Category: politics

France passes law to give rural noises and smells protected status

From crowing roosters to the whiff of barnyard animals, the “sensory heritage” of France’s countryside will now be protected by law from attempts to stifle the everyday aspects of rural life from newcomers looking for peace and quiet.

French senators on Thursday gave final approval to a law proposed in the wake of several high-profile conflicts by village residents and vacationers, or recent arrivals derided as “neo-rurals”.

A rowdy rooster named Maurice in particular made headlines in 2019 after a court in western France rejected a bid to have him silenced by neighbours who had purchased a holiday home nearby.

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Biden kicks off presidency with wave of executive orders, including halt on border wall funding

After being sworn in as US President, Joe Biden kicked off his presidency signing a wave of executive orders on top priority matters. One of these is immigration, with Joe Biden taking palpable steps to dismantle key Donald Trump policies, including an 8-year path to citizenship for immigrants without legal status known as the “Dreamers”. He also halted the funding of the border wall with Mexico, as well as putting an end to the “Muslim travel ban”.

“Stop it. It’s over. The election is over.”

by Heather Cox Richardson | January 11, 2020

This morning began with House Democrats filing one article of impeachment against Trump, charging him with “incitement of insurrection.” It makes its case by noting that Trump’s months of lies about the election and his inflammatory speech to the rally on January 6– including lines like “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore”—led directly to “violent, deadly, destructive and seditious acts.”

The article also noted Trump’s attempt to subvert the election through his phone call on January 2, 2021, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, demanding he “find” enough votes to overturn the results of the presidential election in the state. Including this in the impeachment article will prevent Georgia Governor Brian Kemp from pardoning Trump for it.

The article says that Trump is, and will remain, “a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.” He must be removed from office and disqualified from any future positions in the U.S. government.

This document and the procedures around it tell us far more than their simplicity suggests.

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Trump will regret the call to Georgia

“I wonder if Trump knows you can commit a state crime in Georgia by telephone from DC, and you can’t pardon yourself or your henchmen on state charges.” – Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

“In any other conceivable moment in US history, this tape would result in the leadership of both parties demanding the immediate resignation of the President of the United States.” – Carl Bernstein

“The evidence is on tape. The next attorney general should move forward, if for no other reason, to deter further attempts at such reprehensible conduct. I would suggest impeachment as well, which could include a ban on holding office in the future” – Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post

“University of Georgia Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis told Politico reporters Allie Bice, Kyle Cheney, Anita Kumar, and Zach Montellaro that it is against the law in Georgia for anyone to “solicit” or “request” election fraud. “There’s just no way that… he has not violated this law,” Kreis said. Michael R. Bromwich, former inspector general of the Department of Justice, tweeted that “unless there are portions of the tape that somehow negate criminal intent,” Trump’s “best defense would be insanity.”