voted to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling from three years earlier to desegregate schools. Nine black high school students tried to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock.

Faubus announced days before the school year was to begin he would send the National Guard to prevent the black students from entering. The students that became known as the “Little Rock Nine” were denied entry to the school by the National Guard troops, who were under state command.                                  

Eisenhower initially sought to defuse the matter peacefully and made what he thought was an agreement with Faubus—the Guard troops at the school to maintain order while keeping the black students safe. Faubus instead removed the Guard troops and put the state police at the school to keep the students out.        

In late September, about 1,000 whites formed outside the school and a riot ensued.

So, Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730 that specifically noted the provision of the Insurrection Act that allows federal troops to take action in lieu of a request from the state government. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and then sent the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to quell the riots.

In a televised address, Eisenhower said, “Our enemies are gloating over this incident and using it everywhere to misrepresent our nation. … Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts.”

Finally, on Sept. 25, 1957, the “Little Rock Nine” attended Central High for their first full day of classes, this time protected by the Arkansas National Guard and the other federal troops. The students continued to face threats, but still attended school until the end of the school year.

The defeated Faubus retaliated in September 1958 by closing down Little Rock high schools for the year, but the high schools reopened in August 1959 after a federal court struck down the closing.

Other cases in the 20th century would include notable presidents.  

In 1946, President Harry Truman, a Democrat, sent federal troops to act against striking railroad workers.

In 1932, an already unpopular Republican President Herbert Hoover sent U.S. troops to disperse a group of 20,000 World War I veterans in the Washington Mall. The unemployed veterans were seeking bonus payments from Congress, and it became known as the “Bonus March.”

However, some of the veterans ended up in a physical confrontation with police. So Hoover called in the military, which included tanks. Gen. Douglas MacArthur led armed military men against unarmed veterans, a bad look for the government in newspaper photos and in newsreels then being shown at movie theaters.

Accompanying MacArthur were two other future World War II heroes, then-Maj. Eisenhower and then-Maj. George S. Patton. The military fired mostly tear gas at the veterans. Still, The Washington Post would report one veteran was killed and 60 were hurt after the gas bombs and flames.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, ordered federal troops to stop race riots in 20 cities across the United States. The first of the riots occurred in Chicago, erupting in part from the post-war social tensions and competition over jobs.

[market-research-updates]

Automated Border Control Market Analysis By Growth, Emerging Trends , Future Opportunities and Forecast to 2025

The automated border control market is expected to witness a CAGR of 16.25% over the forecast period (2020-2025). Over the past few years, a rapidly increasing demand for border crossing was witnessed, where the need to speed up the clearance process at the Border Crossing Points (BCP) has been significant. The Automated Border Control (ABC) gates, or the e-Gates, can verify the travelers' identities that are crossing the borders by exploiting their biometric traits without the need for constant human intervention. - Biometric technologies always had a relevant impact on the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness, and Security of the checking processes. The automated biometric recognition can increase the border processing throughput, as well as facilitate the clearance procedures. To grant the passage of the border, the e-Gate compares the traveler's biometric samples stored in the electronic document with live acquisitions. - With the emergence of microprocessor-based passports, they have been the catalyst for reengineering the processes, from enrolment to issuance. They are now facilitating border control as automatic border control gates are being implemented in multiple airports. With more than 1000 million ePassports now in circulation, smart airports and smart borders are emerging at a rapid pace. Moreover, combined with a strong push behind biometrics (particularly face recognition​), an extensive range of automated, self-service airport facilities are being offered for the passengers, from check-in to immigration control and boarding. - As Security across the world is heightened, and international passenger volumes are exponentially increasing, the automated border control solutions are gaining momentum. The kiosk solution and hybrid eGates/kiosks solution provide customizable options that can help modernize border management. They also ensure that passengers' airport experience is efficient, safe, and seamless while evolving with the changing needs and pace of future travelers.

Click Here to Download Sample Report >>  https://www.sdki.jp/sample-request-90263 - Governments of various countries have been deploying biometric readers for multiple purposes, including law enforcement, public identity, border control, employee identification, access control, and attendance. Some large-scale deployment of the technology includes the UK Iris Recognition Immigration System (IRIS) project, India's Aadhar project, and US Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (VISIT). - Moreover, Colombia is developing enhanced Security with new electronic passport integrating Gemalto secure ePassport technologies. The project is working to deliver electronic passports to support the rapid deployment of the original machine-readable passports for 38 million citizens. - Further, in April 2020, the Everis Aerospace, Defense, and Security adapted its biometric identity solutions to offer additional capabilities to help face the ongoing Covid-19 health crisis. The adaptation of the solutions primarily affects two relevant aspects. On the one hand, the company has integrated temperature control systems in its kiosks, face pods, and biometric and document identification totems, and also in its ABC (Automated Border Control) doors. Key Market Trends Airport Applications are Expected to Witness a Rapid Growth - The aviation industry is anticipated to hold a significant market share and is expected to continue its position during the forecast period, primarily due to the substantial rise in the number of airports and the exponential increase in air passenger traffic. The increasing threat of terrorist attacks and the security standards that have been set by the international authorities that include IATA, ICAO, and ACI are among the two most influential drivers sustaining the market studied. - Airways are the most preferred means for international travelers, due to obvious reasons, like travel time and convenience. According to the European Commission, more than 887 million travelers are expected to make arrivals across the European Union. With this enormous difference in traffic, the automated border control system's adoption rate is significantly high compared to seaports and land ports. In December 2019, 12 new automated, pre-security e-gates were installed at the Aukland Airport, which can scan boarding passes and grant passengers access to secure areas.

- The number of airports investing in automated border control, check-in, and bag drop solutions, worldwide, is increasing, for enhancing the airport operational efficiency. Airline services provider, SITA, estimated that over 72% of the air travelers in 2019 used one of these self-service solutions, thus, creating a key differentiator for the overall passenger value proposition. - Recently in the United States, an Automated Passport Control (APC) program was introduced to expedite the Canadians'Canadians' entry process, US passengers, and the passengers eligible for Visa Waiver Program, by providing an automated process through CBP'sCBP's Primary Inspection area. Such initiatives by the government are estimated to drive the market studied. - Additionally, in Jan 2020, Vilnius Airport passengers were also using an automated border control system. Ten smart self-service gates have been installed in the capital's air gates that will primarily enable organizing the traffic of arriving and departing passengers efficiently. This kind of border control system is currently not available at any other airports in the Baltic States and Poland. Europe is Expected to Hold the Largest Market Share - Across Europe, the border agencies, governments, and industry decision-makers have been faced with a significant challenge, which is to majorly evolve and innovate their border management amid the increasing passenger traffic and changing government regulations. - According to the European Commission, it is projected that the annual traveler's border passages into the European Union will reach approximately 887 million by 2025. With this expected volume of passengers traveling internationally, new systems are being installed or integrated with the existing systems to enhance the security at border crossings. - Moreover, in April 2019, the European parliament voted to create a giant biometric database, known as the Common Identity Repository (CIR), in a move that may make it easier for the border guards and security officials to spot terrorists, criminals, and illegal immigrants. Initiatives like these are expected to further drive the demand for fingerprint authentication in the region during the forecast period. - Further, as of June 2019, travelers that were landing at the Keflavik International Airport (KEF) in Iceland were going through the kiosk-based border control. Four BorderXpress kiosks will be registering data on entry, exit, and refusal of entry of third-country nationals that are crossing the external borders of all the Schengen member states through a central system, which is a part of a 6-month pilot project. - There has been an increase in document fraud and identity theft, with the advent of new threats, such as terrorism or cybercrime. To deal with such issues, changes have been made in international governmental regulations, due to which new technological solutions are gradually being implemented across the region, thus driving the market growth in Europe. Request For Full Report >> https://www.sdki.jp/sample-request-90263 Competitive Landscape The automated border control market is moderately consolidated, with the presence of a few major companies. The companies are continuously investing in making strategic partnerships and product developments to gain a more market share. Some of the recent developments in the market are: - In May 2020 - NEC corporation completed the development of a biometric authentication terminal, which can provide high levels of authentication accuracy and convenience for users within a wide range of environments. This new solution also incorporates a face recognition system that increases the efficiency of the system and offers a cost-effective solution to its customers. Reasons to Purchase this report: - The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format - 3 months of analyst support

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Related Links https://www.sdki.jp/

[samuel-roth]

If you’re pro Trump you’re not pro military.

Just some of the great things he’s done or said during his presidency and life.

• ⁠Trump knew since March 2020 that Russia paid bounties to kill American troops, yet has done nothing

• ⁠May 2020, the White House attempted to end National Guard deployments one day before they could claim benefits

• ⁠The Trump admin seized 5 million masks intended for VA hospitals. Kushner distributes these masks to private entities for a fee, who then sells the masks to the government

• ⁠Trump fired the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after warned superiors that COVID19 was spreading among his crew. The virus subsequently spread amongst the crew

• ⁠After Iran's retaliatory strike, 109 US troops suffered brain injuries. Trump dismissed these as "headaches"

• ⁠20/7/2017, in room 2E924 of the Pentagon, told a room full of Generals, "You’re a bunch of dopes and babies"

• ⁠Pardoned multiple war criminals, which stomped on long standing military values, discipline, and command. Trump has no military experience (May&Nov, 2019)

• ⁠Trump mocked Lt. Col. Vindman for his rank and uniform. threatened said purple heart officer, resulting in the Army providing him protection

• ⁠Trump’s Chief of Staff worked—in secret—to deny comprehensive health coverage to Vietnam Vets who suffered from Agent Orange

• ⁠There's a facility in Tijuana for US veterans that Trump deported. Wounded war vet, Sen Duckworth (D) marked Veterans Day 2019 by visiting this facility

• ⁠Russia took control of the main U.S. military facility in Syria abandoned on Trump’s orders. Russia now owns the airstrip we built

• ⁠10/7/2019, Trump abruptly withdrew support from America's allies in Syria after a phone call with Turkey's president (Erdogan). Turkey subsequently bombed US Special Forces

• ⁠Trump sent thousands of American troops to defend the oil assets of the country that perpetrated 9/11

• ⁠Sept 2019, made an Air Force cargo crew, flying from the U.S. to Kuwait stop in Scotland (where there's no U.S. base) to refuel at a commercial airport (where it costs more), so they could stay overnight at a Trump property (which isn't close to the airport). Trump’s golf courses are losing money, so he's forcing the military to pay for 5-star nights there

• ⁠7/2019, Pentagon pulled funds for military schools, military housing funds, and daycare to pay for Trump's border wall

• ⁠Aug 2019, emails revealed that three of Trump's Mar-a-Lago pals, who are now running Veterans Affairs, are rampant with meddling. "They had no experience in veterans affairs (none of them even served in the military) nor underwent any kind of approval process to serve as de facto managers. Yet, with Trump’s approval, they directed actions and criticized operations without any oversight. They wasted valuable staff time in hundreds of pages of communications and meetings, emails show. Emails reveal disdainful attitudes within the department to the trio’s meddling."

• ⁠Veterans graves will be "dug up" for the border wall, after Trump instructed aides to seize private property. Trump told officials would pardon them if they break the law by illegally seizing property

• ⁠Children of deployed US troops are no longer guaranteed citizenship. This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (28/8/2019)

• ⁠2/8/2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall

• ⁠31/7/2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who were prosecuted war criminals

• ⁠Trump denied a U.S. Marine of 6 years entry into the United States for his citizenship interview (Reported 17/7/2019)

• ⁠Trump made the U.S. Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having them fly at his July 4th political campaign event (4/7/2019)

• ⁠Trump demanded US military chiefs stand next to him at 4th of July parade (reported 2/7/2019)

• ⁠June 2019, Trump sent troops to the border to paint the fence for a better "aesthetic appearance"

• ⁠Trump used his D-Day interview at a cemetery commemorating fallen US soldiers to attack a Vietnam veteran (6/6/2019)

• ⁠Trump started his D-Day commemoration speech by attacking a private citizen (Bette Midler, of all people) (reported 4/6/2019)

• ⁠Trump made his 2nd wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have cut off all child support if Tiffany joined the military (reported 4/6/2019)

• ⁠27/5/2019, Trump turned away US military from his Memorial Day speech because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain

• ⁠Trump ordered the USS John McCain out of sight during his visit to Japan (15/5/2019). The ship's name was subsequently covered. (27/5/2019)

...and going...

• ⁠Trump purged 200,000 vets' healthcare applications (due to known administrative errors within VA’s enrollment system) (reported on 13/5/2019)

• ⁠Trump deported a spouse of fallen Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless (16/4/2019)

• ⁠20/3/2019, Trump complained that a deceased war hero didn't thank him for his funeral

• ⁠Between 12/22/2018, and 1/25/2019, Trump refused to sign his party's funding bill, which shut down the government, forcing the Coast Guard to go without pay, which made service members rely on food pantries. However, his appointees got a $10,000 pay raise

• ⁠banned service members from serving based on gender identity (1/22/2019)

• ⁠denied female troops access to birth control to limit sexual activity (on-going. Published 18/1/2019)

• ⁠tried to deport a marine vet who is a U.S.-born citizen (16/1/2019)

• ⁠When a man was caught swindling veterans pensions for high-interest “cash advances," Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him $1 (26/1/2019)

• ⁠called a retired general a 'dog' with a 'big, dumb mouth' (1/1/2019)

• ⁠increased privatization of the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer cost (2018)

• ⁠finally visited troops 2 years after taking office, but only after 154 vacation days at his properties (26/12/2018)

• ⁠revealed a covert Seal Team 5 deployment, including names and faces, on Twitter during his visit to Iraq (26/12/2018)

• ⁠Trump lied to deployed troops that gave them a 10% raise (26/12/2018).

• ⁠Tried giving the military a raise that was lower than the standard living adjustment. Congress told him that idea wasn't going to work. Then after giving them the raise that Congress made him, lied about it pretending that it was larger than Obama's. It wasn't

• ⁠fired service members living with HIV just before the 2018 holidays

• ⁠tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans to $0, and eliminate the unemployability extrascheduler rating (17/12/2018)

• ⁠called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he's most thankful for himself (Thanksgiving, 2018)

• ⁠urged Florida to not count deployed military votes (12/11/2018)

• ⁠canceled an Arlington Cemetery visit on Veterans Day due to light rain (12/11/2018)

• ⁠While in Europe commemorating the end of WWI, didn't attend the ceremony at a US cemetery due to the rain -- other world leaders went anyway (10/11/2018)

• ⁠used troops as a political prop by sending them on a phantom mission to the border and made them miss Thanksgiving with their families (Oct-Dec, 2018)

• ⁠stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the election. However, the troops remained in muddy camps on the border (7/11/2018)

• ⁠Trump changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act, causing the VA to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances. This caused many vets to run out of food and rent. (reported 7/10/2018)

• ⁠Trump doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections (5/7/2018)

• ⁠Trump deported active-duty spouses (11,800 military families face this problem as of April 2018)

• ⁠forgot a fallen soldier's name (below) during a call to his pregnant widow, then attacked her the next day (23-24/10/2017)

• ⁠sent commandos into an ambush due to a lack of intel, and sends contractors to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind, tortured, and executed. (Trump approved the mission because Bannon told him Obama didn't have the guts to do it) (4/10/2017)

• ⁠blocked a veteran group on Twitter (7/2017)

• ⁠ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records (2017-present)

• ⁠deported veterans (2017-present)

• ⁠said knows more about ISIS than American generals (10/2016)

• ⁠Oct 3, 2016, Trump said vets get PTSD because they aren't strong (note: yes, said it's 'because they aren't strong.' didn't say it's 'because they're weak.' This distinction is important because of Snopes)

• ⁠Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a fan at one of his rallies and said: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.” (2/8/2016)

• ⁠Trump attacks Gold Star families: Myeshia Johnson (gold star widow), Khan family (gold star parents) etc. (2016-present)

• ⁠Trump sent funds raised from a Jan 2016 veterans benefit to the Donald J Trump Foundation instead of veterans charities (the foundation has since been ordered shut because of fraud) (1/2016)

• ⁠Trump said has "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military" because went to a military-style academy (2015 biography)

• ⁠Trump said doesn't consider POWs heroes because they were caught. said prefers people who were not caught (7/18/2015)

• ⁠Trump said having unprotected sex was his own personal Vietnam (1998) For a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans off of Fifth Avenue because found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower. 1991

• ⁠Trump dodged the draft 5 times by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs

• ⁠No Trump in America has ever served in the military; this spans 5 generations, and every branch of the family tree. In fact, the reason his grandfather immigrated to America was to avoid military service.

[armeniaitn]

India-China Standoff: India Could Play The Taiwan, Tibet Card To Get China On Negotiating Table ...

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/economy/india-china-standoff-india-could-play-the-taiwan-tibet-card-to-get-china-on-negotiating-table-39016-24-07-2020/

India-China Standoff: India Could Play The Taiwan, Tibet Card To Get China On Negotiating Table ...

Clashes along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border on July 12-14 not only triggered widespread international condemnation but also highlighted Yerevan’s desperation to divert world attention from occupied territories.

According to Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, army officers and soldiers of their country were killed when the Armenian army suddenly attacked their positions with mortars and howitzers.

Reacting strongly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar condemned the Armenian attacks and sided with Azerbaijan.

The deputies of Turkish political parties in the Grand National Assembly be that ruling AK Party or opposition CHP, MHP, and IYI Party, signed a joint statement, condemning the Armenian attack and said that the issue concerned the national interests of Turkey.

Armenia continues to occupy 20% of the territory of neighbouring Azerbaijan for over the past 26 years. Mediation efforts by the Minsk Group, which consists of Russia, the US, and France, to resolve the problem have so far come a cropper. For this reason, there are constant clashes in the occupied areas, manly on the front line.

The most violent of these occurred in April 2016, when Azerbaijan took control of the key strategic points. On the other hand, there is a general dissatisfaction in Azerbaijan with the diplomatic parleys conducted by the Minsk Group. Even though Azerbaijan wanted Turkey also to join the Minsk triumvirate, Armenia opposed the move.

Not only the authorities, but also the public, are tired of the Minsk Group’s endless diplomatic negotiations, and the voices that the war is the only solution are becoming louder. Especially after the conflict in Tovuz, dominant voices at a meeting held to commemorate martyrs in Baku said the idea of ‘Karabakh can only be saved through war.

While the attention of the Azerbaijani state and society was focused on the diplomatic and military options to liberate the occupied Azerbaijani territory, the recent attack carried out by Armenia far from the occupied territory is have varied objectives. Analysts are debating why the attack was not carried out from the occupied territory but from the border.

The conflict took place near the energy corridor

The conflict took place in the Tovuz region, an energy route, close to the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey corridor. Instability in this region has the potential to directly affect the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline, the Southern Gas Natural Gas Pipeline, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.

This strip opens up Turkey to Central Asia and it also gives way to the energy and transportation lines that carry Caspian oil and natural gas to Turkey and then to all over the world. On the one hand, these projects that exclude Armenia are the ones that unite Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey and ensures opening up of the South Caucasus to the world.

In a way, these routes are the lifeline to the economy of Azerbaijan. For this reason, it is believed that the reasons behind the Armenian attack could have been to hurt the Azerbaijani economy. In short, it can be said that the goal of Armenia was to damage the projects that unite Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Another prominent explanation behind the attack is that Armenia is trying to divert world attention from the occupied territories. The recovery of the occupied territories has been topmost priority for Azerbaijan’s foreign policy.

President Ilham Aliyev, along with his ministers and officials are constantly raising the issue in bilateral and multilateral forums. This situation bothers Armenia because Yerevan wants this issue to be put in cold storage and forgotten in order to continue the occupation.

Further, as of late 2019, Azerbaijan has established dominance over Armenia in the diplomatic front. It succeeded to put significant diplomatic pressure on Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Azerbaijan President Aliyev while stating that “Karabakh is Azerbaijan” at the Valdai Forum, highlighted the cooperation of Garegin Njdeh, the person that Armenia regards as a national hero, with Hitler’s Germany during the World War II at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Ashgabat.

The importance of this pressure could be better understood when we also consider the problems in Russian-Armenian relations during the Pashinyan period.

In the previous years, while the European institutions did not show any sensitivity to Crimea, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia on Karabakh, recently their attitude has changed. They have started to support the solution of the Karabakh issue within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

During March and April, many international organizations and the states, including Turkey, condemned the illegal elections in the occupied territories.

Attempt to divert attention from occupied territories

Also, the illegal activities of Armenia in the occupied territories were condemned in the joint declaration of the representatives of the South Caucasus of the European Parliament.

Armenia was held responsible for the occupation. Of course, when these developments exerted pressure on Armenia, it tried to divert attention from the occupied region to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border with its latest action. It also tried to put blame on Azerbaijan for the attacks in Tovuz. But did not succeed.

The latest attack also stems from Armenia’s desire to seek political and military support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), because the country has been pinched by the political isolation and its military incompetence in recent years.

Since the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the Minsk Group have not produced any result, Azerbaijan took great care to increase its military strength during Ilham Aliyev’s period. As a result, Azerbaijan has gained an upper hand over Armenia in terms of armaments. Azerbaijan proved its military superiority in the four-day battle in April 2016.

Also, Armenia’s isolation has increased in recent years due to the increased support of international organizations to Azerbaijan. For instance, Azerbaijan was elected as a provisional member of the UN Security Council in 2011-2012.

Then at the summit meeting held in Baku in 2019, Azerbaijan was elected president of the unconnected group of which it was a member in 2011. The unconnected group has adopted all declarations supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan against the occupation of Armenia in recent years.

Further, Azerbaijan, a founding member of the Turkic Council, was elected its president in 2019. In all seven summit-level talks, the Turkic Council adopted declarations supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

In March and April, the illegal elections were held in the occupied Azerbaijani territories with the support of the new Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan. These elections were condemned by many international organizations and states, notably by Turkey.

In short, despite the attempts of Armenia to introduce Azerbaijan as the “violent and disreputable state”, Azerbaijan has only extended its influence in the international arena. It gained wider support in its favour on the issue of the conflict with Armenia.

The isolation has made Yerevan more violent. It tried to use the CSTO, of which Armenia is among the member states to garner support. Since the occupied territories of Azerbaijan are not included in the mandate of the CSTO, the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, that is, the region where the recent attacks took place, is within the mandate of the CSTO.

CSTO also did not support Armenia

On July 12, the foreign minister of Armenia requested an emergency meeting of the CSTO in a telephonic conversation with its secretary-general. Although CSTO first decided to call the meeting but then postponed without mentioning any date.

For these reasons, Azerbaijani authorities have described the recent attack by Armenia as a provocation. In other words, since the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is within the jurisdiction of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Azerbaijan does not want to blow the conflict lest it hurts the TRNC.

A few years ago, Azerbaijan withdrew its army from parts of this region and instead deployed border guards. Therefore, Armenia to gain both the military and political support of the CSTO, attacked the border, instead of the front line.

There are two reasons why the CSTO did not support Armenia openly. First of all, the Pashinyan administration opposed the election of the current secretary-general of the CSTO and disrupted the activity of the organization for over a long time.

The second reason is the relationship that Azerbaijan has developed with the members of the CSTO in recent years. Belarus sold the Polonez missile system to Azerbaijan despite protests by Yerevan. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as members of the Turkic Council, have always supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan against the occupation of Armenia.

Armenia isolated

Following the attack in Tovuz, Turkey, Ukraine, Pakistan, and Moldova issued statements supporting Azerbaijan. The secretary-general of the Turkish Council also condemned the Armenian attacks and supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan against the occupation of Armenia.

There has been no statement of support to Armenia not even from its so-called allies, except for the Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA). Ukrainian support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan led to the attacks on its embassy in Yerevan.

The Armenian administration was also engaged in a diplomatic game to cobble up support from countries against Turkey. However, it did not succeed, because Azerbaijan’s efforts of isolating Armenia had come to fruition here as well.

Armenia also used the CSTO to start confrontation between Turkey and Russia, as it does not want their relations to normalize. Because it cannot benefit from Russia if its relations remain normal with Turkey. It also tried to project Turkey not only against Russia but also against the CSTO.

By Cavid Veliyev. Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The EurAsian Times

Read original article here.

[ladystylestores]

George Floyd: Trump told to back off Seattle’s Chaz police-free zone

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Demonstrators are effectively in charge of a district of Seattle

State authorities in the north-western US state of Washington have hit back after President Donald Trump threatened to “take back” a police-free district controlled by protesters in Seattle.

Governor Jay Inslee said Mr Trump should stay out of the state’s business, and Seattle’s mayor said any invasion of the city would be illegal.

Police abandoned a precinct there on Monday after days of clashes.

Mr Trump said the area had been overtaken by “domestic terrorists”.

Since police withdrew, demonstrations in the area have been largely peaceful.

It has been called Chaz, an abbreviation of Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Hundreds of people have been gathering there to demonstrate, hear speeches and attend events.

The protests in Seattle, Washington began in response to last month’s death in police custody of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

President Trump, who has pushed states to take firm action against protesters, has meanwhile outlined proposals for reforming police, including greater funding for training and national guidelines on the use of force.

However, he dismissed calls for defunding the police as an “extreme agenda”. Such a measure involves budgets being allocated directly to communities rather than law enforcement.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Hundreds of protesters have gathered in the Chaz

How did the Chaz come about?

The area around East Precinct in Seattle became a battleground between protesters and police in the past two weeks, leading the governor to send in the National Guard and for the mayor to impose a curfew.

During the violence, demonstrators threw petrol bombs and other missiles at police, cars were torched and looting broke out, according to local media.

At the weekend, Seattle police used tear gas and flash bangs to disperse protesters. Members of the city council rebuked the police department, accusing them of heavy-handed tactics.

Then on Monday, the mayor ordered barricades removed near the precinct and the police building was boarded up.

Since then protesters have taken over a zone spanning about six blocks of Capitol Hill, a hub of the city’s trendy arts scene that has been gentrified in recent years as tech workers drive up property prices.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Protesters have hung a sign over the Seattle Police Department’s now-closed East Precinct

Local media describe a festival-like atmosphere, with poetry readings, music and movie nights. Free fizzy water, snacks, sunscreen and hand sanitiser are available.

While the protesters say they are leaderless, armed volunteers have been spotted at checkpoints asking for the ID of people entering.

What did Trump say about Chaz?

In a series of tweets, the Republican president lashed out at liberal Democratic leaders in the north-western US state of Washington and its most populous city of Seattle.

“Take back your city NOW,” Mr Trump wrote on Thursday. “If you don’t do it, I will.”

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Protesters in the Chaz have created a memorial of George Floyd and others

In another tweet, he said “Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle”, saying Washington Governor Jay Inslee was “looking ‘the fool'”.

Mr Inslee tweeted back: “A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business.”

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan defended the right to protest and told President Trump: “Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker.”

“The threat to invade Seattle, to divide and incite violence in our city, is not only unwelcome, it would be illegal,” she added.

What could Trump do?

Earlier this month, when protests were spreading across the US, Mr Trump threatened to send in the US Army if state governors – who oversee law and order – were unable to guarantee safety and secure property on their streets.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media caption“Keep pushing”: Washington DC protesters on keeping the momentum going

This would involve invoking the Insurrection Act, a 19th Century law which includes details of circumstances when the government in Washington DC can intervene without state authorisation.

The act says the approval of governors is not required when the president determines the situation in a state makes it impossible to enforce US laws, or when citizens’ rights are threatened.

This law was last invoked in 1992 during riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers charged with assaulting black motorist Rodney King, but on that occasion the governor of California requested help.

The law was used throughout the 1950s and 60s during the civil rights era by three different presidents. On some of these occasions there were objections from state governors.

How do police see it?

Police say they want to reopen the precinct and it is unclear how long the autonomous zone will remain.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Assistant Chief Deanna Nollette said the police department had been abandoned because of threats that it would be vandalised or burned. She said the protesters’ barricades were intimidating some residents.

Police Chief Carmen Best posted a video message to officers in which she said the police withdrawal “seems like an insult to you and our community”.

On Thursday afternoon the police chief said claims that citizens and businesses were being extorted in the zone were not true and had been based on anecdotal evidence from news and social media.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Artists painted the words ‘Black Lives Matters’ on a street in the Chaz

Ms Best said call response times in the area served by East Precinct are normally between 5-18 minutes, but are now taking almost an hour, reports local Komo News.

She said this means police are not able to respond to reports of assaults, rapes and robberies.

More on George Floyd’s death

US protests timeline

25 May 2020

Image caption Tributes to George Floyd at a makeshift memorial Image copyright by Getty Images

George Floyd dies after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Footage shows a white officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for several minutes while he is pinned to the floor. Mr Floyd is heard repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe”. He is pronounced dead later in hospital.

26 May

Image caption Demonstrators in Minneapolis Image copyright by AFP

Four officers involved in the arrest of George Floyd are fired. Protests begin as the video of the arrest is shared widely on social media. Hundreds of demonstrators take to the streets of Minneapolis and vandalise police cars and the police station with graffiti.

27 May

Image caption Protesters lie on the streets in Portland, Oregon Image copyright by Reuters

Protests spread to other cities including Memphis and Los Angeles. In some places, like Portland, Oregon, protesters lie in the road, chanting “I can’t breathe”. Demonstrators again gather around the police station in Minneapolis where the officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest were based and set fire to it. The building is evacuated and police retreat.

28 May

Image caption President Trump tweets about the unrest Image copyright by Reuters

President Trump blames the violence on a lack of leadership in Minneapolis and threatens to send in the National Guard in a tweet.  He follows it up in a second tweet with a warning “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. The second tweet is hidden by Twitter for “glorifying violence”.

29 May

Image caption Members of a CNN crew are arrested at a protest Image copyright by Reuters

A CNN reporter, Omar Jimenez, is arrested while covering the Minneapolis protest. Mr Jimenez was reporting live when police officers handcuffed him. A few minutes later several of his colleagues are also arrested. They are all later released once they are confirmed to be members of the media.

Derek Chauvin charged with murder

Image caption Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin after being charged over the death of George Floyd Image copyright by Getty Images

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, 44, is charged with murder and manslaughter. The charges carry a combined maximum 35-year sentence.

31 May

Image caption Demonstrators set fire to rubbish in New York Image copyright by Reuters

Violence spreads across the US on the sixth night of protests. A total of at least five people are reported killed in protests from Indianapolis to Chicago. More than 75 cities have seen protests. At least 4,400 people have been arrested.  Curfews are imposed across the US to try to stem the unrest.

1 June

Image caption Trump posing with a Bible outside a boarded-up church Image copyright by EPA

President Trump threatens to send in the military to quell growing civil unrest. He says if cities and states fail to control the protests and “defend their residents” he will deploy the army and “quickly solve the problem for them”. Mr Trump poses in front of a damaged church shortly after police used tear gas to disperse peaceful protesters nearby.

2 June

Image caption George Floyd’s family joined protesters in Houston Image copyright by Getty

Tens of thousands of protesters again take to the streets. One of the biggest protests is in George Floyd’s hometown of Houston, Texas. Many defy curfews in several cities, but the demonstrations are largely peaceful.

4 June

Image caption Mourners gather to remember George Floyd Image copyright by Getty

A memorial service for George Floyd is held in Minneapolis.  Those gathered in tribute stand in silence for eight minutes, 46 seconds, the amount of time Mr Floyd is alleged to have been on the ground under arrest. Hundreds attended the service, which heard a eulogy from civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton.

7 June

Image caption Protester addresses crowds in Australia Image copyright by Getty

As the US saw another weekend of protests, with tens of thousands marching in Washington DC, anti-racism demonstrations were held around the world.

In Australia, there were major protests in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that focused on the treatment of indigenous Australians. There were also demonstrations in France, Germany, Spain and the UK. In Bristol, protesters tore down the statue of a 17th century slave trader and threw it into the harbour.

9 June

Image caption Pallbearers bring the coffin into the church Image copyright by Getty

A funeral service for George Floyd is held in Houston, Mr Floyd’s home town. Just over two weeks after his death in Minneapolis and worldwide anti-racism protests, about 500 guests invited by the Floyd family are in attendance at the Fountain of Praise Church.  Many more gather outside to show their support.

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[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: With $3.6 Billion in New Defense Department Funding, President Trump Continues His Plan to Build the Border Wall With Military Money

The Pentagon plans to tap into $3.6 billion in funding set aside for military construction projects and instead funnel it toward building a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico helping to make good President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Tuesday signed off to reallocate the money from 127 different projects — typically intended for building construction, maintenance and repair — located inside and outside the United States and instead pay for 175 miles of border wall, Pentagon officials said.

With the decision, the Defense Department is now planning to divert at least $6.1 billion toward building 295 miles of wall since Trump declares an emergency on the border in February. The Army Corps of Engineers is now beginning a contracting process for construction companies to bid on building barriers, both new and refurbished, across stretches of the southwestern United States.

“It’s a combination of areas of where there was no barrier previously and areas where we’re replacing existing, older, less capable barrier,” Kenneth Rapuano, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security, told reporters at the Pentagon.

The official list of projects getting funding diverted was not made public, pending notification to lawmakers and diplomats whose regions are expected to be impacted. Both Democrats and Republicans have been critical of reallocating such funds out of fears that projects in their home states will be targeted. Pentagon officials began informing Congressional members to detail the plans to raid the funding, about half of which will come from construction projects inside the states and half will come from projects outside.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters the money would not be taken from “family housing, barracks or dormitory projects.”

Still it will be tricky to launch construction in all parts of the border. Some of the area is private while other areas go through federal land. The easiest place to build is along military property like the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range in Arizona. But even then, the soonest that construction could begin is three months or more, Pentagon officials said.

The U.S. military’s border mission, which began almost a year ago, is now expected to last well into 2020 and perhaps beyond, the officials said. There are now about 5,700 troops, including 2,000 members of the National Guard, deployed along the southwest border. U.S. troops have welded coils of razor wire atop border fences and points of entry with Mexico in California, Arizona and Texas. They have coated parts of the fence with “anti-climb” paint. They also operate telescopic video cameras, known as “Mobile Surveillance Cameras,” in all nine border Patrol Sectors in each of the four states bordering Mexico. The devices are armed with infrared cameras, enabling troops to watch for illegal border crossings to operate day or night.

The Defense Department has already approved $2.5 billion toward more than 120 miles of barrier construction requested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the El Paso, Texas, and Yuma and Tucson, Ariz. sectors.

Earlier this year, Congress gave Trump funding to build 55 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but Trump declared a national emergency — a move aimed at accessing $6.7 billion in federal funding without receiving Congressional approval. That decision was widely seen as a last-ditch “nuclear option,” and has since sparked legal challenges and rattled the balance of power in the federal government. So far this year, only replacement barrier has been built, not the wall Trump promised on the 2016 campaign trail.

At the Defense Department, officials have played what amounts to a bureaucratic shell game to get the other $2.5 billion for the wall. The Pentagon took leftover money that had been allocated for military personnel and transferred it into a counter-drug account, a move that gave the military authority to take measures to support federal law enforcement efforts to stop drug trafficking, like building a wall.

The Sierra Club, American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Border Communities Coalition are currently challenging the decision in the courts. However, the Supreme Court said last month in a 5-4 vote that wall construction can continue while the federal appeals process plays out.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Trump administration “is trying to circumvent Congressional authority” and said the action should struck down by the courts. “If it stands, future Presidents will make similar end-runs to try and tap defense dollars for anything a President wants to label a ‘national emergency,’” Reed said, adding: “With this move, President Trump is short-changing our troops and taxpayers and forcing them to bear the burden of his broken, preposterous campaign promise.”

The U.S. military has been forbidden to take part in domestic law enforcement since the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. Service members can only assist, and that’s exactly what they have done since Trump directed the military to support DHS on the border more than a year ago. The Defense Department has approved multiple DHS requests, including for providing aerial reconnaissance, ground surveillance, search and rescue support, medical support, engineering support, helicopter transportation, personnel protection and other needs.

The Department of Defense said last week it has obligated about $450 million for active duty and National Guard deployments to the southwest border in support of DHS, in addition to the $2.5 billion for the border wall.

By W.J. Hennigan and Brian Bennett on September 03, 2019 at 08:43PM

[hexenmeisterer]

Tuesday, January 8, will be an international day of solidarity with Wet'suwet'en guarding their territory against the TransCanada pipeline.

Recent update from the Wet’suwet’en facebook page: Yesterday, members of the RCMP’s Aboriginal Police Liaison met with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and indicated that specially trained tactical forces will be deployed to forcibly remove Wet’suwet’en people from sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory. Police refused to provide any details of their operation to the Dini’ze and Tsake’ze (hereditary chiefs) including the number of officers moving in, the method of forcible removal, or the timing of deployment. By rejecting the requests for information by the Dini’ze and Tsake’ze the RCMP indicated that they intend to surprise and overwhelm the Wet’suwet’en people who are protecting their territories on the ground.

The RCMP’s ultimatum, to allow TransCanada access to unceded Wet’suwet’en territory or face police invasion, is an act of war. Despite the lip service given to “Truth and Reconciliation”, Canada is now attempting to do what it has always done - criminalize and use violence against indigenous people so that their unceded homelands can be exploited for profit.

The RCMP were advised that there are children, elders, and families visiting and present at the Gidimt’en Access Point, to which they did not respond. Since it was established, the Gidimt’en Access Point has hosted gatherings, workshops, and traditional activities for Wet’suwet’en, and provided an essential space for Wet’suwet’en to reconnect with their traditional territories.

Article 10 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples clearly states “Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their land or territories.” Any removal of Wet’suwet’en peoples by the RCMP, or any other authoritarian forces, will directly violate UNDRIP and the Trudeau government’s promise to implement UNDRIP. We are now preparing for a protracted struggle. The hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en and the land defenders holding the front lines have no intention of allowing Wet’suwet’en sovereignty to be violated. In plain language, the threat made by RCMP to invade Wet’suwet’en territories is a violation of human rights, a siege, and an extension of the genocide that Wet’suwet’en have survived since contact.

Canada knows that its own actions are illegal. The Wet’suwet’en fought for many years in the Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa court case to have their sovereignty recognized and affirmed by Canadian law. In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Wet’suwet’en people, as represented by their hereditary leaders, had not given up rights and title to 22,000km2 of Northern British Columbia. Knowing that further litigation would be prohibitively expensive to Indigenous plaintiffs (and that pipeline construction could be completed before any significant legal issues could be further resolved) TransCanada and the provincial and federal governments are openly violating this landmark ruling.

The creation of the Gidimt’en Checkpoint was announced in the Wet’suwet’en feast hall, with the support of all chiefs present. Under ‘Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law) all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals. TransCanada lawyers have argued that the Unist’ot’en are essentially a rogue group without a rightful claim to Aboriginal title. The Gidimt’en intervention shows that the Unist’ot’en are not alone, and that the hereditary chiefs of all clans are prepared to uphold Wet’suwet’en law in refusing CGL access.

The Wet’suwet’en have laid out a path toward the implementation of UNDRIP, and the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent requirement of international law. Canada has chosen to ignore this path toward reconciliaiton. We call on all people of conscience to act in solidarity through an international day of action on Tuesday, January 8th, 2019.

Support the Wet’suwet’en by offering physical support to the camps, monetary or material donation, or by taking action where you stand. We are conducting peaceful actions as sovereign peoples on our territories, and ask that all actions taken in solidarity are conducted peacefully and according to the traditional laws of other Indigenous Nations. Forcible trespass onto Wet’suwet’en territories and the removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands must be stopped. Provincial and federal governments must be confronted.

- Gidimt’en Access Point

To donate: https://www.gofundme.com/gitdumt039en-access-point

For our guiding principals on how to support, and a fact sheet on the Gidimt’en Access Point, visit: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=225163691762758&id=212798726332588

[samwinchestersleftshoe]

things other than covid-19

Jan-Dec in chronological order

Jan: Australian wildfires. Qassem Suleimani, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force is killed in a US airstrike. Prince Harry & Meghan Markle step back from royal duties. The US house of representatives vote to sent articles of impeachment(abuse of power and obstruction of Congress) against Trump to the US Senate. Kobe Bryant and his 13 yr old daughter Gianna as well as 7 others perish in a helicopter crash. the UK withdraws from the European Union, making Brexit official(actual separation will occur Dec 31st). 

citations

Feb: Impeachment shadows Trump’s State of the Union address; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tears up a copy of his speech. The Senate acquits Trump of abuse the power of his office+obstructing Congress’ investigation into his conduct. Actor Kirk Douglass dies at age 103. Trump Fires EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland and National Security Council advisor LT. Col. Alexander Vindman, both whom testified against trump during the impeachment trial. Boy Scouts of America seeks bankruptcy protection under wave of child abuse claims. Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by a white father and son while jogging in Georgia; the two men are arrested 2 1/2 months later and charged with felony murder+assault. Bob Iger steps down at Walt Disney Co. after 15 yrs on the job; Bob Capek is named new CEO. Former VP Joe Biden wins the South Carolina Democratic primary, reigniting his presidential campaign. 

citations

March: Pete Buttigieg drops out of the US presidential race. Joe Biden leads the primary with victories in 10 states on Super Tuesday. Former NY mayor Michael Bloomberg drops out of US pres race. MA Sen. Elizabeth Warren drops out of US pres race. Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 23 yrs in prison for r*pe and sexual assault. Breonna Taylor is shot and killed in her home in Louisville, KY by police serving a narcotics warrant in search of suspected drug dealer. The Dow Jones industrial average falls by 2,997.10, the largest single-day drop ever. PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts counts of involuntary manslaughter over the 2018 Camp Fire. 

citations

April: Bernie Sanders drops out of US pres race, paving the way for Joe Biden to win Democratic nomination. 

citation

May: The US faces invasion of murder hornets which threaten domestic bees. The US Justice Department drops charges against former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Gregory and Travis McMichael are charged with murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in GA. William Bryan, the man who filmed Ahmaud Arbery’s death is charged with murder as well. Minneapolis police officer is filmed while pressing his knee on the neck of George Floyd for 8 minutes, killing him, as three other officers stand by. Video of Floyd’s death go viral; 4 officers are fired the next day. Minneapolis-St. Paul protests over death of George Floyd and racial injustice spread nationwide. Fired Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is charged with third degree murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd; the Minnesota attorney general increases the charge to second degree murder on June 3. Charges against the 3 other officers are filed. A state of emergency is declared in Los Angeles County and city of Los Angeles because of protests over the death of George Floyd and racial injustice. Curfews are declared in Philadelphia and Atlanta. 

June: Trump threatens to deploy US troops to quell protests across the country and subsequently stages a photo-op at St John’s Episcopal Church after federal officers and other lay enforcement personnel forcefully clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square in front of the White House. Washington D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser designated a section of 16th street NW as a Black Lives Matter Plaza. Protesters in Seattle declare an “autonomous zone” in the city’s Capitol Hill area. Protests in Atlanta start after the killing of Rayshard Brooks by a police officer in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. The US Supreme Court rules that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate because of a person’s sex, also covers sexual orientation. The Trump administration asks a federal judge to block publication of former national security adviser John Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” The effort fails. Trump holds his first 2020 campaign rally in months in Tulsa, OK. A lower than expected attendance makes headlines. Following a vote by the state legislature, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signs a bill that retires the official state, flag - the last state flag incorporating the Confederate battle flag in its design.  

July: The FBI arrests Ghislaine Maxwell on charges she helped lure at least three girls to be sexually abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstien. The Supreme Court rejects claims of presidential immunity and rules Trump must release his financial records to prosecutors in NY. CA officials announce that as many as 8k prisoners could be released ahead of schedule in an unprecedented attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19 inside state prisons. Trump commutes the 40-month sentence of his political advisor Roger Stone. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper issues a memorandum to the military on the appropriate display of flags - excluding the Confederate battle flag and essentially banning it. Oregon Atty. Gen. Ellen Rosenblum files suit against the federal government, accusing it of unlawfully detaining protesters in Portland. Trump announces a “surge” of federal officers into Democratic-run cities, following a crackdown on protests in Portland OR. TV personality Regis Philbin dies at 88. Trump suggests the 2020 presidential election be delayed, saying increased voting by mail could lead to fraud. 

Aug: Firefighters continue to battle the Apple fire that burned 20,000 acres in Cherry Valley and surrounding areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, destroying one home and prompting evacuations of thousands of others. Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar pleads not guilty to bribery, money laundering and an array f other charges, his first public response to the allegations in the corruption inquiry since prosecutors began, securing guilty pleas from others in the case. As California grapples with a barrage of requests for unemployment benefits amid the pandemic, some state workers processing claims say they are hampered by outdated technology, bureaucratic red tape and a shortage of trained, experienced staff. More than 400,000 people, most without face masks and who don’t follow social distancing guidelines, participate in activities related to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. Joe Biden announces Sen. Kamala Harries of California as his VP running mate, the first WOC to appear on a major party’s presidential ticket. Plans are announced by the US Postal Service(USPS) to remove hundreds of high-volume mail-processing machines from postal facilities across the country. Thunderstorms trigger hundreds of wildfires in California, prompting evacs as a record-breaking heat wave taxes the state’s powergrid. The SCU Lighting Complex fires start, affecting several Bay Area counties. Almost 400, 000 acres are burned, making it the third largest wildfire in Cali history. The August Complex fire starts in Northern Cali; by Sept 9 it becomes the largest fire in Cali history, burning more than 1 million acres. Death Valley hits 130 degrees, thought to be the highest temperature on Earth in nearly a century.  Spurred by concerns that Trump is trying to get rid of the USPS to help him win the re-election, Speaker Nancy Pelosi summons House members back to Washington to pass a bill aimed at rolling back admin cutbacks that could cripple widespread mail-in-voting. The LNU Lightning Complex fires start and last for several weeks, scorching more than 350,000 acres in several wince country counties, including Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Lake and Yolo. NBCUniversal ousts longtime Universal studio executive Ron Meyer after learning he made hush-money payments to a woman to cover up an old affair - a secret that Meyer said snowballed into an extortion plot. Apple becomes first US company to be valued at more than $2 trillion. Former trump advisor Stephen K Bannon is arrested and charged with fraud over a private fundraising campaign to build a border wall. Wildfires ringing the Bay Area and other parts of the state kill at least five people, destroy more than 500 structures and scorch hundreds of square miles as evacs expand. A Sacramento County judge sentences the Golden State Killer, 74-yr-old Joseph James DeAngelo Jr to life without parole for killing 13 people and r*ping 50 in a series of break-ins that terrorized the state for decades. Protests break out in Kenosha, WI after the shooting of 29-yr-old Jacob Blake by a police officer. The RNC is held in Charlotte NC, and Wash. Trump and VP Mike Pence are formally nominated as the GOP’s 2020 pres ticket. Two people are shot and killed during unrest in Kenosha, I; a suspect is arrested. Soon after, prof. athletes start to boycott their sports to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. Actor Chadwick Boseman dies at age 43 at previously undisclosed battle with colon cancer. 

Sept: Famiy members+activists demand that the LA County Sheriff’s Department release the names of the deputies who shot and killed Dijon Kizzee, a black man, in the South LA neighborhood of Westmont on Aug 31. The El Dorado fire erupts in San Bernardino Country, sparked by pyrotechnics that were part of a gender reveal party. CA sets new record for destruction by wildfires, with 2.1 million acres burning. The temp in Woodland Hills soars to 121 degrees, an all-time high in LA County. Ore. wildfires start amid severe drought and severe winds; by the end of Oct, more than 1 million acres will burn, more than 4,000 homes will be destroyed, and at least 10 people will be killed. More than .5 million people in Ore., more than 10% of the state’s population, are reported to be fleeing wildfires. 2 LA County sheriff’s deputies are shot and critically injured while sitting in their patrol car near the Compton Metro station; the agency’s response to the attack raises alarm among some activists, lawmakers and Sheriff’s Department watchdogs. The confirmed death toll from Cali’s unprecedented wildfires rises to 25 as crews work to stop two dozen major blazes still burning statewide. Long-serving Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87. Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. election. A Kentucky grand jury brings no charges against Louisville police in the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong. Trump chooses Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to fill Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. Several attendees at the nomination ceremony at the White House Rose Garden will later test positive for COVID-19. The New York Times reports on more than 20 yrs worth of Trump’s personal and tax returns; among the revelations: He paid $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and again in 2017. The Glass fire in Northern CA ignites just before 4 a.m. and quickly balloons to 40,000 acres in two days. It burns in Napa and Sonoma counties and is the fourth major fire to hit the region since the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa in 2017. Deadly clashes break out in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. Shouting, insults and misinformation, mostly by Trump, dominate the first presidential debate.

Oct: The Cali Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reports that state wildfires burned nearly 4 million acres, killed 31 people and destroyed more than 8,200 structures. For the first time in Cali history, a ballot will make its way in the mail this week to every registered Cali voter. Eddie Van Halen dies at age 65 after a long battle with cancer. FBI announces that 13 men have been charged in a plot to kidnap Mich Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on a cease-fire in the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Rick Jacobs, a top political advisor to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, says he will “take a leave” from his work with Garcetti amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Less than seven months after Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman launched Quibi to remake the business of short-form video, the nascent streaming service announces it is shutting down.The Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court associate justice on a party-line vote, 52 to 48.

Nov: California largely breezes through election day; nationwide, it’s a different story. After midnight, Trump announces he has won the election and demands that all vote counting stop, alleging voter fraud, but with millions of votes still to be counted, no news organizations declare a presidential winner. Trump continues his attack on the voting system as he joins several lawsuits aiming at stopping vote counts in Pa, Ga and Mich. Cali ballot measure campaign season ends with voters granting companies such as Uber and Lyft the right to keep their drivers as independent contractors but rejecting a plan to expand rent control to more homes and communities.  LA voters upend the political status quo by backing a slate of progressive candidates and measures in the Nov. 3 election. Among the victors is George Gascón, former San Fran district attorney, who defeated L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey. After days of waiting, major news organizations declare that Joe Biden has secured enough electoral college votes to win the presidency. “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, 80, dies following a battle with pancreatic cancer. President Trump uses Twitter to announce that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has been fired. Hurricane Lota makes landfall in Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm, just two weeks after Hurricane Eta hit, devastating the same areas. Trump escalates his attempts to overturn Biden’s election victory, pushing for judges and Republican state lawmakers and local officials in several battleground states to ignore voters’ verdicts and award him the electoral votes he needs for a second term. Ga Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certifies President-elect Biden’s win and the results of all the other races in the state. After 2-week standoff, Emily Murphy, General Services Admin head, reverses course and allows President-elect Biden’s team access to required federal resources to start the formal transition process. Trump pardons Michael Flynn, his first national security advisor. Trump says he will leave the White House once Biden is officially declared the winner of the electoral college. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, Iran’s top nuclear scientist assassinated near Tehran. Raymond Chan, a former senior aide to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, has been charged with conspiracy, bribery, fraud and lying to FBI agents in the ongoing federal probe into corruption at City Hall, according to court records made public. The pro bono law firm Public Counsel files a lawsuit against the state of Cali, saying it has failed during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a free and equal education to all students, violating the state Constitution and discriminating against Black, Latino and low-income families.

Dec: Atty. Gen. William Barr says the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. The captain of the Conception, the dive boat that caught fire last year off the coast of Santa Barbara, is indicted by a federal grand jury on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter. Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson, who helped bring the Summer Games to Los Angeles, dies at 86. Universal Music Publishing Group announces it is acquiring Bob Dylan’s entire catalog of songs, which spans 60 years. The Supreme Court rejects a highly unusual lawsuit filed by Tex. that urged the justices to overturn the election result by nullifying President-elect Biden’s victory in four key states: Penn, Mich, Wis and Ga. John le Carre, the author of many bestselling Cold War thrillers, dies at 89. The electoral college confirms Biden’s victory over Trump. The availability of intensive care unit beds throughout Southern Cali hits 0%.

[americanliberation]

“Why are troops turning away from Trump?”

• ⁠In May 2020, the White House ended National Guard deployments one day before they could claim benefits

• ⁠The Trump admin seized 5 million masks intended for VA hospitals. Kushner distributes these masks to private entities for a fee, who then sells the masks to the government

• ⁠Trump fired the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after he warned superiors that COVID19 was spreading among his crew. The virus subsequently spread amongst the crew.

• ⁠After Iran's retaliatory strike, 109 US troops suffered brain injuries. Trump dismissed these as "headaches"

• ⁠On July 20, 2017, in room 2E924 of the Pentagon, Trump told a room full of Generals, "You’re a bunch of dopes and babies"

• ⁠Pardoned multiple war criminals, which stomped on long standing military values, discipline, and command. Trump has no military experience (May&Nov, 2019)

• ⁠Trump mocked Lt. Col. Vindman for his rank and uniform. He threatened said purple heart officer, resulting in the Army providing him protection

• ⁠Trump’s Chief of Staff worked—in secret—to deny comprehensive health coverage to Vietnam Vets who suffered from Agent Orange.

• ⁠There is a facility in Tijuana for US veterans that Trump deported. Wounded war vet, Sen Duckworth (D) marked Veterans Day 2019 by visiting this facility

• ⁠Russia took control of the main U.S. military facility in Syria abandoned on Trump’s orders. Russia now owns the airstrip we built

• ⁠On Oct 7, 2019, Trump abruptly withdrew support from America's allies in Syria after a phone call with Turkey's president (Erdogan). Turkey subsequently bombed US Special Forces.

• ⁠Trump sent thousands of American troops to defend the oil assets of the country that perpetrated 9/11

• ⁠In Sept 2019, he made an Air Force cargo crew, flying from the U.S. to Kuwait stop in Scotland (where there's no U.S. base) to refuel at a commercial airport (where it costs more), so they could stay overnight at a Trump property (which isn't close to the airport). Trump’s golf courses are losing money, so he's forcing the military to pay for 5-star nights there.

• ⁠In Sept, 2019, Pentagon pulled funds for military schools, military housing funds, and daycare to pay for Trump's border wall.

• ⁠In Aug, 2019, emails revealed that three of Trump's Mar-a-Lago pals, who are now running Veterans Affairs, are rampant with meddling. "They had no experience in veterans affairs (none of them even served in the military) nor underwent any kind of approval process to serve as de facto managers. Yet, with Trump’s approval, they directed actions and criticized operations without any oversight. They wasted valuable staff time in hundreds of pages of communications and meetings, emails show. Emails reveal disdainful attitudes within the department to the trio’s meddling."

• ⁠Veterans graves will be "dug up" for the border wall, after Trump instructed aides to seize private property. Trump told officials he would pardon them if they break the law by illegally seizing property

• ⁠Children of deployed US troops are no longer guaranteed citizenship. This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (August 28, 2019)

• ⁠On Aug 2, 2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall

• ⁠On July 31, 2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who were prosecuted war criminals

• ⁠Trump denied a U.S. Marine of 6 years entry into the United States for his citizenship interview (Reported July 17, 2019)

• ⁠Trump made the U.S. Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having them fly at his July 4th political campaign event (July 4, 2019)

• ⁠Trump demanded US military chiefs stand next to him at 4th of July parade (reported July 2, 2019)

• ⁠In June, 2019, Trump sent troops to the border to paint the fence for a better "aesthetic appearance"

• ⁠Trump used his D-Day interview at a cemetery commemorating fallen US soldiers to attack a Vietnam veteran (June 6, 2019)

• ⁠Trump started his D-Day commemoration speech by attacking a private citizen (Bette Midler, of all people) (reported on June 4th, 2019)

• ⁠Trump made his 2nd wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have cut off all child support if Tiffany joined the military (reported June 4th, 2019)

• ⁠On May 27, 2019, Trump turned away US military from his Memorial Day speech because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain

• ⁠Trump ordered the USS John McCain out of sight during his visit to Japan (May 15, 2019). The ship's name was subsequently covered. (May 27, 2019)

• ⁠Trump purged 200,000 vets' healthcare applications (due to known administrative errors within VA’s enrollment system) (reported on May 13, 2019)

• ⁠Trump deported a spouse of fallen Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless (April 16, 2019)

• ⁠On March 20, 2019, Trump complained that a deceased war hero didn't thank him for his funeral

• ⁠Between 12/22/2018, and 1/25/2019, Trump refused to sign his party's funding bill, which shut down the government, forcing the Coast Guard to go without pay, which made service members rely on food pantries. However, his appointees got a $10,000 pay raise

• ⁠He banned service members from serving based on gender identity (1/22/2019)

• ⁠He denied female troops access to birth control to limit sexual activity (on-going. Published Jan 18, 2019)

• ⁠He tried to deport a marine vet who is a U.S.-born citizen (Jan 16, 2019)

• ⁠When a man was caught swindling veterans pensions for high-interest “cash advances," Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him $1 (Jan 26, 2019)

• ⁠He called a retired general a 'dog' with a 'big, dumb mouth' (Jan 1, 2019)

• ⁠He increased privatization of the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer cost (2018)

• ⁠He finally visited troops 2 years after taking office, but only after 154 vacation days at his properties (Dec 26, 2018)

• ⁠He revealed a covert Seal Team 5 deployment, including names and faces, on Twitter during his visit to Iraq (Dec 26, 2018)

• ⁠Trump lied to deployed troops that he gave them a 10% raise (12/26/2018). He tried giving the military a raise that was lower than the standard living adjustment. Congress told him that idea wasn't going to work. Then after giving them the raise that Congress made him, he lied about it pretending that it was larger than Obama's. It wasn't.

• ⁠He fired service members living with HIV just before the 2018 holidays

��� ⁠He tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans to $0, and eliminate the unemployability extrascheduler rating (Dec 17, 2018)

• ⁠He called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he's most thankful for himself (Thanksgiving, 2018)

• ⁠He urged Florida to not count deployed military votes (Nov 12, 2018)

• ⁠He canceled an Arlington Cemetery visit on Veterans Day due to light rain (Nov 12, 2018)

• ⁠While in Europe commemorating the end of WWI, he didn't attend the ceremony at a US cemetery due to the rain -- other world leaders went anyway (Nov 10, 2018)

• ⁠He used troops as a political prop by sending them on a phantom mission to the border and made them miss Thanksgiving with their families (Oct-Dec, 2018)

• ⁠He stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the election. However, the troops remained in muddy camps on the border (Nov 7, 2018)

• ⁠Trump changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act, causing the VA to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances. This caused many vets to run out of food and rent. (reported October 7, 2018)

• ⁠Trump doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections (July 5, 2018)

• ⁠Trump deported active-duty spouses (11,800 military families face this problem as of April 2018)

• ⁠He forgot a fallen soldier's name (below) during a call to his pregnant widow, then attacked her the next day (Oct 23-24, 2017)

• ⁠He sent commandos into an ambush due to a lack of intel, and sends contractors to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind, tortured, and executed. (Trump approved the mission because Bannon told him Obama didn't have the guts to do it) (Oct 4, 2017)

• ⁠He blocked a veteran group on Twitter (June 2017)

• ⁠He ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records (2017-present)

• ⁠He deported veterans (2017-present)

• ⁠He said he knows more about ISIS than American generals (Oct 2016)

• ⁠On Oct 3, 2016, Trump said vets get PTSD because they aren't strong (note: yes, he said it's 'because they aren't strong.' He didn't say it's 'because they're weak.' This distinction is important because of Snopes)

• ⁠Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a fan at one of his rallies and said: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.” (Aug 2, 2016)

• ⁠Trump attacks Gold Star families: Myeshia Johnson (gold star widow), Khan family (gold star parents) etc. (2016-present)

• ⁠Trump sent funds raised from a Jan 2016 veterans benefit to the Donald J Trump Foundation instead of veterans charities (the foundation has since been ordered shut because of fraud) (Jan, 2016)

• ⁠Trump said he has "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military" because he went to a military-style academy (2015 biography)

• ⁠Trump said he doesn't consider POWs heroes because they were caught. He said he prefers people who were not caught (July 18, 2015)

• ⁠Trump said having unprotected sex was his own personal Vietnam (1998)

• ⁠For a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans off of Fifth Avenue because he found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower. 1991

• ⁠Trump dodged the draft 5 times by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs.

• ⁠No Trump in America has ever served in the military; this spans 5 generations, and every branch of the family tree. In fact, the reason his grandfather immigrated to America was to avoid military service.” -  Patrick Farley

[armeniaitn]

India-China Standoff: Chinese Troops Attacked Indian Soldiers To Distract Modi-Government From ...

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/india-china-standoff-chinese-troops-attacked-indian-soldiers-to-distract-modi-government-from-39025-23-07-2020/

India-China Standoff: Chinese Troops Attacked Indian Soldiers To Distract Modi-Government From ...

Clashes along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border on July 12-14 not only triggered widespread international condemnation but also highlighted Yerevan’s desperation to divert world attention from occupied territories.

According to Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, army officers and soldiers of their country were killed when the Armenian army suddenly attacked their positions with mortars and howitzers.

Reacting strongly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar condemned the Armenian attacks and sided with Azerbaijan.

The deputies of Turkish political parties in the Grand National Assembly be that ruling AK Party or opposition CHP, MHP, and IYI Party, signed a joint statement, condemning the Armenian attack and said that the issue concerned the national interests of Turkey.

Armenia continues to occupy 20% of the territory of neighbouring Azerbaijan for over the past 26 years. Mediation efforts by the Minsk Group, which consists of Russia, the US, and France, to resolve the problem have so far come a cropper. For this reason, there are constant clashes in the occupied areas, manly on the front line.

The most violent of these occurred in April 2016, when Azerbaijan took control of the key strategic points. On the other hand, there is a general dissatisfaction in Azerbaijan with the diplomatic parleys conducted by the Minsk Group. Even though Azerbaijan wanted Turkey also to join the Minsk triumvirate, Armenia opposed the move.

Not only the authorities, but also the public, are tired of the Minsk Group’s endless diplomatic negotiations, and the voices that the war is the only solution are becoming louder. Especially after the conflict in Tovuz, dominant voices at a meeting held to commemorate martyrs in Baku said the idea of ‘Karabakh can only be saved through war.

While the attention of the Azerbaijani state and society was focused on the diplomatic and military options to liberate the occupied Azerbaijani territory, the recent attack carried out by Armenia far from the occupied territory is have varied objectives. Analysts are debating why the attack was not carried out from the occupied territory but from the border.

The conflict took place near the energy corridor

The conflict took place in the Tovuz region, an energy route, close to the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey corridor. Instability in this region has the potential to directly affect the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline, the Southern Gas Natural Gas Pipeline, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.

This strip opens up Turkey to Central Asia and it also gives way to the energy and transportation lines that carry Caspian oil and natural gas to Turkey and then to all over the world. On the one hand, these projects that exclude Armenia are the ones that unite Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey and ensures opening up of the South Caucasus to the world.

In a way, these routes are the lifeline to the economy of Azerbaijan. For this reason, it is believed that the reasons behind the Armenian attack could have been to hurt the Azerbaijani economy. In short, it can be said that the goal of Armenia was to damage the projects that unite Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Another prominent explanation behind the attack is that Armenia is trying to divert world attention from the occupied territories. The recovery of the occupied territories has been topmost priority for Azerbaijan’s foreign policy.

President Ilham Aliyev, along with his ministers and officials are constantly raising the issue in bilateral and multilateral forums. This situation bothers Armenia because Yerevan wants this issue to be put in cold storage and forgotten in order to continue the occupation.

Further, as of late 2019, Azerbaijan has established dominance over Armenia in the diplomatic front. It succeeded to put significant diplomatic pressure on Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Azerbaijan President Aliyev while stating that “Karabakh is Azerbaijan” at the Valdai Forum, highlighted the cooperation of Garegin Njdeh, the person that Armenia regards as a national hero, with Hitler’s Germany during the World War II at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Ashgabat.

The importance of this pressure could be better understood when we also consider the problems in Russian-Armenian relations during the Pashinyan period.

In the previous years, while the European institutions did not show any sensitivity to Crimea, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia on Karabakh, recently their attitude has changed. They have started to support the solution of the Karabakh issue within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

During March and April, many international organizations and the states, including Turkey, condemned the illegal elections in the occupied territories.

Attempt to divert attention from occupied territories

Also, the illegal activities of Armenia in the occupied territories were condemned in the joint declaration of the representatives of the South Caucasus of the European Parliament.

Armenia was held responsible for the occupation. Of course, when these developments exerted pressure on Armenia, it tried to divert attention from the occupied region to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border with its latest action. It also tried to put blame on Azerbaijan for the attacks in Tovuz. But did not succeed.

The latest attack also stems from Armenia’s desire to seek political and military support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), because the country has been pinched by the political isolation and its military incompetence in recent years.

Since the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the Minsk Group have not produced any result, Azerbaijan took great care to increase its military strength during Ilham Aliyev’s period. As a result, Azerbaijan has gained an upper hand over Armenia in terms of armaments. Azerbaijan proved its military superiority in the four-day battle in April 2016.

Also, Armenia’s isolation has increased in recent years due to the increased support of international organizations to Azerbaijan. For instance, Azerbaijan was elected as a provisional member of the UN Security Council in 2011-2012.

Then at the summit meeting held in Baku in 2019, Azerbaijan was elected president of the unconnected group of which it was a member in 2011. The unconnected group has adopted all declarations supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan against the occupation of Armenia in recent years.

Further, Azerbaijan, a founding member of the Turkic Council, was elected its president in 2019. In all seven summit-level talks, the Turkic Council adopted declarations supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

In March and April, the illegal elections were held in the occupied Azerbaijani territories with the support of the new Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan. These elections were condemned by many international organizations and states, notably by Turkey.

In short, despite the attempts of Armenia to introduce Azerbaijan as the “violent and disreputable state”, Azerbaijan has only extended its influence in the international arena. It gained wider support in its favour on the issue of the conflict with Armenia.

The isolation has made Yerevan more violent. It tried to use the CSTO, of which Armenia is among the member states to garner support. Since the occupied territories of Azerbaijan are not included in the mandate of the CSTO, the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, that is, the region where the recent attacks took place, is within the mandate of the CSTO.

CSTO also did not support Armenia

On July 12, the foreign minister of Armenia requested an emergency meeting of the CSTO in a telephonic conversation with its secretary-general. Although CSTO first decided to call the meeting but then postponed without mentioning any date.

For these reasons, Azerbaijani authorities have described the recent attack by Armenia as a provocation. In other words, since the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is within the jurisdiction of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Azerbaijan does not want to blow the conflict lest it hurts the TRNC.

A few years ago, Azerbaijan withdrew its army from parts of this region and instead deployed border guards. Therefore, Armenia to gain both the military and political support of the CSTO, attacked the border, instead of the front line.

There are two reasons why the CSTO did not support Armenia openly. First of all, the Pashinyan administration opposed the election of the current secretary-general of the CSTO and disrupted the activity of the organization for over a long time.

The second reason is the relationship that Azerbaijan has developed with the members of the CSTO in recent years. Belarus sold the Polonez missile system to Azerbaijan despite protests by Yerevan. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as members of the Turkic Council, have always supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan against the occupation of Armenia.

Armenia isolated

Following the attack in Tovuz, Turkey, Ukraine, Pakistan, and Moldova issued statements supporting Azerbaijan. The secretary-general of the Turkish Council also condemned the Armenian attacks and supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan against the occupation of Armenia.

There has been no statement of support to Armenia not even from its so-called allies, except for the Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA). Ukrainian support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan led to the attacks on its embassy in Yerevan.

The Armenian administration was also engaged in a diplomatic game to cobble up support from countries against Turkey. However, it did not succeed, because Azerbaijan’s efforts of isolating Armenia had come to fruition here as well.

Armenia also used the CSTO to start confrontation between Turkey and Russia, as it does not want their relations to normalize. Because it cannot benefit from Russia if its relations remain normal with Turkey. It also tried to project Turkey not only against Russia but also against the CSTO.

By Cavid Veliyev. Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The EurAsian Times

Read original article here.

[hudsonespie]

Maritime Tensions Between Indonesia and China Escalate

[By Greta Nabbs-Keller]

The resurgence of tensions between Indonesia and China in the South China Sea is a development to monitor in 2020, for it has broader implications for the Indo-Pacific region.  

After a relative hiatus in maritime clashes in the last three years, Jakarta lodged an official diplomatic protest to Beijing on December 30 in response to reported territorial violations by up to three China Coast Guard and approximately 63 fishing vessels in Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around the Natuna island chain in late December. China Coast Guard vessels were pursued out of Indonesian waters by Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) corvettes, but reports have indicated the Chinese vessels are still proximate to Indonesian waters and in no hurry to depart.

The Natuna Islands are located in Indonesia’s Riau Islands province, around 1,100 km south of the Spratly Islands. They form the outermost land features of Indonesia’s South China Sea territories, from which its 200 nautical mile EEZ is drawn, and intersect with China’s nine-dash line claim. The waters have been the site of repeated clashes between Indonesian Naval and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) ships with foreign fishing vessels, particularly from Vietnam and China. As a consequence, “Natuna,” as the collective land and water features in the area are referred to simply in Indonesia, are a source of both diplomatic contest and strategic vulnerability.

The sanctity of UNCLOS

For a nation acutely sensitive about its sovereignty, maritime jurisdictional violations and the plundering of fish stocks are a red-button issue for Indonesia. The treaty principles that underpin Indonesia’s legal status as an archipelagic state and which define its expansive maritime jurisdiction are considered almost sacrosanct in Indonesia’s foreign policy circles.

An initial statement from Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry (Kemlu) reiterated that “Indonesia did not have an overlapping jurisdictional claim with China” and that Indonesia “would never recognise China’s nine-dash line claim which contravenes both the … [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] … and the 2016 UNCLOS Tribunal Ruling.” It did, however, highlight Indonesia’s strategic partnership with China and the mutual commitment to the bilateral relationship.

An attempt by the Chinese foreign ministry to give added legitimacy to their claim only prompted an even stronger statement by Kemlu on 1 January, rejecting China’s assertion that “Chinese fishermen had long been active in these waters” as “a unilateral claim with no basis in international law."

Imposing limits on China’s power

Indonesia’s response to China’s illegal conduct in the South China Sea has broader implications, not just because Indonesia is an increasingly powerful state both in the Southeast Asian subregion and beyond. This response is also important because any pushback by Indonesia against China in diplomatic and strategic terms benefits Australia and its key Indo-Pacific partners the US, Japan, India, Singapore, and Vietnam in imposing further limits on China’s power.

China faces a more formidable challenge testing Indonesia’s resolve on the South China Sea than it does in comparison to the Philippines, Malaysia, or even Vietnam. Home to Southeast Asia’s largest armed forces, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and de facto leader of ASEAN, Indonesia is not without diplomatic leverage or military capability to deter China if it so chooses to apply it.

Cognisant of such leverage, a member of Indonesia’s parliamentary (DPR) committee (Komisi I) overseeing Defence and Foreign Affairs, Charles Honoris, suggested a number of “stronger options” may be needed in order to deter China. Honoris suggested that Indonesia could review both its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with China, including cooperation on the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as well as join with fellow Southeast Asian states facing similar territorial challenges to review ASEAN’s trade and investment cooperation with China.  

Domestic political response

It is interesting that Beijing has chosen to provoke Jakarta at this time. With presidential election schisms over, Jokowi has consolidated his power base in the DPR and appointed former opponents into key cabinet posts. Testing Indonesia on the defence of its maritime sovereignty with former general Prabowo Subianto as Defence Minister seems an injudicious move by China, reflecting perhaps a lack of broader understanding among Chinese officials on how old tropes about an “amorphous Chinese threat” can be manipulated by political elites.

Prabowo has long been seen as anti-Chinese, based on his human rights record and alleged links to anti-Chinese violence in 1998. A tough stance against China may be one way Prabowo could make his mark as Defence Minister, although his comments to date have been notably measured following a recent three day visit to China to discuss bilateral defence cooperation. In fact, Prabowo has attracted criticism for a perceived “soft” response on Natuna provocations.

Twisting the dragon’s tail

So, how hard will Indonesia twist the dragon’s tail? That depends on how far China provokes Indonesia on Natuna, of course. With a re-elected president in his final term freed to implement priority policy agendas and a new defence minister seeking to make his mark in the portfolio, there may be a greater inclination for a tougher line on China.

Although one would not expect dramatic responses, Indonesia has a range of options at its disposal to impose costs on China for ignoring international legal norms and challenging Indonesia’s territorial integrity. Emboldened by success in securing Southeast Asia’s support for the “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific," an Indonesian-led vision of an inclusive and ASEAN-centred Indo-Pacific order, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi may also be less inclined to do Beijing any favours with respect to its priority regional multilateral initiatives, such as the BRI or the highly protracted China-ASEAN South China Sea Code of Conduct.

In the meantime, Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) has launched “Operation Combat Alert Natuna Sea 2020," including the deployment of an additional up to six naval vessels, whilst the Air Force (TNI-AU) has deployed four of its F16 fighters. On 8 January, Jokowi travelled to Raden Sadjad Air Force Base on Natuna Besar to receive a briefing from Commander Joint Regional Defence Command I (Kogabwilhan I) Vice Admiral Yudo Margono. In addition, the government has requested hundreds of Indonesian fishing vessels enhance Indonesia’s presence in Natuna waters.

Continued assertiveness by Beijing could potentially further sour Indonesia-China relations, a relationship long characterised by ambiguity and distrust. It could also precipitate a harder line by key ASEAN states, led by Indonesia, with regard to South China Sea issues.

Ultimately, a tougher line by Indonesia aligns well with the strategic objectives of Australia and its Indo-Pacific partners, who seek limits to Beijing’s coercive power. The question remains to what extent the Indonesian government will exercise agency and leadership on this issue.

Dr. Greta Nabbs-Keller is a Research Fellow at The University of Queensland’s Centre for Policy Futures and Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS-UQ).

This article appears courtesy of The Lowy Interpreter and is reproduced here in abbreviated form. The original may be found here. 

from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/maritime-tensions-between-indonesia-and-china-escalate via http://www.rssmix.com/

[phgq]

NCRPO relieves 16 cops in NBP contraband smuggling mess

#PHnews: NCRPO relieves 16 cops in NBP contraband smuggling mess

 MANILA -- The 16 police officers allegedly involved in smuggling of contraband at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) were relieved from their posts, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said on Thursday.

"I ordered the immediate relief of these 16 police officers reportedly trafficking contraband in the New Bilibid Prison to pave the way for a fair and formal fact-finding investigation. The NCRPO’s Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division (RIDMD) is the one probing this incident and is expected to issue final evaluation of the case on Friday, October 25, 2019," NCRPO acting chief, Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas said in a statement.

Sinas added that the police officers were directed to submit their respective counter-affidavits to shed light on the issue at hand.

They were temporarily reassigned at the Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Section and disarmed of their service firearms.

Sinas clarified that 16 cops are not among the 551 NCRPO personnel who were initially deployed to secure the critical areas of NBP.

"Instead, they are part of the teams augmented for demolition of shanties and other illegal structures and confiscation of contrabands inside the Maximum-Security Compound," Sinas said.

Following the incident, Sinas said the composite teams initially fielded will be replaced by personnel from the mobile reaction unit of NCRPO – the Regional Mobile Force Battalion.

Sinas said based on the investigation by their Regional Investigation and Intelligence Division, the cellphones, tobacco products, and alcoholic drinks were not actually seized but were surrendered to the regular NBP guards.

Sinas, in a press conference, said he personally talked to 14 of the 16 cops to get firsthand information on what really transpired since the cops were already bashed.

“I would like to correct that the 16 [were] not actually caught bringing inside the NBP. According to our inquiry, nakuha ‘yung cellphone, ‘yung dalawang sticks ng sigarilyo at saka ‘yung isang alak doon sa labas (the cellphone, two cigarette sticks and the liquor were confiscated outside),” Sinas said.

Sinas said he had only talked to 14 of the 16 cops since the two were still no-show before the NCRPO.

He said the two cops have until Thursday to appear before authorities, otherwise, they will be placed on Absent Without Official Leave.

He said the 14 cellphones were turned over to the Anti-Cyber Group for forensics analysis to determine if the cops have made communications to the NBP prisoners.

"We will keep a keen eye on our men assigned at the state penitentiary to avoid corruption and spurn possible bribes from inmates inside the country’s main insular penitentiary. Our authority can never be and should never be an instrument of any form of abuse. If proven with guilt, they will have to face appropriate administrative cases for we will never tolerate delinquency and misconduct," Sinas said.

Sinas, meanwhile, suggested the replacement of NCRPO personnel fielded at the NBP every two months to prevent familiarization and eventual corruption by inmates.

“I suggested to the BuCor (Bureau of Corrections) based on experience in Region 7, I requested for a maximum of one to two months because if that exceeded, it might lead to establishment of friendship,” Sinas, former director of the Police Regional Office 7 (Central Visayas), said in a press briefing at the Kamuning Police Station in Quezon City.

Sinas was referring to the one-month replacement of personnel policy which he implemented to secure the premises of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.

“I told him (Bucor Director General Gerald Bantag), if it is okay with you, we are okay with it. It is okay for us even if it is difficult as long as our men won't find friends inside the prison because if they get familiar with each other, I'm sure it won't be impossible for them to have acquaintances whom they will later protect,” he said in Filipino.

Sinas also reported that after the 15-day demolition, cash worth PHP233,207 was recovered and 185 illegal structures were destroyed inside the maximum-security compound of the NBP.

He said 58 huts were destroyed in quadrant 1 of the maximum-security compound, 32 in quadrant 2, 36 in quadrant 3, and 39 in quadrant 4.

He said 19 stalls and a makeshift office built at the sides were also destroyed.

“Malinis na po doon sa magkabilang side ng high value inmates doon sa maximum security building [Both sides of the maximum-security area where high value inmates are located were cleared],” Sinas said.

Reportedly, one of the demolished structures was a para-legal office in the NBP premises.

Other recovered items in the shanties were 60 rolls of tobacco, 35 deadly weapons, 13 wristwatches, four pocket Wi-Fis, three flash drives, three headsets, and two phone chargers.

Sinas said the confiscated gadgets would be submitted to the PNP-ACG for forensics to identify the files they contain.

Bantag reported that many “poor” inmates were happy with the demolition, Sinas said.

“Natutuwa yung mahihirap na inmates kasi sabi based sa BuCor chief at least pantay-pantay na sila sa loob ng Bilibid [The poor inmates are happy based from what the BuCor chief said because at least, they all have the same conditions inside the Bilibid],” Sinas said. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "NCRPO relieves 16 cops in NBP contraband smuggling mess." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084122 (accessed October 25, 2019 at 05:56AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "NCRPO relieves 16 cops in NBP contraband smuggling mess." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084122 (archived).