| Rep. Jordan suggests Trump was only joking when asking China to investigate the Bidens — despite private plea to Xi Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:11 PM PDT  Rep. Jim Jordan on Sunday insisted President Trump was not "serious" about asking China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
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| Protests, clashes as bid to block Hong Kong mask ban fails Posted: 06 Oct 2019 06:50 AM PDT  Furiously yelling "Wearing a mask is not a crime," tens of thousands of masked protesters hit Hong Kong's rain-drenched streets Sunday in defiance of a new ban on facial coverings. Riot police later swept in with volleys of tear gas and muscular arrests as peaceful rallies again degenerated into widespread violence and chaos in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Instead of deterring rioting and calming anti-government demonstrations that have gripped the international trading hub for four months, the ban that criminalized the wearing of face masks at rallies only redoubled the determination of both peaceful marchers and more radical black-clad youths.
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| Nevada health officials are fighting to stop the spread of 'Zombie deer disease.' But you could already be eating infected meat without knowing it, one researcher warns. Posted: 07 Oct 2019 08:43 AM PDT  "Zombie deer disease," which kills deer and elk, has already been reported in 24 states. Health officials are trying to stop its spread in Nevada.
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| FBI: Most prolific serial killer in U.S. murdered at least 50 Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:23 AM PDT  A 79-year-old man murdered at least 50 people, making him the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, the FBI said Sunday.
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| Israel unveils remains of 5,000-year-old city Posted: 06 Oct 2019 12:51 PM PDT ![Israel unveils remains of 5,000-year-old city]( "Israel unveils remains of 5,000-year-old city") Israeli archaeologists on Sunday unveiled the remains of a 5,000-year-old city they said was among the biggest from its era in the region, including fortifications, a ritual temple and a cemetery. "We have here an immense urban construction, planned with streets that separate neighbourhoods and public spaces," Yitzhak Paz of the Israel Antiquities Authority told AFP at the site near the Mediterranean in the country's centre. The archaeological site known as En Esur "is the largest site and the most important from that era" in the region, said Itai Elad, another archaeologist overseeing the excavation.
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| 2020 Subaru Legacy vs. 2019 Honda Accord in Photos Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| India's top court halts tree felling after protests Posted: 06 Oct 2019 05:16 PM PDT  A mass felling of trees in one of the world's most-polluted megacities was halted by India's top court Monday, amid protests their removal would strip the city of a precious "green lung". Some 2,700 trees were being cut down in the financial capital Mumbai to make way for a depot for subway carriages in the city of nearly 20 million people. More than two dozen activists were arrested during weekend protests were all later released on bail, police said.
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| UPDATE 2-Malaysia fines Najib's brother, others for receiving 1MDB funds Posted: 06 Oct 2019 08:41 PM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Malaysia fines Najib's brother, others for receiving 1MDB funds]( "UPDATE 2-Malaysia fines Najib's brother, others for receiving 1MDB funds") Malaysia has fined the brother of former premier Najib Razak and other people and companies for allegedly receiving money from state fund 1MDB, the country's anti-graft chief said on Monday. Malaysian and U.S. investigators say about $4.5 billion was misappropriated from now-defunct state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), set up in 2009 by Najib.
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| Giuliani's answer to impeachment inquiry: Sue Schiff Posted: 07 Oct 2019 09:45 AM PDT  Rudolph Giuliani says he is working with outside lawyers to prepare lawsuits against prominent Democrats such as House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff of California and Rep. Rashid Tlaib of Michigan.
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| Police block thousands marching in Pakistani Kashmir Posted: 06 Oct 2019 08:13 AM PDT  Police blocked a march Sunday by thousands of protesters in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir who wanted to move toward the highly militarized Line of Control that divides the territory between Pakistan and India. The marchers are protesting the lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir. Police placed shipping containers on the road and deployed a large contingent of officers near Jaskool, 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the frontier to stop the supporters of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, which announced it intended to cross the frontier to help Kashmiris under Indian oppression.
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| Nevada fighting to keep 'zombie deer' from entering state Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:38 PM PDT  Zombie deer may sound like something in a bad B-movie, but wildlife regulators say they're real and officials are working to keep them out of Nevada. The term relates to animals that have contracted chronic wasting disease, a highly contagious and terminal disorder that causes symptoms such as lack of fear of humans, lethargy and emaciation, The Las Vegas Sun reported. Officials are testing dead animals and monitoring migratory elk and deer at the state line with Utah for signs of the sickness, Peregrine Wolff, a Nevada Department of Wildlife veterinarian, said.
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| UAW official who is charged in corruption probe placed on leave Posted: 05 Oct 2019 05:58 PM PDT ![UAW official who is charged in corruption probe placed on leave]( "UAW official who is charged in corruption probe placed on leave") Vance Pearson, who heads a 17-state UAW region and is charged with embezzling union money, wire fraud and money laundering, began the leave on Friday.
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| This Sunken Russian Submarine Has Buried 'Nuclear Treasure' (Think Nuclear Weapons) Posted: 06 Oct 2019 09:00 AM PDT  They can be yours, if you can dive down to crushing depths.
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| A Jeffrey Epstein accuser blames Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner for sexual assault that she says occurred on his Ohio property Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT  In New Albany, Ohio, Maria Farmer says Jeffrey Epstein assaulted her in a home owned by CEO Les Wexner, with guards who wouldn't let her leave.
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| China's Xi and India's Modi to hold summit this week amid strains Posted: 06 Oct 2019 05:04 PM PDT  India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping will hold an informal summit in southern India on Friday, officials said, amid strains in their relationship. India's foreign ministry has not formally announced the meeting in the Tamil Nadu town of Mamallapuram, known for its historic temples and architecture. Indian media reports said Xi and Modi will visit Mamallapuram's attractions on the follow up to their first informal summit in Wuhan, China, in April last year.
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| Rwanda kills 19 assailants after deadly national park attack Posted: 06 Oct 2019 09:48 PM PDT  Rwandan security forces have killed 19 people who were part of a group that carried out a deadly attack in a tourist hub in the north of the country on Friday, a police spokesman said. The assailants, who mostly carried traditional weapons like knives, attacked the Kinigi sector in Musanze district, where the Volcanoes National Park offers tourists the chance to view endangered mountain gorillas. In a statement on Sunday, police spokesman John Bosco Kabera said security personnel pursuing the attackers had killed 19 of them and also that the death toll from the assault had risen to 14.
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| Ilhan Omar defends black man jailed for oversleeping and missing jury duty Posted: 06 Oct 2019 03:28 AM PDT  Ilhan Omar has leapt to the defence of a 21-year-old man who was imprisoned for oversleeping and missing the first day of his jury service.Deandre Somerville, from West Palm Beach in Florida, was sentenced to 10 days in jail, 150 hours of community service and handed a $223 (£180) fine for sleeping through his alarm.
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| North Korea: No more talks until US ends 'hostile policy' Posted: 06 Oct 2019 07:50 AM PDT  North Korea said Sunday that it won't meet with the United States for more "sickening negotiations" unless it abandons its "hostile policy" against the North, as the two countries offered different takes on their weekend nuclear talks in Sweden. After their first talks in more than seven months in Stockholm on Saturday, the chief North Korean nuclear negotiator said the discussions broke down "entirely because the U.S. has not discarded its old stance and attitude" and came to the negotiating table with an "empty hand." But the U.S. said the two sides had "good discussions" that it intends to build on with more talks in two weeks.
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| Ohio University suspended all 15 fraternities on-campus after National Hazing Prevention Week was followed by 7 hazing allegations Posted: 06 Oct 2019 02:49 PM PDT  After OU sororities and fraternities held National Hazing Prevention Week events, 7 allegations against separate fraternities were brought forward.
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| Attention Asia: More Russian Su-57E Stealth Fighters Are Coming Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  But who is buying?
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| We Now Have a Good Idea When Martian Oceans Started Dying Posted: 07 Oct 2019 08:03 AM PDT  Curiosity discovered salty deposits that point to a time when the atmosphere was in decline—and it was taking the seas along with it.
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| Tourists to be welcomed back to Indian Kashmir: governor Posted: 07 Oct 2019 10:05 AM PDT  Tourists warned by India to leave Kashmir just days before stripping the restive valley of its autonomy will be welcomed back later this week, the region's governor said Monday. Authorities in early August called for holiday-makers to leave "immediately" over "terror threats" to a major Hindu pilgrimage, sending thousands scrambling for places on planes and buses. New Delhi also imposed a clampdown on movement and cut off all communications including the internet and phone lines just before the controversial autonomy decision to quell unrest.
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| GE to freeze pension plans for 20,000 workers to cut debt Posted: 07 Oct 2019 08:37 AM PDT  General Electric said Monday it was freezing pension plans for about 20,000 American employees with salaried benefits, as the company makes another drastic move to cut debt and reduce its pension deficit by up to $8 billion.
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| UK's Johnson urges return of U.S. diplomat's wife over fatal crash Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:13 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that he wanted a U.S. diplomat's wife who was involved in a fatal car crash to return to Britain and that it was wrong for her to have used diplomatic immunity to leave the country. "I hope that Anne Sacoolas will come back and will engage properly with the processes of law as they are carried out in this country," Johnson said in a television interview, adding the issue was being raised with the U.S. ambassador in London. Harry Dunn, 19, died in August after a road collision near RAF Croughton, an air force base in Northamptonshire in central England that is used by the United States.
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| Kurt Volker resigns as executive director of McCain Institute Posted: 07 Oct 2019 09:21 AM PDT  Kurt Volker, the president's former special envoy to Ukraine, has stepped down from yet another post, his executive directorship of the McCain Institute, amid the fallout from House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. Volker resigned from his role at the State Department a little over a week ago, and his resignation as the head of the D.C.-based think tank came days after he appeared as Democrats' first witness in their widening impeachment probe, turning over damaging text messages that appeared to undermine President Donald Trump's claims that he did not seek to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political opponents. In a statement released Monday announcing his departure, Volker specifically referenced the growing Ukraine scandal and the ensuing media frenzy.
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| Homeless man charged with murder after killing spree in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:04 PM PDT  A homeless man has been charged with murder in the brutal killings of four other homeless men in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood.
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| Iraq blames 'malicious' hands as toll from unrest tops 100 Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:40 PM PDT  Twelve anti-government demonstrators were killed Sunday in ongoing protests in the capital Baghdad, the latest fatalities in six days of clashes that have left more than 100 dead and thousands wounded. Iraq's government has scrambled to contain the popular anger that has racked Baghdad and a number of southern cities since Tuesday. In the first official statement from the government accounting for the violence, Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said Sunday that 104 people had been killed in the six days of unrest, including eight members of the security forces, and more than 6,000 wounded.
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| Gandhi memorial defaced, ashes allegedly stolen on his 150th birthday Posted: 06 Oct 2019 07:15 PM PDT  Police confirm they're investigating the destruction of a portrait of the Indian icon, but they aren't yet taking seriously claims that his remains were stolen
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| Iran's Navy Has a Fake Fighter Jet Problem Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:15 AM PDT  It is unnecessary and embarrassing.
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| Disney World visitors left dangling for hours after cable car gondolas break down Posted: 07 Oct 2019 12:32 AM PDT  Holidaymakers riding a new aerial gondola system at Walt Disney World in Florida on Saturday night were stranded in the air for several hours after an unknown problem caused some of the gondolas to come to a halt.The Disney Skyliner gondola system launched on 29 September.
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| EU powers push for uptake of migrant relocation pilot scheme Posted: 05 Oct 2019 09:53 PM PDT  EU powers France, Germany and Italy, along with smaller member Malta, will on Tuesday seek to rally the rest of the European bloc to a joint scheme they have come up with to distribute migrants saved at sea. The Malta declaration is an attempt at a stop-gap measure pending efforts by the incoming European Commission taking charge next month to unblock the refugee policy impasse under a vice president specifically tasked with "Protecting the European Way of Life". The text urges EU countries to take a share of the asylum-seekers crossing the Mediterranean, who are arriving mostly in Italy and Malta either in overcrowded boats or rescued by ships run by NGOs.
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| North Korea accuses the Trump administration of 'misleading' the public after nuclear talks break down Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:10 PM PDT  Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea have seemingly broken down once again, and the two sides have conflicting stories on the matter.
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| UPDATE 1-Duterte's latest ailment puts new spotlight on his health Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:49 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Duterte's latest ailment puts new spotlight on his health]( "UPDATE 1-Duterte's latest ailment puts new spotlight on his health") Allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte played down concern about his health on Monday after the firebrand leader announced he is suffering from a chronic neuromuscular disorder. Duterte, who has quipped that he might not live out a six-year term that ends in 2022, told members of the Filipino community in Russia at the weekend that he has a rare autoimmune neuromuscular disease that is causing one of his eyelids to droop. "He has localised ocular myasthenia.
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| Desmond Morris: The body language that betrays the power plays of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson Posted: 06 Oct 2019 02:07 AM PDT  He is a zoologist and animal behaviourist who transformed the way we look at human beings with his landmark bestselling books The Naked Ape and Manwatching. Now Desmond Morris has been watching politicians, concluding that they are a breed apart, with a body language that speaks volumes. He told The Telegraph that politics has become such a "pantomime", that the best way to watch televised debates is with the mute button pressed: "Then you'll see much more clearly what the politicians are really like. You can learn so much from their body language." While he describes US President Donald Trump as "a master of domineering body language" and says that Prime Minister Boris Johnson "super-exaggerates" gesticulations to convey "energy", he is struck that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has "virtually no body language". In studying President Trump, he has observed "a whole range of tricks, which are so well done", not least his one-upmanship in shaking hands in a "very special way". He explained that hand-shaking was not popular until the 19th century "because it's essentially egalitarian": "If you're shaking hands with the king,... you are performing identical actions and, just for that split second, you are equal to the king… When President Trump meets another world leader and they shake hands, you might think that - because they're both world leaders - they would do the same movement. But, if you study his handshakes, you find that, in several ways, he manages to make himself superior. "First of all, [there's] the 'equality handshake', where you offer your hand with the palm vertical. But if you're clever - and Trump does this with some leaders - you offer your hand palm down… Then the other person has to put their hand underneath yours. That means that Trump literally has the upper hand." Donald Trump jokes with French President Emmanuel Macron about their handshakes in front of NATO leaders Credit: REUTERS That is his "first ploy" and there are others, Dr Morris said, observing that Russian President Vladimir Putin is among leaders who have managed to get their own hand in the upper position: "Trump then gets his other hand and pats them… on top, so he's now sandwiched their hand between his two hands… Patting someone is a paternal action for children… By patting them with his other hand, he's now destroying what they thought was going to be a superior move… He [also] leans his body forward to invade their space." He observed that President Trump has modified his behaviour considerably since he became president: "For example, he has increased the use of the downturned corners of the mouth,…making him look… Churchillian and very serious. If he's in a public situation, you can see him adopt this mouth posture to make himself look more… commanding." He added: "When he's sitting next to a head of state, he will adopt what's called 'the steeple', where all the fingertips of one hand are touching the fingertips of the other hand in a symmetrical posture. This is again a posture of dominance because it displays perfect balance between left and right... and is displaying his high status. He also uses 'the precision gesture' when he's gesticulating during a speech. He'll put his thumb and forefinger together in a ring shape, which is…displaying… precise thinking." Boris Johnson gesticulates while Leo Varadkar, Ireland's prime minister, speaks at a joint press conference Credit: Bloomberg Dr Morris said that, while we all use 'baton gestures', beating time to words to emphasis them, Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn have both "veered from the norm": "Johnson overdoes the gesticulations. He makes them super-exaggerated because… it signals… that he's extraordinarily energetic… Boris's are power gestures - a lot of clenched fists and beating the air… He wants to give people the reassurance that he is strong enough to cope with everything." Referring to the prime minister's ruffled hair and rumpled clothing, he said: "What he's saying… is 'I'm going to look a bit rumpled and dishevelled because… it shows that my real emphasis is not on my appearance but on my aims and my goals, my thoughts and my ideas'." He also noted that Mr Johnson sometimes speaks with his hands in his pockets: "That's very uncommon… [That] is a self-comforting device… Although he comes over as a very buoyant individual, even he needs a little comfort." He added: "Corbyn, on the other hand, has virtually no body language. It's very extraordinary… There's one photo of him trying to do a 'high five' because he knows that's a with-it thing to do - and he can't even do that properly… When he's making a speech, he very often reads from notes, so he doesn't have to look at the person he's attacking. His policy is… 'gesticulate as little as possible and this will make me appear to be just an ordinary bloke'." Jeremy Corbyn tries to high five Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry Credit: Reuters Dr Morris's The Naked Ape is among the top 100 bestsellers of all time, with over 12 million copies sold. He is also an acclaimed Surrealist artist. He spoke to The Telegraph ahead of releasing his new book, Postures: Body Language in Art. He said: "Going back over portraits of the past, one can learn so much about society from the body language portrayed." In a chapter headed The Hidden Hand, he explores an earlier leader - Napoleon - and one of the best-known gestures in historical portraits, the emperor's right hand thrust into his waistcoat. Brexit | The best comment and analysis Dismissing previous explanations of this posture, Dr Morris notes that many other period portraits depict it and that its origins can be traced back to ancient Greece: "Some of the orators disapproved of gesture and said you must allow the words to speak…. Your hands must stay still…. They looked down on anybody who waived their hands about." But he senses that, in an age of televised close-up scrutiny, politicians today are generally gesticulating more: "There's much more complicated body language now. They are intensely aware of the cameras, aware that they are being watched."
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| Key witness in ex-Dallas officer Amber Guyger’s murder trial shot and killed Posted: 07 Oct 2019 09:12 AM PDT  The 28-year-old Joshua Brown testified in Amber Guyger's trial about the night that their neighbor Botham Jean was killed.
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| Barricades burn as Haiti enters 4th week of deadly protests Posted: 07 Oct 2019 05:49 AM PDT  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Stones flew and barricades burned in Haiti's capital on Monday as the country entered its fourth week of protests that have paralyzed the economy. Opposition leaders asked supporters to gather in front of the National Palace to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse, who had been scheduled to attend a government ceremony nearby. The call came after thousands of Haitians marched in front of the United Nations' headquarters on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in weeks.
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| Teacher suspended for Confederate flag message Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:21 PM PDT  "Think of it like a white trash 'Save the Date' card," the message said
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| Singapore: A Naval Powerhouse in the Making? Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:45 AM PDT  A growing force with the right intentions.
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| Baby turtle had more than 100 pieces of plastic in stomach when it died of starvation Posted: 06 Oct 2019 09:20 AM PDT  A dying baby turtle that washed up on a beach in Florida had 104 pieces of plastic in its stomach.Experts say it was one of just dozens of young turtles that have starved to death in the area after eating microplastics in the sea this year.
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| Tens of thousands march for independence in Scottish capital Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  Tens of thousands of Scottish independence supporters marched in Edinburgh on Saturday, as calls grow for a fresh vote on Scotland breaking away from the United Kingdom with Brexit scheduled for within weeks. Independence" as the throng of people made its way up the city's famous Royal Mile. "Scotland is second class in this union," said Peter Johnston, 22, one of the organisers of the march.
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| If the House Won’t Vote, Impeachment Inquiry Is Just a Democratic Stunt Posted: 05 Oct 2019 11:53 AM PDT  'The House of Representatives . . . shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."It's right there in black-and-white: In article I, section 2, clause 5, our Constitution vests the entirety of the power to call for removal of the president of the United States in a single body — the House.Not in the Speaker of the House. In the House of Representatives. The institution, not one of its members.To be sure, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a very powerful government official: second in the line of succession to the presidency; arguably, the most powerful member of Congress. She wields decisive influence on the business of her chamber. She even has the power to induce the House to vote on whether to conduct an impeachment inquiry.But she does not have the power to impeach on her own.In the end, Speaker Pelosi is just one member, a representative elected biannually by one district (in her case, the 12th district of California, centered in San Francisco and not particularly representative of the nation at large). Sure, she enjoys primus inter pares status because she is chosen by a majority of the House's 435 members. But like each of those other members, her vote counts as just one — in a body that generally requires 218 votes to get the important things done.She is the Speaker. She is not the House. She does not have the authority to call for the president's removal. She can argue for it, like the other members. She can vote on it, like the other members. But she cannot do it by herself. Only the House, acting as an institution, can do that.The House acts by voting. It has never voted to conduct an inquiry into whether President Trump should be impeached. Consequently, there is no House impeachment inquiry. There is a partisan exhibition of synchronized dyspepsia.This exhibition includes strident letters from a cabal of committee chairs, all Democrats, falsely claiming that a refusal by Trump-administration officials to comply with their demands for information and testimony "shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House's impeachment inquiry."In point of fact, the House has no impeachment inquiry; congressional Democrats have an impeachment political campaign.Under federal law, the offense of obstructing Congress applies when "any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House." Again, neither the House nor any of its committees has voted to conduct an impeachment inquiry. There is no formal impeachment proceeding to obstruct. Furthermore, the letters in question are not actually demands carrying the compulsory force of law; technically, they are just informal requests. No one is required to comply with a mere request, and refusing to do so is not evidence of anything, let alone obstruction.The House has issued some subpoenas. For example, the House Oversight Committee has just directed a subpoena to the White House, addressed to chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, reportedly demanding the production of a vast array of records (documents, communications, etc.) pertaining to the president's conduct of relations with Ukraine.Typical of the Democrats' legerdemain in this matter, the Oversight Committee has not voted to conduct an impeachment inquiry, nor did it vote to issue subpoenas (as, by contrast, the Oversight Committee voted to subpoena the White House just a few weeks ago for records germane to a suspected violation of federal recordkeeping laws). Instead, Chairman Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) strategically waited until the House closed for a two-week recess; then issued a memo on Wednesday, absurdly claiming that there was too much urgency to wait so a vote could be taken; then issued the subpoena late Friday, thus ensuring that no Republican could object and no Democrat would be forced to go on record supporting impeachment, which much of the public strongly opposes. Under House rules, the Oversight chairman has been delegated unilateral authority to issue subpoenas, so the subpoena is valid, but it is also pure gamesmanship.So is the explanation for the subpoena — offered in a letter that Chairman Cummings jointly signed with Chairmen Adam Schiff and Eliot Engel, respectively of the Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. After a couple of pages of throat-clearing about the purported "impeachment inquiry," the chairmen observe that, even without such an inquiry, the Oversight Committee has its own independent authority to conduct oversight investigations and issue subpoenas. In other words, information is actually being demanded under Congress's routine authority to scrutinize executive activities. There would be nothing extraordinary about it . . . except that senior Democrats have decided to hang an "impeachment" sign on the exercise, hoping you won't notice that the House has not voted to explore impeachment, and that its Democratic leaders are going out of their way to avoid such a vote.In their letter, Cummings, Schiff, and Engel give Mulvaney the Democrats now standard admonition about obstruction. It is nonsense. Even when a formal House committee proceeding is underway, such that the obstruction statute could clearly apply, there is no legal presumption that the recipient's refusal to comply with a subpoena is evidence of obstruction.Obstruction happens when there is tampering with documents or witnesses. Presumptively, a person who refuses to comply with a lawful document demand is not tampering with the documents; to the contrary, the subpoena recipient is asserting a legal claim of privilege that excuses compliance. If I am a lawyer, for example, and a congressional committee subpoenas notes from my meeting with a client, my refusal to surrender the notes is not an obstruction of the House's investigation. It is an assertion that the attorney–client privilege justifies my withholding of confidential communications. If I am right about that, the legal wrong is Congress's issuance of a subpoena, not my refusal to honor it.But am I right about it? We won't know until we go to court and sort it out. Until a subpoena is litigated, it is scurrilous to claim, as Democrats do, that noncompliance with it amounts to felony obstruction. And equally scurrilous is the Democratic chairmen's extortionate claim that noncompliance creates "an adverse inference" against the president and his chief-of-staff. If a prosecutor claimed that a suspect's refusal to answer questions created an adverse inference of guilt, Democrats would likely have the prosecutor brought up on disciplinary charges for flouting the Fifth Amendment. There is no adverse inference drawn against a person who, in good faith reliance on a lawful privilege that plausibly applies, refuses to comply with a government demand.Congressional Democrats are well aware of this. What do you suppose would happen if the Justice Department or a litigant in a civil case decided to issue a grand-jury or trial subpoena to a member of Congress, or a House staffer? Actually, you need not suppose, because the House has elaborate rules for this situation (they've been in place for years, with each new Congress essentially reaffirming them — see, e.g., here, pp. 5–6). The House prescribes a thorough review, with paramount consideration of all "the privileges and rights of the House" to withhold information from the executive branch, the grand jury, the courts, and the public. The demand is examined so that the House may make its own determination of whether the information sought is relevant and material to the investigation or proceeding in question (i.e., do they really need this information? Is the demand overly broad and intrusive?). And most significantly, the House weighs its constitutional immunity, particularly under the Speech or Debate Clause, to refuse compliance even if the evidence in question is critical. As any lawmaker will tell you, when the House relies on its privileges to tell an investigator to go pound sand, that is not obstruction; it's the law.So, too, for the president. The conduct of foreign relations is a near-plenary power of the chief executive. We are not talking here about oversight of executive agencies created by Congress. The committees are aiming their subpoena demands at the place where the president's constitutional power and privileges are at their most formidable. Of course the White House is not going to start surrendering records just because Chairman Cummings wrote a subpoena. This is going to be a protracted court battle, not because anyone is obstructing but because both sides have legitimate interests to protect.Now, let's be clear about something.None of us should object in principle to the Democrats' position that they are entitled to explore whether the president should be impeached. I do not agree that President Trump has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. But to the extent Democrats do, or at least say they do, they have the authority to make that case to the country.In 2014, I wrote a book called Faithless Execution, which explored the case for impeaching President Obama. Naturally, I was castigated in Democratic (and many Republican) circles for having the temerity to mention the I-word in connection with The One. But that was to be expected — which, essentially, was my point.The Framers designed impeachment as a political remedy, not a legal one. I argued not that President Obama was a bad person but that he was behaving as the kind of chief executive the Framers feared — i.e., defying, in several ways, the separation-of-powers structure of the Constitution. Nevertheless, because impeachment is political, it is not enough to have acts that arguably qualify as impeachable abuses of power; there must also be a public consensus that gives Congress the political will to remove the president from power.That will does not spontaneously appear. It is up to Congress to build a political case that convinces Americans. It must be a strong case that cuts across partisan lines, because impeaching a president is a profound challenge to national cohesion, and because the two-thirds' supermajority vote required in the Senate for removal ensures that impeachment is reserved for only truly egregious misconduct.Therefore, if lawmakers have a genuine belief that the president should be removed, it is their obligation to make that political case to the public, and they must have the opportunity to do so. I concluded that it would be foolish to attempt to impeach Obama absent public support for his removal. If you're really worried about abuse of power, an unsuccessful impeachment attempt is apt to encourage more of it. My point, though, was to stress how essential impeachment was in the Framers' design — "indispensable," as Madison put it. If congressional Republicans believed it would be too politically damaging to try to build the case for impeachment, that was a rational choice, but one that had real downsides — namely, if there is no credible threat of impeachment, a president has no incentive to modify his behavior; the president is free to ignore laws and constitutional restraints, limited only by his own sense of political vulnerability.While I don't share their conclusions, I have a grudging admiration for the Democrats' willingness to do what Republicans would not: Make the public case that a president they see as deeply objectionable should be ousted. Making the case does not oblige congressional Democrats to vote on articles of impeachment; they are entitled to explore whether there should be articles of impeachment.But the question is: Do the Democrats have a good-faith belief that President Trump has engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors, or are they engaged in a political stunt, the objectives of which are to appease irrational elements of their base and to batter Trump for 2020 election purposes?If they have a good-faith belief that the president's impeachment must be considered, they owe it to the country to vote on conducting an impeachment inquiry, rather than continue dodging accountability. Indeed, if Democrats really believe what they say — if they really believe there have been appalling abuses of power, rather than mere missteps or political disputes — then they should be proud to vote on it.Only the House can impeach the president. If there is to be an inquiry about invoking this most solemn and consequential of the House's powers, the House must vote to conduct it. It is not for the Speaker and her adjutants to decree that there is an inquiry. If the inquiry is to be legitimate, the House as a whole must decide to conduct it.Members of the House are the representatives of the sovereign — the People. In November 2020, the People are scheduled to vote on whether Donald Trump should keep his job. If Democrats, who control the House, truly believe the president has committed impeachable offenses and is so unfit for his duties that we can't wait just 13 months for the sovereign to render that verdict, then they should vote to conduct an impeachment inquiry. If they are afraid to vote on it, then they shouldn't be doing it. And, as their committee chairmen are fond of saying, we should draw a negative inference against them.
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| Joe diGenova trashes his Fox colleague Chris Wallace Posted: 05 Oct 2019 11:37 AM PDT  Days after Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said that husband-wife lawyer team Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing worked "off the books" with President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate Joe Biden, the two attorneys attacked Wallace during a Fox Business Network appearance, and Trump-supporting host Lou Dobbs largely stood by.
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| An anti-Muslim group planned a $1,500-per-ticket gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Posted: 05 Oct 2019 11:22 AM PDT  The club is just one part of Trump's business network that has sparked concerns over ethics guidelines and possible pay-for-play association.
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| Five murdered in Austrian ski town of Kitzbuehel: police Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:26 AM PDT  Austrian police are investigating the suspected murder of five people in the ski town of Kitzbuehel, police said on Sunday. The suspected perpetrator had been detained, Austrian press agency APA reported, citing police. The police spokesman declined comment to Reuters on the local media reports.
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| Iran says Chinese state oil firm withdraws from $5B deal Posted: 06 Oct 2019 11:26 AM PDT  China's state oil company has pulled out of a $5 billion deal to develop a portion of Iran's massive offshore natural gas field, the Islamic Republic's oil minister said Sunday, an agreement from which France's Total SA earlier withdrew over U.S. sanctions. The South Pars field deal, struck in the wake of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, appears to be just the latest business casualty of America's pressure campaign on Tehran following President Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from the deal.
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| A 97-year-old woman with dementia went missing. Four kids banded together to find her Posted: 07 Oct 2019 05:23 AM PDT  Police in California are thanking a group of "junior detectives" who recently helped locate a missing 97-year-old woman with dementia.
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| Why America Should Pay Attention to This Chinese Navy Ritual Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:45 AM PDT  Lunar New Year greetings also show that China is becoming a major naval power.
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