Day: September 26, 2023

  

South Caucasus News from Michael Novakhov 

 The South Caucasus News – The News And Times

It is usually the custom, when thinking about monsters, to go back in one’s head to those familiar psychopaths that we have seen on screen. Freddy Krueger, Jason, Hannibal Lecter. Likewise, in real-life true crime, it is very common to think about human monsters as strangers lurking in foggy alleyways waiting to jump out at someone and scare them silly.

This is a wrong assumption. For example, in real-life murders, the statistics say that over 70% of female murders are committed by someone the victim knew, NOT a stranger. You see, the monsters are usually much closer to people than one might think.

Many Republican voters believe in fictitious monsters, and that is why they vote as they do. They fear the mysterious figures standing in the shadows, waiting to snatch their guns from them.

They fear that notion so much they often vote against their own best interests. The GOP has trained these voters well in the politics of fear. But, as we know, friends and readers, the real monsters hover much closer to our periphery. Real monsters want to destroy, to ruin. Real monsters hate the US Constitution. Real monsters are Donald Trump and his motley partners in crime.

Donald Trump is the ultimate in monsters, and he always has been. If Victor Frankenstein had set out to build the modern-day monster, he’d have hit the jackpot with Trump. And like the crazed monster that he is, Donald Trump cannot stop saying monstrous things.

An example would be Sunday night when the monster of all monsters threatened Comcast, MSNBC, and NBC, saying if he were to be elected again, he’d have them investigated for

“Should be investigated for its country threatening treason.” Now, dear readers, you know as well as I that Trump throws words around like “treason” as if these words were cotton candy. Everyone who dislikes him is a traitor.

Still, there is something particularly sick about this threat, yes? This is a man who has no control over the monster inside him, no control over the snake that often uncurls itself in the dead of night.

This monster of all human monsters would be perfectly happy to see ANYONE who questions, anyone with independent thought processes, and anyone who speaks freely, tried for treason.

This is because, for the monster, words do not hold the same meaning as they do for most. For Donald Trump, treason means anyone who goes after him, who seeks to expunge the monster, who desires equal justice under the law, and who is honest and fair. That is what makes human monsters so very repellent.

Nobody should be scared of this monster because he’s going to the place that is deeply skilled in monster captivity, the people who keep the immoral monsters behind dank doors, keeping them from doing unspeakable things to America and to us.

Everything Trump says is morally reprehensible. And if this coldest of men, this most wicked of mortals, really wants to know the meaning of the word “Treason,” all he has to do is look in the mirror.

The post The monster within appeared first on Palmer Report.

JPMorgan Chase agreed Tuesday to pay $75 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims that the bank enabled the sex trafficking acts committed by financier Jeffrey Epstein.

JPMorgan said that $55 million of the settlement will go toward local charities and assistance for victims. Another $20 million will go toward legal fees.

The Virgin Islands, where Epstein had an estate, sued JPMorgan last year, saying its investigation has revealed that the financial services giant enabled Epstein’s recruiters to pay victims and was “indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise.”

In effect, the Virgin Islands had argued that JPMorgan had been complicit in Epstein’s behavior and did not raise any red flags to law enforcement or bank regulators about Epstein being a “high risk” customer and making repeated large cash withdrawals.

The bank also said it reached a confidential legal settlement with James “Jes” Staley, the former top JPMorgan executive who managed the Epstein account before leaving the bank. JPMorgan sued Staley earlier this year, alleging that he covered up or minimized Epstein’s wrongdoing in order to maintain the lucrative account.

JPMorgan had already agreed to pay $290 million in June in a class-action lawsuit that involved victims of Epstein’s trafficking crimes.

Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019.

Conservationists in Kenya are ramping up efforts to protect elephants and increase their dwindling population. This follows a study published earlier this year that shows elephants play an important role in mitigating climate change. Juma Majanga reports from Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, home to over 2,500 elephants. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo.

The earthquake that killed nearly 3,000 people in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains this month also took a toll on the region’s flourishing tourist industry — a key source of jobs and income. The raft of tourist cancellations adds to the many challenges facing impoverished mountain communities as they begin the difficult task of rebuilding. Lisa Bryant reports for VOA from the Moroccan town of Amizmiz.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the drawing of a new Alabama congressional map with greater representation for Black voters to proceed, rejecting the state’s plea to retain Republican-drawn lines that were struck down by a lower court.

In refusing to intervene, the justices, without any noted dissent, allowed a court-appointed special master’s work to continue. On Monday, he submitted three proposals that would create a second congressional district where Black voters comprise a majority of the voting age population or close to it.

A second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority could send another Democrat to Congress at a time when Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. Federal lawsuits over state and congressional districts also are pending in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

Alabama lost its Supreme Court case in June in which its congressional map with just one majority Black district out of seven seats was found to dilute the voting power of the state’s Black residents, who make up more than a quarter of Alabama’s population.

A three-judge court also blocked the use of districts drawn by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature in response to the high court ruling. The judges said Alabama lawmakers deliberately defied their directive to create a second district where Black voters could influence or determine the outcome.

Stark racial divisions characterize voting in Alabama. Black voters overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates, and white Alabamians prefer Republicans.

The state had wanted to use the newly drawn districts while it appeals the lower-court ruling to the Supreme Court.

Though Alabama lost its case in June by a 5-4 vote, the state leaned heavily on its hope of persuading one member of that slim majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to essentially switch his vote.

The state’s court filing repeatedly cited a separate opinion Kavanaugh wrote in June that suggested he could be open to the state’s arguments in the right case. Kavanaugh, borrowing from Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissenting opinion, wrote that even if race-based redistricting was allowed under the Voting Rights Act for a period of time, that “the authority to conduct race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future.”