France’s parliament voted to make vaccine passports a key part of daily life in the battle against Covid-19 this week, after a compromise between lawmakers from the upper and lower houses. Shortly after, France’s highest constitutional authority said it would rule next week on whether the new legislation will be accepted into law.

The Constitutional Council, which has the power to send laws back to the legislature and government for changes, said it would issue the ruling on August 5. The breakthrough in talks came a day after France was again shaken by protests against the rules that saw over 160,000 rally and dozens arrested.

President Emmanuel Macron last week ordered that vaccine passports — proof of full vaccination or a negative test — would be required for the French to visit venues such as cinemas or nightclubs. The announcement was a move by Macron to make vaccinations the top weapon against Covid-19 as new variants emerge, essentially requiring people to become vaccinated if they want to continue daily routines.

Those changes were implemented by decree, but parliament has been engaged in a marathon session since last week debating whether to extend them. Vaccine passports have encountered fierce opposition from some, who believe they erode civil liberties.

The ruling party has faced a tough task pushing the legislation through parliament. Pro-Macron MPs control the National Assembly, but the Senate — the upper house — is dominated by the opposition right.

The Senate had approved the legislation but added numerous amendments that the government feared risked limiting its impact. The two sides held three hours of talks Sunday, finding a compromise to pass the bill that evening by a large majority: 156 votes for, 60 against and 14 abstentions.

The legislation still needs to be approved by France’s highest administrative authority, the Constitutional Council, before becoming law — an extra step requested by Prime Minister Jean Castex.

Compromise deal

Macron’s announcement had already made the health pass compulsory for cinemas, museums and any venue gathering more than 50 people. The new legislation would make it compulsory from August for air travel and inter-city trains, as well as for visiting cafes and restaurants.

It would also make vaccinations obligatory for health workers and caregivers. The Senate wanted the legislation to be more mindful of civil liberties.

Parliamentary sources said the compromise means the system will only continue after November 15 following a new vote. The deal also limits the enforcement role of the police, and makes clear that health workers and caregivers who refuse vaccinations will not automatically be sacked but have their salary suspended.

“COVID is temporary, but firings are final,” argued one Republican member of the Senate, Philippe Bas. Some 161,000 people, including 11,000 in Paris, had protested Saturday against requiring vaccine passports for dining out and cinema visits.

Seventy-one people were arrested and 29 members of the security forces were injured, the ministry of the interior said.

Vaccine passports controversy

President Macron scoffed at how slogans of freedom were being brandished at the protests. “Everyone is free to express themselves calmly with respect for the other,” he said. “But freedom where I owe nothing to someone else does not exist”.

Macron said that under such logic, relatives could be infected by someone who is not vaccinated, or the person could themselves end up in hospital. “I don’t call this freedom, I call this irresponsibility and egoism.”

By maximizing vaccinations, the French government wants to minimize the impact of the fourth coronavirus wave. Some 40 million people should have received at least one shot by this week.

France recorded almost 23,000 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, twice as many as last week, as the Delta variant caused a surge. But in figures the government credits to vaccinations, there are 878 Covid-19 patients in intensive care, compared with a peak of almost 6,000 at the end of April.

Source: https://techhq.com/2021/07/france-opting-for-vaccine-passports-despite-privacy-concerns/

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Police officers in Portland, Ore., during a protest in August. Credit…David Ryder for The New York Times

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The anger runs deeper, however, and some protesters, young and old, say they have also taken to the streets to vent their frustration over declining living standards and the perceived gap between a small, wealthy elite and ordinary people.

Real incomes fell 3.5% last year, unemployment is at its highest since 2011 and the economy in 2020, hit hard by the pandemic, is estimated to have suffered its sharpest contraction in 11 years.

Disenchantment over inequality was targeted by Navalny in a YouTube video, released shortly after his detention and viewed more than 106 million times, which showcased a 100 billion-rouble ($1.31 billion) palace complex in southern Russia.

Navalny alleged its ultimate owner was President Vladimir Putin, an allegation the Kremlin denies. Since then Putin’s former judo sparring partner has said he owned it.

Alexandra, who protested in Moscow on Jan. 23, said she was shocked by the video, especially at a time when medics were battling the coronavirus pandemic.

“I can imagine what kind of bonus doctors get: about 17,000 roubles ($223),” said the 24-year-old student, who declined to give her surname for fear of repercussions with the authorities.

“And it (the video) really got to me, it was the last straw, and I decided to protest.”

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of major cities across the country on Jan. 23, and just over a week later, although numbers were smaller. Officials say protest leaders’ estimates of the crowds were exaggerated.

Police arrested thousands of people on both days, and over the weekend in central Moscow, hundreds of riot police were deployed to quell dissent.

‘HERE FOR MY GRANNY’

While many protesters rallied under the banner of Navalny, who they say has been persecuted by authorities because of his opposition to Putin, it was not the only reason for risking arrest. The Kremlin denies treating Navalny unfairly.

Sonya, a young protester in Moscow on Jan. 31, said she supported the opposition firebrand but was also motivated by an economic squeeze.

“(Our) country is in complete chaos … look at how pensioners live,” she told Reuters, as she wielded a golden toilet brush, a symbol of protest inspired by the alleged presence of such brushes in the property that Navalny showcased.

“I am here for my family, for my granny. I will live in this country for many years to come, but I want my relatives to live better than now.”

The rouble is falling on fears of new Western sanctions over the Navalny case. That threatens to push up inflation, which hit 4.9% last year, further above the central bank’s target of 4%.

Putin himself has expressed concern about rising food prices, a phenomenon that prompted the government to introduce export taxes on some foodstuffs to keep them in the country and cool prices.

Re-elected for a fourth time in 2018, Putin pledged that real disposable incomes would steadily rise and that the poverty rate would drop to 6.5% by 2024.

Those two goals have now been postponed by six years to 2030, with officials citing the pandemic as the reason.

The number of people in Russia living below the poverty line hit 18.8 million, or 12.8% of Russia’s total, in the third quarter of last year, official data show. The number of people in that category rose by 700,000 compared to 2019.

($1 = 76.0552 roubles)

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Anton Vaganov via Reuters

MOSCOW—The opulent, fortified Kremlin, which stands right in the center of Moscow, looked like a besieged castle on Sunday. Metal fences, traffic cops, and interior ministry riot troops blocked all the streets around Lubyanka square, the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters, and Red Square. The metro stations were closed.

It is not COVID-19 that brought on this unprecedented lockdown, it is a man Vladimir Putin refers to only as “a blogger.” Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader is in jail, but he has called on his followers to take to the streets. Last weekend, they did so in numbers not seen for a decade—thousands were arrested.

This week, a rattled Putin was not taking any chances.

On Sunday, hundreds of policemen surrounded Pushkin square which was flooded with up to 40,000 protesters last weekend. A chain of policemen blocked the way to the square at noon, another group blocked the crossing under Tverskaya avenue. Riot police, covered in black armor from head to toe, dragged a young man in a black face mask outside Chistye Prudy metro station, his feet slipping on the wet snow. Speaking from court last week, Navalny described the regime’s actions, as “demonstrative lawlessness.”

After thousands of arrests last weekend, the authorities jailed more than 150 people mid-week including key activists from Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, many remained in pretrial detention centers. Police continued detaining journalists, bloggers, administrators of Telegram chats, protesters, and even random pedestrians on Sunday for covering or organizing the unsanctioned rally. By lunchtime, more than 1,000 people were arrested in 40 cities according to OVD-Info, which is an independent police monitor.

Joining the law enforcement officials in Moscow were hundreds of civilian guards wearing the red armbands of the Druzhina, a Soviet-era people’s militia.

Despite the massive show of force, thousands of protesters defied Putin’s crackdown and risked arrest all over the Russian Federation in demonstrations that were hastily rearranged with city centers locked down.

In Ekaterinburg, east of the Ural Mountains, social media images showed the crowd walking across a frozen river to escape the riot police. In Moscow, thousands converged on Komsomolskaya Square after Navalny’s team tweeted the new location to protest.

State television channels were operating a news blackout so Russians turned to social media and independent live streams to follow the growing protest. The authorities responded by announcing that spreading any “fake news” about the protests was now illegal and people spreading the word about the size or location of demonstrations could be prosecuted.

Yet, still, images of crowds being beaten and pushed back by riot police continued to spread online.

“There will never be enough police to arrest everybody. There are 11 million people in Moscow, millions of us support the opposition,” Alexei Zhukov, 28, told the Daily Beast.

OVD-Info claimed that cattle prods and tasers were being used on peaceful protesters as violations by law enforcement agencies reached an unprecedented level for post-Soviet Russia.

Vitaly Pavlenkov, a 26-year-old programmer working at a state-owned bank, knows what will happen to those arrested on Sunday. He was one of the people swept up in last week’s arrests.

While he was inside a pretrial detention center on Vernadskogo Prospekt with dozens of young professionals and university students, he received a text from his wife, who was waiting for him outside the police station: “The guards are talking about a ‘castle plan.’” From that point, no lawyers were let inside to see their clients.

Pavlenkov was no stranger to the world of law enforcement, he had spent a year working in the secret units of The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Service, also known as GU—previously the GRU. He had nothing to hide from state officials, he was a responsible citizen with two young daughters at home, a professional with valuable skills, determined to spend his life in Russia.

He decided to participate in the opposition rally in support of arrested opposition leader Navalny, but he was careful not to break any rules; he stayed on the sidewalk and did not block the street. “I joined a street protest for the first time in my life, after reaching my own boiling point: Navalny’s arrest was outrageously unlawful. But I did not march with any crowds, did not yell any slogans,” Pavlenkov told The Daily Beast.

Russia’s State Constitution, says, “Any person detained, taken into custody… shall have the right to receive assistance of a lawyer from the moment of detention.” But many of nearly the 4,000 Russians who were detained for supporting Navalny remained in jail for days without a chance to see their lawyers, even when they appeared in court.

The “castle plan” effectively means the drawbridge has been raised and Russia’s elites and law enforcement centers will be sealed off from the real population locked outside the ramparts.

Alla Frolova, coordinator of OVD-Info, which also provides legal assistance for political prisoners, told the Daily Beast: “The ‘castle plan’ commands police to defend the actual police buildings from any threatening enemies; but in reality, it stops lawyers from seeing their clients—we are taking the state to court for their ‘castle plan.’ It is against the law,”

“The decision to build the ‘castle’ was made at the top level of security services: thousands in Russians were detained,” she said. “Authorities seem terrified by the opposition’s plans to hold more rallies: The Interior Ministry has closed all metro stations in the center, blocked public transport all over Moscow for this weekend—these measures are terrifying for the public. We’ll see if the state has enough resources to keep this plan under control.”

Pavlenkov spent three days in jail, where he struck up a kind of friendship with one of the police lieutenants who asked Pavlenkov questions about his family, and why most of the detainees seemed to be well educated and have successful careers. “The cop had tears in his eyes—he had been convinced that all of the protesters were some agents going to attack police with Molotov Cocktails, he asked me who paid us and how much for our participation. I am against violence, revolutions, unlawful actions, I genuinely want positive changes in my country. The policeman was totally confused, he was convinced we are Russia’s enemies and that it was the job of the police to defend the country from us,” he told The Daily Beast.

“I neither had a chance to see a lawyer in jail nor at the court. My entire family, all my friends, even those who liked Putin before, now have changed their mind because of my terrible experience.”

Another of those arrested was Ksenia Golubtsova, a communications manager on maternity leave. She saw police keeping male detainees out in the cold for hours, without letting them go to the toilet. “People were humiliated, threatened, beaten,” she told The Daily Beast.

Police detained Golubtsova, 30 when she was taking a picture of the riot, on the corner of Tsvetnoi boulevard last weekend. She spent almost 48 hours in police vehicles, waiting all night to be interrogated in a tiny room. Police took her phone away, so she could not call her husband. Her interrogator, an elderly woman, finally searched her. “Why do you, a young mother, need this, why do you get involved?” the policewoman asked her. Ksenia’s eyes filled up with tears. She recalled: “I wanted to tell her I protest, so people like you would not question innocent women like me, so such persecutions would not happen to your grandchildren to my children.” But Golubtsova could not get the words out, she felt humiliated and hurt, she said.

Despite Putin’s efforts to shield himself from the uprising and silence the voices of ordinary Russians who are no longer willing to put up with his crackdowns and kleptocracy, the outcry grows louder. “Putin is a thief!” reverberated all over the country on Sunday and the echoes, fueled by social media, could be heard loud and clear behind Putin’s fortifications.

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/dan-crenshaw-is-the-trumpiest-of-the-wannabe-new-trumps?ref=scroll

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The U.S. Embassy noted the demonstrations, which are being planned for Saturday in cities throughout Russia in support of jailed activist Alexei Navalny, on Friday. Navalny is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s biggest critics and is believed to have been poisoned by Russian intelligence operatives in 2020. Navalny was arrested upon his return to Russia, prompting anger among the opposition.

“These demonstrations are likely to be unauthorized. Given the likely substantial police presence and possible dispersal of demonstrators into other areas of the cities, U.S. citizens should avoid these demonstrations and any demonstration-related activities,” the embassy said in the alert.

Police officers detain supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a rally in St.Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. A judge has ordered to remand Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in custody for 30 days, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter. The ruling Monday concluded an hours-long court hearing set up at a police precinct where the politician has been held since his arrest at a Moscow airport Sunday. –(Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)

After warning citizens to steer clear, the U.S. listed the locations within a dozen cities where protests are expected as well as when they are set to kick off. For example, a demonstration is planned for 2 p.m. local time near Pushkin Square in Moscow and will march toward the Kremlin.

“All that coincides with Washington’s provocative doctrinal guidelines to encourage ‘protests in the countries with unwanted governments,’” the Foreign Ministry said. “Any attempts of this ‘coverage’ of unauthorized rallies will be regarded as gross interference in our country’s domestic affairs and will lead to a corresponding response.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the State Department for comment about the alert and subsequent response from the Russian government but did not immediately receive a response.

Navalny, 44, has been an anti-corruption crusader and a major thorn in Putin’s side. He spent months recovering in Germany after being poisoned with a Soviet government-produced nerve agent while traveling over the summer. Navalny vowed to return to Russia despite Putin’s power, and when he did, he was immediately arrested.

In this May 5, 2018, file photo, Russian police carry opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center, from a demonstration against President Vladimir Putin in Pushkin Square in Moscow, Russia. Navalny is an anti-corruption campaigner and the Kremlin’s fiercest critic. Frequently arrested, he has served multiple stints in jail for charges relating to leading protests.  –(AP)

The matter provides a test for the Biden administration about how it will handle Putin’s and Russia’s response to Saturday’s protests and how it could weigh into future foreign policy decisions. While President Biden has signaled his support for extending the New START nuclear treaty, he will also reportedly break the mold of post-Cold War presidents who attempted to reset relations between Washington and Moscow as they enter office.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan called for Navalny’s release, and secretary of state nominee Antony Blinken said congressional sanctions against Russia would be “extremely helpful in being able to impose … costs and consequences” against Moscow.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/russia-us-protests-navalny-gross-interference-warns-response

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Recent events beg a question, and it’s a big one. What will we NOT bow down for?  Americans are driving around solo, all masked up. Does that make some kind of sense, or are people just projecting their obeisance? Certain gas stations and truck stops have installed large signs on either side of their doors featuring a giant stop sign. Masks are REQUIRED to enter. Really? Nobody says a word inside. Maybe they value our money more than anything else.

It says right on the side of the mask box that they’re ineffective against viruses. So what on earth are we doing? Many are probably afraid they’ll be accosted, and would prefer to remain anonymous like every other pencil in the box. Just get what you need and be on your way. But that may not work forever. The MANDATES are about to get much more severe. Hopefully you live in a state where the local law agencies still have some regard for Constitutional rights. If not, things may get a little sticky.

Where do we draw the line?

We’ve considered an idea for a cover on 21st Century WATCH. The Mark of the MASK. Yes, we realize that it’s tongue in cheek, but what are we NOT going to be forced to do to go on living here. There are Biblical examples of righteous characters who were thrown into the fiery furnace, and a prophet into a den of lions for refusing to bow down to idolatrous dictates. That’s where they drew the line, and there surely must have been an element of fear involved. “You mean all I have to do is take a knee or two and pretend to honor a statue?” That sounds easy enough. Surely their health would be put in jeopardy (to say the very least) if they didn’t comply. How easy would it have been to do what they were told in order to avoid certain death? Easier than most of what we’re facing.

But now, everybody is caving in. The news tells us that WE are the problem if we don’t share their views and attitudes. And these charlatans don’t mind lying to everybody if it’s saving their careers. Some have done it willfully, even gleefully. Others have to pretend to believe the party line. But they’re all bowing down for a pack of lies, and advising that we do the same, or else.

Did you ever see a city looted or burned in the wake of one of the dozens of rallies over the past four years? Any Macy’s or Nordstrom’s, or Wendy’s or pharmacies looted or burned? We’ve seen all that, but never following one of these massive rallies. There’s a lot we don’t know about what happened at the nation’s capital on the sixth. A video was just shown to me showing police officers opening the doors and letting people inside! Who knew? If it was a violent rampage inside, why were people politely walking between the velvet ropes? What kind of riot was it anyway?

Oh, they’re hyperventilating at the news desks, and it’s all the fault of you know who, so they say. He’s destroyed his legacy this time, they tell us. Why, there was talk of “fighting” at the rally. That’s proof, they claim. You know as well as the next person that every politician in memory has claimed to “fight” for something. It’s a favorite phrase, and often repeated. But this time they claim it was incitement. We’d hate to think of what might have happened if that crowd of at least a quarter-million would have been incited to riot. All the police in D. C. and the surrounding counties couldn’t have prevented anything that crowd decided to do. But the crowd wasn’t incited to do any such thing.

Maybe some Trump supporters got carried away. But nothing got burned. Nothing got spray painted. The fracas with Police at the barricades included antifa members who are used to battling police. The news will not tell you that, and will probably deny it. But they’ve lost trust long since.

Was Russian collusion true? Was the impeachment legitimate? We’ve watched as they’ve claimed to know what President Trump meant many times, knowing that he didn’t mean what they accused, that is if you’ve got two brain cells to rub together.

American citizens are on their own now, unless they’re trusting Almighty God for guidance and protection. No longer will there be a president who is the prime target. He’s stood as a buffer to patriotic Americans, and the primary target of the media and the permanent bureaucracy. We’d hoped there might be some justice coming for the evildoers, but it seems they outlasted his presidency. The swamp plug never got pulled. It appears the swamp won, and now they’ll search out the rest of us.

It’s the enemy within, and soon it will be calling all the shots. The question is, where do we draw the line? Will we have anything to say about anything, including our own bodies? We’ll see where this thing goes, and how far it gets. Buckle up, and stay in touch with God. As my Dad used to say, “Only God can save us now.” Half in jest, of course. If there is to be any truth, justice or American way, we’re going to need His help.

Mark

P. S. We’re in the process of contracting for television commercials for 21st Century WATCH on OAN, where millions of Fox viewers have fled. They reach 24 million households. We sent out over 200,000 pieces of mail from our offices in 2020. We had well over 50,000 unique visitors to the GTA-EA website, and put our ads for doctrinal booklets in front of 1.24 million on Facebook. (I personally hate to do business with the alien “fact-checker,” who in my opinion is one of the most evil, anti-American little twerps known to man. But it does produce some positive results.) We’ve added some 500 hundred who now receive the monthly letter and many request offered material. We won’t give up, we’ll not stop. Somebody has to stand for something, no matter how stupid things get.

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

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