A video out of Hamilton, Ontario shows Antifa protesters screaming in the face of and blocking the path of an elderly woman using a rolling walker.
The incident occurred during a demonstration outside Mohawk College against right-wing politician Maxime Bernier.
The clip shows an elderly couple attempting to cross the road while being accosted by a maniacal woman wearing a red face mask and two other Antifa members.
Antifa protesters scream at & block elderly couple outside an event featuring conservative politician @MaximeBernier & @RubinReport. Further violence broke out, leading to two arrests. Mohawk College had faced massive campaign to cancel the event. pic.twitter.com/D49dTcMi4X
“Nazi scum – off our streets!” yells the woman as the couple calmly attempts to go about their business.
The elderly man appears to try to reason with the protesters but only receives more abuse in return.
Respondents to the clip expressed their utter disgust.
“The poor woman couldn’t even walk by herself. Do these guys think they’re tough for picking on the elderly?” asked one.
During the protest itself, Antifa members scuffled with Bernier supporters and police subsequently arrested four people.
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Last week, New York City’s Commission on Human Rights declared that using the term “illegal alien” pejoratively to describe an undocumented person violates laws designed to protect employees and tenants from discrimination, and could result in fines of up to $250,000. But the city’s interpretation of the law is so broad that it may very well be unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Perceived immigration status has long been a protected category under the New York City Human Rights Law, and the commission has now issued guidance that “use of the term ‘illegal alien,’ among others, when used with intent to demean, humiliate, or harass a person, is illegal under the law.”
It’s important to note that this guidance does not affect all kinds of speech: The law covers workplace harassment, tenants’ rights, and public accommodation. Merely calling someone an illegal alien on the street, or threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on them, would not be illegal.
The courts have, of course, held that anti-discrimination ordinances can survive scrutiny, even if they appear to limit the free speech rights of employers and landlords. But NYC is going further here. The 30-page guidance notes, for instance, that “the severity or pervasiveness of the harassment is only relevant to damages. Even an employer’s single comment made in circumstances where that comment would signal discriminatory views about one’s immigration status or national origin may be enough to constitute harassment.”
That’s a problem, and one that might push the guidance into unconstitutional territory. Government decrees to prohibit free speech in the name of anti-harassment or anti-discrimination must come with certain limiting conditions to survive a First Amendment test.
“The Supreme Court requires that conduct be not just unwelcome, but also severe or pervasive enough to make the work environment both subjectively and objectively hostile, before it is legally considered harassment under federal law,” wrote Hans Bader, an attorney and former official in the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. “Even the ‘severe or pervasive’ standard found in federal law is not sufficiently protective of speech, so it is alarming that New York City has eliminated that modest limit on liability.”
Bader’s entire post on the subject is worth reading in full. The government cannot simply prohibit people from making politically incorrect statements about undocumented people—it must limit the scope of anti-discrimination mandates in order to satisfy the broad free speech guarantees enjoyed by all people.
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Last week, New York City’s Commission on Human Rights declared that using the term “illegal alien” pejoratively to describe an undocumented person violates laws designed to protect employees and tenants from discrimination, and could result in fines of up to $250,000. But the city’s interpretation of the law is so broad that it may very well be unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Perceived immigration status has long been a protected category under the New York City Human Rights Law, and the commission has now issued guidance that “use of the term ‘illegal alien,’ among others, when used with intent to demean, humiliate, or harass a person, is illegal under the law.”
It’s important to note that this guidance does not affect all kinds of speech: The law covers workplace harassment, tenants’ rights, and public accommodation. Merely calling someone an illegal alien on the street, or threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on them, would not be illegal.
The courts have, of course, held that anti-discrimination ordinances can survive scrutiny, even if they appear to limit the free speech rights of employers and landlords. But NYC is going further here. The 30-page guidance notes, for instance, that “the severity or pervasiveness of the harassment is only relevant to damages. Even an employer’s single comment made in circumstances where that comment would signal discriminatory views about one’s immigration status or national origin may be enough to constitute harassment.”
That’s a problem, and one that might push the guidance into unconstitutional territory. Government decrees to prohibit free speech in the name of anti-harassment or anti-discrimination must come with certain limiting conditions to survive a First Amendment test.
“The Supreme Court requires that conduct be not just unwelcome, but also severe or pervasive enough to make the work environment both subjectively and objectively hostile, before it is legally considered harassment under federal law,” wrote Hans Bader, an attorney and former official in the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. “Even the ‘severe or pervasive’ standard found in federal law is not sufficiently protective of speech, so it is alarming that New York City has eliminated that modest limit on liability.”
Bader’s entire post on the subject is worth reading in full. The government cannot simply prohibit people from making politically incorrect statements about undocumented people—it must limit the scope of anti-discrimination mandates in order to satisfy the broad free speech guarantees enjoyed by all people.
from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2mkh1Kr
via IFTTT
China Doubles Troop Deployment In Hong Kong As It Braces For A “Worst-Case Scenario”
As protests erupted again over the weekend in Hong Kong, there are new reports that Beijing quietly doubled troop levels in the city ahead of China celebrating its 70th anniversary of communist rule this week, reported Reuters.
Chinese military personnel in Hong Kong doubled last month to 10,000 to 12,000, up from 3,000 to 5,000 the months before, Asian and Western envoys in Hong Kong told Reuters.
Reinforcements arrived in military trucks, armored vehicles, buses, and ships, around the mid/late August period.
Envoy sources told Reuters that the “late-August deployment was not a rotation at all, but a reinforcement.”
They said China has now “assembled its largest-ever active force of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops and other anti-riot personnel and equipment in Hong Kong.”
The rapid build-up includes personnel from the People’s Armed Police (PAP), a Chinese paramilitary police force responsible for internal security, riot control, and counter-terrorism. Sources weren’t able to determine the exact PAP size, but said, the bulk of “reinforcements” in Hong Kong are PLA/PAP.
News of the reinforcements come as protests flared up last weekend ahead of the week-long celebration, starting Tuesday, Oct. 1, that marks the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The troop build-up shows Beijing is preparing to act if the Hong Kong government loses control in the next wave of demonstrations.
VIDEO: 🇭🇰 Fierce clashes broke out between protesters and riot police in #HongKong Sunday as thousands marched through the city, during a day of global protests aimed at casting a shadow over Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of communist China’s founding #HongKongProtestspic.twitter.com/iRuFfiQKnd
Reuters notes that PAP’s presence in Hong Kong had been limited before August. The state-controlled press hasn’t covered the new deployment.
One foreign analyst indicates that reinforcements are very troubling and outlines how Beijing is preparing for the worst-case scenario.
“They do seem to have an active contingency plan to deal with something like a total breakdown in order by the Hong Kong police,” said Alexander Neill, a Singapore-based security analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “I would think it would take something like that or some other worst-case scenario for them to deploy. But they are clearly more ready than before, and are leaving nothing to chance.”
Sources said the new reinforcements haven’t been deployed into the streets; most are confined to their barracks, waiting for orders to secure downtown if the next wave of protests gets out of handle.
There were no indications from Reuters, nor their sources if the PLA/PAP were deployed over the weekend.
Police arrested more than 150 protestors over the weekend. Videos showed violence between police and protesters flared up on Sunday.
Despite the Hong Kong Police Force banning demonstrations on Tuesday, protestors are expected to hit the streets of Hong Kong during the start of celebrations, something that will make Beijing furious.
Editor-in-chief of the Global Times, Hu Xijin, tweeted Monday morning that Hong Kong police, citing sources, expect that “core rioters are planning serious violence on Oct 1, including killing police officers, disguising as police killing people, arson inside mall. Mob are also recruiting suicide attackers.”
HK police said, citing intelligence, that core rioters are planning serious violence on Oct 1, including killing police officers, disguising as police killing people, arson inside mall. Mob are also recruiting suicide attackers. Does the West support such ‘democratic protest’? pic.twitter.com/E9aiS2tEy6
Many may have hitherto been led to believe that the Houthis were a ragtag armed force lacking in sophistication. Many, seeing the drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil plants, may have declared it to be a false-flag attack carried out by Riyadh to boost Aramco’s market value; either that or it was an operation carried out by Iran or even Israel.
On Saturday September 28, the Houthis put paid to such speculation by confirming what many, like myself, have been writing for months; that is, that the asymmetrical tactics of the Houthis, combined with the conventional capabilities of the Yemeni army, are capable of bringing the Saudi kingdom of Mohammed Bin Salman to its knees.
The Yemeni army’s missile forces are able to carry out highly complex attacks, no doubt as a result of reconnaissance provided by the local Shia population within the Kingdom that is against the House of Saud’s dictatorship. These Houthi sympathisers within Saudi Arabia helped in target identification, carried out reconnaissance within the plants, found the most vulnerable and impactful points, and passed this intelligence on to the Houthis and Yemeni army. These Yemeni forces employed locally produced means to severely degrade Saudi Arabia’s crude-oil-extraction and processing plants. The deadly strikes halved oil production and threatened to continue with other targets if the Saudi-conducted genocide in Yemen did not stop.
On Saturday 29 the Houthis and the Yemeni army conducted an incredible conventional attack lasting three days that began from within Yemen’s borders. The operation would have involved months of intelligence gathering and operational planning. It was a far more complex attack than that conducted against Aramco’s oil facilities. Initial reports indicate that the forces of the Saudi-led coalition were lured into vulnerable positions and then, through a pincer movement conducted quickly within Saudi territory, the Houthis surrounded the town of Najran and its outskirts and got the better of three Saudi brigades numbering in the thousands and including dozens of senior officers as well as numerous combat vehicles. This event is a game changer, leaving the US, Mike Pompeo and the Israelis and Saudis unable to lay the blame on Iran as all this took place a long way from Iran.
The large-scale operation was preceded by Yemeni rocket artillery targeting Jizan airport, with 10 missiles paralyzing any movements to and from the airport, including denying the possibility of air support for the encircled troops. The Houthis also hit the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh in a key operation that targeted Apache helicopters, forcing them to leave the area. Nearby military bases were also targeted so as to cut off any reinforcements and disrupt the chain of command. This led to the Saudi forces fleeing in disorganization. Images shown by the Houthis show a road in the middle of a valley on the outskirts of Najran with dozens of Saudi armored vehicles trying to flee while being attacked from both sides by Houthi RPGs together with heavy and light weapons. Visual confirmation of the debacle can be seen in the number of casualties as well as in the number of prisoners taken. Images show lines of Saudi prisoners walking under Yemeni guard towards prison camps. This is something extraordinary to behold: the Saudi army, the third largest purchaser of weapons in the world, getting comprehensively walloped by one of the poorest countries in the world. The numbers say it all: the Houthis were able to control more than 350 kilometers of Saudi territory. Given that the Saudi military budget is almost 90 billion dollars a year, this achievement is made all the more extraordinary.
Houthi forces employed drones, missiles, anti-aircraft systems, as well as electronic warfare to prevent the Saudis from supporting their troops with aviation or other means to assist their trapped men. Testimony from Saudi soldiers suggest that efforts to rescue them were half-hearted and of little effect. Saudi prisoners of war accuse their military leaders of having left them prey to their opponents.
The Yemeni army and the Houthis were within less than 10 days able to inflict a devastating blow to both the credibility of US defense systems and the Saudi military. They did this by employing creative methods suitable for the objective at hand.
They initially revealed the internal vulnerability of the Kingdom through such a level of penetration into Saudi Arabia that they were able to conduct internal reconnaissance through the assistance of infiltrators or local collaborators so as to know exactly where to hit the oil installations for maximum effect and damage.
They subsequently demonstrated their technical and cyber capabilities through an asymmetrical operation employing drones of various types as well as electronic warfare to blind the US Patriot system’s radars, in the process halving Saudi Arabia’s oil production for a period of time Aramco is yet to determine.
Finally, the most surprising and astounding aspect of these recent events is this most recent Yemeni ground operation that was carried out in hostile territory and succeeded in surrounding three brigades consisting of thousands of men and their equipment. Thousands of Yemeni soldiers loyal to Ansarullah (Houthis) took part in this successful operation, supported by drones, ground-attack aircraft and air-defense batteries. Such capabilities are ordinarily better associated with well-trained and well-equipped militaries rather than militaries coming from the Third World.
The Houthis issued a clear message to Riyadh when they hit its oil installations. They effectively let it be known that they had the means and capability to damage the Kingdom irreparably, leading ultimately to the overthrow of the House of Saud.
The Yemeni army spokesman announced, after hitting the Saudi oil facilities, that they would stop all offensive actions using drones and missiles, leaving it up to Riyadh to decide whether things stopped there and they sat down at the negotiating table to end the conflict, or whether Saudi Arabia was in the mood for more of the same treatment.
Mohammed bin Salman would no doubt have received manifold reassurances from the Americans, explaining away the failure of the Patriot systems and assuring him that more American assistance was on the way; and that it would, moreover, be impossible to come to an agreement with the Houthis, especially given that they are considered to be a proxy of the Iranians (a debunked lie); not to mention, of course, the huge loss of prestige that would befall the Saudis, Israelis and Americans were such a capitulation to occur.
There is already talk in Riyadh of receiving new supplies of the THAAD system (similarly useless against Houthi asymmetrical warfare) and other very expensive American air-defense systems. It is too bad for the Saudis that the US has nothing like the Pantsir and the Russian BUK systems, which allow for a multi-layered air defense, ideal for defending against small, low-flying drones and missiles that are difficult to intercept with such systems as the Patriot and THAAD.
Instead of starting peace talks to stop the ongoing genocide in Yemen and being hit again by the Houthis in response, Mohammed bin Salman and his advisors seem to have seen it fit to commit further war crimes in Yemen.
Faced with such intransigence, the Houthis went ahead with a new attack even more devastating for Saudi morale and discombobulating for Western policy-makers. Thousands of men and their equipment were either killed, wounded, or taken captive in a pincer movement reminiscent of the DPR and LNR’s actions in Ukraine in 2015 where Kiev’s forces was similarly surrounded and destroyed.
Usually such pincer movements require thorough reconnaissance to determine where best to surround the enemy. Furthermore, air support and air-defense systems would be necessary to ward off American and Saudi responses. In addition to all this, troops and their equipment are needed together with the necessary training for such assaults that require coordination as well as quick and effective execution of orders. All these requirements were met as a result of the excellent preparation and knowledge of the terrain by the Yemeni army and the Houthis.
If the attack on Saudi oil facilities had such an impact, then the even more dramatic attack of this last Saturday will have forced Mohammed bin Salman and his American allies to face a very harsh reality. Saudi Arabia, it will now need to be recognized, does not have the capacity to defend its borders from Yemen, leaving the Houthis and the Yemeni army free to enter Saudi territory at will while showing little regard for the opinion and feelings of the Saudis and Americans.
This is a triple checkmate for the Houthis against Riyadh.
Firstly, they showed that they had enough local support within Saudi Arabia to have ready internal saboteurs in the event of an all-out war with Iran or Yemen.
Then they showed they have the capacity to cripple Saudi Arabia’s oil production.
Ultimately, Yemen’s conventional forces could redraw the boundaries between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in the latter’s favor should Yemeni leaders decide to invade and occupy a strip of Saudi territory to secure a buffer zone, given that Saudi forces have been violating Yemen’s sovereignty and massacring civilians willy nilly for the last five years.
It bears reflecting on the significance of these events. The third-biggest arms spender in the world is incapable of defeating the poorest Arab country in the world. It is, moreover, incapable of protecting its national interest and borders from this impoverished Arab country. The Houthis are showing to the world what a poor but organized and motivated armed force can do using asymmetrical methods to bring one of the best-equipped militaries in the world to its knees. This conflict will be studied all over the world as an example of how a new means of warfare is possible when technological and cyber capabilities are democratized and available to those who know how to use them appropriately, as the Houthis have shown with their use of drones and electronic warfare.
With the Houthis enjoying a high level of leverage, through a combination of missile capabilities, the holding of many prisoners of war, and saboteurs spread throughout Saudi Arabia (apropos, a strange fire occurred in Jeddah on Sunday at the Al-Haramain railway station), it may be time for Riyadh to accept the tragic consequences of this useless war and sit down at the negotiating table with Ansarullah.
Washington and Tel Aviv will try in every way to prevent such negotiations. But if Mohammed bin Salman and his family wish to save their kingdom, it is better to start talking to the Houthis immediately. Otherwise it is only a matter of time before another attack by Ansarullah leads to the complete collapse and ruin of the House of Saud and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Gold Prices Plunge Right On Cue As China Golden Week Begins
Right on cue, as we detailed here, precious metals prices have been pummeled as China Golden Week begins…
Gold futures plunge back below $1500…
One glance at the last few years gold price action suggests he may well be correct…
Source: Bloomberg
As of today, China will be on vacation for its Golden Week National Holiday and this weakness appears to be traders front-running the traditional chaos that the rest of the world plays when China leaves the playing field.
China will be back in business on October 9th, and that means the Shanghai Gold Exchange, which opened in 2015 to counter Western manipulation of precious metals, will likely help re-balance prices to where they were before this recent takedown.
We could be wrong, but something tells us gold and silver prices won’t stay this low for much longer and that they could well see a complete turnaround when China reopens on October 9th.
Hunter Biden Must Be Investigated According To Former Ukraine PM
Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has called for an investigation into Hunter Biden and his role as a highly compensated board member at a Ukrainian gas company while his father was the sitting US Vice President, Azarov told Reuters.
Two months after he was kicked out of the navy for cocaine use (and before he had sex with his dead brother’s wife, and returned a rental car with a crack pipe to an Arizona Hertz), Hunter – who had no experience in the energy sector, was appointed to the board of Burisma for $600,000 per year, where he sat alongside career CIA spook Joseph Cofer Black – Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) 2012 pick for national security adviser in his failed presidential run against Barack Obama.
Hunter Biden’s role in the company, Burisma Holdings Limited, is in focus after the White House released a memo showing U.S. President Donald Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a July phone call to get prosecutors to look into his activities. Zelenskiy agreed.
“It’s a fact (his directorship and fees) and not made up. It should be investigated so that the ‘i’s can be dotted and the ‘t’s crossed,” Azarov told Reuters. –Reuters
On Friday, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said that it was investigating Burisma’s activities between 2010 and 2013, though it was not looking into the period which includes 2014 when Hunter Biden joined its board, leaving in 2018 according to corporate filings.
Azarov served as prime minister from 2010 – 2014, and is himself under investigation by Ukrainian authorities for allegations that he abused his office. A 2015 Interpol red notice issued at the request of Ukrainian authorities during the (Biden / Obama – friendly) Poroshenko administration accuses Azarov of embezzlement and misappropriation. He has denied all wrongdoing, while Reuters said they could not determine whether there was an active investigation going on.
Azarov said he was not aware of any evidence suggesting wrongdoing on Hunter Biden’s part, but said it was in the Ukrainian public interest to ascertain the legality of his activities.
In particular, he said it was important to investigate what Biden had done for Burisma to justify his remuneration from Burisma.
The younger Biden has said he consulted for Burisma, but critics have suggested he was not doing actual work in return for his compensation, an allegation he denies. –Reuters
“I think it’s essential (he’s investigated),” Azarov told Reuters from Moscow, where he fled after the pro-Russia President Yanukovych (Paul Manafort’s client) was ousted in 2014.
“If, using his knowledge, he played an active role then there’s nothing scandalous about it,” Azarov added. “But if he was simply on the books and getting money, then that could be seen as a violation of the law.”
We’re sure if Donald Trump Jr. was a cocaine addict making $600K on the board of a Russian company with no obvious qualifications, and Trump Sr. had a foreign prosecutor investigating his company fired, the media would attack Biden instead of looking into the Trumps.
Not only do nearly half of America’s homeless people live in California, but four of the five American cities with the greatest incidences of unsheltered homelessness are in the Golden State.
As California becomes a mecca for socialism, their quality of life diminishes along with it in a characteristic dystopian decline.
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Rosa, and San Jose are four of the five cities with the highest amount of homelessness. Seattle joins the California municipalities in the top five. According to Market Watch,the rates of homelessness are the highest in Washington D.C. The District of Columbia’s homeless rate is at 5.8 times the United States rate. New York is next, followed by Hawaii, Oregon, and California. These five states together comprise 20% of the overall U.S. population but 45% of the country’s homeless population.
All of these states are incredibly liberal with several already having instituted tight socialist policies.
A White House report teased out certain trends in homelessness across the country. Communities along both coasts have much larger homeless populations than those in the middle of the country. One driver of this trend is likely the more notable rise in housing prices along the coasts than in much of the Midwest.
The White House report identified local laws and policing practices as a potential differentiator. “Some [states] more than others engage in more stringent enforcement of quality of life issues like restrictions on the use of tents and encampments, loitering, and other related activities,” the report noted. –Market Watch
The Trump administration has floated plans to fix the homeless crisis in liberal areas by deregulation. Many states and municipalities have zoning rules regarding the construction of both single-family and multi-family homes. These laws have impeded the builders’ ability to meet the demand for housing resulting in scarcity which has driven up prices. Experts and politicians across the political spectrum have suggested that relaxing such regulations could provide a boost to building activity.
While that could work, the heavy tax burden on everything from property to income makes it difficult to afford anything even if more housing is built.
