JANUARY 18 AND 19, 2019


NEWS AND VIEWS


THE VIDEO REPORT OF THIS ITEM SAID THAT THE DUKE MAY LOSE HIS LICENSE TO DRIVE ON OPEN ROADS. IN THE USA, VERY FEW PEOPLE OF NEARLY A HUNDRED YEARS WOULD BE DRIVING. THE AUTHORITIES ARE STILL LOOKING INTO WHAT CAUSED THE ACCIDENT. THE CONDITION OF THAT STRETCH OF ROAD AND THE SPEED LIMIT HAS BEEN QUESTIONED, THOUGH.

A FOLLOWUP ARTICLE ADDS ONLY THE INFORMATION THAT THE PRINCE WAS SEEN AGAIN TODAY DRIVING ALONE, ON HIS OWN ESTATE. “https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46933739. Prince Philip seen behind the wheel two days after crash; 1 hour ago.” IT SEEMS THAT THERE MAY BE A DRUMBEAT TO TAKE AWAY HIS DRIVERS’ LICENSE. THIS TIME HE WAS ON THE ESTATE, SO THAT SHOULD BE GOOD ENOUGH, IT SEEMS TO ME. A FRIEND OF MINE LEARNED TO DRIVE BY DRIVING HER FATHER’S TRACTOR ON THE FARM.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46918039
Prince Philip: Sandringham crash led to car 'tumbling' across road
JANUARY 18, 2019 4 hours ago

VIDEO -- Witness Roy Warne: "There was a huge collision"

The man who helped free the Duke of Edinburgh from his Land Rover after his crash has described how he saw the vehicle "careering" across the road.

Prince Philip, 97, was unhurt but visited hospital on Friday for a check-up following Thursday's crash.

A nine-month-old boy in the other car was uninjured. The driver, a 28-year-old woman, had cuts while a 45-year-old female passenger broke her wrist.

Witness Roy Warne said the duke asked about their welfare after the crash.

A Palace spokesperson said the duke's hospital visit confirmed he had "no injuries of concern".

Mr Warne was driving home when he saw the car roll and end up on the other side of the road.

He said the duke was "obviously shaken" but managed to stand up and ask how the others involved in the crash were, he said.

Mr Warne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I saw it careering, tumbling across the road and ending up on the other side.

"It would take a massive force [to have done that]."

Duke crash 'puts spotlight on road safety'
Is age a factor behind the wheel?

Media captionPrince Philip crash: Roy Warne describes aftermath

He said that after seeing the crash, on the A149 near Sandringham: "I went to the other car. There was a baby in the back and, with another man, we got the baby out.

"Then I went to the black car to help and realised it was the Duke of Edinburgh."

Mr Warne said he overheard the duke telling police he had been "dazzled by the sun".

The two people who were first to the scene of the crash say the duke appears to have been travelling alone in the vehicle at the moment of collision.

Image copyrightPA
Image caption -- The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have been staying at the Norfolk estate since Christmas
Image copyrightARCHANT
Image caption -- Damage to the Land Rover's left side could be seen after the crash
Image copyrightGEOFF ROBINSON
Image caption -- One day after the car crash, a Land Rover of the same model Prince Philip had driven during the accident, was delivered to the Sandringham estate.

The two women in the Kia were taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn to be treated for the broken wrist and cuts to the knee, and were later discharged.

A Palace spokesman said contact had been made with the occupants of the Kia - the other car involved in the crash - to exchange "well-wishes".

Norfolk Police said it was standard policy to breath test drivers involved in collisions and both had provided negative readings.

The incident will be investigated "and any appropriate action taken", the force added.

Chris Spinks, who led Norfolk's roads policing team for five years, said officers would likely follow-up on first hand accounts and interview those involved.

The retired chief inspector added that there would be "no favouritism" shown towards the duke during the investigation.

Car accidents: Younger v older drivers
By BBC Reality Check

In November 2018, there were 5.3 million over-70s with full driving licences in Britain, according to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

There were 11,245 people involved in road traffic accidents where the driver was in that age group - a rate of two per 1,000 licence holders.

For Britain's 2.8 million drivers aged 17 to 24, the rate was more than four times as high, at nine per 1,000.

The DVLA did not provide figures on whether this simply reflected that the older age group were on the road less than the younger age group. However, a separate study from the National Travel Survey suggests that over-70 drive an average of 1,000 miles a year more than under-20s.

Asked if Prince Philip was trapped, Mr Warne replied: "Yes, he was. I asked him to move his left leg and that freed his right leg and then I helped him get out."

He said he couldn't remember what the duke had then said, but added that "it was nothing rude".

"He was obviously shaken, and then he went and asked if everyone else was all right," said Mr Warne.

Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption -- Debris at the scene where Prince Philip was involved in a traffic accident

Asked if the duke had then thanked him for getting him out of the car, Mr Warne said: "No, but he wasn't being discourteous. He had other things on his mind, I'm sure."

Mr Warne said there was "a little bit of blood" and that a member of what he described as the royal entourage gave him a wipe for his hands, adding "a lot of people arrived very quickly".

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption -- Prince Philip, seen driving here in May 2018, was not taken to hospital

He said the two women involved were "very shaken", adding: "One of them was the mother of the child and she was quite upset."

Norfolk County Council was already due to discuss safety issues on the road - described as a "rat run" by one local - before the crash took place.

On Friday, it approved plans for new safety measures on that section of the A149. The speed limit will be lowered from 60mph to 50mph and an average speed monitoring system will be implemented.

Prime Minister Theresa May sent the duke a message wishing him well following the crash.

Were you in the area at the time of the crash? Did you witness what happened? If you have information you can share please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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THIS MAKES ME NAUSEOUS, BUT YOU MAY REMEMBER A NEWS VIDEO TAKEN WITH THE PRESIDENT AT THE WHITE HOUSE SUPPOSEDLY HONORING A GROUP OF NATIVE AMERICAN CODE TALKERS. DURING HIS SPEECH HE MENTIONED “POCAHONTAS” IN HIS USUAL DEROGATORY WAY. HOW COULD THEY NOT TAKE THAT AS A SLUR AND A PERSONAL CHALLENGE IN THEIR RIGHT TO BE ALIVE?

THESE TEENAGED BOYS WERE DOING APPROXIMATELY THE SAME THING. WHEN OUR WONDERFUL WHITE ELDERS DO THIS KIND OF THING, THE MORE IDIOTIC OF THE YOUNG ONES WILL AUTOMATICALLY DO IT, TOO. THE REALLY SMART ONES WILL KNOW BETTER. THE MIDDLE GROUND ON INTELLIGENCE WILL DO AS THEY TOO OFTEN DO, FOLLOW THE CROWD. WE ARE LOST AS A SOCIETY, I SOMETIMES FEEL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAP9vWl0mAk

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/426186-catholic-school-to-investigate-maga-hat-wearing-teens-who
Catholic school to investigate MAGA-hat wearing teens who harassed Native Americans in viral video
BY ARIS FOLLEY - 01/19/19 08:02 PM EST

A Catholic archdiocese is reportedly considering taking disciplinary action against some of its high school students after they were captured in a video harassing a Native American troupe during the Indigenous Peoples March Friday.

NBC News reported that the Diocese of Covington condemned some of its students that attend Covington Catholic High School in Covington, Ky., after they were seen surrounding and taunting the troupe.

Laura Keener, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, specifically addressed the students’ actions towards Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder who was surrounded by the teens as he beat a drum and sang during the march, and condemned them for their behavior towards “Native Americans in general” in a statement seen by the news agency.

"We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan. 18, after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C.," the statement read.

"We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person,” the statement continued.

The archdiocese also confirmed that the incident was under investigation and that the some of the students involved could face expulsion for their actions.

During the incident on Friday, Phillips, 64, could be seen in numerous videos online being confronted by the teens. One viral video that has since been widely circulated online shows a teen standing in the drummer’s face wearing a smirk while Phillips continues to sing.

Phillips told The Washington Post after the incident that he felt threatened by the teens during the ordeal.

“It was getting ugly, and I was thinking: ‘I’ve got to find myself an exit out of this situation and finish my song at the Lincoln Memorial,’ ” Phillips told The Post. “I started going that way, and that guy in the hat stood in my way and we were at an impasse. He just blocked my way and wouldn’t allow me to retreat.”

Phillips also said he is still “trying to process what happened” after the incident and is “feeling a little bit overwhelmed.”

“That energy could be turned into feeding the people, cleaning up our communities and figuring out what else we can do,” Phillips continued. “We need the young people to be doing that instead of saying: ‘These guys are our enemies.’ ”


THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I’VE HEARD DONNA SHALALA TALK ABOUT ANYTHING. SHE’S VERY INTERESTING, AND LIKE BERNIE SANDERS, IS 77 YEARS OLD. THIS IS HER FIRST TERM IN CONGRESS. I GUESS SHE HAD DONE EVERYTHING ELSE, BUT DIDN’T WANT TO RETIRE YET. SHE’S VERY ENERGETIC, LIKE BERNIE IS. SHE IS A DEMOCRAT, ONCE LEFTIST, NOW CENTRIST, PERHAPS BECAUSE THE PARTY HAS MOVED TO THE LEFT. HOWEVER, THE INTERVIEW SHOWS HER TO BE KIND AND FRIENDLY. SHE’LL ADD GOOD SENSE TO A GROUP WHO CAN BE EXTREME, AT LEAST UNDER THE REPUBLICANS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/cbsn/
The takeout
Interview with donna shalala on her first election to congress.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/30/us/politics/donna-shalala-congress.html
Too Old to Be a Freshman in Congress? Donna Shalala Doesn’t Care
By Emily Cochrane
Dec. 30, 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Representative-elect Donna Shalala of Florida, a former secretary of health and human services, concedes that her new junior status will be a challenge.CreditCreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Georgetown waterfront apartment where Donna Shalala has spent part of the last two decades is half sanctuary, half résumé.

There is a signed photo of Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, walking with Ms. Shalala when both were in Bill Clinton’s cabinet. A gold coffee table is adorned with the visages of the kings of Persia, a reminder of her time in pre-revolutionary Iran as a Peace Corps volunteer. Against a bookshelf a set of golf clubs rests in a bag emblazoned with the trademark orange and green “U” from the University of Miami, the 17,000-student private institution where she was president until 2015.

The shoulder bag left on a chair by the door with a different seal — the House of Representatives — seems like a bit of a letdown. But nevertheless, as she will repeatedly tell you, Ms. Shalala is excited for the next chapter in a career spanning decades: backbench freshman.

Taking office a little over a month before her 78th birthday, Ms. Shalala, who once presided over a sprawling bureaucracy and budget as secretary of health and human services, will take on a new role: the oldest freshman in her class and one of the oldest true freshmen in congressional history. (Representative James Bowler of Illinois, elected at 78 in 1953, still maintains the distinction of being the oldest first-term freshman.)

Under the circumstances of the moment, her greatest strength — being historically old and experienced in a historically young and diverse freshman class — could become a huge liability.

“Do they see her skill set as an asset or is she sort of dismissed as the old guard who’s out of touch with how the world is now?” asked Scott Klug, a former Wisconsin Republican representative who introduced Ms. Shalala at her 1992 cabinet confirmation hearing. He answered, “Donna, just by the force of her personality, will have a presence.”

Photograph -- Ms. Shalala with Hillary Clinton in 1994. Ms. Shalala’s affiliation with the Clintons could be a challenge in a younger, more diverse Democratic Party.CreditCharles Tasnadi/Associated Press

In a freshman class where some first-time candidates may be reluctant to transition to governing, Ms. Shalala is unlikely to Instagram her way through office, like Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, or joust with Twitter trolls the way Representative-elect Ilhan Omar of Minnesota does. (She does maintain accounts on both platforms.)

The newcomers may come to value the woman nicknamed Hurricane Donna, who wrestled with a Republican Congress and spent years testifying before the senior lawmakers she now calls colleagues. But in the meantime, the adjustment could well be brutal for someone who has led staffs of thousands and controlled budgets of millions, or even billions.

“She’ll be the chief executive of her congressional office, but that is all,” Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the retiring Republican whose South Florida seat Ms. Shalala is taking. She spent time meeting with Ms. Shalala during the transition to help her adjust. “I want her to understand that she’s used to being the chief, and Congress puts you in your place.”

Ms. Shalala, who weathered a surprisingly competitive primary challenge and general election race, understands the persistent disbelief from both Republicans and Democrats over her decision to run. (“I got pissed off,” she says, watching President Trump doing something — she can’t remember what, but something — on TV.)

And she concedes that her new junior status will be a challenge.

“In my head, I assume it’s a new job, and I’ve got to be careful about not bringing the last job or the last experience to it,” she said, standing in her kitchen with a cup of black coffee.

Ms. Shalala does have some challenges in a Democratic Party that is younger, more diverse and more liberal than Mr. Clinton’s. She must communicate with her district’s significant Hispanic population without fluency in Spanish. As president of the University of Miami, she clashed with custodial workers striking over low pay, though she later earned the support of union workers during the campaign. She enraged Miami environmentalists by selling sensitive and protected land, a decision she insists was within her jurisdiction as university president.

Then there is the affiliation with the Clintons: She served eight years in Mr. Clinton’s cabinet and a year as president of the vilified Clinton Foundation as a personal favor to Hillary Clinton. “Fight Song,” the theme to Mrs. Clinton’s presidential bid, remains Ms. Shalala’s ringtone. (It is her form of resistance, she says.)

Editors’ Picks

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Photograph -- Ms. Shalala weathered a surprisingly competitive primary challenge and general election race.
Credit -- Saul Martinez for The New York Times

An eclectic arsenal of “Donna stories” has preceded the return to Washington of a woman who preferred to campaign in dog parks, but happily greets everyone from second-grade soccer players to old Republican adversaries on Capitol Hill.

There is the one where she thwarted a robbery by curling her already small five-foot frame into a fetal position and screaming. Or there are the days from her Little League softball career under the guidance of George Steinbrenner, the longtime owner of the New York Yankees. (Ms. Shalala said she recently accepted an invitation to join the congressional women’s softball team, likely setting another age-related record.)

Her freshman classmates have been learning about her by, among other things, revisiting their memories of Ms. Shalala’s tenure during Mr. Clinton’s impeachment, including recollections of her confrontation with Mr. Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

“She’s smart; she knows the game,” said Representative-elect Deb Haaland of New Mexico, who said she considers Ms. Shalala a mentor. “It’s not about age. It’s about strength, humanity — it’s about willingness to step up and fight.”

Almost forgotten are the opening days of the Clinton administration, when the right deemed Ms. Shalala “the farthest to the left and most controversial” of the Clinton cabinet nominees.

“I’m like a chameleon — I adjust to the job as it is,” she said.

Decades later, Ms. Shalala acknowledges that in this freshman class, she is more centrist than leftist — and on the other side of the generational change she once advocated. She scoffs at the suggestion that she should have stepped aside for the next generation of Democrats.

“What am I stepping aside for? Do they have better ideas than I have?” she said. “The answer is, no.”

A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 31, 2018, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Fresh Face in Congress, but Far From a Novice, Shalala Brings Gravitas. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe


WHAT I’VE READ HERE MAKES ME NERVOUS ABOUT THEIR GOVERNMENT, MOVING TOWARD ONE OVERLY LARGE PARTY WITH TOO MUCH POWER, AND ITS’ CONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE’S BEING CHANGED IN WAYS THAT ARE THREATENING THE WELLBEING OF THE PEOPLE. SEE WIKIPEDIA BELOW ON “ORBAN'S FIDESZ PARTY.” ORBAN IS BELIEVED, AT LEAST BY MANY, TO HAVE DICTATORIAL GOALS. THE WIKI ARTICLE ALSO SOUNDS A LITTLE LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE USA UNDER TRUMP. IT MAKES ME UNEASY. READ THE LAST FEW PARAGRAPHS OF THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE. IT SOUNDS LIKE THE HORSE HAS THE BIT IN ITS’ TEETH TO ME.

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2019-01-19/dozens-of-anti-govt-protests-in-hungary-decry-labor-changes
Dozens of Anti-Govt Protests in Hungary Decry Labor Changes
Dozens of anti-government protests have taken place in Hungary, drawing mostly hundreds of people to each event.
Jan. 19, 2019, at 2:36 p.m.

Photograph -- Demonstrators gather during a protest against the recent amendments to the labour code, dubbed 'slave law' by opposition forces, in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019. (Zoltan Balogh/MTI via AP) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (AP) — Dozens of anti-government protests have taken place in Hungary to protest labor law changes that sharply increased the overtime hours that employers can request from workers.

Saturday's rallies drew mostly hundreds [sic] [mostly drew?] of people to each event. The labor law changes were approved in December by lawmakers from Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party*, and also include other measures seen as detrimental to employees.

The new legislation is called the "slave law" by government opponents, who also cite government corruption and Orban's attacks on the press and academic freedom among their reasons for holding the rallies and roadblocks.

Government spokesman Istvan Hollik said the labor code changes were just an excuse for the protests, which he called part of the opposition's campaign ahead of the European Parliament elections in May.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Fidesz* party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidesz

Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈfidɛs]; in full, Hungarian: Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség) is a national-conservative[1][2][3] and right-wing populist[3][2][7] political party in Hungary. It has dominated Hungarian politics on the national and local level since its landslide victory in the 2010 national elections on a joint list with the Christian Democratic People's Party,[13] securing it a parliamentary supermajority that it retained in 2014[14][15] and again in 2018.[16] Fidesz also enjoys majorities in the county legislatures (19 of 19), almost all (20 of 23) urban counties and in the Budapest city council. Viktor Orbán has been the leader of the party for most of its history.

History
The party was founded in 1988, named simply Fidesz (Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége, meaning the Alliance of Young Democrats), originally as a youthful classical liberal party. Fidesz was founded by young democrats, mainly students, who were persecuted by the communist party and had to meet in small, clandestine groups. The movement became a major force in many areas of modern Hungarian history. The membership had an upper age limit of 35 years (this requirement was abolished at the 1993 congress).

In 1989, Fidesz won the Rafto Prize. The Hungarian youth opposition movement was represented by one of its leaders, Dr Péter Molnár, who became a Member of Parliament in Hungary. In 1992, Fidesz joined the Liberal International.[17] At that time, it was a moderate liberal centrist party.

After its disappointing result in the 1994 elections, Fidesz changed its political position from liberal to conservative.[3][17] In 1995, it added "Hungarian Civic Party" (Magyar Polgári Párt) to its shortened name. The conservative turn caused a severe split in the membership. Péter Molnár left the party, as well as Gábor Fodor and Klára Ungár, who joined the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats.

Fidesz gained power in 1998 under leader and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who governed Hungary in coalition with the smaller Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Independent Smallholders' Party. In 2000, Fidesz joined the European People's Party and had its membership in the Liberal International terminated.[17]

. . . .

After winning 53% of the popular vote in the first-round of the 2010 parliamentary election, which translated into a supermajority of 68% of parliamentary seats, giving Fidesz sufficient power to revise or replace the constitution, the party embarked on an extraordinary project of passing over 200 laws and drafting and adopting a new constitution—since followed by nearly 2000 amendments.

The new constitution has been widely criticized[22][23][24][25][26][27] by the Venice Commission for Democracy through Law,[28] the Council of Europe, the European Parliament[29] and the United States[30] for gathering too much power in the hands of the ruling party, Fidesz, for limiting oversight of the new constitution by the Constitutional Court of Hungary, and for removing democratic checks and balances in various areas, including the ordinary judiciary,[31] supervision of elections and the media.


MSNBC SAID SOME MONTHS AGO THAT MUELLER’S GROUP HAD NO LEAKS, BUT IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THAT ISN’T TRUE NOW, AND MUELLER SEEMS TO BE TRYING TO GRAB THE GENIE AND PUT HIM BACK IN THE BOTTLE. I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE SOME OF THE SPECIFICS OF THIS STORY, BOTH FROM BUZZFEED’S SIDE AND FROM MUELLER’S. I HOPE THE LEAKER WILL BE CAUGHT AND PUNISHED, ALSO.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/18/robert-mueller-disputes-buzzfeed-story-trump-directing-michael-cohen-lie/2620598002/
Mueller's office disputes BuzzFeed story about Trump directing Cohen's false testimony
Christal Hayes, USA TODAY Published 8:01 p.m. ET Jan. 18, 2019 | Updated 8:23 p.m. ET Jan. 18, 2019

VIDEO -- Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding an investigation after a bombshell report from Buzzfeed news that claims President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Veuer's Nick Cardona has that story. Buzz60

WASHINGTON – In a rare public statement, special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday disputed a blockbuster report from BuzzFeed News that alleged President Donald Trump directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie in his testimony before Congress.

Despite worldwide coverage and intense interest, Mueller's office has stayed mostly quiet on reports regarding the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. But on Friday, Mueller's office took the rare step of calling BuzzFeed's story "not accurate."

"BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate," said Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller's office.

The BuzzFeed report alleged that Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Organization’s pursuit of a deal to build a luxury residential high-rise in the center of Moscow, hoping to conceal these actions during his presidential bid.

The story also asserted that Mueller's office knew of the president's alleged actions after obtaining information through internal emails, text messages and multiple interviews.

A look at former FBI director Robert Mueller
Fullscreen

The report revived discussions about the possibility of impeaching Trump for possible obstruction and emboldened House Democrats who vowed to investigate the allegations.

Mueller's office wasn't specific in exactly what portions of the report were inaccurate but the statement is sure to embolden the president and his supporters.

Even before Mueller's team called the story inaccurate, Trump, who frequently calls journalists "fake news," lashed out about the report and Cohen's credibility.

"Lying to reduce his jail time!" the president wrote on Twitter.

More: Impeachment talk revived after report says Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress

Opinion: BuzzFeed Michael Cohen bombshell could be game changer for Trump, Republicans and history

Cohen, 52, is expected to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to federal financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress, which was at the heart of the BuzzFeed story.

Cohen admitted he wasn't truthful when he told the Senate and House Intelligence Committees that all discussions about a Moscow development had ceased in January 2016, knowing that such efforts had continued through at least June – in the heat of the campaign and as Trump repeatedly denied any links to Russia.

Prosecutors have asserted in court documents filed late last year that the tower project "likely required the assistance of the Russian government. And if completed, the company stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in licensing fees and other revenues."

The court documents did not address whether Cohen's false statements about the Moscow tower discussions were prompted by any other consideration than an attempt to personally shield the campaign from public association with Russia.

Contributing: Kevin Johnson


THIS STORY IS INTERESTING TO ME PARTLY BECAUSE A FEMALE VIAGRA WAS OF INTEREST TO FEMINISTS YEARS AGO. I’M REALLY SURPRISED TO SEE IT COMING FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD, THOUGH. I WONDER IF THE MARRIAGES ARE SO BRUTAL TO WOMEN THAT THEY JUST “CLOSE UP” EMOTIONALLY, OR MUCH WORSE, THAT THE WOMEN ARE GIVEN “FEMALE CIRCUMCISION” AS SO MANY PARTS OF THE MIDDLE EAST, MAYBE INDIA, AND AFRICA ARE. I UNDERSTAND THAT THE GOAL OF CLIPPING OUT THEIR CLITORIS, ETC. IS TO MAKE THEM LESS TEMPTED TO SEEK SEX WITH ANOTHER MAN BESIDES THEIR HUSBANDS.

IF SO, THEN I THINK IT HAS BACKFIRED. THEY DON’T WANT SEX WITH ANYONE NOW. I HOPE I’M MISREADING THIS, BUT THE PROBLEM IS THAT THREE OUT OF TEN EGYPTIAN WOMEN, THIS ARTICLE SAYS, HAVE “A LOW SEX DRIVE.” THIS A PRETTY SAD STORY TO ME. TO HAVE WOMEN ESSENTIALLY SEXUALLY NEUTRALIZED ON THE EMOTIONAL LEVEL IS SHOCKING. THE ARTICLE DOESN’T SAY WHAT SIMILAR STATISTICAL EVIDENCE WOULD BE FROM OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46877038
The Arab country turning to 'female Viagra'
18 January 2019

PHOTOGRAPH -- Flibanserin is produced in Egypt by a local pharmaceutical company

As Egypt becomes the first Arab country to authorise the production and sale of a drug meant to boost the female libido, the BBC's Sally Nabil explores whether there's a market for it in such a socially conservative country.

"I felt drowsy and dizzy, and my heart was racing."

This is how Leila felt after taking her first pill of the so-called "female Viagra" - chemically known as flibanserin.

The drug was first authorised for use in the US almost three years ago, and is now being produced in Egypt by a local pharmaceutical company.

Leila - not her real name - is a conservative housewife in her mid-30s. She prefers to conceal her identity as, like many women in Egypt, talking about sexual problems and sexual needs is still very much a taboo.

After almost 10 years of marriage, she says she decided to get the drug "out of mere curiosity".

Leila, who has no health problems, bought the drug without a prescription - a very common practice in Egypt, where people can buy many medicines over the counter.

"The pharmacist told me to take a pill every night for a few weeks. He said there would be no side effects," she says. "My husband and I wanted to see what would happen. I tried it once, and will never do it again."

'Female Viagra' - all you need to know

Divorce rates are on the rise in Egypt, and some local media reports have attributed it to persistent sexual problems between couples.

The local manufacturer of flibanserin says three out of every 10 women in Egypt have a low sex drive. But these figures are just rough estimates - such statistics are hard to come by in the country.

"This treatment is very much needed here - it's a revolution," says Ashraf Al Maraghy, a representative of the company.

Image caption
Pharmacists selling the drug in Cairo say sales have so far been promising

Mr Maraghy says the drug is safe and effective, and any dizziness and drowsiness will disappear over time - but many pharmacists and doctors disagree.

One pharmacist I spoke to warned me that the drug could lower blood pressure to "alarming levels" and might be problematic for people with heart and liver problems.

Murad Sadiq, who runs a pharmacy in northern Cairo, says he always explains the side effects to customers but that "they still insist on buying it".

"About 10 people a day come in to buy the drug. Most of them are men. Women are too shy to ask for it."

'It's all in the mind'

Inside Mr Sadiq's pharmacy, I noticed an advert that referred to flibanserin as "the pink pill". It's the female version of the "blue pill" - a term used in Egypt to refer to Viagra for men.

But the manufacturer says the term "female Viagra" is inaccurate. "The media came up with this name, not us," says Mr Maraghy.

While a Viagra pill treats erectile dysfunction by improving blood flow to the penis, flibanserin was developed as an anti-depressant and boosts sexual desire by balancing chemicals in the brain.

Image caption -- Flibanserin has been dubbed the "female Viagra"

"'Female Viagra' is a misleading term," says Heba Qotb, a sex therapist, who has refused to prescribe it to any of her patients.

"It will never work with a woman who suffers any physical or psychological problems," she adds.

"For women, sex is an emotional process. It all starts in the mind. A woman can never have a healthy intimate relationship with her husband if he mistreats her. No medication will help this."

Ms Qotb says flibanserin's efficacy is very small and is not worth the risk. "Lowering blood pressure is a very serious side effect," she warns.

Read more on women in Egypt:
I refuse to be shamed for having a female body
The forbidden love of interfaith romances
Egypt: The lure for girls of living alone
Egyptian women still have a long way to go before they will feel comfortable speaking up about their sexual needs.

Leila says she knows a lot of women "who filed for divorce after their sexual relationship had soured as a result of the accumulative tension in their marriage".

"If your husband is sexually weak, you will support him and help him seek treatment, as long as he is a loving life partner. But if you have an abusive husband, you will definitely lose all interest in him, even if he is good in bed. Men don't seem to understand this."

Though it's still early days, Mr Sadiq the pharmacy manager says sales of flibanserin have been very promising so far and believes they will rise.

But Ms Qotb, the sex therapist, is very concerned about the potential repercussions on marriages.

"When a man notices no improvement in his wife's sex drive, even though she has been taking the pills, he will blame her and not the ineffective drug or their tense relationship. He might even find this as an excuse to dump her."


WILL HE REALLY SERVE THE SEVEN YEARS? FOR THE SAKE OF LAW AND ORDER IN THE USA, I HOPE HE DOES. “LAW AND ORDER” APPLIES TO EVERYONE. THE COMMENTS ABOUT VAN DYKE FROM THE COMMUNITIES HE “SERVED” WERE ALL NEGATIVE, AND I READ CBS ALL THE TIME WITH NO SIGN OF A STRONG LEANING TO THE LEFT. IN FACT, IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THEY GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO AVOID OFFENDING THE CONSERVATIVES. ANOTHER ARTICLE TODAY HAS SIMILAR MATERIAL. I DON’T DOUBT THE TRUTH OF THAT, BECAUSE I WATCHED THE VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THE MCDONALD SHOOTING, AND IT SHOWED AN ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY FEROCITY BY THE OFFICER, NOT TO MENTION THE NUMBER OF VERY SIMILAR ARTICLES AND VIDEOS I’VE SEEN IN THE PAST. ONE COP ACTUALLY JUMPED UP ON THE HOOD OF A CAR AND PUMPED MANY BULLETS INTO THE PEOPLE INSIDE. I DON’T THINK A WEAPON WAS FOUND IN THERE, EITHER.

THE TEENAGER NOT ONLY DIDN’T “OBEY AN ORDER,” HE TURNED HIS BACK ON HIM AND WALKED AWAY FROM HIM DOWN THE STREET. I THINK THE OFFICER FELT “DISSED,” AND SHOT IN ANGER. IT IS MY BELIEF THAT FOR THE IMPORTANT POSITION OF POLICE OFFICER WE NEED VERY STABLE PEOPLE RATHER THAN SADISTIC, RACIST OR EMOTIONALLY OVERSENSITIVE PEOPLE. LOOK AT THE WITNESS REPORTS FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE FAMILIAR WITH VAN DYKE. IF A THIRD OF WHAT THEY SAID IS TRUE, THEN HE WAS A “ROGUE COP.” THEN THERE IS ANOTHER THING THAT TO ME IS VERY WRONG. ANOTHER OFFICER BLAMED MCDONALD FOR SHOWING “A LACK OF COMPLIANCE.” NO COMPLIANCE, SHOOT TO KILL. SOMETHING’S REALLY WRONG THERE.

ANOTHER FACTOR IS THAT POLICE TRAINING WHICH DOES, I HAVE HEARD, INSTRUCT THEM TO SHOOT IMMEDIATELY IF THEY EVEN THINK THEY SEE DANGER. THAT IS HALF THE PROBLEM, I THINK. IT PRODUCES PARANOIA AMONG THE COPS. READ THIS ARTICLE AND ANOTHER FROM TODAY: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46928035.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jason-van-dyke-sentencing-chicago-officer-to-learn-fate-in-laquan-mcdonald-shooting/
Ex-Chicago officer sentenced to nearly 7 years in Laquan McDonald shooting
UPDATED ON: JANUARY 18, 2019 / 6:56 PM / CBS/AP

Chicago -- A white former Chicago police officer has been sentenced to 81 months in prison -- nearly 7 years -- in the 2014 killing of a black teen that was captured on a shocking dashcam video.

Judge Vincent Gaughan issued his sentence Friday for Jason Van Dyke in the death of Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke was convicted in October of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one for each shot Van Dyke fired that struck McDonald.

Estimates of the sentence Van Dyke might have gotten had varied wildly. The murder charge carries a prison term of four to 20 years, but Gaughan also could have given Van Dyke probation for that count. The aggravated battery charge carries a sentence of six to 30 years behind bars and does not allow for probation alone.

Van Dyke's defense asked the judge Friday to sentence Van Dyke to probation on the second-degree murder conviction alone, while prosecutors argued he should also be sentenced on the aggravated battery counts. The minimum for those convictions can be as high as 96 years, but prosecutors asked a judge for 18 to 20 years.

Issuing his sentence, Gaughan agreed to sentence Van Dyke on the second-degree murder charge alone.

The judge called the case a "tragedy for both sides."

The sentencing comes a day after another judge acquitted three other officers who had been accused of covering up for Van Dyke and lying to support his version of events. Van Dyke's trial and that of the three other officers hinged on the video, which showed Van Dyke opening fire on the teen, who was holding a knife, within seconds of getting out of his police SUV as the teen apparently walked away. He continued to shoot the 17-year-old while he was lying on the street. Police were responding to a report of a male who was breaking into trucks and stealing radios on the city's South Side on the night of Oct. 20, 2014.

enance.jpg
Edward Nance cries as he testifies at the Jan. 18 sentencing hearing of Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke. Nance says Van Dyke slammed him during a 2007 traffic stop.
POOL

Van Dyke, 40, arrived at the courthouse Friday morning wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit and being guarded by sheriff's deputies. He addressed the court before the judge issued his ruling late Friday afternoon, saying he prays daily for the soul of Laquan McDonald and that the teen's family is suffering "due to my actions." He said he opened fire because he feared for his life and that killing McDonald was "the last thing I ever wanted to do."

"As a God-fearing man and a father, I will live with this the rest of my life," Van Dyke said.

The hearing spanned the day, with multiple witnesses taking the stand to give emotional testimony. Gaughan heard from prosecution witnesses as the state presented potential "aggravating factors" to support their request for a sentence of 18-20 years. Several black motorists testified that Van Dyke used racial slurs and excessive force during traffic stops in the years before McDonald's shooting, and one man was unable to stop crying as he described the lasting impact of the assault he said left him in near-constant pain.

Edward Nance testified that Van Dyke pulled him out of a car after a 2007 traffic stop. Nance said he handcuffed him, slammed him against the vehicle twice and threw him on the floor in the back of a cruiser, injuring him so severely he later required rotator cuff surgeries on both his shoulders.

"He grabbed my arm, and I tried to tell him that hurt, but it was like he didn't care," Nance said.

Nance said Van Dyke yelled obscenities at him and never told him why he was being pulled over.

Sobbing, Nance said he can no longer lift his arms over his shoulders and he can no longer work as a youth referee. Nance said the incident also left him emotionally traumatized and that he suffers from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and attention deficit disorder.

Nance said he filed a civil rights lawsuit against Van Dyke, the city of Chicago and several other members of the Chicago Police Department and a jury issued a verdict in his favor. He said he filed a report with the Independent Police Review Authority, who took no action against Van Dyke.

"He went to work the next damn day like nothing happened," Nance said.

van-dyke8.jpg
Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke and his attorney Daniel Herbert listen during Van Dyke's sentencing hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Chicago, for the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.
ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIA AP, POOL

Another witness said Van Dyke held a gun to his temple during a 2005 traffic stop and called him a racial slur. The witness said the incident traumatized him. A defense attorney said the witness didn't include those allegations in a complaint he filed against Van Dyke at the time.

Another man who had been arrested by Van Dyke was visibly shaken as he testified that Van Dyke choked him following a traffic stop and field sobriety test in 2011.

"I can't even look at the man right now, I just think of the night he choked me," the witness said. "He just didn't have no remorse or nothing."

Special prosecutor Joseph McMahon called Van Dyke's actions "devastating" for the McDonald family, but said Van Dyke's conduct has also impacted the witnesses who testified Friday and the community as a whole by eroding trust in police.

"Nothing I can say this afternoon from this podium will speak to you louder or more effectively than what they told you -- not just what happened to them in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011, but how the defendant's actions, how his physical attack, has continued to harm them to this day," McMahon said.

The Rev. Marvin Hunter, Laquan McDonald's great-uncle, read a victim impact statement he wrote from the perspective of the slain teen.

"I am a 17-year-old boy. I am a victim of murder in the second degree, and 16 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon," the statement began. "I am unable to speak with my own voice.M,"

The statement said the teen had been working a construction job at the time of his death and looking forward to again living in the same home with his mother and sister. But Van Dyke, he said, "with his cold, callous disregard for the life of a young black man, without me provoking him, robbed us of this."

"The story of my life is that in the short time of my life I have worked hard to correct the mistakes I have made, but in a matter of six seconds, he took 16 shots and ended the possibility of this forever," Hunter read.

The teen's death has brought "inconsolable pain" to the McDonald family, but Van Dyke's actions have also impacted the officer's own family, the statement said.

"Please think about me and my life when you sentence this person to prison," the statement said. "Why should this person, who has ended my life forever because he chose to become judge, jury and executioner and has never asked for forgiveness, be free, when I'm dead forever?"

tiffany-vandyke.jpg
Tiffany Van Dyke testifies at the sentencing hearing of her husband Jason Van Dyke, who was sentenced to nearly 7 years Friday in the 2014 shooting death of black teen Laquan McDonald POOL

The judge also heard from witnesses as the defense presented possible "mitigating" factors to support their request for probation. Defense attorneys submitted nearly 200 letters from supporters asking the judge for leniency, including notes from his wife and children, reports CBS Chicago.

Van Dyke's oldest daughter Kaylee Van Dyke, 17, cried as she testified about being bullied at school and missing her father on birthdays and Thanksgiving. The girl's testimony was not broadcast, but reporters in the courtroom tweeted out their notes from her testimony.

"My heart sincerely goes out to the McDonald family, but it's time to bring my dad home," Kaylee Van Dyke said, reports CBS Chicago's Roseanne Tellez.

Jason Van Dyke's wife Tiffany Van Dyke testified her life has been "a nightmare." She called her husband a "kind, gentle man" and described him as her "everything," her "other half" and her "heart."

"He is a great human being, a great father and a wonderful husband," Tiffany Van Dyke said. "He was also a very great, dedicated police officer to the city of Chicago. They have lost a great officer."

She echoed other family members who testified that her husband isn't racist or full of hatred. She said her two daughters don't eat or sleep and get bullied at school by kids who tell them "their father is a murderer." She said her family fields threats and and fears for their safety.

Sobbing, Tiffany Van Dyke said her biggest fear is that someone will kill her husband "for something he did as a police officer -- something he was trained to do."

"There was no malice, no hatred that night," she said. "It was simply a man doing his job."

When asked what she would say to the McDonald family, she said her family prays for them, and she called McDonald's death a tragedy. She said she wants "both sides" to have peace.

She begged the judge for a lenient sentence, saying her husband would never work again and has already paid "the ultimate price."

Jason Van Dyke wiped his nose and eyes with a tissue as his wife testified.

Former Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president Dean Angelo also took the stand in Van Dyke's defense. He described the night of McDonald's shooting as a "perfect storm."

laquan-mcdonald.jpg
Laquan McDonald
CBS

"I know this wasn't something he set out to do," Angelo said. "This was a situation that arose, for lack of any of description, by a lack of compliance. If a knife is dropped, we're not here."

Van Dyke's attorney Darren O'Brien said Van Dyke had been responding to a police call over violent actions by McDonald.

"Everything that happened was set in motion by Mr. McDonald," O'Brien said.

In acquitting the three officers accused of covering up for Van Dyke on Thursday, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson described McDonald as an "armed offender" and noted that he refused to drop the knife. The statements appeared to depart from the jury who convicted Van Dyke, which found the teen did not pose a threat to the officer.

Stephenson rejected the state's argument that Thomas Gaffney, David March and Joseph Walsh, who was Van Dyke's partner, submitted false reports to try to prevent or shape any criminal investigation of the shooting. Among other things, they said the officers falsely claimed that Van Dyke shot McDonald after McDonald aggressively swung a knife at police and that he kept shooting the teen because McDonald was trying to get up still armed with the knife.

Stephenson rejected prosecution arguments that the video demonstrated officers were lying when they described McDonald as moving even after he was shot.

"An officer could have reasonably believed an attack was imminent," she said. "It was borne out in the video that McDonald continued to move after he fell to the ground" and refused to relinquish a knife.

The video appeared to show the teen collapsing in a heap after the first few shots and moving in large part because bullets kept striking his body for 10 more seconds.

chicago2.jpg
Ex-Officer Joseph Walsh, former Detective David March and Chicago Police Officer Thomas Gaffney arrive in court on the first day of their trial in Chicago on Nov. 27, 2018.
ZBIGNIEW BZDAK/CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIA AP, POOL

Stephenson said the video amounts to a "vantage point" that was taken from a different angle than Walsh's view. She said comparing the police reports to the video to determine whether the reports were true — as the state had argued — would amount to looking at only a portion of the evidence.

City Hall released the video to the public in November 2015 — 13 months after the shooting — and acted only because a judge ordered it to do so. The charges against Van Dyke were not announced until the day of the video's release.

The case cost the police superintendent his job and was widely seen as the reason the county's top prosecutor was voted out of office a few months later. It was also thought to be a major factor in Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's decision not to seek a third term.

The accusations triggered a federal investigation, resulting in a blistering report that found Chicago officers routinely used excessive force and violated the rights of residents, particularly minorities. The city implemented a new policy that requires video of fatal police shootings to be released within 60 days, accelerated a program to equip all officers with body cameras and adopted other reforms to change the way police shootings are investigated.

In a statement released after the sentencing, Emmanuel and Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson said their work to bring lasting reform to the police department will continue.

"While a jury and judge have rendered their decisions, all of us who love Chicago and call this city home must continue to work together, listen to each other, and repair relationships that will make Chicago safer and stronger for generations to come," the statement read.

First published on January 18, 2019

© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


THESE COPS WERE ACQUITTED OF AN ORCHESTRATED COVERUP. SO THE BLUE WALL OF SILENCE CONTINUES, I GUESS. IF YOU CAN’T PROVE IT’S “ORCHESTRATED,” YOU CAN’T TALK ABOUT IT. SWEEP THAT BIT OF DIRT UNDER THE RUG ALONG WITH THE REST.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-laquan-mcdonald-shooting-police-coverup-20190117-story.html
Judge acquits 3 Chicago cops of covering up Laquan McDonald's killing, backing police on each disputed point
Megan Crepeau, Christy Gutowski, Jason Meisner and Stacy St. Clair
Chicago Tribune
JANUARY 17, 2019 7:45 PM

Photograph -- Former Detective David March, ex-Officer Joseph Walsh and Officer Thomas Gaffney on Jan. 17, 2019, were acquitted of charges that they conspired to cover up the 2014 police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. (Chicago Tribune)

In a staunch and unequivocal defense of how Chicago police handled Laquan McDonald’s murder, a Cook County judge acquitted three officers Thursday of charges alleging they conspired to justify the shooting by falsifying reports and claiming the teen was the aggressor.

At every point in her hourlong ruling, Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson endorsed the actions of the police on the night McDonald was shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke, calling the 17-year-old an erratic, armed assailant who ignored commands to drop a small knife. She also said it would be wrong to second-guess the actions of the police — including Van Dyke, who is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for his historic conviction for second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery.

“It is clear from the testimony in this case that an officer could reasonably believe that an attack was imminent based upon McDonald’s actions,” said Stephenson, reading from a 28-page ruling in her packed courtroom. “… Only the officers involved in the incident know what their belief was at the time of the incident. We cannot now view the actions of the officers with the benefit of hindsight as to what they should have believed.”

In a written message to the Tribune on Thursday evening, McDonald’s sister, Tariana, said the judge’s finding has not changed her mind that the officers tried to cover up what happened to her older brother.

“I am truly hurt,” the 18-year-old wrote in her first public comments. “Words couldn’t explain how hurt I still am. ... Not only did I lose a brother, I lost my best friend. People don’t understand how I feel not to be able to talk to my brother, let alone see him again. That’s why I feel like justice should be served.”

In acquitting retired Detective David March, ex-patrolman Joseph Walsh and Officer Thomas Gaffney of conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice, Stephenson rejected the prosecution’s case with a witness-by-witness takedown. She dismantled the crucial testimony of a Chicago police officer who alleged her statements about the shooting were falsified — and said she faced retribution from colleagues as a result. The judge also dismissed the account of a civilian eyewitness who said he was shooed away from the shooting scene.

Chicago mayoral candidates react to acquittal of officers in Laquan McDonald ‘code of silence’ trial

Stephenson, who is a former Cook County prosecutor, also downplayed the importance of the now-infamous police dashboard video of the shooting, saying it did not capture the perspective of the officers.

The court-ordered release of the video more than a year after the October 2014 shooting led to months of protests and political upheaval, and prompted a federal investigation of the Police Department that concluded officers routinely violated the civil rights of minorities.

While Van Dyke’s trial centered on his actions on the night of the shooting, the conspiracy case has been seen as a referendum on a so-called code of silence within the Chicago Police Department designed to protect fellow officers from accountability for wrongdoing. The indictment by a special grand jury was believed to be the first time any Chicago police officer has faced criminal charges stemming from an alleged cover-up of an on-duty shooting.

As Stephenson concluded her remarks Thursday, scattered applause arose in the courtroom gallery from supporters of the officers. When court adjourned, the defendants smiled and shook hands with their lawyers. Walsh, who was Van Dyke’s partner the night of the shooting, stretched his arm around his attorney Thomas Breen and patted him on the back.

Later, in the lobby of the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Walsh stood next to his attorney in front of a wall of television news cameras. At first he declined to comment on the ruling. But when asked about the last 18 months under indictment, he said, “heart-wrenching.”

“Heartbreaking for my family,” said Walsh, his jaw clenching as he stepped up to the microphones. “A year and a half … I have nothing else to say.”

Another Walsh attorney, Todd Pugh, slammed the evidence presented by special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes, saying the charges should never have been brought.

“They say a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich, and that’s what happened in this case,” he said.

Gaffney, among the first officers on the scene that night, has been on desk duty since the indictment came down but will be reinstated to full duties given the acquittal, a police spokesman said Thursday. March and Walsh resigned after the city inspector general's office released a report recommending they be fired for their actions in the McDonald investigation.

The ruling stunned members of McDonald’s family and angered many community leaders who called for protests and political action. The Rev. Marvin Hunter, McDonald’s great-uncle, was visibly shaken by the acquittals and called on the federal government to investigate the Cook County criminal justice system for what he called its systemic corruption.

“This is not justice,” Hunter told reporters. “I think this judge had it made up in her mind … to make sure that these gentlemen never see the inside of a jail cell.”

Before the officers left the courthouse, activist William Calloway, who fought to get the dashboard camera video released and is running for city alderman, slammed the judge’s decision as a farce and suggested her background as a prosecutor made her prone to believe whatever police say.

“That blue code of silence isn’t just with the Chicago Police Department,” Calloway said. “It expands to the judicial system, and this is an example of that. …We know that this was a cover-up. We know these officers conspired to attempt to make sure Jason Van Dyke didn’t get tried for the murder.”

Attorney James McKay, who represented March, called those allegations “baloney.”

Read Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson's order in the code-of-silence case

“This is criminal court, all right?” McKay said. “Where the rules of evidence and Illinois law is followed. With a burden of proof. You can say whatever you want on the street. But in a courtroom you better have evidence when you bring a case, and if you don’t, shame on you.”

McKay also said the case should never have been brought.

“(The officers) never should’ve been here. Never,” he said. “The truth happened in that courtroom. This case wasn’t even close. And three innocent men had to be put through hell. These three men were innocent from day one.”

Holmes, meanwhile, defended the credibility of the evidence, telling reporters she hopes the case “has been a crack in the wall of the code of silence.”

Assistant special prosecutor Ronald Safer rejected Stephenson's assertion that the officers' reports may not have lined up with the video because the video didn’t show their perspective.

"Everybody has seen that video,” Safer said. “The police reports that the police officers submitted painted a picture that was totally different from what was in the video."

Stephenson’s ruling clearly pleased Kevin Graham, president of the police union that represents rank-and-file officers, who called the charges “trumped up” and slammed the news media — particularly the Chicago Tribune — for “relentless and baseless” coverage that he said has led to a “chilling effect” and low morale for officers.

“Let me be clear, there was no code of silence,” Graham said.

Laquan McDonald timeline: The shooting, the video, the verdict and the sentencing

Stephenson’s highly anticipated ruling, which came more than a month after closing arguments and two unexplained delays, put in stark relief the difficulties in trying to prove criminal charges alleging a code of silence, requiring evidence that the officers conspired together to hide misconduct by an officer.

The decision is sure to cause backlash from critics who believe Stephenson’s background as a prosecutor makes her biased toward the police — a common complaint about judges at the county’s main criminal courthouse. Indeed, it was the latest in a string of high-profile trials in which Chicago police officers accused of wrongdoing were cleared by judges at the courthouse.

In 2015, Judge Diane Gordon Cannon cleared Cmdr. Glenn Evans of charges he shoved his gun down a man's throat and threatened to kill him. The judge largely discounted seemingly strong evidence showing the man's DNA on Evans' gun.

That same year, Detective Dante Servin was acquitted by Judge Dennis Porter of all charges in an off-duty, late-night shooting in which he opened fire after alleging a man made a threatening motion at him with an object he took to be a gun, only to fatally shoot Rekia Boyd, an innocent young woman standing nearby. The object turned out to be a cellphone, authorities said.

Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who is running for mayor, said Thursday that the verdict did not surprise her given the track record of prosecuting police officers at the courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue. Lightfoot noted that Stephenson and McKay worked closely together in the state’s attorney’s office earlier in their careers.

“You’ve got a judge who is a former prosecutor who was trial partners, as I understand it, with one of the defense attorneys,” Lightfoot said. “So it doesn’t terribly surprise me, but it absolutely disappoints me.”

Unlike Van Dyke’s trial, which unfolded in an intense atmosphere and drew news media from across the country, the conspiracy case was decidedly more low-key, centering mostly on dry police reports and other documents produced in the investigation of McDonald's killing.

During the trial, Holmes and her team repeatedly alleged that the dashcam video was all the evidence needed to show that the officers' police reports painting McDonald as the aggressor were patently false.

The camera footage shows McDonald walking south on Pulaski Road holding a folding knife in his right hand. Van Dyke, with Walsh close behind, exited his squad car, stepped toward the teen and opened fire within seconds, shooting McDonald 16 times, including at least 12 shots while the teen laid prone on the street.

March, who headed up the investigation, wrote reports stating McDonald had attacked officers before Van Dyke opened fire, while Gaffney and Walsh each submitted tactical response and battery reports claiming they had been assaulted by the teen.

"This should have been a homicide investigation," Safer said in closing arguments in December. "Instead, Detective March shaped it from the first minute as an aggravated battery investigation with the soon-to-be deceased as the perpetrator ... and the officers — including the officer who killed him — as the victims."

Attorneys for the three officers ridiculed the case as weak and politically motivated, brought by a special prosecutor in the midst of the ongoing fallout over McDonald’s killing after the court-ordered release of the dashcam video caused a political firestorm.

One of the trial’s key witnesses was Officer Dora Fontaine, who testified for prosecutors that March fabricated statements attributed to her saying that McDonald had tried to attack the police with the knife.

"I started cursing, saying what the f---," Fontaine said of her reaction when March’s report was made public in December 2015. "I was upset because I had not said that. … It was a lie."

Fontaine said her denials made her an outcast in her own department. Some called her a rat, a traitor and a snitch, she said, and implied they wouldn't back her up on the street. The situation became so fraught that, she said, her supervisors pulled her from patrol and assigned her to paid desk duty.

"If I was at a call and I needed assistance, some officers felt strong enough to say that I didn't deserve to be helped," she testified.

The officers’ attorneys cast Fontaine as a liar and an opportunist who gave conflicting statements under oath over the years.

In her ruling, Stephenson clearly sided with the defense’s portrayal of Fontaine. The judge noted Fontaine gave statements about the events to the FBI, city inspector general and grand jury that appeared to conflict with her trial testimony — particularly whether McDonald appeared to be threatening police with the knife before he was shot.

“Fontaine tried to minimize what she saw McDonald doing with the knife in her testimony at trial,” Stephenson said. “Her trial testimony was not credible.”

The judge also derided the testimony of Jose Torres, who was driving his son to the hospital when he witnessed the shooting from a few car-lengths away on Pulaski Road. Torres testified in November that he never saw McDonald make an aggressive move toward the police and was so shocked at the amount of shots he yelled out from his car.

"I was upset, and I said why the f--- are they still shooting?" Torres said. Minutes later, a police officer directing traffic ordered him to leave the scene. It wasn’t until days later, after seeing a police union spokesman characterize the shooting as justified in a news report, that Torres reached out to the Independent Police Review Authority*, which investigated police shootings at the time, to report what he saw. He later spoke to FBI as well.

Stephenson questioned the validity of Torres’ account, even concluding in her ruling he was farther away from the shooting than he’d indicated.

Chicago Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart contributed.


Independent Police Review Authority

DO WATCH THIS VIDEO ABOUT THE IPRA.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-ipra-laquan-police-oversight-emanuel-chicago-edit-0410-jm-20160408-story.html
Editorial: Beyond repair: Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority
Editorial Board
APRIL 8, 2016 3:34 PM

PHOTOGRAPH -- Sharon Fairley, the new head of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), answers questions from members of the Chicago City Council during hearings on police misconduct. The Chicago City Council Human Relations and Public Safety committees met on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 for a hearing at Chicago's City Hall on the Laquan McDonald shooting case. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

When Sharon Fairley accepted the job as head of Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority, one of the first things she did was to outsource the Laquan McDonald case.

She knew Chicagoans did not trust IPRA, the body charged with investigating allegations of police misconduct, to do its job. And for good reason.

In eight years, IPRA has rarely sustained a complaint against a police officer, much less recommended any meaningful punishment — even as 400 civilians have been shot by Chicago cops and taxpayers shelled out hundreds of millions in legal settlements to victims of police abuse and their families.

Twenty citizen complaints against Officer Jason Van Dyke might have flagged him as a problem cop before he was charged with first-degree murder for shooting McDonald 16 times. But IPRA never found cause to discipline Van Dyke, and never factored any previous complaint into its investigation of the next one.

More than a year after McDonald's death, IPRA had done nothing to investigate an apparent cover-up by other officers at the scene and their supervisors.

So Fairley handed the McDonald investigation to Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson and set out to overhaul IPRA and earn the public's confidence. But IPRA and its reputation are beyond repair. The way forward is clear: Blow it up. Start over.

That's not a reflection on Fairley, a former federal prosecutor who most recently was Ferguson's top deputy. The turnaround she envisions would result in more timely and rigorous investigations, greater transparency, better coordination with prosecutors. She's already taken strides toward all of that. She's also ordered an outside audit of past investigations to determine why so few of them ended with a finding of wrongdoing.

Law firm to conduct independent audit of IPRA investigations into Chicago police shootings

Chicago police officers cleared of any wrong-doing could be re-investigated, under a new third party program. March 23, 2016. (CBS Chicago)

Some reasons are obvious: When a police officer shoots a citizen, for example, IPRA investigators aren't allowed to take a statement for at least 24 hours. IPRA won't investigate a cop accused of brutality without a signed affidavit from the person who claims he or she was abused, a requirement that relegates more than half of complaints to the wastebasket. IPRA has purposely disregarded its own data, instead of using it to identify repeat offenders.

All of that serves, perversely, to protect bad cops and reinforce a code of silence among police officers.

Fairley can change those practices — though some of them will provoke a fight with police unions — but she can't change the culture. She can't redeem IPRA's well-deserved reputation as an apologist for rogue cops.

Chicago had a chance to establish a credible police oversight system in 2007, when the city was embroiled in a different police scandal. Officer Anthony Abbate, drunk and off duty, assaulted a female bartender who wouldn't serve him another drink. His fellow officers failed to fully investigate her complaint and pressured her to drop it. IPRA recommended a misdemeanor charge against Abbate. Then a surveillance video of the attack went public. The police chief was ousted. Abbate was fired and convicted of aggravated battery.

Then-Mayor Richard Daley replaced the Office of Professional Standards with IPRA, which answers to the mayor instead of the Police Department. But little else changed. Not the staff. Not the process. Not the results.

Last November, the court-ordered release of the McDonald video threw Chicago into uproar. Van Dyke was arrested and charged. The police chief was fired. So was Scott Ando, Fairley's predecessor at IPRA.

On Thursday, a police accountability task force appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel will present what we expect will be a very fat report. We'll be surprised if it recommends anything less than complete reinvention of the disciplinary process.

Meanwhile, Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, plans to introduce an ordinance that would abolish IPRA and assign its job to a new agency, and its chief, the Independent Citizen Monitor, would be selected by a committee not controlled by the mayor. The measure was drafted with help from police accountability experts at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University law schools.

We'll be interested to see how Emanuel and the City Council respond to these proposals. So will the U.S. Department of Justice, which is conducting a civil rights investigation into Chicago's police practices.

The DOJ has the power to force a new oversight model on Chicago if the city's own fixes don't pass muster. We can't imagine it would settle for a new-and-improved version of the system that has failed citizens so badly for so long.

An agency that has always functioned to find excuses for bad cops can't be reprogrammed to expose them. IPRA needs to go.


BILL MAHER IS AN ICONOCLAST PAR EXCELLENCE, BUT BASICALLY A GOOD MAN, I BELIEVE, AND VERY BRIGHT. I DON’T THINK HE IS SO MUCH TRYING TO BE DESTRUCTIVE AS SAYING WHAT HE MEANS. SOME OF US DO THAT, EVEN WHEN MORE LADYLIKE OR GENTLEMANLY PEOPLE DISAPPROVE. THERE IS A NEED IN SOCIETY FOR THE FACTOR THAT CAN BE TRUSTED TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES AND WATCH WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD. I HAVE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING OF A SERIOUS NATURE AGAINST HIM. BESIDES, I THINK HE IS ASTUTE AND HUMOROUS. HE LIVENS THINGS UP. LET’S SEE WHAT HE HAS TO SAY ABOUT BERNIE SANDERS.

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/426156-bill-maher-defends-bernie-sanders-campaign-over-sexual
Bill Maher defends Bernie Sanders campaign over sexual harassment allegations
BY CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO - 01/19/19 12:12 PM EST

VIDEO -- HBO talk-show host Bill Maher on Friday defended Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign over sexual harassment allegations.

"Let me ask a question about the Democrats. Bernie Sanders got into some trouble the last couple of weeks because apparently there was sexual harassment that was reported on his campaign. They asked him about this, and he apologized," Maher said.

"They asked if he was aware of it, and he said, ‘I was a little busy running around the country trying to make the case.’ Which I had no problem with," he continued. "Just like Hillary [Clinton] wasn’t responsible for Benghazi, she was the secretary of State, it’s not [Sanders’s] responsibility to know everything that goes on, and it didn’t seem like it was the worst kind of sexual harassment."

“I don’t know what went on in that campaign, but if the Democrats are going to keep killing their own — Al Franken, Eliot Spitzer, [Al] Gore didn’t support [Bill] Clinton through the blowjob horror — I don’t know where it ends,” Maher quipped.

Maher's comments came during a panel segment on his show "Real Time," which returned Friday after a nearly two-month hiatus. Fellow panelists Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell and former Democratic Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.) pushed back on Maher's remarks.

"I don't think Bernie is responsible for every bad actor in his campaign, but it wasn't just one bad actor," Rampell said.

"The notion that you’re too busy making speeches to know what’s happening in your campaign I don’t think is an acceptable excuse,” Frank added.

Sanders apologized earlier this month to female staffers on his 2016 presidential campaign who said they experienced sexual harassment, acknowledging that the campaign’s procedures for addressing such issues were “clearly inadequate.”

The apology followed after The New York Times and Politico reported that nearly a dozen women who worked for Sanders’s campaign said they were harassed and that their complaints were handled improperly.

The slew of allegations comes as Sanders weighs a presidential run in 2020.

TAGS BERNIE SANDERS AL FRANKEN


MEET THE PRESS

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/yes-shutdown-has-taken-toll-trump-n959716
Yes, the shutdown has taken a toll on Trump
First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
Jan. 17, 2019, 8:43 AM EST
By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

PHOTOGRAPH -- President Donald Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaks to reporters after the Senate Republican policy luncheon in Washington on Jan. 9, 2019.Jim Lo Sclazo / EPA

WASHINGTON — So we guess that the buck doesn’t stop with everybody after all.

In addition to national polls showing that a majority of Americans and voters blame President Trump more for the partial government shutdown — which is now in its 27th day and counting — they also have his approval rating below where it was on the eve of the 2018 midterms.

A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll has the president’s approval at 39 percent among all adults – down from 42 percent in December.

Gallup has it at 37 percent – down from 39 percent last month.

Per Quinnipiac, Trump’s job rating is at 41 percent among registered voters – up from 39 percent in December.

Pew has it at 37 percent among all Americans – down from 38 percent in September.

And CNN has it at 37 percent among all adults – down from 39 percent in December.

That’s an approval rating average of 38 percent from those five different national surveys. (And just in case you wanted to throw in Rasmussen, Trump’s favorite pollster, they have it at 43 percent.) Compare that with the fall of 2018, when most polls showed the president’s job rating in the low- to mid-40s.

Many of us in the political community have grown numb to how poll numbers about Trump rarely change — most Americans made up their minds about the president in his first few months in office, and those opinions have barely budged since then.

But don’t let that reality distract you from the clear evidence that this shutdown has chipped away at Trump’s numbers.

As we learned in 2018, an approval rating in the low 40s is a terrible place for a president and his party to be. And right now, it’s worse than that.

TRUMP: “WE ARE GETTING CRUSHED”

And if you don’t believe these numbers on Trump’s standing during the shutdown, then maybe you’ll believe this, via the New York Times:

“‘We are getting crushed!’ Mr. Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, after watching some recent coverage of the shutdown, according to one person familiar with the conversation. ‘Why can’t we get a deal?’”

Also: “Mr. Trump has told them he believes over time the country will not remember the shutdown, but it will remember that he staged a fight over his insistence that the southern border be protected. He wants Democrats to come back to the table agreeing with his position on a wall, and he does not understand why they have not.”

And: “But despite his public bravado, and the tweets about ‘Radical Democrats,’ Mr. Trump has had recurring moments of frustration as he takes in negative news coverage of the shutdown, pointing his finger at aides for not delivering the deal he wants.”

Also on the shutdown front, Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday sent a letter to Trump, asking the president to delay his State of the Union address set for January 29 – or give it in writing – until the shutdown concludes.

Our question: Why did Pelosi make her argument about security — “[B]oth the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security have not been funded for 26 days now — with critical departments hamstrung by furloughs,” she wrote Trump” — and not that ordinary business should be postponed until the shutdown is resolved?

RUDY GIULIANI: “I NEVER SAID THERE WAS NO COLLUSION BETWEEN THE CAMPAIGN OR BETWEEN PEOPLE IN THE CAMPAIGN”
You knew this was eventually coming, right?

Per NBC News:

“‘I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign,’ Giuliani told CNN's Chris Cuomo, who immediately pushed back on that point.”

“‘I have not,’ Giuliani said in doubling-down on his first remark. ‘I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC.’”

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But here’s an earlier interview that Giuliani gave on Fox News, per MSNBC’s Benjamin Pu:

BENSON: Regardless of whether collusion would be a crime, is it still the position of you and your client that there was no collusion with the Russians whatsoever on behalf of the Trump campaign?

GIULIANI: Correct.

And here was President Trump to Lester Holt in May of 2017:

“This was set up by the Democrats. There is no collusion between me and my campaign and the Russians. The other thing is the Russians did not affect the vote. And everybody seems to think that.”

The question we have: Did Giuliani saying “I never said there was no collusion between the campaign” mean he knows there’s a shoe about to drop? Or was Rudy just being Rudy on TV?

THE ATLANTIC MAKES THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT —TO HAVE A DEBATE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S CONDUCT IN OFFICE

In the Atlantic, Yoni Appelbaum makes the case to have impeachment proceedings against Trump — not to remove him from office, per se, but to have a national debate over whether he’s upheld the oath of office he took.

On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood on the steps of the Capitol, raised his right hand, and solemnly swore to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. He has not kept that promise.

Instead, he has mounted a concerted challenge to the separation of powers, to the rule of law, and to the civil liberties enshrined in our founding documents. He has purposefully inflamed America’s divisions. He has set himself against the American idea, the principle that all of us—of every race, gender, and creed—are created equal.

[snip]*

The electorate passes judgment on its presidents and their shortcomings every four years. But the Framers were concerned that a president could abuse his authority in ways that would undermine the democratic process and that could not wait to be addressed. So they created a mechanism for considering whether a president is subverting the rule of law or pursuing his own self-interest at the expense of the general welfare—in short, whether his continued tenure in office poses a threat to the republic. This mechanism is impeachment.

[snip again]

The fight over whether Trump should be removed from office is already raging, and distorting everything it touches. Activists are radicalizing in opposition to a president they regard as dangerous. Within the government, unelected bureaucrats who believe the president is acting unlawfully are disregarding his orders, or working to subvert his agenda. By denying the debate its proper outlet, Congress has succeeded only in intensifying its pressures. And by declining to tackle the question head-on, it has deprived itself of its primary means of reining in the chief executive.

GILLIBRAND TALKS TO THE PRESS A DAY AFTER ANNOUNCING HER 2020 EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE

“I believe that what people want in our state and around the country is someone who will fight for them and someone who not only understands what their problems actually are but will then do what it takes to solve that problem,” Gillibrand told reporters in Troy, N.Y., yesterday. “You have to be willing to have the courage and the compassion and the fearless determination to take on those battles. And they just need to know that you understand them.”

And here was Gillibrand on Maddow last night: “One of the reasons why I’m running for president is I want to restore that leadership in the world. We have to restore the integrity. We have to restore the stability. We have to make sure that America continues to be that beacon of light and hope for the world.”


snip* -- probably refers to the editing tool “snip and sketch” --https://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-edit-screenshots-and-images-using-snip-sketch