Monday 13 May 2013

It's Britain's Big Day.

As I mentioned in my previous post the UK Prime Minister David Cameron is today meeting with the US President Barrack Obama in Washington DC, US. This is obviously a very important meeting for the UK so they're already making a lot of noise in order to draw attention to it. The big political talking point is over plans for a non-binding House of Commons vote on enshrining into law a national referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union (EU) before the 2015 General Election that was introduced by rebel members of Cameron's Conservative Party. This is likely to cause a lot of tension because one of the US' main reasons for keeping the UK as an ally is so it can act as the US' eyes and ears within the EU.

In politically adjacent news former Liberal Democrat (LibDem) MP Chris Huhne and his ex-wife have been released from prison after serving just a quarter of their eight month sentences for perverting the course of justice after Pryce falsely took speeding penalty points on her driving license on Huhne's behalf. They will serve the remainder of their sentence under curfew monitored by electronic ankle bracelet. As a much more serious form of perverting the course of justice is the offence that Chris Brown has still not been charged with this is supposed to look like the UK recommending that Chris Brown is placed on curfew and electronic monitoring for the rest of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour. However as Huhne and Pryce's curfews form part of their post-conviction punishments rather than pre-trial bail conditions the UK actually seems to be telling the US to continue to protect Chris Brown.

Also in legal news Stuart Hazell the man on trial over the murder of Tia Sharp has suddenly changed his plea to guilty which will most likely bring the trial to an end. This is being described as a shock decision but it was really planned all along. Basically the trial has reached the point where the prosecution has come to the end of presenting its case meaning that it is now the defences turn. The defence don't really have a case to present so Hazell has changed his plea at the last possible moment in order to take advantage in the 1/3rd reduction in sentence that automatically comes with a guilty plea.

Finally I received one of those sinister looking brown envelopes from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). All it actually was is a income tax certificate laying out that I haven't paid any income tax on my non-income. Now the suspense is out of the way I suppose this could lead onto a discussion about how I'm being chronically underpaid.

The US also looks like it intends to play its part. Apart from the shooting at a mothers day parade in new Orleans last night there was also a large fire in a house in Philadelphia killing a family of six. This was a very abstract reference to the Bangladesh factory attack. It is reminiscent of a series of fires and other industrial accidents in the early part of the twentieth century that led to widespread reform of US labour laws. The 1911 Shirtwaist fire being one of the more famous examples.

11:25 on 13/5/13.

Edited at around 19:00 on 13/5/13.

Shortly after writing the above a large car bomb exploded outside a hospital in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi killing between 3 and 11 people depending on which report you've heard. This was clearly the work of UK linked militia and was timed to coincide with the UK Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to the US to meet with President Obama. The primary objective was to enquire what is going on with the debate about the September 11th 2012 (11/9/12) attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi that killed Ambassador J Christopher Stevens. Obviously the UK was most keen to learn if the US has acknowledged its involvement in that attack and what it intends to do about it. However it also seems that the Benghazi issue has become a sort of code for the US to discuss everything that has gone wrong with US foreign policy over the last four years. Beyond that the attack on Benghazi brought up the recent siege of Libyan government buildings in the capitol Tripoli that only ended with an obviously politically biased law banning former senior members of the Qaddafi regime and the setting up of a rival government based in Benghazi in a renewed effort to force Libya into a federal model of government. Obviously I don't need to explain how destabilising an effect on Libya having two rival armed groups claiming to be the legitimate government will have. After all that type of situation is normally described as a civil war. The attacks also brought back memories for the recent attack on the French Embassy in Tripoli which is widely believed to be an Islamist response to the French decision to extend it's mission in Mali. This obviously puts the issue of what to do about Mali on the agenda for the meeting between Cameron and Obama.

Shortly after the bombing in Libya the Turkish authorities announced that one of it's F-16 combat jets had gone missing presumed crashed close to the border with Syria. This seems to be a Turkish message that despite the weekend bombing they won't be supporting UK calls for further foreign intervention in Syria at least until the security situation (especially the weapons of mass destruction) post-Assad can be stabilised. Syria was one of the items on the formal agenda for the meeting between Cameron and Obama.

While Cameron and Obama were holding the end of meeting press conference I was seeing my General Practitioner (GP). As the practise is in the process of switching from one computer system to another the report on my infamous ECG test has gone missing. However my GP renewed my prescription for another two months while expressing confusion as to why another doctor had ordered the test in the first place.

By this time the US had fully woken up and was contributing to the general level of noise surrounding Cameron's visit. The first of these was the news that the man accused of carrying out the mass shooting at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado is to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. This will obviously extend the trial and complicate it by making the outcome rest on very complicated medical and legal knowledge on issues of sanity. These arguments are intended to be very difficult for less well developed nations such as those African nations who are being forced into a UN peacekeeping force for Mali to understand. The move is also intended to promote discussion about the nature of Rihanna and Chris Brown's relationship especially in majority Muslim nations such as Morocco and Turkey. The question the US is trying to pose is; Am I insane for thinking that the relationship is false, engineered and abusive or are people insane for thinking it's not? In strict psychological terms the correct answer is that neither option is correct.

Next up disgraced American football player and film actor O.J Simpson appeared in a Las Vegas Court for a Habeas Corpus hearing over this imprisonment for armed robbery and kidnapping. His argument is that his legal defence at the original 2008 trial was so poor it meant he did not receive a fair trial and therefore his continued imprisonment is unlawful until a new trial can be held. Having been nicknamed 'Bart Simpson' the hope was everybody would assume that O.J Simpson was a metaphor for Chris Brown and be tricked into looking into this case for clues about what would happen at Brown's June 10th (10/6/13) Court appearance. However I can see no connection between the two cases. The only possible connection is that it could be argued that Brown's attorney is giving him bad legal advice by telling him there is some grounds for him to plead not guilty to the accusation of perverting the course of justice. However Brown's case has not yet gone to trial so all that would happen is that the Judge would dismiss Brown's attorney and appoint one who would advise him to plead guilty.

The legal principle of Habeas Corpus under which O.J Simpson sought today's hearing is one of the protections against arbitrary detention. It comes from the opening line of the writ (which used to be written in Latin) which a Judge would send to a jailer ordering that such and such prisoner was brought before them in Court at a certain time and date to determine if there was probable cause to imprison them. For nations that don't have protections against arbitrary detention - such as those in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region - the US was hoping this argument would be highly confusing and especially inflammatory in Libya where the cases of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi and Abdullah al-Sensussi are still ongoing. The fact that "Habeas Corpus" literally translates as "Have the Body" could also cause confusion by making it sound like the US was suggesting that Chris Brown be killed although Latin doesn't distinguish between a live body and a dead body.

On the subject of legal terms I should explain my new tagline on Twitter (@Sovereignaka) - Force Majeure. Literally meaning "Superior Force" in legal terms this refers to an event that is so large, unpredictable and overwhelming that it invalidates the obligations of a legal contract. I think this is how Rihanna's CIA handlers would be well served to view me in terms of their current operation. The legal principle actually has a lot of relevance to government contracts such as debt agreements when one government is overthrown and replaced by another as has happened in Libya. Sadly the Libyan militias seem intent on purging anyone who understands things like this from their government.

As for Rihanna herself although Live Nation have yet to confirm it she has been scheduled two new concerts in Denver, Colorado on November 9th (9/11/13) and New Orleans on November 15th (15/11/13). These are clear attempts to tie her to the issues surrounding the Aurora shooting trial and the New Orleans mothers day parade shooting that itself ties to the upcoming G8 Summit. Therefore the overwhelming message of the new concert dates is that whether they succeed or fail Rihanna's handlers intend to keep on extending this tour until it totally destroys her. To me this would seem like a pyrrhic victory because not even the Gulf Monarchs truly believe that Rihanna caused the so-called Arab Spring so destroying Rihanna isn't likely to affect their relationship with the US in any way. It does seem likely to have a negative effect on the US' relationship with a host of other countries though. Following last night's (12/5/13) concert in South Africa Justin Bieber has had the relatively small amount of money raised by that concert stolen. This seems to be South Africa telling Rihanna's handlers that they'd rather not have a role in her destruction by having her perform her scheduled concerts in the country.

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