July 21, 2020

Demcrats Abroad speaks with Susan Rice

Join Ambassador Susan Rice as she speaks to Democrats Abroad in a short call on Tuesday, July 28th at 2pm Eastern time.

Ticket cost: While there is no donation requirement to attend, we hope you’ll consider a donation of $20.20 - or more - to help support outreach to thousands of potential voters! Even if you can't join the call, you can show your support by clicking HERE to make a donation. Please help get out the vote around the world in this crucial election year.

When: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 2:00 PM Eastern time (Washington, DC time).
Where: Zoom Call (RSVP below to receive the link)

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Prior to the call with Ambassador Susan Rice, the Biden Victory Fund invites you to join a ticketed event on Tuesday, July 28th at 1pm Eastern with:

Senator Chris Coons
Congressmember Karen Bass
Ambassador Susan Rice
Brian McKeon

The discussion will focus on US-Africa policy, and tickets start at $25.

To RSVP for the Biden Victory Fund event, please rsvp at joebiden.com by clicking here. RSVPing for the Democrats Abroad event will not provide a link to this fundraising event. Video call details will be provided to all confirmed guests 24-48 hours prior to the event.

Note that the Victory Fund event is NOT a Democrats Abroad fundraiser and all proceeds will go to the Biden Victory Fund.

July 15, 2020

Great response to magat at 270towin

BB909 (maga)
Biden landslide??? LOL, you're joking right? Wait until the debates...if Biden even participates. He cannot even string together coherent sentences with a teleprompter in front of him and has yet to take non-planned questions from reporters.


tim_m
You mean like this? "One of the things that will be really great — you know, the word 'experience' is still good," Trump said. "I always say talent is more important than experience. I've always said that.

"But the word 'experience' is a very important word," he added. "It's a very important meaning.

"I never did this before. I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington I think 17 times — all of a sudden I'm president of the United States. You know the story. I'm riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our first lady, and I say, 'This is great.'"

Trump went on to say that he didn't really know anybody in Washington politics as a Manhattan businessman.

"Now I know everybody," he said


https://www.270towin.com/news/2020/07/14/sabatos-crystal-ball-moves-seven-states-from-safe-to-likely-republican_1060.html

July 10, 2020

Lithuania Suspends Broadcasts By Russia's RT Over EU-Sanctioned Head

Lithuania has suspended Russia's RT television from broadcasting in its territory because of RT's links with the head of the Russian state TV network, Dmitry Kiselyov, who is under international sanctions.

snip

"These programs are being suspended not because of any violations but because a person associated with these programs has been included on the list of individuals under sanctions. And that is Mr. Kiselyov, who should not get benefits and therefore the transmission of the programs is being suspended," Martisius said.

The move follow a similar ban in another Baltic state, Latvia, which on June 30 halted the distribution of RT's seven channels in the country, citing the same reason.

Kiselyov, a TV commentator known for his anti-Western diatribes, is on the European Union's sanctions list for his role in promoting Kremlin propaganda in support of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

https://www.rferl.org/a/lithuania-suspends-broadcasts-by-russian-rt-over-eu-sanctioned-head/30714550.html

July 10, 2020

Seoul mayor found dead hours after reported missing: police

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was found dead in Seoul on Friday, hours after he was reported missing, police said.

A police search team found his body in the forested hills of Mount Bukak near his official residence, one minute after midnight. He is presumed to have taken his own life.

snip

Park, 64, had reportedly faced a probe into allegations of sexual harassment against a former female secretary. She filed a formal complaint with the police on Wednesday over unwanted "physical contact" and "inappropriate" messages from Park, according to sources.

snip

Park left his residence in the central Seoul ward of Jongno at around 10:44 a.m., wearing a black hat, a dark jacket, black pants, gray shoes and carrying a black backpack.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200710000553325?section=national/national

July 8, 2020

Sister wins 2m inheritance fight after CAT knocks over pile of papers in solicitor's office to unco

Sister wins £2m inheritance fight after CAT knocks over pile of papers in solicitor's office to uncover her dead brother's will that had been lost for two decades

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A sister has won a £2m inheritance fight after her dead brother's will - lost for two decades - was discovered when a cat knocked over a pile of papers in a solicitor's office.

Dean Brunt, his brother Dale, and sister Venetia Murray, 36, had between them owned £6m Ettridge Farm, Hertfordshire, which they had inherited from their grandfather, until Dean's death, aged 35, in a railway accident in 2007.

Dean was thought to have died without making a will, so his £2 million share of the farm went to his 82-year-old mother, Marlene Brunt, who in turn handed it to her eldest child, Dale, 40.

snip

One of the wills - which lawyers said formed 'crucial evidence' of Dean's intention to give his sister half his wealth - was unearthed when a solicitor's cat knocked over a pile of papers which were about to be shredded.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8501395/Sister-wins-2m-share-late-bothers-estate.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed

July 8, 2020

Protests Erupt In Belgrade Over Return Of Restrictions Amid Surge In Coronavirus Cases

Protesters flooded Belgrade’s city center to voice their anger over President Aleksandar Vucic’s announcement of a return to strict limits on gatherings and plans to reimpose a weekend because of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Scuffles broke out between police and a group of protesters who tried to storm into the parliament building, prompting police to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd.

More than 1,000 people took part in the protest, which came after Vucic said on July 7 that the situation in Belgrade is critical and that hospitals in the city of around 1.3 million are almost full.

snip

Vucic told a press conference on July 7 that gatherings will be limited to five people from the following day, and he said he will request that a government task force declare a nationwide weekend curfew ahead of a reassessment of the situation.


https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-holds-safranov-space-agency-aide-ex-journalist-on-high-treason-charge/30711721.html

July 7, 2020

This headline is interesting: Republicans Are Nervous about Being the Party of White Grievance

Don't know why. That is what the Republicans have been for over 2 decades

July 4, 2020

Earl Cameron, 'Britain's first black film star', dies aged 102

Earl Cameron, who with his debut role in the 1951 film Pool of London, became one of the first significant black actors in British cinema, has died aged 102. His agent confirmed the news to the Guardian, saying “he passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his wife and family” on Friday in Kenilworth in Warwickshire.

Cameron’s significance to the current generation of black British actors was underlined by tributes on social media. David Harewood described him as “a total legend”, while Paterson Joseph wrote: “His generation’s pioneering shoulders are what my generation of actors stand on. No shoulders were broader than this gentleman with the voice of god and the heart of a kindly prince.” Historian David Olusoga added: “A remarkable and wonderful man. Not just a brilliant actor but a link to a deeper history.”

In a statement, Cameron’s children said: “We are overwhelmed by the messages of love and respect on the news of his passing … As an artist and as an actor he refused to take roles that demeaned or stereotyped the character of people of colour. He was truly a man who stood on moral principle.”

Born in Bermuda in 1917 and arriving in the UK in 1939 after a spell in the British merchant navy, Cameron ended up with a small role in 1941 in a stage production of the musical Chu Chin Chow. More theatre work followed after the war, and Cameron was then cast in a substantial role in Pool of London, a thriller set in the London docks in which he played Johnny Lambert, a merchant seaman. Cameron’s character is also involved in a mixed-race relationship, generally acknowledged as the first such portrayal in a British film.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/04/earl-cameron-britains-first-black-film-star-dies-aged-102

July 4, 2020

5 Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

1. Religious Court Rules To Strip Rogue Russian Priest Of His Rank

YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- An ultraconservative, coronavirus-denying Russian priest who took control of a convent in the Urals with help from Cossack guards last month has been stripped off his religious rank.

The Diocesan Court in the Sverdlovsk region on July 3 ruled that Schema-Hegumen Sergiy (Nikolai Romanov), had shown disobedience toward Russian Orthodox Church authorities and therefore must be punished.

snip

Father Sergiy also publicly condemned the Russian Orthodox Church's order in April to stop church services to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus. Weeks later, the Yekaterinburg diocese barred him from preaching and launched a probe into his conduct, citing his stance on the coronavirus and his interference with church policy during the pandemic.

snip

After forcibly taking over the convent in June, Father Sergiy issued several political statements saying that constitutional amendments offered by President Vladimir Putin "would legalize a slave-owning system."

https://www.rferl.org/a/religious-court-rules-to-strip-rogue-russian-priest-of-his-rank/30704755.html


2. Croatia election: Will the ruling party's early election gamble pay off?

Croatia will hold parliamentary elections on Sunday (July 5) in an early election that is likely to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Polls show a close race between the two mainstream parties but it’s uncertain who will win the most seats or who might be able to form a majority coalition in Croatia's 151-member parliament.

Experts say the elections were brought forward in part because the ruling party thinks they could benefit from their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. There have been just under 3,000 cases and 110 deaths but now cases are on the rise.

snip

"But the decision to lift the lockdown and open the borders too fast came back like a political boomerang: now the epidemiological situation in Croatia is deteriorating day by day."

https://www.euronews.com/2020/07/04/croatia-election-will-the-ruling-party-s-early-election-gamble-pay-off


3. Court In MH17 Trial Grants Defense Request For Additional Investigations

Judges hearing the case against four suspects in the 2014 downing of a passenger airliner over eastern Ukraine have granted a defense request to investigate alternative theories about the incident.

On July 3, the court in The Hague in the Netherlands ordered that defense lawyers and experts be granted access to the partial wreckage of the plane, which is being held at a Dutch military base.

The suspects -- Russians Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Igor Girkin, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko -- are being tried in absentia for involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which killed all 298 people on board.

Following a six-year international investigation, prosecutors have argued that the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made Buk antiaircraft system fired by Russia-backed separatist fighters who had acquired it from a Russian military base on the border between the two countries.

https://www.rferl.org/a/court-in-mh17-trial-grants-defense-request-for-additional-investigations/30704964.html


4. Italy breaks up child abuse ring 'that shared images of babies

ROME (AP) — Italian police say they have broken up a child abuse ring used to share illicit material, including photos of newborns, via an instant messaging platform.

Police said on Saturday that the crackdown involved dozens of search warrants and led to the arrest of three people for allegedly possessing what was described in a statement as “huge quantities of pornographic material depicting minors”. About 50 people are under investigation.

The police statement said investigators had discovered photos of nude minors and other “horrifying content, depicting actual sexual violence where the victims were often newborns”.

Police said some of the images had been produced at home. Material was exchanged on an instant messaging platform that investigators did not identify except to say it was well-known.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/04/italy-breaks-up-child-abuse-ring-that-shared-images-of-babies


5. François Fillon found guilty of embezzling public funds

The former French prime minister François Fillon and his Welsh wife, Penelope, were sentenced to jail on Monday for embezzling public funds as part of a “fake jobs” scandal.

A court found the couple guilty of fraud after a trial heard he had paid her and two of the couple’s children about €1m for non-existent jobs as his parliamentary assistants.

In a scathing verdict, the judge said Fillon, 66, who was prime minister under the centre-right president Nicolas Sarkozy, had eroded trust in France’s political class.

The court said Mrs Fillon, 64, was paid “the maximum possible” and that the sums were “out of proportion to her activities”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/29/francois-fillon-found-guilty-of-embezzling-public-funds

July 1, 2020

Quotes from President Harry Truman for this age

- Not all readers become leaders. But all leaders must be readers.
(Now you know why trump can't lead)

-My own sympathy has always been with the little fellow, the man without advantages.

- Good name and honor are worth more than all the gold and jewels ever mined.

- I don’t believe that because peace is difficult that war is inevitable.

- We can well afford to pay the price of peace. Our only alternative is to pay the terrible cost of war.

- I never sit on a fence. I am either on one side or another.

- Criticism is something [a president] gets every day, just like breakfast.

- Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

- If we wish to inspire the peoples of the world whose freedom is in jeopardy, if we wish to restore hope to those who have already lost their civil liberties, if we wish to fulfill the promise that is ours, we must correct the remaining imperfections in our practice of democracy. We know the way. We need only the will.

- I have had some bitter disappointments as president, but the one that has troubled me the most, in a personal way, has been the failure to defeat organized opposition to a national compulsory health insurance program.

= It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.