5 Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

I am back after 3 weeks in the hospital

1. Montenegro Passes Law On Religious Communities Amid Anger, Protests

Montenegro's parliament, in a session marred by violent protests inside and outside the chamber, has adopted a law on religious communities that the opposition fears could strip the Serbian Orthodox Church of its property.

Lawmakers present in the parliament in the early hours of December 27 voted 45-0 for the law, after members of the opposition Democratic Front (DF) charged to the head of the chamber, swearing at colleagues from the majority and attempting to prevent the vote from taking place.

Some 36 other lawmakers in the chamber boycotted the vote, giving the ruling coalition a clear path to adoption of the bill after more than eight hours of bitter debate.

Some of the protesting lawmakers appeared to have been removed from the building by law enforcement, but it was not immediately clear if they had been detained.

https://www.rferl.org/a/montenegro-religious-law-serbian-orthodox-church-protest/30346778.html


2. Italy creates Europe's first plastic-free ski resort

An Italian ski resort is endeavouring to become the first in Europe to ban plastic after discovering that a nearby glacier contained a significant amount of microplastics.

The use of plastic bottles, bags, cutlery, plates, straws, cups and condiment sachets was banned when the slopes opened at Pejo 3000, a small resort in Val di Sole, Trentino, in early December, and other measures will be enacted over the season.

The facility, which attracted 137,000 skiers last winter, has three mountain huts that no longer stock plastic items.

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The move was prompted by a study by scientists at the University of Milan and the University of Milan-Bicocca in April which revealed the surface of Forni Glacier, one of the largest valley glaciers in the Italian Alps, contained 131-162m plastic particles, including fibres and polyethylene.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/27/italy-creates-europes-first-plastic-free-ski-resort


3. Massive manhunt in Serbia for convicted paedophile and missing girl, 12

A massive manhunt has been launched to find a convicted paedophile accused of kidnapping a girl.

The case has gripped Serbia and seen more than 220 police officers dispatched to hunt for Monika, 12.

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"Based on the evidence we have come to, we believe that the perpetrator of this criminal offence is Ninoslav Jovanovic of Malca,” said Serbia’s director of police, Vladimir Rebic.

“There is evidence that he stole a vehicle in which police found his prints and clues indicating that Monika was with him.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/12/26/massive-manhunt-in-serbia-for-convicted-paedophile-and-missing-girl-12


4. Russian Police Raid Navalny's Office Over Critical Video

Russian police have raided the office of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) in Moscow, a step he claims is an attempt to disrupt the publication of a damning investigation against the head of Russia's second-largest bank.

Masked officers in helmets belonging to the Federal Bailiffs Service covered the cameras outside FBK's office on December 26 around noon local time before cutting through the door with power tools and dragging out Navalny, the opposition politician said on social media. He was not detained.

Navalny said the raid was formally carried out as part of a criminal investigation against FBK's director, Ivan Zhdannov, for failing to delete the YouTube video Don't Call Him Dimon, an investigation into the secret wealth of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

However, he said he believed the raid could be tied to FBK's recent investigation into Andrei Kostin, the CEO of VTB, a state-owned lender that required a massive government bailout earlier this decade.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-opposition-leader-navalny-detained-in-moscow/30345511.html


5. Belarus Reopens Case Into Disappearance Of Ex-Interior Minister Zakharanka

Belarus’s Investigative Committee is resuming a criminal investigation into the disappearance of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka following claims made by a former member of a secretive police unit of involvement in his alleged kidnapping and killing 20 years ago.

Belarusian human rights activist Aleh Vouchak told RFE/RL that the Investigative Committee reopened the cold case two days after Deutsche Welle on December 16 published an interview with Yury Harauski, who in 1999 served in a special Interior Ministry unit that allegedly kidnapped and killed political opponents of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The rights activist showed a letter signed on December 18 by Yury Varauki, a department head at the Investigative Committee, stating that the case was reinstated.

According to Vouchak, the reason for reopening the missing-person case was because the former special-police unit member and opposition politician in his interview didn't "hide behind masks" and made statements that caused a "huge public reaction."

https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-reopens-case-into-disappearance-of-ex-interior-minister-zakharanka/30345098.html

At Least 12 Dead In Kazakh Plane Crash Near Almaty

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A Kazakh passenger plane with 95 travelers and five crew on board crashed after takeoff from Almaty airport early on December 27, killing at least 12 people.

Officials said 66 other people aboard the Bek Air flight, which was bound for the capital, Nur-Sultan, had been taken to local hospitals.

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Aviation authorities said the aircraft "lost altitude during takeoff and broke through a concrete fence" before hitting a two-story building. The building was said to have been empty at the time of the crash.

A deputy prime minister, Roman Sklyar, later said the tail section appeared to have struck the runway twice on takeoff before the plane veered off course and struck the wall and building.

https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakh-airline-bek-air-crash-almaty/30346796.html

We Follow Orders or Men Die - Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men

(This will be my first long post since I was hospitalized. I got out last weekend and have slowly mended. Today is the first time I felt like actually typing this. My apologies if someone already pointed this out. And I apologize if it is not coherent)

Trump, in his defense of pardoning those service members showed he doesn't really understand the military at all, because the first half of that statement "We follow orders..." is really at the heart of what being in the service is all about.
There is little killing, but a whole lot of following orders, procedure, etc.

Trump's claim is, "We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!" That is true to a small degree. Members of the military are trained for the possibility that we may have to kill someone in war. But, it is not what most members of the service are trained to do.

I served in the first Gulf War. I went through basic training at Ft Dix. For those who have never served, the first thing we received was the Smart Book. The Smart Book held the basics that every soldier needed to know. It had, among other things, instructions on the proper wearing of class A uniforms, the rules governing BDU's (like do not wear a summer top with a winter bottom -- which I did one day), the various ranks, hair length, different sized rounds, etc.
The Smart Book, the basics of being a soldier, did not make any mention of killing people. But, it does have an awful lot of material on behavior, the command structure, etc. In short, it has a lot of information on personal discipline, expectations of soldiers, unit cohesion and what can happen when you fail to live up to these rules.

If being a killing machine was the goal in any service, you would think we would have spent more time with our weapons. But, we didn't. They didn't toss us a weapon in the first few days and say let's go practice killing. For the first few days we're at a kind of pre-Basic Training; we got a haircut, uniforms, army underwear, socks, filled out medical information, got shots, got our TA-50 (I think that's what it was called), basically extra gear like rubber boots and stuff that we had to return at the end of basic.
When we got to basic we spent the next few weeks marching from place-to-place, doing cadence calls, exercising (push-ups, sit-ups, running, etc), cleaning, being drilled about information in our Smart Books (what rank is this, how do you address an NCO or officer indoors and outdoors, parade rest, what's the difference between the different article 15s, etc). In other words, we were trained to follow orders and follow procedure.

I think it was week 4 when we finally got to fire our weapons. And in that we learned to clean them, put in and take out the magazine, rifle D&C (rifle pt). And for the first one or two live fires it was to set our sights so we could shoot straight. We did do a lot of live fire after that, but even then there were rules when on the range and we were expected to follow all those rules. Same with grenades and other weapons. It was always about procedure.

First and foremost the military is about good order and discipline, that is what the military trains people for, that is number one. This is why we spend so much time learning ranks, how to clean, how to address superiors, reading map symbols, some information about the UCMJ and so on. When you do not follow the rules and do whatever you want in direct violation of orders you have violated rule number 1.
The army has many MOS' (jobs) that people can do, many of which do not involve being a killing machine, like a medic, a cook or a mechanic, etc.
I think Trump, like many others who have not served, seems to miss this. Likely, at least half of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are support members, not combat troops.
When Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men said, "We follow orders or men die." The key in that is "We follow orders..." That is the heart of the military. These individuals violated that because they did not follow the rules (orders) and they were punished, or were being punished, accordingly. They were not being punished because they were killing machines who were wrongly charged with doing combat effectively.

I find it interesting that a man who is so enamored by people following his rules, has such contempt for the rules of other institutions or individuals. `
I think Trump assumed that people agreed with him on this issue and was shocked when he found out that most service members disagreed with what he did. Most service members follow lawful orders because, "...or men die."

Deval Patrick Will Speak with Democrats Abroad

Dec 28th, 9:00am DC time, join a call with Deval Patrick!
He'll spend time with Democrats Abroad sharing his policy stance on Americans abroad issues (and other issues too, time permitting).

When: December 28, 2019 at 9:00am Eastern Time
Where: Zoom call
As this is an online call, you will need an internet connection in order to attend.

Impeached for THAT? (Comparing the Trump Articles of Impeachment - Real Law Review)

Back sort of

This is really my first time back since I was hospitalized on Nov 29. Today, I went for a few shotrt comments yesterday and today and posted one original (it's also short)
I have surgery Friday, so I am also posting from the hospital (Grateful I live in Japan and not the U.S.)
Saturday I should go home
I hope sometime soon after that to get my Stories from Europe going again and posting other things as well
Have a lovely day/afternoon or evening wherever you are and a Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it (except for the people at Fox News). I wish others here a Happy Holidays. And to Fox News, Good Night

A Joke (of sorts)

Person A (Trumpsist): You liberals are always complaining about blackface, like it's the worst thing ever. How come you never say anything to that black guy over there wearing white face.
Person B: Because he's a mime

Afghanistan Releases Activists Who Exposed Alleged Pedophile Ring

Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency says it has released two activists who helped expose an alleged pedophile ring operating in the country's schools, a scandal that has sparked national outrage.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) has come under fire for arresting last week the two human rights defenders -- Musa Mahmudi and Ehsanullah Hamidi -- who gave interviews about the purported pedophile ring.

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In a series of tweets, Ghani said he was "deeply disturbed about the recent reports on sexual abuse" in schools in Logar Province, south of Kabul, and that he instructed the Education Ministry to provide him with a “thorough report” on the matter "ASAP."

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The NDS on November 26 described the Guardian report as "baseless" and said Mahmudi's claims in the article were part of a scheme aimed at securing asylum in a foreign country.

link
https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-releases-activists-who-exposed-alleged-pedophile-ring/30294906.html

There are reports of a return of the ancient practice of "bacha bazi" -- literally, dancing boys -- in which wealthy or powerful men exploit underage boys as sexual partners.

https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-dancing-boys-sexual-exploitation-officials-complicit/28653116.html

According to Reuters, Public Support grew for impeaching il douche

Now, we wait to hear from the belt way media how bad this is for Democrats
Because everything is bad for the Democratic Party

Most dolphins are 'right-handed', say researchers

About 90% of humans are right-handed but we are not the only animals that show such preferences: gorillas tend to be right-handed, kangaroos are generally southpaws, and even cats have preferences for a particular side – although which is favoured appears to depend on their sex. Now researchers have found common bottlenose dolphins appear to have an even stronger right-side bias than humans.

“I didn’t expect to find it in that particular behaviour, and I didn’t expect to find such a strong example,” said Dr Daisy Kaplan, co-author of the study from the Dolphin Communication Project, a non-profit organisation in the US.
On a roll: blue whales switch 'handedness' when rolling to scoop food
Read more

Researchers studying common bottlenose dolphins in the Bahamas say the preference shows up in crater feeding, whereby dolphins swim close to the ocean floor, echolocating for prey, before shoving their beaks into the sand to snaffle a meal.

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Crucially, however, they found this turn is almost always to the left, with the same direction taken in more than 99% of the 709 turns recorded between 2012 and 2018.

The researchers say the findings indicate a right-side bias, since a left turn keeps a dolphin’s right eye and right side close to the ocean floor.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/27/most-dolphins-are-right-handed-say-researchers