THECOCONUTWHISPERER : 2020-07-26

Saturday, 1 August 2020

Appeals Court Overturns Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber

Bronson Stocking
Posted: Jul 31, 2020 4:35 PM
townhall.com

Appeals Court Overturns Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two asylum-seeking brothers who blew up the Boston Marathon, just had his death sentence overturned by a U.S. Appeals Court. Dzhokhar's lawyers argued that the terrorist himself was a victim of intense media coverage and an unfair jury trial. The attack on the 2013 Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded around 280 others. Many of the victims lost limbs and suffered other horrific injuries.

"A core promise of our criminal-justice system is that even the very worst among us deserve to be fairly tried and lawfully punished," reads the federal appeals court ruling vacating Dzhokhar's death sentence.

In 2015, a jury found Dzhokhar guilty on all 30 charges against him and sentenced the bomber to death. But because Dzhokhar had destroyed the lives of so many Bostonians, his defense attorneys have successfully argued that his death sentence was unfair because the trial should have been moved to a different city -- presumably a city where Dzhokhar didn't kill people. Dzhokhar told investigators that he and his brother's next target was planned for New York City's Times Square.

Dzhokhar's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died in a shootout with police a few days after the attack, so no worries about his death sentence being overturned anytime soon. Dzhokhar lawyers maintain that Tamerlan was the real mastermind behind the attack.

The three-judge panel also reversed three convictions against Dzhokhar related to his possession of a firearm and ordered the empaneling of a new jury trial to redecide the penalty phase for Dzhokhar's death-eligible convictions.

"Dzhokhar will remain confined to prison for the rest of his life, with the only question remaining being whether the government will end his life by executing him," the judges wrote in their decision.
Dzhokar is currently behind bars at a high-security supermax prison in Colorado.

Prime Minister Netanyahu: Apply Sovereignty Now

By Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar

10 Av 5780 – July 31, 2020
www.jewishpress.com

During these difficult times, we must instill faith and hope in people. We must return to the basic Zionist value of applying Jewish sovereignty over the land and fulfilling our mission as a holy nation spreading light to the entire world.

With the coronavirus’s return, some argue that we should drop the campaign to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and focus solely on battling the virus. True statesmen, however, don’t allow crises to divert them from their goals.

Political, economic, and social difficulties didn’t deter Levi Eshkol or Menahem Begin from applying Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and neither should a virus deter us from applying sovereignty over other portions of the land.

Within Likud, calls are increasing for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be strong and conduct the political battle alongside the economic-medical one. Among those urging this course of action are Minister Tzipi Hotovely, Minister Ze’ev Elkin, MK Sharren Haskel, MK Michal Shir, and MK Ariel Kellner.

Indeed, from Yamina to Likud to the charedi factions to Blue and White, Derech Eretz, Telem, most of Yesh Atid, and part of Labor– all agree on the need to apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley.

Some are about political stability, but applying sovereignty will strengthen the government, not weaken it. MK Sharren Haskel recently said that the current government will disintegrate if sovereignty is not applied. She explained that the present coalition is not a natural alliance, and one of the only reasons Likud MKs agreed to support it was the perceived need to apply sovereignty before the November elections in the United States.

As she said in comments reported by Arutz 7, “Without the application of sovereignty, this government has no reason to exist.”

In an interview with Channel 20, Haskell said if sovereignty is not be applied in the coming weeks, there will be no choice but to head to a fourth round of elections.

We must also sound a word of caution, though. In an interview with Galei Tzahal, Jason Greenblatt, the U.S. president’s former envoy to the Middle East, made clear that one of goals of the Trump plan is a negotiation progress that will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of Eretz Yisrael.

We must therefore say unequivocally that there is no way we can agree to such a plan. The principle of “Yes to sovereignty, no to Palestine” must lead us in every discussion on sovereignty. One does not make deals on the homeland – not theoretically and certainly practically.

Apart from this statement of principle, we must continue energetically urging the application of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and then the rest of the Land of Israel currently in our hands.

Supreme Court denies request to halt construction of the border wall

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-denies-request-to-halt-construction-of-the-border-wall

A number of groups, including the ACLU and Sierra Club, had asked the high court to get involved

The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote has denied a request to halt construction of President Trump’s border wall over environmental concerns.

A number of groups, including the ACLU and Sierra Club, had asked the high court to get involved again after the justices last year cleared the way for the administration to use military funds for construction while the case played out in the courts.

A federal appeals court had ruled against the administration last month, but the justices, for now, have given another temporary victory to the administration.

"The fight continues,” said Dror Ladin, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “Every lower court to consider the question has ruled President Trump's border wall illegal, and the Supreme Court’s temporary order does not decide the case. We’ll be back before the Supreme Court soon to put a stop to Trump’s xenophobic border wall once and for all.”

The four liberal justices dissented from Friday’s order.

In June, the Supreme Court also declined to hear an appeal from a coalition of environmental groups that pushed back against the Trump administration's construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, challenged a 1996 law giving the president authority to fight illegal immigration and border crossings, and limiting some legal challenges.

CBP commissioner on border construction: It's not just a wall, it's a system

Video

The coalition claimed that the Trump administration did not conduct sufficient environmental impact studies for the construction and that endangered species like the jaguar and Mexican wolf would be adversely affected by the barrier.

They had asserted in their case that the law’s allowance for the secretary of Homeland Security to waive any laws necessary to allow the quick construction of border fencing violates the Constitution’s separation of powers. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed the case, citing a prior case from 2007 with "a nearly identical context."

Progressives, establishment Dems set for major clashes in Aug. 4 primaries

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/guide-to-aug-4-primaries

Though much of Americans' political focus has turned to the general election battle looming between President Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, primary season is not quite over, and another round of consequential races is upcoming on Tuesday, including a primary challenge to high-profile Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.

Tlaib is facing a challenge from Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones -- who she beat out in a crowded primary race in 2018 -- to retain her seat in Congress. But now it's just Jones and Tlaib going head to head. And despite Tlaib's massive fundraising advantage, Jones is a popular politician with deep connections in the Detroit political establishment.

Wednesday, 29 July 2020

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Tuesday, 28 July 2020

Report links world's top meat firm to deforestation

JULY 28, 2020
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-links-world-meat-firm-deforestation.html

In this file photo taken on August 25, 2019 cattle graze with a burnt area in the background after a fire in the Amazon rainforest near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil

Brazilian firm JBS, the world's biggest meat processing company, was again accused Monday of "laundering" cattle from ranches blacklisted for destroying the Amazon rainforest.

The charge, leveled in a report by an investigative journalism consortium, marks at least the fifth time in just over a year that the company, which exports around the world, has been accused of cattle laundering.

That is a practice in which animals from a blacklisted ranch are transferred to one with a clean record to dodge a ban on sales.

The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, British newspaper the Guardian and Brazilian journalism group Reporter Brasil said in the joint report that pictures posted on Facebook by a JBS truck driver appeared to show him and his colleagues transporting cattle from a blacklisted ranch, Estrela do Aripuana, to a "clean" one 300 kilometers (185 miles) away, Estrela do Sangue, in July 2019.

The drivers wore JBS uniforms and drove JBS trucks in the pictures.

Located in the west-central state of Mato Grosso, which is largely covered in Amazon rainforest, Estrela do Aripuana was blacklisted by Brazil's environment ministry in 2012 over the illegal deforestation of around 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land.

Authorities also fined its owner 2.2 million reals (around $1 million at the time).

The consortium said it had obtained Brazilian government records indicating that at least 7,000 animals were shipped from the embargoed ranch to the "clean" one between June 2018 and August 2019.

Other documents show the latter sold 7,000 animals to JBS slaughterhouses from November 2018 to November 2019, it said.

JBS denies cattle laundering and says it is implementing measures to prevent third parties from sneaking such animals into its supply chain.

"We have adopted an unequivocal stance of zero deforestation," it said in a statement, adding it had opened an internal investigation into the latest allegations.

Brazil faces mounting pressure to slow surging deforestation after massive fires devastated the Amazon last year—often set to clear land for ranching and farming.

Some European countries have threatened to scupper a trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur trade bloc, of which Brazil is a member, over the issue.

And global investment firms managing close to $4 trillion in assets last month wrote an open letter to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro urging him to change government policies blamed for accelerating the destruction.

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Monday, 27 July 2020

'Diabolical': Suppliers ‘absolutely furious’ at Walmart Canada plan to recoup investment through new fees

Financial Post Staff, Publishing date:Jul 24, 2020
https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/suppliers-absolutely-furious-at-walmart-canada-plan-to-recoup-investment-through-new-fees

Aiming to recover some of its $3.5-billion modernization costs, retailer calls fees reasonable trade-off for higher sales that will result

“We’re making these big investments. They certainly benefit our supplier partners,” Walmart's chief merchandising manager Kieran Shanahan said. "We want to make sure we share the cost of that.... We certainly feel that’s very fair and reasonable." TIMOTHY FADEK/BLOOMBERG

Walmart Canada will start charging a set of new fees to its suppliers as a way to recover some of the costs associated with its $3.5-billion modernization plan — a move that has some manufacturers “absolutely furious,” according to an industry rep.

In a letter to its more than 3,000 suppliers on Friday afternoon, Walmart characterized the new fees — up to 6.25 per cent of the cost of goods — as a reasonable trade-off, since the multi-billion-dollar upgrades to stores and e-commerce will lead to sales growth for suppliers.

But a major industry association that represents manufacturers in Canada said the fees are liable to burst supplier margins and threaten the survival of Canadian manufacturing, which has been hit by the added costs of safety protocols during the pandemic.

“It’s diabolical timing. It’s just diabolical,” Michael Graydon, chief executive at Food and Consumer Products of Canada, said on Friday, adding that he fielded calls throughout the day from his members that supply Walmart.

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Woman pepper-sprayed man for not wearing face mask at San Diego dog park, eating in restricted area: report

https://www.foxnews.com/us/video-pepper-spray-coronavirus-mask-san-diego-dog-park

'I want her to go to jail'

A woman has posted a video of a stranger attacking her husband with pepper spray for allegedly not wearing a coronavirus mask at a San Diego dog park while having lunch.

“That is me crying hysterically in the background because my innocent husband just got maced for no reason,” Ash O’Brien says in a Facebook post that includes the cellphone video.

O’Brien told KGTV the incident took place Thursday afternoon at the Dusty Rhodes Dog Park in San Diego. They had brought their pug puppy to the park. She said the person who had the pepper spray was a woman wearing a face mask who was at the park with her dog.

“Automatically started saying stuff, us not wearing a mask when we were social distancing,” she told the station. “There was no one near us. Wherever it’s required we wear it.”

Images from cellphone video show the husband of Ash O'Brien being attacked with pepper spray by a woman at a dog park in San Diego. O'Brien said the woman was angry she and her husband were not wearing coronvirus masks (Ash Sherilynn O'Brien)

O’Brien said the pepper sprayer was also angry they were eating in the park. She said they didn’t know there was a park ordinance prohibiting food.

O’Brien told the station that after going to the hospital, they went to the police station to file a complaint accusing the woman of assault.

“I want her to go to jail when she assaulted my husband and I’m angry about it,” she said.

Michigan woman seen torching SUV, being knocked back after explosion, reports say

https://www.foxnews.com/us/michigan-woman-suv-arson-explosion-arrest

Sydney Parham suffered minor cuts and bruises, police say

A Michigan woman has been arrested after investigators say viral video showed her torching an SUV and sparking an explosion that blew up in her face.

The video showed Sydney Parham, 26, of Fraser, being blown backward and then scrambling to her feet after the explosion, which took place Wednesday in the Detroit suburb of Harrison Township, investigators said.

Parham was arrested on an arson charge, Fox 2 Detroit reported.

The Macomb County Sheriff's Office confirmed Parham was the woman seen in the video uploaded to YouTube by PPP_Tahoe, the station reported.

She was jailed in lieu of $20,000 bond.

The video appeared to have been shot from the upper floor of a garden apartment building and showed a woman in a dark hooded jacket and a white coronavirus mask dumping the contents of a red gasoline can into the back of the SUV.

Mugshot for Sydney Parham, 26. (Macomb County Sheriff's Office)

When she reached back inside, a loud explosion could be seen and heard as flames shot out of the vehicle.

Local media reported that the Jeep belonged to Parham’s boyfriend.

The woman suffered minor cuts and burns in the explosion.

“She’s presumed innocent unless proven guilty, like the court said,” defense attorney Vassal Johnson II told reporters.

‘I’m not a Nazi.’ Couple seen on video in swastika masks are banned by Walmart in MN

https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article244501622.html

A couple in Minnesota were cited for trespassing after they were caught on video wearing swastika flags as face masks as they checked out at a Marshall Walmart Saturday, police say.

Warning: Language and imagery in the video may be offensive to viewers.

In the video posted to Facebook, a man behind the camera is heard saying “you’re sick” before a woman wearing a swastika mask lifts up her arms, appearing to pose for the video. She then flips off the camera.

A man also in a swastika mask can be seen behind her unloading groceries onto the checkout belt.

Walmart began requiring customers to wear masks on July 20 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“You can’t be American and wear that mask,” the man behind the camera says. “We literally had a war about this.”

The woman approaches the camera and tells the people filming that she’s not a Nazi.

“I’m not a Nazi, I’m trying to tell people what’s going to happen in America,” she says. “If you vote for Biden, you are going to be in Nazi Germany. That’s what it is going to be like... socialism is gonna happen here in America.”

The couple exchanges more words with the people behind the camera before Raphaela Mueller, who filmed the interaction and posted it to Facebook, tells the woman to take off the mask.

The woman then disappears out of frame as the man in the mask loads bagged groceries into the cart.

Police responded to the store around noon after reports of a disturbance, KARE reported.

At the request of the store, police issued the two shoppers notices of trespassing, the Star Tribune reported. The 59-year-old man and 64-year-old woman were told that if they returned to the store, they would be arrested, according to the newspaper.

They left without incident, the Tribune reported.

In a statement, Walmart called the occurrence “unacceptable,” according to KARE.

“We strive to provide a safe and comfortable shopping environment for all our customers and will not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment in any aspect of our business,” the company said. “It’s unfortunate that some individuals have taken this pandemic as an opportunity to create a distressing situation for customers and associates in our store.”

The trespass notices prevent the couple from returning to the store for one year, Walmart told KARE.