Links - 25th August 2019 (3)

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Trump's visit - "There has not been an invitation to make a joint address to Parliament. John Bercow, the speaker, it's in his gift, he clearly thinks that Donald Trump is less deserving than President Xi, which some would say is a controversial choice. In America, say, how, you're giving someone who's never, really, there's no human rights in China, there's no freedom of expression. And yet he gets an address to Parliament, and Donald Trump, our closest ally doesn't? So that's kind of raised a few eyebrows in the US"

'Scorched Earth': Mueller's Targets Speak Out - "“They were clearly on a fishing expedition,” Moore said, recounting the incident to RealClearInvestigations publicly for the first time.“They seemed desperate to find something to hang onto the narrative” of Russian collusion, he said... the special counsel's nearly two dozen prosecutors and 40 FBI agents used harshly aggressive tactics to pressure individuals to either cop to crimes or implicate others in felonies involving collusion. Although they interacted with Mueller’s team at different times and in different places, the witnesses and targets often echoed each other. Almost all decried what they called Mueller’s “scorched earth” methods that affected their physical, mental and financial health. Most said they were forced to retain high-priced Washington lawyers to protect them from falling into "perjury traps" for alleged lying, which became the special counsel’s charge of last resort. In the end, Mueller convicted four Trump associates for this so-called process crime, and investigated an additional five individuals for allegedly making false statements – including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Some subjects of investigation said Mueller’s agents and prosecutors tried to pressure them into admitting things to give the appearance of collusion. They demanded to know if they had spoken to anyone with a “Russian accent.” They threatened to jail them "for life" and to drag their wives or girlfriends into the investigation.Former special prosecutors say the tactics used by Mueller’s team appear excessive... Some have formally complained to the Justice Department that their privacy was violated. Others have filed legal complaints, maintaining the Special Counsel’s Office abused its authority. Corsi, for one, is suing Mueller personally for millions of dollars for unconstitutionally spying on him and harassing him and his family, as well as allegedly leaking secret grand jury information about him to the press in violation of his privacy rights. Still others want to see Mueller’s office criminally investigated for prosecutorial misconduct.“Leaking grand jury hearing information to the press is a crime,” said former Independent Counsel Sol Wisenberg. “It can never be justified.”... These 10 witnesses find it beyond ironic that some partisans are now faulting Mueller for not doing enough to find incriminating evidence against Trump and his associates – “He blew it!” liberal HBO political talk show host Bill Maher said. They find it chilling that, equally unsatisfied, congressional Democrats seek to re-interview Mueller’s witnesses. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has sent letters to some of the peripheral witnesses interviewed for this story, demanding they produce more documents and testify before his panel, forcing them to relive their nightmare."

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts - "Whatever your opinion is of Trump, this is a great day for the republic. Neither the President nor his staff coordinated with Russia to influence the election. There is no Manchurian Candidate and Trump is not being controlled by Putin. This news should come as a relief to anyone concerned about the independence of the Administration... Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller remained on the job. Trump made his entire White House staff and campaign staff available for interviews. Trump did not exercise executive privilege to block documents. The Mueller investigation was given all the resources they requested and the White House did not claim executive privilege over any part of the final report. The law does not require the release of the Mueller Report but it is being released to Congress and the Public... The President has criticized the press but he has not thrown them in jail"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Trump's visit: Day 2 - "The Democrats at the end of the day, I always ask them, what is the charge for impeachment? Impeachment in the Constitution is defined as a high crime. And so far, nobody has in, the Mueller report offers no evidence of a high crime... Not exactly [that there was obstruction], not exactly. There are some evidences that the President wasn't as cooperative as they say he should have been. The truth was and the Mueller report leaves this out, that the President wiaved all his privileges about everyone. One of the reasons they have all of these anecdotes against him is he waived his privileges that he could have asserted. His attitude was I did nothing wrong. Let everyone talk to Miller. Let's get this over with as quickly as possible. He didn't know that this was going to be a two year witch hunt, so to speak… I've always said to him that I think tweeting is fine, but it needs to be reviewed. I'm a journalist, and I wouldn't even post anything to Newsmax without an editor... he's the president and as we know, Donald Trump makes his own decisions... and it's worked for him. I mean, his poll numbers are astounding, considering they've thrown the kitchen sink at him...
‘What we've just been hearing that Donald Trump likes to be liked, he doesn't respond to slights. So whatever you think of him, how is it in the national interest for the Official Opposition, the people who might be our next prime minister and our next foreign secretary or next but one, not just to snab the president but to insult him?’...
‘Why are you and your leader willing to honour… the president of China? I want to put two points to you. You talk about the President's racism, China locks away a million Muslim Uighers in internment camps, is that not racism? You talk about women's rights, the Chinese use sanctions fines, the forced insertion of coils, forced abortion by law, to prevent the right to choose, but they're worthy of your respect are they?’
‘And I tell you what, you know, Jeremy went to state banquet when the Chinese President came over and, and in the meetings around that, he raised many issues. And actually what was interesting was the Chinese reaction to that was, we know that he does this, and we know that he is, he treats everybody equally, and he criticizes all countries, and that's the right thing to do. But the reason, I think that we are, we have, I personally am so angry at this particular American President and I admit that I am, is that I love America. And I love the values that America has stood for. And I will honor the dead of D Day... when you have a close friend, and they're going wrong, you are more likely to be, to be more adamant with them and clearer with them than someone who is, who has not been as close a friend, and who you are trying to build a relationship up with’...
‘This is fascinating, you're insulting the president in order to have a better relationship with him’…
'How do you feel about long serving servants of your party who share your view on Europe, Alistair Campbell, being turfed out of the party, while people who are caught on tape making anti semitic racist comments, the sort of thing you say you object to from Donald Trump are still in the party. Peter Wilson, who's very close to Jeremy Corbyn, of course.'"
Presumably this means Trump is justified in scolding his allies but not dictators since they are close friends and he needs to tell them where they're going wrong

Dear LGBT, If you don’t want to be treated differently for being gay, then stop acting like being gay somehow makes you special. Your sexual orientation is neither an achievement nor a holiday. You have not accomplished anything simply by being attracted to one sex or another. : metacanada

Women in Siberian coal town beg Trudeau to let them come to Canada as environmental refugees - "Fed up residents of a polluted city in central Russia are making an emotional plea to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, begging to be admitted to Canada as environmental refugees.In a video posted on YouTube over the weekend, dozens of women in Kiselyovsk, a city of 90,000 in Siberia, take turns reading emotional statements, explaining how coal dust from nearby mines and factories has blanketed their homes and made their lives unbearable... One of the organizers of the "move to Canada" appeal, Vitaly Sheshtakov, was quoted by the local newspaper as saying living conditions in Canada are similar to Siberia, only much cleaner."We chose Canada because the climate there is similar to our region. So that they [Russian authorities] wouldn't say that we just wanted to move to warm countries.""

Refugees protest rural Sweden relocation - "When the transport arrived at a housing centre in Grytan south of Östersund the asylum-seekers didn't like the look of what they saw."I am 75-years-old and come from the Middle East. Then I get sent to a place that looks like this," said a man from Syria to the local Östersunds-Posten daily, pointing to the icy road."It is dangerous for me to be here," he said.The asylum-seekers, who originate from several countries, refused to leave the bus when it arrived at the small Swedish town. The police were called to assist at the scene but declined to help in escorting the group from the bus.The group is demanding that they be returned to Malmö or some other bigger city... The Migration Board's (Migrationsverket) press officer Fredrik Bengtsson explained that asylum-seekers are not entitled to select the location of their residence... The group of asylum-seekers have explained that they feel cheated by the Migration Board."

Opening door to refugees, Lithuania says finds few takers - Reuters - "“We are prepared to accept refugees immediately, but there are no refugees in Italy or Greece who agreed to resettle in Lithuania,” Rimantas Vaitkus, deputy chancellor of the Lithuanian government told Reuters on Monday.Lithuania has agreed to settle 1,105 refugees in the next two years, mostly from Italy and Greece, according to European Commision proposals which foresaw relocation of a total of 160,000 people.“It seems that refugees know about Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, which either have generous social security or have been actively attracting immigrants,” said Vaitkus."

It's Time for Sweden to Admit Explosions Are a National Emergency - "Sweden has experienced a sharp rise in explosions in recent years, predominantly related to conflicts between warring criminal gangs. The use of explosives in the Nordic country is now at a level that is unique in the world for a state not at war, according to police. In response, the government issued a first-ever ”amnesty for explosives” in the fall of 2018, allowing people in possession of such weapons to hand them over to police with immunity. But this didn’t stem the tide: some 50 explosions were reported in the first three months of 2019 alone—an average of more than one every other day and an increase over the same period in 2018, a year that saw a record number of more than three blasts per week... There has been a corresponding marked escalation in gang-related shootings, which increasingly take place in broad daylight. Sweden had 45 deadly shootings in what police refer to as ”criminal environments” last year, which is an increase by a factor of 10 in one generation. In contrast, neighbouring Norway has less than three. Deadly shootings per capita in Sweden are now considerably higher than the European average. And systematic witness intimidation, paired with a code of silence in the country’s socio-economically weak immigrant areas, has made this type of crime difficult for the Swedish legal system to tackle. The rise in gang violence and other types of crime—including sexual offenses and a wave of robberies against children—has had far-reaching implications for Swedish society. In a country which boasts ”the world’s first feminist government,” a third of young women now report feeling unsafe going out at night. A recent survey in the country’s three largest cities showed that safety is now the main priority for Swedes who are looking to buy homes. Crime emerged as a top priority among voters ahead of the election to the European Parliament... According to the prevailing ideology of the Swedish political establishment, this wave of violence, which is baffling to many European neighbours, should not be happening. A longstanding cornerstone of the country’s political conversation dictates that crime must be understood in socio-economic terms, and that welfare provisions are a cure-all against violence and social unrest. Yet Sweden is one of Europe’s most generous welfare states... young criminals receive remarkably soft sentences. For example, a 16-year-old convicted of an execution-style killing at a Stockholm pizza restaurant in 2018 was sentenced to three years in institutional care for young people. The country also has one of the smallest police forces per capita in the EU."
This suggests that the liberal response to crime - welfare and a light touch - doesn't work (at least not in all scenarios)

Tolerance Brigade - Posts - "never seen a gay guy say men are trash so all of u girls are lying"
Curiously two Twitter accounts which tweeted this got suspended

Local bodies in Japan to promote 'workation' so staff can take longer holidays - "A national council of local governments to promote "workation," where employees can do their jobs while on vacation, is set to be established as early as the end of the year on the initiative of the Wakayama and Nagano prefectural governments"
???

Nearly 200 dodgy Australian day care centres are shut down after police find links to Islamic State, bikie gangs and large-scale fraud