Saturday, June 23, 2018

The women of Pakistan are not receiving respect and are treated as sex objects.

There are some women on the ballot this election year. Women's rights and respect should be a topic every election in Pakistan.

June 1, 2018
By Sabeer Lodhi

Left: Meesha Shafi and Ali Zafar; looks can be deceiving (click here)

...In contrast, (click here) when Meesha Shafi spoke up about Ali Zafar sexually harassing her, she was witch-hunted till she had to deactivate her Instagram account, and was a recipient of more abuse than support. There was nothing that was not questioned about her; men and women on social, electronic and print media assassinated her character left, right and centre....

Evidently, Pakistani men are studied up on what is occurring with #MeToo. The men are marching forward with full self-righteousness in sexual assault and sexual harassment. The worst of it seems to be 80 college co-eds that were sexually assaulted while taking an exam. Evidently, the professor did think an academic exam was in order so much as a physical exam.

To the right is the Facebook entry regarding the sexual assault and harassment.


...She is not alone, 79 other girls have also allegedly been harassed by him and 18 of them have recorded their testimonies online.

Confessions of the victims.

18 testimonies so far. pic.twitter.com/WdnfqpAtXS

- Alsa (@OfficiallyAlsa)

May 29, 2018
“After I was done writing I visually realised a hand was extending to my chest.”

Let that sink in. Eighty girls no older than 18 were sexually harassed by their invigilator. Current and former students of other universities and schools, including the prestigious Army Public School, have come forward and narrated similar incidences. It seems that Bashir is obviously a pervert who has not been investigated for many years, despite being reported numerous times....

I don't expect a USA Congressperson to bring about a lawsuit within Pakistan on behalf of the women, but, perhaps during this election in Pakistan a high profile interview in the USA about the movement here and how it has changed the esteem of American women would result in awareness within the political races of women that want respect, instead of intimidation to receive good grades.

Molesting 80 co-eds not more than 18 years old is outrageous and I don't know how this professor has gotten away with it. I can only imagine what the price would be like for them if they didn't have a woman professor in the room as well.

If the professor is so inclined to seek sexual pleasures, perhaps watching Pakistan porn would work well for him and leave his students alone.

The question a year ago that spawned this article is, "Will pornography create more freedom in Pakistan?"

June 2017
By An Phung

...This scene, (click here) courtesy of Zofeen Ebrahim from Le Temps, was the description of an adult movie house in one of the most unlikely places in the world: Peshawar, the capital of the most conservative province in Pakistan. The men (and some women), she says, are "watching a porn film, right under the nose of the religious political parties, the Taliban and the government."...

Ms. Clifford wants her case moved back to state court.

June 21, 2018
By Ramsey Touchberry

Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford), (click here) the adult film star who is suing President Trump and his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said on Thursday that she plans to visit the southern border next week where thousands of migrant children have been separated from their parents.

“I am headed down in a week. Don't worry,” she tweeted in response to someone asking her to help the migrant kids. “Just figuring out my best course of action to maximize my resources.”...

June 22, 2018
By Edvard Pettersson

Stephanie Clifford, (click here) the adult-movie star professionally known as Stormy Daniels, wants the lawsuit alleging her former lawyer colluded with Donald Trump’s long-term attorney Michael Cohen sent back to state court.

Cohen used “procedural gamesmanship” to have the case she filed June 6 in California state court in Los Angeles transferred to a U.S. federal court, Clifford said Friday in a court filing.

The lawsuit is against Keith Davidson, who negotiated the $130,000 “hush payment” she received in 2016 from Cohen not to discuss an alleged tryst she had with Trump a decade earlier. The suit followed a previous case she filed against Trump and Cohen to get out from under the non-disclosure agreement. Cohen and Trump moved that case to federal court where a judge put it on hold because of an ongoing criminal investigation of Cohen.

In Friday’s filing, Clifford argues that the more recent case belongs in state court because Davidson is a California resident....

The lady is still working. And the colors purple and red are often favorite colors for porn art. Ms. Clifford is not going anywhere any time soon. She is well liked in the porn industry, by her customers and fans and the industry is extremely profitable and worth a lot more than Trump.

...According to various reports, (click here) currently, the porn industry’s net worth is about $97 billion. This money is enough to feed at-least 4.8 billion people a day. Every year, Hollywood releases roughly 600 movies and makes $10 billion in profit. And how much porn industry makes? 13,000 films and close to $15 billion in profit. The porn industry makes more money than Major League Baseball, The NFL and The NBA combined....

The adult porn industry also serves a highly diverse group, including any and all of the LGBTQ community. It has served these folks for a long time.

I wish her and her family well.

June 19, 2018
By Ron Maxey

Adult film star Stormy Daniels receives a key to the city of West Hollywood, May 23, 2018 in West Hollywood, Calif. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, earned international headlines for her legal battle with President Trump over an alleged affair she claims the pair had a decade ago. West Hollywood Mayor John Duran proclaiming ``Stormy Daniels Day'' in West Hollywood, recognized Clifford for "her leadership in the #RESIST movement.''

They wait under the purple awning (click here) just outside the thick double doors as a security guard pats them down under a soft red neon glow. 

Concrete ponies, on hind legs, peer down from either end of the rooftop above, while more purple and red neon screams "Girls, Girls, Girls" from the sign behind them.

Then they're inside. A smiling cardboard cutout Donald Trump, two thumbs up, greets them at the cash register. The door host behind the glass counter, who looks like she's dressed to dance ("I do everything here," she says), strains to hear the steady stream of phone queries over the dull thud of music leaking from behind the next pair of double doors.

"VIP seating is more," she shouts into the phone as the just-vetted customers from outside wait patiently, wallets in hand. "I'll have to ask a manager if we still have any VIP seating."...

There is litigation that looks as though it will succeed.

The litigation (on Buzzfeed - click here) has tons of case law cited. All the case law is from the USA. The attorneys involved are representing three parents currently in detention facilities. There is a father that has no knowledge of his 12 year old girl, a mother who has spoken with her son age, 9 I think, twice since May and another mother with three children, the youngest 2, that has the most support in talking to her children twice a week for 10 minutes.

The parents are calling this torture because they do not have intimate information about their children such as their whereabouts, the wellness, the food they are eating and if they are being cared for.

The US authorities involved in this state there are currently 500 families reunited, but, thousands more to go.

June 22, 2018
By Zoe Tillman

David and Margaret Youth & Family Services in La Verne is one of four agencies providing shelter and foster care services to about 100 kids that were separated from parents at the border. 

In a quiet nook (click here) in the small city of La Verne, small cottages topped with Spanish tile are spread across a sprawling green campus.

Long ago, it was an orphanage; now it’s a group home for foster kids. Recently, it also became one of several shelters in the Los Angeles area that quietly began to house kids who have been split from their parents at the border....

... Details began to emerge Friday about the whereabouts of the separated children sent to Los Angeles and other locations around the country. But this has done little to ease concerns about the children's welfare.

“People can have the best intentions to help, but it can be very detrimental for the children,” said Camila Alvarez, managing attorney with the Central American Resource Center. “Some of these places are not well-known intentionally.”

Some immigration advocates said they were hopeful the children would receive good care at the Southern California facilities.

“Believe me, these kids are way better off here being cared for than probably any other place in the U.S.,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, on Facebook. Her organization works directly with children in detention.

She added that her organization’s clients "who have been housed in local shelters have never raised any safety concerns."

Most of the kids in the L.A. area are under 9. They are reportedly detained in facilities and foster homes run by at least four nonprofit agencies.

Officials with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency charged with managing the kids, did not respond to repeated requests for comment....               

I take it she and her family didn't order a wedding cake.

June 23, 2018
By Christina Zhao

After a Virginia restaurant (click here) reportedly threw out White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family on Friday night, reviewers swarmed to their Facebook and Yelp page to post feedback.
On Friday night, Jaike Foley-Schultz, allegedly a waiter at The Red Hen, a restaurant on Washington Street in Lexington, took to Facebook to announce that Sanders was prevented from eating at their establishment.
“I just served Sarah huckabee sanders for a total of 2 minutes before my owner kicked her out along with 7 of her other family members…” he wrote.
Sanders confirmed the incident in a Saturday morning tweet saying, "Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left," she wrote. "Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so."...

House Republicans will compromise the national security of the USA and any and all informants should be aware of that potential.

Is Sessions interfering in any way? Threats of retaliation for withholding the subpoenaed information? Anything that send the lawyers in the department reconsider such requests? It just seems to me there is a lot of talk, even by Trump of firing the lawyers attempting to secure the country from Russian interference. 

June 23, 2018
By Sonam Sheth

The Department of Justice (click here) has turned over additional surveillance records of President Donald Trump's associates that were collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to House Republicans, according to two congressional sources with direct knowledge of the matter....

...The move comes as House Republicans and the White House continue pressuring the DOJ and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to comply with subpoena requests for classified information.

While Republicans say the requests are part of their congressional oversight responsibility, Democrats accuse their colleagues across the aisle of using classified information to play politics and compromise the Russia investigation.

Leading the Republican charge are House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, and House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy.

Nunes has been under the spotlight since last year, when it surfaced that he traveled to the White House to brief administration officials on classified information about the Russia probe before informing his colleagues on the panel. He has since been conducting a separate investigation into what he characterizes as surveillance abuses by the DOJ and FBI.

Earlier this year, Nunes drew scrutiny for publicly disclosing FISA information about the former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. And in April, the DOJ turned over the document that first prompted the FBI to launch the Russia probe to House Republicans....

This idiot never stops being a businessman first.

The reason sanctions were leveled at Russia was to impress the hostile action of breaking an international treaty which removed nuclear weapons from Ukraine. The region is still at war and the Minsk II agreement is not being enforced by Russia. There is absolutely no reason for the President of the United States of America and the prolonged President of Russia to meet. 

June 23, 2018
By Emily Tamkin


European governments, (click here) already nervous for what next month’s NATO summit could hold, have been thrown for yet another loop: President Donald Trump is reportedly set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on his trip to Europe. With trade tensions already rising and Trump continuing to insist that Europeans owe the United States for defense spending, some European diplomats worry whether Trump will present a message of transatlantic unity and strength to Putin, with whom he seems to want badly to get along.
It isn’t that Europeans, some of whom, prior to this administration, were seen as softer on Russia than their US counterparts, are inherently against a US president meeting his Russian counterpart. “We are always in favor of dialogue … There are lots of issues where we must find common ground with Russia, including Syria, Ukraine etc.,” one European diplomat wrote in an email to BuzzFeed News. “We have disagreements, they should be addressed as well.”
“It is not bad news per se that they meet,” agreed another.
A UK official, far from confirming reports that Whitehall is aghast, wrote, “We agree with Secretary General Stoltenberg. There is nothing contradictory in Trump seeing NATO allies and Putin in quick succession. The Prime Minister has always been clear that our approach with Russia is to engage but beware.”...

For the record, Crimea is an occupied territory and eastern Ukraine is engaged in a civil war.


22 June 2018

The Embassy of Ukraine (click here) in the United States has criticized the world map published by Bloomberg where the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which is now under the temporary Russian occupation, was defined as a neutral territory.

"Journalism should be correct. Bloomberg Business, don’t play into Russian aggressive games&propaganda! Crimea is temporarily under Russia’s occupation, but it is & will be an integral part of Ukraine’s territory Please, correct the map," the embassy wrote on Twitter, asking to mark the peninsula with the same color as mainland Ukraine....

The latest Russian sanctions was the second passed by the USA Congress and signed into law by the President. Trump needs an ankle bracelet to know where he is and when he becomes inappropriate and/or breaks the law. Trump believes Russian sanctions are a burden, but, Iran sanctions should be dissolved and the Iran Agreement incinerated.

29 January 2018
By Natasha Turak

...Frustration (click here) has grown within Congress over Trump's apparent reluctance to act on highly popular and bipartisan demands to punish Russia for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election and for its military activities in Ukraine.

While enacted in July, CAATSA was only signed in August amid much protest from the president. Suspicion over Trump's ties to Russia grew when the White House missed a pivotal CAATSA deadline in October to name Russian defense and intelligence entities slated for new sanctions. The Trump administration has consistently denied any ties with Russia, insisting that it solely aims to pursue a warmer relationship with the longtime U.S. adversary....

The US Congress needs to act to at least censure reprimand and/or censure Trump. This is outrageous indignation toward the legislature. Trump is ruling the country as a dictator and that should never stand. Even when the US House and Senate pass an immigration bill it is refused because of any compromise made with Democratic members.


Donald Trump is not a good president and needs to be formally regarded as such.
June 23, 2018

The government of Ukraine (click here) has added 30 legal entities and 14 individuals to its blacklist of those sanctioned over Russia's annexation of Crimea and Moscow's backing of a separatist campaign in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council posted on June 22 that the list now included 1,759 individuals and 786 legal entities.

The new additions include Russian political parties and other institutions that were involved in the conduct of Russian elections in the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea.

The Russian Central Election Commission, the United Russia party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Russian Communist Party, and others were among those added to the list.

Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg and members of his family were also put on the blacklist.

A number of Russian defense enterprises and the Luhansk Aircraft Maintenance Plant were also added.

More than 10,300 people have been killed in the fighting between the separatists and Ukrainian government troops since it broke out in April 2014....

The corruption in Ukraine has been an issue that Europe and other trading partners wanted stopped. Ukraine now has an anti-corruption court. Ukraine is doing all the hard work to be considered a serious and legitimate democracy and valued trading partner. That should not be met in the USA as a frivolous accomplishment by meetings with Vladimir Putin. 

PUTIN BROKE A TREATY OBLIGATION.

Treaties do mean nothing if there is no enforcement of them. Trump is circumventing the authority of the USA to render enforcement of the treaty that Putin not only broke but then invaded Crimea and started a civil war at the eastern border of Ukraine. His military shot down a commercial airliner passing over Ukraine and killed 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

Trump has no respect for the USA or it's allies. He is self-serving and nothing more.

23 June 2018

The German government (click here) considers the creation of an Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine an important and courageous step.

Representative of the German Foreign Ministry Christofer Burger stated this at a briefing in Berlin on Friday, when asked about this issue by an Ukrinform correspondent.

"We have always said that the creation of the Anti-Corruption Court is an important step on the path of reforms in Ukraine and an important signal of determination in the fight against corruption," said Burger....


I am sure she will be at her best when approaching the US House seat this fall.

Very sorry to hear about Ms. Arrington's severe accident. I am sure everyone wishes her well. I would expect most South Carolinians will find her values and self-will to recuperate inspiring.

The last report is that she is she will be discharged from the hospital within two weeks. She will have undergone several surgeries. I hope the crash is being investigated even with the driver killed on impact. It was a head on collision. 

..."Last night, (click here) Katie Arrington and her friend were traveling to Hilton Head, where Katie was scheduled to receive an award from a state medical organization this morning....

I am sure her family will turn out to carry out campaign promises until she is recovered enough to assume those responsibilities herself. I wish her a full recovery and a successful return to South Carolina politics.