Corruption is Everywhere - Today in Indian and South Korean Politics

India’s former finance minister arrested on
corruption charges in overnight raid

FILE PHOTO: Palaniappan Chidambaram © AFP / PAL PILLAI

Indian special forces have raided the house of former finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to arrest him on charges of corruption and money laundering.

Shortly after Chidambaram returned home from a press conference at Congress Party headquarters, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team scaled the wall of his Jor Bagh residence in New Delhi to detain the 73-year-old politician.

The dramatic scenes televised across Indian media showed CBI officers jumping over the locked gate to let the main force inside, while another team entered the house from the back door. The senior Congress leader, accused of clearing foreign investments in exchange for bribes when he was finance minister, was then driven away in a CBI vehicle amid spirited protests outside his house.

CBI and Enforcement Directorate (which investigates financial crimes) officers have been scouting Chidambaram's house since Tuesday, the day the politician went missing after the High Court rejected his plea seeking protection from arrest. Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate issued a lookout notice against him seeking his detention and effectively preventing the politician from fleeing abroad.

At the press conference, the former finance minister denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he was “not hiding from the law” but rather “seeking protection of the law.”

Chidambaram is accused of facilitating Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to the INX Media company in 2007 when he was the Finance Minister for Manmohan Singh’s government. Investigators allege that his son Karti received kickbacks after INX Media secured funds equivalent to roughly $41 million.

South Korea's top court orders review of

Samsung heir's bribery case

By Yonhap News Agency

 Former President Park Geun-hye (L), her friend Choi Soon-sil and Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong

SEOUL, (UPI) -- South Korea's top court on Thursday ordered a lower court to reconsider its suspended jail sentence for Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong in a massive bribery scandal that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye.

The de facto leader of the country's top conglomerate was initially sentenced to five years in jail in 2017 for bribing a longtime friend of Park as he sought the government's help in succeeding his father and securing control of Samsung Group.

He was freed a year later after the appeals court reduced the term to 2 1/2 years, suspended for four years, dismissing most of the bribery charges against him.

The Supreme Court, however, said Lee should be found guilty of providing about $4.1 million (5 billion won) more worth of bribes to the president's friend Choi Soon-sil, charges excluded from the previous court ruling.

If Lee is reincarcerated following the appeals court's review, it could deal a further blow to the country's top conglomerate already struggling with economic headwinds.

Samsung Electronics, the conglomerate's key unit, has taken a hard hit from South Korea and Japan's trade rift as Japan tightened the supply of key component exports to Korea.

The Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su, who read out the sentence, said there had been a "misunderstanding of legal logic" and "lack of hearings" in the process, overturning part of the previous ruling.

Specifically, Kim said that the three horses, worth $2.8 million, that Samsung gifted to Choi should be considered as bribes. The earlier ruling had excluded them from bribery charges given that Samsung didn't give Choi ownership of the horses.

The top judge also noted that Samsung's $1.3 million donation to a sports foundation run by the Choi family was a planned move relevant to Lee's management succession from his hospitalized father Lee Kun-hee.

"Supreme Court ruling shows that the content or subject of bribery does not have to be detailed ... there is sufficient room to acknowledge that the sports foundation donation is relevant to the president's duty," Kim said.

The latest ruling more than doubled the amount of Lee's bribes to $7 million from $2.96 million. The lower court had only acknowledged the $2.96 million Samsung sent to Choi's Germany-based firm as bribes.

This also indicates a potential leadership crisis for Samsung. Under local law, the court can only hand down a suspension of sentence when the embezzlement amount is less than $4.12 million.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also ordered the lower court to review cases involving the former president and her longtime friend Choi. They had been sentenced to 25 years and 20 years in jail, respectively.

Thursday's ruling was broadcast live nationwide via TV and social media, reflecting a nationwide interest in the scandal that rocked the nation.

Tens of millions of people poured into the streets between October and December 2016 to hold candlelight vigils in protest of the massive corruption case.

Park was impeached by parliament in December 2016. The Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment decision in March 2017, permanently removing her from office a year before the scheduled end of her original five-year term.

Muslim Migrant Goes on Knife Rampage in France, 1 Dead, 9 Wounded, Cops Search for Motive

BY ROBERT SPENCER
Jihad Watch

An Afghan asylum seeker is accused of killing a 19-year-old man and wounding at least nine people in a knife rampage in Lyon, France.

Witnesses said a man armed with a knife and barbecue fork randomly attacked people at a bus stop in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon.

A second man at the scene was carrying a kitchen spit, but his role in the incident was unclear after it was initially reported he may have been a suspect who fled.

Footage posted online shows hero witnesses confronting and detaining the knifeman at Laurent-Bonnevay station.

One video shows the man tossing the knife and fork to the floor and surrendering as he is surrounded by a mob.

Bus drivers and witnesses chased the knife-wielding suspect as he ran into the metro station and then cornered him at an outdoor lift after the attack unfolded just before 4.30pm local time on Saturday, local media reported.

The suspect is an Afghan asylum seeker who was not known to the police or intelligence services, BFM TV reported.

The knifeman claimed to be from Afghanistan as he was confronted by witnesses, including four bus drivers, after the attack, Le Progres reported.

There was no indication from the authorities that it was a terror attack….

A police helicopter was in the air looking for a second man reported as a possible suspect.

A possible motive for the attack was not known.

Lyon Mayor Gerard Collomb, the former French interior minister, told reporters: “For now, we do not know anything about the motive.

“What is certain is that it was not a fight since it was someone who attacked passengers waiting for a bus.”…

Robert Spencer - French authorities have already apparently dismissed out of hand the possibility that this was a jihad terror attack: “There was no indication from the authorities that it was a terror attack….Lyon Mayor Gerard Collomb, the former French interior minister, told reporters: ‘For now, we do not know anything about the motive.'”

Here is a possible motive. The Islamic State issued this call in September 2014:

So O muwahhid, do not let this battle pass you by wherever you may be. You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tawaghit. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be….If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him….

I don't fully agree with Robert Spencer on this. I doubt that French authorities have 'dismissed' terrorism' as a motive, but rather are reluctant to name it so without further evidence, as if 1 dead and 9 wounded isn't enough. It seems the French reluctance to call it a terrorist act was because the unnamed Afghan migrant was not on police radar. Mind you, there are far more radical Muslims in France than there are police available to monitor them.

After all the terrorism attacks in Europe and especially France, it's astonishing that French authorities are still protective of radical Muslims as they are in Germany and Sweden. It's PCMadness!

As I have said many times on this and my other blog, radical Muslims are not sane people. Read the sidebar comment under Great Quotes on my other blog by Syrian psychologist Dr. Wafa Sultan. Radical Muslims must be assumed to be insane and dangerous and should be segregated from the rest of society until they renounce Islam or die.

Sanity Slowly Seeping into Sweden's Syrian Asylum Policy

Sweden ends sweeping ‘automatic asylum’ policy for Syrians

FILE PHOTO A police officer escorts migrants from a train at Hyllie station outside Malmo, Sweden.

© Reuters / Johan Nilsson

Stockholm has tightened its lenient migration laws with regard to Syrian asylum seekers, saying that not all parts of the war-torn country are equally dangerous anymore.

Since the intensity of the war in Syria “has slightly decreased,” the new asylum seekers “will not automatically be granted protection in Sweden” any longer, the Swedish Migration Agency said on Thursday.

From now on, officials will assess each Syrian asylum seeker, considering what part of the country he or she came from. The residents of the six ‘more dangerous’ provinces – Aleppo, Raqqa, Idlib, Homs, Hama, and Deir ez-Zor – can still expect asylum to be granted automatically. That will not be true for people living in ‘less dangerous’ regions in the south, including Damascus, as well as in Latakia and Tartus on the Mediterranean coast, and the Kurdish-held northeast.

“Their individual reasons [for applying for asylum] are now much more important than they were before,” the agency’s director of legal affairs, Fredrik Beijer, said.

Now it will become very important who you are,

where you come from, and what risk you are facing

Sweden is often considered as one of the most refugee-friendly nations as, in recent years, it has admitted more asylum seekers per capita than any other EU country. The authorities have granted asylum to more than 115,000 people from Syria since 2011, after a civil war broke out there.

There is an ongoing debate in Sweden whether the influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa has contributed to a spike in certain crimes, like gang violence, rape and sexual assault.

There is no real debate, only a lack of acknowledgement by the police, government and media who, like in Germany, have hidden nationalities of criminals from the public so they don't really know the extent of migrant violence. They don't seem to realize that that policy leaves Swedes much more vulnerable to that violence.

No Single 'Gay Gene' Contributes to Same-Sex Behaviour, Study Finds

There is a significant pro-gay slant to this article which
I attempt to temper with truth

'Effectively impossible' to predict sexual behaviour from one's genome, researcher says

The Associated Press 

Research published in the journal Science has identified five genetic variants not previously linked with gay or lesbian sexuality. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

The largest study of its kind found new evidence that genes contribute to same-sex sexual behaviour, but it echoes research that says there are no specific genes that make people gay.

The genome-wide research on DNA from nearly half a million U.S. and U.K. adults identified five genetic variants not previously linked with gay or lesbian sexuality. The variants were more common in people who reported ever having had a same-sex sexual partner. That includes people whose partners were exclusively of the same sex and those who mostly reported heterosexual behaviour.

None cause the behaviour; it cannot be predicted

The researchers said thousands more genetic variants likely are involved and interact with factors that aren't inherited, but that none of them cause the behaviour nor can predict whether someone will be gay.

The research "provides the clearest glimpse yet into the genetic underpinnings of same-sex sexual behaviour," said co-author Benjamin Neale, a psychiatric geneticist at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

Genetics - less than half the story

"We also found that it's effectively impossible to predict an individual's sexual behaviour from their genome. Genetics is less than half of this story for sexual behaviour but it's still a very important contributing factor," Neale said.

The study was released Thursday by the journal Science. Results are based on genetic testing and survey responses.

Some of the genetic variants found were present in both men and women. Two in men were located near genes involved in male-pattern baldness and sense of smell, raising intriguing questions about how regulation of sex hormones and smell may influence same-sex behaviour.

Importantly, most participants were asked about frequency of same-sex sexual behaviour but not if they self-identified as gay or lesbian. Fewer than five per cent of U.K. participants and about 19 per cent of U.S. participants reported ever having a same-sex sexual experience.

The researchers acknowledged that limitation and emphasized that the study's focus was on behaviour, not sexual identity or orientation. They also note that the study only involved people of European ancestry and can't answer whether similar results would be found in other groups.

Origins unknown

Origins of same-sex behaviour are uncertain. Some of the strongest evidence of a genetic link comes from studies in identical twins. Many scientists believe that social, cultural, family and other biological factors are also involved, while some religious groups and skeptics consider it a choice or behaviour that can be changed.

The father of sexual research in America, Alfred Kinsey, determined that 89% of gays could associate their behaviour, or preference, to specific events or environmental situations from their childhood. That was in the 1940s. The study was repeated in 1970 by the Kinsey Institute and found the same results.

Variants very weak

A Science commentary notes that the five identified variants had such a weak effect on behaviour that using the results "for prediction, intervention or a supposed 'cure' is wholly and unreservedly impossible."

"Future work should investigate how genetic predispositions are altered by environmental factors," University of Oxford sociologist Melinda Mills said in the commentary.

And, perhaps, how genes themselves are altered by environmental factors.

Other experts not involved in the study had varied reactions.

Dr. Kenneth Kendler a specialist in psychiatric genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University, called it "a very important paper that advances the study of the genetics of human sexual preference substantially. The results are broadly consistent with those obtained from the earlier technologies of twin and family studies suggesting that sexual orientation runs in families and is moderately heritable."

If that were so, then you would think that it would be moderately predictable, yet the study says, quite emphatically, that it is not.

Gay gene?

Former National Institutes of Health geneticist Dean Hamer said the study confirms "that sexuality is complex and there are a lot of genes involved," but it isn't really about gay people. "Having just a single same sex experience is completely different than actually being gay or lesbian," Hamer said. His research in the 1990s linked a marker on the X chromosome with male homosexuality. Some subsequent studies had similar results but the new one found no such link.

He didn't actually link them except in his mind. He stated he was on the verge of linking them and that was good enough for Science journal and mainstream media. He still hasn't found that link he was on the verge of finding in 1990.

This is the reason why homosexuality suddenly became quite acceptable in the early 1990s. Hamer's study, published as a cover story in the same Science journal, spread like lightening across the news media of the world and has never been brought into question by most in the 28 years since. 

The journal Science edition that published Hamer's study put the two words, "Gay Gene?" on the cover. The media appears to have not noticed the question mark, for they simply decided then that gays were born that way and there's nothing they can do about it. They never pursued Hamer to find out if the question mark had ever been removed. 

The very next year, Science published an article from an eminent geneticist, who, unlike Hamer, was not gay, in which he trashed Hamer's study as being completely false. Other geneticists agreed with him, but that made no difference to the news media who had heard what they wanted to hear.

Hamer, and other gay or pro-gay geneticists have been looking for a gay gene for more than 50 years. Hamer admits he has not found it, neither has anyone else.

May have little to do with homosexuality

Doug Vanderlaan, a University of Toronto psychologist who studies sexual orientation, said the absence of information on sexual orientation is a drawback and makes it unclear what the identified genetic links might signify. They "might be links to other traits, like openness to experience," Vanderlaan said.

In other words, the 5 weak variants may have almost nothing to do with sexual preference but rather reveal one's character traits which may make him more likely to act in a manner conducive to sexual experimentation.

The study was a collaboration among scientists including psychologists, sociologists and statisticians from the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Australia. They did entire human genome scanning, using blood samples from the U.K. Biobank and saliva samples from customers of the U.S.-based ancestry and biotech company 23andMe who had agreed to participate in research.

Fake science

There is a lot of garbage floating around the internet and 'science journals' on both sides of this issue. However, gay, or pro-gay researchers have a motive for finding a gay gene whether it is there or not. The journal Science, in Dec 2014 reported that 'one brief conversation with a gay rights canvasser could change someone's mind about same-sex marriage'. 

As unlikely as that theory seems, the writer had data to back it up. However, the UCLA grad's dissertation adviser questioned him on his data and eventually confirmed that there were no data; none. He made it all up. Meanwhile NYT, WaPo, and other media outlets ran with the story. The retraction didn't get nearly as much coverage as the fake news. 

Media bias

That I have had to insert a half-dozen comments in order to bring some truth and reality to this article is an example of the far-left bias in the media today. Anything that is pro-LGBTQ2S is quickly, and without careful examination, shuffled to the top of the pile. Any news that is fervently anti-Christian is good news in most mainstream media newsrooms.

Mainstream media is into social engineering, and our children are the animals it's experimenting on. Their willful blindness to the truth is confirmation of that. A Christian man once said, "Morality dictates theology"! 

Germany's Policy of Hiding Criminal's Nationality Gets Push-Back in North Rhine-Westphalia

Push for transparency? Police in western German state

to reveal suspects' nationality in all crimes

North Rhine-Westphalia's police officers are seen in Cologne, Germany, on October 15, 2018.

©  AFP/ DPA / Oliver Berg

Police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia will name all suspects' nationality as a way to counter "clumsy deception." The move comes after allegations of police and media covering up criminals' origins.

All future police press releases in Germany's most populous state will contain information about the nationality of suspects as long as it can be determined beyond doubt, the regional Interior Ministry told the German media, adding that it is developing a new set of regulations for the police.

"I have been promoting transparency ever since I took office," regional Interior Minister Herbert Reul, who assumed office two years ago, told journalists, explaining that the new rules would cover both German and foreign suspects.

Current German policy

Current police transparency regulations state that the nationality of suspects, particularly those belonging to a "minority" group, can be revealed only if it is essential in understanding the motives or has a direct link to the crime.

Police officers' reluctance to reveal suspects' nationalities has often landed them in hot water amid rising tensions in Germany in the wake of a massive influx of migrants and refugees. Police have been accused of covering up the countries of origin of foreign suspects to downplay the negative effects of Chancellor Angela Merkel's 'open doors' policy at the height of the 2015 refugee crisis.

Law enforcement officials particularly faced a wave of public outrage in the wake of reports of mass sexual assaults on New Year's Eve in 2015 in Cologne – North Rhine-Westphalia' largest city. The initial police report on New Year's Eve in Cologne failed to mention that many of the suspects were of North African origin, which later drew accusations of a deliberate cover-up.

The latest move is not just a "push for transparency," as it is also aimed at combating speculation involving any future high-profile cases in society, which still remains polarized over the issue of migrant crime.    

"I am convinced that this transparency is the best way to combat political hoaxes," Reul said. According to the 2018 crime statistics released by the German Federal Police in April, only slightly more than one-third of all suspects were non-German citizens, while refugees and asylum seekers accounted for 14 percent.

German authorities registered over 8,600 'right-wing extremist offences' in the first half of 2019.

That's 900 more than during the same period in 2018. https://youtu.be/WC3oss9YSe4 

There is no doubt that the German policy of hiding the nationalities of criminals has contributed significantly to the growth of far-right extremism in the country. The appearance that the police and media are protecting migrants at the expense of German citizens, especially young, German girls, leaves many Germans thinking they have to take care of their own family's safety because the police, media and justice systems are more concerned with the welfare of criminal migrants than ordinary German citizens. It is not hate as much as it is fear. It's a sorry country where truth has to be hidden.

This initiative was met with skepticism by other German states. Lower Saxony's interior minister, Boris Pistorius, said he sees no reason to change existing practices that protect minorities and prevent "generalizations and inadmissible conclusions."

This is not very bright. How does hiding the truth prevent "generalizations and inadmissible conclusions"? If anything it will contribute to such things as many people will just assume certain criminal activities are associated with migrants.

"Naming the nationalities of the suspects in all cases, even if they are irrelevant to the nature of the offense, does not lead to more transparency," he said in a scathing rebuke to his colleague. "There is no added value in a police statement if it names a suspect a foreign national, while his family lived in Germany for two generations or… is a dual national."

Other German states, where naming suspects' nationality by the police is either forbidden or only allowed in "exceptional cases," also said they have no plans to follow North Rhine-Westphalia's example.

The German Press Council – an umbrella organization of various media associations – cautiously welcomed Reul's initiative, but said that the decision to reveal a suspect's nationality should essentially be left in the hands of the media instead.

"A decision about whether nationality is relevant for the report should be carefully considered and taken by each editorial staff on the basis of their ethical principles. No authority should and can decide that," the council's spokesman, Volker Stennei, said.

Migrant crime has long been a hot topic in Germany, where any high-profile case involving a non-German suspect risks reigniting simmering tensions. Recently, the death of a young boy at the hands of an Eritrean who pushed him and his mother under a high-speed train rekindled the migration debate and even forced Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to call for calm and advise Germans against drawing "premature" conclusions.

North Rhine-Westphalia

Conspiracy Theory Alert: Was Jeffrey Epstein Murdered or Suicided

New twist emerges in Jeffrey Epstein's death as the Department of Justice reveals the pedophile was taken off suicide watch after being examined by a

'doctoral-level psychologist'

By ANDREW COURT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A new twist has emerged in the death of Jeffrey Epstein, with the Department of Justice revealing that disgraced pedophile was removed from suicide watch by a doctoral-level psychologist before he hanged himself on August 10. 

In a letter written to the House Judiciary Committee, which was obtained by Fox News on Friday, DOJ official Stephen E. Boyd wrote: ' The Department can confirm that Mr. Epstein was placed on suicide watch in July. 

'Mr. Epstein was later removed from suicide watch after being evaluated by a doctoral-level psychologist who determined that a suicide watch was no longer warranted.'

It's thought Epstein first tried to kill himself on July 23, when he was found unconscious in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

He was rushed to hospital, before returning to the prison, where he was put on suicide watch. 

The DOJ letter did not reveal when he was examined by the doctoral-level psychologist. Further, they did not name the psychologist - who, having attained a PhD doctorate - had achieved the highest possible level of education in their field. 

Despite being taken off suicide watch, however, Epstein was not allowed to be left unattended in his cell, according to a bombshell report published in The Washington Post. However, the paper reported that, while at least eight Bureau of Prisons staffers knew of this fact, such orders were ignored in the 24 hours before Epstein's suicide. 

The staffers reportedly included managers and low-level correctional officers alike.  

Attorney General William Barr, who has ordered a probe into Epstein's death, has already removed the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons and appointed a new director and deputy director since Epstein died 13 days ago. 

 Meanwhile, Fox also reports that the jail's warden has been reassigned to a desk post at a regional office. 

At least eight prison officials were ordered to assure  Epstein wasn't left unattended in his cell,

yet they ignored the strict rules, leading to the pedophile's shocking suicide on August 10

Two guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein on the night of his suicide have also been placed on administrative leave.  

Despite Barr's changes, he has dampened conspiracy theories that Epstein may have been murdered in his prison cell, by claiming that he believes the pedophile did, in fact, take his own life. 

'I have seen nothing that undercuts the finding of the medical examiner that this was a suicide,' Barr said to reporters Wednesday. 

Seriously! It's been known for centuries that if you hang someone they die from suffocation unless they drop some 8 or 10 feet and suddenly stop. Then, the hanging person's neck breaks. Epstein had a broken neck. Was it possible for him to hang himself and then drop 8 or 10 feet? Was his cell 10 feet high with something to tie his sheets to at the top? Did he have more than one sheet? Why? 

Did the doctor remove him from suicide watch because Epstein told him it was attempted murder? 

How many powerful people had motive to shut him up? And they certainly had opportunity.

'Epstein's death, I think we will see, was a suicide and I do think there are some irregularities at the Metropolitan Correctional Center,' he said, as per ABC.

Christians Lend Anthem, Pacifist Spirit to Hong Kong Protests

By Alexandra Radu, Religion News Service

More than 15,000 people attend an evening rally in Hong Kong on Friday, the first large-scale political rally

for Christians since the democracy movement started in June. Photo by Alexandra Radu/RNS

HONG KONG, (UPI) -- Since protests began more than 12 weeks ago over an extradition bill that would allow Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China for trial, the city's Christian community has taken an active role.

Groups of Christians regularly participate in the marches that have coursed through Hong Kong's streets every weekend since June, and their pleas for peaceful protests and their hymns and prayers are often heard along with protest chants. One hymn, "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord," written in 1974, has caught on as an anthem of the protests, sung by believers and nonbelievers alike.

The Christian hymn not only inspires: It grants the protesters some protection under a technicality in Hong Kong law of public assembly that exempts religious gatherings.

The bill that brought the protesters out into the streets has since been suspended, but the demonstrations have continued, turning into a larger campaign for democracy and for maintaining the "one country, two systems" model agreed upon when the former British colony returned to China in 1997.

The protests have sometimes turned violent. While some Hong Kong residents see violence as the only way to obtain their demands, many, including most Christians, choose to support the protests through peaceful means. The city's Christians number about 900,000, or 12 percent of Hong Kong's population of roughly 7.5 million.

Several Christian organizations have officially voiced their concerns over the extradition bill, including the Hong Kong Christian Council, the Catholic Diocese, the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong and the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church Union of Hong Kong. They have also urged the protesters to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

The protests have provided Christians with an opportunity to voice their concerns about religious freedom. If China ends the "one country, two systems" status quo, they fear, the persecution of religious denominations in mainland China may spread to Hong Kong.

On Friday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Chater Garden for the first large-scale political rally specifically for Christians. With the motto "Salt and light, for justice we walk together," the rally aimed to "provide all Christians a platform to express themselves outside the church, hoping people would safeguard Hong Kong by singing, praying, worshiping God and at the same time speaking up for justice and standing together with all the Hong Kongers in difficult times," said a press release from the rally organizer.

Hong Kong protesters turn out in force for 11th weekend

A massive sea of umbrellas is seen from above as protesters leave an anti-government rally in Hong Kong's Victoria Park

on Sunday. Organizers estimated 1.7 million people turned out for the demonstration. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

Call it the Umbrella Revolution! It's rainy season in Hong Kong, but it hasn't slowed the protest one bit. Although calling it a revolution is not quite accurate as they are not trying to change anything, but rather keep things the same. 

I'm proud of the Christians who stand up for Hong Kong and who do it peacefully. Violence will certainly give China an excuse to invade the city with their army and crush the protesters. They would like to have done so by now but can't figure out how to do it without the violence being instantly relayed around the world. It's not like Tienanmen Square, everyone has a cell phone.

But, while violence is likely to be the trigger for a Chinese takeover, communist paranoia may, in fact, see the growing Christian movement as a worse threat. They have always accused Christians of trying to invade China with western ideology and have used that as an excuse to imprison countless Christians, some of whom were never seen again.

Pray for peace in Hong Kong and for the government in Beijing to back-off and allow Hong Kong to prosper as it has for many decades.

Petitioning Against Climate Alarmism Goes Global

“There is No Climate Emergency”

By Larry Bell 

CFACT

A petition being submitted by hundreds of independent climate scientists and professionals from numerous countries to heads of the European Council, Commission and Parliament declares “There is No Climate Emergency.”

Briefly summarized, the request for consideration conveys five urgent messages:

Climate change is real and has been occurring with nature-driven cold and warm cycles for as long as the planet has existed.

There should be no surprise that the Earth has been warming through natural causes since the last Little Ice Age ended around 1870. Actual temperature increases, however, are far less than predicted by theoretical climate models.

There is no real evidence that anthropogenic (human-caused) CO2 emissions are a major or dangerous warming influence. They instead offer great benefits to agriculture, forestry and photosynthesis that is the basis for life.

There is also no scientific evidence that increasing CO2 levels are causing more natural disasters. However, CO2-reduction measures do have devastating impacts on wildlife (e.g. wind turbines), land use (e.g. forest clearance), and vital energy systems.

Energy policies must be based on scientific and economic realities — not upon a harmful and unrealistic “2050-carbon-neutral policy” driven by unfounded climate alarm.

The petition concludes by recommending the recognition of clear difference in policies addressing the Earth’s environment through good stewardship versus Earth’s climate, the latter of which “is largely caused by a complex combination of natural phenomena we cannot control.”

100 Italian scientists

This recent petition to EU leaders signed by approximately 100 Italian scientists from many prominent organizations urges recognition of the same basic realities.

The Italian petition calls attention to the fact that the planet has previously been warmer than the present period, despite lower atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Warming periods have been repeated about every thousand years, including “the well-known Medieval Warm Period, the Hot Roman Period, and generally warm periods during the Optimal Holocene period.”

Most recent climate warming observed since 1850 followed the Little Ice Age – the coldest period of the last 10,000 years. “Since then, solar activity, following its [previous cooling-influence] millennial cycle, has increased by heating the Earth’s surface.”

The notification advises that climate, “the most complex system on our planet,” needs to be addressed with scientific methods that are “adequate and consistent with its level of complexity.”

This system “is not sufficiently understood. And while CO2 is indisputably a greenhouse gas, “according to [UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] IPCC itself, the climate sensitivity to its increase in the atmosphere is still extremely uncertain.”

The petition states that “In any case, many recent studies based on experimental data estimate that the climate sensitivity to CO2 is considerably lower than estimated by the IPCC models.” Accordingly, all evidence suggests that such models “overestimate the anthropic [human] contribution and underestimate the natural climatic variability, especially that induced by the sun, the moon, and ocean oscillations.”

Likewise, alarmist media claims that extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and cyclones, are increasing in frequency are entirely inaccurate and typically far more directly tied to natural ocean oscillation cycles.

Again, the Italian signatories from numerous universities and research organizations take strong issue against “deplorable propaganda” claiming that carbon dioxide is a pollutant rather than a molecule that is indispensable to life on our planet.

Accordingly, given “the crucial importance that fossil fuels have for the energy supply of humanity,” the petitioners urge that the EU should not adopt economically burdensome and unwarranted CO2 reduction policies under “the illusory pretense of governing the climate.”

The petitioners also emphasize that while credible facts must be based upon scientific methods, not determined by numbers of supporting theorists, there is no alleged “consensus” among specialist in many and varied climate disciplines suggesting that human-influenced climate change presents an imminent danger. They point out that many thousands of scientists have previously expressed dissent with alarmist anti-fossil energy conjecture.

31,000 American scientists

More than 31,000 American scientists from diverse climate-related disciplines signed a Global Warming Petition Project rejecting limits on greenhouse gas emissions attached to the 1977 Kyoto Protocol and similar proposals. The list of signatories included 9,021 Ph.D.s, 6,961 at the master’s level, 2,240 medical doctors, and 12,850 carrying a bachelor of science or equivalent academic degree.

A 12-page petition attachment was introduced with a cover letter issued by Fredrick Seitz, a past president of the National Academy of Sciences and former president of Rockefeller University. It read, in part:

“This treaty is, in our opinion, based upon flawed ideas. Research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful. To the contrary, there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful.”

The letter added, “The proposed agreement would have very negative effects upon the technology of nations around the world, especially those that are currently attempting to lift from poverty and provide opportunities to over 4 billion people in technologically undeveloped countries.”

Gratefully, an American Congress at that time listened to that sage advice and unanimously agreed. We can only fervently hope that more current legislators will continue to be equally wise.

There is no hope for such wisdom in the #PCMadness of Canada.

Larry Bell

CFACT Advisor Larry Bell heads the graduate program in space architecture at the University of Houston. He founded and directs the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture. He is also the author of "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax."

Sudan's Former Dictator Bashir Faces Corruption Charges on Top of war Crimes

By Nicholas Sakelaris 

Sudan's ousted president Omar al-Bashir stands in a cage during his trial where he was charged with corruption.

Photo by stringer/EPA-EFE 

(UPI) -- Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir went to court Monday for the start of his trial on corruption charges for allegedly possessing foreign currency and receiving illegal gifts.

Prosecutors said Bashir, who has been in detention since being forced from power in April, talked about the currency when he was being questioned by investigators.

Bashir, 75, wore traditional white robes and observed the proceeding from inside a cage in the courtroom. He did not comment as the charges were read.

His legal team said the graft charges likely will be thrown out.

"There's no way he will be condemned in this case ... When he did what he did he was then a president with immunity," lawyer Mohamed el-Hassan el-Amin said.

Amnesty International said the corruption trial shouldn't distract from the serious war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide charges Bashir faces at the International Criminal Court.

In May, he was also charged with incitement and involvement in the massacre of protesters who challenged his rule and eventually overthrew him.

Sudan's new government reached a deal this month that outlines the transition from military rule to civilian government. Thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the victory with many gathering in the newly renamed Freedom Square in Khartoum, where many of the Bashir rallies took place.

Failed State Made in the USA: Ex-President of Honduras and Coup Victim Zelaya Tells All

I have complained many times about how US corporations have raped Central Americans and many South Americans of their natural resources. And instead of making them wealthy, they are made poorer. Anyone who attempts to change the situation for the betterment of the people is liable to be removed by any means, often being replaced by autocrats completely devoid of conscience. 

I thought I was referring to well in the past, but, it appears that it is still going on in the 21st century. In fact, we can easily blame much of the current migrant crisis on America's southern border on America's political and financial interference in Central America. 

If the USA is going to be the moral leader of the world, it first has to present itself a moral.

Zelaya at a protest against the US-backed Hernandez government © Reuters / Jorge Cabrera

President Jose Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was deposed from power in a military coup after joining a progressive alliance of Latin American leaders and he has “absolutely no doubts” the US was behind his ouster, he tells RT America.

“The US warned me: If you sign the Bolivarian Alternative to the Americas (ALBA), you’re going to have problems with the US. I signed it, and six months later, I had problems,” Zelaya told RT America’s Rick Sanchez.

They kicked me out.

Washington “wave[s] their flags of human rights abroad, but they only apply those concepts to those they consider to be adversaries,” Zelaya says, pointing to his record of poverty reduction and economic growth – “I had the best indicators of human development in Honduran history!”

Because of the company he kept – working with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and other progressive US bogeymen to further Honduras’ economic development – the US “had an allergic reaction” and moved to take him out, he says.

“I didn’t have problems with the US,” Zelaya insists. “They simply didn’t accept the competition, because these transnational companies live off monopoly, they live off concessions. When you give them competition in the free market, they stop being capitalist. They become retrograde, authoritarian, and they play coups, wars, invasions.”

Zelaya was removed from power in 2009, deposed by heavily armed soldiers who came to his home while he was in his pajamas, in a coup Hillary Clinton’s State Department refused to call a coup.

Honduras has been sinking into chaos ever since. His progressive reforms such as building schools, adopting a pension system for the elderly and raising the minimum wage have been rolled back, and homicide rates had soared 50 percent by 2011. Trade unionists, journalists, judges, human rights and environmental activists have been targeted for extrajudicial killings.

His efforts to return to power have also been thwarted, once again by the US, he says. After his party won the 2017 election with nearly three quarters of the votes counted, it was the US ambassador who appeared with 5,000 boxes of ballots to declare another candidate the winner. Even the pro-US Organization of American States called for a new round of elections. Instead, the government suspended the constitution and imposed 10 days of martial law, after which the US recognized the rigged results.

“And with that, they impose a dictatorship in Honduras… that’s what we’re protesting against.”

Zelaya says the US sees Honduras “not as a colony or a province. They see us as an empty landscape where they invest and where they impose their rules.”

He does not blame only the Americans for the suffering of Honduras, however.

The Hondurans are guilty, the ones that bow down and kiss the boots of the US, the US military, or kiss up to the capitalist chiefs of Wall Street.

Corruption is Everywhere - Certainly in the Canadian Prime Minister's Office

A Prime Minister's Office drunk on its own arrogance: Robyn Urback

Six months ago, Trudeau told Canadians that a report his office pressured the AG was 'false.' He lied

Robyn Urback · for CBC News Opinion 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a report that his office tried to pressure Jody Wilson-Raybould into intervening

in the SNC-Lavalin case was 'false.' It was not. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

It's hard to fathom what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was thinking on the morning of Feb. 7, when he stood before reporters and categorically declared, 

"The allegations in the Globe story are false."

The Globe and Mail was the first to report that Trudeau's office attempted to pressure his justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, into intervening in the corruption and fraud case of SNC-Lavalin.

That day, he knew that Wilson-Raybould, who he'd shuffled out of the Justice Ministry three weeks earlier, had been repeatedly approached by members of the Prime Minister's Office about her reluctance to get involved.

He was told by Wilson-Raybould herself at a meeting in September 2018 of her concerns about his staff attempting to interfere in a criminal matter (though he would later say he couldn't specifically recall the remark).

And surely he knew, or should have known, that repeatedly reminding the attorney general of the potentially cataclysmic political and economic costs of failing to secure a remediation agreement for an important Quebec company constituted inappropriate pressure. 

Nevertheless, there was clearly a concerted effort to see her reconsider her position. That much was fact, and Trudeau knew it on February 7. 

Power & Politics✔

@PnPCBC

 Trudeau:  "The allegations in the Globe story are false. Neither the current nor the previous attorney general was ever directed by me or by anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter." #cdnpoli

Yet he stood before reporters that morning and called the report "false."

Not "misleading." Not "unfair." Not "half the story." 

"False." Wrong. Fake news. 

How 4 ex-Supreme Court justices got caught up in SNC-Lavalin affair

Trudeau vs. Dion: How the PM and ethics commissioner differ on the SNC-Lavalin affair

That was, in fact, a lie. The PMO did press Wilson-Raybould to seek a remediation agreement for SNC-Lavalin, and that pressure was inappropriate and contrary to the Conflict of Interest Act, as Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded in his report on the affair, published Wednesday.

Trudeau knew that the Globe's reporting couldn't reasonably be called "false," even if perhaps he believed it somewhat skewed. But he lied and told Canadians it was wrong anyway. 

Cozy relationship

With hindsight, it seems silly to make such an unequivocal statement about something easily verified. But a belief in one's own righteousness, along with a record of previous political infallibility, can make a prime minister and his staff do some very silly things. 

To wit: For months, the prime minister insisted that actions taken by his office were always in the interest of Canadians; it wasn't about currying favour with powerful Quebec company but simply about keeping good jobs in Canada.

Dion's report, however, chronicles an awfully cozy relationship between the PMO and SNC-Lavalin in which the two seem less like government-and-lobbyist than players on the same team.

Remediation agreement SNC-Lavalin's idea

In fact, it was SNC-Lavalin that suggested, back in February 2018, that a new remediation agreement regime — one that could benefit them — be included in the upcoming budget, in the interest of expediency. The government obliged: an amendment to the Criminal Code was included in the budget implementation bill and received royal assent within months.

Is Trudeau in for another hit in the polls because of the SNC-Lavalin ethics report?

5 things we learned from Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion's report on Justin Trudeau

That summer, Ben Chin, the chief of staff to the minister of finance, reportedly tried to get an update on the status of a remediation agreement on behalf of an anxious SNC-Lavalin. Chin was told by Wilson-Raybould's office that an inquiry itself could be perceived as improper interference on the independent nature of the prosecution service. 

And in December 2018, PMO senior adviser Mathieu Bouchard exchanged text messages with an SNC-Lavalin representative who wanted an update on a dinner conversation between Wilson-Raybould and then-principal secretary Gerald Butts — the one in which Wilson-Raybould said she told the PMO to stop pressuring her office about SNC-Lavalin. Bouchard reported to the rep that the door was still open to a remediation agreement (it was not). 

'Someone like' Beverley McLachlin

Dion's report also revealed that while Trudeau and Butts had been imploring Wilson-Raybould to seek an opinion from "someone like" former Supreme Court chief justice Beverley McLachlin, discussions had already taken place between McLachlin, SNC-Lavalin's lawyer and the PMO (as well as another retired Supreme Court justice). 

Butts failed to mention that fact during his testimony before the justice committee back in March. Instead, he testified that, "All we ever asked the attorney general to do was consider a second opinion." Perhaps if he had more time he would have added: "And we already vetted and approved those second opinions on her behalf."

'I take responsibility,' Trudeau says in wake of damning report on SNC-Lavalin ethics violation

Timeline: SNC-Lavalin and Jody Wilson-Raybould

Trudeau welcomes ethics probe but won't cooperate

(Trudeau always says what people want to hear, and then does what he wants. He said yesterday that he accepted responsibility, but then refused to admit that he did anything wrong and refused to apologize).

On top of it all, we learned that despite the "welcome" Trudeau publicly offered Dion's probe, the ethics commissioner, in fact, encountered some trouble accessing relevant information and testimonies.

Call these lies-by-omission. Or maybe half-truths. Together, they're a chronicle of a PMO drunk on its own arrogance, so convinced of it own moral virtue that it can rationalize trading text messages with a criminally charged organization over a pressure campaign on the attorney general.

Liberals block new SNC-Lavalin ethics probe as Trudeau insists his team is 'more united than ever'

This is a leadership, as we have since learned, that will kick members out of caucus for having the audacity to speak out against the prime minister, and will lie to Canadians about the veracity of a news report that has since proven true.

And it's a prime minister who, when asked if he will apologize for it all, chooses to respond with an answer to a question no one asked: "I can't apologize for defending Canadian jobs." As if, six months later, anyone is buying those lines anymore.

A quick summary

So, SNC-Lavalin, a major engineering and construction company, a global player, got caught paying graft to the son of Muammar Qaddafi for a Libyan project. Being convicted would mean SNC could not bid on federal Canadian projects for up to 10 years, although they could still bid on provincial projects. They have already been blacklisted by the World Bank.

So, SNC lobbies the Trudeau government to pass a new law to allow SNC to pay a fine without being held criminally responsible, and therefore not losing its ability to bid on federal Canadian projects. The Liberal government thought this was a great idea and immediately implemented the new law by hiding it in the back pages of the 2018 spring budget. A law which would allow wealthy and powerful people and corporations to avoid facing justice.

All is good in SNC's world until they heard that Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Reybould was not onboard with the plan. SNC was unhappy; Trudeau was unhappy - many of SNC's employees lived in his own riding in Montreal. If Trudeau was unhappy, everyone in the PMO and the Finance Minister's office was unhappy. The law they snuck through Parliament was for nothing if JWR didn't play along.

Consequently, Trudeau shuffled JWR out of the Justice portfolio. He needed a minister to retire in order to do that and his old friend, Scott Brison, took the bait. It's hard to say what Brison got out of the deal, but if the timing seems too coincidental to be coincidence, that's because it is. That resulted in the JWR shuffle. Maybe I should put that to music.

Robyn's column details the rest of the story very well.

Pride and arrogance and a typical Liberal attitude that 'the end justifies the means', should spell the end of this government. But I fear there are too many Trudeau supporters who also believe 'the end justifies the means', that he will finish, at least, in second place in the October elections. If so, he will form the next government as all parties in the House besides Conservatives are far-left and will not coalesce with a Conservative Prime Minister. The only other party that might cooperate with the Conservatives is the fledgling People's Party - a party that just might bring honesty and integrity to the House.