This week has been a major news week in politics across the world.
A depressing story about the alleged rape of an 18 year old woman by two Detectives in Brooklyn.
Detectives Eddie Martins and Richard Hall picked up Anna Chambers in September 2017 for marijuana possession.
Anna states that both officers took turns raping her in the back of their squad car after her arrest, even getting a positive match for both officers semen with a rape kit she was tested with after they released her.
The officers however, allege that she consented to the sex, which, at that point in time in NY, was not against the law (it has been instituted in the state since due to this incident), and the officers are only being charged with taking bribes and official misconduct [1].
“She decided to speak out, and they shut it right down. It’s a very bad message to future victims of sexual violence, especially against law enforcement.”
Chambers’ attorney Mike David
The US Government, in coordination with Mexico, created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports.
This has led to continual questioning and interrogation by border officials to those that were at the caravan who have been routinely monitored since the event and some have been barred from access to other countries [2].
In an ever developing story, the White House may have abused their power to get security clearances for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner despite opposition from Security Agencies and the WH Security Office [3].
Because of this revelation, both the House Oversight Committee and the group
CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) are attempting to look into the issue [4], with the House Oversight Committee submitting a request to the White House for documents related to the security clearances.
The White House chose, in response, to reject their request for documents, a move that will lead to a subpoenas being handed out, possibly even to Trump himself [5].
Speaking on subpoenas, it seems likely, as stated by Judge Napolitano of Fox News, that Michael Cohen’s testimony may lead to multiple investigations within the House that, if they so choose, may subpoena the White House if documents are asked for and not handed over to the investigations [6].
This may come to fruition sooner than expected however, as the House Judiciary Committee has begun investigating:
The committee told reporters Monday that the investigation will focus on three primary issues: whether the president obstructed justice by interfering with criminal investigations; potential corruption such as violation of campaign and financial reporting laws, as well as possible misuse of office for personal gain; and abuses of power to include misuse of the pardon power and attacks on the press, judiciary and law enforcement agencies. [7]
Fox News reportedly knew of the Stormy Daniels story before the 2016 Election and refused to publish it (as well as avoiding coverage of it across their prime-time shows):
“But Falzone’s story didn’t run—it kept being passed off from one editor to the next. After getting one noncommittal answer after another from her editors, Falzone at last heard from LaCorte, who was then the head of FoxNews.com. Falzone told colleagues that LaCorte said to her, ‘Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert [Murdoch] wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.’” [8]
Due to this story, the DNC has barred Fox News from hosting any of their Primary Debates, citing that the DNC believes the station cannot be ‘fair and neutral’ [9].
Reports from South Korea have indicated that North Korea has begun rebuilding their rocket testing sites they had promised to destroy after the initial summit with Trump, with US National Security Adviser John Bolton stating that it may lead to further sanctions [10].
The lack of urgency in the Trump Administrations methods to ensure ending North Korea’s nuclear armament is what is leading to their likelihood of succeeding in becoming a nuclear power, as the more time the US wastes not ensuring the end of their nuclear projects, the higher the chance of success for North Korea.
A massive uncovering of a Russian money laundering operation of over $9 Billion involving Citigroup, Raiffeisen, and Deutsche Bank, as well as Prince Charles, has been exposed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Lithuanian news site 15min.lt using leaked data shared with others including The Guardian that led to the discovery. [11]
Dubbed “the Troika Laundromat,” it allowed for “Russian oligarchs and politicians to secretly acquire shares in state-owned companies, to buy real estate both in Russia and abroad, to purchase luxury yachts, to hire music superstars for private parties, to pay medical bills, and much more, to protect themselves, the wealthy people behind this system used the identities of poor people as unwitting signatories in the secretive offshore companies that ran the system.” [12]
The US has closed it’s Consulate in Jerusalem, causing massive tensions with Palestinian officials. Previously, Palestine had utilized the Consulate in a way similar to having their own Embassy to the United States. This move has caused Palestinian leaders to believe the US has stopped believing in and is moving away from a Two-State Solution. This move, along with the move of the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Palestine has enraged the Palestinian leadership, but the Trump Administration points out the avoidance of peace negotiations with Israel as a major factor [13].
The House Passed a Resolution condemning antisemitism and bigotry in response to Representative Ilhan Omar, in which she stated:
“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask, ‘Why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the [National Rifle Association], or fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policy?'” [14]
Rep. Ilhan Omar
However, many progressives in the Democratic party came to her side, including three candidates for becoming the Democratic Presidential Candidate, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris, who stated that asking questions and criticizing Israel should not automatically be seen as antisemitic [15].
House and Senate Democrats Wednesday morning introduced a new three-page bill that would restore the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules. Dubbed the Save the Internet Act, the proposal would also restore FCC authority over internet service providers, stripped away in the wake of last year’s controversial repeal.
The original FCC rules prohibited ISPs from unfairly throttling or blocking websites or services they compete with. It also required that ISPs be entirely transparent with consumers about just what kind of broadband connection they’re buying.
“The Save the Internet Act would enact true net neutrality protections by codifying the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order as a new, free-standing section of law,” Congressman Mike Doyle told attendees of a morning press conference.
“We are on the right side of history, and we will not give up this fight,” Senator Ed Markey noted. “It begins today, and this coalition will not stop until we win.”
…
ISPs have a rich history of trying to use their role as internet gatekeepers both to nickel and dime consumers—and to disadvantage competitors.
In 2005, one North Carolina ISP banned internet phone provider Vonage because it didn’t want the provider competing with its own phone services. In 2012, AT&T blocked FaceTime unless iPhone users ponied up more money. More recently, AT&T has been imposing arbitrary usage caps on broadband users if they use streaming competitors like Netflix, but not if they use AT&T’s own streaming offerings.
Mobile carriers like Sprint have toyed with throttling all video, music, or games unless users pay an additional fee. Verizon now offers “unlimited” data plans that ban HD streaming unless you pay them more money, and the company was also caught last year trying to throttle and upsell firefighters in the midst of a historic forest fire.
Given the lack of competition in many markets, users often can’t switch to another ISP if their existing provider behaves anti-competitively. That’s why net neutrality rules were seen as a useful stopgap measure until lawmakers are willing to embrace policies that drive more competition to market—something telecom lobbyists work tirelessly to avoid. [16]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been discovered to have asked former Justice Minister (in charge of administration of Judiciary) Jody Wilson-Raybould to help a major construction firm called SNC-Lavin Group Inc avoid criminal trial.
The reason behind his actions seems to be based on the fact that SNC-Lavalin employs 9,000 Canadians and is a major employer in Quebec, but in order to do so, repeatedly pressured Wilson-Raybould to avoid going to trial even after she had decided they needed to do so.
Wilson-Raybould was then unexpectedly demoted in January and became a whistleblower after leaving the government [17].
Sources
Source 1: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/claudiakoerner/anna-chambers-nypd-rape-charges-officers-dropped
Source 2: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/investigations/Source-Leaked-Documents-Show-the-US-Government-Tracking-Journalists-and-Advocates-Through-a-Secret-Database-506783231.html
Source 3: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/05/politics/ivanka-trump-security-clearance-pressure/index.html
Source 4: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/433037-watchdog-organization-calls-for-investigation-into-kushner-clearance
Source 5: https://www.axios.com/white-house-rejects-house-oversight-request-security-clearances-3dafb296-376f-4b9b-8bd3-0601f240c28f.html
Source 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YEjFs9JSKo
Source 7: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/699976689/house-judiciary-launches-probe-of-allegations-of-obstruction-by-president-trump
Source 8: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/04/fox-news-reportedly-killed-stormy-daniels-story-its-downplayed-it-since/?utm_term=.7ae2994c2b0e
Source 9: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/06/700807729/dnc-bars-fox-news-from-hosting-2020-primary-debates
Source 10: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-nuclear/south-korea-sees-signs-north-korea-restoring-part-of-launch-site-it-promised-to-dismantle-idUSKCN1QM1ZA
Source 11: https://www.businessinsider.com/expos-on-russian-money-laundering-operation-entangles-banks-2019-3
Source 12: https://www.occrp.org/en/troikalaundromat/
Source 13: https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-closes-jerusalem-consulate-demoting-palestinian-mission/
Source 14: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rep-ilhan-omar-criticized-again-what-critics-call-anti-semitism-n978521
Source 15: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/7/18254616/2020-democrats-ilhan-omar-israel
Source 16: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3mk5w/democrats-unveil-new-bill-to-fully-restore-net-neutrality
Source 17: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-politics-snc-lavalin/under-pressure-canadas-trudeau-denies-impropriety-offers-no-apology-idUSKCN1QO1NF
Truthful not Neutral 