Good morning
As we speak Alexei Navalny is in a Moscow courtroom accused of violating a parole on a 2015 dubious fraud charge even the European Court of Human Rights questioned as legitimate. As Navalny said in court calmly today;
So let’s call a spade the obvious spade. Putin is scared of Navalny and will use any pretence to keep him in jail because he represents a growing political threat.
The two weekends of protests show Russian’s identify with his plight, and The Kremlin has mismanaged the situation from likely ordering Navalny’s poisoning in August, to now jailing him after Navalny released the corruption video on the billion dollar palace Putin now claims is not his. His long time child hood friend, and judo partner, billionaire Arkady Rotenberg has stepped forward to say it’s his. Not credible.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/e2-80-98putin-palace-e2-80-99-is-mine-says-russian-billionaire-arkady-rotenberg/ar-BB1dfRDo
Smoke and mirrors and hard to believe the FSB security service has placed a no fly zone over a palace of an oligarch, but Putins palace it certainly would. Navalny is likely to remain in jail. Police are arresting protesters outside the court. And many foreign Ambassadors have attended the hearing today to show support for Navalny. On watching and will write more on this later.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova writes that the presence of foreign diplomats at Navalny's hearing "isn't just meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, but the self-incrimination of the west's unsightly and illegal attempts to contain Russia." She accuses the diplomats of being "an attempt at psychological pressure on the judge." But note - the judge swho was supposed to hear this case resigned a couple of days ago. Who was pressuring the judge in Russia? Take a guess…
On Back Story with Dana Lewis our podcast on growing Russian dissent :
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7499026
Covid
In the UK the South African variant which is more resistant to vaccines has been found in a number of areas, and track and trace officials are now going door-to-door in those areas testing. The people who have the variant have not travelled to South Africa, so the source of the variant spread may be A-symptomatic and it’s already spread enough for community transmission. The race to vaccinate vs the mutation of the virus is on going Worldwide.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55898258
Myanmar
Hundreds of law makers remain under arrest. The Military General who has taken charge against all democratic norms and stirred Int. outrage has said he will rule for one year.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-cabinet-aung-san-suu-kyi-democracy-myanmar-coronavirus-pandemic-93148fa493acec64213753152d84318d
Bo Bo Oo, a National League for Democracy lawmaker and former political prisoner, said the party was not currently planning street protests.
“For many years the Burmese people have worked hard for democracy. It’s been such a long journey,” he said, using an alternate name for Myanmar’s people. “And now this is one of the worst moments in our country’s history.”
America
A civilized debate but one that will likely end in unilateral Democrat decisions on the pandemic relief package as republicans oppose Joe Bidens 1.9 trillion dollar package.
Small town mayors and many Americans say they are courting disaster by waiting and debating a bail out so vital to peoples under tremendous pressure from the pandemic. But the Republicans equate social help with left wing socialized policies they think goes against the American model.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/us/politics/republicans-biden-coronavirus-stimulus.html
The danger seems to be in doing too little, not doing too much.
Trump Trial
Trumps new lawyer David Shoen calls the second impeachment of Trump a slap in the face and lays out the case Trump never called for violence. Of course he would and because Trump seemed to skate a thin line when he spoke to the crowd the day of the march and assault on the capitol, he may have a defense.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/trump-impeachment-lawyer-david-schoen-calls-trial-e2-80-98slap-in-the-face-e2-80-99-in-first-interview/ar-BB1djscg
But it is believable? Your answer will probably define your politics but the fact remains that march was meant to subvert a democratic and fair election, and if your politics leads you to support Trump, you probably don’t recognize the mortal danger to American democracy posed by Trump and his family.
There is emerging evidence that march was organized by the Trump White House to overthrow the vote in the chamber certifying election results. The nonpartisan Coup D’état Project at the Cline Center of the University of Illinois, last week determined that the storming of the Capitol "was an attempted coup d’état, an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election.” Here’s the link to their report.
https://clinecenter.illinois.edu/coup-detat-project-cdp/statement_jan.27.2021
The larger conversation has to be can Trump run for office again in 2024 and what will that do to the nation? I can’t imagine it will end well if he does run, because America needs a calmer atmosphere, and economic recovery, and a President that can lead Americans towards unity rather than Trumps endless corrosive division stirring hatred and bizarre and violent conspiracy theories.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene has been called a cancer on the republican party, by minority Senate Leader (R)Mitch McConnell.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13919559/mcconnell-says-marjorie-taylor-greenes-loony-lies-are-cancer/
She is the elected representative who follows QAnon, blames jewish space lasers for forest fires, calls school shootings and Las Vegas as false flags or false, questions the 911 attack on the Pentagon and generally is a cult fringe figure and looney as they come. The question now is what the republican party will do with her.
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