First round targets Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas
House Democrats courting Latinos in the midterm elections announced a seven-figure ad campaign Thursday that uses regional dialects, accents and themes to connect to voters in battleground districts.
The digital, radio and print ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — shared first with CQ Roll Call — are the latest response to criticism that the party is losing support among Latino voters because it waited too long to start outreach efforts and treated the diverse group as monolithic, even as Republicans invested heavily in Latino outreach in recent election cycles.
“I have always said: Latinos are not going to automatically vote for Democrats unless we come to them and woo them, show them that we are the party that actually has their backs,” said Maria Cardona, a political strategist who specializes in Latino outreach and was an informal adviser on the ad campaign.
Democrats in recent years have worked to tailor ads to different subsets of Hispanic and Latino voters. President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, for instance, ran ads featuring speakers with different accents, as has the group Building Back Together, which promotes the president’s policy agenda. Cardona and DCCC strategists said the timing of this campaign — three months before the election — was a positive change in strategy.
“In cycles past, these ads would not have been on the air until about two weeks before the election — that to me speaks volumes as to how Democrats have learned and how they have understood this is not a community you can take for granted,” she said. […]
The ads are part of a $30 million Building Our Base project launched by the DCCC to engage Black, Latino and Asian American Pacific Islander communities. As part of that program, the DCCC has made a seven-figure investment in Latino-focused organizing programs last spring and additional seven-figure investment in organizing programs to build relationships with Latino communities and voters.
The DCCC also announced a seven-figure investment Tuesday in digital, print and radio advertising targeting Asian American Pacific Islander voters in battleground districts. Some of those ads, running in California, Nevada, New York and Virginia will spotlight Republicans’ opposition to abortion rights, which Democrats think is unpopular among ethnic groups — including Latinos — that don’t personally believe in abortion but don’t want the government involved in the decision and worry that other conservative social policies will follow. […]
There is something about the desert southwest that breeds conspiracy theories. Maybe it’s a result of uranium mining. Maybe there’s something in the water. My own theory is that it is the heat, and the heat alone. When the heat tops 110 degrees and stays there for days or weeks, I expect we will someday find out that it slow-cooks the human brain like the chunk of meat that it is. After 10 years of living in the California or Arizona or Nevada desert, your brain begins to resemble a flame-broiled Whopper, and that’s where the conspiracy theories come from. They come from the little charred bits around the edges. Go to any small desert town, one small enough that you’ll never see 10 people inside the same stores at the same time, and you can be assured of quickly stumbling on a crank who will tell you anything with a straight face.
That is where alien sightings come from. It’s where cloudy-eyed mutterers pick over scraps left by prospectors a hundred years back, after those prospectors had their own brains charbroiled and ran off to parts unknown. It is how you end up with clown motels.
Anyway, what all of that is leading up to is the news that the Arizona primaries will be decided on Tuesday, and it now seems an absolute certainty that no matter what the vote totals end up being, the day will only set the state up for a new round of hingeless conspiracy ranting that will likely last until … God only knows. There’s no obvious half-life on election crankery. The Arizona Republican primaries have been an absolute car wreck, because the Arizona Republican Party has been pumping out crank after crank after crank for a decade now and there’re few left in the party who even remember what pretending at normalcy looked like, back when you didn’t necessarily have to be weird beyond belief to vote for a Republican slate.
At least two Republican candidates are already vowing that if they lose their primary races on Tuesday, it is because ElEKtiON FRaUd happened and their Republican opponents were in on it.
Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, an absolute crackpot in the best of times, is already preparing the groundwork for her possible loss. That doesn’t mean a personal acknowledgement that her own relentless election conspiracies (she doesn’t think Joe Biden is the legitimate American president) may have turned off voters who do not want Arizona to be thought of as a clown motel the size of an entire state, but yet another conspiracy theory. The Washington Post reports on those new claims:
“We’re already detecting some fraud,” Lake told a rally crowd. And “we’ve got cyber folks working with us.” And “I’m hoping that we have the sheriffs that will do something about it.”
[sheesh]
Ah, yes, the cyber folks. Defenders of elections everywhere, warriors of the spreadsheets, susser-outers of errata and arcana. There is always the possibility that space aliens, China, or an underground conspiracy run from unseen basements under Walmart stores is looking to foil Lake’s bid to turn Arizona into a fascist circus in which every elephant has a gun and future elections are literally impossible for the state to even pull off.
The invocation of “the sheriffs” is particularly ominous. Lake is suggesting that if she doesn’t win the election, the “constitutional sheriffs” who have allied with election fraudsters will start seizing machines and ballots and not give any of them back, claiming the election itself was a criminal enterprise.
Another Trumpite competitor, Michigan transplant self-made into big-buckle desert cowboy Mark Finchem, is running for secretary of state—that is, he wants to be the person responsible for running every election after November’s. Finchem is a militia crank who participated in the Jan. 6 coup attempt, is a vigorous election conspiracy theorist on Trump’s behalf, appears to have no few to no beliefs that are not centered around conspiracy theories, appears to be running a campaign that’s mostly a slush fund for one particular Republican consulting firm, appears to have literally no redeeming qualities or accomplishments whatsoever in his ex-family and ex-professional life, and in a better country would have no public role greater than “town hall audience crank #3” or “aspirational catheter spokesperson.”
Finchem was able to gain Trump’s backing, thanks to the whole “conspiracy-crank participant in an attempted coup” thing, must best fellow Republican Beau Lane and two others in Tuesday’s primaries. It may be a tall order, but he, too, is already certain that if he doesn’t win it’s because the conspiracies against him and Trump are just that powerful. Lane “is a Democrat Plant,” Finchem asserts on Twitter.
[…] Arizona, mind you, is a beautiful state. […]The parts that are nice we’ll keep to ourselves—and it doesn’t matter anyway, now that even entering the state puts you at risk of law enforcement officers with skin color charts taped to their windshields, legislators for whom clown motel proprietor would be an almost-unthinkable step up in careers, and a parade of white nationalists, militia-adjacent revolutionaries, bellowing con artists, and straight-up fascists all vie to turn the state into Kafkaesque fever dream.
Whatever it is that’s turning the state’s Republican Party into an all-conspiracy, all-the-time carnival of American losers needs to be discovered, analyzed, and treated right quick, though. State politics is only going to get more intense as water becomes scarcer, and if all it takes to send the whole state Republican Party around the bend is one election in which the golf course blowhard couldn’t muster a pandemic-riddled win, how long will it be before the Lakes, the Finchems, and the Masterses have staked out their own corners of the state as heavily armed fiefdoms “independent” from the rest of government because they said so, that’s why?
Buckle in, because no matter how Tuesday’s elections turn out, Republicans are going to call them “rigged.” That is, after all, what most of their campaigns are based around.
Wonkette: “Lauren Boebert Fairly Certain We’ll All Eat Our Dogs If Dems Pass Gun Control.”
Hide your wife! Hide your kids! Hide your … puppies? Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert recently went on Newsmax to warn Americans that we’ll all be frying up our pets for dinner if the dastardly Democrats manage to pass an assault weapons ban.
“If the citizenry in America is disarmed, then we are no longer citizens. We are subjects!” she vamped for host Sebastian Gorka, who was hired to do nothing at the Trump White House, and still managed to get fired for incompetence.
“You know here in America, we have gourmet treats for puppies. We have these amazing groomers for dogs,” Boebert went on. […]
“Well, in Venezuela they eat the dogs. And it started because they don’t have firearms. They do not have a way to protect themselves, to defend themselves against a tyrannical government.”
Did it though? Hmmm.
Leave aside for the moment Boebert’s premise that Americans need weapons so they can shoot members of the oppressive government of which she herself is an elected representative. […]
New Zealanders banned all assault weapons in 2019 after a crazed gunman murdered 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, and they haven’t been forced to subsist on whatever species of three-toed, winged marsupial those Kiwis keep as pets. Yet! (We are kidding, New Zealand, we know you do not keep flying kangaroos as pets. Please keep sending us wine!)
In fact, most of the world’s citizens manage to get along just fine without guns that can murder dozens of people in rapid succession, and they do it without devolving into a hellscape of canine cuisine. […] wingers sure do like to trot out Venezuela as a cautionary tale of what might happen if Democrats are allowed to implement their “socialist agenda,” i.e. enact popular policies to help people. […]
In point of fact, the government of Venezuela did enact gun control. And the country is in the throes of economic shortages so severe that the population has been forced to eat any protein they can get their hands on. But just because one thing happened before the other does not mean that there’s a causal relationship. This dingbat may not know what post hoc ergo propter hoc means, but it’s a safe bet that pompous gasbag Gorka does. And he’s probably heard of the resource curse, too.
Venzuela sits on the largest proven oil reserve in the world. It has more oil than Saudi Arabia. And as long as they kept selling it, we didn’t give a shit which murderous dictator ran the country, much less what he did to oppress his own citizens. But like Russia, petrostates rise and fall on the price of oil. So when the price of oil crashed in the mid-2010s, both regimes had to get a lot more oppressive because they couldn’t afford to buy off the population anymore. […]
And, yeah, Lauren Boebert is a rancid idiot. But the NRA and other wingnut thought leaders are pushing this bullshit, too, minus the dog angle. Which is gross, and depends on Americans being committed to the project of being AN IDIOT.
In summary and in conclusion, it’s probably for the best that Lauren Boebert’s restaurant got shut down. God only knows what was in those burgers. ALLEGEDLY.
Jon Stewart on ABC: “What Toomey’s amendment wants to do is make sure our sick & dying veterans have the pleasure our 9/11 first responders at Ground Zero had of having to come back to Washington, hat in hand, riddled w/cancer, & march through the halls of the hill begging for $”
Video is available at the link.
STEWART: The Toomey amendment is really about capping the fund. It’s about putting caps on it and giving it a sunset clause for ten years. Now, we’ve been through this with the 9/11 First Responders.
Commentary from Wonkette:
[…] All while fucking over veterans and setting up the opportunity to do it again at later date. It’s a game to them to mess with veterans’ lives.
As a veteran affected personally by this in many ways, there are fewer phrases that have become more insulting and meaningless from the lips of conservatives over the years than “Thank you for your service.” It’s as worthy of mockery as “thoughts and prayers.” […]
The United States has killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda and one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists, who oversaw the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, alongside the group’s founder, Osama bin Laden, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Both men escaped U.S. forces in Afghanistan in late 2001, and Zawahiri’s whereabouts had long been a mystery. Bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2011.
The Associated Press first reported that Zawahiri was killed.
It was not immediately clear where and when Zawahiri died and what element of the U.S. government had carried out the mission.
The Central Intelligence Agency carried out a drone strike over the weekend in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to officials familiar with the matter.
The White House said on Monday that President Biden would give remarks in the evening about “a successful counterterrorism operation,” but did not mention Zawahiri.
…Pskov is a medieval fortress town which, in a thousand years, has seen many battles.
With its high walls and watchtowers, the ancient citadel is curiously topical and symbolic. This is how the Kremlin portrays modern Russia: as a besieged fortress threatened by the West.
In town, at a rundown Soviet era sports stadium, they’re re-enacting a battle from World War Two.
People posing as Russian partisans are involved in a shoot-out with a group dressed as German Nazis. A mock-up of a Russian village is in flames.
The Kremlin likens what is happening in Ukraine now to the Second World War. It insists that today, once again, Russians are victims, heroes, liberators: the good guys fighting Nazis and fascists.
It is a false image. A parallel reality. But many here believe it….
I’m reading Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. My review is extremely mixed, but in any event this caught my eye in the discussion of the Russian/Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (p. 446):
There were ripples of protest throughout the Communist bloc. On August 25th 1968 demonstrators in Red Square protesting the occupation of Czechoslovakia included Pavel Litvinov (grandson of Stalin’s foreign minister) and Larissa Daniel (wife of the imprisoned Soviet novelist). East European army units engaged in the invasion of Czechoslovakia had been led to believe that they were defending the country against West German or American invaders, and some of them had later to be quietly withdrawn, their reliability – notably that of Hungarian units occupying Slovakia – seriously in question….
Kosovo border policy change postponed after Serbs block streets in protest
Tensions flared in Serbian-majority northern Kosovo on Sunday amid plans by the authorities to start requiring Serbian citizens to be issued temporary IDs upon entering the country. Kosovo officials called the measures a “reciprocal” response to Serbia’s policy of issuing temporary IDs to Kosovar visitors.
The changes were slated to come into effect on Monday, August 1. On July 31, local residents began building barricades to block major roads in the area, cutting off access to two major border checkpoints in the villages of Jarinje and Brnjak. In the city of Kosovska Mitrovica, air raid sirens sounded for over three hours, according to Reuters.
After consulting with representatives from the U.S. and the EU, the Kosovo authorities announced that they would postpone the new policies for one month if the protesters removed the barricades. The roadblocks were removed on Monday afternoon.
Ukrainian postal service no longer working in occupied territories
Ukraine’s national postal service, UkrPoshta, is suspending operations in the country’s occupied regions. According to Ihor Smilianskyi, UkrPoshta’s director, the decision was made with postal workers’ safety in mind amid growing threats from the Russian military as well as from Russian-backed “DNR” and “LNR” forces. “They don’t allow us to deliver pensions because they need to collect passport numbers from pensioners for the ‘referendums’ in exchange for pensions in [rubles] — a classic case of extortion. They can’t do things any other way,” said Smilianskyi.
As for whether the suspension is permanent, Smilianskyi quoted the Terminator: “We’ll be back.”
Jeansays
Since the world was paying more attention to Ukraine and Russia than the US, they had to stir some shit and do their own illegal international action and send a drone to kill people on foreign soil. And Pelosi is also going to Taiwan just to annoy China as there is no other actual reason to go there. I hate the fucking US government sometimes even the wrongly called “left” one.
ravensays
We seem to be failing again on another emerging disease, monkeypox.
Monkeypox is really rat pox and is thought to be the ancestor of smallpox.
Why is it spreading now?
A number of reasons but one is that we no longer vaccinate for smallpox. I’ve been vaccinated for smallpox like all the boomers. We stopped in the 1970s. There is now a large pool of young people never vaccinated.
If there is a susceptible rodent species in North America, sooner or later monkeypox will find it.
The rodent population in NA has bubonic plague and that entered from Asia in the early 20th century.
There is always the possibility that monkeypox re-evolves into something like smallpox.
We know from other viruses that the way to stop these novel viruses is to get on them early with enough effort. We stopped SARS and Avian flu that way.
It’s Too Late: Monkeypox May Be Part of Our Lives Forever
IT’S OUR FAULT
We failed to get on top of the monkeypox outbreak and we may have missed the chance to stop the disease becoming endemic—and a permanent threat—in the U.S. and Europe.
Updated Aug. 01, 2022 5:42AM ET / Published Jul. 31, 2022 10:02PM ET dailybeast
We failed to get on top of the monkeypox outbreak and we may have missed the chance to stop the disease becoming endemic—and a permanent threat—in the U.S. and Europe.
Monkeypox is spreading fast all over the world, especially in the United States and Europe. With cases doubling every two weeks or so, there’s a growing risk that monkeypox will become a permanent problem in countries where, before, outbreaks were rare and small.
The pox is, in other words, close to becoming endemic in a lot of new places. If that happens, it might become very difficult to eradicate. Monkeypox, which causes a fever and rash and is fatal in a very small number of cases, will become yet another disease that people have to worry about all the time.
For the pox, there are two paths to endemicity. If the virus infects enough people fast enough to outpace authorities’ efforts to trace transmission and vaccinate at-risk individuals, it might become endemic in people. “We are getting close to this already,” James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told The Daily Beast.
The good news with this kind of endemicity is that it doesn’t have to be permanent. Reversing human endemicity is hard, yes—but it’s possible. “If it’s just spreading in humans it can be controlled—eventually—through vaccination and natural immunity,” Amesh Adalja, a public health expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The Daily Beast.
But monkeypox was originally a “zoonotic” animal virus. It circulates in rodent and monkey species in West and Central Africa, where outbreaks in the human population are frequent.
If the pox finds a home in some animal species in North America or Europe—say, squirrels, rats, or prairie dogs—it’ll be all but impossible to eradicate regionally. “Game over,” Lawler said. The pox will be all around us, probably forever, just waiting for opportunities to spread from animals to people. Outbreaks will be frequent and big, just like they are now in West and Central Africa.
To be clear, the pox is not endemic in people or animals in the United States or Europe—yet. But the trends aren’t encouraging. “I do share the other scientists’ concern of containment and the virus becoming endemic in our U.S. rodent population,” Stephanie James, the head of a viral testing lab at Regis University in Colorado, told The Daily Beast.
Officials first noticed the current outbreak, involving a relatively mild West African strain of the pox, after diagnosing a U.K. traveler returning from Nigeria in early May. Spreading through close physical contact including sex, the pox soon accompanied travelers on planes heading for countries far and wide. Doctors diagnosed the first U.S. case on May 27.
But it’s apparent now that the first diagnosed pox cases in Europe and the U.S. weren’t the real first cases. On June 3, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it had found genetic evidence of American pox cases that predated the first cases in Europe from May.
“Monkeypox’s rapid spread in people is a preventable tragedy. But it can still get a lot worse.”
Doctors may not have noticed or reported these earlier infections, at first, owing to the similarity between pox symptoms and the symptoms of some common sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes. “The virus was masquerading as a sexually transmitted infection and had been spreading clandestinely for several months,” Adalja explained.
The virus had a big head start, which helps to explain why, months later, it’s still staying ahead of intensifying efforts to contain it. There were 20,638 confirmed cases in 77 countries as of Wednesday, according to the CDC. That’s up from fewer than 10,000 cases two weeks ago. The World Health Organization has counted five pox-related deaths in non-endemic countries.
What’s frustrating to epidemiologists is that, in theory, we had all the tools we needed to swiftly contain a pox outbreak. Thanks to COVID, health workers all over the world are better than ever at contact-tracing. Vaccines and therapies that work for smallpox also work for monkeypox. There’s a proven strategy: diagnose cases, isolate and treat the infected, vaccinate their family, friends and co-workers.
And educate the public—especially the highest-risk groups including men who have sex with men.
But so far, the strategy isn’t working. Part of the problem is with the virus itself, Lawler said. “The disease is different than the monkeypox we have seen in the past. I don’t think we know why—probably a combo of virus, hosts and environment.”
Mostly, it’s our fault. Too many doctors misdiagnosed pox cases as herpes or some other STD. The WHO and the CDC both waited too long to designate the pox outbreak as a public health emergency and mobilize resources. The WHO declared an emergency on July 23. The CDC is expected to do the same in the next few days.
Authorities are deploying more vaccines and therapies and boosting testing. Even so, the clinics that are on the public-health front line in the U.S. need more of everything. More tests. More vaccines and therapies. More money for community outreach. The U.S. National Coalition of STD Directors recently surveyed a hundred clinics and found that half lacked the capacity to deal with the monkeypox outbreak.
“We are still going too slowly,” Lawler warned. And, he added, “we are still dismissing the possibility of the unexpected.” Including the increasing likelihood of the pox spreading to squirrels or rats.
The feds seem to be at a loss to deal with “reverse zoonotic” people-to-animal transmission. To prevent endemicity in animals, you have to detect pox infections in a species, cull the infected animals then closely monitor the remaining population to be sure you eliminated all the virus.
But it’s not clear who in the federal health establishment should take the lead. “Operational zoonotic disease response falls in this gray area,” Lawler said. The CDC maintains a website describing pox symptoms in pets and livestock and explaining where to send samples for diagnosis. The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service monitors disease in animals. Especially livestock.
APHIS couldn’t, or wouldn’t, confirm it’s testing animals for monkeypox. The agency referred The Daily Beast to the CDC, which did not respond to an email seeking comment. If there’s a lead agency for detecting pox in animals, that agency doesn’t seem eager to take responsibility.
Monkeypox’s rapid spread in people is a preventable tragedy. But it can still get a lot worse. With hard work and a little luck, it’s still possible to contain and eventually eliminate the human outbreak.
But if American or European rodents catch the pox, the outbreak will escalate into something much worse. A newly endemic disease. One that’s all but impossible to eradicate.
ravensays
Non-endemic countries record first monkeypox deaths
Stephanie Soucheray | News Reporter | CIDRAP News | Aug 01, 2022
Over the weekend, Brazil, Spain, and India all recorded the first monkeypox deaths outside of endemic countries in Central and West Africa. Spain recorded two deaths, with Brazil and India each recording a single death. So far in the current outbreak, there have been 10 deaths from the poxvirus.
Six deaths have been recorded in Nigeria (5), and Ghana (1). Historically, the West African clade of the monkeypox virus carries with it a low case-fatality rate of 1%, and non-endemic countries had thus far avoided fatal cases of the disease.
In Brazil, the patient who died had lymphoma and was immunocompromised. In Spain, home to Europe’s largest outbreak, two men have died. A 22-year-old man in Kerala, India, also died over the weekend; Indian health officials said he contracted the virus while abroad.
Globally there are now more than 21,000 confirmed cases of the virus.
Another obscure disease is starting to come into focus.
Because it is here, making Americans sick and spreading rapidly.
The case fatality rate so far is running around 1 in 2,100.
This article notes that one case was in an immunocompromised cancer patient. That isn’t all that reassuring. It is like saying that Covid-19 virus only kills old people. Old people don’t find that all that useful. There are lots of immunocompromised and/or cancer patients in our society.
SC @9
I’m surprised that using a generic non-dehumanizing term for some human beings would provoke hilarity from your part. Especially with the history of those assassination attempts where the actual target is not who it was intended or who it was announced in addition to the “collateral damage” mentioned or not. And even without collateral damage or mistaken identity, it is still an international crime to invade another sovereign country space in this way (even when the US does it and even if they don’t wanna…).
I was going to say that if the US would quietly accept that a Chinese (or any other country) drone killed someone (again a generic description for a human being…) on US territory then I might ignore when the US does the same. But actually, I would also condemn China (or whoever).
I’m surprised that using a generic non-dehumanizing term for some human beings would provoke hilarity from your part.
eyeroll
beholdersays
@6, 13 Jean
I feel your pain, but you’ve got to pick your battles. Virtually no one else here on the Infinite Thread wants to hear about uncomfortable imperial shenanigans from unapproved sources. Antiwar rhetoric isn’t in their list of talking points and I’ve given up hope that it ever will be.
Save your sanity and find other antiwar types who actually respect your opinion.
Jeansays
You can roll your eyes all you want at that, it still doesn’t change the fact that the US is stirring some shit in Afghanistan and Taiwan just to prove that they can and that the US President is proud of murdering people with drones in foreign countries. And even the most abject terrorist (which may or may not be the case here) is “people”.
Another issue is that this will also go a long way towards giving more talking points to those who will defend the indefensible from other countries by calling out the US hypocrisy. There was no need to add more of those. But I guess this is an election year so that’s what counts (not that there are non election years in the US).
Tethyssays
Jean- Since the world was paying more attention to Ukraine and Russia than the US, they had to stir some shit and do their own illegal international action
Biden having a press conference is a strange way of trying to sneak in an unnoticed assassination.
And Pelosi is also going to Taiwan just to annoy China as there is no other actual reason to go there
Lol, I suspect semiconductors might be the most important reason for visiting Taiwan during a trade meeting in the South Pacific region.
The US doesn’t recognize Chinas authority to dictate who can visit Taiwan, despite China being annoyed by that fact.
Akira MacKenziesays
Hey all:
Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I need to drop some personal news.
I’m going In for surgery in the morning. Turns out that I have a large, potentially-cancerous mass on my right kidney that has got to go. There is a one-in-four chance they can just remove the mass (it’s sitting close to some major blood vessels). Otherwise they’ll have to take the whole organ. Thank goodness for bilateral symmetry, eh?
Fortunately, according to my urologist, my prognosis is “excellent.” The MRI they did earlier this summer revealed no metastasis. I won’t need chemo or radiation. It’s a pretty common procedure with a high recovery rate. That said, being the bundle of neuroses I am, I’m still scared shitless.
So, in case the worst happens, thanks for putting up with my rants, raves, tantrums, and grossly misinformed musings. Thanks for all those times you called me out on my stupidity. That said, this blog has genuinely helped me grow as a person. I’ve laughed. I’ve cried. It was better than Cats.
See you all later. If not, it was a pleasure knowing you all.
ravensays
U.S. kills al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, officials say.
Now why is this a tragedy?
Zawahiri was a terrorist who killed hundreds of thousands of people as the second in command of al Qaeda. Almost all of them were innocent civilians.
The most high profile were the 3,000 at the World Trade Center in NYC, but the vast majority of al Qaeda victims were middle eastern Muslims.
Ayman al-Zawahiri was Osama bin Laden’s Himmler. President Biden and most Americans will see his death as just revenge for the three thousand innocents killed by Al Qaeda in the United States on September 11, 2001—and so it is. But I have to admit that Zawahiri’s end leaves me cold. Revenge is sour because it always comes too late. Three thousand to one: the numbers provide no comfort.
And think of Zawahiri’s other victims. Most of them were Muslims whose names are not carved in stone. It’s staggering to think how many human beings are no longer alive because this doctor from a prosperous Egyptian family embraced a hateful ideology that licensed him to kill. There was Shayma Abdel Halim, an 11-year-old schoolgirl, killed in 1993 in a Cairo suburb by a car bomb that Islamic Jihad, a terror group that Zawahiri later merged into Al Qaeda, intended for an Egyptian prime minister. There were the hundreds of Kenyans and Tanzanians murdered in Al Qaeda’s bombings of U.S. embassies in 1998.
Remember the tens of thousands of Iraqis, most of them Shia, blown to pieces, shot to death, or beheaded by Al Qaeda’s local affiliate. At one point Al Qaeda in Iraq went on a killing spree of bakers in Baghdad. The body count in Iraq grew so high that Zawahiri worried it might hurt Al Qaeda’s image among the world’s Muslims. Think of all the Afghans, Pakistanis, Indonesians, Australians, Turkish, Spanish, British, Moroccans, Syrians, Malians, and others who perished in all the suicide bombings and executions carried out over the past quarter century with Zawahiri’s approval. Perhaps one day the names will be recorded in a memorial or museum or database somewhere, under a heading that says: “Ayman al-Zawahiri’s victims.”
Zawahiri is dead. Al Qaeda and the Taliban are back in business running Afghanistan, eliminating opponents and erasing women with the ideology that, three decades ago, gave Zawahiri the right to kill an 11-year-old schoolgirl.
This guy is right up there with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Osama bin Laden, ISIS, and the latest genocidal maniac, Vladimir Putin.
I’ll feel sorry for Ayman al-Zawahiri after I’m done feeling sorry for his hundreds of thousands of victims. That should take a few thousand years.
ravensays
See you all later. If not, it was a pleasure knowing you all.
Good luck.
Trust your doctors. If they say, “It’s a pretty common procedure with a high recovery rate.”, they are the ones that should know.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 20
Thanks, Raven. I know I shouldn’t be stressing as much as I am, but what can I say? Anxiety is my resting state.
Jeansays
Tethys @17: I was not saying that this was done sneakily but the total opposite. It was done to draw attention like a spoiled child having a fit. And if you think trade is the only (or even main) reason to be there, you’re naïve.
raven @19: I’m not saying that his death is a tragedy. I’m saying that the US doesn’t give a shit about the rule of law as long as it benefits them at the current moment and under their current circumstances. It’s always “American exceptionalism” (and I hate using ‘American’ because the US is not America but only a part of it).
Akira MacKenzie @18: I hope everything as well as they can and I’m sorry for cluttering the thread with my useless ramblings. What you’re going through is what’s real and important.
chigau (違う)says
Good luck Akira.
KGsays
All the best, Akira.
KGsays
Despite the loathsomeness of Ayman al-Zawahiri, I agree with Jean that his assassination cannot be justified: the USA is not entitled simply to kill anyone it wants, anywhere it can get away with it – and this action is, among other things, an assertion that it is so entitled. I don’t agree with Jean about Pelosi visiting Taiwan; the Chinese authorities’ claim to determine who may and may not visit what is, de facto, an independent country, is of the same order of arrogance as the American authorities’ claim to be entitled to conduct assassinations such as that of al-Zawahiri.
StevoRsays
On how our days are getting shorter by milliseconds for reasons we don’t fully understand and, if the trend continues, we may need to take a second off :
There is of course a serious discussion to be had about the justifiability and implications of actions like the killing of al-Zawahiri, but Jean’s take was quite silly.
Since the world was paying more attention to Ukraine and Russia than the US, they had to stir some shit and do their own illegal international action and send a drone to kill people on foreign soil.
Pelosi is also going to Taiwan just to annoy China as there is no other actual reason to go there.
[Killing al-Zawahiri] was done to draw attention like a spoiled child having a fit.
These are just unserious claims, and to cite these two events together [?!] as specifically arousing hatred for the US government, in this moment, is…really strange. The US has engaged in decades of imperialist war and destruction in response to these terrorist attacks, killing innocent people (many with drones) and destroying lives on a massive scale. This – the targeted killing of the fucking leader of Al Qaeda who’s being harbored by the fucking Taliban – is what piques your hatred? Give me a break. It’s like posting in 1960, in response to the capture of Eichmann, that Israel was just trying to get attention and “I hate the fucking Israeli government sometimes.”
And I’m offended by the ludicrous claim that killing al-Zawahiri was undertaken in a frivolous spirit for frivolous reasons. It’s disrespectful to his thousands of victims, willfully disregards his continuing threats, and undermines substantive criticisms.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
The US announced Monday a new tranche of weapons for Ukraine’s forces fighting Russia, including ammunition for increasingly important rocket launchers and artillery guns. The $550m package will “include more ammunition for the high mobility advanced rocket systems otherwise known as Himars, as well as ammunition” for artillery, national security council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
…
Three people have reportedly been killed by Russian shelling while evacuating in a minibus near Kherson, Ukraine’s military is reporting. Ukraine’s Operational Command “South” reported that three people died from the attack on the bus near Dovhove.
Turkey’s representative at the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul has said that the first ship carrying Ukrainian grain to world markets was expected to anchor at Istanbul on Tuesday night. At a briefing held at the JCC, general Özcan Altunbulak said the course of the ship was going as planned. Another official said “The plan is for a ship to leave every day. If nothing goes wrong, exports will be made via one ship a day for a while.”
Ukraine’s state security service says it is investigating 752 cases of treason and collaboration. According to the agency, the greatest amount of cases have been documented in the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
The United Nations’ secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that a misunderstanding could spark nuclear destruction, as the US, Britain and France urged Russia to stop “its dangerous nuclear rhetoric and behaviour”.
Sabina Higgins, the wife of Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins, has triggered a political row in Ireland by urging Russia and Ukraine to call a ceasefire and enter negotiations. Critics said the intervention amounted to Kremlin propaganda because it appeared to equate Moscow’s aggression with Kyiv’s fight for survival.
The US has accused Russia of using Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant as a “nuclear shield”. US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Washington was “deeply concerned” that Moscow was now using the plant as a military base and firing on Ukrainian forces from around it and called Russia’s actions around the plant “the height of irresponsibility”.
Spain has apologised after a third British woman complained that doctored images of her were used without permission in a widely criticised [?] “beach body” campaign.
The women’s institute, part of Spain’s equality ministry, has emailed all three models to “sincerely apologise” for a poster that was supposed to encourage women of all shapes and sizes to be proud of their bodies.
Instead, the institute and Arte Mapache, the artist who created the poster, prompted anger from the women featured because their images were used without permission and in two cases were significantly altered.
Juliet Fitzpatrick, a cancer survivor, became the third woman to complain about the poster since it appeared last week, saying the image created “a bit of a Frankenstein” by superimposing a photographic portrait of her face on the body of another woman who appears to have had a mastectomy.
Fitzpatrick, whose face appears on a standing body on the left of the beach poster, had two mastectomies, one in March 2017 and another in November 2018 and has since campaigned about the visibility of women who have had breasts removed.
Speaking to the Guardian she said: “The face is reminiscent of me, but that’s not my body. I’ve got no breasts, and this one has got one breast. The thought of my face being on a body of a woman with one breast is quite upsetting.”
The institute apologised to Fitzpatrick, as well as to Sian Green-Lord, who was left shaking with anger after the poster showed her image with her prosthetic leg edited out, and to Nyome Nicholas-Williams, the first of the three models to complain that her image had been used without consent.
The email said: “We did not know that images of real women had been used. We sincerely apologise for any damages that may have been caused to you. The aim of our campaign is to recognise body diversity in all its dimensions, and we will be glad to collaborate with you in any related action.”
In a statement the institute added: “The institute wants to clarify that at no time was it aware that the women who appear in the images were real people. The work contracted was the elaboration of an illustration, without the use of models. The institute, as an injured party, have contacted the models to clarify the situation, and are waiting for the illustrator and the models to reach an agreement.”
Mapache apologised last week for using images of women without permission. But he has yet to issue personal apologies to the women involved….
Akira MacKenziesays
I just got a call from the hospital. The doctor called in sick. GAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
…A recent study showed that for the past 50 years, the oil industry has made profits of more than $1tn a year, close to $3bn a day. These profits are driven not by some fantasy of free enterprise and perfect competition, but by the exact opposite – cartels, mega-corporations and the regulatory capture of governments, conspiring to create a market free of both competition and of a price that reflects the actual cost to the world of the product that is being sold.
Fossil fuels make enough money to corrupt politicians, cause wars and bend public opinion through the brute force of a firehose of propaganda. The machine does not just extract and sell fossil fuels; it also concerns itself with ensuring that the entire world is arranged in a way conducive to maintaining the demand for those fossil fuels. The growth of oil profits even as the reality of climate change is burning before our eyes is proof that no single crisis, no matter how existential, will be enough to shut this machine down naturally. The machine must either be broken by us, or it will break us all….
Probably too soon for a joke about Zawahiri being unavailable to fill in for the surgery, eh?
chigau (違う)says
Sorry to hear that Akira. You don’t need more stress.
KGsays
There is of course a serious discussion to be had about the justifiability and implications of actions like the killing of al-Zawahiri, but Jean’s take was quite silly. – SC@28
Yes, I agree.
Rob Grigjanissays
Best of luck, Akira.
I’m half expecting to have my upcoming surgeries postponed because of the ongoing stresses on the health care system in Canada.
The referendum on abortion rights in Kansas on August 2 is the first major election that will shape reproductive rights since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe vs. Wade. In Arizona and Kansas, candidates with a history of wanting to restrict the vote and denying the results of the 2020 presidential election are running in Republican primaries with Donald Trump’s support. And plenty of other critical offices are on the ballot this week—from one of the year’s most important prosecutor elections in Tennessee to a perplexing GOP primary for governor in Michigan.
Here are 36 races that Bolts is watching on August 2 (in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington), and on August 4 (in Tennessee), as prepared by Daniel Nichanian. More may be added to our cheat sheet through Election Day.
Check back on Election Night as we fill in each result in the second column. And support us to sustain this work….
Akira MacKenziesays
Just heard back from the urologist’s office. They are rescheduling for the 29th. I got to call me leave/disability provider to renegotiate my recovery.
A group of Russian soldiers have accused their commanders of jailing them in eastern Ukraine for refusing to take part in the war, in a rare public exposure of tensions inside the ranks of Russia’s army over the invasion.
Maxim Grebenyuk, a lawyer who runs the Moscow-based advocacy organisation Military Ombudsman, said that at least four Russian soldiers had filed written complaints with the prosecutor general’s office, demanding punishment for the superiors who oversaw their detainment.
“We already have a list of 70 Russian soldiers who were held as prisoners. In total, about 140 soldiers were held,” added Grebenyuk, who represented the soldiers.
In one written testimony sent to Russian prosecutors on 1 August and reviewed by the Guardian, a soldier described how, after refusing to return to the battlefield, he was jailed for more than a week in different cells in the Russian-controlled separatist Luhansk People’s Republic.
Vladimir, a soldier whose name has been changed at his request:
As a result of what I believe were tactical and strategic mistakes made by my commanders … and their total disregard for human life … I made the decision not to continue in the military operation.
Vladimir said he was detained on 19 July and placed in a room with window bars where he was held without food with 25 other soldiers from his unit who also refused to fight.
Shortly after, Vladimir said he was transferred to the town of Bryansk in Luhansk, where he was held in a former school, which had been turned into a military base with about 80 other soldiers from different units who had similarly refused to continue participating in the invasion.
He said they were guarded there by members of the private military firm Wagner, a notorious organisation that has been accused of committing human rights abuses while fighting alongside the Russian military in Ukraine.
The soldier wrote:
They [Wagner soldiers] told us that mines had been placed outside the military base and that whoever tried to flee would be considered an enemy and shot on the spot.
We were fed once a day at lunchtime. There was no basic hygiene.
The whole time, not a single document was provided that would explain our arrest.
“We were illegally jailed,” Vladimir wrote, asking the prosecutors to start a criminal investigation into two Russian colonels and a major who he said were responsible for his jailing.
The former UK Labour leader has urged western countries to stop arming Ukraine in a TV interview likely to underscore Keir Starmer’s determination not to readmit him to the Labour party.
“Pouring arms in isn’t going to bring about a solution, it’s only going to prolong and exaggerate this war,” Jeremy Corbyn said. “We might be in for years and years of a war in Ukraine.”
Corbyn gave the interview on Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based TV channel that has carried pro-Russia reporting since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
He said:
What I find disappointing is that hardly any of the world’s leaders use the word peace; they always use the language of more war, and more bellicose war.
This war is disastrous for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia, and for the safety and security of the whole world, and therefore there has to be much more effort put into peace.
He called for the UN to be “much more centre stage”, and suggested involving other international bodies such as the African Union or the League of Arab States if the UN were unable to help negotiate a ceasefire.
ravensays
This is today’s atrocity from Russia. It is just more threats. OTOH, it is still only 8:00 AM here.
twitter Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Dmitri Medvedev has written online that:
– Russia will retake Ukraine
– Ukraine is “a fake nation”
– Russia will recreate the USSR
– Russia will retake Georgia after UA
– Russia will retake Kazakhstan
– Kazakhstan is currently executing a genocide against Russians.
Dmitri Medvedev is just an internet troll. He is also the second or third most powerful man in Russia.
“Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is a Russian politician who has been serving as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev also served as the president of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and prime minister of Russia between 2012 and 2020. Medvedev was elected president in the 2008 election. Wikipedia”
I’ve been saying for a while that if Ukraine goes, Georgia and Moldova will also go.
So will Kazakhstan and probably the other Central Asian former SSRs.
Kazakhstan can read the writing on twitter and is now looking for allies anywhere they can.
“Pouring arms in isn’t going to bring about a solution, it’s only going to prolong and exaggerate this war,” Jeremy Corbyn said.
That makes me wonder if Jeremy Corbyn is on Putin’s payroll.
SC @31, so the women’s institute, part of Spain’s equality ministry, disrespected several women while claiming to be launching a campaign supportive of women. Major fuckup.
@32, Best of luck to Akira as she faces health care issues and scheduling difficulties.
ravensays
Most people have heard about the attack on Ukrainian POWs in the Russian prison camp in Oleniyka that killed 50 POWS.
The Russians claim the Ukrainians shelled it while the Ukrainians claimed the Russians shelled it.
Neither are correct.
It now looks like the Russians just closed up the building and threw a thermobaric bomb inside.
Pravda.com.ua
ROMAN PETRENKO – SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2022, 13:50
Journalist and Politico correspondent Christopher Miller has released Maxar satellite photos showing the prison camp in occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, before and after the killing of Ukrainian prisoners.
Source: Miller on Twitter; Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the President’s Office on Twitter; InformNapalm
Quote from Miller: “New sat images of Olenivka prison in Russia-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine where at least 50 Ukrainian POWs were killed in an attack that Kyiv says – and preliminary evidence suggests – Russian forces carried out.”
Details: The international intelligence community InformNapalm, after analysing the attack on the prisoners, concluded that it was not an attack from HIMARS-type MLRS or any other. They explain that as a result of the “missile strike” not a single brick flew out, the beds did not move an inch, etc.
They also wrote that the bodies would not have been burned after a rocket attack – they would not have been intact.
Instead, investigators believe that it was a thermobaric bomb, meaning they simply fired into the building from the windows, blocking all exits.
ravensays
“Pouring arms in isn’t going to bring about a solution, it’s only going to prolong and exaggerate this war,” Jeremy Corbyn said.
That makes me wonder if Jeremy Corbyn is on Putin’s payroll.
It shows he isn’t qualified to lead any nation.
If the Russians lay down their weapons, then they go home, open a bottle of vodka, and see what is on TV.
If the Ukrainians lay down their weapons, they get genocided, and disappear forever.
Akira @18, I would be “scared shitless” too. Even so-called common or routine surgery is scary. Keep us informed. We are all hoping the surgery and recovery afterwards go well for you. Sorry to hear there was a delay in the schedule.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 45
Psst.. Not to be a pedant because it could have been a typo, but I’m a cis he/him.
An anonymous group is sending a misleading text to Kansas voters telling them to “vote yes” in order to protect choice.
“Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights. Voting YES on the amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect women’s health.”
The message went to voters across the state, including former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius….
Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the main “vote no” campaign called the message an example of “desperate and deceitful tactics.”
“This misleading text shouldn’t surprise anyone. The anti-choice movement has been lying to the voters of Kansas for decades,” Sebelius said in a statement. “This act of desperation won’t stop the voters of Kansas from protecting their constitutional rights and freedom by voting NO tomorrow.”
On Tuesday, Kansans will be the first in the nation to vote on abortion rights in a post-Roe world. They are deciding whether or not to approve a constitutional amendment that would remove the right to abortion from the state constitution.
A yes vote would add language removing the right to abortion which would allow lawmakers to pass laws severely restricting or banning abortion. A no vote would keep the status quo and uphold a 2019 state supreme court decision that found a right to end a pregnancy within the Kansas Constitution.
KGsays
That makes me wonder if Jeremy Corbyn is on Putin’s payroll. – Lynna, OM@45
Very unlikely. Putin has no need to pay him, and Corbyn isn’t personally corrupt. Corbyn just suffers from the fairly widespread delusion in sectors of the left that the only form of imperialism in the world is US imperialism, and if the US is doing something (in this case, supplying arms to Ukraine), it must be wrong.
In February 2021, a community centre for LGBTQ+ people in Ghana was closed down weeks after it had opened, following a wave of protests. As our west Africa correspondent, Emmanuel Akinwotu, explains to Michael Safi, the incident marked a new and dark chapter for gay rights in the country.
Though previously homosexuality was still illegal in Ghana, the law had not been strictly policed, making the country a relatively safe space for LGBTQ+ people compared with its neighbours. Since the closure of the centre however, there has been a surge in homophobic abuse, and an organised religious movement is seeking to clamp down further on LGBTQ+ rights.
Now a drastic anti-gay bill is passing through the Ghanaian parliament. It proposes not only 5-year sentences for LGBTQ+ people but also even harsher punishments for people who support or “advocate” for gay rights.
Emmanuel Akinwotu has such a pleasant voice. This is the video of the Angel Maxine song mentioned in the podcast.
ravensays
“I’m really baffled by how little reporting there is on #Olenivka in Western news. In all likelihood, Russians locked dozens of Ukrainian POWs inside a building and then exploded an incendiary bomb inside. If confirmed, it is one of the worst war crimes of this century.” Janis Kluge on Twitter
Janis Kluge is right that this is a war crime, the slaughter of 50 prisoners.
She is so wrong that this is “one of the worst war crimes of this century.
There have been so many war crimes in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Ukraine, etc.. that this war crime is on a long list somewhere in very small print that would take a while just to find it.
It’s probably not even the worst war crime this week in the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russians every day launch cruise missiles at cities in Ukraine without caring what they hit; hospitals, schools, shopping malls whatever. And wherever they have occupied, there are mass graves.
rorschachsays
“That makes me wonder if Jeremy Corbyn is on Putin’s payroll.”
Why would he be, if Johnson and his party were already, to get Brexit done? They didn’t need Corbyn. Does anyone here read Sarah Kendzior? It wasnt’t Corbyn to fly out to meet the Russians on his holiday for further instructions.
West Virginia’s Republican, anti-choice, and conspiracy theorist Senator Robert Karnes has said an awful lot of ridiculous things on Twitter, but his comments during a debate on an abortion bill on July 31 were outright dangerous.
There were arguments on both sides of the controversial bill, but Karnes’ comments were particularly repugnant. Karnes used his time to suggest that children who’ve been raped “romanticize” their sexual abusers. His thinking, apparently, is that a minor victim of sexual abuse believes they’re in a “relationship” with their rapist and even see them as a “boyfriend.”
“You know the dynamic in these relationships quite often is that the child has a very romanticized view of what’s happening. … They think that this is their boyfriend,” Karnes said.
After finishing, Karnes asked state Sen. Stephen Baldwin his opinion, to which Baldwin replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”
But again, this isn’t Karnes’ first foray into being the worst the right-wing has to offer. Karnes has repeatedly used the “groomers” argument against bodily autonomy and reproductive rights advocates. [video at the link]
Karnes wasn’t the only GOPer to make nonsensical arguments against abortion at the debate. State Rep. Chris Pritt tried to argue that forcing absent fathers to pay child support would “encourage” more abortions. What?
Pritt then suggested that since pregnant people don’t want to fight for child support, they’ll “go over to Virginia” for abortion care.
Last Friday’s vote on the state’s uber-restrictive abortion bill ended without a decision. The senators passed the bill with a 21-10 vote, but adjourned without a final resolution.
West Virginia Metro News reports that both the House and Senate were unable to come to a final decision or ability to agree. The primary issue was that Republicans didn’t believe the bill went far enough.
There were debates about removing criminal repercussions for health care workers and doctors who provide abortions from the bill, and a debate over the time period abortions would be allowed in the case of rape or incest, which was reduced from 14 weeks down to 8 weeks.
Essentially, the state’s conservatives weren’t happy to make any concessions on abortion access.
Karnes called the bill without criminality for providers a “pro-abortion” bill and blamed Republicans for failing to ban the right to reproductive choice outright.
“This is not a pro-life bill; this is a pro-abortion bill,” said Senator Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, blaming some of his party colleagues who had pushed to loosen its policies. “This was done by this party.”
State Sen. Hannah Geffert, a Democrat, said about the bill: “I think we have to understand that this is no abortion for poor women. … Poor women in the state are not going to have a choice because they can’t afford to go anywhere else.”
snarkratessays
I doubt that anyone here is shedding any tears over al-Zawahiri. In his case, one wishes there were a hell. However the matter of drone strikes is problematic because:
1) There is no transparency to the process of finding, selecting or executing the target
2) Safeguards, if they exist at all, are very limited and opaque
I understand the reasons for the US policy–the terrorists are non-state actors who have essentially declared war on a sovereign power. If you consider it a war, it is a war with no battlefield. If you consider the acts of terror a crime, there is no method for arresting, extraditing and trying the perpetrators. But regardless of the novelty of the situation and the difficulty of dealing with it, all one needs to do is consider drones in the tiny hands of Cheetolini to see the dangers of continuing this policy.
Wonkette: “What Not To Wear To An Alabama Execution”
“Justice has been served,” read the statement from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, following the July 28 execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. for the 1994 murder of young mother Faith Hall.
The statement was far less solemn than it was smug. “In the years since,” he continued “Joe James has tried to blame everything and everyone in an attempt to escape the consequences of his crime. He has claimed that his highly experienced trial counsel was ‘ineffective,’ that his artful appellate counsel was ‘deficient,’ and — in a demonstration of shocking cowardice and callousness — that his victim bore the blame for her own murder.”
There really wasn’t any other direction he could go with it. He couldn’t talk about how Hall’s family will be able to sleep better at night, how the state was doing this for them, so that they could finally get closure — because her family did not want this. In fact, they repeatedly and publicly begged Marshall and Governor Kay Ivey to commute James’s sentence, and were ignored.
The family asked to be there for James’s final statement but were told that if they came in to hear that, they would have to stay and watch him die. “Once you’re in, you’re in,” an Alabama Department of Corrections officer told them.
While the ADOC was not able to accommodate the wishes of the victim’s family, they were able to delay the execution for three whole hours to figure out how to set up the IV line.
They also managed to find the time and energy to initially deny AL.com reporter Ivana Hrynkiw access to the execution because, they claimed, her outfit — which she had worn to executions in the past — violated their dress code, which the warden had just decided to start enforcing without notifying anyone about it. Their official execution dress code.
First they said her skirt was too short to allow her in. They could not possibly make an exception even this one time. So in order to be able to do her job, she borrowed a pair of fishing waders with suspenders that a cameraman from another outlet happened to have with him that day. Then, they said she couldn’t go in because she was wearing open-toed shoes. She went to her car to get sneakers and was then, finally, let in, to watch a man die while wearing fishing waders and sneakers. […]
“From the time I started covering the criminal justice system, primarily executions, I had always been told to dress as if you’re going to a funeral,” Hrynkiw said in an interview with The New York Times. “I was just baffled because I came in looking very professional and very respectful for an event such as this, and after I had changed into this costume, it was very disrespectful.”
Corrections officers also inspected the ensemble of Associated Press reporter Kim Chandler to ensure that her outfit was acceptable to them.
It’s such a deeply fucked and deeply, deeply American juxtaposition. I don’t know that there is a more uniquely American take than being more offended by a woman’s leg than by watching a person be murdered by your government or a more American move than to shield the delicate sensibilities of those who are watching the literal execution of a human being from the horror of some toe cleavage.
Meanwhile, in her statement about why she just had to ignore Faith Hall’s family, Kay Ivey took a moment to really congratulate herself on taking a stand for victims of domestic violence.
With any execution case, I look very closely at the history, the cold-hard facts and all other information or correspondence I may receive. I also take deeply seriously the feelings and position of the victim’s family and loved ones. However, we must always fulfill our responsibility to the law, to public safety and to justice. Tonight, a fair and lawful sentence was carried out, and an unmistakable message was sent that Alabama stands with victims of domestic violence.
Except she did not stand with the only living victims of that tragedy. Moreover, the assumption that every victim of domestic violence believes in the death penalty is patently offensive. Kay Ivey had Joe Nathan James Jr. executed because that is what she wanted. She is the one who bears that responsibility, not victims of domestic violence. She stands with herself, alone, we assume in a midi skirt and Wellies.
And let us not forget that Gov. Kay Ivey is more than happy to force victims of domestic violence, rape and incest to carry the children of their abusers to term, regardless of how dangerous a situation that might put them in. So, you know, she’s just a real caring person.
You wanna hear one of the most depressing statistics in the world? Only 21 percent of Americans believe there are adequate safeguards in place to ensure that no innocent person will be put to death and only 35 percent of Americans actually believe that the death penalty deters crime and only 41 percent of Americans say they believe that Black people and white people are equally likely to be sentenced to death, and yet 60 percent of Americans still support the death penalty. [chart at the link]
You know what that means? That means there are people out there who know, full well, that we execute the innocent, that the death penalty does nothing to deter crimes, and that it is racially biased and who still think it is a good idea. Who still want to keep it around.
So we can never really fool ourselves into believing capital punishment is about justice or about standing for victims — because remember, as much as prosecutors love to profess their great appreciation for “victims’ rights” whenever those rights give them a pass to jack up a sentence or violate the accused’s civil rights … when victims say they don’t want this, they are ignored.
Today is a tragic day for our family. We are having to relive the hurt that this caused us many years ago. We write to inform you that we have decided to not attend the execution of Mr. Joe Nathan James Jr. We’ve asked Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall to hear our voices and respect our wishes. We know they decided not to. We hoped the state wouldn’t take a life simply because a life was taken and we have forgiven Mr. Joe Nathan James Jr. for his atrocities toward our family. […] Although we knew this day would come, we hoped to have our voices heard through this process. We’d like to thank State Representative Juandalyn Givan for her help and assistance by reaching out to the Governor’s office. We pray that God allows us to find healing after today and that one day our criminal justice system will listen to the cries of families like ours even if it goes against what the state wishes. Our voices matter and so does the life of Mr. Joe Nathan James, Jr. — Faith Hall’s family
Clearly, capital punishment, like so much of the US criminal justice system, is for entertainment purposes only.
blfsays
● Concuring with others including KG@51, “Corbyn isn’t personally corrupt” and it’s very very unlikely Putin (or anyone else) is paying him.
● All the best for Akira!
● There was a wildfire near Marseille today — not quite sure where so I’m unsure how close to the village — but apparently quickly contained.
● I was wondering about this this morning in the heat — low 30℃’s but no breeze so feels much hotter — when getting my almost-weekly supply of olive oil (today’s is an excellent one from a local in- / near-the-village producer), Spain warns heatwave threatens olive oil production (Grauniad edits in {curly braces}):
[…]
Fierce heatwaves and a lack of rain in Spain threaten to reduce olive oil production from the world’s top exporter, the country’s agriculture minister has warned.
“If there is no temperature relief or rains in the coming weeks, this year’s olive harvest could be notably lower than previous ones,” Luis Planas told Bloomberg News. “The olives sector is concerned about oil production.”
Spain accounts for nearly half of global production of olive oil. The setback, along with continued disruption to the supply of sunflower oil from Ukraine, meant the prices of vegetable oils were likely to remain high, Planas said.
Refined olive oil prices in Jaén in southern Spain, the Spanish benchmark, rose 8.3% in June from the previous crop year to €327 (£274) [$333] for 100kg, according to the International Olive Council. In Bari in southern Italy, extra virgin oil cost €419.7 for 100kg, on average.
Kyle Holland, an analyst at market research group Mintec, said its market sources are suggesting that there could be year-on-year reductions of 25 to 30% for Spanish olive oil production.
“There are also major worries in the market regarding the quality of the coming crop and what proportion of the crop will make extra virgin / virgin grades and how much will be classed as lampante {not fit for human consumption},” he said.
[…]
Supplies of olive oil are under threat as northern Italy suffers its worst drought in 70 years. […]
Planas estimates Spain’s overall production of grains including corn, wheat and barley could decline by 13% this year to 17.5m tonnes because of the high temperatures and scarce rainfall.
[…]
Well, we are not yet done with Herschel Walker as a Republican candidate for the Senate. Soon, I hope this becomes old news.
Wonkette: “Herschel Walker’s Pretty Sure He Can Whoop Elie Mystal In Georgia Senate Race”
Herschel Walker, an honest-to-God Republican Senate nominee, has spent the past week or so dodging any attempt to schedule a debate with Georgia’s incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. It seems as if he’d much prefer debating with The Nation’s Elie Mystal, who isn’t running for the Senate and doesn’t even live in Georgia — although that didn’t stop Walker.
Walker was personally offended when Mystal expressed how personally offended he was over Walker’s slow-motion train wreck of a candidacy, which might still somehow reach its final destination. This weekend, Mystal and MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross discussed an Atlanta-Journal Constitution poll that showed Warnock leading Walker 46 to 43 percent, well within the margin of error. Somehow, eight percent of Georgia voters remain undecided.
“Make it make sense for me,” Cross asked Mystal, who proceeded to drop several truth bombs.
MYSTAL: Yes, it’s going to be a close election in Georgia because Walker has the backing of the Republicans. Now, you ask, why are Republicans backing this man who’s so clearly unintelligent, who so clearly doesn’t have independent thoughts? But that’s actually the reason. Walker’s going to do what he’s told. And that’s what Republicans like. That’s what Republicans want from their Negroes. To do what they’re told. And Walker presents exactly as a person who lacks independent thoughts, lacks an independent agenda, lacks an independent ability to grasp policies.
Mystal compared a potential Senator Walker to current Senator Tommy Tuberville, whom he considers “the dumbest person in the United States Senate.” Hey, Wonkette agrees!
MYSTAL: So the GOP likes these candidates that aren’t able to kind of think for themselves, because that … basically means that Mitch McConnell gets three votes every time he shows up to work as opposed to just his own.
This is obviously true, as no Republican seriously believes Walker is qualified to serve in the Senate as anything more than an extension of McConnell’s will. In fairness, they don’t require anything more. They need “no” votes when a Democrat’s president and “yes” votes when a Republican’s ruining the country.
Rightwing media apparently spent the weekend aghast on Walker’s behalf, and the candidate himself — wearing a “Team Me” T-shirt — recorded a video response where he claims that Mystal called him “the n-word.” That’s not true but we’ve established that Walker lies a lot. [video at the link]
WALKER: Good morning! You know a lot of people have been asking me to say something about the man on MSNBC that called me the “n-word.” Here’s what I got to say about that: Shame on MSNBC and shame on them. I’m gonna pray for both of them, because they need Jesus! When I saw what he said, it reminded me of the differences between myself and my opponent, Senator Warnock, and the leftwing crazies who believe America is a fundamentally bad country full of racist people. They want to divide us and turn us against each other. We have our problems but we can solve them together …
Zzzzz … sorry, dozed off for a second there. You get the gist of his treacle. Walker is going on about U-N-I-T-Y while Republicans call Democrats radical socialist “groomers” who hate America. But Walker gives Republicans the warm fuzzies whenever he suggests that Democrats, especially two Black people on MSNBC, are the real racists.
Here’s where I’d disagree slightly with Mystal, who argues that Walker is an insult to actual Black conservatives. Walker’s a bad joke who has no actual policy positions he can articulate without fumbling, but this is arguably true of all Republicans these days regardless of race. Warnock is a great senator and I’d hate to see [Walker] replace him, but Walker’s not any dumber or less qualified than Marsha Blackburn or any more craven and dishonest than Ted Cruz.
Cross invited Walker to appear on her show and share his “thoughts on voting rights, reproductive health, domestic terrorism, gun rights, economic woes, etc” and how he plans to address these serious issues in the Senate. Instead, Walker spent the day with Brian Kilmeade for a glowing segment on “Fox & Friends.” […].
The Biden administration filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Idaho for restricting access to abortion to patients who need lifesaving medical treatment, the first such Justice Department challenge since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer.
Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which will take effect later this month, would make it nearly impossible, according to the Justice Department. for patients who need an abortion in emergency medical situations, such as an ectopic pregnancy or other complications, from receiving potentially lifesaving treatment.
“In the days since the Dobbs decision, there have been widespread reports of delays or denials to pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news conference Tuesday. “We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that pregnant women get the medical care that they are entitled to.”
The trigger law, which was passed in 2020, would make providing abortions a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The ban has exceptions for cases of rape or incest if reported to law enforcement or to prevent the death of the pregnant person.
The Justice Department is suing under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which states that hospitals receiving Medicare funds “must provide medical treatment necessary to stabilize that condition before transferring or discharging the patient,” according to Tuesday’s lawsuit.
“The Idaho law would make it a criminal offense for doctors to comply with EMTALA’s requirement to provide stabilizing treatment, even where a doctor determines that abortion is the medical treatment necessary to prevent a patient from suffering severe health risks or even death,” DOJ said.
Abortion providers in Idaho have also challenged the state’s trigger law. The state Supreme Court is set to hear the case on Wednesday.
DOJ last month created a task force aimed at protecting abortion fights following the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs that overturned Roe v. Wade and struck down the federal right to abortion.
Garland said that the lawsuit has “nothing to do with going around” the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs.
“The Supreme Court said that each state can make its own decisions with respect to abortion, but so too can the federal government,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Nothing that the Supreme Court said, said that the statutes passed by Congress, such as EMTALA are in any way invalid. It’s quite the opposite. The Supreme Court left it to the people’s representatives. EMTALA was a decision made by the Congress of the United States. The supremacy clause is a decision made in the Constitution of the United States. Federal law invalidates state laws that are in direct contradiction.”
Fox News is REALLY mad at Joe Manchin for being a Democrat who occasionally wrangles deals in backrooms with other Democrats, and they are especially mad at him for coming out in support of whatever Inflation Manchin Houseboat Better bill he negotiated with Chuck Schumer, so that he might receive maximum extra credit for supporting a bill that accomplishes things that are part of the agenda of the president, who is in the same party as he is.
Manchin was on with Fox News’s Harris Faulkner this morning, because when you want hi-LAR-ious fake sincere outrage from one of the daytime anchors, she’s good at that. She will just read her propaganda talking points like a real live journalist, like that time Arkansas GOP Senator Tom Cotton put on […] a big shiny red nose and did a clown square dancer routine in AG Merrick Garland’s general direction, accusing Garland of believing conservative parents are “domestic terrorists.”
Faulkner told her viewers at the time, “you need to watch this,” calling it “riveting” and assuring the [audience] that Fox News was “isolating” all the most important clips from that day’s Garland hearing, like a real curator of the news, doing “analysis” of what is “important.”
So it was with this Manchin interview, where Faulkner got VERY mad at Manchin for interfering with the dissemination of whatever talking points came out of Rupert Murdoch’s big body holes this morning. [video at the link]
It starts normally enough. Manchin is like doodly-doodly-ooh, I am a person who cares about my constituents and only does things because I love America! Harris Faulkner replies by playing clips of punchable doucheface Peter Doocy spreading Republican lies at Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about how the Inflation Deflation bill raises taxes on people making under $400K per year.
And that just started them down the road to malarkey! “We gotta know the bottom line!” said Faulkner. Manchin told her the bottom line. He asked her to be accurate, and not be unfair. (On Fox News.)
Faulkner did not like any of his answers about corporate taxes. “This is the part that counts,” explains Harris Faulkner, who knows the parts that count. She continued: “I’m reading — AND I AM READING, SENATOR!” — because she reads! — that now people making under $400K per year are going to get a tax hike.
No, no, no, Joe Manchin explained. So she repeated as fact again that people making under $400K per year were going to have a tax hike. And Joe Manchin was DONE.
“That’s wrong, that’s wrong, that’s a LIE, that’s a PURE, OUTRIGHT LIE,” said Joe Manchin.
So credit to Joe Manchin for calling Fox News a liar to its face. [more video available at the link]
“So their taxes are not going to go up,” Harris Faulkner verified. No, they will not. […]
Manchin suggested maybe also gas prices might go down because of this bill, which led to the corny-ass exchange quoted in the tweet above. “Be optimistic! Be an American, Harris, be an American!”
So Faulkner decided to do more propaganda about the taxes. “I wanna hit that tax line again of $400,000, I gotta hit that,” said Harris Faulkner, who had to hit that, because she hadn’t hit it yet. Was Joe Manchin saying that such Never-Liars as Mitch McConnell were being misleading when they say the bill will raise taxes on people making under $400K? “Totally absolutely wrong,” said Joe Manchin, about integrity person Mitch McConnell.
To underline it, Manchin said, “the facts you have are completely wrong!”
Here is the part where Harris Faulkner got very angry […] and some other garbage. [more video available at the link]
Manchin asked if Faulkner, and by extension Fox News, we guess, is just scared that they came up with a bill that might actually help people. And Faulkner was GODDAMN pissed, because “My father served!” and “Service in the Bible!” and “that’s what we do, we serve our fellow man and woman!” and HOW VERY DARE YOU, JOE MANCHIN!
So Harris Faulkner asked Joe Manchin why he won’t help out his own Democratic Party, by (???) not fighting inflation, because Joe Biden is very unpopular, and (???). We don’t even think Faulkner knew which propaganda talking points she was saying at that point.
Millions of people in America think Fox News is “the news.” This is probably the single most significant reason why this country will proooooobably not be around for that many decades longer.
…Shame on MSNBC and shame on them. I’m gonna pray for both of them, because they need Jesus! When I saw what he said [WTF?], it reminded me of the differences between myself and my opponent, Senator Warnock…
Former President Chaos Monkey worked his magic last night on Missouri’s US Senate primary. MAGA entropicus schadenfreude covfefe!
“I will be Endorsing in the Great State of Missouri Republican race (Nomination) for Senate some time today!” he arglebargled on not-Twitter in the morning, sending Eric Greitens’s campaign into an ecstatic tizzy. Would Trump’s endorsement on the eve of today’s election be enough to push the former governor and current rancid tire fire over the top? […]
In recent weeks, Greitens, the early frontrunner whose campaign is being run by Don Jr.’s ladyfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, had fallen to third place in the polls. He’d failed to impress voters with a series of unhinged campaign ads threatening to shoot down “RINOs” like The Deer Hunter. The abuse allegations by his ex-wife didn’t help either. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, backed by Senator Josh Hawley but un-endorsed by Trump, was in second, with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt leading the pack. Schmitt is truly vile, but in a normal-for-Republicans way, using his office to file dozens of performative lawsuits on everything from mask mandates to “critical race theory” to immigration in an effort to boost his MAGA bona fides.
Over at the Schmitt campaign, there was also great excitement over Trump’s endorsement announcement. Because Trump had called up the candidate and told him “You’ll be happy.”
AS HE HAD DONE FOR ERIC GREITENS. [LOL, LOL, LOL]
That’s right, Trump promised his endorsement to both candidates after an afternoon playing Guilfoyle off against Hawley and RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who said that Greitens’s many scandals would jeopardize the GOP’s chances of holding the seat, or at least make it expensive to hold.
What followed was a piece of dementia as performance art, according to Politico:
As the meeting wore on, those familiar with what transpired say, Trump began to lose patience. At one point it was suggested that he could endorse “Eric,” and that by doing so he would be supporting both Schmitt and Greitens.
It was a madcap exit ramp. But Trump went in on the details, asking if the two candidates’ first names were spelled identically — noting that it wouldn’t work if they weren’t. While Trump was intrigued, he also remarked that it might be too cute. He asked for draft endorsements to review, one announcing his support for Schmitt, the other for Greitens.
“Too cute”? Well … that’s one way of putting it.
In the event, Trump put out a statement exhorting Missouri voters to “send a MAGA Champion and a True Warrior to the U.S. Senate, someone who will fight for Border Security, Election Integrity, our Military and Great Veterans, together with having a powerful toughness on Crime and the Border.”
“We need a person who will not back down the Radical Left Lunatics who are destroying our Country,” he rambled. “I trust the Great People of Missouri, on this one, to make up their own minds, much as they did when they gave me landslide victories in the 2016 and 2020 Elections, and I am therefore proud to announce that ERIC has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” [LOL, LOL, and more LOL]
ERIC! Hooray! But … Eric WHO? Was the old man so demented that he’d forgotten to type Greitens, in an epic pratfall?
No! The premiere merchant of chaos did this on purpose, his spokesman Taylor Budowich assured the public. [Tweet at the link]
You know it’s a really good joke if you have to explain it.
Immediately the Greitens campaign congratulated itself for tying down that endorsement, with or without Trump’s consent. [Tweet at the link]
And so did Schmitt. [Tweet at the link]
You heard the man, Missouri! Vote for ERIC, the candidate who is NOT VICKY.
Tomorrow Trump will claim credit for pushing ERIC over the finish line — whichever ERIC that may be. Take that one to the bank!
According to Republicans, the Inflation Reduction Act includes a middle-class “tax increase” — despite the meaning of the words “tax” and “increase.”
As Senate Democrats eye a vote this week on their ambitious reconciliation package, called the Inflation Reduction Act, Republicans have settled on a specific line of attack. GOP senators argued yesterday, for example, “Democrats want to raise taxes on almost every American.”
The editorial page of The Wall Street Journal echoed the talking point [sheesh]. “This gives the lie to Democratic claims that no one earning under $400,000 will pay more taxes under the bill, a promise Mr. Biden also made in his campaign,” the editors wrote in a piece published on Sunday. “The reality is that the Schumer-Manchin bill is a tax increase on nearly every American.” Fox News, not surprisingly, is on board with the claim, too.
That’s not even close to being true, and it’s worth understanding how and why Republicans are getting this so very wrong. As The New York Times reported:
Since the deal was announced, Republicans have attacked it as classic tax and spending — the same terms they have used to deride much of Mr. Biden’s agenda. Last weekend, Republican senators released a companion analysis from the Joint Committee that they said was proof the entire bill would raise taxes on the middle class, though it did not actually show middle-class Americans would pay more taxes under the plan.
Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, told The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell, in reference to the Democratic legislation, “If you’re not a tax cheat, hedge fund manager or a corporation making over $1 billion, you’re not affected.”
So, what led Republicans to insist that the Inflation Reduction Act would raise taxes “on almost every American,” when reality shows otherwise?
As it turns out, GOP lawmakers requested that the Joint Committee on Taxation examine the Democratic legislation — the result of which is online here (pdf). As Jon Chait explained, the JCT didn’t find that the bill would raise middle-class taxes, but it did offer Republicans a point that was easily exploited.
The complication that enters the picture is that the JCT, like other economic modelers, tries to project how the burden of a tax increase is borne. The agency used to assume that corporate tax increases are borne entirely by shareholders in the firms that pay the tax. In 2013, the agency changed its modeling assumptions and now assumes that corporate tax increases are not borne entirely by shareholders. Instead, firms respond to tax increases in part by reducing wages for their employees and reducing investment, which ultimately leads to slightly lower wages…. But even assuming JCT’s projections are completely correct, it is not a description of a tax increase on the middle class. It is a forecast, rather, that a tax increase on large corporations will eventually lead to slightly lower incomes by the middle class. JCT’s table breaks down this burden by income category. But it is not showing that the people in these income categories will pay more tax.
In other words, because the Democrats’ reconciliation package would require many large corporations to pay more, the Joint Committee on Taxation — looking only at part of the bill — made an educated guess about those corporations possibly, at some point in the future, lowering incomes.
This, according to Republicans and their allies, constitutes a “tax increase” — despite the meaning of the words “tax” and “increase.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer added on the chamber floor yesterday, “[O]ver the past few days, we’ve heard Republicans go back to their timeworn attacks that they use against virtually any Democratic policy. They’re sounding alarms that this bill will raise taxes on American families, but it does not! Here is the plain truth: the bill will not raise any taxes — any taxes — on families making under $400,000 a year…. When you increase taxes on the wealthiest and corporations who pay nothing, they say you’re raising taxes on everybody. Bull!”
The “TALIBAMA: HOME OF CHRISTIAN SHARIA LAW” graphic is worth seeing, (followup to comment 62). “He who is without sin, cast the … Hey lady! Cover your legs, will you? We are trying to kill someone here!”
Jeansays
SC @28, 29
Those are just 2 unrelated actions from the US taken on the same day that will make the entire world less safe which prompted my reaction (there’s a long list of such actions form the US and I’m not rating them against each other or against actions from others). That you would be offended by my arguably silly and clumsy take on them rather than by the actions themselves is on you, especially in view of these actions being at least partly done at this time for political purposes (having a “win” for the elections) rather than for justice (which definitely wasn’t and won’t help reduce terrorism) or trade (which could be done some other way regardless of the legitimacy of China’s attitude and claims).
Anyway, have fun with your little clique here. Goodbye.
(and you can stop rolling your eyes now)
In the week after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, federal lawmakers raced to pass legislation that effectively abolishes the freedom of expression regarding criticisms of the “special military operation.” The strictest new law criminalized the dissemination of “knowingly false information” about the military. Under aggravated circumstances, the maximum penalty for violating this new statute is 15 years in prison. According to researchers at the OVD Info project, investigators across Russia have opened at least 75 felony cases against people accused of “spreading fakes” about the army.
While this is Russia’s most extreme domestic wartime policing measure, it is the less utilized sibling of another offense that more commonly leads to prosecution. By late July, the Russian authorities had opened at least 3,400 cases for violations of another law adopted in the invasion’s immediate aftermath: the misdemeanor ban on “discrediting” the armed forces. Punishable by fines as high as 100,000 rubles ($1,600), repeat “discrediting” offenses and rare aggravating circumstances (for example, provoking riots) can result in felony charges, but this has happened only eight times, so far. Meduza reviews several examples of the “discrediting” displays and performances that have triggered administrative cases.
According to Alex Lokhmutov, a lawyer for OVD Info, the law defines “discrediting” as “belittling” the military’s authority, while outright false information is “inaccurate, publicly significant information” about the actions of the armed forces.
The fuzziness of this wording has cultivated enormously arbitrary enforcement. In different cases, nearly identical statements have been prosecuted as both “felony fakes” and “misdemeanor discrediting.” The police themselves struggle to understand the difference between these two offenses, Lokhmutov told Meduza.
The types of antiwar speech that provoke police responses demonstrate both the justice system’s loose grasp of how to apply these new laws and how protests in Russia against the war in Ukraine have gradually retreated to cyberspace.
In the weeks after the February invasion, most people charged with “discrediting” the army were arrested at antiwar demonstrations and charged with the dual offenses of assembling in public without a permit and belittling the military. Later, as protests dwindled, the police refocused on single picketers and reports filed by random citizens against their own compatriots for remarks in public (and sometimes even in private). Today, most new charges involve comments or even reposts on social media, discovered by officers who make it their jobs to scour websites for antiwar content.
Below, Meduza reviews some examples of antiwar protests that triggered misdemeanor charges for “discrediting” the military and its “special operation” in Ukraine. This story also features depictions of these events by Volya, a photographer from Belarus now living in Georgia who worked in the fashion industry before opposition protests in 2020 and 2021 nearly toppled the Lukashenko regime. During that unrest, she witnessed police brutality and the perils of living apolitically. She also saw the ridiculous degrees to which Belarusian law enforcement suppressed even the hint of opposition. She sees that same cruelty guiding Russia’s current campaign to frighten the opposition and keep antiwar sentiment hidden.
What the police have treated as “discrediting” Russia’s military. (Actual cases.)
“Silent support”
The authorities in Tomsk arrested Stanislav Karmarski at a public square during an antiwar protest. He didn’t hold any signs, pump his fists, or chant any slogans, but a judge determined that he knew about the rally in advance and showed up to express his support (albeit silently) for this illegal assembly to “discredit the military.” For this offense, Karmarski was fined 45,000 rubles (about $720). The court slapped the same fine on a few others arrested at the protest, as well.
Nekrasov’s “tolls of war”
Translator Lyubov Summ “perpetrated public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation” by standing in Moscow’s Pushkin Square and reading aloud from Nikolay Nekrasov’s “As I Hearken to the Horrors of War,” speaking of “the mourning mother’s eyes” and her son “who lies beneath a sodden, bloody hillock.”
A judge ruled that this performance “aimed to cultivate a negative attitude” about Russia’s troops and its “special military operation” in Ukraine, “essentially mirroring content posted online that expresses negative attitudes about these events.” The court fined Summ 50,000 rubles ($800).
…
A busted letter Z
The governor of Russia’s Stavropol region has urged locals to volunteer their Saturdays for cleanup work in their hometowns. After one of these civic outpourings in Pyatigorsk, several dozen volunteers assembled more than 100 “tree cookies” into the shape of a giant “Z” — the unofficial symbol of the “special military operation” to “liberate” whatever bits of Ukraine the Russian military manages to occupy.
Afterward, a local man named Dmitry Semin came along and scattered the pieces of tree trunk, “damaging” the monument to Russia’s invasion.
Like numerous others prosecuted for defacing displays of the “Z” (and the “V”), Semin was convicted of “discrediting” the military and fined 30,000 rubles ($480). (In Krasnodar, another man was fined the same amount for spitting on a “Z” banner.)
Barbed wire and Tolstoy
In mid-March, a young theater student in Ufa was fined 30,000 rubles for appearing in the city’s center with a crown of flowers atop her head and barbed wire wrapped around her dress. She taped her mouth shut and carried a copy of Lev Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” The judge determined that this “visual image expressed disagreement with the special operation carried out by Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine.”
Green ribbons
At least three people in Veliky Novgorod were fined between 32,000 and 40,000 rubles (about $580) for wearing green ribbons around their wrists (one of the many antiwar symbols that’s surfaced since the February invasion). The judge decided that this gesture was designed to discredit the military and even accused the defendants of endangerment. “The offense committed here,” read the verdict, “encroaches on the protection of [others’] constitutional rights, freedoms, morality, and public order.”
Scare quotes
Alexey Podnebesny lives in Nizhny Novgorod and recently complained on social media about the sorry state of the local public utilities, noting that the authorities could have connected all the homes in the city to centralized hot water for the money spent on Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine. By putting the phrase in quotes (like we just did here), Podnebesny conveyed to readers that the “special operation” is in fact a euphemism for something sinister. “According to the rules of the Russian language and the context [of the remark],” the judge ruled, “it clearly indicates an ironic, reverse, and disparaging meaning.”
That you would be offended by my arguably silly and clumsy take on them rather than by the actions themselves is on you
I’m fine with that.
especially in view of these actions being at least partly done at this time for political purposes (having a “win” for the elections)
Ah, throwing in another weak take for the hell of it. That totally bespeaks good faith.
(and you can stop rolling your eyes now)
Oh, good. I was afraid I might pull something!
ravensays
Kansas is voting today on whether to keep abortion in that state legal or not, a constitutional amendment.
Well, Kansas is deep Red so the outcome is predictable.
Or is it?
Yahoo News
Laura Kelly Kansas voters to decide abortion rights in 1st test since Roe v. Wade repeal
Republicans hope reduced turnout works to their advantage, although the Kansas City Star reported there had been a 246% increase in early in-person votes compared to 2018. The limited polling indicates a tight race, with a July survey finding 47% in favor of the amendment, 43% opposed and 10% undecided.
The polling data is closer than I would think for Kansas at 47% prohibition to 43% keep it legal.
Still going to be an uphill battle for women.
We might know by late tonight.
blf @ #73, thanks! I didn’t know if it was there yet and was too lazy to check.
Tethyssays
@72
“Breaking: #Ukraine may begin the official registration of same-sex marriages shortly.
Hoorah! My friends in Ukraine will be officially married, and will hopefully survive to enjoy their new legal rights. I hope they stay safe in Kyiv.
Jean @76 Those are just 2 unrelated actions from the US taken on the same day that will make the entire world less safe which prompted my reaction
How is a trade visit to Taiwan (the #1 supplier of computer chips) from the elected representative of California and the Silicon Valley tech industry making the world less safe?
It’s her actual job, you ninny.
The world likes smartphones and computers and high tech controls. Taiwan doesn’t belong to China, and it’s Nancy’s job to forge very strong trade alliances that ensure that the US tech industry has the raw materials to make the tech that the entire world uses to communicate and conduct business.
The GDP of CA is a huge and crucial part of the US economy.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 59
No biggie.
Tethyssays
@Akira
Good luck on your surgery! I hope the Dr’s prognosis is correct, and the operation goes well. I imagine it’s stressful to have it postponed at the last moment.
Jeansays
Tethys @81
My take on the current events has been called silly and without good faith but I think yours qualify as well. Check her op-ed in the Washington Post for her own views about it and some of the reasons for the visit and tell me who’s the ninny then. And I’m not the only one questioning the pertinence of the visit and the potential security issues (and I’m not talking about partisan politics).
The Justice Department has filed its first lawsuit in the wake of a historic Supreme Court decision allowing states to outlaw abortion, arguing that a new Idaho law that would impose a near-total ban on the procedure violates a federal requirement to provide medical care when a pregnant person’s life or health is at stake.
The Idaho law allows doctors to be criminally prosecuted for providing abortions, Garland said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. He argued that it could conflict with federal law that says patients seeking emergency medical care at a hospital accepting Medicare funds are entitled to any lifesaving treatment.
The lawsuit cites several medical conditions that could require a doctor to perform an abortion for lifesaving reasons, including septic infections and ectopic pregnancies — when the fetus implants outside the uterus and the pregnancy cannot be viable.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that pregnant women get the emergency medical treatment to which they are entitled to under federal law,” Garland said at a news conference.
[…]
The state’s governor, Brad Little (R), called the lawsuit an “overreach” and said he would “defend Idaho’s laws in the face of federal meddling.”
[…]
It could be a harbinger of future suits to be filed by the Justice Department, since some other states also have laws that do not make exceptions to their abortion bans for the life or health of the woman…..
Garland argued that the legal issues at stake in the Idaho lawsuit are straightforward. By banning abortions even to women in medical emergencies, the lawsuit says, Idaho law violates that federal treatment law. And when state and federal laws are in conflict, federal law prevails, according to the Constitution.
[…]
The attorney general has also said federal agencies “may continue to provide reproductive health services to the extent authorized by federal law,” an indication that there may be legal battles over what kind of reproductive health care may be provided by doctors working for the federal government in states that restrict or ban abortions.
Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, an advocacy organization, hailed the lawsuit and said the Justice Department’s involvement fighting abortion bans across the country is crucial.
“The number of states enforcing radical bans and denying people life-saving care is growing rapidly,” Northup wrote in a statement. “We are already seeing pregnant people in dire situations being turned away from hospitals.”
tomhsays
@ #84
What is it you specifically object to in that op-ed?
Jeansays
tomh @86
I’m just saying that this is not only a trade delegation visit but a political one done to provoke China and her own words confirm that, specifically this: “visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom”. Regardless of the validity of the Chinese reaction and the US views on Taiwan, this visit is unnecessary bravado which will not help anyone in the region. She might think it helps her and her party for the fall elections though but that’s speculation on my part.
28 years ago, we traveled to Tiananmen Square to honor the courage & sacrifice of the students, workers & ordinary citizens who stood for the dignity & human rights that all people deserve. To this day, we remain committed to sharing their story with the world. #Tiananmen30
From the BBC article:
Most famously in 1991, two years after large-scale protests in Beijing were crushed by the Chinese government, she visited Tiananmen Square and displayed a banner honouring the deceased demonstrators. [This is what’s in the video report she tweeted, which I recommend.]
For its part, the Chinese government has made no secret of its disdain for Ms Pelosi, once labelling her “full of lies and disinformation”….
I’m losing track of the garbage takes at this point.
tomhsays
Jean @ #86
“visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom”.
I guess what I wondered is, do you see Taiwan as a part of China? Because the many Taiwanese that I know don’t. After all, “Chinese” is not a race, it’s a country of origin. My friends regard themselves as Taiwanese, their country of origin. Yet I know many people don’t agree, or even see any difference between the two, and I wondered if that were your view.
Jeansays
SC @89
So she has a history of provoking China and my take that she wants to provoke China is garbage. Ok, that makes sense.
I’m not saying that China has any right to respond to the provocation that it called for by their own statements but she’s playing a game which will not cost her anything but can very well get others killed. And it will definitely not help anyone or calm things down.
Also, you’re an asshole.
Jeansays
tomh @86
I think the Taiwan people should decide for themselves what they want. I also think that China is one of the 3 big world bullies with Russia and the US and that each one will do as they wish as long as they think they will end up on top. Human lives for them are expendable especially if they are foreign. The US cares a little bit more about their own citizens (and sometimes allies) but to the rest of the world that does not make much difference.
She has a history of defending human rights and democratic movements in China and in Taiwan. These sorts of criticisms veer creepily close to repeating the logic of abusers. Pelosi can visit anywhere she wants that wants her to visit.
@ #92
Well, the Taiwanese have decided for themselves what they want, and, at the moment, they want to welcome whomever they like to visit them, regardless of how China feels about it. It’s important to them to be an independent country. They’ve been threatened by China for so long that they’ve grown almost immune to it. I think your fear that this will escalate into disaster is misplaced.
…It is always odious to learn of police targeting of Black political groups in the US, which inevitably recalls the FBI’s murderous “COINTELPRO” against the Black Panthers in the late 1960s, and the 1985 police massacre of followers of the MOVE organization in Philadelphia. In fact, we fear that the indictment and St. Petersburg raid will give the Uhuru Movement, APSP and Black Hammer a cachet that could fuel their popularity in certain sectors.
Still, we do have to wonder if these groups are suffering from a deep cynicism or an even deeper naivete. Are they unaware that the same FSB-AGMR network apparently supporting them is also supporting their ostensible worst enemies on the racist right? Are they unaware of racist persecution of Crimean Tatars and Chechens in the white-supremacist Russia of Vladimir Putin?…
Jeansays
tomh @97
I hope you’re right and nobody gets killed because of this visit. But things have already escalated because of it. It’s now a question of where it goes from here.
Tethyssays
I concur with SC that the claims of ‘ provocation’ is entirely consistent with the logic of abusers.
China’s Xi Pinging could just shut up and mind his own business about a peaceful visit between two completely independent countries.
Threats of violence from China if people in Taiwan and America speak to each other is not behavior any democratic minded person should tolerate. ‘You’re not the boss of me, so fuck off’ is the core basis of independent democracy and anti authoritarian philosophy.
The Senate voted Tuesday night to pass a long-sought bipartisan legislation to expand health care benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service, sending the bill to President Joe Biden to sign into law. The final vote was 86-11.
Passage of the bill marks the end of a lengthy fight to get the legislation through Congress, as veterans and their advocates had been demonstrating on Capitol Hill for days. Many veterans were allowed into the Senate gallery to watch the final vote on Tuesday evening.
…
The bill widely expands health care resources and benefits to those exposed to burn pits and could provide coverage for up to 3.5 million toxic-exposed veterans. It adds conditions related to burn pit and toxic exposure, including hypertension, to the Department of Veterans Affair’s list of illnesses that have been incurred or exacerbated during military service.
The legislation had been held up in the chamber since last week when more than two dozen Republicans, who previously supported the measure, temporarily blocked it from advancing.
…
Tuesday’s final vote followed votes on three amendments with a 60-vote threshold. [Sen. Pat] Toomey’s amendment, which would have made a change to a budget component of the legislation, failed as expected, in a vote of 47-48.
Last week’s surprise move by Republicans led to a swift backlash among veterans and veterans’ groups, including protests on the US Capitol steps over the weekend and early this week. Comedian and political activist Jon Stewart — a lead advocate for veterans on the issue — took individual GOP senators to task for holding up a bill that had garnered wide bipartisan support in earlier votes….
Donald J. Trump has demanded an immediate recount of covid tests after it emerged that President Biden had tested positive more times than he did.
A fuming Trump told reporters that “the only way Sleepy Joe could beat me at covid is if the tests were rigged.”
Lending Trump support was his former attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who claimed that Biden’s most recent covid test was “rife with fraud.”
“These covid tests are like a Breathalyzer,” Giuliani said. “You blow into the thing when you’re perfectly fine, and it registers that you’re drunk off your ass.”
Trump asserted that once a recount is performed, he will have topped Biden’s positive tests in a landslide. “Frankly, we did win this infection,” he said.
The death toll from California’s McKinney Fire has grown to at least four after two more people were found dead at homes in Northern California on Monday, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.
President Joe Biden is set to name top officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to serve as the White House coordinators to combat the growing monkeypox outbreak. […] The White House said the pair would coordinate “strategy and operations to combat the current monkeypox outbreak, including equitably increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments.”
New York Times:
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared a state of emergency on Monday to address a monkeypox outbreak, making the state the third in four days to elevate its public health response to the rapidly spreading disease.
Former Trump campaign chairman needed to avoid being seen as a ‘rat’ in prison.
Former 2016 Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort arranged for transcripts of his plea hearings to be sent to federal prison to prove to inmates that he wasn’t a “rat,” he wrote in a forthcoming book.
Manafort wrote that he needed to prove himself after conflict erupted between him and “Billie J” — a prisoner incarcerated with him at FCI Loretto who Manafort dubbed a “hypocrite” and a bully. Billie J, in Manafort’s telling, abused his power over the jailhouse commissary, using “his role there to get people hard to find commissary goods — for a price, of course.”
“I refused to respect him which pissed him off,” the former Trump campaign chairman wrote. “In retaliation, he accused me of being a rat, citing the fact that I had done a plea agreement.”
Manafort wrote that he moved quickly to “cleanse” himself of Billie J’s assertion.
“I had to have my attorney send me my sentencing transcripts — ‘my papers,’” the former Trump campaign chairman wrote. “The prison hierarchy could read the ‘papers’ and proclaim judgement.”
Manafort entered into a plea deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in September 2018, admitting to a conspiracy and witness tampering charge. Prosecutors said that he repeatedly lied to them after agreeing to cooperate, thereby breaching the deal.
TPM obtained a copy of the forthcoming memoir, titled “Political Prisoner: Persecuted, Prosecuted, but Not Silenced.” [Oh FFS]
In his memoir, Manafort wrote that two members of the “prison hierarchy” read the papers — a man named Ralph who dined at the facility’s “Italian table” and a “muscle-bound specimen of a man” named Vegas.
“Of course, they immediately proclaimed me innocent of the Billie J. attack,” he wrote.
As Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and a former political consultant [Putin Puppet] in Ukraine, Manafort took center stage in the Mueller investigation. After facing down two indictments in D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia, Manafort found himself incarcerated in 2018, having been convicted at one trial and having struck the plea deal to avoid another.
Manafort wrote that his fellow prisoners in FCI Loretto, a low-security institution located in rural Pennsylvania, told him that they couldn’t understand why Trump had not pardoned him for the time he was there — from 2018 until May 2020.
“To them, the worst criminal is not somebody who breaks the law, but a rat,” Manafort wrote. “To them, Trump should have made sure the family was taken care of — that I wasn’t in jail anymore.”
Manafort entered into the plea deal with the special counsel’s office after being convicted on eight out of eighteen felony counts for bank and tax fraud in a trial in the Eastern District of Virginia.
He then avoided a trial in D.C. by agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. That agreement broke down as Manafort repeatedly lied to the government, a judge found.
During that time, reports emerged that Manafort continued to feed information — via his attorneys — to Trump’s legal team. At one point, Rudy Giuliani claimed publicly that Manafort had not yet shared anything damaging about Trump with the Mueller team.
Manafort affirmed this in the book, describing interactions with Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.
“Another thing that upset Weissmann was the fact that I had maintained my joint defense agreement with Trump’s attorneys during the time we were working on the proffer,” Manafort wrote.
The agreement allowed Manafort’s attorneys to share information with Trump’s legal team, even as he was supposed to be cooperating with the government.
“I never tried to hide this from Weissmann, but he was still angry when he found out,” Manafort wrote. “Oh, well.”
Manafort recalled directing his attorney to make it known to the Trump team that “there was nothing to fear.”
“I wanted to make sure they knew that even though I was cutting a deal, I wasn’t going to make anything up,” Manafort wrote, adding later that he was “led to believe that it was communicated.
Manafort wrote elsewhere in the section that, when considering the plea agreement, he committed to not crossing certain “red lines.”
“I wouldn’t be their stool pigeon,” Manafort wrote.
Trump ultimately pardoned Manafort after the 2020 election, in December of that year.
“To them, Trump should have made sure the family was taken care of — that I wasn’t in jail anymore.”
Weird that Manafort writes about what a good gangster he was for boss Trump, but maybe even weirder that he includes the judgment of his fellow prisoners/gangsters that Trump was a lousy mob boss.
———————-
Feels like I’m walking around in an episode of the Sopranos. And I very much need a shower.
———————–
As if we need a more proof that Trump was treated and acted like like an organized crime boss. No wonder he was so supplicant to Putin, the boss of bosses.
————————-
Imagine that. Manafort discovers that there are some other unsavory characters in prison
————————-
Ralphie and muscle man Vegas at the Italian Table of the Big House, frantically thumbing through legal transcripts, is a great image.
———————
I love that Manafort is playing up the danger of the situation like he is in Sing Sing. He was a in minimum security federal prison, where his biggest danger was if he accidentally nicked himself with a potato peeler doing kitchen work.
Dave Wasserman tweeted a minute ago: “I’ve seen enough: in a huge victory for the pro-choice side, the Kansas constitutional amendment to remove protections of abortion rights fails.”
I know he knows his stuff, but I won’t be able to believe it until all of the votes are counted.
LOL, Wasserman’s tweet already has around 25,000 likes.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 99
Still, we do have to wonder if these groups are suffering from a deep cynicism or an even deeper naivete. Are they unaware that the same FSB-AGMR network apparently supporting them is also supporting their ostensible worst enemies on the racist right? Are they unaware of racist persecution of Crimean Tatars and Chechens in the white-supremacist Russia of Vladimir Putin?…
As long as the checks clear (sort of speak), I don’t think they give a shit what Putin does on his side of the planet. The enemy of my enemy is my friend… if they also find another group of my enemies.
We have noted before the efforts by AGMR to co-opt both the radical left and radical right in the United States. In December 2014, AGMR hosted an international conference in Moscow on the “Right of Peoples to Self-Determination and Building a Multi-Polar World,” drawing participants from groups on the US “anti-war left” (sic) including the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) and the International Action Center (IAC)—both spin-offs of the retro-Stalinist Workers World Party. Also in attendance were representatives of Russian and European neo-fascist formations—and white nationalists from an Alabama-based group, the neo-Confederate League of the South.
The League of the South was one of the prominent groups at the the August 2017 “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville, Va., which notoriously turned deadly. We noted at the time the vocal expressions of support for Syria’s Russian-backed genocidal dictator Bashar Assad among the far-right knuckleheads at Charlottesville. The Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right notes the special affinity that the League of the South has for Putin’s Russia. In an essay on their website entitled “To Our Russian Friends,” the League’s president Michael Hill writes: “We understand that the Russian people and Southerners are natural allies in blood, culture, and religion.” Another essay on their site urges followers to prepare for “The Coming Civil War in America.”
The (support for the) League of the South poses a direct threat to them, especially since they’re in the South.
Tethyssays
The live results of the Kansas abortion vote to remove the right are currently at over 58% tabulated, with NO being the clear winner.
Tethys @115, SC @117, and others: Hooray! So glad to see that abortion rights won in Kansas, won decisively. With now more than 80% of the vote in, it is obvious that reproductive rights won in Kansas.
SC @111, you’re welcome. Those comments hit the nail on the head.
Johnson County just went over 200,000 in turnout today, which is insane when you consider that they only got to 270,000 votes in the GENERAL midterm election in 2018.
And, as impossible as it might be to believe, in Kansas (of all places!), this initiative to give the overwhelmingly GOP legislature the discretion to act on abortion rights may not even make it to 40% of the vote in a state that Donald Trump won by 15 points.
Impossible as it is to believe, 50% of the people in Kansas happen to be women, who clearly and overwhelming support reproductive bodily autonomy and privacy at the gynecologist.
It is impossible to believe that MSM entirely forgot the massive Womens March in protest of tfg, and the Blue Wave, judging by their automatic exclusion of relevant words like fascist and sexism to describe GOP efforts.
StevoRsays
Exceellent speech at the Natioanl press club by Australian Greens leader Adam bandt here here albeit over an hour long.
With an announcement during that confirming Australia will finally have an official climate target legislated :
You’re very naive about military matters. If China invades Taiwan in the wake of Pelosi’s visit, it will be because they had already decided to do so at the first opportune moment; they would not mount such an invasion without having the forces they would need ready and plans – both military, and in terms of handling the political blowback and possible sanctions – worked out in detail.
Kansas voters handed abortion-rights advocates a massive victory Tuesday, surging to the polls to defeat a measure that would have allowed the GOP-led legislature to impose new restrictions.
The vote in Kansas was one of the first tests of the potency of abortion rights at the ballot box since the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and end the federal protection of abortion access.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump was ousted, while the matchup was set for what will be one of the key gubernatorial races this fall. And in Missouri, the political comeback of a former governor was shut down.
In Arizona, local elections officials were still counting votes to determine whether a slate of statewide candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump and promoted his lies about election fraud won their Republican primaries.
Here are six takeaways from Tuesday night’s primaries:
Kansas maintains constitutional right to abortion
Kansas voters sent a dramatic message on Tuesday, opting to maintain the right to an abortion in their state’s constitution just weeks after the US Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Polls have long shown that voters overwhelmingly support protecting abortions rights. But the win for the “no” vote in Kansas is proof of that and signals that the Supreme Court decision has further angered voters and possibly shifted the politics of the issue ahead of the November elections.
The “no” leaves the state constitution unchanged. While lawmakers in the state can still try to pass restrictive abortion laws, courts in Kansas have recognized a right to abortion under the state constitution.
The biggest warning to Republicans, many of whom have trumpeted the overturning of Roe and backed pushes to pass stricter abortions laws, is perhaps the turnout in Kansas. With 78% of the vote in on Tuesday night, nearly 700,000 people have cast ballots in the primary, a figure that already dwarfs the turnout in the 2020 presidential primary election.
“This is further proof of what poll after poll has told us: Americans support abortion rights,” said Christina Reynolds, a top operative for Emily’s List, an organization that looks to elect women who support abortion rights. “They believe we should be able to make our own health care decisions, and they will vote accordingly, even in the face of misleading campaigns.”
A member of the ‘impeachment 10’ is defeated
Rep. Peter Meijer became the second of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump to be ousted in a primary Tuesday, losing to Trump-endorsed conservative challenger John Gibbs, CNN projected.
Democrats played a role in boosting Gibbs — a calculated decision that has become a flashpoint, angering some Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans.
Meijer, a freshman, voted to impeach Trump just days after taking office, after the insurrection of January 6, 2021. Gibbs, meanwhile, backed Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Meijer’s loss means the Grand Rapids-based 3rd District seat will be one of the most competitive House contests in November’s midterm elections.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, eyeing the seat as a possible pick-up opportunity, spent more than $300,000 on television ads seeking to bolster Gibbs with pro-Trump GOP primary voters by portraying him as a Trump-aligned conservative.
In Washington, two more Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, were attempting to survive their own primaries. The state’s open, non-partisan primary system in which the top two finishers regardless of party advance to November’s general election made them more difficult targets for Trump and his supporters.
Unknowns in Arizona
Arizona’s race for the Republican nomination for governor could depend on whether former President Donald Trump’s supporters turned out in force on election day in a state that conducts its contests largely by mail.
…
If Trump’s slate of statewide candidates in Arizona advances to the general election, they’d be positioned to take over the election machinery of one of the nation’s most important presidential battleground states if they win in November.
…
But there was one person who had defied Trump and his election lies ousted on Tuesday, according to a CNN projection: Rusty Bowers, the Arizona House speaker. Bowers testified in June about the pressure he faced to overturn the state’s 2020 election results from former President Donald Trump and others. In return, he was censured by his party, called “unfit to serve” — and now has lost his primary for a state Senate seat.
Greitens’ attempted comeback falls flat
Republicans in Missouri breathed a sigh of relief after state Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the wide-open Senate primary, according to a CNN projection.
Perhaps more significant than who won, though, in the deep-red state, is who lost: disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens, who was attempting a political comeback. Greitens resigned in 2018 amid a sex scandal and accusation of campaign misconduct, and subsequently faced abuse allegations from his ex-wife, which he has denied
…
Dixon victory in Michigan governor’s race sets up referendum on Covid policies
Tudor Dixon, the conservative commentator endorsed by Trump in the final days of the race and backed by large factions of the Michigan Republican establishment, won the state’s GOP primary to take on Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, CNN projected.
The clash in Michigan could be one of the nation’s most competitive governor’s races.
Whitmer has cast herself as a bulwark for abortion rights in a state where Republicans have sought to enforce a 1931 law that would impose a near-total ban on abortion.
Dixon, meanwhile, framed the race in her victory speech Tuesday night as a referendum on restrictions Whitmer imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dixon, a mother of four who is backed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s family, is also an advocate of school choice — potentially positioning education as a marquee issue in November’s midterm election.
Progressives suffer another defeat in Michigan
Rep. Haley Stevens’ projected Democratic primary victory in Michigan’s newly drawn 11th Congressional District over fellow Rep. Andy Levin marks another blow against progressives in what has been a mostly disappointing primary season.
It’s also a resounding victory for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its super PAC, United Democracy Project, which has spent millions backing moderate, more staunchly pro-Israel candidates in Democratic primaries.
Stevens and Levin are both supportive of Israel, but Levin — who is Jewish — has been more willing to criticize its government’s treatment of Palestinians and is the lead sponsor of the Two-State Solution Act.
Progressive Democrats, frequently targeted by AIPAC spending this primary season, have fumed at fellow Democrats for accepting or courting support from the group, which has also contributed to Republican election deniers. AIPAC has defended the practice, arguing that its policy goals need bipartisan support.
J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that has clashed with AIPAC, tried to boost Levin with a $700,000 July ad buy, but that sum paled in comparison to the millions bundled by AIPAC and more than $4 million spend by UDP.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukrainian refugees are likely to become victims of rising tensions and disinformation campaigns in their host countries, a report has warned.
False reports exaggerating how much aid refugees receive compared with local people, as well as linking refugees with violent crime and political extremism, could cause a breakdown in relations with local communities, the charity World Vision said.
In its report, Warm Welcomes, Lurking Tensions, the humanitarian organisation said anti-refugee messaging was already spreading on social media and “niche media outlets” in neighbouring countries.
About 8.8 million people, mainly women, children and elderly people, have left Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on 24 February, with many making their way to border countries such as Romania, Moldova and Poland.
The report said:
Messaging that could stoke anti-refugee tensions is already being spread in Romania, Moldova, Poland and across central and eastern Europe
Whilst not a major issue yet, tensions are beginning to develop in some host countries.
Children may face risks such as verbal and physical abuse between refugee and host communities, human trafficking and more as early as February 2023.
The international community needs to act now in order to prevent the situation deteriorating to dangerous levels like in Lebanon and Bangladesh.
Vladimir Putin’s purported lover has been hit with sanctions from the US government’s treasury department over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Alina Kabaeva, 39, landed on the latest update to the federal Office of Foreign Assets Control’s specially designated nationals list, freezing any of her assets in the US and generally prohibiting Americans from dealing with her.
The move came a little more than three months after the White House said Kabaeva, a famed former rhythmic gymnast, nor anyone else was safe from sanctions, even after her last-minute removal from a round of such penalties in April.
UK officials had similarly sanctioned Kabaeva – who now is chairperson of Russia’s New Media Group, the country’s largest private media company – in May.
…
The Kremlin has long denied that Putin, who is divorced, is romantically involved with Kabaeva, but various published reports suggest that she is the mother of at least some of his children. A Moscow newspaper which, in 2008, reported that Putin and Kabaeva were involved despite his still being married at the time was shut down soon after for unclear reasons.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Campaigners have called for an end to “unchecked political patronage” as polling found most people oppose plans for Boris Johnson to appoint new peers in the final weeks of his premiership.
Alarm was raised by the Electoral Reform Society over a proposal drawn up by CT Group – a political lobbying firm run by the Conservative adviser Lynton Crosby – for the prime minister to appoint up to 50 new Conservative lawmakers to ram contentious legislation through parliament.
The leaked document sparked condemnation from Gordon Brown, and led to accusations the Lords was already “bursting at the seams”, meaning more “meaningful checks and balances” on appointments were needed.
Polling from Opinium found 54% of people are against Johnson drawing up a “resignation honours” list that could ennoble key allies who stuck by him during the dying days of his administration and urged him to fight on. Just 13% backed the move, while 34% expressed no view [WTF].
Among voters who backed the Conservatives in 2019, 41% were against the plan while 21% were in favour. There were 2,000 adults surveyed at the end of July and their responses were weighted to be nationally representative.
Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker is a former running back, a Heisman Trophy winner, and a man who doesn’t believe in evolution. And he can’t seem to run fast enough away from a debate with Sen. Raphael Warnock. I mean, can you blame him?
Warnock ran a 30-second ad calling out Walker to “stop dodging” and “commit to debates.”
I wouldn’t want to have to defend how my COVID-19 spray works or why I hid from the public and my own campaign staff that I’d fathered three children. Or how I said I graduated from college but didn’t. Or certainly why I said I’d co-founded a veterans organization when I didn’t. Those are tough topics to debate with a sitting senator who also happens to be the senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.
But despite all of the bullshit he will have to defend if he actually shows up, Walker maintains he’s “ready for Senator Warnock.” [video at the link]
[…] Whether it’s because of the Warnock ad or because he’s slipping in the polls, Walker blustered to Hannity he wanted “Warnock to be ready.”
[…] Quentin Fulks, Warnock’s campaign manager, tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the senator already accepted “three well-established Georgia debates” despite Walker’s claims that he was ready to debate “any day of the week.”
Fulks says, “Nothing has changed. Reverend Warnock remains committed to debating Herschel Walker and giving Georgians three opportunities to see the clear choice about who is ready to represent Georgia.”
Dodging debates is nothing new for Georgia’s cowardly Republican nominees. Walker refused to debate during the primaries in May, and in 2018, Gov. Brian Kemp refused a final debate with Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams.
According to The Black Wall Street Times, Walker is polling unfavorably among Georgia’s Black voters. Results found that 80% of Black voters plan to vote for Warnock. Walker has continually refused to accept the results of that poll.
Walker told an 11Alive reporter in Atlanta, “I think you’re wrong. I don’t need to argue with you about it. So, I think you’re wrong. You know you’re wrong,”
Fulks told the AJC, “I don’t know if Herschel Walker is scared for voters to hear what he has to say, or scared for voters to hear that he’s unprepared to speak on the issues that matter most to the people of Georgia. … There’s a clear choice in the race for Senate, and we hope Herschel Walker will be true to his word and commit to joining us at three debates.”
The debate Herschel Walker has agreed to is supposed to take place on October 14 in Savannah, Georgia.
Russia has started creating a military strike force aimed at Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih and warned that Moscow could be preparing new offensive operations in southern Ukraine, Ukraine said on Wednesday.
Russia holds swathes of Ukraine’s south that it captured in the early phases of its invasion, but Kyiv has said it will mount a counter-offensive. It said on Tuesday it had already recaptured 53 villages in occupied Kherson region, Reuters reports.
In its regular update on the war in the south, Ukraine’s southern military command described the situation as tense and said Russia attacked along the frontline on Aug. 2.
…
Ukraine has been trying to ratchet up pressure on Russia’s positions in the strategically important Black Sea region of Kherson and has used Western-supplied long-range weapons to conduct strikes on Russian supply lines and ammunition dumps.
Ukraine’s military said in a statement that Russian forces were scoping out basements in the region to turn them into bomb shelters to store military hardware.
Ukraine has said any negotiated peace settlement with Moscow would be contingent on a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops, brushing off comments by ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Schroeder, who is a friend of Vladimir Putin, said he met the Kremlin leader in Moscow last week, that Russia wanted a “negotiated solution” to the war and that there was even the possibility of slowly reaching a cease-fire.
In response on Wednesday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described Schroeder derisively as a “voice of the Russian royal court”.
Given last night’s focus on our resounding abortion rights victory in Kansas, I don’t have the energy left to write the usual cogent longer-form narrative (I write these before I go to bed). So please forgive me for this “grab-bag” format including interesting vignettes collected through Tuesday.
Let’s start with this, which … is exactly as he describes it: [tweet and video at the link]
This is a good one, I’ll translate it from Kremlinese: “We send our stupid ass cannon fodder out in the open, 600m from enemy positions, without cover or protection, to bait Ukrainian artillery to reveal their positions.” [video at the link]
Mark and I have long discussed Russia’s “reconnaissance by fire” approach: Send Donbas cannon fodder forward until they’re shot dead. Drop artillery on that position. Send more Donbas cannon fodder forward to see if anything is left alive. If they live, then great! They have just advanced a few dozen meters. Otherwise, rinse, lather, repeat.
It’s bad enough they employ tactics so callous to the lives of their allied Ukrainian proxies. But here they are bragging about it. Apparently they don’t realize that this isn’t how competent, civilized militaries wage war! They don’t even respect these poor suckers enough to give them helmets and body armor, leaving them fully exposed to even incidental shrapnel a well-equipped soldier would shrug off. I guess it makes little sense to protect men whose entire job is to get shot.
Down in Kherson, Ukraine is still keeping a lid on details, but one government official offered some good news:
Number of liberated settlements in Kherson Oblast reaches 53 […]
The previous reported number was 46, so Ukraine continues to advance. Note that most of these are tiny agricultural towns. But like we’ve seen with Dovhen’ke and Bohorodychne, the width of that dot on the map can’t always be measured by its pre-war population.
Now let’s tell the tale of two Russian supply trains. The first is Brylivka railway station, Kherson. [map at the link]
There are two train routes from Crimea to Kherson, leaving them exposed to attacks. On July 31, that’s exactly what happened as Ukraine smashed a military supply train.
HIMARS missile systems crushed the railway echelon of the Russian occupation army – the occupiers complain on social networks about the effective operation of American weapons in the hands of the Armed Forces.
It is noted that a railway echelon with more than 40 wagons, which arrived from the temporarily occupied Crimea at the Brylivka railway station in the Kherson region, was hit by a high-precision HIMARS missile.
It is claimed that 80 occupiers were killed as a result of the strike, and another 200 were injured. In addition, all drivers and engineers of the “Russian Railways” company, who were transporting military cargo, were destroyed.
This is supposed video of the attack (clearly too dark to confirm via geolocation): [tweet and video at the link]
NASA FIRMS imagery confirms big fire at the rail station. A fuel storage site was also confirmed hit (along with surrounding fire damage) by satellite imagery. One Russian Telegram user in Crimea noted the emergency services effort in the aftermath: [image of text at the link]
I didn’t realize that this rail line is a single track: [tweet and map at the link]
[…] the entire line from Kherson to Dzhankoy is only a single track […]
The other two peculiarities are that the station at Brylivka has “passing loops” that allow trains headed in opposite directions to share the line. That means one train has to “pull over” into one of those passing loops, which is where the train column likely got hit. The other peculiarity is that just north of this location, that single track passes over the North Crimean Canal, giving Ukraine a juicy bridge target to hit to fully cut this line. At that point, Russia would be dependent on that second line that goes to Melitopol, 230 kilometers away from Kherson.
This isn’t the only Russian supply train to have issues that day, although this next one is more of an own-goal: The Kalanchak railway station, on the same rail line but further south, went up in flames. [tweet and image at the link]
The how it happened is freakin’ hilarious:
On July 31, an echelon with military equipment and ammunition for the occupiers arrived at the “Kalanchak” railway station of the Kherson region. At 8 a.m. the next day, the Russians began unloading the echelon. Apparently, in order to mask the unloading process and protect against HIMARS strikes, the occupiers used powerful means of smoke. At approximately 11:20 an explosion rang out in the work area. It was not possible to accurately determine its nature due to a thick smoke screen. However, immediately after the explosion, the echelon without any warning started moving in the direction of Crimea. The enemy’s personnel scattered in panic.
Presumably, the explosion resulted from careless handling of ammunition during unloading or a fire that arose due to inept use of pyrotechnics during the creation of a smoke screen.
Smoke is widely used in combat to hide troop movements, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it used to hide an entire train station. The ultimate goal might’ve been to prevent a HIMARS attack, but the proximate goal was to hide the activity from Ukrainian drones scanning for targets.
It’s been assumed that Ukraine had a list of depots, and was systematically working its way through it. But if Russia is working this hard to hide actual loading and unloading of war material, it suggests that Ukraine is acting more opportunistically with real-time intelligence, hitting depots in the middle of operations.
So sure, smoke might be helpful, as long as you don’t blow yourself up. And even then, Ukraine is clearly aware of the ruse. If there’s smoke at a depot, odds are good Russia is up to no good. […]
blfsays
The veterans toxic exposure bill (the PACT act) has now passed the Senate, intact I believe, on an 86–11 vote which is a larger than the original 84–14 vote, suggesting two thugs who had previously voted against it switched (and one other previous nay-sayer apparently abstained or something). According to Senate finally passes bill expanding benefits for veterans exposed to toxin, teh dummies agreed with the nonsensical thug face-saving absurdity:
On Tuesday night, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, announced that he and his Republican counterpart, the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, had reached a deal on the bill. At a news conference, McConnell said Republicans’ objections were part of the legislative process.
“These kind of back and forths happen all the time in the legislative process, you’ve observed that over the years,” he said. “I think in the end, the veterans service organizations will be pleased with the final result.”
I eventually decided to not put Moscow Mitch’s final comments (second paragraph (especially the first sentence)) in eejit quotes because, in a properly functioning legislature, there is constructive “back-and-forth”. However, the Senate, and arguably the entire US Congress (both houses), is currently rarely functioning, much less functioning properly, at all. Moscow Mitch fudged his claim — made a claim which is currently misleading — but was not outright lying.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 126
What does Warnock hope to accomplish by publicly debating Walker? To reveal what a gibbering, uneducated, bigoted fool he is? Everyone already knows that and the Georgia’s right winger don’t care. If anything they love how his Walker’s antics “trigger” us and the laugh at our, from their prospective, hysterical responses.
Walker’s campaign isn’t about putting a component individual into office. It’s about unseating a leftish black Democrat with a token Uncle Ruckus to avoid accusations of racism.
There is a well of infinite cruelty from which Republicans can never quench their immoral thirst to inflict pain and suffering on others Take for example Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Paul decided to attack his opponent Charles Booker over — wait for it — helping to deliver supplies such as water to flood victims in eastern Kentucky.
Republicans really suck when it comes to natural disasters. We have known this since George H.W. Bush. But here is what dear Rand Paul has to say about Charles Booker:
[…] Booker personally delivered a truck full of water and supplies to an emergency shelter at Letcher County Central High School in flood-ravaged Whitesburg on Saturday, with his campaign office in Louisville now full of more supplies that will be delivered soon after his call for supporters to provide donations.
But when asked by a reporter at his Monday press conference in Louisville if he felt like he was doing enough for the flood victims — and the optics of his opponent being there on the ground with his volunteer effort — Paul countered that politicians should stay out of the way.
“I think most people think that the people who should be doing the responding are the professionals,” Paul said. “You know, politicians out there having their picture taken probably isn’t that useful.”
Paul added that what flood victims actually need are “monetary donations, as opposed to goods,” saying that much of the goods collected for the Western Kentucky tornado victims in December “still sits in warehouses, and they’re still trying to find somebody that could make use of it.”
“I just don’t like the images of politicians getting in front of a camera out where rescuers are trying to actually dig people out and try to save lives.”
Paul said he would eventually visit the area and work with “the governor and the other elected officials to make sure that disaster relief is there for them. But in the immediate aftermath, we really would need to save lives.”
My reply to Rand Paul is, “Who’s this ‘we’ white man?” I don’t see you out there saving anything. Which is why Paul gave this cruel and pissy response. He couldn’t be bothered to go to eastern Kentucky.
And I wouldn’t believe anything he says about stockpiles of items from the last disaster either. Paul is fast and loose with his “facts.”
Booker was way too classy in his response to Paul:
“He’s talking like someone who hasn’t been on the ground, because if he saw what I saw, he’d know that everyone’s help is needed,” Booker said. “If he actually listened to the people on the ground, he’d know they are asking for supplies to help with cleanup, hot meals, and debris removal. They’re asking for help finding loved ones.”
Since delivering a truck full of supplies to the emergency shelter in Whitesburg on Saturday, Booker says his campaign office “has received an overwhelming amount of donations and supplies for the impacted areas. We will be working with organizers on the ground to make sure they are distributed to those in need.”
What gets me about all of this is that Booker is a real, compassionate human being. And Paul is selfishness and cruelty all rolled into one. In a world with any decency and justice, Booker should defeat Paul this year.
Tragically, we live in a world where my fellow Kentuckians will see a black man helping out during a disaster, and they will give him the middle finger come November. […]
I will still send what little money I can spare to Booker’s campaign, and I will hope that voters in other states will send more Democrats to the U.S. Senate. Booker gives me hope in humanity, but white Kentuckians depress the living shit out of me.
A “donate to Charles Booker” link is available at the main link. I disagree with the author’s tendency to lump all “white Kentuckians” into one category. I agree that Rand Paul is one guy who depresses the living shit out of me.
Wonkette has been closely following the curious case of the missing Secret Service January 6 texts, the ones they appear to have deleted approximately five minutes after the Capitol riot concluded. Or maybe the Secret Service only sent one text during that time, the one they produced for the House January 6 Select Committee, the one that said “Netflix and coup?” (ALLEGEDLY.)
And golly, all of this is just everyone’s fault and no one’s fault all at once, but there definitely is not a coverup, no sir, don’t you even say words like that. It was an accident! It was totally normal protocol! It was a few bad apples! It was right after the Department of Homeland Security got a letter from Congress telling them to please preserve all texts and other documents related to the terrorist attack Donald Trump incited on American soil.
Shockingly, it seems like this little problem — is it too soon to suggest that they just reflexively deleted records to cover up whatever anti-American crimes they committed for Donald Trump, allegedly? — might have been endemic to the whole Trump DHS, with illegally appointed Acting Chief Chad Wolf and its Acting Deputy Secretary Ken “Cooch” Cuccinelli at the helm. Imagine that. Chad Wolf hiding things that make Trump look bad, even if they involve attacks on America? No he never!
But look at us talking about the Secret Service and DHS, when there’s a whole different building in DC where all the January 6 texts have magically disappeared. It is called the Pentagon, and surprise, it was also run by […] Trump sycophants on January 6.
Uh oh, sketti-oh, where did the texts from all Trump’s [sycophants] from the Pentagon go?
The acknowledgment that the phones from the Pentagon officials had been wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit American Oversight brought against the Defense Department and the Army. The watchdog group is seeking January 6 records from former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former chief of staff Kash Patel, and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, among other prominent Pentagon officials – having filed initial FOIA requests just a few days after the Capitol attack.
Miller, Patel and McCarthy have all been viewed as crucial witnesses for understanding government’s response to the January 6 Capitol assault and former […] Trump’s reaction to the breach. All three were involved in the Defense Department’s response to sending National Guard troops to the US Capitol as the riot was unfolding. There is no suggestion that the officials themselves erased the records.
We are sure everything is on the up and up, especially when you see this in context of how Trump shoehorned all those morons, including Kash Patel, Devin Nunes’s former clown boy, into Pentagon leadership just after he lost the election.
CNN reports that Paul Ney, who was general counsel for the Defense Department, told them he turned his phone in like normal at the end of the administration, and he certainly didn’t wipe it himself, and he has no idea what happened to it after that. And government lawyers reportedly have said in filings that this is all just routine stuff, that when people leave those agencies, their phones get wiped.
On the other hand:
A former Defense Department official from a previous administration told CNN that it is ingrained into new hires during their onboarding that their work devices were subject to the Presidential Records Act and indicated their communications would be archived. The source said it was assumed when they turned in their devices at the end of their employment, any communication records would be archived.
So maybe that is not what happens.
On November 10 of 2020, back when the January 6 attacks were just an unborn baby in Trump’s anal cavity, Wonkette wondered aloud why Trump was shoehorning a particular band of idiots, including Patel, into Pentagon leadership. We asked if Trump was purging everybody with the vaguest modicum of a sense of the oath they swore, in order to replace them with people who’d help him stay in power.
We also asked if Trump was desperately sticking loyalist morons into agencies to try to find and destroy incriminating evidence against him.
And we still don’t know the answer to those questions. But damn, these new revelations sure as hell look terrible, especially when you consider that we’re talking about all communications surrounding Donald Trump’s attempts to overthrow the American government and install himself as king, and the terrorist attack he basically ordered on the Legislative Branch and his own vice president.
Can’t imagine what kinds of things Defense Department texts might reveal about January 6. There certainly haven’t been a shitload of questions about […] that day for three hours and 19 minutes while the Capitol was under siege, or what treason-weasel Michael Flynn’s brother Charles was doing in the room. (And by the way, he’s still there.)
Read the letter sent by American Oversight to Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanding an investigation. It’s hot fire. This scandal is going to get WAY worse, we reckon.
Initiatives linked to Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), a Russian Orthodox bishop said to be Vladimir Putin’s personal confessor, have received more than 20 billion rubles ($332 million) from the Russian government and state-owned companies, according to a new report by the investigative outlet iStories.
iStories journalists found that since 2015, more than half of this sum — 11.1 billion rubles, or $185 million — has gone toward financing Russia: My History, a “history parks” initiative associated with Metropolitan Tikhon. The funding for these multi-media exhibitions, which have been unveiled in 24 Russian cities, mainly came from regional budgets, with additional help from the state-owned energy giant Gazprom. The most expensive parks were set up in St. Petersburg and Tver, to the tune of 1.4 billion ($23 million) and 1.1 billion rubles ($18 million), respectively.
The other “half” of the money went to six foundations also linked to Metropolitan Tikhon. As follows from their financial reports for 2019–2021, these foundations received 9.15 billion rubles, or $152 million, mainly from the Russian government and state-owned companies, as well as through donations, rental properties, and ticket sales.
For example, the foundation Moia Istoria (My History) received 4.6 billion rubles (more than $76 million) over those three years, most of which was spent on another major project associated with Metropolitan Tikhon — the construction of the State Museum-Preserve Tauric Chersonese in Sevastopol (the largest city in Russian-annexed Crimea). The foundation allocated 3.4 billion rubles (more than $56 million) to this project in 2021.
My History’s main source of funding was Gazprom Neft’s social investment initiative Ronye Goroda (Home Cities). In fact, the Home Cities initiative allocates most of its funds to Metropolitan Tikhon’s projects. The initiative donated more than more than 1 billion rubles ($16.6 million) to My History in 2019, and an additional 3 billion rubles ($50 million) in 2021.
iStories also found that My History and the Humanitarian Projects Foundation — Tikhon’s two biggest foundations in terms of turnover — were both founded by one Ivan Esin, a former legal consultant for Gazprom Neft. Esin is also the founder of Smart Grup, a company that signed contracts with My History, including for the reconstruction of the Chersonese Museum-Preserve. Today, Smart Grup is owned by the Humanitarian Projects Foundation and one of its former employees, a woman by the name of Svetlana Sablina.
Metropolitan Tikhon is often referred to as “Putin’s confessor” in the Russian press. Whether this is true is unknown, but the Russian president has never challenged the claim. According to iStories, it’s “most likely not true” — however, Tikhon has known Putin since 1999, when he was the director of the Russian FSB.
Everything about this report, including the photo at the link, reminds me of the 2014 film Leviathan. I wanted to look up the director, Andrey Zvyagintsev, to see where he stands on the invasion of Ukraine, and found this:
On June 25, 2021 Zvyagintsev [who’s 58] received the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. On the 3rd day after vaccination, he had a fever of 38-39°C and was taken to the hospital. On July 8, he was admitted to intensive care. During his treatment in the hospital, he contracted sepsis as a result of contracting a nosocomial infection resistant to antibiotics. He subsequently developed polyneuropathy after he was put into an artificial coma in Germany, the result of which causing him to lose the ability to walk. For a long time he could neither sit nor speak, and there were problems with the movement of his hands. In the hospital, his throat ligaments were injured. As of May 2022, he is still undergoing treatment at a hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany.
When was the last time the uninsured rate was this low? Never. It’s never happened. President Biden says that’s “not an accident” — and he has a point.
The scope of the Affordable Care Act was extraordinary, reaching every part of the nation’s expansive health care system. But at its root, the ACA had one overarching goal: to reduce the uninsured rate by bring affordable coverage to millions of Americans. The United States had one of the highest uninsured rates in the industrialized world, and reformers believed the ACA would make it better.
It did exactly that. […] once “Obamacare” was passed and implemented, the nation’s uninsured rate sharply improved. The law set out to achieve a specific goal and it succeeded.
That progress faltered a bit during Donald Trump’s presidency, as the Republican administration’s policies pushed the uninsured rate a little higher, but as USA Today reported, the Biden administration is now celebrating the lowest uninsured rate on record.
A record low 8% of Americans lacked health insurance at the start of the year, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided first to USA TODAY. More than 5 million people have gained coverage since 2020, according to the department’s review of household survey data.
Better yet, the same data showed the strongest improvements among low-income Americans.
To be sure, an 8 percent rate is still higher than it should be, and it reminds us that there are still millions of Americans who lack coverage. The uninsured rate would be significantly better were it not for Republican officials in 12 states who continue to reject Medicaid expansion through the ACA for reasons that defy common sense.
[…] President Joe Biden took some credit for the news, declaring, “This progress did not happen by accident.”
[…] Biden and his congressional allies took a variety of deliberate steps early last year that made a significance difference in bringing health security to millions of families. Indeed, not only did the administration significantly bolster outreach efforts, encouraging and helping consumers enroll in ACA plans, but Democrats used the American Rescue Plan to make coverage much more affordable — with some consumers seeing their premiums fall to nearly or literally zero.
[…] The bad news is that those insurance subsidies are set to expire later this year. The good news is that the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act would keep the low insurance rates in place for three more years. […]
[…] Franita Tolson, an election law expert at the University of Southern California, told NPR, “The reasons why Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election failed is because there were state officials who refused to substantiate his claims of fraud. These folks really are gatekeepers.”
It was against this backdrop that Arizona Republicans voted yesterday in their secretary of state primary — and their choice reverberated nationally for a reason. NBC News reported:
Mark Finchem, a prominent 2020 election denier and an Arizona state legislator, has won the Republican secretary of state primary, NBC News projects. With 99% percent of the expected vote in, Finchem, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, had 40% of the vote. State Rep. Shawnna Bolick, another 2020 election denier, had 19% of the vote.
State Rep. Beau Lane acknowledged the reality of the 2020 race and received a fair amount of support from the state’s Republican establishment. He finished a distant second with 25 percent support.
Right off the bat, the obvious problem with Finchem’s candidacy is that he’s an unhinged election denier, basing much of his candidacy on ridiculous conspiracy theories about Trump’s defeat. In fact, the Arizonan recently said he wouldn’t accept the legitimacy of his own primary unless he won. […]
A Slate report added, “In Arizona, the secretary of state, along with the governor, is charged with certifying all elections. So, if elected, Finchem could simply refuse to certify any democratic victory in any state, local, or federal election, citing the sorts of unspecified and unproven claims of fraud he has raised to say that 2020 should not have been certified.”
But with Finchem, the fact that he’s an election denier isn’t the only problem. NBC News’ report added:
Finchem has appeared on QAnon radio talk shows and attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, which led to the storming of the Capitol. He also spoke at a “Stop the Steal” event a day earlier, telling the crowd that Trump had won the 2020 election. In a 2014 interview with local news outlet InMaricopa.com, Finchem identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group whose founder was charged with seditious conspiracy and other counts in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Russian energy giant Gazprom has said that delivery of a turbine needed to keep gas flowing to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline was “impossible” due to sanctions on Moscow.
Gazprom said in a statement:
Sanctions regimes in Canada, in the European Union and in Britain, as well as the inconsistencies in the current situation concerning the contractual obligations of (turbine maker) Siemens make the delivery impossible.
The statement risks further increasing concern [unsurprisingly] in European countries who suspect Moscow is looking for an excuse to delay the turbine’s return to Russia and further reduce its gas deliveries, AFP reports.
Earlier on Wednesday, German chancellor Olaf Scholz accused Russia of blocking the delivery of the key turbine to throttle gas supplies to Europe, as he raised the possibility of keeping nuclear plants going.
The continent’s biggest economy has been scrambling for energy sources to fill a gap left by a reduction in gas supplies from Moscow.
The delayed return of the turbine from Canada, where the unit was being serviced, was behind an initial reduction in gas deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline in June, according to Gazprom.
Supplies via the energy link were further reduced to around 20 percent of capacity in late July, after Gazprom halted the operation of one of the last two operating turbines due to the “technical condition of the engine”.
[…]
I always loved those children’s books that offered a map that folded out of the cover. The Lord of the Rings set the standard, allowing you to trace Frodo’s travels through Middle-earth to the far-off lands of Mordor. It was only as an adult that I discovered that those fantasy worlds had been very much closer to home than I’d imagined.
Like Tolkien, I grew up in Birmingham and it was a smile-inducing wonder to realise that many of the landmarks in the books were based on the geography of the author’s childhood — that the Shire itself was a recreation of the happiness of his infancy at Sarehole Mill; [… other examples]; and that the haunting Eye of Sauron was reportedly evoked by a memory of the grim weeks Tolkien spent recuperating at the university hospital from “trench fever” contracted in France in 1916, where the illuminated clock tower he could see through the window kept him awake.
[Teh “U”K’s culture secretary] Nadine Dorries spent most of last week embarrassingly suggesting that the Commonwealth[colonial] Games might finally put Britain’s second city and the entire West Midlands — home to three million — “on the map”. Perhaps the culture secretary should take a day out on the excellent Birmingham Museums Tolkien Trail (and follow it up with a wander around Shakespeare’s Stratford and Dr Johnson’s Lichfield) to get her bearings.
[…]
The Tory[Teh nasty party] MP who has a habit of putting her foot in it was doing the media rounds on Thursday morning ahead of tonight’s [Sunday July 28th] opening ceremony at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
[…] Dorries said: It’s putting Birmingham on the map, it’s putting the West Midlands on the map.
She then went on to express how much the government have invested in the games and the legacy it will hopefully leave. That’s all well and good but claiming that a sports games which, at the time of writing, hasn’t even begun yet is responsible for getting eyes on a city that has a population of 1.149 million people and in 2017 attracted 41 million tourists seems a little farfetched.
Wow. Sandy Hook parents’ lawyer is revealing that Alex Jones’ lawyers sent him the contents of Jones’ phone BY MISTAKE.
“12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me a digital copy of every text” Jones has sent for years.
“You know what perjury is?” the lawyer asks.
Sandy Hook parents’ lawyer is now asking Jones about the times he has emailed about Sandy Hook over the last several years, despite testifying under oath he couldn’t find any emails about Sandy Hook. There are apparently a lot of them. One is on a screen right now.
Even Jones is stunned by the fact Sandy Hook parents seem to have his emails. Jones just called it their lawyers’ “Perry Mason moment.” It’s shocking.
Judge instructing the jury on the entire contents of Alex Jones’ phone, which was accidentally handed over from Jones’ lawyers to the Sandy Hook parents’ lawyers:
“What we do know is that it was not properly turned over when it should have been.”
These texts and emails are FINALLY revealing financials behind Infowars.
Some days in 2018, InfoWars was making $800,000 a day.
“Well after your deplatforming, your numbers keep getting better,” Sandy Hook parents’ lawyer says.
If they keep that up, that’s ~$300 mill. a year.
(Alex Jones says $800k a day was a really good week during CPAC, where they were doing better business.)
Just want to add that Alex Jones’ latent cough came back in full force when his own texts, which he didn’t know the Sandy Hook parents’ lawyers had access to, appeared on a screen in the court room and he was asked to read one.
Sandy Hook parents’ lawyer on a hot mic during a recess: “You know what nobody’s thought about yet? What happens when that phone goes to law enforcement.”
Byline Times – “What Ukrainians Think About Jeremy Corbyn’s Ukraine Interview”: “Chris York reports on the reaction of Ukrainians after the former Labour Leader said the West supplying weapons to the country will ‘prolong and exaggerate’ Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war…”
[…] “As someone who’s been fascinated by the left side of the European and American political spectrum, I have to say that Jeremy Corbyn is someone I’ve looked up to at times,” journalist Oleksandra Povoroznyk told Byline Times. “So you can imagine my disappointment at the moment.
“I’d be very surprised if Corbyn has actually spoken to Ukrainians or even knows any, because something I’ve noticed is that even the most well-meaning Western experts, even the most pro-Ukrainian ones, don’t actually want to listen to what Ukrainians are saying.
“A lot of people in the West are denying Ukraine any sort of agency by claiming we’re constantly being manipulated by NATO or saying it’s a US proxy war and the West is forcing us to fight. None of these people are actually paying attention to what we’re actually saying. It’s sad and annoying.” […]
Republicans in Kansas woke up to the dark prospect of life in a state where women have human rights, G.O.P. activists report.
Harland Dorrinson, a Republican stalwart in Kansas for more than forty years, said that now, after voters in the state appeared to affirm women should be treated as humans, “I no longer recognize my Kansas.”
“This is a slippery slope,” he said. “If women are granted bodily autonomy, it’s only a matter of time before they are permitted to marry who they want, wear what they want, eat what they want. I know I speak for many of my fellow-Republicans when I say I don’t want to live in a state like that.”
Dorrinson said that he is contemplating leaving the state where he has lived his entire life but is unsure where he might go. “If this kind of nightmare can happen in Kansas, it can happen anywhere,” he said.
Had Tuesday’s vote gone the other way, Dorrinson said, Republicans in the state had forecast a bright future for Kansas. “Next, we were hoping to roll back women’s right to vote,” he said, adding ruefully, “but it’s a little late for that now.”
The United Nations said Yemen’s warring parties agreed Tuesday to renew an existing truce for two more months after concerted international efforts. The already 4-month-old cease-fire has been the longest nationwide ease in fighting since the war began in the Arab world’s poorest country nearly eight years ago.
Pregnant Georgians can now list their fetus as a dependent on their tax returns. The Georgia Department of Revenue released new guidance this week establishing that the agency ‘will recognize any unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat … as eligible for the Georgia individual income tax dependent exemption.’
Video at the (Twitter) link. They’re speaking French – no subtitles. The whole thing is fairly unsettling, though not unexpected. He suggests that 10, 20 years ago most Taiwanese people were pro-unification and now most are against it; chalks this claimed change up to the effect of “extreme” political propaganda; and so tries to present “reeducation” as merely a means to counter this alleged indoctrination – after this, Taiwanese people will again come to favor unification. (This is telling given that he’s proposing “reeducation” after unification, so he’s talking about the “reeducation” of a population the majority of whom, he admits, are hostile to unification.) He also tries to compare this “reeducation,” in an obviously canned line delivered unconvincingly, to French schools teaching republican values (the BFM TV interviewer responds well to this ahistorical bullshit).
Back in the 1970s and ‘80s—a period when white supremacists and far-right nationalists had been largely relegated to the fringes of American politics—the remnants of the movement devised a strategy for making a comeback: Create a “white homeland” by encouraging as many of their like-minded believers and sympathizers to move to the Pacific Northwest and gradually grow their numbers to achieve political dominance. One group from Southern California decided to put this plan into action: the Aryan Nations.
Led by a former aeronautical engineer named Richard Butler, the neo-Nazis who went by the name Church of Jesus Christ-Christian—affiliated with the racist Christian Identity movement—targeted one state in particular: Idaho. They believed that its scenic rural countryside was a perfect setting: already home to an almost entirely white populace with a long history of arch-conservatism, it seemed like a ripe environment for spreading their ideology and quietly taking things over.
Now, nearly 50 years after the Aryan Nations set up shop in the Idaho Panhandle, and more than 20 years after they were put out of business, Richard Butler’s vision for the state is becoming dangerously close to being fulfilled. A steady deluge of “white flight” newcomers from more populous states—particularly California—who see Idaho as a far-right political refuge has gradually turned the state into a haven for extremist politics, with an unmistakably bigoted, menacing, and violent ethos.
The apotheosis of this transformation is the recent takeover of the state Republican Party apparatus by far-right “Patriot” extremists, who swept out every incumbent in leadership positions at the recent GOP convention, replacing them with radical ideologues. The new GOP chair, a legislator with John Birch Society credentials named Dorothy Moon, crowed: “We have to make sure with the Democrats coming at us with full force that we have our barriers up, our guns loaded and ready to keep this state free.”
Most of the new Idaho GOP leadership features transplants who came to Idaho from other places like Missouri (Moon), Arkansas, and California. Their politics are from the extreme right: no-exception abortion bans, COVID denialism, Trumpist election conspiracism, and antigovernment paranoia. And the nexus of their organizing is a pair of entwined entities: the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee in Coeur d’Alene, and the paleo-libertarian Idaho Freedom Foundation, both overseen by the same man: California transplant Brent Regan.
[…] This tide has become a flood in recent years, as Idaho has led the country in population growth, with a large majority arriving from the suburbs of California cities.
The attitudes they bring with them reflect the image of Idaho that was first promulgated in the 1980s by the Aryan Nations: a wholesome place dominated by conservative whites, a means of escaping the demographic and cultural changes—particularly the influx of nonwhite immigrants—occurring elsewhere.
A homeland for hate
The neo-Nazi strategy of creating a “white homeland” in the Pacific Northwest was first elucidated in the early 1970s by a Michigan-based Ku Klux Klan organizer named Robert Miles, who in 1971 had been convicted of plotting to bomb school buses in Pontiac. After his prison term, he began peddling the strategy to his fellow racist organizers, calling it the “Northwest Imperative.”
He outlined the logic of the plan in a 1989 interview:
If, for instance, 31 million people move to the Northwest—simply pack up, call up the United Van Lines and move up to Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington—and buy a house there or rent a house there, that’s not a violent movement.
[…] One of the neo-Nazi leaders who decided to act on Miles’ plan—dubbed the “Northwest Territorial Imperative”—was Richard Butler, who in 1976 purchased a parcel of land near Hayden Lake, about 10 miles north of Coeur d’Alene, and moved his Christian Identity church there from its original home in Lancaster, California. He built a number of buildings, including a churchhouse, and dubbed the property the Aryan Nations.
It soon became a major convocation site for the American racist right, drawing hundreds of fellow white supremacists for their annual Aryan Congress gatherings, which included neofascist parades through downtown Coeur d’Alene, and inevitably concluded with a nighttime cross-burning, with full press coverage.
[…] The “Northwest Imperative” would be realized, he explained, by drawing in people who might not be explicit white supremacists like themselves, but were sympathetic with their goals. But it key to the plan was inmigration “by White nationalists moving to the area, buying land together or adjacent to each other, and having families consisting of five or ten children. … We will win the Northwest by out-breeding our opponents and keeping our children away from the insane and destructive values of the Establishment.”
This meant that a number of the people being drawn to the Northwest were radical extremists with a willingness to use violence [snipped examples]
Among the people drawn to the Aryan Nations who were not dedicated racists, however, were people like Randy and Vicki Weaver, a survivalist couple from Iowa who moved to the Panhandle to prepare for the end of the world, and were drawn to Butler’s church by its apocalypticism and paranoia. In 1992, after Weaver refused to become an informant against someone he had befriended at the Aryan Nations, he got into a gunfight with federal marshals that turned into a lethal standoff with the FBI at his home on Ruby Ridge, in rural Boundary County. That standoff is credited with inspiring right-wing ideologues to found and promote the antigovernment “Patriot” militia movement.
Butler’s operation was put out of business by a Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit in 2000, and Butler himself died two years later. But the trends he had helped set into motion kept on going.
‘I’m no racist’
Just as Miles had predicted, the national news coverage of the Aryan Nations had implanted an image of Idaho as a predominantly white place congenial to far-right politics in the broader public imagination so that, by the 1990s, an increasing number of newcomers began arriving from other states looking for those conditions.
Idaho only became a deep-red Republican state in the past two decades. Prior to that, it was a classic “purple” state, electing a mix of Democrats and Republicans; famous Democrats such as Senator Frank Church and Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus were elected statewide then, largely on the back of sturdy support in northern Idaho.
Idaho’s shift began in earnest in the 1990s when “white flight” from California and elsewhere brought hordes of authoritarian conservatives fleeing the brown people. It transformed the region, including eastern Washington State and Utah. […]
The largest influx of such voters came from California:
Between 1991 and 1993, a reported 28,202 Californians moved to Idaho, making up nearly 27% of the state’s 98,446 new residents. In the same period, 5,315 of those California transplants moved to Kootenai County, nearly 40% of its newcomers.
California provides more than twice as many emigres to Idaho as second-place Washington state. And even many of the latter, according to Idaho state transportation officials who tally newcomer origins through auto license plate transfers, are once-removed Californians who moved on after finding the growing congestion of Seattle and Puget Sound too much like home.
One of them, a former Thousand Oaks stockbroker, hated the cultural conditions and traffic of Southern California, as he told the Los Angeles Times: “I’m no racist, but I just got tired of being a minority in Los Angeles, tired of explaining English to 7-Eleven clerks and counting their change for them.”
The most prominent contingent was cops. Over 500 California police officers moved to northern Idaho by the end of the ’90s, leading locals to dub the Panhandle region “LAPD North.” [I did not know that.]
The most prominent of these departing cops was Mark Fuhrman, the LAPD detective who committed perjury about his use of racist epithets during the O.J. Simpson trial and who had been exposed as a flaming bigot (one ex-girlfriend testified that he had told her, “The only good n—–r is a dead n——r”). Fuhrman moved to Sandpoint in 1995 after retiring from the force, and his fellow ex-California cops living in the region angrily defended him: “I don’t attach any significance to the fact Fuhrman might be looking to retire up here,” one said. “It’s only natural to want to retire someplace that is less intense and reflects more genuine American values.”
Idaho’s inmigration trend […] has intensified to tsunami levels. And with that tide, not only has the number and percentage of Republicans expanded, but the levels of right-wing extremists among them have risen to previously unseen levels.
A 2017 survey of political attitudes among Idaho newcomers found that 60% of them identified as Republicans, while only 25% were Democrats, compared to 54% of native Idahoans who identified with the GOP. […]
The data demolishes a popular myth in Idaho that all the people moving to the state are going to turn the state liberal—a legend that was given fresh legs recently by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who claimed that this supposed transformation was part of Democrats’ nefarious campaign to “replace” conservative white voters.
However, as KTVB-TV news staff found when it examined the data from the previous four election cycles, the reality is precisely the opposite: the inmigration was turning Idaho even farther to the right politically. […]
Extremism in the real world
At the same time and more broadly, movement conservatism under Donald Trump has become host to an overlapping array of conspiracy theorists, white and Christian nationalists, and anti-democratic authoritarians, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat. In Idaho, that has translated into a surge of far-right politics both within the halls of power and among the general populace.
[…] They all generically call themselves “Patriots,” but they share a broad range of political worldviews […]
Allowing these extremists to participate in mainstream circles without being shunned, he said, becomes an invitation to spread their ideology. “Neo-Nazis and other folks like that are really kind of looking to take advantage of this moment of people questioning and trying to radicalize these folks even further, which is really, really troubling,” Piggott said.
[…] A band of neo-Nazi terrorists who moved to Idaho in 2020—mostly ex-Marines who had met at boot camp in North Carolina—planned to target electrical infrastructure (mainly transformer stations) in the Pacific Northwest in order to knock out power to targeted regions where they hoped to use the distraction to carry out political assassinations of leading leftist figure in the region. The men even conducted paramilitary training sessions in the Idaho desert to prepare. The FBI arrested them in October 2020.
[…] Buying property in remote areas that are already predominantly white and right-leaning, networking with locals, training, farming, and stockpiling.
[…] As time goes on in this conflict, we will expand our territories and slowly take back the land that is rightfully ours … As we build our forces and our numbers, we will move into the urban areas and clear them out. This will be a ground war very reminiscent of Iraq as we will essentially be facing an insurgent force made up of criminals and gang members.”
Ammon Bundy, the notorious leader of the 2016 Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff—who had moved to Emmett from Nevada in 2015—led a protest outside a Boise hospital claiming that local authorities had “kidnapped” one of the children of his cohorts […]
After the arrest, Bundy’s massive network of online supporters descended on the players in the controversy, doxxing health care, social workers, and police officers involved in the case […]
At an October 2021 Turning Point USA event hosted by Charlie Kirk at the Nampa Civic Center, one of the audience members—later identified as a California transplant—asked Kirk: “At this point, we’re living under a corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns?”
The crowd whooped, and he continued: “No, and I’m not, that’s not a joke, I’m not saying it like that. I mean literally, where’s the line? How many elections are they gonna steal before we kill these people?”
[…] When the video hit social media and went viral, most Idaho Republicans were silent—except for the local Republican legislator from Nampa, Rep. Ben Adams, who tweeted that it was a reasonable question: “Our Republic would not exist without this kind of rhetoric. The question is fair, but Charlie Kirk probably isn’t the person to ask.” (Adams is also a transplant who was born in Florida.)
In late April, a group of far-right bikers called the Panhandle Patriots, spouting right-wing “groomer” rhetoric, announced their intention to “confront” the annual Pride in the Park event in Coeur d’Alene with a counter-event that would emphasize guns, then later backed off to rebrand it as a “day of prayer.” When the event arrived on June 11, a number of gun-toting Christian nationalists showed up to mill around on the event’s periphery.
The scene reached its climax when a group of 31 masked men from the neofascist Patriot Front organization tried to invade the park by arriving en masse in a rented U-Haul truck, but were arrested just outside the park by Coeur d’Alene police. Inside the vehicle, investigators found a detailed plan for starting the riot in the park and then expanding the violence into the city’s downtown.
One of the key planners of the invasion attempt was a Patriot Front member from Idaho, while other key participants lived in the nearby Spokane, Washington, area. But their plans attracted other members of the group from as far away as Texas and Alabama.
[…] “We take over that state’s capitol, small towns, and local politics,” Chapman [Notorious Proud Boys figure Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman] wrote. “Institute laws that benefit us and eventually vie for secession.”
Boise resident Cherie Buckner-Webb—an African American, as well as a fourth-generation Idahoan—observed to the Statesman: “There’s a critical mass that is no longer doing this in the shadows,” Buckner-Webb said. “Crosses used to get burned in your yard in the dark of night, or you covered your face. These people are bold. They’re emboldened.“
A huge nuclear power plant occupied by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine is “completely out of control”, The head of the UN’s nuclear agency says.
Rafael Grossi was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying the Zaporizhzhia plant needed an inspection and repairs.
“You have a catalogue of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility,” he said.
Europe’s biggest nuclear plant is dangerously close to the fighting.
…
In 1986, northern Ukraine was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster when a reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded.
Russian forces also seized Chernobyl soon after the invasion on 24 February this year but withdrew after five weeks. Computers at the site were looted or damaged but actual nuclear equipment at the decommissioned plant was not affected.
The leading figures on Britain’s organised far left have in recent days have basically come out and said: “you can’t hope to defeat fascism, so surrender”.
These are people that genuinely think they would have fought at Cable Street.
Whether you like it or not, Ukraine resists, Ukraine is defiant, Ukraine is free. What a failed political project run by cranks and apologists for Russian violence has to say on the matter changes nothing.
Another fallacy about Trans children proves to be wrong.
Social contagion does not explain why Trans people are…Trans people.
And Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria still doesn’t exist.
The Hill
New research challenges claim that youth identify as transgender due to ‘social contagion’
Brooke Migdon Wed, August 3, 2022 at 12:29 PM·4 min read
A paper published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics disproves popular theories used mostly by conservative politicians and those in the medical field seeking to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
Transgender adolescents do not identify as transgender because they are influenced by external factors like social media or their peers, according to the paper, and cisgender youth do not identify as transgender to flee the stigma of being gay or lesbian.
The paper’s lead author told Changing America that he hopes his and his colleague’s research will be used to eradicate the use of unfounded theories in political discourse and policy making.
Gender dysphoria is not driven by “social contagion” and transgender youth do not identify as transgender to escape stigma related to their sexual orientation, new research suggests — directly rebuking two popular theories embraced by conservative politicians and a small percentage of the medical community seeking to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender young people.
In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that the percentage of adolescents who openly identified as transgender declined between 2017 and 2019, which challenges a theory that the number of transgender youth in the U.S. is climbing due to the influence of things like social media and peer pressure.
In April, Missouri Rep. Suzie Pollock, a Republican who sponsored legislation this year that would have stripped doctors that provide gender-affirming care to minors of their medical licenses, said the “root cause” of gender dysphoria is abuse, mental disorders and “social contagion.”
Rep. Gary Click (R), the sponsor of a similar measure in Ohio, said while testifying that he believed young people who identify as transgender are often influenced to do so by social media or a “desire to fit into a group or escape an adverse experience.”
America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.
“Sadly, work in this area has become highly politicized,” Jack Turban, an incoming assistant professor in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco and the paper’s lead author, told Changing America on Wednesday.
“This is difficult to watch for those of us who have dedicated our careers to supporting the mental health of young people,” he said. “We regularly see young trans patients who become more anxious and depressed as they watch politicians stigmatize them on large national platforms.”
In states like Florida and Alabama, where legislation targeting transgender young people has become law, “things are even worse,” Turban said.
In the study published Wednesday, Turban and his colleagues analyzed data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey — a biennial survey distributed to high school students across the country.
While the CDC survey does not require states to collect or report information on adolescents’ gender identity (questions about sexual orientation have only been administered since 2015), 16 states opted to do so in both 2017 and 2019, culminating in a sample of roughly 100,000 young people per year.
Using that dataset, researchers found that most transgender youth between 2017 and 2019 were assigned male at birth — a discovery that challenges another fringe theory that adolescents assigned female at birth are more likely to identify as transgender because of social media, peer pressure and other external influences.
From 2017 to 2019, the percent of transgender youth assigned female at birth fell from 1.9 percent to 1.4 percent of the transgender population, the study found.
The paper disproves the “social contagion” hypothesis that stems from a 2018 study of online parent forums. According to that study’s findings, children are more likely to experience “rapid onset gender dysphoria” when they spend more time using the internet or have friends who are transgender.
That theory has been disproved by multiple studies published in peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Pediatrics and The Sociological Review.
Joerg Heber, then-editor-in-chief of the journal PLOS ONE, which published the original study, issued an apology shortly after it was released for “oversights that occurred during the original assessment of the study.”
Researchers on Wednesday also found that data did not support a theory that there is a national trend of cisgender youth identifying as transgender to flee the stigma of being gay or lesbian.
Comparing rates of bullying victimization among transgender adolescents and cisgender sexual minority adolescents, researchers found that rates of victimization were much higher among transgender young people.
According to Turban, experts working in transgender health care have never given much credence to the idea that lesbian, gay or bisexual youth identify as transgender to escape judgement or torment from their peers.
“That simply isn’t what we generally see in clinical practice,” he said.
Turban said he hopes his research will be used to eradicate the use of unfounded theories in political discourse and policy making, which is what motivated him and his team to take on the study in the first place.
“My hope is that we can move away from a politicized discourse about trans youth and toward one that is compassionate and evidence based,” he said.
So from the limited bits I’ve been able to stomach…the TERF coverage of the Kansas vote, the Lionesses’ victory, and so forth consists entirely of weird language policing around “girls, “women,” “people,” etc. It’s sad and bizarre. Their thinking is so poisoned that they can’t even just enjoy these things or straightforwardly stand up for human rights.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 139 & 148
What next? Bernie Sanders starts speaking glowingly of Caleb Maupin?
SC @147, Yikes! That is really, really scary news.
More text from the link you provided:
[…] The plant is still operating, with Ukrainian staff under Russian control.
At a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York, Mr Grossi said: “The situation is very fragile. Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated one way or the other and we cannot allow that to continue.”
The IAEA’s director-general said he was trying to put together a mission as soon as possible to visit the plant but this required the approval of both the Ukrainian and Russian sides, as well as UN authorisation, given the risks involved in visiting the war zone.
In June, Ukraine’s state nuclear company said Ukraine had not invited the IAEA – and any visit would legitimise Russia’s presence there. [Surely that has changed now??]
This week, Mr Grossi said he and his team needed protection to reach Zaporizhzhia – which meant the co-operation of both Russia and Ukraine. “I’m pleading to both sides to let this mission proceed,” he said.
IAEA contacts with staff at the plant had been “patchy” and the supply chain of equipment and spares had been disrupted, Mr Grossi explained to AP. There was also a lot of nuclear material which needed to be inspected, he added.
“While this war rages on, inaction is unconscionable,” he said. “If an accident occurs at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, we will not have a natural disaster to blame – we will have only ourselves to answer to. We need everyone’s support.” […]
The Ukrainian staff at the plant must also be near the breaking point.
The Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution ratifying Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to the NATO, sending another signal that Congress remains unified in opposing Russian aggression toward Ukraine and Europe.
The Senate voted 95 to 1 to approve the resolution, with every member of the Democratic caucus and most Republicans voting in support. It ratifies protocols of accession that NATO allies signed on July 5.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who argued in a recent op-ed that the United States should focus on containing China instead of expanding NATO, was the only Republican to vote “no.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted “present” on the resolution. […]
Even Mitch McConnell was onboard:
The resolution was a top priority of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who visited Sweden and Finland in May as part of a congressional delegation that also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
McConnell insisted the Senate ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership before leaving for the monthlong August recess.
“There is just no question that admitting these robust democratic countries with modern economies and capable, interoperable militaries will only strengthen the most successful military alliance in human history,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
McConnell noted that Sweden and Finland already participate in NATO- and American-led missions and that Finland already meets NATO’s target that members spend at least 2 percent of their national gross domestic product on defense.
He suggested that Republican colleagues who voted against expanding NATO made a mistake, arguing that standing up to Russian aggression will send a strong message to Chinese leaders.
“Even closer cooperation with these partners will help us counter Russia and China. Their accession will make NATO stronger and America more secure,” he said.
“If any senator is looking for a defensible excuse to vote ‘no,’ I wish them good luck. This is a slam dunk for national security that deserves unanimous bipartisan support,” he added. […]
DENNIS PRAGER (HOST): My friends, the anger over the fraud that was committed in the last election has nothing to do with who should be the nominee in this election. That’s an emotional argument. I understand the emotion. There is no doubt in my mind there was cheating. I have no proof.
He knows it. He has no proof.
I only have arguments for the fact there was massive cheating.
Good arguments? No, he feels the arguments. How could there possibly be so many people in America who literally wouldn’t piss on Donald Trump if he was on fire?
I don’t know who won the election. Ok? To be honest, I don’t know.
We know who.
But, I can’t say it was honestly won and I can’t say for certain it was dishonestly won.
The first one. According to members of Trump’s own administration, even!
The only thing I am certain of is that Democrats cheat whenever possible and that there was cheating in this election.
He’s certain of it. He has no proof.
That has nothing to do with who should be the nominee. Nothing. I am not choosing a nominee based on my anger over the last election. I am choosing a nominee based on that person’s ability to win.
He’s not being emotional.
I said this when Donald Trump did not go to Georgia, or did not go enough. I don’t remember which it was. But Georgia was enough — Georgia, the two runoffs which decided everything. It enabled this horrible human being named Joe Biden to govern as a dictator because he has the split Senate which is therefore in Democrats’ hands because of the vice presidency.
Yes we hate that particular kink in our system where Democratic presidents with 50/50 Senates get to govern as dictators. He’s sure that’s how it works. He has no proof, though.
blf@137,
I spent a fair amount of time in Birmingham in the 1990s. My partner (now wife) was living and working there – not far from Sarehole Mill. I was working successively in Leeds and Aberystwyth, but spent a lot of weekends and time off there. Not by any means my favourite city, but pleasant enough in parts, and apparently the best place outwith South Asia for baltis – the vegetable and mushroom ones served in the Indian restaurant near her home were certainly the best I’ve ever tasted. In any case, I never had any trouble in finding the place, so it was definitely on the map even then!
As it happens, I’ve just been rereading a series of three novels largely set in Birmingham: Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters’ Club, The Closed Circle, and Middle England, set respectively in the 1970s, 1990s and 2010s, and together making up something of a “condition of England” series, with a lot of social and political history intertwined with the main characters’ lives from adolescence to late middle age. The Birmingham pub bombing features in the first, one of the characters being killed in the explosion. In the third, a secondary character (a Londoner) points out that “Sarehole” is an anagram of “arsehole”!
KGsays
SC@139, 148, 158,
My opinion of Corbyn has shifted from ambivalence to disgust. I’m even having to question whether a Labour win in 2019 would have been worse than what happened – although I’ve a feeling that in that alternate universe, Corbyn would have been ejected from the leadership (and hence from the premiership) if he’d said anythnig similar. As far as I can judge, support for Corbyn’s view is minuscule within Labour – although as a non-member, I could be wrong.
ravensays
Paul Krugman has an article on the economic sanctions against Russia.
.1. They aren’t working too well.
For various reasons, including the sanctions, oil and gas prices are up. And Russia is having no problem selling their oil to non-European countries.
.2. They are having trouble buying stuff though including advanced microchips.
That has hit their economy hard.
.3. The sanctions on their own aren’t going to end the war in Ukraine.
.4. I’ll add my own 7 cents here. Russia has proven to be an unreliable supplier and trading partner. It is also a terrorist state that routinely threatens to nuke everyone for some reason or no reason. I’m not sure why Germany is buying Russian gas when Russia just threatened to vaporize Berlin.
There is a lot of natural gas in the world e.g. Central Asia has huge reserves. Even Germany itself has natural gas deposits that they could drill into. Plus the LNG trade.
They really need to get away from Russian natural gas for their own national security.
OPINION
PAUL KRUGMAN
Who’s Embargoing Whom?
Aug. 2, 2022 NYTimes
The other day, my CUNY and Stone Center colleague Branko Milanovic suggested that it would be interesting to “compare Napoleon’s continental blockade against Great Britain to the current sanctions against Russia.” As it happened, I was already on the topic. I had just read Andrew Roberts’s “Napoleon: A Life” and was thinking about the parallels.
The parallels are not, in fact, very good. But laying out the differences is itself, I believe, a useful exercise, and there are other historical examples of trade embargoes in times of war that come closer to what’s happening now.
So, for those not familiar with the history, a potted summary: At the beginning of the 19th century, Britain and France were locked in a peculiar stalemate — the British unbeatable at sea, France very nearly unbeatable on land. Napoleon tried to break this stalemate with economic warfare, closing the ports of Europe to British commerce. But his blockade was leaky, and his attempts to plug the leaks led him into disastrous military ventures — first a bloody quagmire in Spain, then a catastrophic invasion of Russia.
What does this have to do with the current situation? Not much. Let’s fast-forward to 2022.
The conventional wisdom on Feb. 24, I think, was that Russia would win a quick military victory in Ukraine, but then face a cash shortage as the West embargoed its exports. This has not come to pass.
On the military side, Russia’s attempt at a quick seizure of Ukraine’s major cities ended with huge losses and a humiliating retreat. Russia then shifted to a grinding, artillery-driven battle of attrition in the Donbas but gained only a few square miles of ground, again at the cost of heavy losses. That attack more or less stalled out in mid-June, and more recently Western weapons seem to have tipped the balance of power in Ukraine’s favor, although the front lines remain static, at least for now.
On the other hand, Western attempts to restrict Russian exports have been a bust. Russian oil is still finding its way to world markets, and if anything, the country appears to be flush with cash.
But while Russia is having no problem selling stuff, it’s having a lot of trouble buying stuff. Sanctions on Russia’s exports have, as I said, been a bust, but sanctions on its imports — refusal to sell Russia essential goods — have been more successful than, as far as I know, anyone expected. Even nations that aren’t part of the coalition imposing sanctions, including China, have sharply cut their exports to Russia:
None of this would have made sense in the Napoleonic era, because international trade was much simpler then. Sanctions appear to be restricting Russian industry because so much modern trade consists not of consumer goods but of industrial inputs. That wasn’t true in, say, 1810, with the main exception being cotton — which didn’t come from areas Napoleon controlled.
Also, in 1810, there weren’t many multinational businesses. Today, a company that manufactures goods in China — even if it’s Chinese-owned — is probably reluctant to sell potentially strategic goods to Russia out of fear that it may find itself sanctioned in other, more important markets, like the United States and the European Union.
So economic sanctions against Russia appear to have been surprisingly effective, just not in the way everyone expected. That said, there are no indications I’m aware of that the economic cost of the sanctions is leading to any moderation in Russian policy. What they’re doing instead is crimping Russia’s military production, which is a real problem for Putin, given the continuing inflow of Western weapons into Ukraine.
But wait, that’s not the end of the story, because there’s another de facto embargo underway. Early in the war, supporters of Ukraine pleaded with European nations — Germany in particular — to stop buying Russian natural gas; they didn’t. But now Russia is, in effect, sanctioning its own gas exports. It’s not an explicitly announced policy, but Russia has been reducing deliveries to European markets, pretty clearly in an attempt to damage the European economy and increase political pressure for Europe to stop supporting Ukraine.
Gas prices spiked in February with the Russian invasion, but quickly subsided to more or less the pre-invasion level. They didn’t begin a sustained rise until mid-June. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this upward break corresponds with the point when even the Russians realized that their Donbas offensive wasn’t going to produce a decisive breakthrough.
Everything suggests that this was when Russia began limiting gas deliveries. In effect, Russia, not the West, is now the player trying to use economic warfare as a substitute for its inability to prevail on the battlefield.
The closest historical parallel I can find is the embargo on cotton exports imposed by the Confederacy early in the Civil War, in an attempt to force Britain to intervene on the side of the South. This embargo didn’t last long, but by the time it was repealed, it was moot: The Union navy was blockading Southern ports anyway. Needless to say, the embargo didn’t work.
Will Russia’s ploy work better? I wish I could be more sure than I am about European resolve, especially given high inflation and the high risk of recession (which is higher there than it is in the United States). On the other hand, the nations that seem most likely to waver, especially Germany and Italy, have been lagging in their arms deliveries anyway; Russia’s stealth gas embargo is unlikely to deter crucial shipments from the United States, Britain and Poland, among others.
The truth is that it is hard to find historical examples of successful economic warfare unless you count blockades that were themselves a form of military action — like the U.S. submarine campaign that devastated Japan’s economy during World War II. In the end, the war in Ukraine will probably be decided on the battlefield.
KGsays
I’m not sure why Germany is buying Russian gas when Russia just threatened to vaporize Berlin. – raven@163
That’s easy: lack of an immediately available alternative. Gas that could be available next decade, next year or even next month, can’t be burned today.
After nearly two years of the Big Lie, some Republicans are applying ridiculous election conspiracy theories to their own primary defeats.
A couple of months ago, Ryan Kelley, a far-right estate agent, was arrested and charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. That wouldn’t have been especially notable, except the Michigan Republican was also running for governor.
In the immediate aftermath of his arrest, Kelley’s public profile received a boost, and one poll showed him narrowly leading the crowded GOP field. That said, his campaign ultimately faltered and in this week’s gubernatorial primary, Kelley finished fourth out of five candidates.
At least, that’s what the actual vote tallies show. As The Detroit News reported, the failed candidate isn’t conceding and didn’t appear ready to accept the results.
Real estate broker Ryan Kelley, who finished in fourth place in Michigan’s GOP primary race for governor and was 25 percentage points behind the winner [!], Tudor Dixon, was the first candidate to question the results. The Allendale man posted a statement at about 1:24 a.m. on some of his social media platforms. Then, at about 5 a.m., he released the same message on his official Facebook page.
Kelley described the primary results as a “predetermined outcome,” and called his party’s nominee the “predetermined winner.” He called on the state GOP to support “a publicly supervised hand recount to uphold election integrity.”
This comes a week after election officials in Michigan expressed concerns that conspiracy theories might lead some local Republican canvassers to refuse to certify primary results.
At first blush, it might be tempting to scoff at occasional sore losers, but the larger pattern is more discouraging. Much of the GOP started by embracing Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 race, and Republicans are now applying those conspiratorial principles to other races — including their own.
NPR recently highlighted the crop of GOP candidates “who insist they won their elections, facts be damned.”
While Trump has most notably spent the last 18 months denying his 2020 election defeat, despite clear evidence he lost, he’s not the only one. During this election cycle, candidates across the country have refused to concede — even in races that are not remotely close.
[…] the list of such GOP candidates isn’t short, and it is growing.
The Associated Press recently published a round-up of these losing candidates, highlighting primary races in Colorado, Nevada, and South Carolina. Axios found related instances in Florida and Georgia.
In some cases, losing Republican candidates simply whine about fraud that they can’t prove, but in other instances, the GOP candidates who fell far short have pushed for recounts and even filed lawsuits based on their theories.
None of this is healthy. Democracies work when candidates and parties accept legitimate results, win or lose. When much of one party, fueled by absurd lies, decides to only accept elections when Americans vote the way they like, it erodes the entire system.
Aren’t people tired of this schtick in which Republican candidates whine about non-existent election fraud?
Unconfirmed social media reports suggest that Iran may have sent the first batch of drones to Russia and sent pilots and maintenance personnel to train on the Russian Su-35, potentially suggesting that Iran may seek to use recent aviation agreements to facilitate the acquisition of Russian combat aircraft.
Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive operations northeast and northwest of Kharkiv City.
Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks northwest of Slovyansk and east of Siversk.
Russian forces made marginal gains southeast of Bakhmut and continued offensive operations to the northeast and southeast of Bakhmut.
Russian forces made incremental advances around Avdiivka and are continuing attempts to push southwest of Avdiivka.
Russian forces launched two assaults in northern Kherson Oblast and are continuing to redeploy troops to the Southern Axis.
Russian federal subjects are forming new volunteer battalions in Novosibirsk, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, and Kurgan Oblasts, and are changing time periods for enlistment compensations.
Ukrainian civilians are continuing to resist the Russian occupation with acts of civil disobedience and partisan sabotage as the Kremlin considers longer-term methods of population control in occupied Ukraine.
Yesterday, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Securing Access to Reproductive and Other Healthcare Services (full text). The White House also issued a Fact Sheet explaining the Executive Order. The Executive Order reads in part:
There have been numerous reports of women denied health- and life-saving emergency care, as providers fearful of legal reprisal delay necessary treatment for patients until their conditions worsen to dangerous levels. There are also reports of women of reproductive age being denied prescription medication at pharmacies — including medication that is used to treat stomach ulcers, lupus, arthritis, and cancer — due to concerns that these medications, some of which can be used in medication abortions, could be used to terminate a pregnancy. Reportedly, a healthcare provider, citing a State law restricting abortion, even temporarily stopped providing emergency contraception.
As it remains the policy of my Administration to support women’s access to reproductive healthcare services, including their ability to travel to seek abortion care in States where it is legal, I am directing my Administration to take further action to protect access to reproductive healthcare services and to address the crisis facing women’s health and public health more broadly.
The Executive Order among other things directs the HHS Secretary to advance access to Medicaid coverage for patients traveling across state lines for medical care. It also directs the Secretary to promote compliance with non-discrimination laws in obtaining medical care.
[…] The optics of the speaker’s [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s] meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen were loaded with symbolism. Pelosi paid tribute to Tsai, saying, “We are so proud of your leadership, a woman president in one of the freest societies in the world.” The unspoken contrast was with the all-male leadership of the People’s Republic of China, where no woman has ascended to the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest political body, since its foundation in 1949. The understated presence and language of Taiwan’s popularly elected leader also stand in sharp relief to the bellicose rhetoric emanating from Beijing, which again repeated its warning that those who play with fire “will perish by it.”
[…] In roughly 24 hours, Chinese officials and propagandists went from warning of a possible war to pleading for patience as Beijing struggled to articulate a cohesive response to Nancy Pelosi’s landmark trip to Taiwan.
Commentary:
[…] It was the worst possible outcome for China—Pelosi demonstrated just how impotent China was to stop her visit, and she used the intense attention China’s histrionics generated to further shine a light on its despotic shortcomings. And after priming its public for action, the government looked weak in the face of what they declared to be Western provocation.
[…] Russia is trying to approach Bakhmut from three locations, while also pushing toward Pisky and Avdiivka down near Donetsk—two towns that have resisted Russian advances from the regional capital (and Russian stronghold) of Donetsk city for eight years. [map at the link] On that northern advance, Ukraine has established a solid defensive line from Bakhmut to Sivers’k. Russia hasn’t even gotten to that line, as Ukraine makes Russia pay for every meter it advances. Unlike Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, both isolated in a deep salient from Ukrainian artillery support, this line is well covered on the Ukrainian side.
Meanwhile, the southern approach is so nonsensical, that war criminal Igor Girkin, who commanded the Donbas forces in the 2014 war, nearly lost his head over it.
So, the Russian military thinking was marked by another genius military decision – while the ukrops are trying to achieve success on Kherson direction (where a breakthrough of a frontline in theory promises a deep penetration or at least an operational success), our military geniuses again decided to directly assault Avdiivka […]
Naturally, I wish our fighters maximum success. But even in the most favourable case (that is when after fierce street battles and fights inside the depths of the enemy’s prepared defences, our forces will take Avdiivka etc), the frontline will only be moved to the next defensive line of the enemy – that is the same Sloviansk – Kramatorsk – Druzhovka – Konstantinovka – Kurakhovo line. Hardly any deeper. Although for me personally such success does not seem to be guaranteed at all (knowing the state of the DPR and RF Armed Forces infantry).
Head-on assaults of this nature won’t get Russia far. They simply don’t have the man- and firepower to make it happen. This is patently futile. With Ukraine advancing in the Kherson area, perhaps Russian generals are feeling new pressure for action?
This is an amazing statistic: [map and stats at the link, showing less than 19.4% of Ukraine being occupied by Russia, which is 0.02% more than Russia controlled at the end of June]
That’s 63 square miles, the equivalent of taking a piece of land 10 miles deep, six miles wide. June even includes the Russian capture of Lysychansk! I did some quick checks, and here is the furthest Russia has been able to extend from its three major Donbas victories:
Izyum: (captured April 1)
15 kilometers south (to Dovhen’ke)
Popasna: (captured May 7)
22 kilometers north (to Lysychansk)
24 kilometers south (closed small salient)
16 kilometers west (toward Bakhmut)
Lysychansk: (captured July 3)
10 kilometers (maybe, likely less)
Very few of those gains happened in July, obviously, and what little they got was mostly offset by Ukrainian’s own modest gains west of Izyum, in southern Donbas, and around Kherson.
That Izyum approach hasn’t budged since Dovhen’ke fell on June 11. With the battle of Bohorodychne now over, Russia is actually moving backwards. So it’s no surprise seeing Russian war vehicles with the “V” markings—indicating Izyum advance—headed toward Kherson […]
By all indications, Russia is shifting a huge number of their forces to Kherson where they are ripe for being cut off. Supplies and access to the Kherson region run through just three easy-to-cut railroads and a handful of bridges. You know how in some stupid movie, you see the heroes headed into a trap and you scream at the screen, because it’s so obvious it’s a trap?
Yeah, that.
But Russia doesn’t have a choice. This is the comeuppance of their under-resourced and now-decimated assault on Ukraine—they don’t have the forces to defend what they have. So they have to reinforce the one regional capital they managed to capture, and one that matters a great deal to Vladimir Putin’s Novorossiya (New Russia) fantasy—connecting Russia, Donbas, the entire Black Sea coast to Odesa, and into Moldova’s Transnistria region. If Russia loses Kherson, it hands Ukraine the biggest propaganda victory of the war since winning the Battle of Kyiv, and relegates Russia to the Donbas front, another humiliation for a supposed global superpower. Oh, and Crimea once again loses its water. Never underestimate the power of water.
Yeah, that.
But Russia doesn’t have a choice. This is the comeuppance of their under-resourced and now-decimated assault on Ukraine—they don’t have the forces to defend what they have. So they have to reinforce the one regional capital they managed to capture, and one that matters a great deal to Vladimir Putin’s Novorossiya (New Russia) fantasy—connecting Russia, Donbas, the entire Black Sea coast to Odesa, and into Moldova’s Transnistria region. If Russia loses Kherson, it hands Ukraine the biggest propaganda victory of the war since winning the Battle of Kyiv, and relegates Russia to the Donbas front, another humiliation for a supposed global superpower. Oh, and Crimea once again loses its water. Never underestimate the power of water. […]
rorschachsays
KG @164,
“That’s easy: lack of an immediately available alternative. Gas that could be available next decade, next year or even next month, can’t be burned today.”
As you know I hadn’t lived in Germany for almost 20 years, and I was shocked to see the degree to which they had made themselves dependent on Russian gas when I returned. Former chancellor Schröder, just like Johnson and Trump, has turned out to be a Russian asset, but questions do have to be asked about Merkel too. Like, who thought this ever was a good idea, and why?
The fact there are nuclear and coal lobbyists about now trying to seize the occasion is not surprising, but mostly a distraction. The renewables are there already, if the will existed to use them. But predictably, who is scheduled to cut down gas consumption in winter? Why, schools and the poor of course. While the German opposition leader flies in his private plane to another privileged politician’s wedding.
ondrbaksays
rorschach @170
Like, who thought this ever was a good idea, and why?
It all goes back to the 70s and German then new policy of rapprochement with the Eastern block and the Soviet Union in particular. That’s when they started building gas pipelines from Siberia to Germany. The expressed idea was that closer and mutually beneficial economic ties would reduce the likelihood of military hostilities. Or maybe the German government just wanted cheap gas for the German industry, then as well as now.
If you squinted hard enough you could say the idea kinda worked, until it didn’t.
Here’s a long read from the Grauniad on the topic.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog, which is already closed for the day (they’ve been closing them earlier this week):
Eight people have been killed and four have been wounded in Russian artillery shelling in the eastern Ukrainian town of Toretsk in Donetsk oblast on Thursday, the regional governor has said. The shelling hit a public transport stop where people had gathered, the governor for the area, Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote on Telegram. Three children were among the wounded, he said.
The UN is conducting a fact-finding mission in response to requests from Russia and Ukraine after 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an explosion at a barracks in separatist-controlled Olenivka….
A US official accused Moscow of preparing to plant fake evidence to make it look like the recent mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners in an attack on a Russian-controlled prison was caused by Ukraine….
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wants to talk directly to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in the hope China can use its influence with Russia to bring the war to an end. According to a report in the South China Morning Post, Zelenskiy said: “It’s a very powerful state. It’s a powerful economy. So [it] can politically, economically influence Russia. And China is [also a] permanent member of the UN security council.” So far, China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion and Xi Jinping told Putin it would support Russia’s “sovereignty and security”.
…
A Moscow court has convicted the US basketball player Brittney Griner on drug charges, sentencing her to nine years in prison and a 1m rouble fine in a politically charged verdict that could lead to a prisoner swap with the United States. Griner, a basketball talent who played in Russia during off-seasons from the Phoenix Mercury, was arrested for cannabis possession in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in February.
The US Senate has ratified Finland and Sweden’s accession to Nato, voting 95-1 [Hawley] in support. The US is the 23rd member state to ratify what would be the most significant expansion of the 30-member alliance since the 1990s as it responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “This historic vote sends an important signal of the sustained, bipartisan US commitment to Nato, and to ensuring our alliance is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” the president, Joe Biden, said in a statement. All 30 Nato members must ratify the accession before Finland and Sweden can become members.
…
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has again appealed for access to a Ukrainian nuclear power plant now controlled by Russian forces to determine whether it was a source of danger….
The first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine under a deal to ease Russia’s naval blockade has reached Turkey….
…
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called the behaviour of the ex German chancellor Gerhard Schröder “disgusting”. The former German leader has come under fire after he went on holiday to Moscow and had a private meeting with Vladimir Putin. Schröder told German media in a lengthy interview he had nothing to apologise for over his friendship with the Russian president.
Nato members are working closely with defence companies to ensure Ukraine gets more supplies of weapons and equipment to be prepared for the long haul in its war with Russia, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday. Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview: “We are providing a lot of support but we need to do even more and be prepared for the long haul.”
After passing the House with the support of 47 Republicans, the Respect for Marriage Act, which would protect marriage rights for same-sex couples if the Supreme Court were to overturn its 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, faces much dimmer prospects in the Senate. There is one reason why: the Christian right still controls the Republican Party. Movement leaders know it took 50 years to reverse Roe, and are committed to a similar strategy to undermine and eventually overturn Obergefell. With abundant clues in the Supreme Court’s June decision overturning Roe that LGBTQ rights could be next on the chopping block […]
[…] South Dakota’s John Thune and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy accused Democrats of introducing the bill to distract from inflation. […] Florida’s Marco Rubio called it “a stupid waste of time,” and claimed gay Floridians are “pissed off” about something else — high gas prices. […] Maine’s Susan Collins, who was one of the bill’s four original Republican supporters, came up with the laughing-crying emoji argument that, because Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) had struck a surprise deal on Democratic legislative priorities late last month, she would struggle to win fellow Republicans’ support for the marriage bill. “[I]t was a very unfortunate move that destroys the many bipartisan efforts that are under way,” she told HuffPost.
These were opportune but risible excuses. The reality is these Republicans were already seeing an avalanche of opposition from Christian right political advocacy organizations. Family Research Council Action, the political arm of the Family Research Council church, began calling the bill the “(Dis)Respect for Marriage Act” before it reached the House floor. The group reminded Republican lawmakers that their party platform states, “[t]raditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values.” In an email blast, FRC Action sowed fear among its supporters that the bill would be used to persecute them and take away their religious freedom. […] The American Family Association called the bill “an Orwellian attempt to pretend that the Court’s very recent discovery of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage is not controversial and offensive to many people around the country.” The Heritage Foundation called it a “publicity stunt” aimed at “tak[ing] the spotlight off progressives’ radical policies and paint conservatives as bigots — and all this conveniently before the midterm elections.”
Despite the Christian right’s protestations that same-sex marriage is unpopular, it is actually extremely popular, with Gallup earlier this year finding 71 percent of Americans — a record high — supporting it. What’s more, most religious people do not think protections for same-sex marriage infringe on their religious freedom. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, “Majorities of most major religious groups support same-sex marriage,” with one significant outlier: white evangelicals. Only 35 percent of white evangelicals support marriage equality — and their views drive the Republican Party. In the Senate, the filibuster rules reinforce this tyranny of the minority.
There are two reasons for the Christian right’s dominance of the GOP. One is that while white evangelicals make up just 15 percent of the population, they are highly enthusiastic voters; they made up 28 percent of the 2020 electorate, and 76 percent of them voted for Donald Trump. They make up large swaths of the electorate in red states, and are likely to be motivated to engage in backlash against a Republican senator seen to betray the cause.
The second reason is that the Christian right — made up of white evangelical activists along with other conservative white Protestants and Catholics — has built a formidable political and legal machine designed to position themselves as defenders of the true faith and the real Christian America. A well-funded constellation of legal and political organizations has been inordinately successful in amassing power, both in Republican Washington, red state legislatures, and the federal judiciary. It is designed to flex its muscles at moments like these.
The opposition to the Respect for Marriage Act is an object lesson in how the Christian right’s power works.
That network’s strength has been on full display in recent weeks. The legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom took the lead on a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposing the bill, signed by more than 80 religious right leaders. […]
[…] ADF has not only led the way in transforming our jurisprudence against church-state separation and reproductive and LGBTQ rights, it has cultivated and cemented relationships that ensure its proximity to power. It counts among its compatriots Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Senator Josh Hawley, who have both been faculty speakers for its training program for aspiring Christian lawyers. In 2019, Hawley single-handedly killed the appointment of a federal judge, nominated by Trump, because he had once litigated a case against ADF. Hawley’s wife, also a lawyer, now works for ADF, and played a key role in the strategy to overturn Roe.
After the House vote, FRC Action pledged to support primary challengers to any Republicans who voted for the bill. […] the message certainly is not lost on Republicans in the Senate where, unlike the House, GOP votes are necessary to get the bill past a filibuster. No one wants to be the one who tips the scales in favor of the bill, and incurs the wrath of Christian right operatives and the get-out-the-vote machine at the disposal of a primary challenger.
Lately the media has taken a greater interest in exploring and reporting on Christian nationalism. It is, however, crucial not only to understand what Christian nationalism is as an ideology, but to understand how right-wing operatives have attained the power to subvert democratic structures and democratic values in order to make it the core of anti-majoritarian rule. The opposition to the Respect for Marriage Act is an object lesson in how that power works. Christian right operatives and lawyers argue that America is a Christian nation, that Christians’ right to practice their religion must be protected from secular, progressive incursions like constitutional rights for LGBTQ people, and that it is the duty of judges and government officials to ensure that these “biblical” values are secured. With a sympathetic majority on the Supreme Court and a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate with filibuster rules favorable to conservatives, the Christian right has every incentive to deploy this power. And because Republicans no longer have an alternative base upon which to build a coalition, they will continue to relent.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From their coverage of Orbán’s CPAC speech in Texas, which just ended:
Orban has opened his speech in Texas by saying that “Hungary is the Lone Star state of Europe”.
He described Hungary as “under the siege of progressives, liberals day by day”, and noted that he was “the only anti-migration political leader on our continent”, which was greeted with applause.
Orban appears to be responding to the recent news of a top adviser resigning and accusing him of using “pure Nazi” rhetoric by arguing that his administration is misunderstood.
Hungary “introduced a zero-tolerance policy on racism and antisemitism. So accusing us is fake news, and those who make these claims are certainly idiots. They are the industrial fake news corporation,” Orban said.
Orban went on to attack American liberals, saying they tried to stop his speech and calling for unity between conservatives in the United States and in Hungary.
“They hate me and slandered me and my country as they hate you and slander you and America’s transformation. We all know how this works. Progressive liberals didn’t want me to be here because they knew what I will tell you,” Orban said.
“I’m here to tell you that we should unite our forces… because we Hungarians know how to defeat the enemies of freedom on the political battlefield.”
Texas is a major crossing point for undocumented immigrants entering the United States, which Republicans have said is a “crisis” that president Joe Biden deserves blame for.
Orban must realize this. He’s giving examples of “how to fight back by our own rules” and detailing to the conservative audience his own hardline policies against migrants, particularly from Syria.
“We were the first ones in Europe who said no illegal migration and stop the invasion of illegal migrants,” he said. “We believe that stopping illegal migration is necessary to protect our nation.”
Orban didn’t mention Joe Biden directly, but appealed to the audience of conservatives for “strong leaders” – by which he presumably was not referring to the Democrats in control of the White House and Congress.
He cited the impacts of the war in Ukraine on Hungary, which he notes has received one million refugees.
“In my view, the globalist leaders’ strategy escalates and prolongs war and decreases the chance of peace. Without American-Russian talks there will never be peace in Ukraine. More and more people will die and suffer and our economies will come to the brink of collapse,” Orban said.
“We in the neighborhood of Ukraine are desperately in need of strong leaders who are capable of negotiating a peace deal. Mayday, mayday, please help us. We need a strong America, with a strong leader.”
Orban wrapped up his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference by declaring, “We must take back the institutions in Washington and in Brussels”, and saying the two capitals “will define the two fronts in the battle being fought for Western civilization”.
After defeating Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, “Now the West is at war with itself,” Orban said. “We have seen what kind of future the globalist ruling class has to offer. But we have a different future in mind. The globalists can all go to hell, I have come to Texas.”
[I’m sure Biden will be threatening that he’ll perish by fire any minute now…]
A who’s who of American conservatives will appear at CPAC over the next two days, before Donald Trump makes the event’s closing remarks on Saturday evening.
The US liveblog is now closed as well. From their closing summary:
The Senate will meet this weekend to begin considering Democrats’ marquee spending plan to fight climate change and lower healthcare costs, which is the culmination of more than a year of fitful negotiations….
The justice department has filed charges against four current and former Louisville police officers over the death of Breonna Taylor.
…
The White House declared monkeypox a public health emergency as the virus spread across the United States….
Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the attack, U.S. intelligence officials determined.
U.S. officials believe Russia is working to fabricate evidence concerning last week’s deadly strike on a prison housing prisoners of war in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine.
U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the July 29 attack on Olenivka Prison that left 53 dead and wounded dozens more, a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence finding told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Russia has claimed that Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic.
The Ukrainian military denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka. The intelligence arm of the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed in a statement Wednesday to have evidence that local Kremlin-backed separatists colluded with the Russian FSB, the KGB’s main successor agency, and mercenary group Wagner to mine the barrack before “using a flammable substance, which led to the rapid spread of fire in the room.”
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the classified intelligence — which was recently downgraded — shows that Russian officials might even plant ammunition from medium-ranged High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as evidence that the systems provided by the U.S. to Ukraine were used in the attack.
Russia is expected to take the action as it anticipates independent investigators and journalists eventually getting access to Olenivka, the official added.
[…] Earlier Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is appointing a fact-finding mission in response to requests from Russia and Ukraine to investigate the killings at the prison.
Guterres told reporters he doesn’t have authority to conduct criminal investigations but does have authority to conduct fact-finding missions. He added that the terms of reference for a mission to Ukraine are currently being prepared and will be sent to the governments of Ukraine and Russia for approval.
The Ukrainian POWs at the Donetsk prison included troops captured during the fall of Mariupol. They spent months holed up with civilians at the giant Azovstal steel mill in the southern port city. Their resistance during a relentless Russian bombardment became a symbol of Ukrainian defiance against Russia’s aggression.
More than 2,400 soldiers from the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian national guard and other military units gave up their fight and surrendered under orders from Ukraine’s military in May.
Scores of Ukrainian soldiers have been taken to prisons in Russian-controlled areas. Some have returned to Ukraine as part of prisoner exchanges with Russia, but other families have no idea whether their loved ones are still alive, or if they will ever come home.
Wray confirms: Kavanaugh tips from tip line were sent to Trump White House without investigation; and Trump White House directed what witnesses FBI would interview.
Here’s a thought: nothing prevented Trump White House from using FBI tip line information to direct FBI investigation away from percipient or corroborating witnesses.
Here is Donald Trump bragging — through one of his white spokesmen, because he’s not allowed to have Twitter — about how he got to bump uglies on Tuesday with the American Right’s favorite white supremacist Nazi fascist authoritarian human rectal fissure, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Yes, this is what excites the rapidly decomposing loser.
[Taylor Budowich tweeted:] “45: Great spending time with my friend, Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary. We discussed many interesting topics—few people know as much about what is going on today. We were also celebrating his great electoral victory in April.” [Accompanied by photos of Trump and Orbán together.]
[…] just recently one of Orban’s longtime ministers, Zsuzsa Hegedus, resigned after Orban gave a speech in Romania that pretty much everybody interpreted as being overtly Nazi. She called it a “pure Nazi text.” She said not even a “bloodthirsty racist” would be cool with what he said. […]
In his speech, Orban bemoaned Europeans having babies with people of other races, saying we don’t want to create a “mixed-race world.” “We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” said Orban. (When he said “one another,” he meant all the shades of white European.)
“I don’t know how you didn’t notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels,” [Hegedus] wrote in her resignation letter, according to the Hungarian hvg.hu news website.
The condemnation, from many sides of Hungarian society and obviously throughout Europe, was fierce. But hey, Mr. […] LoserNazi, come on over to the deposed American president’s ugly golf resort. Maybe you can have a nice conversation about race-mixing!
Of course, Orban [spoke] at CPAC in Dallas this afternoon, because face it, if you were a spritely Nazi propagandist prime minister on the make, that’s where you’d probably go too. They weren’t mad about his “mixed-race” speech at all, so his keynote speech is a go:
Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for CPAC, defended Mr. Orban’s presence at the gathering, saying in a statement that the group supports “the open exchange of ideas.” He called Mr. Orban a “popular leader in his fourth successive term.”
Matt Schlapp, the CPAC chairman, recently told Bloomberg, “Let’s listen to the man speak.”
Right. If Hitler was alive, we have a feeling he’d be in Dallas this afternoon too and we’d all be scolded for refusing to at least listen to what the man has to say.
So that’s all very legal and very cool, Viktor Orban going to CPAC to be with his people and say 14 words at ’em. Steve Bannon, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sarah Palin and Lauren Boebert are all part of the lineup too. Bet they plan to say some words too.
Last night, Tucker Carlson was extremely mad about how unfairly Orban is being treated right now. He started the segment with his giddy jizz-squeals about what a great guy Orban is, then pivoted to complaining that Fareed Zakaria accurately reported on CNN about Orban’s “I Am Nazi And So Can You!” speech. Tucker is appalled. How can you act like somebody is a Nazi just because they walk, talk, and quack like one?
Tucker then hosted one of Orban’s ministers who didn’t resign in disgust, Balasz Orban, who was there to explain that they are not Nazis, it’s just that they built a wall on their southern border to make “law and order.” He said Hungary is under a lot of pressure from the “globalist elites.” It’s just that “our country is very proud” of its “Judeo-Christian heritage” (a known buzzword for white supremacists) and therefore it has to have closed borders.
Then Balasz Orban explained that Ukrainian refugees coming across the borders from the northeast are OK but people coming from the south aren’t OK. He says those are coming from “other civilizations.”
“Ordinary people can differentiate,” he says.
Tucker said this was just a very “moderate” policy.
BUT DON’T CALL ANY OF THESE PEOPLE NAZIS. [video at the link]
[Taylor Budowich tweeted:] “45: Great spending time with my friend, Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary. We discussed many interesting topics—few people know as much about what is going on today. We were also celebrating his great electoral victory in April.” [Accompanied by photos of Trump and Orbán together.]
SC @177, so that’s how Kavanaugh escaped a thorough investigation.
KGsays
The fact there are nuclear and coal lobbyists about now trying to seize the occasion is not surprising, but mostly a distraction. The renewables are there already, if the will existed to use them. – rorschach@170
You can’t switch from gas or oil to renewables just like that. A lot of German industrial plants, and IIRC German homes, burn gas directly rather than using electricity produced by burning gas.
Here’s a link to the Guardian’s…China tantrum I guess liveblog. From there:
China’s government has announced sanctions against Nancy Pelosi and her direct relatives in response to “vicious and provocative actions” by going to Taiwan, state media has said.
According to CGTN, Pelosi …
… insisted on going to Taiwan in disregard of China’s serious concerns and firm opposition, seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs, seriously undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously trampling on the one-China principle, and seriously threatening the peace and stability of the Taiwan strait. In response to Pelosi’s vicious and provocative actions, China has decided to impose sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family in accordance with the relevant laws of the People’s Republic of China.
[The repeated use of the word “seriously” has the opposite effect of that intended, in my view.]
China has not yet specified the sanctions in public.
China has halted ties with the US on a range of critical issues, from talks on the climate crisis to dialogue between their militaries, following the visit to Taiwan by the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
The announcement of the counter-measures came as Beijing conducted military drills surrounding the island of Taiwan….
The cancelled interactions ranged from climate talks, to dialogues between the leaders of Chinese and US military theatres, to the working meeting of Chinese and US defence ministries and consultation mechanism on maritime military safety between the countries.
Tensions are running high in the Taiwan strait. The military drills have forced a number of vessels to reroute their journeys, causing disruptions to regional – and global – economies. On average, 240 commercial ships have passed through the maritime zones each day over the past week, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data.
Earlier, the US condemned China’s launch of ballistic missiles around Taiwan during live-fire exercises as an “overreaction”, as a number of Chinese ships and planes again crossed the median line.
[Taiwanese president] Tsai Ing-wen delivered [a] video message in response to China’s exercises. In it she says: “We are calm and not impetuous, we are rational and not provocative, but we will also be firm and not shirk. Taiwan will never be knocked down by challenges.”
Reuters is carrying a report that suggests that tensions at the gathering of foreign ministers hosted by south-east Asia’s regional bloc Asean have continued. As well as the member states, counterparts from the US, China, Russia, Japan and Australia have all been there.
It appears that Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov walked out of a session today when their Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi spoke, according to what a person who was in the room has said to the news agency.
Wang had cancelled a meeting with Japan’s representative in Cambodia a day earlier, with China citing displeasure over a G7 statement urging it to resolve tension over Taiwan peacefully.
Taiwan claims 68 Chinese planes and 13 warships have crossed median line on Friday
Taiwan’s defence ministry has said that as of 17.00 local time 68 Chinese planes and 13 warships had crossed the ‘median line’, the unofficial but previously respected demarcation line of Taiwan’s territory.
Reuters reports that in a statement the defence ministry said it condemned the action, and that it would defend national security with firm action. It accused China of seriously damaging the status quo of the Taiwan Strait.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Dispatch: the western ex-military training Ukrainian recruits
In the heart of the Donbas, a group of eight highly experienced western ex-military personnel are delivering an intensive 10-day training course for 40 new Ukrainian recruits who have been pulled straight from the fighting.
As the battle for Ukraine’s east grinds on, soldiers in the Donbas have been taking heavy casualties in a vicious artillery battle. Ukraine’s professional fighting force, who have been defending the eastern frontline since 2014, are severely depleted. Since 24 February new recruits have been surging to the frontline, many with shockingly little training.
The recruits on the course have a patchwork of equipment: different weapons, fatigues and body armour of varying quality. Aged between their early 20s and mid 50s, the men are of all shapes, sizes and levels of fitness.
One in 10 was in the military before the war and they have had very little formal training, explains Andy Milburn, founder of the Mozart Group, a new private security company that’s tasked itself with training Ukrainian soldiers.
Milburn, a retired Marine Corps colonel who spent 31 years in the US military, gathered expert volunteers to train civilians fighting in Kyiv’s civil defence force as they defended their capital. Now based in Donbas, the Mozart Group consists of between 20 and 30 volunteers from the US, the UK, Ireland and other western countries.
The Mozart Group’s name was coined by its members as a tongue-in-cheek musical reference to the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian paramilitary organisation that’s often described as Vladimir Putin’s private army. Milburn says at first he was “a little ambivalent about using the name” but that it has “caught on as a brand now”.
Plus great news for the Biloela family of refugees -although it should never have been this hard or taken this long for our govt todothe right thing and so much needless suffering has been inflicted here :
The lives of LGBTQ+ people are at stake, the broadcaster and author Sandi Toksvig has said, after the archbishop of Canterbury affirmed the validity of a 1998 resolution that gay sex is a sin.
In a letter to more than 650 bishops attending the once-a-decade Lambeth conference on Tuesday, Justin Welby, who is also leader of the Anglican church, said the resolution, known as Lambeth 1.10, was “not in doubt”.
“It was a sin in 1998 and you just wanted to make clear in 2022 that no one in your finely frocked gang has moved on from that,” wrote Toksvig in her letter published on Twitter on Wednesday evening. “Seriously, with the state the world is in, that is what you wanted to focus on?”
Responding to the latest knot the Church of England has tied itself into, Toksvig laid bare the facts, including that suicide is contemplated by young LGBTQ+ people at higher rates than their non-LGBTQ+ peers. She said she had faced death threats herself, and questioned the Church of England’s interpretation of Jesus’s views on homosexuality.
“The lives of LGBTQ+ people are at stake here,” Toksvig wrote. “Jesus doesn’t mention sexuality at all. It clearly wasn’t a big deal for him.”
The host of the TV panel show QI and former Great British Bake Off presenter, who refers to herself as a humanist, added: “I have had several credible death threats over the years, sometimes requiring the very kind assistance of the police hate crime squad.
“Each and every one of those threats has come from an evangelical Christian. Inevitably they have wanted to kill me on God’s behalf.”
Toksvig is not alone in criticising the church’s stance. Other campaigners for LGBTQ+ equality were similarly angered by Welby’s decision to uphold a declaration that says “homosexual practice” is “incompatible with scripture” and says same-sex unions should not be legitimised or blessed.
“Priority has been given to saving a manmade institution over protecting LGBTQ+ people’s lives,” said Jayne Ozanne, a leading gay activist in the Church of England. “It is a stick with which many of us have been beaten and will continue to suffer around the world.”
Ninety bishops, including eight archbishops, said LGBTQ+ people had “historically been wounded” by the church, and said they “look forward to the day when we all may feel truly welcomed, valued and affirmed”….
From the latest summary at the Guardian China-tantrum liveblog:
…US secretary of state Antony Blinken has warned again that China’s “provocative” actions risk a serious escalation and could destabilise the region. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Asean regional forum meeting, Blinken told the media that the US has repeatedly told China that it did not seek a crisis. Blinken said that Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was peaceful, and that “there was no possible justification for what they have done” in response.
The US has summoned China’s ambassador Qin Gang to the White House to démarche him for China’s actions. A démarche is a protest lodged through diplomatic channels.
China summoned Canada’s ambassador over the country’s participation in a statement issued by the foreign ministers of the G7 nations. Chinese vice foreign minister Xie Feng informed the ambassador Canada should “immediately correct its mistakes” on the issue of Taiwan or “bear all consequences”.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly walked out of a session at the Asean forum today when their Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi spoke.
Pelosi has been in Tokyo today, where Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida said he told her “we have called for the immediate cancellation of the military drills”, which he described as a “serious problem that impacts our national security and the safety of our citizens”.
Australia’s foreign secretary Penny Wong has described China’s actions as “disproportionate and destabilising”.
A leading Russian hypersonics expert has been arrested on suspicion of treason, the state-controlled TASS news agency reported on Friday.
Andrei Shiplyuk heads the hypersonics laboratory at the Novosibirsk Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, according to the institute’s website, and has in recent years coordinated research to support the development of hypersonic missile systems, Reuters reports.
The Russian news agency cited one of Shiplyuk’s colleagues as saying searches had been conducted at the institute.
Last month Dmitry Kolker, another Novosibirsk-based physicist, died of pancreatic cancer shortly after being arrested on suspicion of treason.
Amid the round-the-clock global coverage, there was still a distinct lack of panic among Taiwanese. Reporters roamed coastal spots near the drill zones, looking for quotes but finding few in fear. In the capital, Taipei, people ate their lunches in city restaurants as warships steamed across wall-mounted television screens. Online, people shared memes and joked about an anti-US protester photographed outside Pelosi’s hotel, holding a sign made with pieced-together printed papers that was evidently supposed to say “Warmonger Pelosi” but instead read “ongerwarm osiPel”. [Hee]
Social media commenters brushed it all off as not real military action. “The CCP has no real ability and can only put on some performances,” said one.
Inside Taiwan, there is real gratitude towards Pelosi, despite the potentially dangerous fallout. Outside the airport on Wednesday, young Timothy Lee said she had “risked her life” to visit and show Taiwan support. Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese activist who was recently released from a Chinese jail after five years, was one of three former political prisoners to meet Pelosi. He told the Guardian her visit showed young people they should keep defending human rights.
“She is an 82-year-old and not giving up,” Lee said. “She has not given up and Taiwan should not give up.”
blfsays
Apropos of nothing, some time ago I mentioned the most obvious sign of the rising cost-of-living I’d noticed was the outdoor market egg vendor raising their prices for Monster-sized Armoured Organic Eggs from €3.50 to €3.60 to €3.80 this year. Today, I noticed another sign, at one of my favourite restruants — a highly-regarded place known to many locals but few tourists with relatively simply but well-prepared seasonal French cuisine — the standard formula price had gone from €25 to €27; add an apéritif, vin, etc., to that and I usually pay 52€ (actually, 55€ in cash, as they haven’t accepted credit cards since the pandemic lockdowns, with the change left as a thanks). Today it was the usual excellent (even the peas!), albeit for 54€. They were very apologetic, doubly so since they couldn’t, at first, find a bottle of this wonderful digestif (not quite sure what it is) made by the chef-owner’s father they usually offer gratuis.
rorschachsays
I haven’t been to any outdoor (or indoor) restaurant or market since May 2020. That will remain the case until we have nasal or buccal vaccines that provide mucosal immunity. Unfortunately the Biden government does not currently financially support the project by Prof Iwasaki at Yale, which is essentially ready to do this.
AFP report Taiwan’s Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang has called for allies to push for de-escalation, saying “(We) didn’t expect that the evil neighbour next door would show off its power at our door and arbitrarily jeopardise the busiest waterways in the world with its military exercises,” he told reporters.
ravensays
The tl;dr version.
.1. DeSantis suspends elected prosecutor over new abortion law
.2. Warren added that no cases regarding violations of the state’s new abortion law have been brought to his office.
It is not obvious to me that DeathSantis has the legal authority to suspend an elected DA for Hillsborough county.
Among other things lacking here are Due Process, hearings, and any sort of laws allowing this to happen.
This is basically nullifying an election by fiat, simply ordering it to be reversed.
DeSantis suspends elected prosecutor over new abortion law
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE August 04, 2022
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended the elected state prosecutor of Tampa on Thursday for pledging not to enforce the state’s new 15-week abortion ban and for supporting gender transition treatments for minors.
The Republican governor announced the suspension of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren at a news conference in the county’s sheriff’s office.
“When you flagrantly violate your oath of office, when you make yourself above the law, you have violated your duty, you have neglected your duty and you are displaying a lack of competence to be able to perform those duties,” DeSantis said to cheers.
The suspension comes as DeSantis runs for reelection in Florida and builds his national profile as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate through near constant criticism of liberal policies on abortion, policing and other culture war issues.
Warren, a Democrat, was elected as state attorney by Hillsborough County voters in 2016 and in 2020. In a statement, Warren said “the people have the right to elect their own leaders — not have them dictated by an aspiring presidential candidate who has shown time and again he feels accountable to no one.”
“The governor is trying to overthrow the results of a fair and free election, two of them actually,” he said later Thursday at a news conference. “People need to understand. This isn’t the governor trying to suspend one elected official. This is the governor trying to overthrow democracy here in Hillsborough County.”
Warren added that no cases regarding violations of the state’s new abortion law have been brought to his office.
In an executive order formally suspending Warren, DeSantis focused heavily on Warren’s signing of statements where prosecutors from across the country said they won’t use their offices to pursue criminal cases against seekers or providers of abortion or gender transition treatments.
More than 90 district attorneys, state attorneys general and other elected prosecutors across the U.S. have signed the letter saying they don’t intend to prosecute people for seeking, providing or supporting abortions.
Some are in states with few or no restrictions on abortions. But others are in law enforcement in places where there are bans or deep restrictions – including the counties that include Birmingham, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi, along with several of Texas’ biggest cities. In some cases, there might not be much to enforce because many clinics have either stopped offering abortions or have closed entirely.
Besides the statements from prosecutors, city councils in places including Nashville, New Orleans and Boise, Idaho, have introduced or adopted measures telling law enforcement agencies to make abortion-related cases low priorities.
Florida’s new abortion restriction became effective July 1. It prohibits abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions if the procedure is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape, incest or human trafficking.
Violators could face up to five years in prison. Physicians and other medical professionals could lose their licenses and face administrative fines of $10,000 for each violation.
Florida has not enacted laws criminalizing gender transition treatments for minors but “these statements prove that Warren thinks he has the authority to defy the Florida Legislature and nullify in his jurisdiction criminal laws with which he disagrees,” the executive order reads.
The executive order also accuses Warren of having a “flawed and lawless understanding of his duties as a state attorney” in his “presumptive non-enforcement for certain criminal violations, including trespassing at a business location, disorderly conduct, disorderly intoxication, and prostitution.”
“The governor’s suspension of State Attorney Warren is not political to me. It’s about law and order. It’s about ensuring our loved ones are safe. It’s about the victims and their voices,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. He said Warren has been acting as a kind of “supreme authority by reducing charges, dropping cases and singlehandedly determining what crimes will be legal or illegal in our county.”
Asked whether he’s overriding the will of the voters by suspending their choice for prosecutor, DeSantis said Warren’s conduct has fallen “below the standard of the Florida Constitution” and that he’s neglected his duty to state law.
“I don’t think the people of Hillsborough County want to have an agenda that is basically woke, where you’re deciding that your view of social justice means certain laws shouldn’t be enforced,” the governor said.
Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat and leader-designate of the Florida House Democratic Caucus, said Warren has been using his prosecutorial discretion appropriately.
“I’m not going to mince words: this is a shocking political attack on an elected official serving the people of Hillsborough County,” she said. “Andrew Warren is being removed because he assured our community that he will not be a foot soldier in Ron DeSantis’ extremist agenda.”
DeSantis appointed Hillsborough County Judge Susan Lopez to serve in Warren’s place during his suspension.
“I have the utmost respect for our state laws and I understand the important role that the state attorney plays in ensuring the safety of our community and the enforcement of our laws,” Lopez said.
From the article above about DeathSantis removing the elected DA.
“I’m not going to mince words: this is a shocking political attack on an elected official serving the people of Hillsborough County,” she said. “Andrew Warren is being removed because he assured our community that he will not be a foot soldier in Ron DeSantis’ extremist agenda.”
Sums it up.
I will note here that Warren wasn’t removed for doing anything or not doing anything. He was removed for a pledge he signed to not prosecute abortion cases. In most cases, a crime is what you did, not what you said you might do.
DeSantis appointed Hillsborough County Judge Susan Lopez to serve in Warren’s place during his suspension.
WTH!!!
The DA is part of the Executive branch, part of law enforcement.
The judicial branch is a separate part of the government and a judge is part of that branch of government.
He now has a judge filling in for the DA.
IANAL and don’t know the details of Florida’s laws and procedures.
But none of this looks remotely legal to me.
PS DeathSantis also did exactly what this DA, Andrew Warren did.
He decided that the Covid-19 virus wasn’t worth worrying about and ignored all the rules and regulations that were made to fight this pandemic virus.
He even ordered the state to not count up how many people died from the virus.
And has the piles of dead bodies of Covid-19 virus victims to show for it.
ravensays
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Russia is burning gas in a giant torch that is visible from Finland
Flames have been burning at Gazprom’s Portovaya compressor station every day since June 17. This could be happening because there is nowhere to deliver surplus gas.
This is where Europe’s winter heating supply is going.
I will say the Russians show their usual lack of imagination.
.1. Natural gas can be liquefied to LNG and sent around the world.
.2. Natural gas can be stored in underground facilities, which is what everyone does for the winter.
.3. Natural gas is the feedstock for making nitrogen fertilizer, the key input for feeding 7.9 billion people.
They could just convert this to fertilizer and sell it or use it.
tomhsays
NYT Kari Lake, Backed by Trump, Wins Arizona’s G.O.P. Governor Primary Running a campaign heavily focused on false claims of a stolen 2020 election, Ms. Lake beat a rival supported by the state’s G.O.P. establishment and its departing governor, Doug Ducey.
August 5, 2022
Kari Lake, who in the span of two years transformed herself from a veteran local television news anchor into a tribune of the far-right political movement, won Arizona’s Republican primary for governor, according to The Associated Press.
Ms. Lake prevailed over a field that included Karrin Taylor Robson — an ally of Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who defied former President Donald J. Trump by defending the results of Arizona’s 2020 election — and two other candidates.
Ms. Lake will face Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in the general election. Mr. Ducey is prohibited by term limits from seeking re-election.
[…]
Nearly as soon as she left her Phoenix TV station in the spring of 2021, Ms. Lake began repeatedly proclaiming that Mr. Trump, who endorsed her that fall, had been cheated out of a second term in office. After spending 25 years in local television, she attacked the news media as corrupt.
The contest was the latest primary for governor to become a proxy war between Mr. Trump and establishment Republican power brokers.
As in Maryland and Illinois, where Trump-endorsed candidates toppled rivals backed by local G.O.P. officials, Ms. Lake’s victory signaled the declining power of party donors and television spending. Ms. Taylor Robson, a developer who served on the Arizona Board of Regents, largely paid for her campaign herself, spending millions more on TV advertising than Ms. Lake did.
But in the end, Mr. Trump’s endorsement proved more valuable than anything Ms. Taylor Robson could buy.
The Family Research Council has established itself as a leading far-right advocacy and research organization. According to the IRS, it’s also a “church.”
In recent decades, the Family Research Council has established itself as a powerhouse advocacy and research organization. When it comes to fights over LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights, for example, the FRC long ago surpassed the Christian Coalition as the preeminent group in the religious right movement.
But as it turns out, characterizing the Family Research Council as an advocacy and research organization may no longer be entirely accurate, at least not as far as tax law is concerned. ProPublica recently reported:
According to documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act and given to ProPublica, the FRC filed an application to change its status to an “association of churches,” a designation commonly used by groups with member churches like the Southern Baptist Convention, in March 2020. The agency approved the change a few months later. The FRC is one of a growing list of activist groups to seek church status, a designation that comes with the ability for an organization to shield itself from financial scrutiny.
Secular tax-exempt organizations have to file a specific kind of tax return — a Form 990 — that lists staff salaries, sizable payments, grants, etc.
Churches, however, don’t have to file Form 990s. What’s more, church audits are more difficult and far less common than audits of other tax-exempt institutions.
Whether the Family Research Council actually should be seen as a church, however, is another matter. From the ProPublica report:
Does the organization hold regular chapel services? According to the FRC’s letter to the IRS, the answer is yes. It wrote that it holds services at its office building averaging more than 65 people. But when a ProPublica reporter called to inquire about service times, a staffer who answered the phone responded, “We don’t have church service.” Elsewhere in the form, it says that the employees make up those who attend its services.
[The Familia’s Research Council lied to the IRS.]
With this in mind, Politico reported this week that more than three dozen House Democrats — who collectively are scrutinizing organizations that claim church status to avoid taxes — contacted the Internal Revenue Service about the FRC.
In their letter to the IRS, the lawmakers argued that the Family Research Council “claiming to be a church strains credulity: they do not hold religious services, do not have a congregation or affiliated congregations, and do not possess many of the other attributes of churches listed by the IRS.”
They added that while they “understand the importance of religious institutions to their congregants” the U.S. tax code “must be applied fairly and judiciously.”
There are only 11 days remaining before Wyoming’s primaries, and by appearances, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is in trouble. Her primary rival, Harriet Hageman, continues to peddle absurd lies about the 2020 presidential race, to the delight of Donald Trump, who’s enthusiastically supporting her candidacy.
Recent polling paints a predictable picture: Wyoming’s GOP base, much of which remains committed to the failed former president, intends to punish Cheney — for supporting Trump’s impeachment, for helping lead the Jan. 6 committee, for putting democracy’s interests above partisan consideration, and for her general political apostasy.
And so, with time running out, the endangered congresswoman has brought out the big gun: her father. NBC News reported:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed former President Donald Trump, calling him a “coward” in a new TV ad bolstering his daughter, Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, ahead of her primary on Aug. 16.
In the minute-long, direct-to-camera commercial, Dick Cheney — who, incidentally, held this congressional seat for 10 years in the 1980s — is unexpectedly unreserved in his condemnation of the former president.
“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” the former vice president says in the ad.
He added, “[Trump] tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down I think most Republicans know it.” [Dick Cheney wore his signature cowboy hat while he accused Trump of being a coward. Good theater. Still, Dick Cheney is not the best spokesperson for anyone. Might play well in Wyoming though.]
Referring to his daughter, Cheney concluded, “There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office again. And she will succeed.”
We’ll learn soon enough just how much political clout the former vice president still has in Wyoming, and the degree to which it can compete with Trump’s influence. (In 2004, with Cheney on the ballot, the Republican ticket carried Wyoming with 68.8 percent of the vote. In 2020, Trump’s GOP ticket won Wyoming with 69.9 percent of the vote.)
But this newly unveiled ad is nevertheless notable for a couple of reasons.
First, it’s difficult to cheer Dick Cheney under any circumstances, especially as he accuses someone else of being a dangerous threat to democratic principles. Similarly, let’s not brush past the fact that the former vice president has had seven years to denounce Trump in these blunt terms, but he waited quite a while to deliver the message.
Second, as a matter of political strategy, it was widely assumed that Liz Cheney would try to shift the focus in this race to her conservative record and support for conservative principles — and away from her fight against Trump and in support of democracy.
Instead, as Primary Day nears, Team Cheney is doing the opposite, effectively turning her race into a referendum on the former president, his lies, and his misconduct.
That’s a risky move, which appears unlikely to work in the short term, though it’s difficult not to wonder whether Liz Cheney and her political operation are already eyeing what comes next after the primary.
We’ve all heard plenty of talk about a possible recession, but at least for now, there’s no evidence of it in the surprisingly resilient U.S. job market.
Expectations heading into this morning showed projections of about 258,000 new jobs added in the United States in July. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the preliminary tally suggests the domestic job market did much better than that. CNBC reported this morning:
Hiring in July was far better than expected, defying signs that the economic recovery is losing steam, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls rose 528,000 for the month and the unemployment rate was 3.5%, easily topping the Dow Jones estimates of 258,000 and 3.6% respectively.
The nation’s 3.5 percent unemployment rate is the lowest since President Joe Biden took office, and it now equals the rate from before the start of the economic crisis created by the Covid pandemic. All told, the U.S. economy has now gained back all of its pandemic job losses — and it’s happened faster than hardly anyone thought possible a year ago.
Adding to the good news, the revisions on job totals from May and June were both revised up a bit.
So far in 2022, the economy has created 3.3 million jobs, and that’s after just seven months. By any fair measure, that’s an extraordinary total, more in line with what we’d expect to see in a full year.
We’ve all heard plenty of talk about a possible recession, but at least for now, there’s no evidence of it in the surprisingly resilient U.S. job market.
[…] Over the course of the first three years of Donald Trump’s term — when the then-Republican president said the United States’ economy was the greatest in the history of the planet — the economy created roughly 6.4 million jobs. This included all of 2017, 2018, and 2019.
According to the latest tally, since January 2021, the U.S. economy created 10 million jobs — far in excess of the combined total of Trump’s first three years. In fact, this year’s total to date exceeds any individual year of the former president’s term.
In recent months, Republicans have responded to developments like these by pretending not to notice them. I have a hunch GOP officials will keep the trend going today.
Postscript: For some additional context, consider job growth by year over the last decade:
2013: 2.3 million
2014: 3 million
2015: 2.7 million
2016: 2.3 million
2017: 2.1 million
2018: 2.3 million
2019: 2 million
2020: -9.3 million
2021: 6.7 million
2022 (so far): 3.3 million
In early 2020, such a turnaround would’ve been very difficult to believe. And yet, here we are.
Video titled “The job market is great. Democrats need to sell it.” Available at the link.
Rudy Giuliani had his travel expenses covered by an indicted Ukrainian oligarch’s company as he sought dirt on President Biden, the New York Times reported this week. [Yep. Coordinated action to smear Biden and boost Trump.]
It’s a bombshell that requires us to think back, before the election overthrow attempt, before two impeachments, to 2019, when Giuliani was gallivanting around former Soviet states seeking ways to smear Trump’s likely opponent.
The revelation of who was paying his bills would have been shocking — if not entirely surprising — at the time. It remains shocking today. But, if anything, much of the coverage of it is understated.
The point isn’t only that Giuliani’s paymaster is under federal indictment. Rather, it’s who the oligarch — Dmytro Firtash — is.
The Times reported that Firtash’s firm paid thousands of dollars for Giuliani’s travel in summer 2019, including for a stay at the Ritz London and for private flights.
Giuliani and Firtash have issued similar responses to the Times’ report: Giuliani, via an attorney, claims that the former mayor had “no idea” the oligarch was funding the trips. A Firtash representative told the Times that the oligarch was unaware, too, claiming the payments were due to an “inadvertent error” and that Firtash did not authorize the transactions. [bullshit]
The implication of the cash flows, as the New Republic noted, is that a pro-Kremlin oligarch paid for Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on former President Trump’s political opponent at the time: Joe Biden.
[…] Gassing out
The big scandal that first put Firtash in the crosshairs of the DOJ had to do with the gas trade between Russia and Europe, via Ukraine.
[…] in the mid-2000s, it was all about the money and, eventually, the corruption: in 2006, nonprofit Global Witness released a report identifying several intermediary firms in the gas trade between the states with murky ties to political leadership in the countries. The scandal had the potential to be huge, with billions of dollars in profits reportedly being siphoned away from gas flows into Europe via the intermediaries.
Reports identified the beneficial owner of the firms as Dmytro Firtash, a then-unknown businessman. It set off a race among journalists and researchers to answer basic questions about the man — including what he looked like.
Over time, more has come out. […] By 2001, Firtash resurfaced as an intermediary between Central Asian governments and the Europe gas trade.
Over time, suspicion mounted that Firtash was linked to Semyon Mogilevich, a notorious Russian mobster who remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted List with a $5 million price on his head.
[…] Then U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor (a name familiar to those who closely followed Trump’s first impeachment) authored a series of cables based on meetings he held with Firtash. In one of them, Firtash purportedly said that he only got into business after receiving approval from Mogilevich.
Federal prosecutors never charged Firtash with anything having to do with the Russia-Ukraine-Europe gas trade, or with Mogilevich, though they have described him as an “upper-echelon” associate of Russian organized crime.
The indictment that came down in April 2014 accused Firtash of arranging the bribery of Indian officials to gain access to mining concessions.
The first impeachment
Since then, Firtash has been stuck in Vienna, undertaking a series of strategies to avoid extradition to Chicago, where a federal grand jury returned the indictment against him.
[…] Firtash appointed a former Austrian justice minister to his legal team and, in July 2019, hire two attorneys who informally advised President Trump: Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing. [Laughable]
DiGenova and Toensing hired a Giuliani associate at the time — Lev Parnas — as Giuliani sought damaging information about Joe Biden.
Another DiGenova and Toensing client — former AP reporter John Solomon — published an affidavit that the two lawyers obtained from Firtash, rehashing long-debunked allegations against Biden.
DiGenova and Toensing also reportedly scored a face-to-face meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr.
All of this puts the New York Times report in much sharper relief: Giuliani, an attorney for President Trump, was having his expenses covered by a Ukrainian oligarch with alleged but unconfirmed ties to the Russian mafia, as the former New York City mayor sought dirt on President Biden. […]
At this point the question around the Trump camp is what have the Russians not paid for?
——————-
There was a brief period post 9/11 where I feared Rudy as a shoe-in for President. But man, there is no indignity too low for this guy, no shame he is unwilling to subject himself to.
———————–
Anyone across the political spectrum, from Tankie Rose Dead-Ender Twitterers to the most swivel-eyed loon of a MAGA, who deny that Big Oil and Gas and Big Blackmail represented chiefly by the Russians and Saudis […] completely owned Trump even before 2016 and by extension the Zombie Conservative Rethuglican Party, are in willful ignorance at this point.
Nearly every major geopolitical disruption we have seen for over a decade can be laid at the feet of that axis, to their dead-end smash and grab operation before all extractive industry has nothing left. […] they decided it’d be nice to own one of America’s two major political parties outright. And here we are.
The Labor Department dropped a surprising monthly jobs report for July on Friday showing that U.S. employers added a whopping 528,000 jobs last month while unemployment dropped to 3.5 percent, bringing employment back to its pre-pandemic level.
Now allow Fox News to explain how President Joe Biden and the White House screwed up here.
“America’s Newsroom” opened its segment on the report with a clip of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre telling reporters on Thursday that the Biden administration expected that the incoming employment report would put the number of new jobs at 150,000.
Wrong! Job growth was actually way better than that! The White House was wrong!
“White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre yesterday predicting a cooler job report that might tame inflation, but number’s going in the opposite direction,” Fox News host Mike Emanuel said after the clip.
Underneath Emanuel was a chyron declaring “WH MISSES FORECAST ON LOWER JULY JOBS GROWTH.”
However, the White House hadn’t missed the forecast any more than Fox Business did on Thursday, when former Trump economics adviser Kevin Hassett, appearing as a guest on fellow ex-Trump adviser Larry Kudlow’s show, claimed the report would show employment “way on the downside” at only around 100,000 jobs. [tweet and video at the link]
Pierce R. Butlersays
Lynna… quoting Steve Benem @ # 200: … Republicans have responded to developments like these by pretending not to notice them.
Dunno who doesn’t consider False Noise “personalities” as Republican spokesentities, but –
… Fox News’s chyron… blasts the White House for not getting the estimate right. … It reads: “WH Misses Forecast on Lower July Jobs Growth.”
If Jesus came back and held a news conference with Biden on the White House lawn, they’d slam Democrats for supporting illegal aliens.
Pierce R. Butlersays
Ooops – apologies for not refreshing to see that Lynna had scooped me @ # 203!
According to Ukrainian General Staff, Ukraine has launched a new offensive in Kharkiv area in northern Ukraine, “The defense forces of Ukraine advanced into the depths of the enemyʼs defenses and gained a foothold.” No details were offered, but will definitely bear watching. Russia is already emptying out the Izyum area to reinforce the Kherson front. Ukraine is forcing Russia to spread itself ever thinner, reminding them that their northern front isn’t particularly secure.
General Staff also announced the liberation of Mazanivka and Dmytrivka in the Izyum front, something they generally don’t do unless Ukrainian forces have moved well beyond the location. We are now seeing a real roll back of Russian forces around southern Izyum: [map at the link]
[…] “Liberation” means all Russian forces contesting those settlements have been pushed away […] As for Dovhen’ke, General Staff has reported shelling of Ukrainian forces in “the area of Dovhen’ke.” Given that Russian troops don’t shell themselves (at least not intentionally), that’s usually General Staff code for “Ukrainian troops are sitting there.” In other words, while Russia might still be occupying that pile of rubble, Ukrainian forces are actively contesting it.
Speaking of rubble, look at what’s left of Dibrovne: [video at the link]
@Danspiun of course scoured the video to catalog losses after the Russian retreat: [tweets, images, and lists of destroyed or captured Russian equipment are available at the link]
n the video you can see how hilly the area is. It helps explain why Russia was unable to advance quickly, and also explains why liberating it will be slow going.
The big question here, and one I’ve repeatedly asked since Russian forces seemed to lose interest in Bohorodychne, is a chicken and egg one—are Russian forces withdrawing because of strong Ukrainian pressure, or is Ukraine advancing because Russia is thinning out the region? General Staff has announced several (unsuccessful) Russian ground assaults in the area in recent days (including one against Bohorodychne yesterday), and the Ukrainian in the video above explains how they forced out the Russian garrison by cutting off its supplies. So Russia doesn’t seem to be giving up, or withdrawing on its own initiative. But the answer can also be “both”—as Ukraine degrades Russian lines and the invaders lack the reinforcements to patch up losses.
This amazing video was filmed around Dibrovne: [video at link, complete with English subtitles]
Note how drone operator destroys a Russian ammo truck. […] Also nice to hear the contrast between this video, with Russian artillery booming in the vicinity, and the liberation one further up, with Ukrainian troops chilling in blissful peaceful quiet.
With Dovhen’ke now Russia’s southernmost position around Izyum, it means the front lines are back to where they were June 11.
[…] Finally, I’ll leave you guys with a thought for further exploration—
Note how quietly Ukraine has approached its limited tactical counteroffensives around Izyum, in southern Donbas, and this new one around Kharkiv. Now compare that to Kherson, where everyone in Ukraine hasn’t shut up about their supposedly imminent counteroffensive. Even President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a big speech about “ordering” his armed forces to take Kherson back, as if the Ukrainian army was confused about their job.
If the intent was to panic the Russians into reinforcing the region, it’s been a smashing success. Russia has already moved between a quarter and a third of its total combat forces in Ukraine to the area, and according to video on Telegram, troops and equipment continue to stream in.
[…] I speculated the main Ukrainian counteroffensive won’t be Kherson, but south of Zaporizhzhia and southern Donbas. I’m more and convinced that’s the play. Certainly no reason to hit a mass of Russians at Kherson when it’s far easier to cut them off. And the near-daily announcements of Ukraine’s big push to Kherson has been perfect bait. […]
In other words, if Ukraine was serious about Kherson, they would’ve kept their mouths shut, sprung the surprise on Russia. Instead they gave them months advance notice. Ukraine isn’t that dumb.
If this is what’s happening, we’ve got a couple more of weeks for the Kherson honeytrap to lure whatever Russians are in transit, then we can wrap up Season 3 and move toward what will hopefully be the fourth and triumphant final season of this war.
Season 1: Battle of Kyiv
Season 2: Battle of Luhansk/Donbas
Season 3: NATO guns and HIMARS shape the battlefield
Season 4: … endgame?
We are in trouble, folks; the fascists are becoming ever more bold and dangerous, as witnessed by a nutball walking into a town hall with an AR-15. Video of the encounter is in the embedded tweets below (three parts for the full video) filmed by Shannon Watts of Mom’s Demand Action, a grassroots group fighting for policies that protect against gun violence.
A self-proclaimed “minister of the gospel” showed up to Beto O’Rourke’s town hall in Hemphill, in East Texas, on Saturday, July 30, asking questions about abortion and if Jesus was the gubernatorial candidate’s “lord and savior.” The man did all this while carrying an assault-style rifle over his shoulder just months after a gunman used a similar rifle to kill students and teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde.
The man, who claimed to be a preacher, is seen in multiple videos posted to Twitter over the weekend. Before asking his question, the man says in the video that he was not at the town hall to talk about guns, asking O’Rourke how to “deal with the murder of the unborn for anything other than to save a woman’s life.” The man then goes on to claim that there are plenty of “great men of god who are the product of rape.”
Part one. [video at the link]
Beto handled it well and was careful not to agitate the cleric holding an AR-15 with a pistol in his holster.
Congress must pass a law to stop the deceptive advertising of Medicare Advantage plans. Only Medicare should be able to call itself Medicare.
Unless you’ve been out of the country for the past few years, you’ve seen the ads on TV featuring Joe Namath, Jimmy Walker, or William Shatner hawking so-called “Medicare Advantage” plans. [Yep, I’ve seen those. Highly irritating … and deceptive.]
[video is available at the link]
Medicare Advantage is not Medicare.
It’s private health insurance being offered to people over 65, with the bill paid for by Medicare. Once you get on an Advantage plan it’s very difficult to get off, and if you’ve been on for more than a year you may not be able to go back to regular Medicare with a Medigap plan at all.
It’s also one of the most effective ways that insurance companies are using to kill Medicare for All before its even birthed, since almost half of all people who think they’re on Medicare are actually on these privatized plans instead.
Nearly from its beginning, Medicare has allowed private companies to offer plans to seniors that essentially compete with it, but they were an obscure corner of the market and didn’t really take off until the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress rolled out the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.
This was the GOP’s (and a few corporatist Democrats’) big chance to finally privatize Medicare, one bite at a time.
Bush’s law authorized giant insurance companies to offer for-profit health insurance to people over 65 that competes directly with Medicare and — most egregiously — it lets those companies pretend that they’re offering Medicare by using the brand name “Medicare Advantage.”
[…] With Medicare Advantage, seniors are at the total mercy of the insurance company providing the Advantage plan. They can deny care (and frequently do), refuse to pay for tests, and even refuse to authorize or pay for surgeries and other life-saving procedures.
This is their business model, in fact, just like with regular health insurance. The more they can deny care and claims, the more profit they make.
Most Advantage companies screw their customers just as enthusiastically and aggressively as they do customers of their regular plans, including denials, co-pays, and deductibles. And, because many elderly people don’t have the mental or technical bandwidth to challenge denials of care, the companies get away with it far more easily.
The only real difference is that these companies are paid by Medicare to do this to people, instead of by their customers. And that works out really, really well for the insurance industry, because they regularly lie to Medicare about how sick their customers are so they can make huge profits.
[…] Worse, though, every year, Advantage providers can submit a summary to the federal government of the aggregate “risk score” of all their customers and, practically speaking, get paid ever year a massive additional lump sum for their “increased risk.”
[…] profit-seeking insurance companies, being the predators that they are, have found a number of ways to raise their risk scores without raising their expenses. And the more they do this, the faster they drain Medicare’s trust fund straight into their money bins.
For example, many Medicare Advantage plans promote an annual home visit by a nurse or physician’s assistant as a “benefit” of the plan. What the companies are doing, though, is trying to “upcode” their customers to make them seem sicker than they are to increase their overall Medicare reimbursement risk score.
“Heart failure,” for example, can be a severe and expensive condition to treat — or a barely perceptible tic on an EKG that represents little or no threat to a person for years or even decades. So these visiting nurses look for the tiniest tick in an EKG.
[…] The home health visits are designed to look for illnesses or codings that can increase risk scores. They very much are not looking for conditions that require medical intervention. This “free home health visit” scam is so profitable that an entire industry has sprung up of companies that send nurses out on behalf of the insurance companies.
[…] *“By 2009, government officials were estimating that just over 15 percent of total Medicare Advantage payments were inaccurate, about $12 billion that year.”
*Based on its own sampling of data from health plans, the report shows how Medicare has estimated that faulty risk scores triggered nearly $70 billion in what officials deemed “improper” payments to Medicare Advantage plans from 2008 through 2013.
[…] Companies are almost never nailed for these overcharges, and when they are, they usually pay back pennies on the dollar.
[…] “The recent HHS Payment Accuracy Report exposes that taxpayers have overpaid Medicare Advantage plans more than $30 billion dollars over the last three years,” Brown wrote. “This report comes on the heels of a 2016 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report and a 2013 GAO report on [Medicare Advantage] plan overcharges and the failure of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to recoup billions of dollars of improper payments from Advantage plans.”
With a tiny slice of these huge profits, Advantage companies then will pay small parts of dental, vision, hearing or even give people a bit of cash every month. It’s pure marketing, though: in exchange for what sounds like a deal, customers must put up with fewer diagnostics, regular denials of care, co-pays, and deductibles.
[…] And it’s causing real disasters for real people. [see the link for details]
Reporter Mark Miller wrote for the New York Times in February 2020 about Ed Stein, a 72-year-old man with bladder cancer and a Medicare Advantage plan that didn’t cover the cancer docs in his area who specialized in his type of cancer. He tried to shift back to traditional Medicare to cover what promised to be complex and expensive surgery and chemotherapy.
As Miller wrote:
“That was when he ran up against one of the least understood implications of selecting Advantage when you enroll in Medicare: The decision is effectively irrevocable.”
And when those customers get really, truly sick they’re sometimes in for a world of hurt.
[…] the Times notes:
“Tens of millions of denials are issued each year for both authorization and reimbursements, and audits of the private insurers show evidence of ‘widespread and persistent problems related to inappropriate denials of services and payment,’ the investigators found.”
If you have “real” Medicare with a Medigap policy to cover the 20% Medicare doesn’t, you never have to worry.
Your bills get paid, you can use any doctor or hospital in the country who takes Medicare, and neither Medicare nor your Medigap provider will ever try to collect from you or force you to pay for what you thought was covered.
Neither you nor your doctor will ever have to do the “pre-authorization” dance with real Medicare: those terrible experiences are part of the past.
But if you have Medicare Advantage — which is not Medicare, but privatized insurance that came about because of George W. Bush’s 2003 law to privatize Medicare — you’re on your own.
As the Times laid out:
“About 18 percent of [Advantage] payments were denied despite meeting Medicare coverage rules, an estimated 1.5 million payments for all of 2019. In some cases, plans ignored prior authorizations or other documentation necessary to support the payment. These denials may delay or even prevent a Medicare Advantage beneficiary from getting needed care…”
If Congress and the Biden Administration really want to continue to allow giant insurance companies to exploit and rip off consumers and drain the Medicare Trust Fund, there’s probably not a lot we can do, given that almost half of all seniors now have so-called Advantage plans. Unwinding this scam will be very, very difficult at this point.
But — at the very least — let’s stop the egregiously deceptive advertising. Only Medicare should be able to call itself “Medicare.”
[…] Let’s bring truth in advertising to health care for seniors and stop the destruction of what’s left of real Medicare.
If it is being marketed like a scam, it is a scam.
lumipunasays
Via raven at 196, from Euromaidan Press:
Russia is burning gas in a giant torch that is visible from Finland
Flames have been burning at Gazprom’s Portovaya compressor station every day since June 17. This could be happening because there is nowhere to deliver surplus gas.
This story has a video clip and a photo of the Portovaya torch, as seem from across Finnish border (about 20 km away, at the Baltic Sea coast near Vyborg where the NordStream I pipeline departs from Russia):
Headline: “Here Russia burns away its own billions – The flame seen on video contains a view of current world politics”
Further down, there are some old photos from the Portovaya gas compression facility. There’s a satellite data graph from the US National Institute of Aerospace, showing that occurrence and intensity of fire at the Portovaya facility have exploded this year. Some torching of gas occurs now and then at similar facilities in various countries, due to technical or logistical difficulties, although it is a waste of gas and harmful for the environment.
According to Jessica McCarty, assistant professor at Miami University, the previous fires at Portovaya almost never burned at the gas compression station itself (where the current flame burns) but at the nearby industrial facilities. During May-July, Russia quit its gas delivery to Finland (this small volume was insignificant for Russian economy and not a very big hit for Finland’s energy supply either) and greatly reduced the amount of gas delivered along NordStream I to Germany before briefly cutting it altogether. It seems pretty clear that the current torching is indeed caused by gas surplus in the Russian system.
In 2021, Russia’s total gas export was worth 55 billion euro, most of which went to the EU. Now, Russia stands to lose about 50 billion euro a year just by ending the EU trade, although the future price of natural gas is difficult to predict. It depends a lot whether there’s gas delivery from Russia to EU in the first place.
The Russian national gas company Gazprom has been blaming the recent restrictions on gas delivery along the NordStream I on technical difficulties, which sounds somewhat plausible according to a quoted expert. However, Gazprom has been clearly deliberately dragging its feet in terms of solving the technical problems or using alternate gas delivery routes. There’s a photo of the gas turbine that’s currently stuck in Germany after repair. There’s a tweet from the Gazprom (in English), blaming Western sanctions for their supposed inability to get the turbine back into operation.
Near the end, there’s a mention that torching of natural gas for various reasons was already a widespread practice in Russia, and a major environmental problem. It is illegal but very poorly enforced against. While nearly all of the released methane burns into carbon dioxide (which is a less potent greenhouse gas), it’s still wasted fossil fuel, and the burning generates a large amount of soot particles that spread over the Arctic region, reducing the reflectivity of snow and ice, increasing the warming of the climate.
raven at 196 commented:
I will say the Russians show their usual lack of imagination.
.1. Natural gas can be liquefied to LNG and sent around the world.
.2. Natural gas can be stored in underground facilities, which is what everyone does for the winter.
.3. Natural gas is the feedstock for making nitrogen fertilizer, the key input for feeding 7.9 billion people.
They could just convert this to fertilizer and sell it or use it.
The article quotes a Finnish expert who is somewhat baffled on why Russia is resorting to large scale torching of natural gas. My guess would be that the LNG facilities and fertilizer plants that exist in Russia are already operating at full volume (as normally) and storage facilities are full.
Some people just don’t know when to leave bad enough alone. And at the top of the list of those pitifully oblivious meatheads is the Fox News Senior Schmuck and Fascist Asslicker, Tucker Carlson. For someone who has been savagely steamrolled so often in the past, you might think that Carlson had learned something. You would be wrong.
On Thursday night’s episode of Carlson’s White Nationalist Hour on Fox News, he felt compelled to malign America’s most beloved humorist, Jon Stewart. The impetus for this attack was that Stewart had the gall to speak out on behalf of American soldiers who were poisoned while serving, but for whom the country was not providing necessary healthcare. Stewart’s efforts contributed to the bipartisan passage of the PACT Act (despite eleven Republicans voting against it) that will finally deliver the care that they need.
So what on Earth could have triggered Tucker into such a tempestuous tantrum? Well, apparently it has something to do with his looks, particularly his height. Carlson lashed out maniacally at Stewart accusing him of…
“…looking like a guy who lives in the men’s room at your public library, eating imaginary insects out of the air. And he was there to get, for some reason, into a shouting match with the senior editor of Human Events called Jack Posobiec. […] He looks demented.”
This raises the question of how Carlson is so familiar with denizens of men’s rooms at libraries. More to the point, Carlson completely misunderstood the reason Stewart was there. It wasn’t to argue with Posobiec, a notorious racist and conspiracy theorist. It was to help the heroes that Fox News pretends to support. But Carlson was just get started. After playing a brief, and purposely edited video clip intended to make Stewart look bad, Carlson went on to rant…
“That’s Jon Stewart? The famous Jon Stewart? He looks like a homeless mental patient. He’s shrieking and disheveled. And very short. Really short. Too short to date. Was he always that short? What happened? Where’s he been the last 7 years? If you know, let us know. We want answers.”
[video at the link]
Yes, Tuckums. That’s the famous Jon Stewart, passionately standing up for sick veterans, which is more than you’ve ever done for anyone else. And while Stewart may be only 5’7″, if he 6’7″ he still wouldn’t date you. So take a cold shower in a library men’s room and get over it. Or go try to get a date with the “sexy” cartoon M&Ms that make you so hot.
It’s interesting that Stewart works so hard on behalf of others, but Carlson can only find fault with his height. Carlson’s hatred of short people says much more about himself than it does of Stewart. However, Stewart had a prompt and appropriate response…
“Friends. Tonite I am sad. @TuckerCarlson believes me too short to date…and yet somehow, miraculously, I remain tall enough to not know what Victor Orban’s ass tastes like! Is it goulash Tucky? Seems like it would be goulash.”
OUCH! Did Carlson really think he could beat Stewart in a battle of the burns? Stewart’s retort was both funny and topical. Hungarian dictator Orbán just spoke at the ultra-rightist CPAC conference where the conservative crowd cheered his racist and authoritarian views. Carlson is a huge fan of Orbán, having traveled to Hungary in order to do a slobberingly softball interview late last year.
What’s more, Carlson’s infatuation with Orbán is reciprocal. Orbán recently praised Carlson saying that “programs like his should be broadcasted day and night. Or as you say 24/7.'” He better be careful or Vladimir Putin, who Carlson is also enamored of, will get jealous.
This, of course, isn’t the first battering that Carlson has had by Stewart. In 2005 Stewart appeared on CNN’s Crossfire which was co-hosted by Paul Begala and Carlson. In that encounter Stewart told Carlson that he was “not going to be your monkey,” and that he is “as big a dick on [Crossfire] as you are on any show.” A few weeks later Crossfire was canceled and Carlson was fired. It’s clear that Carlson has never gotten over it. Watch the classic exchange below. [video at the link]
A lot of whataboutism reminds me of this SNL skit. A version of the “I’m not touching you” instincts. I’ve got some people making a big deal about why the 1/6 committee isn’t interested in Epps. Buy they can’t/won’t explain… https://youtu.be/DU_Gd623HJo
The NYT has an analysis of how many states would vote to keep abortion legal.
It is 40 out of 50.
The only ones that would vote against it are in the deep South.
Oregon had an abortion vote in 2018 about public funding, to stop it.
It lost by 65% to 35%.
Kansas Result Suggests 4 Out of 5 States Would Back Abortion Rights in Similar Vote
The referendum in a reliably Republican state shows which party has the most energy on the issue.
Aug. 4, 2022 NYTimes edited for length
There was every reason to expect a close election.
Instead, Tuesday’s resounding victory for abortion rights supporters in Kansas offered some of the most concrete evidence yet that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has shifted the political landscape. The victory, by a 59-41 margin in a Republican stronghold, suggests Democrats will be the energized party on an issue where Republicans have usually had an enthusiasm advantage.
The Kansas vote implies that around 65 percent of voters nationwide would reject a similar initiative to roll back abortion rights, including in more than 40 of the 50 states (a few states on each side are very close to 50-50).
It’s a tally that’s in line with recent national surveys that showed greater support for legal abortion after the court’s decision.
The only reason the deep South can keep abortion illegal is because they are massive hypocrites. Most girls and women that need an abortion will end up traveling to…Blue states.
A Texas jury on Friday added $45.2 million to the damages that conspiracy theorist and media personality Alex Jones must pay to the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim as punishment for repeatedly claiming the school shooting was a hoax.
[…]
On Thursday, the jury ordered Jones to pay the parents $4.1 million in compensation for his comments, bringing the total amount owed to just under $50 million. Friday’s order determined punitive damages, which can be awarded to punish a defendant for reckless, negligent or outrageous behavior or to deter future bad acts.
[…]
Bernard Pettingill, an economic expert….estimated that Jones’ net worth, combined with the net worth of Free Speech Systems, ranges from $135 million to $270 million.
rorschachsays
Lynna @207,
“We are in trouble, folks; the fascists are becoming ever more bold and dangerous, as witnessed by a nutball walking into a town hall with an AR-15.”
I am constantly astonished as to how the Democrats are ignoring the looming christofascist takeover of the USA (and its nuclear arsenal) after the midterms. It is likely that there will be no more democratic elections in the US and everyone seems ok with it. The SCOTUS is essentially a Taliban council, just with alcohol, the Secret Service (short:SS) deletes evidence of conspiracy to commit treason with gay abandon, Agolf Twitler is still holding televised rallies…USA is on the brink, and nothing is happening. It’s quite disconcerting.
Germany is not perfect, far from it, people here have in the last 20 years lost the plot intellectually too, burning forests are nowadays the result of “hot weather” or “glass shards”, as opposed to arson, but hey, at least here if you had the religious nutjob neolibs try election interference, there would be riots in the streets. I hope.
ravensays
This is an update of the Russian deportation plans in Ukraine.
The latest numbers are something like 2.8 million people, 440,000 of them children.
TIL (Things I Learn) online. How to commit genocide.
.1. Commit atrocities and mass murder. A lot of the population will flee to the West as refugees. In Ukraine’s case, it is 12 million refugees, 7 million internally and 5 million out of the country.
.2. Forcibly deport millions of the population to Russia. These people are ending up at the ends of the earth without much social support. If the typical Russian pattern holds, many of them will be disappeared and/or die one way or another.
.3. Kill a few million of the target population. That will at least quiet them down.
.4. Import your own people into the empty spaces you’ve created.
.5. Forced assimilation.
Suppress the language and culture of the conquered people. Take over the schools and Russify the population. In a few generations, only old people in out of the way places will speak Ukrainian.
This is almost what has already happened to Belarusian. Not too many people speak it any more and there is very little content in the language being created since Belarusian bookstores are illegal.
The old idea that you commit genocide by killing all of the target population is outdated. You don’t even have to kill all that many people.
Refugees, deportations, terrorism, and forced assimilation is all you need. The best method is probably forced assimilation. It will take a while, a generation or two, but in the end it will work. And without the piles of bodies, the world isn’t going to worry about it too much.
Inside Russia’s ‘Kafka-esque’ Mass Kidnapping Scheme
TOTAL HEAD F*CK
A deranged “filtration” system gives Ukrainian civilians—including young children—the illusion of choice but, in reality, they are being kidnapped en masse by the Russian state.
thedailybeast.com Allison Quinn News Editor
Updated Aug. 05, 2022 11:07AM ET / Published Aug. 05, 2022 4:33AM ET
Nearly six months into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, with up to 1.6 million Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia so far, Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces are now using civilians as cannon fodder on the front line and faking artillery attacks to trick them to cross the border.
Just this week, Ukrainian authorities in Kozacha Lopan, a village occupied by Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, said residents were herded up and forcibly “evacuated” to Russia’s Belgorod region after being tricked to board buses by soldiers who told them they had to leave to escape “intense shelling” in the area. There was no such shelling, authorities said.
In the occupied Luhansk region, authorities say 80 civilian men in the city of Starobilsk were forcibly sent to the front line this week alone, sent to die for the Russian forces who violently took control of the area.
It’s all part of a “Kafka-esque system” Russia has set up to systematically wipe out the Ukrainian population by forcibly “Russifying” hundreds of thousands of citizens, according to a new report extensively detailing Russia’s network of “filtration” camps for refugees.
The Centre for Information Resilience, a nonprofit that uses open source intelligence to track Russia’s activities in Ukraine, has compiled a new dossier—shared with The Daily Beast—on the network of camps and temporary accommodation centers Moscow is using to literally kidnap hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in plain sight.
“Ukrainian refugees are presented with the illusion of choice from the moment of their capture until their involuntary settlement in Russian territory. They are trapped in a Kafka-esque system working against them. Their forced displacement is just the beginning of the long-term impact of the war on the Ukrainian population. Kept under the watchful eyes of the invading forces from the moment of their capture until their forceful placement in Russian territory, there is no safe way to escape a process in which the wrong answer can cost them their lives,” the report reads.
Screenshots of the video showing heavily armed Russian personnel waiting and escorting refugees arriving in buses at the Bezimenne filtration camp, Donetsk.
Throughout five months of war, Russian forces have routinely fired at evacuation buses carrying residents to safety in Ukrainian-controlled territory, have blocked roads to thwart such evacuations, and in other cases snatched up fleeing Ukrainians to use them in propaganda videos for Russian media, the report notes. In one case, a Ukrainian history teacher serving as the driver of an evacuation bus, Mikhail Pankov, was taken captive by Russian forces before appearing, blindfolded, in a segment on Russian television which claimed he’d been detained on Russian territory while supposedly acting as a spotter for the Ukrainian military.
“I’m begging you, please give my papa back. We’re doing very badly without him, we miss him. Please return my papa,” Pankov’s 12-year-old daughter pleaded in a gut-wrenching video on social media after his capture in May.
Evacuation buses covered in bullet holes, civilians waiting for evacuation near Mariupol, and screenshots of video detailing the living conditions experienced by the detained civilians in Bezimenne.
The 30-page report by the Centre for Information Resilience also pinpoints the locations of 11 “filtration” camps in the occupied Donetsk region. While Russia has claimed the camps are simply “checkpoints” for refugees hoping to get to safety, arriving refugees are often surrounded by heavily armed Russian forces and greeted by agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Ominously, footage secretly filmed at one of the camps in Donetsk, which the Centre for Information Resilience geolocated to a school in the village of Bezimenne on the outskirts of Mariupol, showed hundreds of Ukrainian men being held captive despite having passed Russia’s “filtration” process.
A man detained in the same building who shot the footage and shared it on Telegram said the Russians overseeing the captives had been heard saying they hadn’t yet decided whether to use the men to fight for Russia’s army or as “labour for the demolition of the Mariupol rubble,” the report says.
“When in Russian custody many refugees report going through intense interrogation, often with verbal abuse, threats, or actual physical assault. According to reports some people were simply never seen again.”
In many other cases, those who underwent Russia’s “filtration” process described being shaken down for bribes, or of having their phones confiscated by Russian interrogators only to get them back with newly installed programs meant to track their activities.
Journalist Stanislav Miroshnichenko described the process to Current Time TV in mid-June. “A person I was speaking to saw a program on his phone. It was a certain file that was uploaded to his phone via Bluetooth. In my opinion, it was called ‘Eavesdropping of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.’ I asked him if he had tried to delete the program from his phone. He answered that after he left, he turned off the phone and hadn’t used it. He didn’t know how to delete it,” he said.
Those who do pass are reportedly then transported deep into Russia, where they report additional interrogations before being met at temporary accommodation centers by Russian state media urging them to praise Moscow’s supposed humanitarian efforts toward refugees.
Location of the known filtration camps in Donetsk, pictures of a pickup point for civilians fleeing war zones just outside Mariupol, and a screenshot from the drone footage of the filtration camp in Bezimenne from May 2022 (left) and satellite image of the area from 2019 (right).
Russia’s Voronezh, Rostov, and Krasnodar regions are said to have served as the settling point for most of the deported Ukrainians, who are often promised work opportunities, payments, and housing that they never get—or “free land” that turns out to be deep in the wilderness and dense with trees and swamps.
“Trapped in a system that forces them towards Russia whilst presenting the illusion of choice, most will not have the money, connections, or even the mobility to attempt an escape,” the report notes.
Many refugees also find that their new accommodation in Russia comes with heavy strings attached. While Russian authorities give out 10,000 rubles (about $175) to arriving Ukrainian families, if they want to stay, they have to fork over more than half of that.
“They complained that they get a one-time payment of 10,000, and pay 6,000 for the [mandatory] Russian language exam,” one Russian woman who works with refugees told The Daily Beast.
“Of all [the families I’ve worked with], only one supported Putin,” she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Perhaps worst of all, thousands of children have been swept up in Russia’s mass kidnapping scheme—many of them dubbed “orphans” and adopted out to new Russian families, a fact which both Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, have openly gushed about.
While Russian state media has provided glowing coverage of the Kremlin’s supposed “humanitarian” efforts to take in Ukrainian children they claim were rescued from orphanages near the front line, Ukrainian authorities have said the so-called “orphans” they snatched up, particularly in Mariupol, were actually ripped away from their families.
“Among those taken to the Russian Federation, there are new orphans who lost their parents as a result of the war, and children from families that got separated. We know of cases where children were simply taken away from their parents,” Pyotr Andryushchenko, an aide to Mariupol’s Ukrainian mayor, said in late June.
“We are certain that this is just part of ‘denazification’ aimed at getting as many Ukrainian children out of the Ukrainian population as possible. We understand perfectly well, after what happened in Mariupol, that if children are put through the adoption procedure in two or three years, given the age they are at, it will be very difficult to find their parents, and they themselves will not remember them,” Andryushchenko said.
The independent news outlet Verstka reported in late June that hundreds of unaccompanied Ukrainian children were taken to a sports complex in Taganrog, in Russia’s Rostov region. Some of those kids were later moved to the Moscow region, where they were handed over to Russian families.
The Centre for Information Resilience geolocated the makeshift temporary accommodation center where children were being held in Taganrog, identifying it as the Dvorets Sports Complex. In mid-March, a third of refugees being held at the center were between the ages of 3 and 10, according to their report.
The families of thousands of Ukrainian children who went missing during the chaotic early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion are still searching for their kids months later.
Tatyana and Yelena, two grandmothers from Mariupol, are among the most gut-wrenching examples. Their toddler granddaughter, Nastya, vanished along with both of her parents when the city came under heavy shelling on March 12, according to Verstka. The building Nastya lived in with both parents—the daughter and son of Tatyana and Yelena—burned up after taking a direct hit, but none of their bodies were found in the wreckage.
Five months later, Tatyana told Verstka, she spotted a little girl she was sure was Nastya being described as an “orphan” in footage aired by Russian state media last month that showed Ukrainian kids being taken in by their new adoptive Russian families near Moscow.
She recalled her husband searching the house for a sedative to calm her down. After sending Yelena the footage, she too agreed it was the missing granddaughter.
But after weeks of haggling with Russian authorities to verify the little girl’s identity, a long-awaited meeting proved disappointing, Tatyana said. Though Russian authorities would not agree to bring the girl in person, they provided pictures and video of her that were inspected by friends of the family who knew her well.
“It’s not Nastya. They could not make a mistake. It’s not her nose, not her big blue eyes,” Tatyana was quoted saying.
She and Elena now continue their search for both their children and granddaughter, who Tatyana recalls had always refused to pick flowers like other kids, believing that both the flower bud and flowers were meant to stay as one whole family.
“She thought that both the mother would be hurt, and the children— the flowers—would be hurt. If they are separated, the buds would wither and die.”
As it reportedly considers a criminal prosecution of the former President, the Department of Justice has “strongly urged” Donald J. Trump to retain Alex Jones’s legal team.
“We at the Justice Department can think of no one better to represent you than Alex Jones’s lawyers,” Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote recently, in a letter to Trump. “They are, quite simply, the Dream Team.”
Garland added, “After watching these lawyers in action, my associates at the D.O.J. and I looked at each other and said, ‘These guys have to represent Trump.’ ”
The Attorney General acknowledged that Trump might be considering hiring his longtime attorney, Rudy Giuliani, but noted, “As amazing as Rudy would be, we think that Alex Jones’s lawyers would be even more amazing.”
In a final inducement to Trump, Garland added, “We’ll pay them.”
His cell phone data appears to prove he lied about Sandy Hook and his finances. Could it also help Jan. 6 investigators or even lead to criminal charges?
It was the Perry Mason moment heard round the world. And by that, I mean Wednesday’s live, in-court revelation that attorneys for far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones inadvertently sent two years worth of texts and emails from Jones’ cell phone to his opponents in a defamation trial.
Using those emails and texts judiciously and strategically, Texas lawyer Mark Bankston gave a masterclass in cross-examination, alleging Jones lied about everything from his very use of email to his financial situation to the sincerity of his stated belief that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. It’s no wonder a jury concluded that Jones, who was held liable by default for refusing to provide relevant documents, including texts and emails, now owes $50 million — $4.1 million in compensatory damages and an eye-popping $42.5 million in punitive damages, which Jones’ lawyer already vowed to contest — to the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, who was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre.
One would think it could not get worse for the Infowars host. But even before the jury announced its damages award, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble made a ruling that could far overshadow Jones’ monetary woes: She held that barring certain medical records belonging to other Sandy Hook families, Bankston’s possession and use of Jones’ phone data was generally fair game. Why? Because Jones’ lawyer — who realized his mistake but asked only that the other side “disregard” what he shared — failed to specifically identify any privileged material within the 10 days allotted under Texas court rules.
And it’s that decision that stands to make Jones’ life truly miserable. Not only did it leave him open to punitive damages to Lewis’ family and significant damages in two other, similar Sandy Hook cases, but it could also expose Jones to criminal investigation and prosecution in three areas outside Sandy Hook: bankruptcy fraud, obstruction of Congress and any crimes committed in connection to the Jan. 6 attack. (And that’s not even counting any exposure Jones might have simply for lying under oath during prior depositions or on the stand.)
First, as the trial was underway, Jones’ parent media company filed for federal bankruptcy protection, just as some of its subsidiaries did in April. Wednesday’s court proceedings, however, suggest that Jones’ claims of poverty are false. Although Jones has testified that he “lost millions of dollars” after he and Infowars were “deplatformed” in 2018 from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Apple, the contents of Jones’ phone apparently show his revenue increased — and that on some days, he made more than $800,000 through products sold through Infowars advertisements. If Jones’ bankruptcy filings reflect similar discrepancies, he could be referred to the Department of Justice for investigation; it is a federal crime to make false or misleading statements in bankruptcy proceedings and/or willfully file fraudulent documents in a bankruptcy proceeding as part of a larger scheme to defraud, including in order to conceal assets from one’s litigation adversaries.
Second, much is being made of the House Jan. 6 committee’s reported request for the contents of Jones’ phone — and Bankston’s announcement that he will comply with that request.
To be fair, Bankston admitted Thursday that while he and his co-counsel saw text messages “from as far back as 2019,” they do not know “the full scope and breadth” of what is on Jones’ phone, much less whether “it even covers the time period” of interest to the committee. (Jones’ lawyer, for his part, told the court the texts produced cover more than six months “from late 2019 into the first quarter of 2020.”) On Friday, Bankston had a disappointing update for The Austin-American Statesman: “It does look like that phone was scraped in mid- to late-2020.” Yet Bankston’s comments do not seem to be definitive, and the well-staffed committee will devour the phone’s contents. and if there are communications from 2020 and 2021, Jones could be at further risk.
Here’s why: When the committee issued a subpoena to Jones last November, it not only sought his testimony, but demanded he produce relevant documents within weeks. Jones ultimately testified this past January — and claimed to have invoked the Fifth Amendment roughly 100 times — but apparently did not produce his texts.
Those texts remain of intense interest to the committee, which, according to The New York Times, has been trying to obtain them for months — and for good reason. As the committee observed in its subpoena to Jones, both media reports and his own statements reflect he:
– “Repeatedly promoted” claims of election fraud and urged his listeners to attend the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack in ways that intimated he had knowledge of then-President Donald Trump’s plans;
– Was told by the White House on or around Jan. 3, 2021, that after the Ellipse rally ended, he was “to lead a march to the Capitol, where President Trump would meet the group;”
– Spoke at the Jan. 5 Freedom Plaza rally at Trump’s request;
– Helped organize the Jan. 6 Ellipse rally, “including by facilitating a donor . . . to provide what [Jones] characterized as ‘eighty percent’ of the funding;” and
– Marched, with “Stop the Steal” movement leader Ali Alexander and others, from the Ellipse to the Capitol on Jan. 6, where he was recorded “telling people not to be violent and to gather on the east side of the Capitol to hear President Trump speak.”
– As the Times has noted, Jones also has a “broad range of ties to people in pro-Trump circles,” and was “closely involved” in two Washington-based rallies on Nov. 14 and Dec. 12, 2020, for which the Oath Keepers provided security.
Further, with longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone, Jones was among those Trump allies “meeting in and around, or staying at” the Willard Hotel in Washington, where Jones interviewed former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Jan. 5. Among the texts included in Jones’ phone data, as produced to Lewis’ family’s lawyer, are what Bankston described as “intimate messages” between Stone and Jones.
In short, Jones’ fingerprints — and relationships — are all over Jan. 6 and the weeks preceding it. And if Jones’ phone proves his involvement in Jan. 6 and/or schemes to overturn the 2020 election in ways that contradict Jones’ prior testimony, Jones could also find himself under investigation for one or both of two crimes of which Stone was convicted before Trump pardoned him: obstruction of an official proceeding and false statements to Congress.
Third and finally, Bankston also disclosed in court that the Jan. 6 committee is not the only investigative body to request the phone. “Several law enforcement agencies” also made requests for the phone data, Bankston told the judge, adding that he intends to comply with those requests “immediately.” And although Bankston did not mention the Justice Department by name, it’s a safe assumption that the DOJ is one of the “various federal agencies” that came calling.
Since the season finale of the Jan. 6 committee hearings last month, public reporting shows the DOJ’s own investigation is moving at a faster clip than expected or understood. In recent days, we’ve learned the Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to at least four Trump White House aides: Greg Jacob, Marc Short, Pat Cipollone and Pat Philbin. A fifth Trump White House staffer, Cassidy Hutchinson, is reportedly cooperating with the DOJ’s probe.
Jones, on the other hand, was in discussions with the DOJ about potential cooperation in its investigation months ago — but offered help only in exchange for immunity from prosecution. It’s unclear whether Jones ultimately reached a deal with federal investigators, but his eagerness for leniency at a much earlier phase in the DOJ’s work, coupled with its recent, dramatic advances, only underscores why a federal review of his phone data could be more bad news for Jones.
Of course, whether Jones has anything to fear beyond additional defamation liability is something only he (and his email and text buddies) know. It’s also possible that the real damage Jones could do is less to himself than to any number of others — such as Stone, Flynn or even Trump himself — in his orbit. […]
Three more ships with grain have left Ukrainian ports and are headed to Turkey for inspection, Turkey’s defense ministry said Friday, evidence that a U.N.-backed deal is working to export Ukrainian grain that has been trapped by Russia’s invasion.
South Korea joined the stampede to the moon Thursday with the launch of a lunar orbiter that will scout out future landing spots. The satellite launched by SpaceX is taking a long, roundabout path to conserve fuel and will arrive in December. If successful, it will join spacecraft from the U.S. and India already operating around the moon, and a Chinese rover exploring the moon’s far side.
Artillery duels around a huge power plant on the Dnipro river raised the risk of an accident, as each side blamed the other for the explosions on Friday […]
Commentary:
[…] Russia had seized the facility early on in the invasion, and has been using it as a fortress to launch artillery attacks with the expectation that Ukraine would not risk the dangers of a nuclear catastrophe by firing back.
Ukrainian technicians continue to operate the plant under Russian guard, and the situation has caused international alarm. According to the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, the biggest nuclear power complex in Europe has been operating without access to parts and vital equipment, and without access for the international teams that would normally verify the complex is being operated safely. Normal safety practices are being disregarded or are simply not possible. The situation was dangerous enough before what has just happened.
[…] …on Friday, artillery duels near a giant nuclear power plant on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine created new safety risks.
Explosions in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex at about 2:30 p.m. destroyed electrical transmission lines and posed risks of damaging the plant, forcing engineers to alter the operation of one of its six reactors by reducing power, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, Energoatom, said.
Hours later, a second series of three explosions damaged an auxiliary building near one of the nuclear reactors, raising the risk of hydrogen leaks and fire, the company said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for the attacks.
“This is the largest nuclear power plant on our continent, and any shelling of this facility is an open, brazen crime, an act of terror,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. “Russia should bear responsibility for the very fact of creating a threat to the nuclear power plant.”
The Russian ministry of defense said it was Ukrainian forces who had shelled the plant, accusing them of an act of “nuclear terrorism.”
Commentary:
No radiation release has been detected or reported, but needless to say there are serious concerns about what may be happening in the complex. Currently three of the six reactors at the plant had been operating, two were on standby, and one was undergoing repairs. Following the damage at the complex, output from one of the reactors was reduced, possibly taking it off line. In the absence of outside verification, it’s not possible to confirm the status of the plant.
The Times reports Ukraine had used a precision drone strike to take out a missile launcher and anti-aircraft system 150 yards away from a reactor without causing any damage to the reactor; the Friday explosions are being attributed to Russian forces, which lack comparable targeting capabilities.
Russian actions at Chernobyl according to a report from the BBC indicate that the invaders did not understand what they were dealing with, and did not seem to care about the risks of a nuclear accident. Vandalism and looting were reported at Chernobyl as well as reports of Russian troops suffering possibly lethal radiation exposure. (Reuters)
This is consistent with other actions by the invading Russian forces which indicate they are poorly trained, poorly led, and prone to casual brutality and criminality. That is not reassuring given the risks in dealing with nuclear power stations. […]
BBC:
Ukraine now has eight reactors connected to the grid – two at the Zaporizhzhia power station, which is under Russian occupation, three at Rivne, two at the South Ukraine power station and one at Khmelnytskyy. Its seven other reactors are shut down for regular maintenance or held in reserve.
A North Carolina school district said Friday it plans to put AR-15 guns in every school in the event of a future mass shooting.
The topic of arming teachers and school staff members has become an ongoing discussion in the United States in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, with some schools now training teachers to carry weapons.
The Madison County school system in North Carolina plans to put AR-15 rifles in special safes in every school throughout the county, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports.
Sheriff Buddy Harwood said the rifles will allow schools and police officers to quickly defend themselves against school shootings.
“I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that’s time lost. Hopefully, we’ll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be,” he told the Asheville Citizen-Times.
School districts across multiple states are discussing whether or not teachers should be wielding guns to stop future school threats in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, which killed 19 children and two teachers.
At least 29 states currently allow people other than police or security officers to carry guns on school grounds, per the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In Ohio, a new law gives teachers the right to carry firearms after less than 24 hours of training, stoking critics’ concern.
[…]
In Florida, there are more than 1,300 school staff members working as armed guardians across 45 school districts, the New York Times reports.
Texas has at least 402 school districts enrolled in a program that allows people, including teachers and staff, to be armed, per the Times.
Pennsylvania has been discussing the topic recently, too. State Sen. Doug Mastriano introduced a new bill that would allow school employees with a license to carry a firearm to carry the weapon at work.
Indiana became the first state in the country since Roe. v. Wade was overturned to approve a near-total abortion ban Friday night….
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the bill into law late Friday night after the Indiana House and Senate passed the bill earlier that day.
The ban takes effect beginning Sept. 15.
The ban includes some exceptions, including cases of rape, incest, if the fetus is diagnosed to be a lethal anomaly and cases to protect the life of the mother, AP reports.
Under the bill, abortions can be performed at hospitals or outpatient centers owned by hospitals. This means abortion clinics will lose licenses in Indiana.
Doctors who perform an illegal abortion, or fail to report them, will also lose their licenses under the new law, the Associated Press reports.
[…]
Rep. John Jacob (R), who previously supported a total abortion ban, said the abortion bill wasn’t strong enough, the Indy Star reports.
“The body inside of the mom’s body is not her body,” he said, per the Washington Post. Let me repeat that: The body inside of the mom’s body is not her body. Not her body, not her choice.”
[…]
Eli Lilly and Co., which is one of Indiana’s largest employers, said in reaction to the ban that it will be “forced to plan for more employment growth outside of our home state.”
It’s always interesting peering into the Tankie alternate reality, so let’s check in this Saturday morning. For those of you who don’t know, the Tankies oppose American imperialism (so far so good), but think only America can be imperialist. It looks like this:
If you’re on the side of the US empire on any issue you are on the wrong side. Doesn’t mean the other side is always necessarily in the right, it just means a globe-spanning empire that’s held together by lies, murder and tyranny will always be in the wrong. Yes it’s that simple.
I’ve previously covered the Tankies […], and they are named after the leftists who defended the Soviet Union even after it used tanks to crush uprisings in Budapest and Prague. In modern times, it ends up looking like this:
Noam Chomsky, in an interview this week, says “fortunately” there is “one Western statesman of stature” who is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine rather than looking for ways to fuel and prolong it.
“His name is Donald J. Trump,” Chomsky says.
These days, they’re certainly upset about Nancy Pelosi. [tweet at the link]
Merely showng up, in a civilian aircraft, while dozens of Chinese ships buzzed around, missiles flew over Taiwan, and entire sea and airspace around the island closed for “military exercises”—well, it’s the U.S. that is “escalating.” Now, if you’re wondering, “well, at least this Tankie must care about the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong?” Ha ha no [tweet at the link refers to Britain colonizing Honk Kong: "There was no "democracy" or respect for "human rights" in the 150 years of British colonial rule over Hong Kong."]
No one is defending Britain’s colonial past, the West has a putrid history in that regard. But remember, the Tankie doesn’t oppose all colonialism, just the Western kind. So it’s quite interesting that it was China that prevented Britain from transitioning Hong Kong to a full democracy.
In the 1960s and ’70s, when Britain considered introducing direct elections, Communist China squashed the idea, warning Britain to “preserve the colonial status of Hong Kong.” Direct elections were later allowed, but only for a limited number of seats in the local legislature in 1991, with the countdown ticking to Hong Kong’s return to China. The last British governor, Chris Patten, expanded the number of directly elected council seats, but an infuriated China considered that a breach of the handover agreement and immediately replaced that legislature with an appointed one after resuming sovereignty.
If you’re all-in on China being somehow the perfect society, you’ve gotta be able to brush off that pesky Uyghurs issue.
No “genocide” of the Uyghurs is taking place in China. Actually the opposite is happening. The Uyghur population has increased (they were not subject to the “one child policy”). No “cultural genocide” either. Xinjiang has 24,000 mosques, there are many Uyghur restaurants etc.
You can find a great deal of information on China’s dealing with Uyghurs, but here are primes from the Council of Foreign Relations and the BBC. It’s genocide.
But hey, the Tankies know who the real evils are: [“Nancy Pelosi is evil” tweet available at the link. Photo shows Pelosi with the Dalai Lama]
If you’re wondering why Pelosi is “evil” for meeting with Dalai Lama, [the Tankie] goes on to call him a “slave owner and terrorist.” You know, because he advocates for independence for Tibet, and has murdered, let me do some math … carry the one … zero people in his dastardly quest for self-determination.
[Jackson Hinkle tweeted] To all the conservatives who think Taiwan is a country & want war with China: You are doing Soros’ dirty work, congratulations.
Tankies are very anti-semitic, duh.
I’m a Fascist but I support modern China. They fight against liberalism, LGBT propaganda for children, they allow net zero immigration. The Chinese corporatist system is very similar to the Italian one in the 1930s. CCP was evil when Mao was there. Not anymore.
They are also very anti-LGBT for some reason.
[…] Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate voted to admit Finland and Sweden into NATO. That made the Tankies sad.
U.S. progressives are tools of the national security state and endless war [plus insults aimed at Bernie Sanders and AOC]
Putin’s pal Glenn Greenwald had conniptions.
Bernie doesn’t even pretend any more to have anything resembling a left-wing foreign policy or any minimal divergence from the neocon-driven Dem Party’s foreign policy dogma.
Opposing NATO expansion was long a mainstream liberal view. Now only Hawley & Paul will get near it […]
Honestly no clue what he’s talking about. In the 1998 expansion bringing Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republican into NATO, liberal stalwart Dems. Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Carl Levin, Barb Mikulski, and Patty Murray all voted yes. (Interestingly, nine Republicans and 10 Democrats voted no, but they were mostly the party’s conservative wing) […]
Anyway, this about sums it up: [Cartoon at the link debunking “NATO expansion” justification for Russia invading Ukraine.]
[…]
Last week, West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore announced he would be targeting financial institutions pulling away from the fossil fuel industry, echoing a similar move from Texas’s comptroller. Naturally, these actions don’t exist in a vacuum and are a product of a concerted effort from state Republicans to pull the country further away from meeting its climate goals at the behest of the oil and gas sector.
As the New York Times reports, nearly two dozen such officials are pulling these tactics on both state and federal levels. […]
These actions range from state treasurers voicing their opposition to a proposed Security and Exchange Commission rule tackling environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns to those same treasurers outright targeting any firms who say they will decrease fossil fuel financing for the sake of sustainability concerns by way of laws passed against such measures. […]
Many of these politicians were influenced by groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Petroleum Institute […] Aside from API literally being an oil and gas trade organization, groups like the Heritage Foundation have long opposed any measures meant to address climate change. The think tank is listed by Greenpeace as a “Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group.”
It also heavily donates to Republicans […] Links between the Heritage Foundation and treasurers like Moore aren’t hard to find: Moore recently appeared on a Heritage Foundation podcast to discuss how much he hates ESG rules. […] these relationships are not just poisoning politics, but actively harming our planet.
The Senate parliamentarian has given the green light to a $740 billion budget reconciliation bill that will reform the tax code, tackle climate change and lower drug prices, putting the Senate on track to begin voting on the bill Saturday afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Saturday that the bill is on track to pass this weekend now that the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has ruled that its provisions comply with the budgetary rules enabling it to circumvent a GOP filibuster.
[…] “In a few hours, we will formally begin the process of passing the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 by voting on the motion to proceed,” Schumer said.
That will then trigger up to 20 hours of floor debate, followed by votes on an open-ended series of amendments that could last throughout the night and into Sunday morning.
Schumer told colleagues they should expect to keep voting until the bill is finished, likely sometime Sunday. […]
Lindsey Graham said that he and other Republicans planned to make the voting process “hell.”
StevoRsays
“I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the World.”
– Sadako Sasaki, died 1955, aged 12. One of 80,000 plus victims of the first Atomic bombing.
Thought once that we’d got past this and learnt but seems we’ve gone backwards in this respect so very far.
Thought we’d progessed towards disarming and globally agreeing that nukes weren’t going to be an option but..
I’ve been to Hiroshima. Walked around the Peace Park – Genbakendomu – there. It is incredibly moving and, I really don’t know what to say now. Words don’t suffice.
“No one is denying the amount of rain we had — it truly was a 1,000 year event — but did the strip mines contribute? Absolutely,” a Kentucky lawyer said.
As eastern Kentuckians continue to search for missing loved ones, muck out their homes and prepare for more rain, they are beginning to ask who could be at fault for this past week’s deadly flooding and whether it was a natural disaster or one caused by the coal mines that have drastically reshaped and scarred the landscape.
Compacted dirt, destroyed mountaintops and deforestation in eastern Kentucky have often been left ignored by the coal companies that mined there, despite legal requirements that they attempt to return the land to its natural state when mining concludes. In recent decades, that spurned responsibility has, at times, turned heavy rains into floods and caused local residents who once counted on mining for jobs and prosperity to bring litigation against their former employers in Appalachian courtrooms.
Lawyers who have pursued these cases in the past said it is still too early to pursue a case in the most recent flooding, as studies need to be conducted […]
Kentucky, particularly the eastern mountains, are littered with abandoned coal mines. Many are a result of strip mining or mountaintop removal mining, the latter a method in which mining companies use explosives to blast off a mountain’s summit to get to the coal inside.
[…]”It is obviously just a clear slam dunk in terms of corporate irresponsibility,” said Alex Gibson, the executive director of Appalshop, the culture and education center in Whitesburg that was hit by more than 6 feet of water. “And of how we can predict an outcome and ignore all the signs along the way until the tragedy happens […]
[…] The loss of the natural ridge lines, vegetation and trees, and the cracks in the mountains that are largely owned by companies often funnels rainwater into the thin valleys, or low-lying hollows, where most eastern Kentuckians make their homes.
Without these natural protections, regional flooding has grown as climate change brings new levels of precipitation up from the Gulf Coast to Appalachia.
“They’re saying it’s a natural disaster, but I’m sorry. This is a disaster that was made by a whole bunch of mining that’s been going on for the past 40 years,” said Jack Spadero, the former director of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy who has testified as an expert witness in numerous coal mine lawsuits in recent years. “It has changed the landscape of eastern Kentucky dramatically.” […]
Background information related to reclamation:
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, or SMCRA, was a federal regulation that was supposed to prevent coal companies from leaving abandoned mines behind. The law required mine owners to reclaim the land and return it to its natural form as much as possible. In the ensuing 45 years, many companies have avoided that work and many states in the region, like Kentucky, turned a blind eye to it.
Now, there are more than 2,800 entries for Kentucky in the national inventory of known-abandoned mine land, according to a Department of Interior database, and much of it is located in the state’s eastern hill country. Experts also said that the number in the inventory is likely a conservative figure and that recent coal company bankruptcies have made it more difficult to pursue accountability.
SMCRA required every state to enforce the financial responsibility and reclamation obligation of the coal mine operators in their state. While some states required mining companies to pay reclamation costs upfront, others — like Kentucky — allowed them to put up a bond for the potential costs. In the past, small companies in Kentucky were allowed to create a pooled fund, while larger ones were able to self-bond, but the majority were done through a third party.
“There are surety companies that are holding these bonds, which are woefully inadequate to do the real reclamation work, but many are even fighting to turn over those bonds, so it’s like pulling teeth,” said Joe Childers, who has litigated cases for vulnerable Kentuckians against major energy companies for more than 40 years. “In the meantime, nothing gets done. The hillsides are scarred, they’re not reclaimed and you get a rain event like last week and you have terrible flooding. And it was totally exacerbated by the lack of proper regulation.” […]
Also, First Dog on the Moon, Let us sing the praises of this magnificent and highly opinionated bird: “Recently some turbo chooks moved in the dam near our house. They are very dramatic creatures there is always a lot going on”. The mildly deranged penguin is upset it isn’t about her, and contains no mention of cheese.
Donald Trump has made being a sore loser such a central part of the Republican identity that many Republican candidates are now insisting that their own Republican primaries must have been compromised. But it’s not just personal petulance. It’s part of a broader effort to undermine voters’ faith in elections and to lay the groundwork to overturn inconvenient results.
Most of the whiners […] are also losers. Big-time losers. But one, Arizona secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem, won his primary and still claimed, “I’ve got people all over the state saying, I’ve gotten ballots that I didn’t ask for.” Finchem is in the running to be in charge of the election systems of a key battleground state, so what he’s saying there is that he would be looking for ways to use that role to undermine elections.
In other cases, it’s a toxic combination of sour grapes and the desire to undermine democracy.
In Colorado, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters—currently under indictment for election tampering for allegedly participating in a breach of election equipment—paid more than $250,000 for a recount of an election she lost by 14 points, which she insisted had involved “cheating.” That recount gained her 13 votes, not exactly evidence of cheating. Or any misconduct at all. The recount also gained the winner 13 votes. Like Finchem, Peters was running to be secretary of state.
Republican gubernatorial candidates in Nevada and Georgia also cried foul after losing their primaries. Nevada’s Joey Gilbert also paid for a recount, while Georgia’s Kandiss Taylor is apparently relying on the MyPillow guy to investigate and make things right for her.
The Trump move of trying to influence the results—or at least the perception of them—by claiming victory prematurely is also spreading. In Pennsylvania, Trump told Dr. Mehmet Oz, his endorsee for Senate, to declare victory before the results were fully in. In Arizona, eventual Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake did declare victory while the results still had her trailing.
These moves are “exceedingly dangerous, because a democracy depends on losers’ consent,” Rick Hasen, the director of UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, told Axios.
“If people believe the other side is consistently stealing elections, first of all, you completely delegitimize people in office … but second, you create the conditions where people might be more willing to engage in fraud themselves as a way of trying to even the score.”
Indeed, the Colorado man who pleaded guilty to forgery for casting a ballot in the name of his missing (and presumed dead) wife told the FBI it was “Just because I wanted Trump to win. I just thought, give him another vote. I figured all these other guys are cheating.”
Republicans are telling their voters not to accept any election result they don’t like. They’re telling their voters the other guys are cheating, with the implication that cheating is the only way to fight back. They’re training thousands of poll workers in these beliefs. Donald Trump’s late 2020-early 2021 coup failed. But it laid the groundwork for 2022 and 2024.
Invasion pushes Ukrainians to ditch Russian, survey showed that 76% of Ukrainians consider Ukrainian their native tongue, up from 57% in 2012. Ukrainian now dominates in Kyiv, where Russian was the main language a decade ago.
wsj.com/articl…
I’m not posting the article because it is the Wall Street Journal and I avoid Murdoch’s papers.
.1. It’s interesting how many people in Ukraine speak Russian.
It was the language of the conqueror for so long that it was taking over from Ukrainian.
(The two languages aren’t even all that similar considering they are both Slavic languages.)
.2. I was reading a Ukrainian subject website where everything is in English.
Some of the Ukrainian posters were mentioning that they were switching to Ukrainian and having a hard time of it. They know Ukrainian but not well and up until recently rarely used it.
Strangely enough, their English was pretty good though.
.3. They say that President Zylensky’s Ukrainian is getting better.
He is a native Russian speaker from the East and apparently his Ukrainian isn’t the best.
.4. The Russian speaking Russians from Ukraine and the Russian speaking Ukrainians almost all don’t like the Russians any more. Speaking the same language doesn’t count for much when the Russians are wrecking your home and threatening your life.
ravensays
Blasts Reported at Nuclear Plant Seized by Russia
New York Times:
Artillery duels around a huge power plant on the Dnipro river raised the risk of an accident, as each side blamed the other for the explosions on Friday […]
This is the largest nuclear reactor in Europe.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Russians blow up this nuclear power plant, or disable the core cooling system and let it melt down.
If they end up getting driven out of Ukraine, what is there to stop them?
Nothing.
It’s not like we and the rest of the world are going to like the Russians any less if they do so. We already are at zero regard here.
ravensays
The Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine has issued instructions on how to deal with a radiation accident.* “Given that the terrorist country does not comply with any laws and rules of warfare, every Ukrainian should know the basic rules of conduct in case of an emergency of any nature”,
This is just a coincidence, I’m sure. Nothing to do with a failing nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia being occupied by the Russians.
AlJazeera
Latest Ukraine updates: Nuclear site ‘seriously damaged’
By Hamza Mohamed and Federica Marsi 6 Aug 2022
Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have been “seriously damaged” by military strikes, Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator says.
This isn’t looking very good right now.
The Russians decided to use a nuclear power plant as a military base.
Democrats are now in a reasonably strong position to hold the Senate and perhaps expand their majority. A major reason for that is that Donald Trump took it upon himself and was largely allowed to pick the candidates. Almost all of them are terrible candidates: Oz, Vance, Masters, Walker. These are simply terrible candidates. They could win. But it will be in spite of their terribleness not because of it. Kelly, Warnock, Fetterman, Ryan are all pretty good candidates. In some cases, in terms of their fit for the state in question they are near perfect candidates. Tim Ryan may be the best example of that even though he’s the least likely of the four to win. But all would be in much more challenging contests if they were opposed by even generic, non-crazy-sounding Trumpite Republicans.
Which brings us to the grievance feedback loop.
Donald Trump was in Wisconsin last night, the site of two critical races in November, one for Senate, one for Governor. But he spent most of his time picking a fight with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. I am not a fan of Vos by any stretch of the imagination. But if you were a Republican or a Trump Republican you really would be a fan of his. He’s helped lurch government in the Wisconsin strongly to the right. So why is Trump beating up on him and endorsing his GOP primary opponent? It’s over the Big Lie. Vos isn’t one of those slightly heterodox GOPers who loves Trump but wouldn’t back the Big Lie. He was a strong supporter of it. But Trump is still trying to get Vos to change the results of the 2020 election. In response, Vos has patiently explained that that is neither possible nor legal, even though he’d love to. And that’s where things stand. Now he’s the RINO.
Even though I know the answer sometimes I find myself wanting to ask the big Trumpers why the Big Guy doesn’t try to win an election the old fashioned way: trying to get more people to vote for him. We’re almost two years out and he is literally still trying to get elected officials try to change the results of the 2020 election. It’s hard to know just what that would even mean right now. Robin Vos can say whatever he wants. Joe Biden isn’t going to stop being President.
[…] Grievance has always been the touchstone of Trumpism. But Trump’s maniacal focus on the Big Lie amounts to gunning up ever more anger from a slowly shrinking group of people. It’s not that the public appetite for Trumpite authoritarianism is diminishing. But the appetite for relitigating the 2020 election is. Republicans get a new bite at the apple in just three months. They can try to win or steal that election and maybe they’ll have better results. Trump’s interests and the Trumpite GOP’s are not precisely aligned, even though they both operate within Trumpism.
Trump himself is in a narrow grievance feedback loop. He can’t let go of the last election to the extent it’s complicating efforts to win the next one. For him there’s no other way. But Republicans have other options. So far, he’s blocking them from taking them.
Crime … lots of it in states that lean Republican.
Excerpt from a description of a Fox News episode in which real-time fact checking revealed the truth:
Fox News panel show Outnumbered had a liberal guest, Jenna Arnold, join the program Thursday and she diverted the show into a very tense, personal discussion about crime levels in the U.S. after she noted that “crime is higher in red and Republican states more than it is in liberal cities.”The comment created a quick backlash from the other four panelists as Arnold took aim at a common theme on Fox News — rising crime in “blue” states and cities. Arnold later cited her sourcing, the public policy think tank Third Way, which published a report in March 2022 that found that in 2020 the “per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.”
Commentary:
[…] Constantly you hear the refrain on Fox News that “crime is rampant in Democrat-Run cities” where the prime example given is the murder rate in Chicago. Not much else is usually cited, […] these criminals just run wild in Democrat Cities, don’t cha know that?
Yeah, well when you actually look at the murder rate on a state-by-state basis — it’s not really like that.
Here are the 10 states with the highest murder rate:
Louisiana (12.4 per 100k)
Missouri (9.8 per 100k)
Nevada (9.1 per 100k)
Maryland (9 per 100k)
Arkansas (8.6 per 100k)
Alaska (8.4 per 100k)
Alabama (8.3 per 100k)
Mississippi (8.2 per 100k)
Illinois (7.8 per 100k)
South Carolina (7.8 per 100k)
Louisiana has the highest murder rate in the U.S. of 14.4 murders per 100,000 residents. Murders were more than twice as common in Louisiana as they were nationwide. Murders are disproportionately concentrated in urban areas, especially New Orleans. New Orleans has a murder rate of about 37 per 100,000 residents, one of the highest of any U.S. city, followed by Baton Rouge with a murder rate of 35.1.
Alabama has the second-highest murder rate of 12.9 murders per 100,000 residents. This is also more than twice the rate nationwide. In Alabama, Birmingham has the most gun violence and, therefore, the highest murder rate of 37.1. Fairfield, Anniston, Pritchard, and Troy are other cities with the highest murder rates in Alabama.
Mississippi has the third-highest murder rate in the United States. Mississippi’s murder rate is 12.7 murders per 100,000 residents. According to the latest FBI data, Jackson had the most murders in 2018 of 78, which is a murder rate of 47 murders per 100,000 residents. Brookhaven has the highest murder rate in the state of 57.7 murders per 100,000 people.
Missouri has the fourth-highest murder rate of 11.3 murders per 100,000 residents. Murders in Missouri are disproportionately concentrated in metropolitan areas – about 90% of murders committed in 2017 in Missouri were committed in metropolitan areas. St. Louis and Kansas City are two of the most dangerous cities in the United States. In 2017, St. Louis had 205 murders and Kansas City had 150.
Alaska has the fifth-highest murder rate in the U.S. with a rate of 10.6 murders per 100,000 residents. Alaska has the highest violent crime rate of any state of 829 incidents per 100,000 residents. The most dangerous city in Alaska is Anchorage, where the violent crime rate is 1,203 per 100,000 residents and 27 people were murdered in 2017.
Now it is fair to say that the murder rate is higher in cities – where the population is also highly dense — so we see larger per capita rates in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Jackson, St. Louis, Kansas City and Anchorage where some of those cities have Democratic Mayors, except for Anchorage, the rub of this is really that cities are where Democrats live. Most cities are filled with Democrats and most rural areas — without a city — are filled with Republicans.
In cities, you have a high concentration of population, but you can also have a higher concentration of poverty which combined can generate envy and jealousy that leads to violence. [….]
The twenty cities in the United States with the highest murder rates (murders per 100,000 people) are:
St. Louis, MO (69.4)
Baltimore, MD (51.1)
New Orleans, LA (40.6)
Detroit, MI (39.7)
Cleveland, OH (33.7)
Las Vegas, NV (31.4)
Kansas City, MO (31.2)
Memphis, TN (27.1)
Newark, NJ (25.6)
Chicago, IL (24)
Cincinnati, OH (23.8)
Philadelphia, PA (20.2)
Milwaukee, WI (20.0)
Tulsa, OK (18.6)
Pittsburgh, PA (18.4)
Indianapolis, IN (17.7)
Louisville, KY (17.5)
Oakland, CA (17.1)
Washington D.C. (17.0)
Atlanta, GA (16.7)
[…] Although murder rates in US cities are extremely high compared to other countries, some cities are experiencing their lowest numbers of murders in years. Newark, New Jersey had 72 murders in 2017, down from 94 in 2016. New York City’s 300 murders in 2017 is the lowest number the city has had since the 1950s.
In all honesty, some of these numbers, particularly in southern cities can be the lingering after-effects of the failed reconstruction, Jim Crow and red-lining policies which continue to maintain jobs and education deserts within these cities. People of color here have reduced hope, reduced job options and reduced educational opportunities for which they themselves are blamed which can lead to self-loathing and self-destruction that can be massively devastating in ways that are quite similar to cities like Chicago which has had racial riots — led by whites against migrating blacks attempting to escape the South — for over 100 years.
GOP Politicians such as Blake Masters have attempted to blame black people for this gun violence while of course completely ignoring the legacy of continued segregation which has placed people in these near hopeless situations and also ignoring the fact that most mass gun murders are committed by white people, usually white men.
The numbers change slightly when you look at gun-based murders per state.
Here are the 10 states with the highest gun deaths per capita:
Alaska (24.5 per 100k people)
Alabama (22.9 per 100k people)
Montana (22.5 per 100k people)
Louisiana (21.7 per 100k people)
Mississippi (21.5 per 100k people)
Missouri (21.5 per 100k people)
Arkansas (20.3 per 100k people)
Wyoming (18.8 per 100k people)
West Virginia (18.6 per 100k people)
New Mexico (18.5 per 100k people)
Firearm legislation is a big topic in the United States. It’s important to look at the relationship between gun laws and gun deaths in the states. The South is a high-risk area for firearm violence, with those along the Mississippi River consistently reporting some of the highest gun mortality rates. Southern states, such as Florida and Louisiana, have seen sharp increases in gun violence since enacting stand your ground laws. Since enacting its stand your ground law in 2005, Florida has seen a 32% increase in gun deaths. [I did not realize the effect was that dramatic.]
The rate of firearm deaths and a state’s strictness of gun laws have a strong correlation in some states, while not as much in others. Alaska, which has some of the laxest gun laws, has the highest firearm deaths in the country. However, Delaware has significantly stricter gun laws than Virginia but has a higher rate of firearm deaths.
Suicides account for the highest number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. The Pew Research Center reports that since the 1990s, gun homicides have declined while suicides by firearm have increased. Of the 39,773 firearm deaths in the country in 2017, 23,854 were by suicide, about 60%. Gun-related suicides are most common in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska. Suicide is especially high among American Indian and Alaskan Native populations, greatly contributing to Alaska’s high rate of gun deaths.
Here Chicago and Illinois don’t even make the Top 10.
Again, the predominance is among Red States starting out with Anchorage which again has a Republican Mayor. The prominence of guns and gun culture, stand your grounds laws, higher rates of suicide and lax gun safety laws are all contributing factors to higher rates of gun death.
But you won’t hear that on Fox News — not without a loud chorus of nay-sayers immediately shouting down the speaker as soon as they bring up the subject of “Red State Murders.”
The Senate has voted to approve the reconciliation measure known as the Inflation Reduction Act today, after spending well over 24 hours in continuous session so that senators could offer amendments that had no chance of passing. The final vote was 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie breaking vote. A last-minute change backed by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and every Republican sharply narrowed the bill’s proposed changes to the corporate minimum tax rate, which Democrats countered in turn with new limits to deductible corporate losses.
The House is expected to vote for final passage on Friday, sending the bill to the White House for President Biden’s signature.
[…] Though not nearly as comprehensive as the original Democratic climate crisis plan earlier scuttled by Sen. Joe Manchin, the bill makes significant investments in clean energy and in infrastructure defense against expected climate-related disasters. The bill is expected to help the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% of peak levels; still not enough, but a substantial improvement.
Republicans did succeed in making one notable change to the bill, however: All but seven Republican Senators voted to strip a provision placing a $35 price cap on insulin in private insurance plans. Because the Senate parliamentarian (confusingly) ruled that the price cap did not meet reconciliation rules, 60 votes were needed to keep the measure in the bill. Only 57 votes could be mustered.
It’s yet again not particularly clear why Senate Republicans felt it necessary to keep those insulin prices high, but the party has consistently voted against such measures.
Ukrainian fury over a report from Amnesty International released last week—a report that blames the Ukrainian military for fighting in urban areas, as they fight to keep Russia from capturing those same urban areas—doesn’t look like it will be abating anytime soon. Already a high-profile resignation has taken place, and there may be other fallout.
Before we dive in on that one, though, let’s address a new CBS report that made what seems on surface a scandalous claim, and one that’s also being hammered.
OMFG: [Tweet from Julia Davis available at the link: “Meanwhile in Russia: statements by Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, criticizing aid to Ukraine on the basis of uncorroborated conclusions by Amnesty and CBS, are again making headlines in the Russian state media.]
MTG and Boebert are Putin’s useful fools. (As are Reps. Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, and Josh Hawley. And Donald Trump.)
[Tweet and video at the link]
So #cbsnews didn’t talk to #Ukrainian officials or the military – just two foreign blokes & #Amnestyinternational – who simply pluck figures out of thin air – “kind of like 30% maybe.” This is pure, sensationalist, Russian propaganda designed to discredit Ukraine.
The scandalous-sounding claim being highlighted by CBS, that only “30% of it reaches its final destination,” is accompanied by plenty of insinuations of chaos or corruption, but in addition to the obvious sourcing issues of that completely guesstimated claim: Is that bad? Even if it were completely true, would it be a sign of crisis? A sign that we need to cut off aid, rather than abiding something so wasteful?
It sincerely wouldn’t, and welcome back to the unendingly bumpy terrain of logistics, something we here have been hammering the importance of since the beginning of the war. Sending troops to the frontline requires driving them there. Keeping troops on the frontline requires deliveries not just of food and the odd replacement parts, but ton after ton of ammunition. From bullets to anti-tank rockets to keeping the critical HIMARS systems stocked, without those supply lines frontline troops are nothing but targets. And getting supplies to the frontlines is hard. It’s not just hard physically, it requires an army inside each army to be devoted to finding out who needs what, where it can come from, the quickest route to get it there, and which units should be getting priority treatment over the others.
Even delivering four HIMARS systems, as we’ve previously emphasized, is an enormous challenge. But keeping them fed with the rockets that make them a weapon, rather than just expensive green-painted targets? A single C-5 cargo plane can carry 140 tons of cargo, which maps out to less than half a day of ammunition for a single HIMARS launcher. Taken alone, that’s nearly 300 tons per day that has to be trucked from Ukrainian supply stations to each and every HIMARS vehicle backing up frontline troops. That’s just one weapon system. From howitzers to tanks to rifles, every weapon needs the same supply. [Impressive!]
[Tweet and video at the link]
It’s unfathomably complex, and Russia’s logistical incompetence is one of the prime reasons Putin’s original invasion plans collapsed. It hasn’t gotten better.
In CBS’ promotional clip they do, in passing, hint at the most uncomfortable reason supplies headed for the frontlines might not make it there. Supply convoys are prime targets for enemy forces. Blowing up a supply convoy, getting rid of the supplies, the means of delivering more supplies, and the drivers doing it is a military priority. Ukraine has had astonishing success in wiping out entire Russian convoys regularly, bogging down Russian troops and denying them the means to push forward. It’s the reason Russia has been giving up ground around Izyum, and Ukraine’s ability to target Russian supply lines around Kherson is a masterful example of Ukraine shaping a battlefield to come.
Let’s back up, then. Let’s say that for every cargo plane’s worth of “military aid” being shipped across Ukraine’s borders, “like 30% maybe” of that aid has so far made it to the frontlines. Is that bad? Should we be panicking?
Well, here’s a question in response. If 100% of shipped-in aid was already on the frontlines, would Ukraine be worried?
They’d be in a state of panic. Absolute panic.
Start with the basic points; the “frontline” is a small part of a military battle. Every soldier not on the “frontline” still needs food, every truck still needs gas, every vehicle in maintenance still needs replacement parts, and every supply depot needs, well, supplies. Where do those 140-ton-per-half-day HIMARS rocket pods go, when they’re delivered to Ukraine? They do not get loaded on trucks and shipped out to the frontlines. God forbid. You do not want two weeks worth of HIMARS rockets sitting next to the damn HIMARS, during a fire mission. You don’t want them anywhere in the targetable vicinity.
You also don’t know which HIMARS are going to see the most use, a week from now. You can guess, but you don’t know. Frontlines could shift. New priorities could suddenly emerge. Something could break, taking a given launcher out for six hours, or two days, or a week.
HIMARS are an unfortunately simplistic example here, because every one available to Ukraine is, you can be sure, being used to its fullest right now. There aren’t likely to be any held in reserve. That’s not true of any smaller weapons system; you can bet that anti-tank missiles, howitzers, and everything else aren’t being deployed at the maximum rate simply to have something in reserve.
An army does not want all of its weapons on the frontlines. It does not want every last tank and howitzer already committed and ready to take aim at the specific hill in front of them. That recipe ends in an immediate defeat the moment your enemy launches a new attack somewhere you didn’t expect—and you’ve got nothing left to respond with.
An offensive operation requires long supply lines that can feed enormous quantities of ammunition to the frontline troops attempting to overrun the enemy’s defensive positions. A defensive operation requires layers of defense, so that if one “frontline” collapses a new set of defenses can kick in.
If you’re an army waging a defensive war on frontlines that span an entire country, you are well and truly screwed if every weapon you’ve got is already allocated to a frontline unit. It shouldn’t even be close.
There are other reasons why specific weapons systems may not yet be seeing 100% frontline deployment, however, and that’s aside from the obvious point that not all “military aid” is meant for frontline use in the first place. Western nations have been pledging new weapons systems to Ukraine that Ukraine has no prior experience in using, maintaining, or even moving. The process of adoption isn’t as straightforward as it would be if Ukraine was already using those systems. It’s slower, and it has to be.
The rational approach, then, suggests that the new weapon systems are going to be held back longer than Ukraine-built ones so that units getting one can learn what they need to learn. But that doesn’t mean they’re not already serving a purpose. Perhaps British howitzers, to pull an example out of a hat, are being deployed more slowly than Ukraine would deploy other systems—but the presence of British howitzers in western supply depots means that Ukraine can ship similar Ukrainian weapons to the frontlines in larger numbers than they otherwise would, because they don’t need to hold as many of those weapons back for possible reallocation. They now have backups: the British versions.
This is true even for weapons shipments that haven’t happened yet. The majority of promised aid doesn’t need to even be in the country, so long as nations have inked pledges to deliver it on whatever schedule is possible. You don’t want every missile in-country. You don’t want every 105mm shell sitting in a massive, easily targeted supply depot inside Ukraine. If the Ukrainian defense has reason to believe those supplies are forthcoming, then current Ukrainian reserves of similar ammunition can be rushed out to the frontlines for larger-scale operations.
It’s not just the frontline troops winning or losing wars. Without a steady stream of supplies each and every day, those troops are dead. It’s the know-how of what to get where and when that wins every war ever fought. If only 30% of “military aid” to Ukraine is making it to “frontline” troops, that’s … not even something to necessarily get worked up over.
There might be corruption, because wartime, and there might be heavy losses as supplies get shipped to the front—though if such a thing is taking place, there’s been little evidence. But the specific claim being made by CBS to promote its report, a claim that perhaps all but 30% of the “billions of dollars of military aid” being sent to Ukraine “doesn’t make it to the front lines,” indeed seems sensationalistic. It’s not supposed to go to the frontlines. It’s not even necessarily supposed to have a “final destination” yet. It don’t work that way.
Ukraine couldn’t be contesting Kherson right now if all western aid has already been pledged, delivered, and allocated. It’s installments of future shipments that’s making the current defense possible. We can only hope most of it’s being held back from the front in preparation for Ukraine’s next moves.
[…] Now let’s turn to the Amnesty International report that’s causing so much fury both inside and outside the organization. The core of the Amnesty International announcement is a condemnation of Ukrainian troops for their presence in populated Ukrainian areas: [Tweet at the link]
Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas.
Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets
The report was seen as accusing Ukraine of endangering civilians by fighting in urban areas, rather than blaming Russia for attempting to capture those urban areas. And that has Ukrainians absolutely livid.
Ukrainian officials on @amnesty report: it creates a false balance between victim & criminal. Main efforts of int’l orgs should be to end Russia’s war, not instruct the Ukrainian army on how they should defend themselves from genocide.
————————
“Anyone who amnesties Russia and who artificially creates an informational context that some terrorist attacks are supposedly justified or understandable, have to realize that it helps the terrorists,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy on today’s @Amnesty report.
———————-
Urban warfare is not prohibited by int law. If fighting goes on in residential areas, measures to protect civilians must be taken
UA officials claim this is being done; govt stopped educational process in places of active hostilities, carries out evacuations – 🇺🇦HR Commissioner
—————————
& Ukrainian Amnesty members literally traveled the country, to find out if people were being warned to leave, were leaving. They found this to be true. Amnesty International refused to listen!
Amnesty Ukraine was blindsided by the head office’s report and objected furiously, and the head of Amnesty Ukraine resigned over the report’s publication. [Many more tweets available at the link, including: “Funny how I, as a Ukrainian civilian, feel in even more danger after @amnesty published their report (and especially after it was picked up by Russian media and spread there like wildfire). Because Russia’s always seen civilian infrastructure as its main targets […]
The report has been getting substantive pushback, because it’s difficult to see what Ukrainian defenders are supposed to do differently when facing a war of conquest. Russia’s intent is to capture these population centers. The population centers are, themselves, the targets of Russia’s advances.
Russia intends to capture each city, primarily doing so by using artillery fire to produce such widespread damages as to make those cities unlivable. After capturing cities, Russia has been kidnapping large numbers of Ukrainians—sometimes under the pretense of “rescuing” them, sometimes under no pretense at all—and spiriting them away to concentration camps inside Russia. Reports from liberated Ukrainian cities tell of random civilian executions and other horrific war crimes.
It’s impossible to think of a plausible scenario in which Ukrainian defenders could defend those cities from capture without … urban fighting. There’s a difference between hiding among civilians for the explicit purpose of using them as human shields and justified urban defense, and critics don’t think the Amnesty International claim differentiates between the two.
[much more at the link]
Finally, on Sunday, the organization issued an apology of a very familiar form:
⚡️Amnesty International apologizes for ‘distress and anger’ its report about Ukraine caused.
In an email to Reuters, the human rights organization said it regrets “the pain caused” by its report accusing Ukraine of endangering citizens, but “fully stands” by its findings.
This is known as the Sorry If You Were Offended Apology, and is … not likely to go down any better. […]
Desperation as the indictments loom…Trump baselessly claims that Jan. 6 instigators and Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plot were ‘fake’ in CPAC speech,” Just like those who instigated January 6. It was a fake deal. Fake. It was a fake deal,” [JFC!]
[video at the link]
– Trump baselessly said Jan. 6 instigators and a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer were “fake.”
– He alluded to conspiracy theories about the Capitol riot being orchestrated by FBI agents.
– Trump made the comments while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas.
[…] The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot has hosted six public hearings so far revealing their findings, which also included public damning testimony from former staffers in the Trump administration.
GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene were among the six GOP lawmakers also asked Trump to pardon them for their efforts in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
[more video available at the link]
[greeneuropeanjournal source] […] “That is actually the reason why academia is under attack: critical thought is the best remedy against bullshit. This explains why the far-right proponents of “alternative facts” hate what we do: academic freedom is the obligation to resist the devaluation of truth.
Republican lawmakers on Sunday successfully stripped a $35 price cap on the cost of insulin for many patients from the ambitious legislative package Democrats are moving through Congress this weekend, invoking arcane Senate rules to jettison the measure.
The insulin cap is a long-running ambition of Democrats, who want it to apply to patients on Medicare and private insurance. Republicans left the portion that applies to Medicare patients untouched but stripped the insulin cap for other patients. Bipartisan talks on a broader insulin pricing bill faltered earlier this year.
The Senate parliamentarian earlier in the weekend ruled that part of the Democrats’ cap, included in the Inflation Reduction Act, did not comply with the rules that allow them to advance a bill under the process known as reconciliation — a tactic that helps them avert a GOP filibuster. That gave the Republicans an opening to jettison it.
“Republicans have just gone on the record in favor of expensive insulin,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “After years of tough talk about taking on insulin makers, Republicans have once against wilted in the face of heat from Big Pharma.”
Some Republicans did support the price cap in the 57-43 vote for the measure, but not enough joined Democrats in support of it to meet the threshold [60 votes] for passage.
More than 1 in 5 insulin users on private medical insurance pay more than $35 per month for the medicine, according to a recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Some 7 million Americans require insulin daily. A Yale University study found that 14 percent of those insulin users are spending more than 40 percent of their income after food and housing costs on the medicine. […]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
…Ukraine conducted long-range strikes on Russian troop bases and two key bridges across the Dnieper River overnight. The strikes hit the only two crossings Russia has to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has occupied on the western bank of the river, said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command. “The results are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges,” she said on television. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration imposed on occupied Kherson told Interfax: “The equipment of the builders who are repairing the Antonivskiy bridge burned down, there are no critical damages. But the opening of the bridge is slightly delayed.” [Sure, guy.]
Four ships carrying Ukrainian foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday….
Russia is strengthening its positions and numbers on Ukraine’s southern front to ready itself for a Ukrainian counteroffensive and is likely to be preparing the ground to attack, according to British and Ukrainian military authorities. “Russian troops are almost certainly amassing in the south, either waiting for a Ukrainian counteroffensive or preparing to attack. Long convoys of Russian military trucks, tanks, artillery and other things continue to move from the Donbas to the south-west,” the UK’s defence ministry said.
Russian shelling was recorded on Saturday in dozens of towns along the eastern and southern frontlines, according to the Ukrainian military. It also said Russian forces attempted to conduct assault in six different areas in the eastern Donetsk region, all of which failed to gain any territory and were held back by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine is investigating almost 26,000 suspected war crime cases committed since Russia’s invasion in February and has charged 135 people, its chief war crimes prosecutor told Reuters. Of those charged, approximately 15 are in Ukrainian custody and the remaining 120 remain at large.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday that there could be no talks with Russia if it proceeds with referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine on joining Russia….
Finland has registered a record number of asylum seekers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, beating a previous high set during the 2015 migrant crisis….
As a transgender man living in Texas, the rapid rollback of fundamental civil rights across our nation has been horrifying. I’ve watched ill-informed, aggressive political attacks on my health care, my livelihood, and my friends and family spread from Texas to every corner of the country.
In the last few months alone, elected officials in Texas have pushed ruthlessly to deny life-saving medical care to transgender youth, investigate the loving families of trans teenagers for ‘child abuse,’ and force teachers to report their trans students to authorities.
These situations reveal how the LGBTQ+ community has not been properly represented in our nation’s elections, through no fault of our own. Yet while it’s more urgent than ever that transgender people make our voices heard at the ballot box, our voices have been systematically silenced, allowing lawmakers to place these hateful targets on our backs. The reason is clear: The simultaneous attack on voting rights sweeping our country is pushing transgender people like me to the outskirts of our democracy….
Hungary hopes to strike a deal with Brussels on blocked EU funds by the end of the year, as it races against the clock to unlock billions that have been frozen over concerns about state-captured institutions and corruption.
If Budapest fails to reach an agreement with the European commission by the end of 2022, it stands to lose €4.64bn (£3.91bn) in Covid recovery funds, while questions remain over a potential €24.3bn six-year funding programme to upgrade its national infrastructure.
While Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has previously suggested he did not need the EU’s Covid recovery grants, he has sent top officials to Brussels on a charm offensive to unlock the funds.
Hungary’s chief negotiator, Tibor Navracsics, told the Guardian he was optimistic about an agreement on the Covid recovery plan worth a potential €15bn by the end of the year. He also hopes Hungary can strike a “partnership agreement” in early autumn to secure €24.3bn of “cohesion funds”, mostly from the EU.
Both agreements are tangled up with an unprecedented disciplinary process launched against Hungary in April that could lead to the suspension of EU funds because of violations of the rule of law…. The Hungarian government has been given a 22 August deadline to respond to a lengthy letter from the commission warning of “remedial measures”, if Budapest fails to address longstanding concerns about the rule of law.
Hungary has received billions of EU funds since it joined the bloc in 2004, but concerns have spiralled about alleged misuse of EU cash to enrich Orbán’s friends and family. During Orbán’s 12 years in power, independent media has withered and checks and balances have weakened.
Navracsics – a Hungarian former EU commissioner, who was appointed minister for regional development in May – has been sent to Brussels to persuade officials to unfreeze the funds. His low-key charm offensive has been overshadowed by Orbán’s attacks on EU sanctions policy and inflammatory speeches, including an address on so-called race mixing that prompted a leading adviser to quit denouncing “pure Nazi” rhetoric.
Senior EU officials believe Orbán needs EU money, as he grapples with soaring inflation, a plunge in the Hungarian forint and the threat of severe recession. The darkening economic outlook has forced the Hungarian prime minister to scrap energy price caps and hike small business taxes, leading to days of protests in Budapest last month, where people chanted “Orbán get lost”.
Analysts have cited the lack of agreement with the EU as one of the sources of economic pressure on the fragile Hungarian economy.
EU officials sense a moment of leverage to push the government to reform its institutions. But they also mistrust Orbán, renowned for his so-called “peacock dance”, ie, offering cosmetic concessions or a minor tactical withdrawal, while continuing to make Hungary an illiberal state. “Our experience has been over a decade that they say they abide, then drop one thing and then they come back through the backdoor. We have never resolved an issue 100%,” one senior EU official told the Guardian. “That is the big issue of trust.”
The commission would like to create a new authority to safeguard EU funds in Hungary and is calling for stronger anti-corruption bodies and space for NGOs to scrutinise government policy.
The Covid recovery plan is worth €5.8bn in grants to Hungary – €1.4bn less than if it had been approved last year. But 70% of the grants (€4.64bn) will vanish if there is no deal by the end of the year. The total plan could be worth €15bn, if Budapest opts to take up cheap loans on offer.
Navracsics, a member of Orbán’s dominant Fidesz party, would not confirm whether Hungary was prepared to agree to an additional authority to safeguard EU funds. He said Hungary was making “institutional changes”, including changing public procurement rules – a key concern as Orbán’s allies scooped up unusually profitable EU-funded contracts through uncompetitive processes.
…
Daniel Freund, a Green MEP focused on EU budget control, said he feared the EU was going to fall into another trap. “ [Orbán] has been outsmarting the commission time and again, signalling he will concede on this or that, and in the meantime preparing his next trick on how to circumvent certain things.”
The German MEP argued Hungary’s plan should not be approved this autumn, because more time was needed to restore the rule of law after 12 straight years of Orbán government. “I think it is unrealistic to have rule of law repaired to a degree where it is sensible to unfreeze the recovery plan in the next two to three months,” he said.
They would be fools to unlock these funds. From Thursday (quoted @ #174 above):
Orban wrapped up his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference by declaring, “We must take back the institutions in Washington and in Brussels”, and saying the two capitals “will define the two fronts in the battle being fought for Western civilization”.
After defeating Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, “Now the West is at war with itself,” Orban said. “We have seen what kind of future the globalist ruling class has to offer. But we have a different future in mind. The globalists can all go to hell, I have come to Texas.”
Russian forces want to cause electricity blackouts in southern Ukraine by shelling its Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex, Ukraine’s ambassador to the IAEA nuclear watchdog said on Monday, calling for an international mission to the plant this month.
“We will use all possible channels of diplomacy to bring the IAEA and UN closer to conducting this mission,” Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters in Vienna.
“We really need it urgently, as soon as possible, I would say not later than the end of this month,” he added.
ravensays
Today’s Russian war crime is their threat to blow up the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
They’ve mined it and have said they will blow it up if they lose in Ukraine.
I believe them and won’t be surprised if they do exactly that.
It will look a lot like another Russian production, Chernobyl.
Except in a densely population region. Most of the radiation from Chernobyl went north over an uninhabited region and then into…Belarus and Russia because of the way the wind was blowing. That is why the radiation exclusion zone is called the Red Forest and not the Red Cities.
en.interfax.com.ua 8/8/2022 Russian occupiers declare their readiness to blow up mined Zaporizhia NPP
Russian occupiers declare their readiness to blow up mined Zaporizhia NPP
The Russians have begun to openly blackmail the whole world, declaring that they have mined the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP) and are ready to blow it up, Energoatom reported on its Telegram channel on Monday.
“In his statement, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian armed forces, Major General Valery Vasiliev, who now commands the Zaporizhia NPP garrison, said that “there will be either Russian land or a scorched desert,” the company said.
According to Energoatom, it was Vasiliev who announced that the Russian occupiers had mined all the important facilities of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
“As you know, we have mined all the important facilities of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. And we do not hide this from the enemy. We warned them. The enemy knows that the plant will be either Russian or no one’s. We are ready for the consequences of this step. And you, warriors – liberators must understand that we have no other way. And if there is the toughest order, we must fulfill it with honor,” Vasiliev told his soldiers.
Earlier, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said that the agency had confirmed information about the mining of Zaporizhia NPP power units by Russian troops.
Russian invaders on August 6 in the evening again launched a missile attack on the territory of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, as a result of which three radiation monitoring sensors were damaged around the site with the station’s dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
“Consequently, timely detection and response in the event of a deterioration in the radiation situation or leakage of radiation from containers of spent nuclear fuel is not yet possible,” Energoatom said.
FWIW, these meltdowns can be serious long lived radiation hazards.
A fission nuclear bomb only uses 50-100 lbs of uranium.
“A typical reactor may contain about 100 tonnes of enriched uranium (i.e., about 113 tonnes of uranium dioxide).”
If you run the numbers, the amount of radiation released in a meltdown compares favorably with a nuclear bomb because of the huge asymmetry in fuel loads, lbs versus tons.
Michael Kofman joined Ryan for yet another conversation about the unfolding tragedy of the Russo-Ukrainian War. In this episode, they focus largely on the potential for a Ukrainian counter-offensive on Kherson. They also discuss Russia’s repositioning of forces, continued (albeit smaller) Russian offensives in the east, the role of HIMARS, Russia’s personnel strategy, and whether we can know if a Ukrainian victory is truly possible.
In a landmark ruling, a jury in Texas ordered Alex Jones, America’s most prominent conspiracy theorist, to pay millions of dollars to the parents of a boy killed at Sandy Hook for the damage caused by his lies about the mass shooting.
What is the significance of the trial, and will it do anything to change the world of lies and misinformation?
Guest: Elizabeth Williamson, a feature writer based in the Washington bureau of The New York Times.
This week, Grace speaks to Phil Burton-Cartledge, author of Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain, about the current leadership contest within the Conservative Party. They discuss why there’s a dearth of Tory talent, why both candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, are trying to model themselves on Margaret Thatcher, and whether they have any answers to long-term issues facing both the country and the Conservative Party itself.
In March 2022, a new grief-related disorder was officially adopted into mainstream mental health diagnosis nomenclature. Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a recent addition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual fifth edition text revision (DSM-5-TR). A PGD diagnosis is to be used when a person is grieving too long and too intensely.
In this interview, Kaori Wada, Psychologist, grief researcher, and Associate Professor and Director of Training at the University of Calgary, builds upon her recent paper on the Medicalization of Grief in conversation with MIA Science News Writer and Psychologist Zenobia Morrill. Wada articulates a history of institutional tensions and financial conflicts behind the creation of this new PGD diagnosis. She also discusses the ways PGD could shape how we collectively understand and respond to those grieving.
Wada’s work demonstrates that the creation of PGD was not based on scientific findings but appears to be entangled in long-standing arguments between camps of mental health professionals with different stakes in whether the diagnosis became legitimized. Further, PGD, as with other diagnoses, represents elements of mainstream psychological theory that tend to render deviations from Western cultural norms as “unhealthy.” Is diagnosis needed to provide support and care? If so, those most likely to experience marginalization, violence, and unjust loss are also most likely to be classified as having PGD, a mental illness.
…
Wada and Morrill explore what this new PGD diagnosis may mean, reflecting on the ways the “diagnose-and-treat” logic seems to medicalize experiences formerly considered part of the experience of being human. The need to pathologize experiences in order to address them represents a paradox. A new ethical and moral quandary befalls professionals tasked with determining when grief is an illness and when expressions of grief are inappropriate….
A white collar worker wrestles with whether to accept a promotion or help his co-workers organize. Salt miners stand up to the company that’s taken over their town. A factory worker exposes her employer’s union-busting tactics.
Stories like these represent something we don’t often see in Hollywood: Unions and labor organizers as the good guys. Not as egomaniacs or zealots, thugs or grifters—but as heroes willing to risk their health, homes, and livelihoods for the greater good.
This is in contrast to the anti-union depictions in pop culture we explored in Episode 164, part one of a two-part series on depictions of labor in film and television. We discussed Hollywood’s emphasis on corruption in labor organizing, focusing on depictions of bloated bureaucracy, organized crime, and autocratic union bosses in On the Waterfront (1954), Blue Collar (1978), and The Irishman (2019), among others.
On this episode we address the inverse of that, looking at the rare but nontrivial examples that pop film has celebrated the accomplishments of labor movements, centered beleaguered workers with everything to lose, positioned abusive employers as the villains, and embraced themes of worker courage and heroism. While very often not perfect, these examples show that compelling, award-winning narratives can be crafted out of tales of collective action and collective bargaining.
This week’s podcast extra is about podcasts, but this story has its roots in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. Alan Freed was a celebrity DJ on WINS in New York, famous for helping popularize the nascent genre through the 1950s. But, unbeknownst to his listeners, record promoters were secretly bribing Freed and other popular disc jockeys across the country for extra air time for their artists — in a rampant practice known as “payola,” which eventually caught the eye of regulators. In 1960, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) outlawed payola, requiring broadcasters to disclose any payments received. However, members of the music industry would continue to blow the whistle on similar behavior in the decades that followed.
According to Bloomberg reporter Ashley Carman, a similar culture of pay-to-play is taking hold in the world of podcasting. Her latest piece is titled, “Podcast Guests Are Paying Up to $50,000 to Appear on Popular Shows.”
Here’s some money, go see a Porn War. This week we’re going on a field trip to Times Square with Nona Willis Aronowitz, author of Bad Sex, to learn about Deep Throat, “porno chic,” and the unresolved feminist battle over whether to eradicate pornography or make more of it….
Over the last month, the race to become Conservative party leader has been whittled down from eleven candidates to two. There has been one other figure, however, who has loomed large over the contest: Margaret Thatcher.
While the former chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged to “govern as a Thatcherite”, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has been forced to deny dressing like the Iron Lady. Both of the remaining candidates have cited Thatcher as the party’s greatest prime minister.
As the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee explains, it all points to a party that, in harking back to a leader who came to power more than 40 years ago, is badly out of touch with Britain in 2022.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference late last week, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, the current chair of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, talked up some of the goals he’d like to see his party prioritize if they’re in the majority next year — particularly when it comes to law enforcement.
“There are things you can do,” the Arizonan said, reflecting on Congress’ power. Biggs added, “You start defunding some of these bad agencies. The FBI. The DOJ.”
[…] what’s striking is the degree to which rhetoric like this has become common, even among more influential Republicans. Roll Call reported two weeks ago, for example, on comments House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made at a recent conservative gathering.
Speaking to the America First Policy Institute gathering in Washington, McCarthy previewed some of the policy areas to be covered, including energy, crime and foreign policy. “We’re going to withhold money [from] any prosecutor that doesn’t uphold the law and picks and chooses who they go to prosecute,” McCarthy said.
[…]t prosecutorial discretion isn’t exactly a new concept in American law enforcement. But just as notable was seeing the would-be Speaker of the House speaking publicly about his intention to defund prosecutors that Republicans disagree with.
[…] The GOP is also increasingly focused on prosecutors as a convenient political villain.
During yesterday’s Senate proceedings, for example, Sen. Marco Rubio was among the members pushing poison-pill amendments to the Inflation Reduction Act. Not long after sunrise, the Florida Republican published a tweet that read, “The Democrats just blocked my effort to try and force Soros-backed prosecutors to put dangerous criminals in jail.”
The wording was problematic on a variety of levels — some critics questioned the reference to George Soros as possibly being anti-Semitic — but at its root, Rubio explicitly directed his criticism at law enforcement officials he disagrees with.
It came on the heels of another Florida Republican, Gov. Ron DeSantis, ousting an elected state attorney for taking positions on abortion and trans care that the governor didn’t like.
[…] I’m reminded of this NBC News report published soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Dozens of elected prosecutors said Friday they would refuse to prosecute those seeking, assisting or providing abortions after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion. Prosecutors from 29 states, territories and Washington, D.C., signed a joint statement that included signatories from states like Mississippi, Missouri and Wisconsin that have banned or are poised to ban abortion services following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Does the GOP intend to suspend and/or defund all of them, too?
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman confirmed her disgusting scoop on Trump’s tendency to flush documents down the toilet–a blatant violation of the Presidential Records Act–with photos she recently shared with Axios, which published the pics just this morning.
The photos reportedly show two different toilets with Trump’s notes just chillin’ at the bottom of the bowl:
[…] Source tells her pic on the left shows a White House commode
Pic on the right is from a Trump overseas trip
[photos available at the link]
Trump had denied Haberman’s toilet report when it came out earlier this year, insisting it was a “fake story” that was “simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book.”
Trump’s destructive handling of classified White House docs (which, in addition to toilet-flushing, includes ripping them to pieces and improperly stashing them at his Mar-A-Lago resort) is being investigated by the Justice Department and the House Oversight Committee.
KGsays
It’s yet again not particularly clear why Senate Republicans felt it necessary to keep those insulin prices high, but the party has consistently voted against such measures. – Lynna, OM@239 quoting Daily Kos
and
Some 7 million Americans require insulin daily. A Yale University study found that 14 percent of those insulin users are spending more than 40 percent of their income after food and housing costs on the medicine. – Lynna, OM@242 quoting Washington Post
In the UK, I think it’s the case that most insulin users are type 1 diabetics, most type 2 diabetics don’t use it, and most type 1 diabetics have been so since childhood. Anyone know if that is the case in the USA? (My father, unusually, was a type 1 diabetic who acquired the condition in middle age – probably an autoimmune problem. I had to get his death certificate – he lived to 82 – corrected, as it had him down as type 2.)
A Utah-based company well known for its jingoistic gear was fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week after falsely claiming that all of the company’s products were made solely in the U.S.
Lions Not Sheep is a beloved apparel company by those wanting to sport a pro-Second Amendment or pro-Trump T-shirt to wear during that next U.S. Capitol insurrection. Shirts are emblazoned with slogans such as: “Let’s Go, Brandon,” “Give Violence a Chance,” and “Shall Not Be Infringed.” [LOL]
Owner of Lions Not Sheep, Sean Whalen, was hit with a $211,335 fine after it was found that they were removing the “Made in China” tags and adding fake “Made in the USA” labels to hats, shirts, and other accessories.
[…] Whalen […] posted a video in October 2020 proclaiming that he could “conceal the fact that his shirts are made in China by ripping out the origin tags and replacing them,” the FTC complaint reads. [LOL, LOL]
In addition to the fine, the company was also required to “cease making bogus Made in USA claims” and are “prohibited from labeling products as ‘Made in USA’ unless the final assembly or processing, and all significant processing that goes into the products occur in the United States,” the FTC ordered.
“Companies that slap phony Made in USA labels on imported goods are cheating their customers and undercutting honest businesses, and we will hold those companies and their executives accountable for their misconduct … American consumers have the right to know the truth about where their clothes and accessories are made,” Sam Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in an FTC press release. […]
[…] working overtime this weekend to pass the climate and health care bill they call the Inflation Reduction Act. Named thusly to further appease West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, who has been insisting for months that inflation means we can’t have nice things. It worked, so that’s absolutely fine. And the really good thing is that there’s no whisper of “bipartisan” anywhere near the accomplishment.
It is a significant achievement. Not the trillions in investment in environmental and economic justice President Joe Biden campaigned on and envisioned in last year’s Build Back Better, but still a very big win. It’s a win for the country and the globe, with $369 billion in funding for clean energy and electric vehicle tax breaks, domestic manufacturing of batteries and solar panels, and pollution reduction. It also makes health coverage more affordable for millions, makes prescription drugs more affordable for seniors, and not only shrinks some corporate tax breaks but injects long-overdue funding for the Internal Revenue Service so that it can actually enforce tax laws on those corporations.
As many as 3.1 million people won’t join the ranks of the uninsured because of the bill, while many millions more will see their premiums become more affordable. The bill is a foot in the door for something Democrats have wanted to achieve for years: allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. What it won’t do, because Republicans are a death cult and blocked it from happening, is to cap the cost of insulin for all diabetics at $35 a month. Medicare enrollees will get that insulin cost break.
American consumers will not just benefit from some health care cost cuts, but should see lower electric bills and plenty of incentives for lowering their bills in the future by investing in energy efficiency in their homes. The legislation provides a tax deduction up to 30% of the cost of upgrading to energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, and investing in solar panels and the battery storage systems that come with them. Rewiring America, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimates that could save households up to $1,800 a year.
It also continues the incentive for replacing fossil fuel-powered vehicles with electric, extending the current $7,500 tax credit for new vehicles and $4,000 for used. Those credits were being phased out under current law.
All of this could result in a 40% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions below the 2005 levels by 2030. That’s not enough to save the planet, yet, but it is the biggest investment the U.S. has ever made to combat the climate crisis, making it one of the biggest in the world.
Of course, all this didn’t come with out a very dirty deal for Manchin: The partially finished Mountain Valley Pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia, which has been fervently opposed by residents, has the promise of approval from the White House. Manchin secured a promise for a vote on separate legislation that would end further legal challenges to permits for the project. The deal with Manchin also would expedite approval for pipelines around the country.
Three guesses why Manchin insisted on this, and you only need one.
Natural gas pipeline companies have dramatically increased their contributions to Mr. Manchin, from just $20,000 in 2020 to more than $331,000 so far this election cycle, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission and tallied by the Center for Responsive Politics. Mr. Manchin has been by far Congress’s largest recipient of money from natural gas pipeline companies this cycle, raising three times as much from the industry than any other lawmaker.
Nonetheless, Democrats have reason to celebrate. The investment in climate change is unprecedented. It’s set to be considered in the House at the end of this week. The House Progressive Caucus will back it. “You have to acknowledge that this is a huge step forward and this is a huge progressive win,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told The New York Times. “And that’s not to say that everything is a progressive win.” Even the Sabotage Squad of conservative Democrats is likely to approve it since their co-conspirators in the Senate back it.
A nice photo female Ukrainian solders accompanies this update.
The noose continues to tighten around Kherson: [tweet and video at the link, see also SC's link in comment 250]
With Ukraine’s relentless trumpeting of a forthcoming offensive in Kherson, Russia has taken the bait and rushed around 60% of its total forces to the region. [tweet and map at the link]
Russia has around 120 BTGs in the country (individual size and strength varies by BTG). There are an estimated 22 around Kherson, 27 between the east bank of the Dnipro river and Melitopol, and 17 south of Zaporizhzhia and southern Donbas. That is 66 deployed to the south, or over half the total. […]
Russia is using four ferries to move military equipment, two by the Antonovsky bridge, and another two hidden in a river nearby. The OSINT (open source intelligence) guys have ferreted out those latter two. Here’s one of them in action: [tweet and video at the link]
It almost behooves Ukraine to allow Russia to continue flooding vehicles into the Kherson region before fully closing the trap. Even as is, it’s perplexing Russia would reinforce without an easy way to supply those forces. On paper, 22 BTGs would means 220 tanks, 880 armored personnel carriers, several hundred artillery and rocket guns, and around 20,000 men. How are they supposed to feed all of that (men and guns) with four freakin’ ferries? Perhaps Russia has other surreptitious means of resupply, and they can certainly fly goods in via helicopter. But that’s an inefficient way to support the Russian way of war—leveling the opposition with thousands of artillery shells per day. Heck, it’s not even about efficiency, but capability. It might actually be impossible
Ukraine is working the major bridges, preventing Russia from repairing them. The barges will be harder to hit, especially if they move around enough, but they are nevertheless vulnerable. Ukraine is working hard to degrade Russian air defenses in the region, which would allow TB2 Bayraktar drones and the Ukrainian Air Force to operate closer to river and any barges moving equipment and supplies. As such, this was an interesting find: [tweet and photos at the link]
#Ukraine: Apparently, the Ukrainian army may have received American AGM-88 anti-radar missiles – fragments were reportedly found at Russian positions.
Earlier, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine reported that the army would receive unnamed anti-radar missiles.
This AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile, reported by Russian sources, is of American origin, yet was curiously never announced by the Pentagon in any of its aid packages. Anti-radar missiles are exactly what they sound like—missiles that hone in on radar signatures, usually employed by air defense batteries scouring the skies for enemy aircraft.
These are quarter-million dollar missiles, incredibly valuable in establishing air superiority. Their appearance was particularly surprising because they are designed to be launched from NATO-standard aircraft. They simply aren’t compatible with the targeting systems in Ukraine’s Soviet-era aircraft. So it’s a mystery how they were launched. [tweet and photo at the link]
HARM has a range of around 150 kilometers when launched from the air. Any ground-launched modification won’t get that kind of range without a Mach 2 assist, at altitude. Still, it should meet or exceed HIMARS range, meaning Russia’s rear-area air defenses are all vulnerable.
Ukraine has recently claimed the destruction of a great number of Russian S-300 anti-air systems, including four yesterday. It’s been assumed such kills were a result of HIMARS rocket artillery strikes. But this new information, if confirmed, would indicate Ukraine has an even better weapon to reclaim its skies. AGM-88 HARMs might not have the flashy impact of HIMARS, but they are incredibly important to any Ukrainian effort to isolate and cut off Russian forces around Kherson.
Ukrainian air superiority over Kherson would be a legitimate game changer. […]
WASHINGTON — Since January, judges in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have found that Republican legislators illegally drew those states’ congressional maps along racial or partisan lines, or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did. In years past, judges who have reached similar findings have ordered new maps, or had an expert draw them, to ensure that coming elections were fair.
But a shift in election law philosophy at the Supreme Court, combined with a new aggressiveness among Republicans who drew the maps, has upended that model for the elections in November. This time, all four states are using the rejected maps, and questions about their legality for future elections will be hashed out in court later.
The immediate upshot, election experts say, is that Republicans almost certainly will gain more seats in midterm elections at a time when Democrats already are struggling to maintain their bare majority.
David Wasserman, who follows congressional redistricting for the Cook Political Report, said that using rejected maps in the four states, which make up nearly 10 percent of the seats in the House, was likely to hand Republicans five to seven House seats that they otherwise would not have won.
Some election law scholars say they are troubled by the consequences in the long run.
“We’re seeing a revolution in courts’ willingness to allow elections to go forward under illegal or unconstitutional rules,” Richard L. Hasen, a professor at the U.C.L.A. School of Law and the director of its Safeguarding Democracy Project, said in an interview. “And that’s creating a situation in which states are getting one free illegal election before they have to change their rules.”
Behind much of the change is the Supreme Court’s embrace of an informal legal doctrine stating that judges should not order changes in election procedures too close to an actual election. In a 2006 case, Purcell v. Gonzalez, the court refused to stop an Arizona voter ID law from taking effect days before an election because that could “result in voter confusion and consequent incentive to remain away from the polls.”
The Purcell principle, as it is called, offers almost no guidance beyond that. But the Supreme Court has significantly broadened its scope in this decade, mostly through rulings on applications that seek emergency relief such as stays of lower court rulings, in which the justices’ reasoning often is cryptic or even unexplained.
The Purcell doctrine is not always applied to Republicans’ benefit. In March, the court cited an approaching primary election in refusing to block a North Carolina Supreme Court order undoing a Republican gerrymander of that state’s congressional map.
But scholars say such decisions are the exception. “It just so happens that the unexplained rules in election cases have a remarkable tendency to save Republicans and hurt Democrats,” said Steven I. Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor who addresses the issue in a forthcoming book, “The Shadow Docket.”
“It would be one thing if the court was giving us a compelling or even plausible explanation,” he added. “But the granting of a stay these days is often done with no explanation at all.”
It turned out that the generals had rules, standards, and expertise, not blind loyalty. The President’s loud complaint to John Kelly one day was typical: “You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?”
“Which generals?” Kelly asked.
“The German generals in World War II,” Trump responded.
“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Kelly said.
But, of course, Trump did not know that. “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” the President replied. In his version of history, the generals of the Third Reich had been completely subservient to Hitler; this was the model he wanted for his military. Kelly told Trump that there were no such American generals, but the President was determined to test the proposition.
When Milley arrived at the White House the next day, he was received by Kelly, who seemed to him unusually distraught. Before they headed into the Oval Office to meet with Trump, Milley asked Kelly what he thought.
“You should go to Europe and just get the fuck out of D.C.,” Kelly said. The White House was a cesspool: “Just get as far away as you can.”
The decision to name Milley was a rare chance, as Trump saw it, to get back at Mattis. Trump would confirm this years later, after falling out with both men, saying that he had picked Milley only because Mattis “could not stand him, had no respect for him, and would not recommend him.”
Both Esper and Milley found new purpose in waiting out the President. They resisted him throughout the summer, as Trump repeatedly demanded that active-duty troops quash ongoing protests, threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, and tried to stop the military from renaming bases honoring Confederate generals. “They both expected, literally on a daily basis, to be fired,” Gates recalled. Milley “would call me and essentially say, ‘I may not last until tomorrow night.’ And he was comfortable with that. He felt like he knew he was going to support the Constitution, and there were no two ways about it.”
Milley put away the resignation letter [they quote it in the article – I recommend it] in his desk and drew up a plan, a guide for how to get through the next few months. He settled on four goals: First, make sure Trump did not start an unnecessary war overseas. Second, make sure the military was not used in the streets against the American people for the purpose of keeping Trump in power. Third, maintain the military’s integrity. And, fourth, maintain his own integrity. In the months to come, Milley would refer back to the plan more times than he could count.
From the beginning, he understood that “if the idea was to seize power,” as he told his staff, “you are not going to do this without the military.” Milley had studied the history of coups. They invariably required the takeover of what he referred to as the “power ministries”—the military, the national police, and the interior forces.
As soon as he’d heard about Esper’s ouster, Milley had rushed upstairs to the Secretary’s office. “This is complete bullshit,” he told Esper. Milley said that he would resign in protest. “You can’t,” Esper insisted. “You’re the only one left.” Once he cooled off, Milley agreed.
In the coming weeks, Milley would repeatedly convene the Joint Chiefs, to bolster their resolve to resist any dangerous political schemes from the White House now that Esper was out….
After Esper’s firing, Milley summoned [Kash] Patel and [Ezra] Cohen separately to his office to deliver stern lectures. Whatever machinations they were up to, he told each of them, “life looks really shitty from behind bars. And, whether you want to realize it or not, there’s going to be a President at exactly 1200 hours on the twentieth and his name is Joe Biden. And, if you guys do anything that’s illegal, I don’t mind having you in prison.” Cohen denied that Milley said this to him, insisting it was a “very friendly, positive conversation.” Patel also denied it, asserting, “He worked for me, not the other way around.” But Milley told his staff that he warned both Cohen and Patel that they were being watched: “Don’t do it, don’t even try to do it. I can smell it. I can see it. And so can a lot of other people. And, by the way, the military will have no part of this shit.”
Among those pushing the President to hit Iran before Biden’s Inauguration, Milley believed, was the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. On December 18th, the same day that Trump met with Flynn to discuss instituting martial law, Milley met with Netanyahu at his home in Jerusalem to personally urge him to back off with Trump. “If you do this, you’re gonna have a fucking war,” Milley told him.
The Pentagon has unveiled the latest billion dollar slice of US military aid to Ukraine.
The main items are more ammunition for the 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) the US has sent, as well as new missiles for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), a thousand Javelin anti-tank missiles, and hundreds of Swedish made AT4 shoulder launched anti-tank systems.
Colin Kahl, the Pentagon policy chief, noted it was the 18th drawdown on US military stocks sent to Ukraine, making a total of $9.8bn in security assistance so far under the Biden administration.
“This is the largest single drawdown of US arms and equipment utilizing this authority to date,” Kahl said. “The package provides a significant amount of additional ammunition, weapons and equipment, the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country.”
Approximately two years’ worth of text messages sent and received by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones have been turned over to the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Monday.
The messages were handed over to the committee by Mark Bankston, the attorney who represented two Sandy Hook parents who successfully sued Jones in Texas and won nearly $50 million in a civil trial that concluded last week.
Bankston would only tell CNN that he is “cooperating with the committee.” The select committee declined to comment….
[…] After Esper’s firing, Milley summoned [Kash] Patel and [Ezra] Cohen separately to his office to deliver stern lectures. Whatever machinations they were up to, he told each of them, “life looks really shitty from behind bars. And, whether you want to realize it or not, there’s going to be a President at exactly 1200 hours on the twentieth and his name is Joe Biden. And, if you guys do anything that’s illegal, I don’t mind having you in prison.” Cohen denied that Milley said this to him, insisting it was a “very friendly, positive conversation.” Patel also denied it, asserting, “He worked for me, not the other way around.” But Milley told his staff that he warned both Cohen and Patel that they were being watched: “Don’t do it, don’t even try to do it. I can smell it. I can see it. And so can a lot of other people. And, by the way, the military will have no part of this shit.” […]
I do not believe the denials of Kash Patel and Ezra Cohen. Those two were Trump lackeys through and through. I would not be surprised to learn that the two of them found some way to delay sending help when the Capitol was being attacked on January 6th.
[…] The acknowledgment that the phones from the Pentagon officials had been wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit American Oversight brought against the Defense Department and the Army. The watchdog group is seeking January 6 records from former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former chief of staff Kash Patel, and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, among other prominent Pentagon officials — having filed initial FOIA requests just a few days after the Capitol attack.
Miller, Patel and McCarthy have all been viewed as crucial witnesses for understanding government’s response to the January 6 Capitol assault and former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the breach. All three were involved in the Defense Department’s response to sending National Guard troops to the US Capitol as the riot was unfolding. There is no suggestion that the officials themselves erased the records.
The government’s assertion in the filings that the officials’ text messages from that day were not preserved is the latest blow to the efforts to bring transparency to the events of January 6. It comes as the Department of Homeland Security is also under fire for the apparent loss of messages from the Secret Service that day. […]
Wonkette: “Republicans Losing Their Sh*t Over IRA Bill. What Fun!”
My perhaps simplistic take on legislative politics is that anything that makes Mitch McConnell cry is good for the American people. Remember how grumpy he looked when the late Senator John McCain foiled his attempt to deny millions healthcare? He’s possibly even more pissed now that Joe Manchin went full Democrat on him.
After Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, McConnell released this melodramatic, lie-filled statement. I imagine him weeping while furiously pounding keys on a manual typewriter.
The last time Senate Democrats tried to remake the economy on party lines, they shoved American families into the worst inflation in 40 years. Democrats got all-you-can-eat liberal spending and working families got stuck with the bill.
Some economists have suggested that the American Rescue Plan might’ve contributed to the nation’s high core inflation. However, others believe that it helped saved the pandemic-pummeled economy. Republicans are in no position to quibble since their “solution” was do nothing and let people starve.
The Republicans’ problem here is that the Manchin-Schumer bill is called the “Inflation Reduction Act,” as in “this bill will reduce inflation.” Manchin repeatedly stated that he tanked Build Back Better because of concerns about inflation, and only the most brainwashed Fox News viewer will believe that Manchin no longer cares about inflation and wants to pass “all-you-can-eat liberal spending.” It’s gotten so bad for Republicans that they’ve resorted to quoting Bernie Sanders, who suggested the bill would have a “minimal impact on inflation.” As if people with their own bank accounts listen to Bernie. (I kid! I kid!)
No, seriously, they’re asking their voters to trust the socialist instead of the coal baron with his own house boat. The average right-wing brain can only take so much abuse. [Tweet and video at the link]
It is hilarious to see Republicans and right-wing media slam the “Manchin bill” as promoting reckless spending. Joe Manchin just isn’t a name anyone associates with woke socialism. This is hardly Liz Warren “eat-the-rich” legislation. [images at the link]
Sunday, Foghorn Leghorn cosplayer Sen. John Kennedy from Louisiana trash-talked his Senate colleague with the old “I’m not saying …” trick. [Tweet and video at the link]
KENNEDY: I’m not saying that Senator Manchin intentionally wants to hurt people.
Of course not!
KENNEDY: I’m not saying that he intentionally wants to have even more people living in a tent behind Whataburger. But that’s gonna be the result of this bill.
Louisianans working full-time are still struggling to find affordable housing, and this asshole almost laughed while making a punchline out of real people’s suffering.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who’s rarely a model of stability, raved Monday that the “inflation reduction act” is actually a “dissident imprisonment act,” and that the 87,000 IRS agents will target “mom-and-pop restaurants, donors to MAGA candidates, people like you.” No, dude, they’re just going after tax cheats.
Anyway, back to McConnell’s (allegedly!) Kentucky-bourbon-fueled rant:
With straight faces, Democrats argued the damage from their first reckless taxing and spending spree was a good excuse to ram through another.
And Republicans spent all night and all day putting forward solutions to tackle those issues. But not one Senate Democrat would agree to take one dime out of their Green New Deal nonsense to cut inflation, fight crime, or secure the border.
The Republican amendments were a bunch of bullshit. Crime and the border are what Republicans obsess over when they have no real solutions during tough economic times. Senate Minority Whip John Thune admitted last week that they were throwing amendments at the wall to derail the process. He told The Hill, “Get as many votes on amendments that make it more difficult for Democrats to be for it in the end.”
Democrats held firm, voted down every shiny object, and passed the damn bill.
Democrats have proven over and over they simply do not care about middle-class families’ priorities. They have spent 18 months proving that. They just spent hundreds of billions of dollars to prove it again.
Oh, fuck you, McConnell. Republicans killed the IRA’s insulin cap. You don’t give a damn about struggling Americans. Republican ghouls have called universal childcare a commie plot. […]
Human snot rag Stephen Miller had the gall to suggest these amendments were a good-faith effort to address the contrived “border crisis.” [tweet and video at the link.]
MILLER: Modern-day slavery is playing out on our border. The drugs that are coming through are laying waste to our cities and towns. Parents are weeping over the bodies of their children. And Senate Republicans are trying to offer a handful of modest, common-sense amendments to end the death and destruction, and Mark Kelly and the rest of the Senate Democrats are voting them down? Have they no conscience? Have they no soul? People are suffering. This is misery and anguish on a scale we have never seen before.
They really should’ve perfected Miller’s emotion chip before he tried to sell that monologue. Miller, by the way, was the architect of Donald Trump’s grotesque family separation policy that was intentionally designed to torture desperate immigrants.
And we repeat: Republicans were never going to vote for the IRA, even if it included their entire right-wing wish list.
Unfortunately for Republicans, who capitalize on human misery, US consumer inflation expectations for the coming years have fallen, partly due to a steady decrease in gas prices. The economy is improving, and the IRA is going to deliver results for all Americans. Joe Manchin sank their midterm battleship and they’re floating in their own flotsam.
Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reportedly drafted a resignation letter in the wake of his infamous stroll with then-President Trump and other senior officials through Lafayette Square after federal police used tear gas and flash bangs to disperse a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest outside the White House in June 2020.
The text of what was reportedly a draft of his resignation letter was published by the New Yorker Monday. Addressed to Trump, the letter reads in part:
It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.
The letter comes as part of an excerpt from a new book, “The Divider: Trump in the White House.” The book, by the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser and the New York Times’ Peter Baker, details episodes in which Trump’s military officials butted heads with the then-President.
The New Yorker’s excerpt primarily details Milley’s frustration with Trump, which it describes as escalating amid nationwide protests in response to the death of George Floyd. While it was previously reported that Milley considered resigning, the excerpt from the book adds new details, including the text of his draft resignation letter.
On the evening of June 1, 2020, Trump and several of his senior administration officials, including Milley, walked across Lafayette Square minutes after aggressive tactics by federal police were used to clear out protesters. Earlier in the day, the book says, Milley, then-Attorney General Bill Barr and then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper pushed back on Trump’s demand to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and deploy active-duty military to quell BLM protests. Trump reportedly demanded that Milley take the lead on carrying out his request. Milley and others swiftly rejected Trump’s request, saying that the National Guard would be sufficient.
But ultimately, Milley marched behind Trump alongside other senior officials through the park, which was meant to project a “forceful response” to the BLM protests nationwide, according to the New Yorker.
Minutes after the short walk, in which Milley is seen dressed in combat fatigues, the then-President and his advisers participated in a now-infamous photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Milley, however, was nowhere to be seen during the church photo-op. He reportedly went AWOL as soon as he realized he should not be there, according to the New Yorker. Milley quietly peeled off from Trump and his aides and hopped into his waiting Chevy Suburban.
A week after the church photo-op, Milley reportedly wrote and re-wrote drafts of a letter of resignation. In what the New Yorker describes as his “preferred version,” Milley wrote that he had been prompted to do “deep soul-searching,” during which he said he realized that Trump has done “great and irreparable harm” to the country by making “a concerted effort over time to politicize” the military.
Milley criticized Trump for using the military to “create fear in the minds of the people.”
“I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people,” Milley wrote. “The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that.”
Milley then reportedly condemned Trump for not sharing his values: that all men and women “are created equal, no matter who you are,” writing that it’s “obvious” to him that Trump does not “hold those values dear.”
Milley concluded that Trump was “ruining the international order” that was established after World War II by the “greatest generation.”
They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships. That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against.
“And I cannot be a party to that,” Milley reportedly concluded. “It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.”
Yet Milley ultimately did not follow through with his resignation. Milley reportedly had reached out to General Joseph Dunford, who served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under Barack Obama, and other political contacts, including members of Congress and former officials from the Bush and Obama Administrations. Most reportedly echoed what Robert Gates, a former secretary of defense and C.I.A. chief, told Milley: “Make them fire you. Don’t resign.”
Other members of Trump’s national security team traveled to Gates’ home in Washington state amid the ongoing turmoil.
“The problem with resignation is you can only fire that gun once,” Gates told them, according to the New Yorker.
Following the Lafayette Square incident, Gates reportedly advised Milley and Esper to stay in the Pentagon as long as possible because “if you resign, it’s a one-day story.”
“If you’re fired, it makes it clear you were standing up for the right thing,” Gates told them, according to the New Yorker.
Some details about Milley’s disagreements with Trump and his reported desire to resign had previously been reported. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book “Peril” detailed Milley’s reported disgust when Trump roped Milley and other senior officials into the surprise church photo-op. According to that book, during their walk through Lafayette Square with Trump, Milley turned to his chief of staff and said, “This is fucked up and this is a political event and I’m out of here. We’re getting the fuck out of here. I’m fucking done with this shit.”
The book reported that Milley sent a memo to the joint chiefs of staff and senior Pentagon officials the next day reminding them to “uphold the values of our nation, and operate consistent with national laws and our own high standards of conduct at all times.”
Milley had considered resigning at the time, the Woodward-Costa book said, but had backed off of the idea after consulting former Secretary of State Colin Powell — who also previously served as joint chiefs chairman.
“Fuck no!” Powell told Milley, according to the Woodward-Costa book. “I told you never to take the job. You never should have taken the job. Trump’s a fucking maniac.”
Believers in this theory claim that NESARA, the National Economic Security and Reformation Act, was secretly passed by U.S. Congress in 2000 and set to be announced on Sept. 11, 2001. The theory is that all evidence was destroyed when a shadowy cabal of world leaders arranged for the attack on the World Trade Center in New York…
According to the website gesara.news, which Lew relied upon to make her arguments in court, former U.S. president Bill Clinton signed NESARA into law at gunpoint, but he supposedly knew “full well that the Illuminati were in charge, and that this law was never to be enforced.” …
What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make (Princeton University Press, 2022) by Dr. Michael Hathaway pushes today’s mushroom renaissance in compelling new directions. For centuries, Western science has promoted a human- and animal-centric framework of what counts as action, agency, movement, and behavior. But, as Michael Hathaway shows, the world-making capacities of mushrooms radically challenge this orthodoxy by revealing the lively dynamism of all forms of life.
The book tells the fascinating story of one particularly prized species, the matsutake, and the astonishing ways it is silently yet powerfully shaping worlds, from the Tibetan plateau to the mushrooms’ final destination in Japan. Many Tibetan and Yi people have dedicated their lives to picking and selling this mushroom—a delicacy that drives a multibillion-dollar global trade network and that still grows only in the wild, despite scientists’ intensive efforts to cultivate it in urban labs. But this is far from a simple story of humans exploiting a passive, edible commodity. Rather, the book reveals the complex, symbiotic ways that mushrooms, plants, humans, and other animals interact. It explores how the world looks to the mushrooms, as well as to the people who have grown rich harvesting them.
Dr. Hathway gives us a surprise-filled journey into science and human culture, this exciting and provocative book shows how fungi shape our planet and our lives in strange, diverse, and often unimaginable ways.
Reginald Selkirksays
@257: How positive was the identification of AGM-88?
This sounds like it could be the work of Tacit Rainbow or a successor. An anti-radar missile/drone.
The FBI executed a search warrant on Monday at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, the former President confirmed to CNN.
Trump declined to say why the FBI agents were at Mar-a-Lago, but the former President said the raid was unannounced and “they even broke into my safe.”
“My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” he said in a statement.
George Conway tweeted: “Please retweet if your home or office wasn’t searched today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to a warrant issued by a federal judge upon a showing of probable cause.”
tomhsays
Followup to SC @ #272, this is the NYT account:
F.B.I. Searches Trump’s Home in Florida The former president said in a statement that Mar-a-Lago had been “raided, and occupied by a large group of F.B.I. agents.”
Aug. 8, 2022 Updated 7:38 p.m. ET
Former President Donald J. Trump said on Monday that the F.B.I. had searched his Palm Beach, Fla., home and had broken open a safe — an account that, if accurate, would be a dramatic escalation in the various investigations into the former president.
The search, according to two people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, after he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents.
Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action being taken to retrieve them.
Mr. Trump was known throughout his term to rip up official material that was intended to be held for government archives.
“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Mr. Trump said, maintaining it was an effort to stop him from running for president in 2024. “Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries.”
“They even broke into my safe!” he wrote. “What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.”
Mr. Trump did not share any details about what the F.B.I. agents said they were searching for. But he depicted himself as a victim of shadowy forces seeking to damage him.
The search took place on Monday morning, a person familiar with it said, although Mr. Trump claimed agents were still there many hours later.
The search was at least in part for whether any records remained at the club, the person familiar with the search said.
The reported search came at a time when the Justice Department has also been stepping up questioning of former Trump aides who had been witnesses to discussion and planning in the White House of Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in office after his loss in the 2020 election.
Mr. Trump has been the focus of questions asked by federal prosecutors in connection with a scheme to send “fake” electors to Congress for the certification of the Electoral College.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Mr. Trump said in the statement. “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” Mr. Trump said.
I’m feeling a bit giddy myself. Tfg gets raided by FBI is delightful dinner theatre schadenfreude.
birgerjohanssonsays
I am torn between two emotions, sadness over the death of “TC” aka Roger Mosley and of Olivia Newton-John.
On the other hand… T**** suffering actual consequences? I never had any hopes for that before.
…Pretty much every Trump/Q forum I’m on is wishcasting Ron DeSantis sending Florida police to somehow intercept federal law enforcement around Mar a Lago.
Others are saying they’re waiting for Trump’s permission.
“When does the shooting start?” said one TheDonald commenter.
The posts on these pro-Trump forums tonight are as violent as I’ve seen them since before January 6th. Maybe even moreso.
We now have confirmation from CNN that the raid was about the 15 boxes of classified documents that Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago. This is a critical point. This is not tied to the January 6th investigation or the conspiracy that preceded. This is a separate investigation.
I notice that one of Trump’s reactions was to claim that the FBI is part of the Democratic Party. In other words, Trump really doesn’t have a leg to stand on, so he is spouting nonsense.
Jesse Watters responds to the Mar-a-Lago FBI raid by throwing a bunch of conspiracy theories against the wall. Hunter Biden! The Pelosi family! Hillary’s server!
Look, my father-in-law, as anybody knows, who’s been around him a lot, loves to save things like newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, photographs, documents that he had every authority, will, to take from the white house.
Some of the documents he has at Mar-a-Lago are so top secret that they cannot even be described without threatening national security. Yes, he has lots of unclassified stuff, but he also has very seriously classified stuff.
A viral ad in which former Vice President Dick Cheney attacks former President Trump as a “coward” will begin airing on Fox News on Tuesday, a week before his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) faces a Trump-backed primary challenge, Axios has learned.
The ad, which initially aired solely in Wyoming, got so much attention that Cheney’s campaign has decided to take it directly to Trump’s favorite programs. The ad will air twice daily this week during “Fox & Friends” and once daily on Sean Hannity’s prime-time show.
It was a very busy day for Republican crimes and humiliations—so busy that we can’t even mention more than a scrap of it. Aside from a federal search warrant executed at a former certain president’s for-profit house: Alex Jones’ troubles continue with a report that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 coup attempt is now in possession of his text messages for the period in question. New photos of Donald Trump’s own crimes and humiliations have surfaced in the form of pictures of what had previously just been reported: torn-up documents soaking at the bottom of a White House toilet.
Republican senators are once again dodging questions about the clear absurdity of both the party’s candidates and its civil rights opposition. Oh, and a company selling pro-insurrection merchandise was busted in what’s yet another case of far-right conservatives defrauding each other at every possible turn. Bannon got a Trump pardon for his version. These guys just got fined.
Here’s some of what you may have missed:
‘They even broke into my safe!’: Trump confirms FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in whining statement
Report: Jan. 6 probe gets its hands on two years of Alex Jones’ text messages
Rick Scott breaks down like a glitching Furby when asked about the GOP’s slate of Senate candidates
Lindsey Graham wants states deciding same-sex marriage, dodges questions about interracial marriage
Company known for its insurrection swag fined for replacing ‘Made in China’ tags with ‘Made in USA’
Badlandsays
Pharyngula, your help please. There’s a word for where we use one word which is commonly understood to describe larger ideas or processes. My brain won’t throw me an example but hopefully someone out there knows it, I know I’ve read it on here several times.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their recent summary:
Russia has suspended an arrangement that allowed US and Russian inspectors to visit each other’s nuclear weapons sites under the 2010 New Start treaty, in a fresh blow to arms control. Mutual inspections had been suspended as a health precaution since the start of the Covid pandemic, but a foreign ministry statement on Monday added another reason Russia is unwilling to restart them. It argued that US sanctions imposed because of the invasion of Ukraine stopped Russian inspectors travelling to the US.
Ukraine has reported intense Russian shelling across the frontlines on Tuesday as both sides traded blame for the weekend strike on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex that triggered international concern about a potential atomic disaster. Heavy fighting was reported in frontline towns near the eastern city of Donetsk, where Ukrainian officials said Russian troops were launching waves of attacks.
…
Russia’s assault towards the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine has been its most successful axis in the Donbas region in the past month, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update. Despite this, it had only gained 10km in that time, while elsewhere in Donbas it had gained only 3km over 30 days – “almost certainly significantly less than planned”.
…
The US believes Russia has suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, either killed or wounded, since its latest invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February. Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s top policy official said: “The Russians are taking a tremendous number of casualties on the other side of the equation. I think it’s safe to suggest that the Russians are probably taking 70 or 80,000 casualties in less than six months.”
Stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. Visiting #Europe is a privilege, not a human right. Air travel from RU is shut down. It means while Schengen countries issue visas, neighbours to Russia carry the burden (FI, EE, LV – sole access points). Time to end tourism from Russia now
A doomsday bunker beneath a mansion in Kentucky. A paranoid liquor store chain owner who got involved in right wing politics and went down the QAnon rabbithole. A terrible tragedy. Plus, the return of QAnon news!
Three local witnesses have told Reuters they heard several loud explosions and seen black smoke rising from the direction of a Russian military airbase at Novofedorivka in western Crimea on Tuesday.
Videos shared on social media also showed a plume of smoke in the area. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Authorities [sic] in Crimea appear to have been confirming reports of explosions in the region, although details are still scant.
Oleg Kryuchkov, a Kremlin-appointed advisor to the authorities in Crimea, has posted to Telegram to say “So far, I can only confirm the very fact of several explosions in the Novofedorivka area. I ask everyone to wait for official reports.”
The BBC reports that pro-Russian military commander Yuri Kotenok said on his Telegram channel that there were about ten explosions. “20 km from Novofedorivka windows tremble and alarms go off in cars,” he wrote.
It quotes another local authority figure as saying “Our airfield is exploding. Explosions are at the airfield. All the windows here have been shattered.”
ravensays
Xpost from another thread.
The GOP is still trying to use the courts to kill the Affordable Care Act. They might be able to do it with the new Supreme Court.
There is no doubt that many people would die if this happens.
Republicans really do want to kill you!!!
This isn’t hyperbole or something dramatic for click bait headlines. Proof.
This is yet again another attack on the Affordable Health Care act by fundie xians. In this case, they are objecting to preventative health care because it saves many lives.
PUBLIC HEALTH Preventive care such as birth control, anti-HIV medicine challenged in Texas lawsuit
August 9, 20225:00 AM ET Allison Aubrey npr.org
Research shows that expanded access to preventive care and coverage has led to an increase in colon cancer screenings, vaccinations, use of contraception and chronic disease screenings.
The Affordable Care Act has survived many challenges in court, but the case of Kelley v. Becerra – now before a federal judge in Texas – threatens to undermine one of the most popular provisions in the law, which requires most health plans to provide coverage for preventive care with no copays.
If the judge rules in favor of the plaintiffs, access to free birth control, cancer screenings, vaccines, PrEP (HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis), counseling for alcohol misuse, diet counseling for people at higher risk of chronic disease, and many more preventive services would be in jeopardy, according to the nation’s leading doctors’ groups, which have sounded the alarm.
“The lawsuit could cause millions of Americans, probably more than 150 million, to lose guaranteed access to preventive services,” Dr. Jack Resneck, president of the American Medical Association, told NPR. “There’s really a great deal at stake,” he said.
The doctors’ group points to research showing that expanded access to preventive care and coverage, ushered in by the ACA, has led to an increase in colon cancer screenings, vaccinations, use of contraception and chronic disease screenings. There’s also data to show that expanded coverage has reduced racial and ethnic disparities in preventive care.
Resneck warns that if the preventive care mandate is rolled back in court, it threatens to reverse this progress. Some plans may decide to limit or deny coverage for certain services. Others would tack on copays.
“Having copays and deductibles brought back for these services would actually keep many patients from getting them,” Resnick says. He says for people on a tight budget, a copay for a mammogram or colonoscopy could be enough of a disincentive to skip the screening.
Americans have saved billions of dollars in out-of-pocket spending on contraceptives since the ACA’s preventive services and birth control coverage took effect. And since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration has taken steps to clarify the benefits. “Under the ACA, most private health plans are required to provide birth control and family planning counseling at no additional cost,” according to an HHS release. (A small percentage of American workers are covered by grandfathered insurance plans that are not required to follow the ACA’s preventive care coverage rules.) continues
So is this lawsuit going to work? It probably will because the federal judges in Texas are right wingnuts.
The case was argued in late July before Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas — the same judge who ruled in 2018 that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
“I’m expecting a pretty sweeping decision that is likely to invalidate all the preventive care requirements,” Keith says. Legal experts expect the case will be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“On 2nd anniversary of [bogus] elections in Belarus, @StateDept sanctions 2 Belarusian officials ‘for involvement in gross violations of human rights’ & will impose visa restrictions on 100 Lukashenka officials for involvement in undermining democracy, @SecBlinken announces.”
Ahahahahaha: “No more beach 2022 bikini pics. #Russians are hastily leaving #Crimea via the Crimean bridge. ‘There’s a huge traffic jam here’, says the author of the video.”
Underlining the importance of the attack, Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University tweeted: “What the Ukrainians are doing is extremely important. By showing they can hit Crimea, they will further stretch Russia defensive capabilities. The Russians are going to have to protect a huge area behind the front lines.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene is talking openly about “defunding” the FBI, and she’s not the only Republican pushing such a line.
After learning that the FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, the former president’s Republican allies responded with apoplexy. Some in the GOP, however, went further than others.
USA Today’s Rex Huppke, with obvious sarcasm, explained in his latest column:
As news that the FBI had executed a search warrant on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort home broke, supporters of the former president reacted in the kind of calm, measured tone we’ve come to expect from the MAGA movement…. Investigating Trump is cause to, as Rep. [Marjorie Taylor] Greene, an actual elected member of Congress, tweeted Monday night: “DEFUND THE FBI!”
The right-wing Georgian not only pushed this line on Twitter, she also appeared on a conservative media outlet and explicitly made the case for “defunding” the Justice Department.
At face value, it’s easy to dismiss such rhetoric, especially from a fringe lawmaker who doesn’t even have any committee assignments. Greene makes bizarre comments all the time, and it’s generally best not to take them too seriously.
But two years after Republicans invested enormous time and energy into tying Democrats to the “defund the police” phrase, it’s notable that Greene isn’t the only GOP official raising the prospect of defunding federal law enforcement.
As we discussed yesterday, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, the current chair of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, appeared last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and also explored some of the goals he’d like to see his party prioritize if they’re in the majority next year — particularly when it comes to law enforcement.
“There are things you can do,” the Arizonan said, reflecting on Congress’ power. Biggs added, “You start defunding some of these bad agencies. The FBI. The DOJ.”
[…] House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke at a conservative gathering two weeks ago and said a Republican majority would “withhold money” from prosecutors who fail to “uphold the law” in line with the party’s expectations.
[…] Not surprisingly, conservative media figures aligned with the GOP are picking up on this and talking openly about a Republican congressional majority “defunding“ the FBI.
[…] GOP leaders are probably going to hear some pointed questions about this, and I’ll look forward to hearing their answers.
If there was one thing Republicans cared about six years ago, it was how high-ranking officials dealt with classified materials. In fact, as recently as 2016, the GOP was certain — that is, the party at least pretended to be certain — that politicians disqualify themselves from positions of authority when they put documents at risk.
And so, now that Republicans have learned that Donald Trump allegedly took highly sensitive classified materials to his golf resort, one could imagine the party expressing outrage with the former president. After all, given the GOP’s recent history of passionate feelings on the subject, it stands to reason that Trump may have crossed an intolerable line.
But that would assume that the Republican Party’s principles and standards are consistent. They are not. On the contrary, GOP officials aren’t outraged with Trump, they’re outraged with federal law enforcement for even considering the possibility of holding Trump accountable for his alleged actions.
There’s regular ol’ hypocrisy and then there’s nuclear-grade hypocrisy. I’m reminded of this New York Times report from February, shining a light on Republicans who were “once so forceful about the issue of mishandling documents.
Several Republicans who once railed against Mrs. Clinton’s document retention practices did not respond Thursday to questions about Mr. Trump’s actions. Others who had been directly involved with investigating Mrs. Clinton declined to discuss the specifics except to suggest, without evidence, that the National Archives and Records Administration was treating Mr. Trump more harshly.
[Assuming victimhood and whining.]
That was six months ago. The problem is far more acute in the wake of the FBI showing up at Mar-a-Lago yesterday.
[…] Republicans, with varying degrees of hysterics, made Hillary Clinton out to be a literal criminal who put the United States at risk. During the presidential campaign, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan went so far as to formally request that the Democrat be denied intelligence briefings — insisting that her email practices, which were the subject of an FBI investigation, were proof that she mishandled classified information and therefore couldn’t be trusted.
To this day, rabid Republican activists will reflexively chant, “Lock her up!” at the mere mention of Clinton’s name because she allegedly failed to properly deal with classified materials.
And now many of those same Republicans say they don’t much care. Indeed, the only thing many in the GOP appear to care about this morning is condemning federal law enforcement for taking the issue seriously.
Some might suggest that GOP voices have flip-flopped, conveniently changing their minds. But that gives the Republicans playing this game far too much credit: The problem is not that the GOP took the issue of document retention seriously before, only to later shift their position; the problem is that the party only pretended to care about the issue in the first place.
In a curious fundraising message, Republican Sen. Tim Scott accused Democrats of supporting a policy that would “grant abortions up to 52 weeks.” In related news, the South Carolina senator’s political operation may need a refresher on gestation periods and the basics of human physiology.
Reminder: today is Primary Day in the following states: Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
In Minnesota, Republicans are likely to back former state Sen. Scott Jensen, a physician who’s spoken out against Covid vaccines and condemned efforts to stop the spread of the virus, in the gubernatorial primary. As part of his statewide candidacy, Jensen has also suggested that he’d support incarcerating Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state over election-related conspiracy theories.
Background info that is important regarding the FBI executing a search warrant at Trump’s trash palace:
[…] In late February, the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) confirmed that officials uncovered classified information among the documents Trump took to Mar-a-Lago — and that the Archives had consulted with the Justice Department about the matter.
In fact, describing the materials as “sensitive” appears to understate matters quite a bit. In February, The Washington Post reported that the classified documents in question “bore markings that the information was extremely sensitive and would be limited to a small group of officials with authority to view such highly classified information.” The Post went on to note in a follow-up report two weeks later that “only a very few” people even have the necessary clearances to review these records, adding, “The documents are so sensitive that they may not be able to describe them in an unclassified way.”
The result was an extraordinary dynamic: A former American president took these secret materials to an unsecured venue known as a haven for spies.
In April, the Justice Department reportedly began moving forward with a criminal investigation, and yesterday, the FBI showed up at Mar-a-Lago.
The former president did not appear to be pleased. In fact, the Republican issued a 340-word written statement, describing the FBI’s efforts as a “raid,” while arguing, “Nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States before.”
[…] former presidents also weren’t accused of improperly taking highly classified documents to a golf resort, either, so here we are.
[…] At no point in his 340-word statement did Trump get around to saying that he’s innocent. He also didn’t deny mishandling classified information.
The former president did, however, roll out this gem: “What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat [sic] National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.”
There was a notable symmetry to the reference: On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced to the nation that he would resign the presidency. Exactly 48 years to the day, the FBI showed up at Trump’s door, leading the former president to draw a parallel between his dilemma and the scandal that forced Nixon from office.
The problem, of course, is that Trump has no idea what he’s talking about. What’s the difference between the developments at Mar-a-Lago and the break-in at the Watergate a half-century ago? Well, the FBI obtained a search warrant from a judge. Federal law enforcement agents didn’t sneak into any rooms or buildings. The Secret Service was notified and the former president’s lawyer was on the premises during the search.
The Watergate break-in was a crime, the “raid” at Mar-a-Lago was part of an investigation into an alleged crime.
The only thing the two stories have in common is a corrupt Republican president.
Really useful map in this tweet by @IAPonomarenko. You can see how far behind the front lines this is. The Russians now have to worry about a massive area that could be attacked at any moment.
Reportedly, Russia’s Air Force 43rd Regiment airfield close to the city of Saki in Crimea has been attacked. It’s located over 200 kilometers deep in the Russian-controlled rear. […]
In a unanimous 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the House Ways and Means Committee, saying that the request from Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., was within the scope of the panel’s probe.
“The Chairman’s Request has not clearly gone beyond the scope of the Committee’s inquiry,” the ruling reads. “It is understandable that the Committee would want to compare returns filed during the presidency with those filed in the years before and after to see what effect, if any, Mr. Trump being the sitting President had on how his returns were treated by the Presidential Audit Program.”
“Further, there is no reason that the Chairman’s Request should be confined to a single year of returns and return information,” the judges continued. “The Chairman has stated that the value of requesting six years of information is the ability to compare one year with another. And while it is possible that not every document requested by the Chairman will provide the Committee with the sought-after information, that is of no consequence.”
The court also decided that such a request did not violate the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branch.
“The Chairman’s request in this case passes muster under all suggested variations of the separation of powers analysis,” the opinion of the court reads.
The trio of judges were nominated by both Democrats and Republicans: Judge Karen Henderson, who was appointed by George H.W. Bush, Judge Robert Wilkins, picked by Barack Obama, and Judge David Sentelle, tapped by Ronald Reagan.
A lower court judge who was appointed by Trump rejected his arguments in the case at the end of last year.
tomhsays
NYT Live Updates
Aug. 9, 2022, 10:56 a.m. ET
2 hours ago
Luke Broadwater
Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor who played a role in President Donald J. Trump’s false elector scheme, ended his interview with the Jan. 6 House committee today within 15 minutes. Mastriano, who was on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, insisted on recording the interview himself and then refused to answer the committee’s questions. He pledged to sue the panel.
Albuquerque police say they have detained the “primary suspect” in the killings of four Muslim men in New Mexico’s largest city.
Police Chief Harold Medina on Tuesday announced the update on Twitter. The killings have sent ripples of fear through Islamic communities in New Mexico and beyond and fueled a race to find who was responsible.
“We tracked down the vehicle believed to be involved in a recent murder of a Muslim man in Albuquerque. The driver was detained and he is our primary suspect for the murders,” the tweet said.
No other information was immediately available. Police say they will provide an update on Tuesday afternoon.
Naeem Hussain was killed Friday night, and the three other men died in ambush shootings.
Hussain, 25, was from Pakistan. His death came just days after those of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussein, 41, who were also from Pakistan and members of the same mosque
.
The earliest case involves the November killing of Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, from Afghanistan.
[…] Gallegos said he could not comment on what kind of gun was used in the shootings, or whether police know how many suspects were involved in the violence.
President Biden said he was “angered and saddened” by the killings and that his administration “stands strongly with the Muslim community.”
“These hateful attacks have no place in America,” Biden said Sunday in a tweet.
The conversation about safety has also dominated WhatsApp and email groups that Almontaser is on.
“What we’ve seen happen in New Mexico is very chilling for us as a Muslim minority community in the United States that has endured so much backlash and discrimination” since the 9/11 attacks, she said. “It’s frightening.” […]
Wonkette: “Texas Church Illegally Desecrates ‘Hamilton’ With Tacky Evangelicalism And Homophobia”
“You know what Hamilton really needs?” said no one ever, “For all swears and references to sex to be removed and for a bunch of crap about Jesus and finding Jesus and how super great Jesus is to be smashed in, regardless of whether or not it fits in with the original tempo or makes any sense or is historically accurate. Then, once it’s over, cap it all off with a sermon about how homosexuality is a sin!”
Well, I guess not “no one ever” because that is exactly what the Door Church in McAllen, Texas, did over the weekend, when they mounted an illegal production of Hamilton they claimed was sanctioned and licensed to them by “the Hamilton team.” Indeed, during a sermon over the weekend, Pastor Roman Gutierrez even went so far as to say, “We would like to, once again, thank the Hamilton team for giving us the license to perform our version of Hamilton.”
Shockingly, “The Hamilton Team” did not, in fact, give them a license to do any such thing.
In fact, they did not even know about the sacrilegious production and as soon as they heard about it — and heard that it was being live-streamed — they sent a cease and desist letter telling them to shut it down. They did allow the church to do the second scheduled performance of the show, so long as they agreed not to allow video or photographs of the production, but without prejudice — meaning they may very well still sue the Door Church for violating their copyright.
In a statement, they wrote:
Hamilton does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church.
On Saturday, August 6, we were made aware of the unauthorized staging of HAMILTON by The Door Church in McAllen, TX that took place on Friday, August 5, and their plans for additional performances. We issued a cease and desist letter for the unauthorized use of Hamilton’s intellectual property, demanding the immediate removal of all videos and images from previous productions from the internet, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, their own website, and elsewhere.
Hamilton informed the Church after receiving a response to the cease and desist letter, that they could proceed with the August 6 performance, on the conditions that (a) it was not live-streamed or recorded; (b) no photos or videos of the performance be posted; (c) they not mount any further productions; (d) this limited permission was without prejudice, and we reserved all rights and remedies; and (e) we would be discussing this matter with the parties behind this unauthorized production within the coming days once all facts are properly vetted.
We would like to thank our devoted fans for bringing this to our attention.
Churches are frequently given a certain amount of leeway with regards to using copyrighted material. They’re allowed to use copyrighted music during sermons without having to get a license. The Door Church likely thought they could get around normal copyright laws by tacking a sermon on the end of the show, which they could not.
[…] As if stealing an entire Broadway show were not grotesque enough, the Church’s production desecrated the show by changing several of the lyrics in order to make it about Christianity and adding an entire scene after the duel in which John Laurens dies, and right before “It’s Quiet Uptown” in which Alexander Hamilton accepts Jesus Christ as his personal savior.
[Video available at the link]
Yeah, this did not happen in the show and it did not happen in real life, either. Hamilton was really only nominally Episcopalian for most of his life and didn’t really get religion until old age. The first time he even received communion was on his deathbed, after the famous duel.
Many of the shows lyrics were also changed in order to be more “wholesome” …
[more video available at the link]
Or to be more preachy — for instance, a line from “That Would Be Enough” was altered to “But I’m not afraid, my hope is in Jesus. If you could just give him a chance today, that would be enough.” [more video available at the link]
Rude.
The show also concluded with a homophobic sermon that included the line “Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs — with homosexuality — maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, God can help you tonight. He wants to forgive you for your sins.” Somehow I just don’t think Lin-Manuel Miranda would approve of that.
This is just a tad ironic, not just because it is a Broadway musical, but also in light of the fact that there has been speculation for literal centuries that Hamilton and John Laurens were more than friends. It’s not part of the show, but there are some pretty romantic letters between the two.
In spite of Schuyler’s black eyes, I have still a part for the public and another for you; so your impatience to have me married is misplaced; a strange cure by the way, as if after matrimony I was to be less devoted than I am now. Let me tell you, that I intend to restore the empire of Hymen and that Cupid is to be his prime Minister. I wish you were at liberty to transgress the bounds of Pennsylvania. I would invite you after the fall to Albany to be witness to the final consummation. My Mistress is a good girl, and already loves you because I have told her you are a clever fellow and my friend; but mind, she loves you a l’americaine not a la françoise — Alexander Hamilton to John Laurens, 1779
As OnStage notes, this is not the first time the the Door Church has pulled this nonsense. Previously, they mounted a production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast that included a scene in which Belle introduces the Beast to Jesus. [more video available at the link]
Hemant Mehta at Only Sky collected several clips of the show, and the sad thing is, a lot of these kids are genuinely talented — the kid playing John Laurens/Philip Hamilton is especially good and sounds freakishly like Anthony Ramos (who originated the role in the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions). Credit where credit is due. [more video available at the link]
But the Bible says Thou Shalt Not Steal and Thou Shalt Not Lie and, more importantly, the US government says Thou Shalt Not Steal An Entire Broadway Show That Hath Not Been Licensed To Thee And Then Illegally Stream It For The Purposes Of Promoting One’s Homophobic Church, Because Copyright Laws Exist And Also Fuck You.
Neal Katyal, the former acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, is aware of the Republican pushback against the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago. On MSNBC today, the Supreme Court lawyer responded with a challenge to the former president:
“Donald Trump, you have a copy of the warrant. It explains what they were looking for, what statutes they think were violated, and what judge signed off on that. Release the warrant. You called on [Barack] Obama to release the birth certificate and all sorts of nonsense. If you believe this is such an abuse, let us see the warrant and let us decide for ourselves.”
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, pushed a similar line soon after. “Donald Trump has a copy of the search warrant,” the California congressman said via Twitter. “He’d show us the warrant if he were so wronged. Show it or shut it.”
To be sure, there are some Republicans pushing the FBI and the Justice Department to also release the warrant, which seems unlikely. Not only are there protocols in place to protect the rights of those facing federal law enforcement scrutiny, but such disclosures could conceivably interfere with an ongoing investigation. What’s more, there’s no reason to think the judge who signed off on the warrant would share such materials with the public.
But the FBI, the Justice Department and the judiciary aren’t the only ones with access to the search warrant. Trump and his lawyers have it, too.
[…] Trump’s allies and followers appear to be working from a certain assumption: Federal law enforcement, they’ve claimed, “raided” the home of a former president for illegitimate reasons as part of an outrageous abuse of power. Team Trump could very well bolster those assumptions by releasing the search warrant that was executed yesterday, shedding light on the investigation and its direction.
If the basis for the warrant were flimsy, disclosing it would prove Republicans right. If the rationale for the search lacked merit, releasing the warrant would help on this front, too.
[…] maybe Team Trump would prefer that the public not see the search warrant, creating uncertainty and allowing Republicans to push conspiracy theories without proof.
For a White House eager to show meaningful progress on bipartisan measures that will make a difference, there’s a growing list of credible success stories.
Some of President Joe Biden’s most notable accomplishments happened without any Republican support. The American Rescue Plan, for example, passed last year with zero GOP votes — though some Republicans were eager to take credit for it anyway — and the Inflation Reduction Act is similarly advancing along party lines.
But by any fair measure, the White House has also scored far more bipartisan wins than expected over the last year and a half. CNN’s Dana Bash asked Sen. Lindsey Graham over the weekend whether Biden deserves credit for trying to get legislation passed “in a bipartisan way.” The South Carolina Republican conceded, “Yes, he signed things that made sense.”
One of those things was signed into law this morning. CNBC reported:
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a bipartisan bill that aims to strengthen U.S. competitiveness with China by investing billions of dollars in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and science research…. The bill, dubbed the CHIPS and Science Act, includes more than $52 billion for U.S. companies producing computer chips, as well as billions more in tax credits to encourage investment in semiconductor manufacturing. It also provides tens of billions of dollars to fund scientific research and development, and to spur the innovation and development of other U.S. tech.
It is, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put it the other day, one of the largest investments in American manufacturing and science “in a generation.”
This is also the legislation that passed the Senate with 17 Republican votes and the House with 24 Republican votes, making it one of the more bipartisan measures of the current Congress.
[…] Last week there was a bipartisan Senate vote on strengthening NATO by approving the accession of Sweden and Finland, and that measure was approved with 95 votes out of 100.
Around the same time, there was bipartisan support for the PACT Act — a significant expansion of veterans’ benefits — which Biden will also sign into law this week.
That came on the heels of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the first major legislation to address gun violence in nearly three decades — which, as the name implies, also passed with some bipartisan backing.
[…] In March both parties agreed on an important Postal Service Reform Act, which Biden was only too pleased to sign into law. Before that, a bill on forced arbitration was also a worthwhile breakthrough, as was the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. The parties also reached an agreement on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, which was added to a larger spending package that passed.
What’s more, it was last fall when the president also signed into law a significant, bipartisan infrastructure package.
What’s more, there may yet be a couple more: Democratic leaders have vowed to hold votes on marriage equality and reforming the Electoral Count Act, and there’s decent odds that these bills might actually pass.
For a White House eager to show that Biden and Democratic leaders can make meaningful progress on bipartisan measures that will make a difference, there’s a growing list of credible success stories.
[…] TPM Reader TS isn’t terribly impressed with the GOP threats.
How full of sound and fury signifying nothing the Kevin McCarthy rant is. Obviously there will be nonstop faux fury investigations if the GOP takes the House and DOJ and everyone else knows this will happen no matter what they do or do not do. If there are actual ongoing legal investigations, DOJ will be able to refuse to answer many questions anyway. They will just sit there for Jim Jordan speeches. They know it, so not much of a new threat.
I agree. […]
Holding a criminal president to account is high stakes, unpredictable and necessary. I assume you knew that. In for a dime, in for a dollar. For my part, I knew it would be and I am content to watch the facts unfold in the knowledge that it is necessary for the well-being of the republic.
The Republican Accountability PAC feels the Georgia Republican candidate is unfit for office.
Apparently there are still a very few people who call themselves Republican, and think there is anything about the party worth saving. I see the reaction of assorted Republican “leaders” to the FBI search of Trump’s home and I choose to differ. All the same, I wish RAPAC the best of luck in tearing down the worst of the worst.
The Republican/fascist/militia outrage over the FBI obtaining a search warrant to go hunt for documents at Trump’s for-profit Florida home is still going strong, with Trump’s bottom-rung supporters suggesting it’s time to start shooting people, seditionist Florida Republican lawmakers suggesting mass arrests of FBI agents, and American fascists demanding that Republicans start doing a fascism right now rather than abide it.
Charlie Kirk says “raids must be met with raids” and calls on Republican attorneys general to raid BLM, Planned Parenthood, and George Soros: “Get a little creative Republican attorney generals, they just raided Donald Trump’s home”
he FBI got a federal warrant to hunt for documents by getting a judge to agree that there was likely criminality afoot, then showed it to the Secret Service agents guarding Trump’s house, were allowed to enter, and then took the documents they came for. Oh, they apparently “broke” open a “hotel”-style safe, which might be a euphemism for “shimmied it open with a credit card”—of course Trump would rely on a “hotel”-style safe. Of course he would.
But there’s nothing about the search that appears to have been unusual except that it was directed, for the first time in history, at a former U.S. president. Which is unusual, to be sure, but we’ve also never had a previous circumstance in which federal authorities saw, with their own eyes, that a former president had taken classified documents to his for-profit golf club, and multiple government agencies’ attempts to get them back were never before rebuffed by a rich dude with plenty of money for lawyers but half the common sense God gave to a Florida mosquito. “Unusual” doesn’t begin to cover that.
The FBI has a long history of not commenting on ongoing criminal investigations—unless they involve Hillary Clinton and it’s almost election day—so we’re not likely to get an explanation of what agents were looking for from anyone in government. This also has Republicans steaming mad, and they quickly piped up with demands that the FBI break that confidentiality and explain which of Donald Trump’s many, many, many suspected crimes the search warrant was targeting. They want to see the justification for the warrant, and they want it now.
[…] Pence and other Republicans aren’t likely to get their wish. We all know how this game is played, and if a Department of Justice spokesman strolled out and said, “And here are the specific crimes we believe Donald Trump committed and our evidence for them,” then Mike Pence and Sen. Lindsey Graham and a great deal of other top-tier Trump sycophants would be howling in outrage at a government agency improperly announcing an investigation.
But there’s one person who could clear this up in about ten minutes, and that person is Donald Trump. The FBI won’t be releasing information about what they were looking for, but the warrant served to Donald Trump has, written on it, a list of the particular federal laws a judge agreed were probably broken. Investigators had to convince the judge that evidence of a specific crime would almost certainly be found in Donald Trump’s house, and if Donald Trump wants to tell us what particular crimes those were, he can do that right now.
Well? We’re waiting.
What’s odd is that Donald Trump has an extremely big mouth, as we all know too well, and has never been able to keep quiet about government investigations into any of his various suspected crimes. His silence (so far) here is deafening. He doesn’t want to say what laws the FBI convinced a federal judge he broke.
[…] It’s fully possible that Trump, a malignant narcissist whose arrogance is uncontrollable, sincerely believed he could bluff or ignore his way through a federal investigation of stolen classified documents being delivered to his home and wedding-hosting venue. It’s very possible Trump told his lawyers that he was going to keep those documents, for lets-say-unknowable future use, and instructed them to stonewall investigators. It’s quite possible he never believed the whole federal government, multiple portions of which are still controlled by his own appointees, would dare lift a finger to enforce laws against the likes of him.
And it’s possible he bet wrong, and that no matter how cautious federal and state investigators are being in probes of his at-this-point countless other crimes, the government believed there was something in his possession that required raiding his house over rather than just letting go. Something that he absolutely should not be using as a bragging-rights placemat during lavish dinners with international guests. […]
Texts spreading misinformation don’t run afoul of law, officials say
The (Washington Post) traced the unsolicited text messages to a political tech firm called Alliance Forge and identified Huelskamp’s Do Right PAC as the client behind the campaign.
Zelensky: The war must end with the liberation of Crimea.
In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Russian war against Ukraine began with the occupation of Crimea and must end with its liberation.
“Russia has turned our peninsula, which has always been and will be one of the best places in Europe, into one of the most dangerous places in Europe. Russia brought large-scale repression, environmental problems, economic hopelessness and war to Crimea.”
Zelensky added that “it is impossible to say” when the liberation will happen, but Ukraine is constantly “adding the necessary components to the formula of liberation of Crimea.”
[…]
Mario Fiorentini, Italy’s most decorated resistance fighter against fascist and Nazi forces during the second world war, has died in a Rome hospital aged 103.
[…]
In one battle, [the group of partisans he commanded] emerged victorious against three German battalions. Fiorentini became legendary among partisans for having escaped from Nazi-run jails four times. In December 1943, he lobbed a hand bomb at a Nazi truck near a Rome jail where the inmates inclued two future Italian presidents, Giuseppe Saragat and Sandro Pertini.
“The purpose was obviously to attack the Nazis but also to let the two imprisoned anti-fascists feel that the resistance in Rome was still strong and active,” said the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera of that bold exploit.
Fiorentini escaped on his bicycle, dodging bullets the Germans fired from the windows of the jail […]
After the war, Fiorentini turned down an opportunity to run for parliament and instead pursued a mathematics degree. He later taught at universities in Italy, Canada and the US.
In 2018, he co-wrote a book about maths and mathematical curiosities for young readers, Zero One Infinity / Entertainment for the Mind.
[…]
Grazie, signor Fiorentini!
ravensays
The future is here and it is as grim as we expected.
The post Roe versus Wade future.
A mother and her daughter are being charged with felonies for a 24 week abortion using DIY drugs in Nebraska.
If you read this article, both the mother and daughter are clueless about how to deal with law enforcement.
Nebraska woman charged with helping daughter have an abortion
by JOSH FUNK | Associated PressTuesday, August 9th 2022
OMAHA (AP) — A Nebraska woman has been charged with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy at about 24 weeks after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.
In one of the Facebook messages, Jessica Burgess, 41, tells her then 17-year-old daughter that she has obtained abortion pills for her and gives her instructions on how to take them to end the pregnancy.
The daughter, meanwhile, “talks about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body,” a detective wrote in court documents. “I will finally be able to wear jeans,” she says in one of the messages. Law enforcement authorities obtained the messages with a search warrant, and detailed some of them in court documents.
In early June, the mother and daughter were only charged with a single felony for removing, concealing or abandoning a body, and two misdemeanors: concealing the death of another person and false reporting. It wasn’t until about a month later, after investigators reviewed the private Facebook messages, that they added the felony abortion-related charges against the mother. The daughter, who is now 18, is being charged as an adult at prosecutors’ request.
When first interviewed, the two told investigators that the teen had unexpectedly given birth to a stillborn baby in the shower in the early morning hours of April 22. They said they put the fetus in a bag, placed it in a box in the back of their van, and later drove several miles north of town, where they buried the body with the help of a 22-year-old man.
The man, whom The Associated Press is not identifying because he has only been charged with a misdemeanor, has pleaded no contest to helping bury the fetus on rural land his parents own north of Norfolk in northeast Nebraska. He’s set to be sentenced later this month.
In court documents, the detective said the fetus showed signs of “thermal wounds” and that the man told investigators the mother and daughter did burn it. He also wrote that the daughter confirmed in the Facebook exchange with her mother that the two would “burn the evidence afterward.” Based on medical records, the fetus was more than 23 weeks old, the detective wrote.
Burgess later admitted to investigators to buying the abortion pills “for the purpose of instigating a miscarriage.”
At first, both mother and daughter said they didn’t remember the date when the stillbirth happened, but according to the detective, the daughter later confirmed the date by consulting her Facebook messages. After that he sought the warrant, he said.
Madison County Attorney Joseph Smith told the Lincoln Journal Star that he’s never filed charges like this related to performing an abortion illegally in his 32 years as the county prosecutor. He didn’t immediately respond to a message from the AP on Tuesday.
The group National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which supports abortion rights, found 1,331 arrests or detentions of women for crimes related to their pregnancy from 2006 to 2020.
In addition to its current 20-week abortion ban, Nebraska tried — but failed — earlier this year to pass a so-called trigger law that would have banned all abortions when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
A Facebook spokesman declined to talk about the details of this case, but the company has said that officials at the social media giant “always scrutinize every government request we receive to make sure it is legally valid.”
Facebook says it will fight back against requests that it thinks are invalid or too broad, but the company said it gave investigators information in about 88% of the 59,996 times when the government requested data in the second half of last year.
ravensays
There is a lot to unpack in that article which is a roadmap for our future.
…after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.
They discussed this on Facebook.
That right there is a huge mistake. These days your computers, social media, and phones are known as…evidence.
A Facebook spokesman declined to talk about the details of this case, but the company has said that officials at the social media giant “always scrutinize every government request we receive to make sure it is legally valid.”
Facebook is flat out lying here.
They turn over requests from law enforcement on automatic pilot.
Facebook says it will fight back against requests that it thinks are invalid or too broad, but the company said it gave investigators information in about 88% of the 59,996 times when the government requested data in the second half of last year.
Facebook even says it is lying.
They turn over anything the government asks for almost all the time.
The group National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which supports abortion rights, found 1,331 arrests or detentions of women for crimes related to their pregnancy from 2006 to 2020.
Cases like this are not uncommon.
There are well over a thousand in the last 14 years.
There will be orders of magnitude more in the coming years.
ravensays
This article doesn’t have all the details so it is hard to say what actually happened to get the cops on them. Just guessing, someone ratted them out to the cops and DA.
They seem to be clueless about how to deal with law enforcement though. This is not surprising since most people aren’t criminals and don’t intend to become criminals.
Burgess later admitted to investigators to buying the abortion pills “for the purpose of instigating a miscarriage.”
Mom said this to the cops without a lawyer present?
It is almost impossible to trace abortion pills to someone. They are sent through the mail without return addresses, often from Europe. That is the whole point of DIY.
At first, both mother and daughter said they didn’t remember the date when the stillbirth happened, but according to the detective, the daughter later confirmed the date by consulting her Facebook messages. After that he sought the warrant, he said.
The cops didn’t know about Facebook until daughter told them. She also confirmed that it was after the Nebraska 20 week window. She didn’t have to do that. The Fifth amendment is still the law.
This is what criminalizing abortion does.
It makes abortion seekers into criminals.
The smart, careful, and lucky criminals will never be caught and charged.
The not so bright, careless, and unlucky criminals will be the ones you see in the newspapers and internet.
The group National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which supports abortion rights, found 1,331 arrests or detentions of women for crimes related to their pregnancy from 2006 to 2020.
I’ve looked at some of these women arrested and/or convicted for pregnancy related crimes such as fetacide or child abuse of a fetus.
They fit the profile I outlined above.
They tend to be young, nonwhite, poor, and often cognitively challenged. Sometimes just not the brightest bulb on the tree and/or often addicted to drugs and alcohol which are mind fogging substances.
F.B.I. agents swarming over Donald J. Trump’s Florida estate reported that they have so far been unable to locate the health-care plan that he had promised to deliver while President.
“Trump said that the plan was terrific and beautiful and far better than Obamacare,” Harland Dorrinson, the lead F.B.I. agent searching the estate, said. “If we could get our hands on it, that would be a game changer for our country.”
Agents cracked open the former President’s safe but were frustrated in their attempts to find any documents with the words “health” or “care” in them.
“It’s got to be around here somewhere,” one F.B.I. agent said.
As of late Monday night, a Bureau spokesman indicated that the agents had also been unable to find a prescription-drug plan, an infrastructure plan, or the framework for a peace treaty with North Korea.
Wonkette: “After Trump’s FBI Raid Republicans Go All F**k Tha Police.”
The FBI executed a legal search Monday on Donald Trump’s tacky Florida McMansion. He wasn’t shot in his sleep or anything, but nonetheless Republicans are insisting this is the most disgusting, atrocious thing to ever happen in America. Donald Trump is now Republicans’ George Floyd, except for how he’s still alive.
Look, the MAGA faithful even gathered at Trump’s residence for a White Assholes Matter rally. Guys, he’s OK. [tweet and video at the link]
Shortly after Trump whined about the FBI’s search, the Republican House Judiciary account tweeted with zero self awareness: “If they can do it to a former President, imagine what they can do to you.” Forced-birth activist Abby Johnson shared a similar sentiment: “If the FBI can go after a President, they can come after any of us.” That’s the whole point of a liberal democracy. The law treats everyone equally, regardless of status.
In a just society, a wealthy, powerful person would see the police brutalizing someone on the street and think, “If they could do that to any human being, they could do that to me.” Instead, most American rightwingers take comfort in a class hierarchy where law enforcement oppresses the marginalized and lets the powerful do whatever the hell they want. That’s their selective definition of freedom.
Composer Frank Wilhoit wrote that “conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” This explains how rightwingers view “criminals” in general. They aren’t simply people who break the law (why, that could be anyone, even them!). Instead, they’re an entirely separate class, usually not white but almost always poor. They aren’t fully citizens and don’t deserve constitutional protections.
As recently as last week, Trump was still on his authoritarian “law and order” kick. He’s proposed executing drug dealers. He’s supported Russia’s imprisonment of Black lesbian WNBA star Brittney Griner on BS drug charges. His fellow Republicans insist that America’s cities are on fire because “woke” prosecutors aren’t locking up criminal suspects indefinitely without bail. Oh, and Trump wanted the military to shoot peaceful protesters.
But MAGA considers the law a weapon, not a principle. It’s a blunt instrument to wield against enemies and perceived inferiors. They can’t cope with even the mildest shock to the system.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene predictably transitioned from “back the blue” to “all cops are bastards.” She tweeted yesterday, “DEFUND THE FBI” […]
[…] Cops have shot Black people in broad fucking daylight, and Republicans cautioned against rushing to conclusions. That was unfair to the police officers, whose hands still had powder burns. Now, Trump’s cultists are quick to assume malicious intent and prosecutorial misconduct when their leader is held accountable.
Tuesday morning, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin tweet-lied: “A stunning move by the DOJ and FBI. This same DOJ labeled parents in Loudoun County as terrorists and failed to enforce federal law to protect Justices in their homes. Selective, politically motivated actions have no place in our democracy.”
None of this is true, but it fosters the fascist persecution complex. Last fall, the Department of Justice received more than “20 instances of threats, harassment, disruption, and acts of intimidation that have transpired during school board meetings and that are targeted at school officials.” The DOJ was asked to “investigate, intercept, and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against public school officials.” Attorney General Merrick Garland can’t turn a blind eye to overtly criminal behavior just because it helped Republicans win big in Virginia.
We shouldn’t expect that any Republican politician or voter will somehow soften their overall “tough on crime” stances. “Law and order” isn’t about “justice.” It’s about keeping everyone in what they believe is their “proper” place.
ravensays
HuffPost
Facebook Gave Cops Data To Prosecute Nebraska Teenager Who Allegedly Had An Abortion
Ryan Grenoble
Tue, August 9, 2022 at 2:45 PM
A Nebraska teenager and her mother are facing a handful of felonies after state officials alleged the girl self-managed an abortion, but told police she’d miscarried after 28 weeks.
Prosecutors are resting much of their case on Facebook messages exchanged between the 18-year-old and her mother, which they say shows the two discussing the proper method for the daughter to take medicine that would terminate her pregnancy.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, turned the data over in June in response to a search warrant seeking the daughter and mother’s information, including their private messages and their internet search history.
Messages between the two, released in court documents obtained by Motherboard, show them discussing plans, including how they intended to dispose of the fetus afterward by burning and burying it.
Daughter: “Are we starting it today”
Mother: “We can if u want the one will stop the hormones”
Daughter: “Ok”
Mother: “Ya the 1 pill stops the hormones an rehn [sic] u gotta wait 24 HR 2 take the other”
Daughter: “Ok”
Daughter: “Remember we burn the evidence”
Abortion in Nebraska is illegal if the fetus is more than 20 weeks post-fertilization, with limited exceptions in the case of life endangerment. (Nebraska did not have a trigger law in place, like several other states, to outlaw abortion entirely if Roe v. Wade fell.)
According to the court documents, police in Norfolk obtained the teen’s medical records as a result of a tip in late April that she had miscarried.
When officers interviewed the girl and her mother three days after the miscarriage, they told a detective she’d had a stillbirth and voluntarily showed the officer where they’d buried the fetus.
At that time, the detective says he noticed the teen, who was 17 at the time, had used Facebook Messenger to communicate with her mother the night of the stillbirth. Having seen the app on her phone, he decided to serve Meta/Facebook with a search warrant for information from both their accounts.
Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The daughter and mother each face one felony charge of removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body, and two misdemeanors: concealing the death of another person, and false reporting.
The teenager also has been charged with two additional felonies: performing or attempting to perform an abortion at more than 20 weeks, and performing an abortion as a non-licensed doctor.
Medication abortion is a safe and effective way to terminate pregnancy. Planned Parenthood says abortion pills are used to terminate pregnancy at 11 weeks or earlier, after which an in-clinic procedure is recommended.
Even before Roe fell, most states in the U.S. restricted abortion after fetal viability, which is generally considered to be about 24 weeks. In 2019, less than 1% of abortions were performed after 21 weeks, CDC data shows.
Self-managing an abortion is not illegal in the U.S. Only Nevada, South Carolina and Oklahoma have laws on the books criminalizing people for self-managing abortions, but legal experts caution that it’s unclear if those laws would even stand up in court if challenged today.
More on the Nebraska mother and teenager charged with felonies after a DIY abortion.
“According to the court documents, police in Norfolk obtained the teen’s medical records as a result of a tip in late April that she had miscarried.” Someone ratted her out.
It is not clear from this article who.
It could have been her medical care providers, doctors, nurses etc.. She was apparently under medical care and had medical care records.
What is clear is what we already know. HIPAA is useless against any sort of law enforcement.
And yeah, Facebook turned over her records from her and her mother’s account on automatic pilot.
ravensays
Most People Criminalized for Inducing Abortion Are Turned in by Doctors, Not Internet Activity
“The biggest threat to the privacy of abortion seekers is other people,” a researcher at If/When/How told Jezebel.
By Kylie Cheung excerpt
Yet, on top of news from Nebraska, a new report shared with Jezebel by the legal advocacy organization If/When/How found that, in the majority of cases in which pregnant people faced criminal charges for self-managed abortion in the past two decades, they were reported to law enforcement following in-person interactions—by doctors and acquaintances.
Between 2000 and 2020, among 61 cases of individuals self-managing abortion or helping someone self-manage an abortion that “came to the attention of law enforcement,” most were reported to police by care professionals and acquaintances: 39% of cases were reported by health care providers and 6% by social workers, while 26% were reported to police by acquaintances the pregnant person had shared information with, including friends, parents, and intimate partners. Even prior to Roe being overturned, bounty hunter-style abortion bans in Texas, Idaho, and Oklahoma were a boon to abusers, who could stalk their victims and profit off their abortions. If/When/How found that 20% of cases also came to the attention of police through other means, including police recovery of fetal remains and anonymous tips to police.
I’ve been saying this for a while on multiple forums.
Mostly, I get abuse from people who can’t believe their doctor would turn them in to the cops and vague magic spells using the word HIPAA.
Hopefully, your doctor won’t turn you into the cops. Not everyone is so lucky or even have a primary care provider. For many their contact is going to be the ER.
The fact is, some doctors including a few OB-GYNs and more of the other medical personnel are fundie xians/Catholics/ and so called pro lifers. They will turn you into the police in a heartbeat, not even just for a DIY abortion but for miscarriages and stillbirths.
Steve Benen noted that some candidates endorsed by Trump won last night. though there were also some noted Democratic Party wins.:
* In Wisconsin’s Republican gubernatorial primary, much of the party establishment rallied behind former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, but she ended up losing to businessman Tim Michels, who had Donald Trump’s backing, and who said he’s open to decertifying the state’s 2020 election results.
* On a related note, in Connecticut’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, much of the party establishment rallied behind former state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, a relative moderate. She lost by 10 points to Republican National Committee member Leora Levy, who was endorsed by Trump.
* In Minnesota’s congressional special election, Republican Brad Finstad fended off Democrat Jeff Ettinger, but given the district’s partisan leanings, the race was much more competitive than expected. The New York Times’ Nate Cohn added, “The signs of a Democratic rebound post-Dobbs are starting to pile up.”
* Also in the Great Lakes State, Rep. Ilhan Omar defeated former Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels in a Democratic primary, but the contest proved to be much closer than anyone predicted: The incumbent only won by two points. [As PZ noted this morning.]
* Trump went all out in the hopes of defeating Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos — the former president has blamed the legislator for not helping him steal the 2020 race — but the incumbent managed to win his GOP primary yesterday anyway. [Good news, as good as news gets on the Republican side anyway.]
* In Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock has pressed Herschel Walker to agree to a series of debates, though the Republican has been reluctant to accept the invitations. The Daily Beast reports that the former football player is now willing to participate in an event that provides him with the topics in advance.
* And in Vermont, Becca Balint, the state Senate’s president pro tempore, easily defeated Lt. Gov. Molly Gray in the Democratic U.S. House primary. She’s now the clear favorite to succeed Rep. Peter Welch, who won a U.S. Senate primary yesterday. Balint will likely become the first woman to ever represent the Green Mountain State in Congress.
[…] we’re left with an awkward dynamic:
– Team Trump says the FBI’s search was illegitimate and politically motivated.
– Team Trump knows the search warrant could help prove (or disprove) their claims.
– Team Trump doesn’t want to disclose the search warrant.
Remember, Republicans have spent the last couple of days working from a certain assumption: Federal law enforcement, they’ve claimed, “raided” the home of a former president as part of an outrageous abuse of power. Team Trump could theoretically bolster those assumptions by releasing the search warrant that was executed, shedding light on the investigation and its direction.
If the basis for the warrant were flimsy, disclosing it would prove Republicans right. If the rationale for the search lacked merit, releasing the warrant would help on this front, too.
It was against this backdrop that observers from the left and the right encouraged Team Trump to simply make the voluntary disclosure, bringing key facts into the light.
All of which led to, “No, we’re not releasing a copy of the warrant.”
It’s the sort of thing that should, at least in theory, give Republicans scrambling to defend the former president pause.
The more Team Trump floats ideas about the FBI “planting” evidence, the easier it is to believe there was incriminating evidence at Mar-a-Lago.
For those outside the investigation, there’s no shortage of questions about the FBI executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago this week. We don’t yet know what the agents were looking for, what they found, or what they might’ve taken away. [Most reports say they were looking for classified documents Trump took when he left the White House.]
But over the last 24 hours, some Republicans — none of whom appear to have any actual information upon which to base outlandish allegations — have raised the prospect of something altogether more sinister.
A Fox News host named Jesse Watters, for example, told his viewers, “What the FBI is probably doing is planting evidence.”
[…] former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said something similar during an on-air appearance yesterday.
[…] Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene added, “I think there is an extremely high probability that the FBI planted ‘evidence’ against President Trump.”
[…] two of Trump’s own attorneys — Christina Bobb and Alina Habba — both made conservative media appearances yesterday and also floated the possibility of the FBI planting evidence.
[…] as The Washington Post noted this morning, their client dipped his toes in the same waters this morning.
[…] Trump raised the possibility Wednesday that FBI agents could have planted evidence while searching his residence earlier this week at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla. […] Trump added, “Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting.’”
[…] there’s literally no reason whatsoever to suspect the FBI agents themselves of criminal misconduct.
[…] Not to put too fine a point on this, but the more Trump and his acolytes float ideas like these, the easier it is to believe there was incriminating evidence at Mar-a-Lago.
Update: Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who’s long been a fan of assorted conspiracy theories, also argued this morning that FBI agents could have secretly added incriminating information to the materials taken from Mar-a-Lago.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukraine claims to have destroyed nine Russian planes following Crimea airport explosions
Without claiming explicit responsibility for an attack on a Russian airfield in Crimea on Tuesday, Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces said on Wednesday that it had destroyed nine Russian planes within the last 24 hours. It did not specify the locations. The claim follows widely reported explosions at Russia’s Saki air base.
Crimea’s regional leader, Sergei Aksyonov, said some 250 residents were moved to temporary housing after dozens of apartment buildings were damaged, but Russian authorities have generally sought to downplay the explosions. Unverified social media footage purports to show damage to planes on the ground at the airport.
Ukraine has not directly taken credit for the strike, but few seem to give much credence to a Russian explanation that it was an accidental explosion. In its daily update, Ukraine’s army increased the number of planes it had claimed to have destroyed to 232 from 223.
[Graphic at the link. This is the pinned post at the top of the page.]
The Associated Press has spoken with Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov about the explosions. He said President Vladimir Putin has long insisted Crimea is Russian and warned that any attempts to take it back would trigger massive retaliation. He claimed Moscow’s apparent swallowing of the strike showed Putin’s weakness.
“He’s expected to protect Crimea as Russia proper. Now he’s afraid to recognise that it was done by the Ukrainian armed forces,” he added.
Russian warplanes have used Saki to strike at areas in Ukraine’s south.
“Official Kyiv has kept mum about it, but unofficially the military acknowledges that it was a Ukrainian strike,” Zhdanov said.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said it couldn’t independently assess what caused the explosions, but noted that simultaneous explosions in two places at the base likely ruled out an accidental fire – but not the possibility of sabotage or a missile attack.
But, it added: “The Kremlin has little incentive to accuse Ukraine of conducting strikes that caused the damage since such strikes would demonstrate the ineffectiveness of Russian air defence systems.”
It’s not every day when FBI agents approach a sitting member of Congress as part of an apparent law enforcement operation. It’s even more unusual when those FBI agents go so far as to take the lawmaker’s phone.
With this in mind, the fact that this appears to have happened to a key Pennsylvania Republican is a rather extraordinary development. NBC News reported:
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said Tuesday night that the FBI seized his cellphone earlier in the day, less than 24 hours after federal agents searched former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida. “This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” Perry said in a statement.
[…] all we have to go on in this story is Perry’s word. Federal officials have not confirmed any of this, and I haven’t seen independent verification of the GOP congressman’s version of events.
[…] the important thing to remember is that this congressman is not just a random figure on Capitol Hill.
[…] it was late last year when the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack announced that it wanted to hear answers from a specific Republican lawmaker: Perry. He wasted little time in announcing that he would refuse to assist in the investigation.
It was at that point that many Americans probably asked, “Who?” […] Perry likely couldn’t be picked out of a lineup by much of the public.
But as new information comes to light about GOP efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Perry’s name keeps coming up.
During a Jan. 6 committee hearing last month, for example, we learned of a Dec. 21, 2020, White House meeting focused on the Republican scheme to overturn the last presidential election. Among the participants was Scott Perry.
A month earlier, we learned at a different Jan. 6 hearing about GOP lawmakers who allegedly sought pardons from Trump before he left office. Among them was Scott Perry.
Around the same time, we saw testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who said under oath that Trump discussed ideas with allies about going to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Among those the then-president talked to about this was Scott Perry.
A month before that, we learned of allegations that then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows literally set fire to papers in his office after a meeting with a congressional Republican. The lawmaker was Scott Perry.
When CNN obtained thousands of text messages Meadows received from Republican allies in the runup to Jan. 6, they showed one House member who pushed unusually bonkers conspiracy theories about votes being changed by “Italian satellites.” The member was Scott Perry.
In fact, just weeks after the Jan. 6 attack, we learned how Trump came to be in contact with anti-election lawyers such as Jeffrey Clark, who was a relatively obscure Justice Department official at the time. It turns out, a House Republican helped put Clark on the then-president’s radar. The Republican was Scott Perry.
And yesterday, it was this same GOP congressman whose phone was taken by the FBI.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
Trump says he invoked fifth amendment in New York investigation
In a lengthy statement, Donald Trump has announced he refused to answer questions during a deposition today as part of New York attorney general Letitia James’s investigation into his real estate dealings….
Justice department says Iran Revolutionary Guard member plotted to murder John Bolton
The justice department has announced charges against a Tehran-based member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for attempting to hire someone in the United States to kill John Bolton, a national security adviser under Donald Trump.
According the department, 45-year-old Shahram Poursafi last year promised an unnamed person in the United States $300,000 to kill Bolton, probably as retaliation for Washington’s assassination of Qassem Suleimani in January 2020. The goal was apparently to have Bolton killed by the 3 January anniversary of Suleimani’s death in Baghdad, but the person Poursafi allegedly hired for the job was actually a confidential informant.
While Bolton had left the White House by the time of Suleimani’s death, he is a known Iran hawk who has called for bombing the country.
Poursafi remains at large, according to the justice department.
No matter how he does it, a judge in Georgia yesterday ordered Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani to appear in person [on August 17th] before an Atlanta special grand jury looking into attempts to tamper with the state’s election results in 2020….
[…] a man accused of plowing into a group of peaceful pro-abortion protesters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been arrested.
David Huston, 53, was charged Tuesday with assault, using a deadly weapon, and leaving the scene. Witnesses say Huston drove his truck into the group of protesters marching together just after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade in June.
Video posted to social media shows a dark-colored pickup truck driving into the group as they cross a street, hitting someone, and then pulling off.
[…] Brian Williams, a Black Hawk County prosecutor, said in a statement that Huston drove his pickup truck “aggressively” into the protestors, but there was “no evidence known to us that this was in any way politically motivated.”
Williams added:
“Huston had a green light [and] he appears to aggressively approach with his vehicle while the protestors remained on foot … Other vehicles in the area appear to simply wait for the protestors,” the press release reads. “There is no evidence known to us that this was in any way politically motivated nor is there any evidence that the protestors were aggressive in any way towards any members of the public.” [video at the link]
Witnesses to the event say Huston actually drove his truck around other cars to speed through the crosswalk directly at them.
“We made eye contact at that point, and I saw hate. Just hate,” one protester who was hit told HuffPost. “He screamed at me to move, and I remember shouting ‘No,’ and he started driving. And that’s when I knew I was going to get run over.”
Huston’s license plate was identified at the scene, The Gazette reports, and he was voluntarily interviewed. However, police did not press charges at that time.
The woman whose foot Huston ran over gave an interview at the time of the crash. She says he “charged the crowd” with his truck. [video at the link]
Another witness, Linn County Supervisor Stacy Walker, told The Gazette, “As I crossed the street, I heard a commotion … I turned back to see a truck driving into the crowd with at least two young women—one of whom is a Linn County staffer—directly in front of the vehicle, and another woman appeared to be engaged with the vehicle near the driver’s side.”
Walker added that he believed the truck was not going to stop. “The driver accelerated and injured several young women in the process,” Walker said. “Thankfully, the women in front of the vehicle were not run over.”
The conservative campaign against LGBTQ+ rights has found a new fixation for its hatred: monkeypox. On TV, rightwing commentators openly mock monkeypox victims – the vast majority of whom are men who have sex with men – and blame them for getting the disease. On social media, rightwing users trade memes about how the “cure” to monkeypox is straight marriage while casting doubt on monkeypox vaccines’ efficacy.
This aggressive stigmatization of monkeypox – reminiscent of the homophobic response to HIV/Aids in the 1980s – poses a serious challenge to public health advocates and community leaders trying to have honest conversations about the disease with the gay and bisexual men who are most at risk during the current outbreak. Should public messaging highlight the fact that monkeypox is primarily affecting men who have sex with men? And should public health bodies urge gay men to change their sexual practices?…
[…] Here’s NBC reporter Ben Collins Monday night on MSNBC: [video at the link, followed by tweets from many. The video is good. "This is the worst I've ever seen it." Details of threats of violence are provided. "Lock and load." "They're planning."]
Once again, I suspect some people will downplay the threat. What can the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers or other more shadowy groups do in actual confrontation with the might of law enforcement enhanced with federal handouts of surplus armored vehicles and weaponry, not to mention the U.S. military itself? But critics who believe such rightwing violence is chimeric—just a product of armchair insurrectionists with a dozen gun magazine subscriptions—should instead view the situation through the lens of asymmetric warfare. Not Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia but rather the guerrillas (and bandits) of William Quantrill’s Raiders.
I wrote in agreement with Neiwert in June 2007:
In other words, it can happen here. […] I’ve seen a bit of rightwing violence up close in my time – an abortion clinic firebombed, serial death-threats from a group that had already assassinated a talk-radio host, a pipe-bomb that fizzled under a colleague’s car. The hatred that led Tim McVeigh or Eric Rudolph to commit their murderous acts is still with us, indeed, deeply embedded, and spouted by the likes of Ann Coulter, Hal Turner and others of their ilk from their high-wattage podiums. We ignore this hatred and its fascistic purveyors at our peril.
Surely, that last sentence matters even more true today. […]
Researchers have begun tracking a newly identified virus in China, with dozens of cases recorded so far.
The novel Langya henipavirus (LayV) was first detected in the north-eastern provinces of Shandong and Henan in late 2018 but was only formally identified by scientists last week.
The virus was likely transmitted from animals to humans, scientists said, and Taiwan’s health authority is now monitoring the spread. The researchers tested wild animals and found LayV viral RNA in more than a quarter of 262 shrews, “a finding that suggests that the shrew may be a natural reservoir”. The virus was also detected in 2% of domestic goats and 5% of dogs.
Initial investigations into the virus were outlined in correspondence published by scientists from China, Singapore and Australia in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) last week.
In people, the virus caused symptoms including fever, fatigue, cough, loss of appetite and muscle aches. All of the people infected had a fever, the scientists said. The virus was the only potential pathogen found in 26 of the 35 people, suggesting that “LayV was the cause of febrile illness”.
There have been no deaths from LayV to date. Prof Wang Linfa of the Duke-NUS Medical School, a co-author of the NEJM paper, told the state-run Global Times that the LayV cases had “not been fatal or very serious” so far and that there was “no need for panic”.
It was still unclear whether the virus can be transmitted between people, researchers said. Most of the 35 cases were in farmers, and other infected individuals included factory workers. “Contact tracing of nine patients with 15 close-contact family members revealed no close-contact LayV transmission, but our sample size was too small to determine the status of human-to-human transmission,” the researchers found.
Scientists sequenced the LayV genome and determined it was a henipavirus, a category of zoonotic RNA viruses that also includes Hendra virus and Nipah virus. Hendra virus – which affects horses and humans and originated in Australia – and Nipah virus – which has caused disease outbreaks in south-east Asia – have both been associated with high fatality rates.
…
Infectious diseases experts have long warned that the climate crisis and the destruction of nature will increase the risk of viruses being transmitted from animals to humans, in events known as “zoonotic spillovers”.
Finland’s parliament website was temporarily down on Tuesday following a cyberattack that coincided with President Biden’s move to admit the Nordic country to NATO.
The Finnish parliament said in a statement on Twitter that a denial-of-service attack hit the parliament’s external websites at around 2:30 p.m. local time.
“The Parliament takes steps to limit the attack together with service providers and the Cybersecurity Center,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, the parliament announced on Twitter that the website returned to normal on Tuesday night.
The attack against the parliament occurred the same day Biden signed a measure backing Finland and Sweden’s admittance into NATO.
Biden’s signature makes the U.S. the 23rd NATO country out of 30 members to approve the two Nordic countries’ admission to the alliance.
Biden called the move a “watershed moment” for the transatlantic alliance, adding that the decision to incorporate Finland and Sweden into NATO is “for the greater security stability…of the world.”
“At a moment when Putin’s Russia has shattered peace and security in Europe, when autocrats are challenging the very foundations of a rule-based order, the strength of a transatlantic alliance and America’s commitment to NATO is more important than it’s ever been,” Biden said on Tuesday at an event attended by the ambassadors of Finland and Sweden. […]
The foreign ministers of the Group of 7 (G-7) countries on Wednesday warned that the Russian military occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant raised the risk of a dangerous nuclear accident.
The statement came after damage to the facility drew condemnation from international atomic officials.
In a joint statement, the G-7 foreign ministers demanded Russia hand back full control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, located in the southeast of the country along the Dnieper River, while also demanding Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Shelling near the nuclear power plant in recent days damaged some of the facilities and injured a security guard, according to Ukrainian officials. […]
The G-7 foreign ministers said Russia’s occupation of the nuclear plant endangers the region.
“We remain profoundly concerned by the serious threat that the seizure of Ukrainian nuclear facilities and other actions by Russian armed forces pose to the safety and security of these facilities, significantly raising the risk of a nuclear accident or incident and endangering the population of Ukraine, neighboring states and the international community,” the G-7 foreign ministers, representing, the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union, wrote.
Ukrainian forces raised alarm on Saturday that alleged Russian shelling injured a Ukrainian security guard at the plant and damaged a dry spent fuel storage facility, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that available radiation measurements continued to show normal levels.
Previous shelling had damaged the plant’s external power supply system.
The G-7 foreign ministers further said that Russia’s occupation of the plant “undermines the IAEA’s ability to monitor Ukraine’s peaceful nuclear activities for safeguarding purposes.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres had earlier said that “any attack to nuclear plants is … suicidal.” […]
Unfortunately, I think that some Russian generals have made statements indicating that suicide for the motherland is a good idea, and/or something along the lines of “If we can’t have it, then nobody can have it.” And other threats were made, as if Russia wanted to leverage the threat of a Nuclear disaster to come out on top in peace negotiations. Looks psychopathic to me.
Wonkette: “Rick Scott Pretty Sure Nazi Gestapo Army Raided Innocent Angel Trump’s Home”
So, as we keep having to mention, the FBI executed a legal search Monday on Donald Trump’s Florida residence. A federal judge approved the warrant, and Trump, who wasn’t present for the search, is still free and alive. We’re sure this is a permanently scarring event for an entitled overgrown infant, but it’s not the work of a “banana republic.” It’s damn well not the Holocaust.
Florida’s other crappy Republican senator, Rick Scott, declared, “This should scare the livin’ daylights out of American citizens. The way our federal government has gone, it’s like what we have thought about the Gestapo and people like that.”
Maybe Scott genuinely believes the Gestapo simply went around inconveniencing people with legal search warrants. He’s quite possibly that stupid, but as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz explained, his argument isn’t just “factually errant and irresponsible,” it’s “repulsive.”
To compare the serving of a search warrant authorized by a Federal judge and @TheJusticeDept to conduct by Nazi secret police who directed the deportation of Jews to ghettos, concentration camps & mass murder sites is not just factually errant and irresponsible, it is repulsive.
Nazi Germany’s Gestapo police force was infamous for its brutality. They used violence and torture during interrogations. They rounded up Jews and sent them to their deaths. Naturally, Trump himself reportedly wanted generals as “loyal” as Nazis, some of whom kept trying to kill Hitler when not committing war crimes. He actually couldn’t stop complimenting Nazis and Hitler. It’s almost like he’s more fascist!
From the Holocaust Encyclopedia, which Scott should read during a remedial history class with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
One way in which the Gestapo carried out its mission was by enforcing new Nazi laws. Some of these laws broadly defined criticism of the regime as a security threat. For example, a December 1934 law made it illegal to criticize the Nazi Party or the Nazi regime. Telling a joke about Hitler could be categorized as a “malicious attack against the state or the Party.” It could then result in an arrest by the Gestapo, trial before a special court, and even imprisonment in a concentration camp.
It’s perverse how supposed “law and order” Republicans go straight to “Nazi” whenever the law is applied to people like them.
[…] Scott doesn’t need to leave his own state to find more relevant examples of genuine police brutality. Earlier this year, Pensacola police executed a search warrant at the home of Corey Joseph Marioneaux Jr. The search was related to a January 22 shooting, for which Marioneaux Jr. is no longer considered a suspect. He also doesn’t have a criminal record. The police claim they “knocked and waited an appropriate amount of time before force was used to open the door; their policy states they wait 15 seconds.” Unless they’re Barry Allen, 15 seconds isn’t enough time for someone to answer their door. This is basically a “bust the door in” policy. Marioneaux Jr.’s children were at home, and a one-year-old child was injured during the search.
The police tried to charge him with attempted murder for firing his weapon at the strangers breaking into his home. The charges were later dropped. Diamonds Jonquil Ford, a mother from Jacksonville, was also charged with attempted murder when trying to defend herself when police executed a warrant with the typical half-assed warning.
This is going on in 21st Century Florida, not 1930s Germany. Enough already with the repulsive rhetoric that insults the memories of Jews who were persecuted and murdered.
At long last, we have a conclusion to the race to the bottom that was Wisconsin’s 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary: The Trump-backed sociopath has defeated the Pence-backed sociopath.
There was no good possible result to this race, so it is what it is. Both candidates have abhorrent views and neither should be allowed to run a McDonald’s, much less a state.
To illustrate this fact, the last week saw Donald Trump and Mike Pence drop in to support different candidates. Pence’s pick was Rebecca Kleefisch, former lieutenant governor under Scott Walker. Trump’s guy was Tim Michels, some random rich dude who has never held public office and spent millions of dollars of his own money on his campaign.
In the end, Trumpism won the primary. Unofficial totals show Michels winning 47 percent of the GOP primary vote and Kleefisch with 42 percent. A third candidate, state Rep. Tim Rathmun, came in at six percent. His sole campaign issue had been his strong desire to illegally decertify the 2020 election.
Now, with both Trump and establishment Republican support, Michels will take on Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers in November in an election that could not be more important for the people of Wisconsin (right, and the country).
Trump v. Pence, Wisconsin style
(it comes with a side of beer and cheese curds)
Before we get too far, here’s the thing: Kleefisch and Michels’s actual policy proposals are mostly equally terrible. Both support things like state control of the female reproductive system, voter suppression, abolishing the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, and doing everything they can to create single-party Republican rule.
For months, Rebecca Kleefisch was the easy frontrunner for the Republican nod. She declared last fall, has GOP cred from working with that asshole Scott Walker, and had the support of the state party. However, despite her extremist positions, Kleefisch just wasn’t crazy enough for MAGA Republicans. That’s where Tim Michels stepped in.
One of the main points of contention between Kleefisch and Michels was who hates democracy the most. Since 2020, Wisconsin Republicans have been at odds over just how much they should embrace things like failed coups and attempts to overturn elections. Kleefisch’s ideas about how to subvert democracy simply weren’t good enough for Trump, who jumped in to support Michels.
Apparently Trump also has his panties in a bunch over Kleefisch because he was unhappy with … wait for it … who her daughter took to homecoming … three years ago.
Yes, seriously. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported,
In a private meeting with construction executive Tim Michels in April, Trump complained about a 2019 tweet by Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in which she posted a picture of her daughter with the son of Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn.
The tweet showed the two teenagers dressed up in formal wear and headed to a high school homecoming event. A political ally then retweeted the post, suggesting it was the beginning of a “Hagedorn-Kleefisch political dynasty in Wisconsin.”
Hagedorn, who ran as a conservative, has been criticized heavily by Republicans after being a swing vote in high-profile decisions involving pandemic-related restrictions and Trump’s efforts to overturn Wisconsin’s last presidential election. In response, Trump attacked the Wisconsin jurist on Twitter in late 2020.
“Trump was aware of these tweets” with the photo of Kleefisch and Hagedorn’s children, said a source who was in the room during the Michels meeting. “And it bothered him.”
[OMG. Trump is so petty.]
To Kleefisch, however, supporting fascism is more important than things like a former president personally attacking her child. Tuesday night, she got in line and urged her supporters to get behind Michels in November.
But wait, there’s more!
Trump’s meddling in Wisconsin wasn’t just about state-level races. At his rally for Michels last week, Trump not only attacked Kleefisch as “the handpicked candidate of a failed establishment,” he also took care to attack other state Republicans he feels are insufficiently supportive of his anti-democracy movement.
Who gives enough fealty to Dear Deposed Leader Don has become a heated issue in the Wisconsin GOP. A number of Republicans in the Legislature who refused to support Trump’s Big Lie retired rather than seek reelection. And even some of the worst of the worst have been attacked by Trump and his cult fanatics for not hating democracy quite enough.
That brings us to Robin Vos, the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly. Vos is exactly who you think he is. His politics make it more than clear that he hates women, labor unions, working class people, immigrants, people of color, and every Wisconsin city with a Black population. After the 2020 election, Vos even agreed with Trump’s verifiably false contentions about voter fraud. But that simply wasn’t enough for Trump, who got it in his head that Wisconsin should “decertify” its electoral votes — something that all serious legal experts have said, again and again, is both impossible and illegal. When Vos refused to endorse breaking the law in a futile attempt to overturn democracy, he became Trump’s enemy.
Terrified of Trump, Vos created a $680,000 slush fund for MAGA extremist and former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman to “audit” the 2020 election. This “audit” has consisted mostly of Gableman paying himself $11k per month to violate state open records laws and do things like fly to My Pillow and Mar-a-Lago conspiracy conferences.
As Dane County Judge Valerie Bailey-Rhin put it, “We have absolutely found out from this case there was absolutely no evidence of election fraud.” Rather, taxpayers have been paying Gableman an exorbitant salary “to sit in the New Berlin library to learn about election law because he knows nothing about election law.”
Vos’s failure of the Trump loyalty test wasn’t just a problem for Trump; it was also apparently not enough for Gableman, who joined Trump at last week’s rally to rant about none other than Robin Vos. Vos, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, was expected to cruise to reelection. But after Trump got involved, it turned into a real race.
Vos’s opponent, Adam Steen, was virtually unknown and based his entire campaign on Vos not being quite Trumpy enough. It got weird, with Steen and a handful of supporters celebrating the day before the election by creating Robin Vos effigies to sling into a field with a giant slingshot. [tweet and video at the link, effing bizarre]
Gableman, presumably unhappy with the $11k/month salary Vos had hooked him up with, joined in.
In the end, Vos narrowly defeated Steen, with 5,084 votes to Steen’s 4,824.
[…] After his win, Vos called Gableman “an embarrassment to the state of Wisconsin” and indicated he would be convening the GOP legislative caucus to talk about whether he should keep receiving an absurd taxpayer-paid salary to scream about conspiracy theories.
So … yeah
Wisconsin could not be more important this November. The race getting the most national attention is Ron Johnson’s US Senate seat, which is understandable since Johnson is a barely sentient lump of curdled milk. But all of the statewide races are just as important.
Wisconsin is a purple state, but thanks to extreme gerrymandering, the legislature is bright red, and will be for the foreseeable future. Thanks to this gerrymandering, the real race in many state Senate and Assembly districts is in the Republican primary. (In 2018, Democrats won 53 percent of the statewide vote for State Assembly but won just 36 percent of the seats — and the gerrymandering has only gotten worse since then.) This results in an extremist legislature that doesn’t even have to pretend to care about the will of the people they govern.
For example, nearly 70 percent of Wisconsinites support abortion rights — but when Governor Evers called the Legislature into special session to address our 1849 abortion ban, the Legislature refused to even hold hearings on adding exceptions for rape or the health of the mother.
And people with female reproductive systems won’t be the only ones at risk if Michels wins in November. Like Ruth Conniff writes for the Wisconsin Examiner,
If Michels manages to defeat Gov. Tony Evers, he could sign Republican bills remaking Wisconsin’s election laws and empowering the Legislature to override the will of the people. There will be no check on extremism, and, given Trump’s show of strength in the primary, politicians who know better might feel more pressure to go along.
If Evers wins, there will still be a stopgap. And Trump’s mounting legal troubles may also diminish his power and the urge of Republican establishment types to keep feeding conspiracy theories.
The Wisconsin Legislature is already one of the most extremist in the country. If Evers doesn’t win and preserve his veto power, this state is fucked.
The biggest story on the front lines today—or rather, a very long distance behind them—continues to be the successful Ukrainian strike on the Novofedorivka airfield in Russian-held Crimea. […] over 200 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian positions, achieved two very spectacular booms in two different locations. Initial reports asserted that two distinct munitions dumps had gone up.
We still don’t know much about the attack, but we do now know that the damage was extraordinary. Let’s step back to where we were yesterday, filling in new details as we go.
Original OSINT reports suggested the two most significant explosions were likely at two munitions depots at considerable distance from each other: [tweets, maps and video at the link]
Russia itself appeared to confirm the explosions were a “munitions detonation,” and it’s hard to think of much else that would result in explosions of the scale captured on videos taken from beaches around the base: [video at the link]
Yes, well, thank goodness the “tourists” are now deciding that their plans to visit occupied territory during a shooting war were perhaps ill-advised. But the area heavily damaged, it quickly became clear, was considerable. A “radius of several kilometers,” at least. [tweets and videos at the link]
At the end of that last video, there’s what appears to be a steel structural column puncturing a car. Note that it didn’t fall on the car, it flew sideways, puncturing both sides of the car while leaving the roof unscathed. Whatever building that steel beam used to be a part of isn’t just gone, it ejected thousands-of-pounds-sized shrapnel in all directions.
Yeah, we’re gonna presume that was a munitions depot that was hit.
What’s clear from the videos is that the damage to the airfield as a whole is … considerable. Not necessarily to the runways, which will likely require little more than some sweeping to get the, uh, thousand-pound chunks of debris cleared to the side, but the rest of the airfield’s infrastructure. This isn’t going to be an easy recovery.
As for the extremely valuable Russian planes stationed at the base, damage to them seemed too much to hope for. But yet another apparent failure of Russia to abide by even the most basic of operational security measures resulted in an on-the-scene video of just that: [tweet and video at the link]
In that brief few-seconds pan, you can see not only a completely destroyed Su-24, but apparently damaged buildings in the distance on the left, fire crews hosing down the wreckage in the center, lots of debris on the concrete, and workers attending to a pile of blackened something on the right. So we know that a Su-24 suffered catastrophic damage, the char marks and, uh, lack of wings suggest a considerable fire, and that everything in the immediate surroundings appears to be equally damaged.
Well, there’s only one type of thing known to have been parked near that Su-24 at Novofedorivka on that day via satellite images, and that’s those other Russian warplanes.
Ukraine is now claiming at least nine Russian planes were destroyed yesterday, and that seems plausible. A munitions depot (or two?) may have been the prioritized Ukrainian target, but Ukraine hit the jackpot in collateral damage. This one airfield hit is a genuine crisis for Russian air power in Crimea.
If Ukraine really is planning a major southern offensive aimed at cutting off and eliminating most of the Russian ground troops between them and Crimea, this one attack went a long way in temporarily limiting Russia’s ability to control the skies.
Coupled with the now-known use of HARM anti-radar missiles by Ukrainian forces it hammers home the sickening truth for Russian war planners. They don’t have air superiority here, they’ve never had it, and they’re getting farther from it by the day. There’s likely going to be another round of Russian military firings, because Russia is going to need a whole lot more scapegoats to blame for this one.
Claims of at least 60 dead and 100 injured in the explosions now seem quite plausible. Honestly given the damage from the shock wave alone, it might be low.
Now then, as for how Ukraine did it: We don’t know, but we know a bit more about how they didn’t. The odds that this was an HIMARS-based attack now seem slim. The United States isn’t acknowledging sending the types of missiles capable of such long-range strikes, and there’s widespread skepticism that Ukraine would send even one of the critical HIMARS vehicles close enough to the front line to get in range. We can’t necessarily take U.S. denials at face value, but the sum of what we know backs up U.S. insistence that this wasn’t that.
The Russian claim is the same one they’ve used after every munitions depot detonation in Crimea, captured Ukrainian territory, or at the Russian border: Our drunken chain-smoking troops are just so incompetent that they’ve been setting depots on fire on a regular basis. We lift our bombs with rigs assembled from leftover balloon string and move them from truck to building via wooden catapult. Burp.
Honestly, if that’s the case then we’re still gong to hand this one to Ukraine, because facing an enemy that blows its own military bases up with clockwork frequency should count as a tactical victory for somebody. But the scope of the damage done here makes the Russian claim dubious at best, and Russia’s insistence on using the same excuse for every explosion, whether on land or sea, means the presumption must always be that they’re lying. They’re almost certainly lying.
It is theoretically possible that some completely incompetent Russian started a fire inside one of the most critical munition depots in Crimea, that the fire set off every bomb in the building, that the debris from that explosion soared so far that it hit a second munitions depot a long way away, that the resulting spark or shock blew up that depot as well, and the twin explosions wrecked everything in the general vicinity of either of them. Sure. And it’s also possible a Crimean dog got into the building and licked one of the bombs until it went off.
The two most likely explanations, then: Ukrainian air strike? Or Ukrainian saboteurs?
The Washington Post cites an anonymous Ukrainian official to credit the attack to “Ukrainian special forces.” That’s … actually quite possible. Ukrainian resistance fighters have waged a robust campaign in and around Kherson, with successful executions of Russian-allied leaders and a relentless barrage of publicly placed posters looking to mock and unnerve Russian forces. It’s reasonable to believe that Ukrainian special forces were able to somehow spirit themselves into occupied Crimea, made their way to Novofedorivka, and got themselves into the Russian base undetected.
But that’s also a claim that Ukraine would absolutely want to be making right now. There’s nothing Ukraine would like more than to send Russian commanders into absolute fits with thoughts that even the crown jewel of Russia’s campaign of conquest, occupied Crimea, is swarming with Ukrainian special forces. Ukraine would be sending anonymous people out to say that no matter what the truth is. The fog of war is a tool, not just a result.
The air strike scenario has also been hinted at by those in the know, like the U.S. official who told the Post the airbase strike was carried out using, says the Post, “a weapon not provided by the United States.”
That’s a broad statement, but Ukraine has a lot of weapons not provided by the United States. The only problem is getting them close enough. [Ukrainian drone bomber video at the link]
Could one of the Russian military bases most crucial to their war effort have been temporarily taken out of operation because the entire Russian military wasn’t able to detect or stop one of those flying leisurely overhead?
God only knows at this point. But from what we’ve seen from Ukrainian successes in taking out a certain Russian ship and countless Russian commanders, Russian air defenses may indeed consist of some guy scanning the skies with a recycled cardboard tube held to his eye.
The thought that special forces could have smuggled in a Ukrainian drone with more-than-trivial firepower, getting it close enough to strike the base and acting quickly enough that Russian air defenses couldn’t respond, is still more reasonable than the Russian claim that their own troops created a multikilometer zone of debris through rank stupidity—again.
Now, as for the Russian responses? Oooof. Buckle in. [tweet and video at the link]
Peruse that one at your leisure, but the short version is that everything is fine, it was but a minor mishap, and all glory to the hypnotoad. Or whatever.
Oh—but what other evidence might we have that this Crimean explosion might be an explicit Ukrainian action to set the stage for further operations in Ukraine’s still-occupied south? [tweet, map and image at the link, showing another deep strike into Russian held territory, right on the border of Crimea in Chongar, Ukrainians possibly taking out a bridge.]
…As I’ve argued previously, Griner’s conviction tells us how comfortable Russia (read: Putin and his administrative apparatus) has become as a pariah to the West.
The latest invasion of Ukraine and the brutality with which Russian forces have behaved there (atrocities committed in Bucha, Irpin, and Mykolaiv are just a few examples) are only one facet of Russia’s growing international isolation and the embrace of its outcast position in the West….
So, how does Brittney Griner fit into this puzzle? Griner’s arrest, conviction, and sentencing are due to the war in Ukraine. It is not a coincidence that she was arrested a week before Russia began its latest assault. Griner’s imprisonment is now a warning to other Western athletes (particularly Americans) not to visit or compete in Russia anytime soon. She represents leverage that Russia has not held over the United States in decades, and we still do not know how Putin will use that leverage. Still, these are the overarching geopolitical implications.
…
The war in Ukraine and Brittney Griner’s case have reinforced the worst Cold War-era Western stereotypes and ideas about Russia, from the “Communist” totalitarian state to the “Eastern” menace. The difference, it seems, is that Russia is now leaning into these descriptions. On television (still the most popular source of information in Russia), the state media regularly broadcasts support for the depravity of Russian violence in Ukraine and for using Americans like Brittney Griner as bargaining chips with Western powers.
What remains to be seen for Griner is if Russia will negotiate with the United States in good faith for her and Paul Whelan’s release. In exchange for these two wrongfully imprisoned Americans, Russia has asked for two dangerous Russian nationals: a convicted arms dealer, Viktor Bout, and a convicted murderer in German custody, Vadim Krasikov.
It’s as if Russia is replaying the script from a bad 1980s spy film.
Under Vladimir Putin’s rule, Russia stands at a historical precipice from which it may not be able to return. It is isolated, violent, and increasingly dependent on Western antagonism for its self-image. Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan, and Viktor Bout will probably return to their respective home countries in the coming months. But the damage Russia has done in Ukraine and the harm it has inflicted on its standing in the world are irreparable.
[…] So this is what happened when Trump got to AG James’s office:
In a lengthy statement, Trump denied wrongdoing, accused the U.S. government of unfairly targeting him and said he would refuse to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
Sure thing.
As Donald Trump explained in 2016:
“So there are five people taking the Fifth Amendment, like you see on the mob, right? You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”
Right.
But he just had to this time, because here’s why:
In a statement made Wednesday, just an hour after Trump arrived at James’ headquarters in New York City, the former president said, “I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?’ Now I know the answer to that question.”
“When your family, your company and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors and the Fake News Media, you have no choice,” Trump said.
Gotcha. He said he definitely has no choice now, because of that Mar-a-Lago raid. (Which we hear really scared poor Eric.)
But he “did nothing wrong,” he said. […]
The Washington Post notes that Trump, Ivanka, and Don Jr. were all supposed to testify back on July 14. But then mommy died and they had to bury her in a great big giant shoebox on the golf course, as is the tradition. Vanky and the face that sank a thousand ships reportedly had their depositions in the past few days and didn’t take the criminal’s way out like daddy did. (When Eric testified in 2020, he pleaded the Fifth 500 fucking times yes we said 500.)
Trump is still being as mature and grown-up as ever about James’s investigation:
In a post on Trump’s social media service, Truth Social, early Wednesday, Trump continued his attacks on James’s investigation, calling the Black law enforcement official “racist” and saying he was seeing her “for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. History!”
Ah yes, that’s been Trump’s thing for a while now, that he’s a victim of racial discrimination at the hands of Tish James. We’re sure one day a poignant feature film will be made about how he persevered, despite all the racism.
Point is, Donald Trump’s week of winning just keeps on keepin’ on, what with the FBI raid and having to give Congress his taxes and now this. […]
The Russian claim is the same one they’ve used after every munitions depot detonation in Crimea, captured Ukrainian territory, or at the Russian border: Our drunken chain-smoking troops are just so incompetent that they’ve been setting depots on fire on a regular basis. We lift our bombs with rigs assembled from leftover balloon string and move them from truck to building via wooden catapult. Burp.
from what we’ve seen from Ukrainian successes in taking out a certain Russian ship and countless Russian commanders, Russian air defenses may indeed consist of some guy scanning the skies with a recycled cardboard tube held to his eye.
In a no-holds-barred attack on the President, Senator Mitch McConnell blasted Joe Biden for “violating Congress’s most cherished traditions by accomplishing things.”
Excoriating the Senate’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, McConnell declared, “The hallowed customs of this Capitol have been shredded forever.”
“Every Republican in this building went to work last week secure in the knowledge that nothing would be achieved,” he said. “Now, to our dismay, something has—and in August, no less.”
He implored Biden to “cease this insane accomplishing-things spree,” but worried that a damaging precedent had already been set.
“The American people trust us in Congress to do nothing,” he said. “Thanks to Joe Biden, we may never regain that trust.”
In the wake of the FBI executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, too many Republicans stepped up to defend Donald Trump and condemn law enforcement, creating an unhealthy competition of sorts: Prominent GOP voices started trying to one-up each other, going further than potential partisan rivals.
As The Washington Post reported, one ambitious Senate Republican went further than most.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Tuesday called for Attorney General Merrick Garland to resign or face impeachment, claiming that the FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s residence in Florida amounted to “an unprecedented assault on democratic norms and the rule of law.” His statement went further than those of most of his colleagues, who demanded explanations for the search from Garland and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, either in briefings or congressional hearings.
The Missouri Republican began by describing Monday’s developments as “a raid by Joe Biden’s FBI.” In reality, it wasn’t much of a “raid” — plain-clothed FBI agents executed a search warrant — and the FBI doesn’t belong to the president. In fact, the bureau is led by a Republican who Trump himself tapped for the job.
Hawley went on to describe the court-approved process as “an unprecedented assault on democratic norms and the rule of law,” before adding, “At a minimum, Garland must resign or be impeached. The search warrant must be published. Christoper [sic] Wray must be removed.”
So, a few things.
First, the idea that the attorney general should no longer be able to serve in his position is so odd that even Hawley hasn’t tried to justify it. The far-right senator simply asserts it, as if its merits are somehow self-evident. They’re not: Garland hasn’t been credibly accused of wrongdoing of any kind.
Second, on a related note, if Hawley believes Trump’s handpicked FBI director should be fired, perhaps the senator could come up with some kind of evidence to suggest Wray acted inappropriately.
But perhaps most important is the Missouri Republican having the audacity to pretend he cares about “democratic norms and the rule of law.”
For now, let’s put aside the inconvenient fact that falsely accusing a sitting president of corrupting federal law enforcement — without so much as a hint of proof or supporting evidence — doesn’t do democratic norms and/or the rule of law any favors.
More to the point, however, is the senator’s unforgettable record. It was Hawley who helped take the lead in trying to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. It was Hawley who voted against certifying Biden’s win. It was Hawley who raised his fist in solidarity with Jan. 6 rioters — before he ran away from them.
It was also Hawley who appeared on Fox News on Jan. 4 and was asked whether he believed Trump would remain president on Inauguration Day 2021. The senator responded that it would “depend on“ what happened on Jan. 6 — a message many radicals likely noticed.
As regular readers know, the GOP senator was denounced by former allies; prominent businesses distanced themselves from him; several independent media outlets called on Hawley to resign in disgrace; and several of his Senate colleagues filed an ethics complaint against him.
Even many Republicans balked. Republican Sen. Ben Sasse added, in reference to Hawley, “Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.” Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said the Missourian would be “haunted“ by his actions.
There are policymakers who have credibility on “democratic norms and the rule of law.” Hawley isn’t one of them.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp thought he could block access from residents to the Affordable Care Act’s federal health insurance shopping website, healthcare.gov.
Kemp’s plan, which cost the state of Georgia a whopping $31 million to implement, involved blocking access to the ACA website in order to sell health care plans to Georgia residents directly from private insurance companies. “The state received approval from (the federal government in 2020) to proceed with the implementation,” argued Chris Denson, director of policy and research at the libertarian think-tank, Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
Then President Biden stepped in and kicked that terrible, useless idea back into Kemp’s face.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), the White House sent a letter to Kemp’s office saying that it was ”committed to working with Georgia to make changes to (Kemp’s proposal) to ensure enrollment does not decrease in the State under the waiver.”
Kemp thought he could continue moving forward with his plan as it was approved by former President Trump. Kemp has whined that he’s spent $31 million on his pathetic ‘waiver’ idea that only confuses consumers and puts the profits of private companies ahead of providing consumers with reasonable health care plans.
Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, says the waiver could have effectively locked residents out of an easy way to sign up for health care.
“Consumers will have all doors open to them this fall,” Colbert said Tuesday.
[…] the Biden administration has waited for more than a year to receive adequate answers about how Kemp’s plan will even work—and what would happen to the 700,000 Georgians who use the ACA plans purchased through healthcare.gov.
Biden’s suspension took effect Tuesday.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wrote a letter to Kemp’s office that read in part:
“Georgia should not take any further action to implement the Georgia Access Model as of the effective date of the suspension.”
[…] the state was given three months to provide details to the plan to avoid suspension, but the July response missed the deadline.
[…] Sen. Raphael Warnock has supported Biden’s suspension of the ‘waiver’ plan. Giving the plan the boot “will ensure that Georgians will be able to keep purchasing affordable health care… and will save lives and save families money,” Warnock said.
Kemp is currently in a hot race against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams. The two went toe-to-toe in 2018, with Kemp coming out on top, and lots of suspicion about “racially motivated patterns of voter suppression” may have contributed to Abrams’ loss.
Open enrollment shopping begins on Nov. 1 for coverage that starts on Jan. 1, 2023.
[…] On Tuesday, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah decided to put together a simple supercut of footage from Mar-a-Lago as agents executed the search warrant for sensitive documents (or, what Donald Trump and others have called a “raid” by federal agents). Over the flashing police lights and gated compound, that supercut also includes Fox News personalities and Republican officials’ statements about how and why the FBI acted rightfully and in service to America—when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was under investigation for allegations of mishandled documents. It’s too perfect to miss.
[…] If tldr, teachers have to post a list of their personal classroom libraries to allow parents to object to age-appropriateness of books on a cover-by-cover basis. Districts are required to develop a system to review these complaints. There is no additional staffing, time, or funding for this directive.
Here is what a former colleague and current favorite person of mine had to say about it. She is a teacher of deaf and hearing impaired children, and has a Masters degree in Deaf Education. That is her library pictured above.
Please see my pictures I have attached.
First you will see my, quite modest for an Elementary school, classroom library. Next you will see my diplomas I walk by daily. Why is this important? I have dedicated my life to ensuring that what is arguably the most language deprived subgroup of children have access to language, text, and relatable books.
The state of Tennessee has recently passed a law that every book must be inventoried and posted for review/ “feedback” I believe. Aside from the sheer amount of work this adds to every teacher’s plate, we are legally bound to not allow the children to use any of these books until that has been completed. They are sitting and useless. Put away. My children are deprived of yet another experience.
In the eyes of the state of Tennessee I am trusted to be a DCS reporter, identify and stop bullying, harassment, home problems. I am trusted to be on a medical response team to help with broken bones, CPR, and AED needs. I am trusted to save my children by protecting them with my own body if need be from an intruder. I am trusted to, at times, be the only person in that child’s life that knows their language. I am trusted to be a safe space. But, in the eyes of the state of TN I am not trusted to pick a book to read to a child. The one thing on that list I actually went to school for. Let that sink in.
We would appreciate it if you would let Governor “teachers are dumb” Lee know what you think.
This is a very interesting set of images from @EliotHiggins of @bellingcat on the aftermath of ‘that’ strike on the Russian airbase in Crimea. A few thoughts on the multiple impacts (pardon the pun) of this strike
First, I won’t speculate on weapons or the targeting process. There are much more informed views on this out there. I want to focus on the effects on this successful Ukrainian operation.
Second, this will obviously deprive the Russians of a few aircraft. That is good. But the reality is they have a lot more. So while this would have been a desired outcome, there are more important ones.
Third, loss of ammunition and/or fuel holdings on the base is much more serious for the Russians. Remember how Japan failed to take out the fuel tanks at Pearl Harbour? The Ukrainians did not make the same mistake. It will have a longer term impact on aviation operations.
Fourth, the base was reputed to be protected by S400 systems. Even if it wasn’t this system, there would have been layers of AD and other defences which clearly failed. This will impact on Russian confidence in their own systems (a big deal), and that of potential customers.
Fifth, the Ukrainians clearly can now hold large parts of Crimea at risk. And not just airbases. The Black Sea Fleet, it’s fuel, munitions, repair yards and infrastructure are now vulnerable. This places the Russians in a real quandary.
This doesn’t mean they will want to give it up (they won’t) but they will either have to double down on AD, infrastructure hardening and other defences, or rethink what valuable military systems they base there.
But clearly the Ukrainians still have their eye on Crimea – either to seize it back in the medium term (which is always going to be a Ukrainian objective), or in the short term to use it as a stratagem to place the Russians in a strategic dilemma about force deployments.
It is also part of Ukraine’s efforts to let Russia know that while the US doesn’t want Ukraine striking targets in Russia, Russia’s strategically valuable assets will be placed at risk and targeted in other locations. This complicates Russian planning. It isn’t escalation!
Sixth, this is an information victory for Ukraine. It gives its own military and citizens a boost in morale. But it also draws attention back to the conflict and tells western nations that Ukraine is still worth supporting, regardless of energy costs in Europe.
Finally, this is a morale disaster for Russia. Not only do they look incompetent at defending bases a long way from the ‘front lines’, it will have an impact on the morale of their fighting forces. We might see ‘retirement’ of more generals over this.
And, it will have an impact on the morale of Russian civilians at home who have rarely seen such disasters in their media. But we should not over estimate this, given public opinion held up even after the sinking of Moskva.
There is no doubt that this has been a grim 24 hours for the Russians. And it is a spectacular success for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It will force the Russians to make tough choices about the deployment of their forces across the south and east of #Ukraine.
But there remains a long way to go in this war. While this attack says great things about Ukrainian initiative and capabilities, there remains too many uncertainties to use it as a basis for predictions on the ultimate outcome of the war. End.
This article summarizes what happens if the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant explodes and/or if the Russians blow it up with mines or artillery.
There really isn’t anything new here.
It would be like Chernobyl or the Japanese disaster at Fukushima.
The main damage from the radiation cloud would depend on which way the wind was blowing that day.
What happens if Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant explodes?
Al Jazeera 11 Aug 2022 By Elizabeth Melimopoulos
Given the IAEA’s warnings, could the plant explode – and if so – what would happen?
According to experts, this is possible but the likelihood of that taking place is not certain.
“What we have here with the military involvement is very difficult … If multiple catastrophic factors come together, an explosion might be possible,” Ross Peel, the Research and Knowledge Transfer Manager for the Centre for Science and Security Studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera.
“It’s difficult to say whether this will [happen] and the possible consequences of that, what they might be. It depends how the explosion comes about,” he added.
There are concerns about the shelling occurring around the facility, with the potential to damage critical infrastructure, including the reactors.
“Reactors [need] to be constantly cooled by water passing through [them,]” MV Ramana, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera.
“If that water stream is cut out, cut down, cut off in some fashion, then the reactor could lose cooling, the fuel will start melting. It will sort of create high pressure, and the thing can explode,” he added.
In the immediate aftermath of an explosion, experts say that we could likely see widespread evacuations caused by an invisible radioactive cloud. However, the impact of a leak in radiation would probably be felt for years to come
“You’re probably going to see hundreds of thousands of people trying to flee from that area,” Ramana told Al Jazeera.
“There will be a cloud, but you’re not going to be able to see it … We’re able to track the cloud because [we] have sensitive instruments that are measuring radiation levels,” he added.
Some of the illnesses we could see from an explosion similar to this could be acute radiation poisoning or cancers that could be seen later.
“So, for instance, at Chernobyl, the people who were going into the reactor to actually stand on top of the burning building and put the fire out were exposed to huge amounts of radiation and suffered the impacts of that within hours,” Ross said.
“People who are exposed to not quite so great amounts may still suffer from acute radiation poisoning and recover. This happens over days to weeks, maybe months. For people exposed to lower levels of radiation, there may be greater numbers of cancer cases coming later over the following years to decades,” he added.
What other scenarios could take place?
Rather than a reactor core explosion, experts are more concerned about damage to systems that cool the spent fuel pool and the reactors. If the cooling fails, this could lead to an uncontrolled heat buildup, a meltdown and a fire that could release and spread radiation from the containment structures.
“We’re mostly scared of radiation release, not necessarily of an explosion,” Amelie Stoetzel, a PhD Student in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera.
“Even though that looks scary, [a] radiation release, in any case, would be catastrophic,” she added.
“It’s unpredictable; we don’t really know where the plume [containing radioactive material] would go; it can go anywhere really, depending on the weather conditions.”
Due to the plant’s geographical location, a radiation release could hit any part of the European continent.
“Zaporizhzhia is in the middle of the continent. So no matter which way the wind is blowing, somebody’s going to get contaminated,” Ramana said.
Overall, experts emphasise that any kind of prediction is hard to make at this stage.
“The only certainty we have really is that the military activity around the nuclear power plant poses a risk to it. And how exactly that will play out is, is very difficult to predict,” Ross said.
If there is a radiation leak, what happens next?
Experts expect immediate evacuations but also difficulties in accessing medical facilities since they will probably see a surge in patients.
“When there were incidents of radiation accidents, there were a lot of people that showed up with symptoms of radiation poisoning, even though they had not been exposed, due to fear and panic,” Stoetzel said.
Experts also said that evacuations in a war zone will come with their own set of complications.
“A lot of people have already left the area, but there are still a lot of people left behind,” Stoetzel said.
“So yes, there would be a lot of people rushing to hospitals and rushing to get out of the area, which would be a problem … there would be confusion; in an ongoing war, evacuating people is extremely difficult,” she added.
According to experts, for many people, the fear of radiation could be more dangerous than the radiation itself.
“We could see an uptick in patients because of the psychological symptoms that are connected to the knowledge that radiation might have leaked from a nuclear power plant nearby,”
“So actually the most problematic issue for the government at least would be how to deal with a large number of patients,” she added.
In case of an explosion, or a fire, a leak of radiation could lead to a “long-term disaster”.
“It’s not something where people are going to be exposed to it and immediately fall down and die … there’s going to be a huge, psychological toll, right on top of the psychological toll of the war itself,” Ramana said.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Latvia’s parliament, the Saeima, has named Russia as a terrorist-supporting state. In a statement, it said Russia had chosen a “cruel, immoral, and illegal tactic, using imprecise and internationally banned weapons and ammunition, targeting disproportionate brutality against civilians and public places” in Ukraine.
Britain and Denmark will provide more financial and military aid to Ukraine, they said on Thursday as European defence ministers met in Copenhagen to discuss long-term support for the country’s defence against Russia’s invasion.
The British defence secretary has said Vladimir Putin is now unlikely to succeed in occupying Ukraine.
Ben Wallace said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “faltered” and was “starting to fail”, as he pledged more financial and military support to the eastern European nation’s defence.
Denmark joined the UK in offering more aid to Ukraine at a conference in Copenhagen on Thursday, co-hosted by Wallace. The defence secretary said it was important to understand that fighting and loss of life was still taking place, but added Russia was “starting to fail in many areas”.
He said:
They have failed so far and are unlikely to ever succeed in occupying Ukraine.
Their invasion has faltered and constantly been re-modified to the extent they are really only focusing in parts of the south and in the east, a long, long way away from their three-day so-called special operation.
Three days are now over 150 days and nearly six months in, with huge significant losses of both equipment and indeed Russian personnel.
He added:
President Putin will have gambled that come August, come a few months in, we will have all got bored of the conflict and the international community would have gone off in different directions. Well, today is proof of the opposite.
We have come out of this meeting with more pledges of finance, more pledges of training and more pledges of military aid, all designed to help Ukraine win, to help Ukraine stand up for its sovereignty and indeed to ensure that president Putin’s ambitions fail in Ukraine as they rightly should.
Belarus has said that blasts heard overnight at one of its military bases 19 miles from Ukraine were caused by a “technical incident.”
At least eight explosions were heard after midnight near Zyabrovka military airport, according to reports on Telegram messenger. Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
Commenting on the incident, the Belarusian Defence Ministry said “the engine of a vehicle caught fire after replacement … there were no casualties.”
The incident occurred after powerful explosions rocked Russia’s Saki air base earlier this week in Russian-ruled Crimea, which Moscow had termed an accident.
Ukraine has declined to publicly claim responsibility for the explosions at the base, while also not denying involvement.
The United States supports calls for a demilitarised zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after fighting involving Russian and Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of the plant, a State Department spokesperson said on Thursday.
“Fighting near a nuclear plant is dangerous and irresponsible and we continue to call on Russia to cease all military operations at or near Ukrainian nuclear facilities and return full control to Ukraine, and support Ukrainian calls for a demilitarised zone around the nuclear power plant,” the spokesperson said.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres earlier on Thursday called for an immediate end to military activity near the facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Reuters reported.
“UPDATE: Man armed with AR-15 style rifle fires nail gun into FBI Cincinnati building, leading to police pursuit and shots fired on an interstate, authorities say. Lockdown on interstate and manhunt for the suspect continues.”
Republicans are so outraged by renewed efforts to enforce existing tax laws, they’re telling some rather brazen lies about the Inflation Reduction Act.
It is not at all new that congressional debates over taxes and spending can be exasperating, but in theory, there should be far less division over whether to enforce existing tax laws. It’s law and order at its most basic: The government needs resources to function on behalf of its citizens; the government creates laws requiring citizens to pay their fair share; and the government then enforces those laws to ensure that the system works effectively.
In practice, Republicans don’t seem especially fond of this model.
As the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Plan took shape, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema fought against tax hikes and rejected her party’s plans to roll back some of the Republicans’ ineffective 2017 package of tax breaks. The solution was multifaceted, but it included a key element: Democrats would invest in the Internal Revenue Service, which would in turn better enforce the tax laws already on the books, generating billions in revenue in the process.
This satisfied Sinema. It did not satisfy Republicans — many of whom have responded with varying degrees of manufactured outrage.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, for example, desperate for a campaign issue and indifferent to accuracy, published a tweet claiming that Democrats are creating a “new army of 87,000 IRS agents” that will audit middle-class workers. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tried to tie the story to his party’s other topic du jour, writing, “After todays [sic] raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?”
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz went in an even more hysterical direction, tweeting, “The Manchin-Schumer bill will create 87,000 new IRS agents to target regular, everyday Americans. STOP BIDEN’S SHADOW ARMY!” It was accompanied by an on-screen, all-caps, blood-red graphic that told people, “Biden is building a shadow army of 87,000 new IRS agents to hunt you down and take your money.”
Subtle, it was not.
The problem, of course, is that these scare tactics, echoed by practically every Republican with a pulse over the last week or so, aren’t true. Let’s start with the most obvious problem: There won’t be 87,000 new auditors running around. Time magazine explained this week:
A Treasury Department report from May 2021 estimated that [investments in line with the spending from the Inflation Reduction Act] would enable the agency to hire roughly 87,000 employees by 2031. But most of those hires would not be Internal Revenue agents, and wouldn’t be new positions. According to a Treasury Department official, the funds would cover a wide range of positions including IT technicians and taxpayer services support staff, as well as experienced auditors who would be largely tasked with cracking down on corporate and high-income tax evaders.
That last point was of particular interest, because while lying about the number of auditors, Republicans have also lied about who might be subjected to additional IRS scrutiny. Indeed, both the Treasury Department and the IRS itself have explicitly said audit rates won’t rise for those earning less than $400,000.
A group of former IRS commissioners from Democratic and Republican administrations not only endorsed the legislation, they added last week, “In fact, for ordinary Americans who already fulfill their tax obligations, audit scrutiny will decline, because the IRS will be better at selecting returns for examination. This bill is about getting to the heart of the problem and pursuing high-end taxpayers and corporations who today illegally evade their tax obligations.”
So why are Republicans saying the opposite? Because the truth isn’t scary — and they’re apparently having trouble finding actual flaws in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.
[…] the pushback from the right is largely incoherent. The IRS has been gradually undermined for years, which in turn has made it far more difficult for the agency to be aggressive in pursuing tax cheats, which in turn has meant less revenue for policy priorities.
To whine incessantly about enforcing tax laws and cracking down on wealthy tax evaders is to side with criminals and tax cheats. The party that prides itself on funding the police is amazingly eager to defund the tax police.
At 9 AM this morning an armed man entered the FBI field office in Cincinnati and tried to shoot his way past security. An exchange of gunfire of some sort ensued. The man retreated and then drove off. This led to a chase and finally a standoff with the armed man at which there were more exchanges of gunfire – apparently in a cornfield. That standoff apparently continues, after more exchanges of gunfire. Thus far there are no reports of injuries. There are unconfirmed repots that assailant was wearing body armor and had a nail gun in addition to an AR-15 style rifle.
From the Twitter account of the Cincinnati FBI field office …
At approximately 9 AM this morning an armed subject attempted to breach the Visitor Screening Facility at #FBI Cincinnati. After an alarm and a response by FBI special agents, the subject fled north onto Interstate 71.
Appears to be a fairly large lockdown in the surrounding area.
The Clinton County Emergency Management Agency said on Facebook that law enforcement had “traded shots” with a male suspect wearing body armor, and that, while the suspect had not yet been taken into custody, he was “contained.” The agency said there was a lockdown in effect for the one-mile radius at the intersection of Center and Smith roads in Chester Township, which is near the city of Wilmington. Sections of Interstate 71 and a nearby state highway were closed as a result of the incident, the agency said.
ABC News, citing an unnamed law enforcement source, reported the suspect was in a corn field and appeared to have a gunshot wound to his leg, but remained mobile.
[…] Far-right Trump supporters online have been bombarding Bruce Reinhart, the federal magistrate who reportedly signed the search warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and his family with anti-Semitic threats.
Several extremists have even posted what they believe to be Reinhart’s address, phone numbers, and names of his family, Vice found.
Fox News and other right-wing media have been smearing Reinhart as an anti-Trump hack and, uh, lover of Golden Oreos. […]
Lots and lots of history, as well as current explanations concerning Trump’s hoard of classified documents. It is not easy to provide excerpts as the article is too long and too detailed. Here is one detail I had not seen before:
A 900+ Senate Report details how while Trump was in Moscow, he recruited the same Russian Bot Developer and Media Consultants that ran the Influencer Operation for the GRU during the 2014 annexation of Crimea. He was introduced to them by Russian Oligarch Mobster Aras Agalarov and his son Emin.
The name Emin Agalrov might be familiar to you. According to published emails, Emin Agalarov and Bob Goldstone helped set up Trump Jr’s Russian Summit in Trump Tower with Paul Manafort, Clown Prince Jared, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and her entourage also in attendance.
Again, this isn’t a Democratic hit piece. It’s all in the 900+ page Senate Report submitted by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee in November 2020 when Trump was still President and Republicans held the House Majority.
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago! This week on Fever Dreams, Will Sommer and guest host Anthony Fisher talk about the FBI search on Mar-a-Lago, whether the feds should have given Trump advanced notice, and whether Republicans will vaporize the Justice Department the next time they have power. In Fresh Hell, Will explores the depths of alleged depravity at James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas group, where an ex-employee claims sexual harassment and drug use is running wild. Anthony talks about the Twitter demise of the infamous “Groomer” troll Conceptual James. Reporter Jessica Pishko joins to talk about sheriffs acting with impunity and positioning themselves as right-wing voter fraud influencers.
Many movies in the 1980s depicted American urban landscapes as lawless hellholes, but Paul Verhoeven’s ROBOCOP (1987) was unique for locating the source of the problem in the corporate world. The Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to watch one of the most beloved screen satires of all time, and we were happy to oblige.
In 2010, a group of anti-choice activists sent several complaints to Iowa’s medical board, demanding the agency end a popular telemedicine abortion program. Run by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the program helped patients in rural clinics access safe medication for ending their pregnancies without traveling hours to a city. The anti-choice activists claimed, inaccurately, that not having a doctor physically present to hand people the pills was a threat to patients’ safety. At the time, the medical board wasn’t swayed. It closed the complaints without taking disciplinary action against Planned Parenthood’s physicians.
But that changed after Republican Terry Branstad, an abortion foe, reclaimed the Iowa governorship that November. In Iowa, as in many other states, medical board members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. Over the next couple of years, Branstad nominated replacements for all 10 members, installing an anti-abortion doctor who became board chair. Another Branstad appointee, a Catholic priest, had campaigned against the Planned Parenthood program, once arguing in a board meeting that the medical board ought to “uphold the fundamental value of human life from the moment of conception.” In 2013, with the board full of Branstad’s picks, the anti-choice activists revived their old cause. This time, the medical board banned telemedicine abortion everywhere in the state.
[…] Medical boards, which issue licenses to doctors and discipline those who break state laws, are “seen and assumed to be nonpartisan,” says Mai Fleming, a California-based family physician who holds licenses in 17 states. “The hope is that they look at a person’s medical application with unbiased eyes and really evaluate the merit of the provider.”
But a closer look reveals boards that are stacked with Republican political donors in states that have recently tightened restrictions on abortion. Across the 12 states with total or near-total abortion bans as of July 31, more than half of medical board seats were held by people who had given at least $1,000 apiece to Republican campaigns, according to campaign finance data accessed through the National Institute on Money in Politics analyzed by Mother Jones. An estimated 70 percent are men. […]
While prosecutors in states with criminal abortion laws must convince juries “beyond a reasonable doubt” to convict a doctor, medical boards can typically use a lower standard of proof to take away a physician’s credentials. […]
The Justice Department subpoenaed former President Trump months before federal law enforcement executed a search warrant of his Mar-a-Lago estate this week, The New York Times reported Thursday.
According to the Times, investigators had been concerned about classified national security information that might have remained at Trump’s Florida property, even in the months after the National Archives recovered 15 boxes of White House materials from there in January.
The subpoena reportedly preceded a June meeting at Mar-a-Lago between attorneys representing Trump and Justice Department investigators, who later asked that a basement room containing White House records be better secured.
[…] A few weeks after the June meeting between Trump’s lawyers and Justice Department officials, investigators issued another subpoena, this time for security footage near the room where the White House materials were stored.
The reveal of the subpoenas adds new wrinkles to the unprecedented search of the former president’s home this week, suggesting that investigators had worried for months about the possibility of classified national security material left unsecured on the property. […]
[…] In Lake Mead alone, the net water loss has worked out to more than 6 trillion gallons, according to data from the National Park Service.
Hoover Dam is already seeing reduced electricity production from Lake Mead’s shrinking size, and the reservoir is projected to fall to approximately 150 feet above “dead pool” status, or the point at which the levels are too low to flow downstream, endangering both power and drinking water.
[…] “The Colorado River is getting the most attention recently, but the Central Valley in California has hideously overpumped its groundwater,” Glennon said. “The ground levels there have dropped by 30 to 40 feet — the whole surface of the Earth has dropped in response to excessive groundwater [depletion].”
Separately, he noted, the Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies much of the Great Plains states and parts of Texas, is projected to be 70 percent depleted over the next few decades, and the Supreme Court last year had to intervene in a water dispute between the states of Florida and Georgia, ruling against the Sunshine State’s claim that water overconsumption by Georgia is depleting Florida’s oyster fisheries. […]
Wonkette: “Trump Crawling-Out-Of-His-Skin Scared Right Now”
More and more news continues to trickle out about the routine FBI Fuck-Around-And-Find-Out Festival that rained down on Mar-a-Lago earlier this week. Wonkette will continue to update you with all the pertinent developments, but the point of this here particular blog post is that Donald Trump is fucking freaked.
Asawin Suebsaeng reports for Rolling Stone that Trump is literally asking people in his inner circle who there is “wearing a wire.” He thinks maybe there are WIRE TAPPS in his phones. (On that count, obviously Fox News is stoking paranoia in its number one pant-shitting viewer, with Jesse Watters last night wildly speculating that the feds may have bugged Mar-a-Lago, just like they did with the campaign. The feds did not bug Trump’s campaign, unless you consider the Russian ambassador “Trump’s campaign,” but Fox News and Jesse Watters are stupid, stupid liars.)
Thing is, according to Suebsaeng’s sources, this has been going on for a while. Trump has been asking people all summer if he’s been bugged “by Biden.”
As a source close to Trump describes it to Rolling Stone: “He has asked me and others, ‘Do you think our phones are tapped?’ Given the sheer volume of investigations going on into the [former] president, I do not think he’s assuming anything is outside the realm of possibility.”
Turns out he’s been worried people in his own inner circle are “wearing a wire” since May. And like a true mob boss, “the ex-president and several of his longtime advisers are trying to figure out if they have, in their terminology, a ‘mole’ or a ‘rat’ in Trump’s inner sanctum who is slipping his secrets to the feds.”
Add in an FBI search and a bunch of baseless lies from Trump lawyers, allies, and media buddies bout the FBI planting evidence — we imagine in order to prepare us for the feds to reveal something horrible that they confiscated from Trump’s safe or the Mar-a-Lago basement — and you just have one great big absurd paranoid shitshow.
As Rolling Stone notes, […] all of Trumpland has been freaking out about who “flipped” on Trump. Later that day, Newsweek, not that we trust Newsweek unless it really shows its work, reported that there was indeed a “confidential human source” who tipped off the feds as to what Trump was hiding from them and where in Mar-a-Lago they’d be found. […]
But indeed, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan said the FBI targeted its search on the aforementioned basement, plus another storage area and a bedroom. We’d imagine that means they knew what they were looking for, and where, and it makes sense a person told them those things.
[…] the short version is that the Wall Street Journal is now confirming Newsweek, at least partially, and reporting that somebody tipped the feds off to the very surprising fact that Donald Trump was lying to them. WSJ is very quiet about how it says “informant,” much more so than Newsweek:
[S]omeone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club after the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes earlier in the year, people familiar with the matter said. And Justice Department officials had doubts that the Trump team was being truthful regarding what material remained at the property, one person said.
So!
Who’s the informant? Mick Mulvaney said on CNN it must be somebody “very close” to Trump:
“This would be someone who was handling things on day to day, who knew where documents were, so it would be somebody very close inside the president, my guess is there’s probably six or eight people who had that kind of information,” Mulvaney said on CNN.
He said he didn’t even know Mar-a-Lago had a safe, and he was chief of staff for 15 months, which was an eternity in the Trump administration.
SO WHO IS IT?
Is it Mark Meadows is it Eric Trump IS IT BARRON IS IT MELANIA is it Don Jr. haha no it’s not Don Jr. that guy is way too pathetic and desperate for his father’s love is it Ivanka IS IT JARED IS IT JARED IS IT JARED is it Mark Meadows? Is it one of these clownfuck spox people with obviously fake names like “Taylor Budowich” or “Liz Harrington”? IS IT JARED? The internet thinks it’s Jared maybe. Also there is a tweet out there about Barron playing video games and just pointing out the safe for the feds, IS IT BARRON?
Let’s get back to that paranoia engulfing Mar-a-Lago like a tidal wave:
One Trump adviser tells Rolling Stone that since Tuesday, MAGA loyalists have been asking to pass their suspicions to Trump, telling him not to trust certain individuals and to investigate them for possible contacts with federal authorities. “I’m getting a lot of messages saying [things like], ‘This guy must be the informant,’ and others … calling for the [former] president to start doing phone checks of his staff,” says the adviser. “To be honest, a lot of it feels like people trying to screw over the ones they don’t like [in Trumpworld].”
Amazing. And as RS notes, he has good reasons to be scared now. […]
The Justice Department moved Thursday to unseal portions of the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, absent any complaints from former President Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in a televised press conference.
The DOJ wants to reveal the property receipt that Trump received for records that were taken, along with a copy of the warrant itself. Garland said that the DOJ would also seek the release of two attachments to the warrant, though its not clear what those are.
Garland’s statement was narrow and tailored to focus on the circumstances that led him to decide to push for the release of elements of the warrant. Trump, he remarked, had chosen on Monday to disclose the existence of the searches, and currently possesses a copy of the search warrant and of the receipt.
“The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing,” the filing reads.
“The DOJ will speak through its court filings and its work,” Garland said.
He added that he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant.”
Shortly before Garland spoke at Main Justice, federal prosecutors filed a motion in federal court in south Florida asking the judge to unseal the documents. Per the filing, the DOJ asked the court to give Trump a chance to object before ruling on the motion.
The government’s motion to unseal the search warrant was signed by the Juan Antonio Gonzalez, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jay I. Bratt, the chief of DOJ’s counterintelligence and export control section.
In the filing, prosecutors said that they notified Trump’s attorneys of the Monday raid.“At the time the warrant was initially executed, the Department provided notice directly to former President Trump’s counsel,” the filing said.
Garland’s remarks and the motion to unseal comes after a week of moaning and gnashing of teeth from Trump and the GOP that it was time for the DOJ to explain itself for the searches. Trump has held copies of the warrant and inventory since the searches took place, but he has not released them. Meanwhile, Republicans attempted to build a narrative that would have compelled Garland to walk the path taken by former FBI Director Jim Comey, who revealed details of an investigation into Hillary Clinton without ever charging her.
“Federal law, longstanding department rules, and ethical obligations prevent me from providing further details as to the basis of this search at this time,” Garland said in his press conference.
Reginald Selkirksays
Cincinnati FBI attack: I expect prominent Republican politicians will deny all responsibility for enraging the wingnuts.
I really appreciate this. No reason for the GQP crime organization to rip the country apart for weeks or months. Violence would escalate. Someone would die. The former guy has already weaponized the search warrant. Good that DOJ is doing this for the country.
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Garland is playing this beautifully. All Trump had to do is to shut the fuck up about it and nobody would know what they have on him, but he couldn’t do that. He had to play the screaming victim. Now we’re all gonna know what he did. Good job, dumb ass.
———————-
Glad to see Garland calling Trump’s bluff and disproving all of the lies against him about the FBI planting evidence and BS like that.
———————–
Andrew Weissmann: This is Merrick Garland called Donald Trump’s bluff.
Beautiful.
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The Justice Department moved Thursday to unseal portions of the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, absent any complaints from former President Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
———————–
The GQP fucked with the wrong motherfucker. This is more Silent Assassin style shit:
The Motion DOJ just filed explicitly refers to Trumps’ privacy interests and right to be heard about whether the documents are unsealed and suggests that the Court should consider and allow that before making the decision.
Guess what Trump’s going to do. Guess.
This just went from everyone yelling at the GQP KKKult that Trump HAS the warrant and that Trump HAS the receipt and that Trump CAN release both in order to show that his claims are real, that the whole thing is thin gruel and a hoax, etc., TO Garland […] calling Trump’s and the KKKult’s fucking bluff.
This couldn’t be clearer. Garland just said “You want to play games and misrepresent shit and attack my people while hiding the truth? Fine. You brought this on yourself: we’re going to ask to release the truth and you’re going to have to fight us to keep it secret. Your move, Fucktards.”
Oggie: Mathomsays
I expect prominent Republican politicians will deny all responsibility for enraging the wingnuts.
I expect two ‘arguments’: 1 – the shooter is insane/has been under psychiatric care/takes medication for some mental illness; or, B – the shooter is actually a BLM/Democratic/CIA/FBI/NSA/FCC/CNN undercover operative who is setting up a false flag operation to implicate the real ‘Mercuns (that would be Trumpists).
I suppose it is also possible that FAUX Newz, and NewzMax, and talk radio heads, and all the other right-wing mouthpieces will take a step back and say, “Whoah, shit. Our propaganda is putting people in danger. We need to pull it back quite a bit.”
I expect that giant winged porkypines with fly out of me arse backwards long before that happens, but I can dream.
The Russians have shelled the Zaporizhzhia NPP for the 4th time today. The invaders hit very close to the first power unit and damaged the domestic sewage pumping station. Extensive smoke was recorded nearby. There are radiation sources nearby and several radiation sensors are damaged.
Trustworthy News
pravda.com.ua/news/2…
I tried to find out what is going on here and gave up.
It looks like Russia is trying to blow up the Zaporizhzhia NPP and make it look like Ukraine did it.
I’ll be surprised if this nuclear power plant lasts more than a few more weeks.
A member of the Salt Lake County Council is the latest example of why dudes should keep their mouths shut about abortion rights until they learn some basic anatomy.
Dave Alvord decided to teach Vice President Kamala Harris a thing or two after she tweeted, “We trust the judgment of the women of America to make decisions based on what is in their best interest. We trust the women of America to make those decisions about their own bodies.”
Alvord responded, incorrectly: “The baby is not part of the body of a woman. The umbilical chord and placenta do not directly connect to the woman. The baby floats inside the woman. It is not about the woman’s body, it’s to kill then remove the baby’s body. It is done in greater proportion to black babies.”
The umbilical “chord” and placenta do not directly connect to the woman? Does this whiz kid imagine that the placenta just sort of manifests the nutrients and oxygen a fetus needs to survive and grow? It just all kinda comes from nowhere? If so, then why do we need human beings to go through pregnancy and labor and delivery? Why are we doing this very burdensome, dangerous thing if apparently the uterus and the entire human being around the uterus are not providing anything but a little space for a placenta, umbilical cord, and fetus to float around in?
In reality, of course, the placenta attaches to the wall of the uterus. The placenta detaching from the wall of the uterus—called placental abruption—is dangerous. How dangerous? Let’s kick it over to the Mayo Clinic:
For the mother, placental abruption can lead to:
– Shock due to blood loss
– Blood clotting problems
– The need for a blood transfusion
– Failure of the kidneys or other organs resulting from blood loss
– Rarely, the need for hysterectomy, if uterine bleeding can’t be controlled
For the baby, placental abruption can lead to:
– Restricted growth from not getting enough nutrients
– Not getting enough oxygen
– Premature birth
– Stillbirth
Those are some very grave consequences for a condition that noted maternal-fetal medicine expert now-famous schmuck Dave Alvord thinks is the natural state of pregnancy, in which the placenta floats free.
When Alvord’s tweet drew attention a few days after it was originally posted, he stuck by it. People asking questions about it, he insisted, “seem to be missing the point.” You know, the point that he based on a false claim. “My tweet was not a biology lesson but was intended to simply point out that a baby, the umbilical cord, and the placenta are part of a new and developing body, with its own unique DNA and gender, separate from the mother,” he continued.
Yeah, I’ll say it wasn’t a biology lesson. Except, again, his whole claim here rests on “separate.” Which it’s not.
Alvord, in 2021, made a little splash with a Facebook post beginning, “The left won’t be happy until we each have light brown skin, exactly alike, (or else there will remain someone whiter than another,” and going on in that vein for another eight paragraphs. So, I think we know who he is, and that’s some interesting added context for his decision to tweet this specifically in response to the vice president.
Many people on Twitter had thoughts, starting with very basic lessons on how pregnancy and placentas work, and going from there: [Tweets available at the link]
Alvord’s ignorance—or at least his defense of it—is strategic, of course. It’s about putting fetuses above the rights of pregnant people, again. But the fact that his original argument relied so fully on a false claim, whether one made in ignorance or with intent to mislead, is telling.
Update to comment 385: A Federal judge has ordered the DOJ to confer with Trump lawyers and report to him by 3 PM tomorrow about how to proceed on releasing the warrant and related documents.
Okay, then: by 3PM tomorrow. That’s soon! Trump may not be able to drag this one out forever and a day.
Oggie: Mathomsays
It looks like Russia is trying to blow up the Zaporizhzhia NPP and make it look like Ukraine did it.
The Chernobyl incident was a definite factor in the downfall of the Soviet empire. Among many other things. To Russian patriots, such as Valdymyr Putin, what happened at that power plant was a stain on Soviet and Russian pride. A disaster that Soviets and Russians have, since about 2000, sought to minimize (it really was no big deal, very few people were killed, just an overreaction) the incident or, when that fails, present it as the fault of ‘others’ – all those . Including, since it happened in the Socialist Republic of Ukraine, it must have been non-Russians who screwed up. Putin, and his followers (lots and lots of them) view any failure of Russian technology and or people as absolute anathema.
So, blowing up the Zaporizhzhia NPP would fit right in with that. If a second nuclear power plant in Ukraine experiences a major nuclear incident (accident, explosion, failure, whatever) then Putin and his cronies can point and say, in effect, See? The Chernobyl accident had nothing to with Russian expertise, Russian genius, Russian engineering. Those dumb Ukrainians, who blew up Chernobyl by being incompetent, blew up another one by being incompetent (and failing to agree to cheerfully become part of the new Russian Empire).
This version of nationalism — My country could never do anything wrong (and we will lie to deny anything wrong happened, or find a way to blame the ‘other’ — is quite prevalent among the far right — US, Hungary, Russia, Byelorussia. Orban has never done anything wrong and any problem in Hungary is because of ‘them’. Putin has never done anything wrong and any problem in Russia is because of ‘them’. Trump has never done anything wrong . . .
I may be out of line with my reasoning, but, based on experience and education, I may be close.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Blockquote fail on the quote that began my comment. Sorry.
johnson catmansays
re Lynna @391: If Alvord was correct, then an embryo/fetus could be safely removed from a woman and grown in a tank until ready for birth. Why are the anti-abortion people keeping this technology from the world?
raven @390 and Oggie @393, whatever this is, it is truly scary. It looks like the Russians are being extremely irresponsible/criminal. I will keep an eye out for more information.
In other news, here is some humor from Andy Borowitz:
After pleading the Fifth Amendment more than four hundred times in his deposition to the New York State attorney general, Donald J. Trump boasted that Joe Biden could never take the Fifth as many times as he did.
“I’d like to see Sleepy Joe sit in a chair for six hours and take the Fifth four hundred times,” he told reporters. “It’s not gonna happen.”
Claiming that it takes “incredible stamina” to take the Fifth approximately seventy times an hour, Trump said, “I’m winning at the Fifth.”
Calling Biden’s Presidency “a disaster,” he said, “What has Sleepy Joe been doing the past week? Passing a climate-change bill, killing that Al Qaeda guy. Meanwhile, how many times did he take the Fifth? A big fat zero. Joe Biden is a disgrace.”
More shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been reported, with Ukraine and Russia again blaming each other for the attack. [Do not “both sides” this thing. Russia is most certainly lying.]
Each side said there were 10 hits on the office and fire station of Europe’s biggest power plant on Thursday.
The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the situation – with the head of its nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, warning it was a “grave hour”.
UN Secretary General António Guterres also said it could “lead to disaster”.
Ukraine has warned that Russia may provoke the world’s worst nuclear accident at the plant, which was seized by Russia in early March.
On Wednesday, foreign ministers from the G7 group of industrialised nations said Russia must immediately hand back control of the plant to Kyiv.
The US, meanwhile, called for a demilitarised zone to be established around the plant. “Fighting near a nuclear plant is dangerous and irresponsible,” a state department spokesperson said.
The facility and its surrounding area in central-eastern Ukraine saw shelling last week, with Russia and Ukraine also accusing each other over that attack.
Ukraine says Russia has turned the site into a military base, launching attacks from there, knowing that Ukrainian forces are unlikely to retaliate.
Moscow denies the claim. [A worthless claim. Moscow has been proven to lie over and over again.]
In a statement on Thursday, Ukraine’s nuclear agency Enerhoatom said that “Russian invaders again shelled the Zaporizhzhia plant and territories near the nuclear facility”
It said an administrative office near the welding area was hit and several radiation sensors were damaged. There was a small fire on some nearby grass, but no injuries.
Enerhoatom added that the fire station located near the plant was also targeted. [WTF?]
Because of the shelling, it was impossible to change the personnel after their shift, so they had to continue work overtime.
But the situation was currently under control, Enerhoatom said.
NYT on the Cincinnati suspect: “The suspect, identified by the officials as Ricky Shiffer, 42, seems to have appeared in a video posted on Facebook on Jan. 5, 2021, showing him attending a pro-Trump rally…in Washington the night before the Capitol was stormed.”
Some Trump advisers have insisted they were trying all along to work with the feds. But others familiar w federal officials’ efforts have said that Mr. Trump resisted returning property that belonged to the government, despite being told that he needed to.
“The inventory provided to Mr. Trump’s team does reference an array of sensitive material, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. For example, it alludes to miscellaneous confidential documents as well some labeled ‘top secret.'”
Some of the documents that the F.B.I. took as they searched for documents that Trump had withheld were labeled “top secret,” according to the inventory that the agents provided Trump’s team with
The NYT has identified the Ohio shooting suspect as “Ricky Shiffer.” There is a Truth Social account using that same name. On the same day the FBI executed a warrant on Mar A Lago, the account made a call to “be ready for combat” and to “Kill the FBI on sight.”
The last post was from the the Ricky Shiffer account on Truth Social is from this morning. It states:
“If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I., and it’ll mean either I was taken off the internet, the F.B.I. got me, or they sent the regular cops while”
More violent rhetoric from the Ricky Shiffer account on Truth Social….
Once Trump is arrested and convicted, should he be used in a prisoner swap with Russia?
ravensays
The bad news is that the Ukrainian Interior minister agrees with me.
They also seem to think the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is going to be blown up by the Russians.
It’s about time to set up a pool for when the Zaporizhzhia NPP gets “accidently” blown up.
I give it two months.
Ukraine preparing for ‘tragedy’ at Russian-held nuclear plant – minister
Reuters August 11, 2022
SUMY REGION, Ukraine, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s interior minister said on Thursday that Ukraine had to be ready for any scenario at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that has been hit shelling, including evacuating people from the area.
Ukraine and Russia-installed local officials blamed each other for a new volley of shelling on Thursday at the nuclear power plant – Europe’s biggest – which lies in southern Ukraine.
“The plant is as of today not only in the hands of the enemy, but in the hands of uneducated specialists who could potentially allow for a tragedy to happen,” Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky told Reuters in an interview.
“Of course, it’s difficult to even imagine the scale of the tragedy which could come into effect if Russians continue their actions there,” he said.
Ukraine has in recent days warned of the risk of a Chornobyl-style nuclear disaster.
“This means for us that … we have to prepare for any scenario. The state emergency services together with the Interior ministry and the Regions Ministry is discussing different scenarios that are needed, including the question of evacuations,” said Monastyrsky.
“What’s scary is that all of this could happen to any of us who stole nuclear documents.”
Oggie: Mathomsays
Just gonna leave this here as a monument to GOP consitency:
UL 05 2016
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today issued the following statement regarding the FBI’s decision in the Hillary Clinton email probe:
“The FBI concluded what many Americans have known for quite some time, which is that Hillary Clinton’s conduct as Secretary of State and her mishandling of classified information was disgraceful and unbecoming of someone who aspires to the presidency. There is simply no excuse for Hillary Clinton’s decision to set up a home-cooked email system which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation by America’s enemies. Her actions were grossly negligent, damaged national security and put lives at risk.
“Hillary Clinton’s actions have sent the worst message to the millions of hard-working federal employees who hold security clearances and are expected to go to great lengths to secure sensitive government information and abide by the rules. They don’t take their oaths lightly, and we shouldn’t expect any less of their leaders.
“Hillary Clinton’s reckless and thoughtless mishandling of classified information is not the end of the story however. It’s only a matter of time before the next shoe drops and the nexus of corruption and controversy that has surrounded Hillary Clinton throughout her time in public office produces yet another scandal for the American people to endure. Given the consequential and challenging times in which we live, America simply cannot afford any more Clinton drama.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The UK has posted its daily defence intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine.
Key points as follows:
– On 9 August, explosions occurred at the Russian-operated Saky military airfield in western Crimea.
– The original cause of the blasts is unclear, but the large mushroom clouds visible in eyewitness video were almost certainly from the detonation of up to four uncovered munition storage areas.
– At least five fighter-bombers and three multi-role jets were almost certainly destroyed or seriously damaged in the blasts. Saky’s central dispersal area has suffered serious damage, but the airfield probably remains serviceable.
– The loss of eight combat jets represents a minor proportion of the overall fleet of aircraft Russia has available to support the war. Saky was primarily used as a base for the aircraft of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea fleet.
– The fleet’s naval aviation capability is now significantly degraded. The incident will likely prompt the Russian military to revise its threat perception. Crimea has probably been seen as a secure rear-area.
Russia’s permanent representation in the UN, Vasyl Nebenzia, has said the country does not support a proposal to create a demilitarised zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant….
Zelenskiy warns officials against talking about Kyiv’s military tactics
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday told government officials to stop talking to reporters about Kyiv’s military tactics against Russia, saying such remarks were “frankly irresponsible”.
In the wake of major blasts that wrecked a Russian air base in Crimea on Tuesday, the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers cited unidentified officials as saying Ukrainian forces were responsible. The government in Kyiv, on the other hand, declined to say whether it had been behind the explosions.
Zelenskiy said in an evening address:
War is definitely not the time for vanity and loud statements. The fewer details you divulge about our defence plans, the better it will be for the implementation of those defence plans.
If you want to generate loud headlines, that’s one thing – it’s frankly irresponsible. If you want victory for Ukraine, that is another thing, and you should be aware of your responsibility for every word you say about our state’s plans for defence or counter attacks.
Zelenskiy addressed his remarks to state, local and military officials as well as other people he said were commenting on events at the front.
Top career officials at the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) office of the inspector general (OIG) tried to alert Congress in April that Secret Service texts from the time of the January 6 Capitol attack had been erased, but their efforts were nixed by its leadership, documents show.
The officials inside the inspector general’s office – the chief watchdog for the Secret Service – prepared a memo that detailed how the Secret Service was resisting the oversight body’s review into January 6, and delayed informing it about the lost texts.
But after the memo was emailed to the DHS inspector general Joseph Cuffari’s chief of staff, its contents were never seen again, and the disclosure about the erased text messages was never included in Cuffari’s semi-annual report to Congress about oversight work.
The revelation shows that the Secret Service only admitted texts from January 6 were lost months after they were requested by the inspector general’s office, and that Cuffari might have violated federal law in not reporting the matter in the report to Congress.
As noted in the memo, obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and reviewed by the Guardian, the Inspector General Act of 1978 required Cuffari to report “significantly delayed access to information, including the justification of the establishment for such action”.
…
The memo – approved by the DHS office of counsel, the office of investigations, as well as the office of inspections – is particularly significant because it amounted to a compendium of efforts by the Secret Service to seemingly stymie the review.
“Secret Service has resisted OIG’s oversight activities and continued to significantly delay OIG’s access to records, impeding the progress of OIG’s January 6, 2021 review,” the memo said.
Secret Service interviewees, the memo said, regularly indicated that they would not provide documents to the DHS inspector general’s office unless they first went through an internal review, a move potentially in violation of the Inspector General Act.
The memo also noted that on multiple occasions, when the Secret Service produced documents months after they were requested, they contained redactions. The Secret Service did not indicate who approved or applied the redactions or why they were made, the memo said.
Finally, career officials inside the DHS inspector general’s office wrote, the Secret Service claimed they could not access crucial texts from January 6 because of an April 2021 phone system migration that wiped all data from the devices of agents.
The memo was sent to an office overseen by Cuffari’s chief of staff, Kristen Fredericks, on 1 April, according to materials reviewed by the Guardian, so that it could be included in the DHS inspector general’s report to Congress – only for it to be excluded.
“Meanwhile in Russia: Moscow’s mouthpieces pulled out what they see as one of their big guns, Steven Seagal. Here are some highlights from his state TV appearance tonight, where he was spreading Kremlin propaganda like there’s no tomorrow…”
Video at the (Twitter) link. I love the part where Solovyov asks him if he’s received threats and promises that if he just publicly says the right thing about Ukraine he’ll be given back his career like it was before and he says yes. That’s totally how things work here.
“Russian media reports — unconfirmed so far — that the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was ousted and replaced by Vice Adm Viktor Sokolov. Guess all it took is losing your flagship and your main naval aviation base, plus having an enemy drone drop explosives on your HQ.”
ravensays
More than you want to know about Steven Seagal, a former American actor.
I would call him a traitor but he now has Russian citizenship.
I’ve barely heard the name but never watched one second of his films.
Most people say they aren’t very good and he was a B list actor.
He is now an employee of Russian propaganda. Supposedly, he is making a documentary (this will be a propaganda film) about the war.
Russia sent Steven Seagal to occupied Ukraine to spread propaganda, part of his role as a Kremlin spokesman
Mia Jankowicz Aug 10, 2022, 6:57 AM BusinessInsider
Steven Seagal visited the site of a destroyed Ukrainian prison, per Russian media.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of hitting the site, where more than 50 POWs died in late July.
Segal advanced the Kremlin’s claims it was struck by US-provided HIMARS artillery.
Steven Seagal visited a destroyed prison in Russian-occupied Ukraine on Tuesday, where he repeated Kremlin talking points in his role as an official spokesman.
Seagal was there to promote the Russian side, in his capacity as a special representative of Russia’s foreign ministry, tasked with US-Russian relations. Seagal, a longtime admirer of Russia and President Vladimir Putin, was given that title in 2018.
Seagal, a longtime pro-Russia figure, is filming a documentary about the war in the region, according to a post from Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader in the Donetsk region who is helping Russia attack Ukraine.
rorschachsays
SC @412,
“Moscow’s mouthpieces pulled out what they see as one of their big guns, Steven Seagal.”
Might the big gun not rather be Agolf Twitler having a meeting with Lawrov in the Oval Office right after being elected? One might argue it was all out in the open then already. No D grade actors needed.
Desperate for new talking points, Republicans are arguing that Barack Obama may also have improperly taken documents. Reality proves otherwise.
As Attorney General Merrick Garland wrapped up his brief remarks yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump wasted no time in responding. In fact, the former president, by way of his Twitter-like platform, pushed back immediately — in a decidedly Trump-like way.
“I continue to ask, what happened to the 33 Million pages of documents taken to Chicago by President Obama?” the Republican wrote. “The Fake News Media refuses to talk about that. They want it CANCELED!”
It followed a similar message Trump published earlier in the day. “What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House to Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama?” the former president asked. “He refused to give them back! What is going on? This act was strongly at odds with NARA. Will they be breaking into Obama’s ‘mansion’ in Martha’s Vineyard?”
Other prominent Republicans stuck to the script. “They shipped 30 million pages of sensitive and possibly classified materials to Chicago, and, by the way, he has yet to return any of it to the National Archives. Not one page,” Fox News’ Sean Hannity claimed. “So is his house about to get raided?” [JFC]
Harmeet Dhillon, a former Trump campaign legal adviser, added on Fox News, “Are there SWAT teams descending on Chicago to get those documents? No. And so the double standard and triple standard here is very apparent.”
To a very real extent, it’s a little pitiful to see Republicans, unable to think of anything legitimate or persuasive, resort to whataboutism — or to the point, lazy whataboutism.
But in case your weird uncle who consumes conservative media all day sends you all-caps emails about this, let’s note for the record that the Obama-related claims are demonstrably absurd. As the Washington Post explained yesterday:
As was reported back in late 2016, the Obama team was transferring the records to Chicago through the National Archives, which legally owns the documents once a president leaves office. Once the documents ultimately reached a warehouse in Chicago, the Obama Foundation was then due to pay the National Archives and Record Administration to digitize the documents. The lengthiness of that process aside, there isn’t the faintest hint of legal violations. There is no evidence that Obama has hidden anything from the National Archives or that he didn’t go through the processes required to share and protect those documents once they leave Washington.
This need not be complicated: Obama worked with the National Archives; Trump worked around the National Archives.
Obama didn’t improperly take anything; Trump improperly took several boxes’ worth of materials, including highly sensitive national security documents.
There is simply nothing legitimate about this entire line of argument. It’s not only insulting to Americans’ intelligence, it reeks of desperation.
Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked Friday as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The 75-year-old author was pushed or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained.
Rushdie was quickly surrounded by a small group of people who held up his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest.
His condition was not immediately known.
Hundreds of people in the audience gasped at the sight of the attack and were then evacuated.
Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous. A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.
A bounty of over $3 million has also been offered for anyone who kills Rushdie.
Iran’s government has long since distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, but anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered. In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation raised the bounty for Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
I see others have already reacted to the attempted murder.
.
This is why ex-muslims face far more serious consequences than ex-christians (unless you take a time machine).
An intercepted phone conversation between an occupier in Ukraine and his friend in russia. We can’t say that their morale is high. It’s best for them to go home now… while they still can.
Twitter link. The visuals made me laugh.
rorschachsays
@420,
“This is why ex-muslims face far more serious consequences than ex-christians”
I don’t think this is true in the current US. It’s on for young and old, noone is safe there anymore, 50% of the population are unhinged lunatics who may yet sail under a “Christian” banner, but they are as unhinged as any Taliban. And they have weapons. Lots.
KGsays
Salman Rushdie is apparently alive, being treated in hospital. The Governor of New York has praised a state trooper for saving his life, which suggests “alive” is not just a euphemism for “dead, but they haven’t yet pulled the plug”.
Donald Trump issued a new statement about the report that the FBI was searching Mar-a-Lago for classified documents related to nuclear weapons, and where his previous statement kind of sort of admitted it by suggesting that the FBI might have planted such information, the new one moves on to suggesting it’s no big deal because everyone else does it, too.
And once you’re trying to downplay the seriousness of the allegation, you’re basically admitting that it’s true. […]
KG @ #421, that is truly cynical. I’m almost impressed.
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, quoted in the linked article:
…“From the point of view of equating Jews with business, what does that mean? Does it mean Jews are especially good at business, where does that lead us? It limits Jews to see business and family in a narrow sense.”
But she added: “A concern about minorities is a great thing, thank you. And the fact there is a Conservative candidate concerned by any form of racism is good.”
Nice backhand.
rorschachsays
“dead, but they haven’t yet pulled the plug”
Tricky, neck wounds are. Even if you don’t hit the carotid artery first up. Lots of complications possible. He’ll be in trouble, best case.
PARIS (Reuters) – The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) has warned economic damage from heatwaves and drought could dwarf Europe’s energy crisis as he called for urgent action to tackle climate change.
Director General Josef Aschbacher told Reuters successive heatwaves along with wildfires, shrinking rivers and rising land temperatures as measured from space left no doubt about the toll on agriculture and other industries from climate change.
“Today, we are very concerned about the energy crisis, and rightly so. But this crisis is very small compared to the impact of climate change, which is of a much bigger magnitude and really has to be tackled extremely fast,” he said.
Commentary:
[…] Yet another extreme event has arrived in Western Europe as the continent’s withering crops spark worries of a hunger crisis lingering into autumn and winter. Wildfires have caused tens of thousands to evacuate their homes in France. 80% of Italy’s agriculture was lost, not far behind France and Spain.
In countries with little to no air conditioning, the heat crisis is felt by humans; wildlife and livestock suffer and die as the fourth heatwave scorches the region. The drought affects two-thirds of the land area in Europe.
The increased heating of rivers and seawater is too warm and dangerous for nuclear plants to operate safely. In France, most power plants have shut down.
The Rhine River water levels in Germany are so low that goods cannot be transported by barge. The Danube is dry; the source of the Thames river has dried up for the first time on record. The Po in Italy and the Loire in France are both dry.
In the Loire valley, France’s garden for vegetables has failed for the season. Milk and cheese prices are surging as cows cannot graze on grass anymore and lack access to water, forcing farmers to buy hay and other fodder. France is just one of a few wheat exports. A severe food crisis haunts the EU.
Rainfall has been minimal, and irrigation has been banned in the northwest and southeast due to drinking water shortages. When precipitation does fall (it could be months), the water will be difficult to contain as it will be shorter and more intense. The heatwave exacerbates evaporation, drives up demand, and is with forever chemicals.
In the UK government, not one of them has a care in the world. [tweet at the link]
More than 100 French municipalities have no running drinking water and are being supplied by truck, green transition minister Christophe Béchu said, adding: “We are going to have to get used to episodes of this type. Adaptation is no longer an option, it’s an obligation.”
With surface soil humidity the lowest ever recorded and July rainfall 85% lower than usual, water restrictions including hosepipe and irrigation bans are in place in 93 of the country’s 96 mainland départements, with 62 classified as “in crisis”.
The Washington Post:
It has been barely three weeks since a historic spate of extreme temperatures baked western Europe, smashing all-time records in Britain. Now a new heat wave is building over the continent, with alerts issued and more records in jeopardy.
By Thursday, much of France and southern parts of England are expected to see high temperatures 18 to 27 degrees (10 to 15 Celsius) above normal — with highs in the 90s (above 32 Celsius) rather than the 70s (above 21 Celsius). […]
Driving the heat is a ridge of high pressure, colloquially known as a heat dome, which will be parked directly over Britain by Tuesday night into Wednesday. In addition to bringing hot, sinking air, it will deflect any inclement weather — making for incessant sunshine. […]
While the core of the heat will be situated over southern Britain and France from Thursday through Sunday, above-average temperatures will also swell from the Netherlands through southern Scandinavia. The heat will retreat from western Europe early next week shifting toward Eastern Europe.
It’s well-established that human-caused climate change is amplifying the severity, duration and frequency of high-end heat events. In addition to the ultrarare heat that baked Britain last month, a similar-magnitude event brought record-shattering temperatures, including a high of 109 degrees in Paris, in late July 2019.
Bloomberg:
In the European energy crisis, all of the attention is focused on Germany and gas from Russia. But France and its fleet of struggling nuclear reactors are at least as important. Indeed, the first European city to suffer a blackout as temperatures drop toward the end of the year may well be Paris rather than Berlin.
As winter approaches, the outlook in France is increasingly dire. Electricite de France SA, the state-owned utility, is running only 26 of its 57 reactors, with more than half of its chain undergoing emergency maintenance after the discovery of cracked pipes. With atomic reactors generating the lowest share of the country’s power in 30 years, France faces an electricity ‘Waterloo.’
The slump in nuclear availability is forcing France to rely more than ever on gas-fired plants, intermittent wind and hydro as well as imports. That’s pushing up the cost of electricity in the wholesale market for the whole of Europe, with French forward prices surging to almost 1,000% more than their decade-long average through 2020.
Breaking News Ireland:
Climatologist John Sweeney has warned the world was effectively reaping the rewards of inaction on climate change.
Recent heatwaves in Europe were a consequence of the lack of action, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“We’re seeing a more marked intensification of heatwaves, a more marked intensification of the frequency and intensity of them by three to four times the average for this part of the middle latitudes.
“It’s something that we have been telling people about for many years now but certainly this has been a brutal summer in much of Europe. We know now for example that the heatwave last month in the UK was ten times more likely as a consequence of what we’ve been doing to climate.
“So, we’re effectively reaping the rewards of much of the inaction that the globe has had on this topic over many years now and that consequence is coming home to roost big time in Europe.”
Oil Price:
From OilPrice.com
Norwegian electricity normally goes to the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. However, hydropower output, which accounts for the bulk of Norway’s total electricity output, has been low this year, and the country is trying to secure local sufficiency. More bad news for struggling Europe, where renewable power output remains uneven.
The picture is not pretty, and earlier this month, the IMF signaled it could become even worse as it advised European governments to pass on the additional energy costs to consumers to encourage energy savings. The fund argued that financial aid only keeps energy consumption high when it should be going down.
Meanwhile, Nomura analysts recently forecast that the eurozone, along with the UK, the U.S., South Korea, Australia, and Canada, are among the countries facing recession in 2023.
“Right now central banks, many of them have shifted to essentially a single mandate — and that’s to get inflation down. Monetary policy credibility is too precious an asset to lose. So they’re going to be very aggressive,” Nomura’s head of global markets research, Rob Subbaraman, said last month.
Add to this central bank aggressiveness the equally aggressive stance the EU is taking in its standoff with Russia, and there’s a recipe for recession right there.
Reuters’ Kemp predicted that at least four European economies will fall into a recession before the year’s end. Unfortunately, it’s the four largest – Germany, France, Italy, and Britain – which means the pain will be felt across the bloc and the rest of Europe, too. The silver lining: fuel prices might begin to fall once a recession settles in.
[…] “As the facts stand now, his defense would be, ‘I declassified those documents. I am not therefore in possession of classified documents now,’” said Charles Stimson, a senior fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation and a former federal prosecutor. The Heritage Foundation, that stalwart Republican establishment think tank and policy center. Stimson says that Trump was “the ultimate declassification authority.” And he could do it all by himself. He didn’t even have to do it. He just had to think it.
“If any president decides to declassify a document and doesn’t tell anybody—but he has made the decision to declassify something—then the document is declassified,” Stimson said. He added that “there’s a rich debate about whether or not a document is declassified if a president has decided but not communicated it outside of his own head.” No. There is not a rich debate. This is bullshit. […]
Plenty of other experts interviewed by NBC News agree. “He can’t just wave a wand and say it’s declassified,” former Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence Richard Immerman said. “There has to be a formal process. That’s the only way the system can work,” in order to control access to and handling of sensitive national security documents. “I’ve seen thousands of declassified documents. They’re all marked ‘declassified’ with the date they were declassified,” Immerman said.
Process, schmrocess, says Trump. “We’ve told him there’s a process and not following it could be a problem but he didn’t care because he thinks this stuff is dumb,” a source who tried to explain this to Trump said. “His attitude is that he is the president. He is in charge of the country and therefore national security. So he decides.” Note that’s all in present tense. […]
After the news broke that the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago the FBI obtained a search warrant to hunt for pertained to classified nuclear secrets, it took about zero point zero seconds for the Russian government and its media mouthpieces to decide that they really, really would love it if Donald trump came to Moscow. You know, for humanitarian reasons or whatever.
[…] As a Russian military expert waxed on about his concern that the American “campaign of fomenting hatred” against Trump could lead to his “political assassination” on one of the state’s propaganda shows, host and Russian State Duma member Evgeny Popov piped up with one proposed solution:
“We should ask [Russia’s] Federal Security Service to start protecting our Donald.”
Whether Popov’s plan would involve sending Russian security agents to Florida to “protect” Donald or the scenario would be one in which Donald is spirited away to a Moscow apartment is not clear, and it won’t do you much good to ponder it because this is Russian state television, where Duma members come up with wacky plans like this on a daily basis. The first possibility would have Russian special agents volunteering to protect Mar-a-Lago, the place where Donald Trump was keeping state nuclear secrets as personal mementos and the place that FBI agents still can’t be 100% sure they’ve cleared those nuclear documents out of.
The second possibility would have Donald Trump fleeing to Moscow for political asylum, which Russian strongman Vladimir Putin would probably find even more appealing now that he knows Donald might bring along extra-special thank you presents. It’s also the plan that would get the most American support. Yeah, by all means—set Donald Trump up with his very own Moscow residence. He likes tall buildings, and he loves balconies.
[…] The Russian host [Popov] claimed to be very put out by the large numbers of homeless children in America. Russia can “take” those children, he proposed, raising them “normally, without gays and transgenders, in normal, classic culture.”
Yeah, I’ll bet. I imagine the Russian state, struggling to maintain a war effort due to their own continued catastrophic incompetence, would be particularly interested in caring for homeless American children from 17 to 17.9 years old. They’d probably get their own spiffy not-school uniforms and everything.
Way back in ye olden Mueller days, I would often point out that a man with his own private intercontinental-capable jet and a reliance on overseas money was actually a pretty big flight risk, president or no. It may be time to haul that observation out again. Why, all it took was the revelation that Donald Trump was hoarding classified nuclear secrets at his damn Florida for-profit club for Russian television hosts to take a keen new interest in procuring his, let’s say, “safety.” If he wants to bring along a bunch of near-conscription-age children that’d be a nice little bonus, but really—bringing along his Mar-a-Lago keepsakes would be enough.
In fact, it seems Donald has suddenly made himself the most valuable American in the world, for any nuclear or near-nuclear regime chafing at U.S. power. He’s probably quite pleased about that. Giddy, even.
The odds that Donald’s going to run his 2024 campaign from a location overseas just soared, in fact. Wouldn’t that be a bizarre thing to watch.
“The list includes references to one set of documents marked as ‘Various classified/TS/SCI documents,’ … four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents.”
Of the 30,000 Clinton emails, a total of three were marked with a c for confidential, the lowest classification level, though without headers. All other classified material was deemed so retroactively.
This trip to MaL yielded the FBI 11 sets of classified documents.
On Thursday, video emerged of Beto O’Rourke, in the midst of one of the high-energy, baby’s-first-coke-binge moments for which he is known, calling a supporter of his opponent in the Texas governor’s race “motherfucker.”
We thought that was pretty funny! Almost as funny as the dramatic lunge Beto does around the :38 mark in the video below. Say what you want about Beto, nothing, but nothing, keeps him from Leg Day. [Tweet and video available at the link]
Anyway, you motherfuckers probably figured that some motherfuckers somewhere would clutch their motherfucking pearls over this horrific breach of decorum. And sure enough, NPR is on the case:
And while the former U.S. Representative received cheers from the crowd, political experts say he went too far.
Which political experts? We’re political experts of a sort, and we think Beto didn’t go far enough. He was ranting about the massacre of schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas, and the easy availability of semi-automatic rifles when this heckler started laughing. Which is what sent Beto into beast mode.
Frankly, we think Beto went easy on the guy. […] This is probably why no one from NPR would ever ask us for our opinion.
According to Cal Jillson, professor of Political Science at Southern Methodist University, O’Rourke’s kneejerk reaction shows he’s passionate, which is good, but dropping an f-bomb in a room with elderly attendees and kids, not so much.
The room cheered Beto like a motherfucker, so we’re not sure what video Jillson was watching.
“Light cursing can make you seem more authentic to your supporters, but there are shades of language that are dangerous,” Jillson said. “[O’Rourke] may have skated right up to it and past it.”
Are we really having this conversation in the era of Donald Trump, a man whose general vulgarity has made him the leading candidate for his third straight GOP presidential nomination despite the fact that he also has the wit and class and brainpower of a dead squirrel stuffed inside another dead squirrel?
Rice University Political Science professor Mark Jones echoed similar sentiments: “It helps them, it hurts them.” [,,,]
“These are voters who are Democratic voters, Republican voters, who don’t have an issue with profanity in their private life but hold public officials and those making public pronouncements to a higher standard,” Jones said.
This is what made us laugh about this story: NPR found it important enough to seek out not one but two poli-sci professors to make the incredible observation that while some people might not care about a candidate who curses, other people will be upset by a candidate who curses. Who’s running the assignment desk over there, Zombie Emily Post?
Toilet talk and opponent bashing seem more commonplace now than ever before in politics, Jillson said, which is unfortunate because it makes it harder for these people to do their jobs.
“You hear people being called fascists, communists, groomers and pedophiles in ways you didn’t hear decades ago, and now you hear people more emboldened to capture the audiences the attention,” he said. “It’s harmful to our politics because it becomes more difficult to conduct politics and find that middle ground on issues.”
There is an enormous, enormous difference between a candidate in a moment of high dudgeon calling a heckler who laughed about dead schoolchildren a “motherfucker,” and an entire political movement smearing its opponents as murderous kiddie-diddlers. The latter is a strategy for dehumanizing millions of people and turning them into civilization-destroying enemies who must be not just outvoted but destroyed. The former is correct.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me, much as they have done for the last 6 years,” the former president blarped last night. He vomited out several sentences on his own greatness and the hellscape that America has become under Joe Biden, before finishing with a demand to “Release the documents now!”
Note that he did not RELEASE THE DOCUMENTS NOW his own damn self, as he’s had every right to do since Monday when his tacky-ass [club] got raided by the FBI.
The documents at issue here are the warrant to search the joint and seize evidence of crimes, and the receipt for what was taken, both of which were given to Trump’s lawyer Christina Bobb at the time of the search. The Justice Department entered them onto the docket under seal because subjects of a criminal investigation have due process and privacy rights. But that never prevented Trump from putting them out there on his own. Instead he took full advantage of the information vacuum to sling a ton of shit, accusing Biden of weaponizing the FBI, claiming without evidence that agents planted evidence, and allowing Trump’s supporters to rail against the DOJ (and the FBI, including making threats on Trump’s own social media platform, threats which were then carried out) for not using a subpoena when Trump was being so “cooperative.”
In point of fact, there’s been a subpoena for months seeking to collect the improperly retained classified documents, as disgraced reporter John Solomon was first to report yesterday. Of course, Solomon left out the part where Trump’s lawyers got a personal visit from the top lawyer at the counter intelligence division and still refused to give the stuff back. It took CNN and the New York Times to tell the public about that little detail. And then the Washington Post broke the news that some of the classified documents Trump kept in his basement pertained to nuclear weapons.
Ain’t that some shit!
Watch Christina Bobb admit to Laura Ingraham — Laura Ingraham! — that she’s, like, pretty sure that there was no nuke stuff in there. [Tweet and video at the link]
Does Bobb have a security clearance to be going through classified docs? Particularly of the top secret variety? LOL.
Anyway! With their wHy dIdN’t tHe fBi jUsT sUbPoEnA talking point in tatters, Republicans have been forced to move those goal posts toot sweet. Especially since Uncle Merrick gave that presser yesterday and called Trump’s bluff by moving to release the warrant and inventory.
Senator Lindsey Graham, who may be a craven [lackey] but is not A IDIOT, was first to grok the need for a course correction.
“What I am looking for is the predicate for the search,” he tweeted indignantly. “Was the information provided to the judge sufficient and necessary to authorize a raid on the former president’s home within ninety days of the midterm election?” [Tweet available at the link]
First of all, the raid did not take place within 90 days of an election, and anyway Trump’s not even on the ballot. But good to see the GOP has recovered its sense of outrage over law enforcement announcements coming close on the heels of an election. [Cough cough James Comey.] Second, this is a transparent attempt to ask for something he knows damn well he’s not going to get in an effort to make it seem like the DOJ is up to something nefarious.
Because Lindsey Graham, who’s been a JAG lawyer for decades, knows that all the “urging, actually insisting” in the world isn’t going to persuade AG Garland to disclose the underlying affidavit supporting this warrant. Even if it didn’t contain reference to nuclear secrets, the affidavit is evidence in an ongoing investigation, it probably makes reference to both grand jury and classified materials, and there’s no way it can possibly come out. Although, if it did, you can bet your bottom dollar that Graham would pivot instantly to claiming that the Justice Department was trying to slime Trump in the press.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Turley hopped on Hannity’s junk to help flog this bullshit storyline:
I think what’s surprising is that this was handled by a magistrate, a matter of this importance you would think would go to an article three judge or that the magistrate would bring in the article three judge to basically confirm that this is the correct course of action. We are going to have to see that affidavit, and we don’t know. They may have found classified information, the government has the right to retrieve that information. But it’s also important to know that this is a fairly common conflict between former presidents and the archives. Material is taken all the time that the archive says needs to be brought back.
Wow, that’s a whole lot of lies in just a few sentences. Let’s unpack!
First, it is a magistrate judge’s IRL job to review warrants, as Turley certainly knows. And US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart works in West Palm Beach, so that’s who the DOJ went to. If the Department had gone to a US District judge — or “Article Three judge,” Turley is a law professor so he has to blarp like that — Turley would accuse it of judge shopping. (Magistrates are hired by “Article Three” judges to do the scut work, like warrants.) Second, again, no you can’t see the affidavit, but props for pretending in advance that whatever incriminating shit is in the warrant and inventory is no big deal. And third, yeah no kidding ex-presidents take stuff pretty regularly. But generally they give it back when asked, without having to be subpoenaed, much less requiring FBI agents with a warrant to come retrieve it.
“Why couldn’t you have done that with a less intrusive means?” Turley continued, safe in the knowledge that no one who watches Fox would believe the CNN or Times reporting that the Justice Department issued a subpoena for those documents three months ago. “The attorney general today said that there was no other possible or less intrusive means. That left a lot of us scratching our heads like I can think of a lot of alternatives and this warrant hopefully will explain why you didn’t think that there was any other possibility. But it’s really the affidavit that will tell us whether they had a good faith basis.”
Why, yes, that is the same Jonathan Turley who called for a special prosecutor to put Hillary Clinton in email jail for her handling of classified documents. But, you know “good faith,” etc.
We are, we might say, deep in the thick of it. Until recently we heard constantly how there was no accountability for the ex-President, no investigations or prosecutions, of anything tied to the denouement of the Trump presidency, save for the men who actually entered the Capitol complex on January 6th. Now we learn that there are and have been multiple investigations touching on various incidents tied to the end of the Trump presidency. There was a bunch of frothy and nonsensical chatter earlier in the week about how the FBI had just given the presidency back to Donald Trump. This morning the House Freedom Caucus, ground zero of Trumpism and coup plotting, canceled the press conference they had planned to bewail the FBI search of the ex-President’s home. [LOL] Facts change and you have to react to them.
It is probably best to say that we are back in one of those fugue windows Trump Republicans have, much like January 7th-9th 2021, in which there’s a period of relative silence while a story is devised to explain why something inexplicable and indefensible is in fact awesome and totally fine. They’ll get there.
I will tell you what I told a friend a couple days ago about the Mar-a-Lago search. None of it matters. I didn’t mean the raid itself doesn’t matter. I wasn’t saying whatever the FBI agents were looking for wouldn’t matter. I have no idea. But the particular predicate and exigencies of the search or the decision to carry it out was never going to matter to the outcome of the 2022 election. Only the myopia of political commentators who read events of the day like entrails to divine the future would think otherwise. The population of voters who aren’t already hating or loving Trump and are going to be shifted in their political or electoral calculus by the relative merits of a court ordered search warrant don’t amount to a dozen people in the whole country.
[…] I’m not going to try to predict what the outcome of these various probes will be or why on earth Donald Trump might have been, if he was, keeping highly classified nuclear weapons related materials at his Palm Beach resort. Truly, WTF? But one point is already clear enough. Republicans have rightly tried for most of the last six months to keep Donald Trump, literally and figuratively, out of the midterms. He’s now returned with a vengeance. They have no choice but defend him. To the hilt. It’s the bargain they struck with him years ago. That’s bad news for Republicans. Coming on top of much else that has happened over the summer, that development shifts the election from a referendum on Joe Biden and the generally upended and crappy state of the economy and world to a choice election between Democrats and Republicans who are identified with Donald Trump.
I’m not saying that means the Democrats will have a good election necessarily. But it’s a bad development for Republicans. There’s no getting around that.
Yep, Republicans are having a really difficult time dealing with the latest scandal swirling around Hair Furor.
[…] Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee held a press conference this morning to once again defend Trump, floating some newly crafted arguments. The Washington Post highlighted one of my favorites:
Rep. Michael R. Turner (Ohio), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, suggested that it was possible that Trump had in his possession documents related to nuclear weapons that were technically classified but not “truly classified.” [eyeroll]
Sure, the former president may have improperly taken nuclear secrets to his golf club. And sure, he didn’t give them back when asked. And sure, he and his team didn’t comply with a subpoena. And sure, Trump gave the FBI no choice but to execute a search warrant.
But let’s not assume, Turner suggested, that just because the nuclear secrets Trump allegedly took are classified that they’re, you know, classified.
Politico added, “Republicans who days ago were near-united in blasting the Justice Department are allowing that nuclear weapons-related materials at Mar-a-Lago might be problematic.”
Yes. Problematic. How generous of them.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy added that holding onto documents relating to nuclear weapons “doesn’t seem like that’s something [Trump] would be doing.” [He would do it if Putin or Kim Jong Un found it useful.]
[…] House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, meanwhile, urged the public this morning not to “jump to conclusions” — despite the fact that the New York congresswoman has spent the week jumping to conclusions, and despite the fact that at the same press conference, Stefanik again accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing“ federal law enforcement, despite the fact that there’s literally no evidence that this has happened.
All of which leaves us with a couple of inescapable truths. The first is that GOP officials feel the need to remain loyal to Trump, even if he did mishandle national security materials and illegally take nuclear secrets to his resort.
The second is that the party’s new talking points are every bit as ridiculous as the script from a few days ago.
From the New York Rimes, via Steve Benen at MaddowBlog:
The search warrant for Trump’s residence cited three criminal laws, all from Title 18 of the United States Code. Section 793, better known as the Espionage Act, which covers the unlawful retention of defense-related information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary; Section 1519, which covers destroying or concealing documents to obstruct government investigations or administrative proceedings; and Section 2071, which covers the unlawful removal of government records.
Oh. Shit. And. Shinola.
I can’t wait to hear (well, actually, I am dreading it) the convolutions the GOP sycophants are going to come up with to explain that what Clinton (see my #409) or Obama (see Lynna’s #417) did were so much worser and more worser and down right evil. Of course, they have already started the ‘it is no big deal’ (See Lynna’s #436).
And it really makes me wonder just what the Secret Service is covering up (and yeah, this is now in criminal cover-up territory). Just the attempted coup? What did/does the Secret Service know about all the US Government property, some of it classified, Trump took as his own.
Does Trump think these are his own documents? I wonder if he was planning to sell them to make a few more millions on the grift?
A firefighter died while battling a wildfire in southwestern Oregon after he was struck by a tree, officials said Thursday.
Collin Hagan, 27, died Wednesday while he was fighting the Big Swamp Fire near Oakridge, Oregon, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted on social media.
Hagan, from Toivola, Michigan, was critically injured when a tree hit him, and he died “despite lifesaving efforts by EMS personnel assigned to the fire,” the sheriff’s office added.
. . .
Hagan was a wildland firefighter assigned to the Craig Interagency Hotshot Crew based in Craig, Colorado, according to the sheriff’s office. His body was flown from the Toketee Airstrip to the Roseburg Regional Airport by REACH Air Medical Services helicopter.
Obviously, I was never a hotshot (Firefighter Type 1), but the dangers at a forest fire, not including the fire itself, are scary — lack of sleep, long hours, dangerous roads — and, though the Incident Commander and Staff seek to minimize these issues — mandatory time off, speed limits, traffic control — people really do risk their lives in any position at a wildland fire. A type 1 or type 2 firefighter adds in working on steep slopes, near sawyers, near trees damaged by fire, near rocks that have been destabilized by heating, soil that has been destabilized by water/slurry drops, heavy machinery, extreme heat, etc.
Part of me is really upset that I can no longer perform my old incident jobs. I feel like I am shirking my training and experience. And even after five seasons out of the fire militia, I still kinda miss it. I do not miss the danger (which for me was minimal), but . . .
This guy was a US Government employee, so any family and/or dependents will get some help, but, oh, shit. That whole family.
Salman Rushdie is on a ventilator, unable to speak, and may lose an eye, his agent told the New York Times.
“The news is not good,” Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent, said Friday evening. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
Top comments on Trump forums right now are just trying to ID the specific FBI agents who were part of and signed off on the raid so they can be “helicopter passengers,” a reference to Chilean dictator August[o] Pinochet murdering dissidents by throwing them out of helicopters.
They haven’t been too successful at it and are awaiting an affidavit because it will “NAME the traitors.”
“Keyhan paper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran’s Leader, Ali Khamenei, congratulates the man who stabbed prominent novelist Salman Rushdie and calls him ‘courageous’. It adds: ‘A kiss on his hand who tore the neck of God’s enemy with a knife’. Despicable remarks. Sick!”
Rep. Swalwell: “If you’ve been aboard the Trump Train the last 7 years, you’ve been given an unexpected stop. Time to get off. Wherever you think this is going, it’s not. Trump stole Top Secret documents. He’s put a target on the backs of cops. This is getting ugly. Don’t be in the wreckage.”
A New York judge on Friday set an Oct. 24 trial date for the criminal case against the Trump Organization and its former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, capping off an especially tumultuous week for former President Donald Trump.
A federal judge on Friday restored a 2016 moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands that had been overturned by the Trump administration. In the ruling, Judge Brian Morris of the District of Montana, an Obama appointee, ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reimpose the moratorium until it has conducted a more thorough environmental analysis.
Amid fears that he might have possessed information helpful to building nuclear weapons, Donald J. Trump sought to reassure Americans by declaring that he “couldn’t even build a wall.”
“This business of me building nuclear weapons is a joke,” he said. “You look at my record. I had four years to build a wall and I didn’t get it done. I put my record of not building things against anyone’s.”
Further reassuring the public, Trump added, “From what I understand about building nuclear weapons, it involves a lot of reading. There’s math, there’s science. Not gonna happen.”
Trump said that if “there’s anyone you should worry about building nukes, quite frankly, it’s Joe Biden.”
“Sleepy Joe has been on a building tear,” he said. “He’s building roads, he’s building bridges, he’s building microchip factories. This should never be allowed to happen in our country.”
Related to @431, I’ve been wondering for some time now what level of water-availability alert the area in which I live was under. The low-resolution maps were ambiguous and there was nothing on council’s site (that I could find). The other day I located a higher-resolution map (and an awkward-to-use query interface), and determined this area is under a Yellow alert (so don’t water outdoor gardens during the daytime, etc.). Yesterday, the council finally(!?) put out a message confirming a “level 2” alert, which after checking this morning, means Yellow (to be fair, they probably didn’t mention the colour-level to avoid confusion with the better-known coloured heat warnings).
Today they announced the fireworks for the 15th (Assumption day (L’Assomption), a national holiday) have been cancelled throughout the area due to the extreme fire risk. That’s sensible, albeit here in the village, the fireworks are fired out over the Mediterranean Sea, so the local risk from the public display is probably very low. It’s private individuals (and perhaps those of the yacht clubs?) which seem, in the immediate local area, to be more dangerous.
blockquote>I, for one, look forward to Donald Trump pivoting from his current status – a former president of the United States whose home was searched as part of an investigation into possible Espionage Act violations – to one he’ll be more comfortable with: A former president of the United States bragging about violating the Espionage Act.
If you’ve followed Trump over the years – and I pray you haven’t – you can hear his meandering mendacity already: “It was the best espionage. Nobody had ever seen espionage like it. One man walked up to me, a big, tough-looking guy, right out of central casting, and he had tears in his eyes. Tears! And he said, ‘Thank you, sir, for doing such amazing espionage. I wish I could espionage like you.’ It’s such a beautiful thing.”
Only thing missing from this is the word ‘perfect’.
Explosions rocked a second Kremlin airfield but Russia continues to deny it is being hit.
At least eight blasts were reported at the Zyabrovka airfield, near Belarus’s border with Ukraine, early yesterday.
Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, lets Russia use the base to store military supplies and to launch its bombing raids on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
Witnesses said they saw and heard the loud blasts but officials attempted to downplay the incident, claiming it was just a small fire.
Minsk’s defence ministry insisted there had been no attack, saying the explosions occurred ‘during a test run, when a piece of equipment that had had its engine replaced caught fire’.
Oggie: Mathomsays
And sorry for the homage to Borkquotia in my $453. The last line is mine, and not part of the unquoted quote.
If only there were a way to preview my comments . . . .Sorry.
blfsays
As I typo this, six comments (@453–458), three of which are apologies for the Tpyos offerings in the other three.
Has the tithing rate gone up? It’s usually said to be 10%, but now seems to be 50%.
Oggie: Mathomsays
(Can this be done without necessitating an apololgy?)
Wife and I are also wondering just how long it will be until Trump’s phone is seized as part of one of the many ongoing investigations? Or how long until he gets a new phone and the old one accidentally gets dropped into an industrial blender? Or what Secret Service texts are on Trump’s phone? Schadenfreudic minds want to know!
ravensays
Some good news for once.
The world oil market seems to be stabilizing after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The price of gasoline is coming down here, but not all that rapidly.
Bloomberg
OPEC Sees Global Oil Market Tipping Into Surplus This Quarter
Fri, August 12, 2022 at 7:01 AM
OPEC expects global oil markets to tip into surplus this quarter as it downgraded the outlook for demand and bolstered estimates for rival supplies. Caroline Hyde and Jon Erlichman speak to Bloomberg NEF’s Danny Adkins on “Bloomberg Markets”.
Trump’s latest defense for Mar-a-Lago documents is everyone ‘brings home their work from time to time’ and the files were automatically declassified.
“As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time. American presidents are no different,” said the statement from Trump’s office on Friday night read out on Fox News.
Trump further claimed that he had a “standing order” to declassify documents “the moment” they left the Oval Office.
“President Trump, in order to prepare for work the next day, often took documents, including classified documents, from the Oval Office to the residence. He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them,” the statement said.”
[LOL]
Commentary:
[…] In case any of y’all are unfortunately burdened with FOX or “Truth” addicts among your social media or IRL circles, CBS News (among others) has assembled a handy guide to How US Government Documents are Actually Fucking Declassified for MAGA Morons. (They may have used a slightly different headline.)
The basics: De-classifying documents is a long-standing process. While anyone (even you!) can request government information be declassified, and while, yes, the president can order declassification, that is the beginning of the process, not the end.
Your request to see cool secret stuff will be reviewed by the agency that classified the document (and others). The president’s requests as well. But when the POTUS orders it, the process goes forward. And that process, while simple, can’t be bypassed.
The president’s written order is received and logged by the classifying agency, the old classification status is crossed through, and the new classification status is stamped and dated on the document.
There is no such thing as a “standing order” to declassify documents when a president takes them out of the Oval Office and, even if there were, information is not declassified when that is ordered, but when it is noted on the information.
There is no wand or Chief Executive incantation. No Jedi mind trick. It’s just bureaucracy. And law.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, posted on Telegram that “an explosion was heard in the northeastern part” of the city.
“We’re waiting for good news about Russian losses,” he added.
The city, which is east of the Dnipro river and north east of the Crimean peninsula, has been occupied since March.
Ukraine’s military command said “fierce fighting” continued in Pisky, an eastern village which Russia had earlier in the day said it had full control over.
“The occupiers are trying to break through the defense of our troops in the directions of Oleksandropol, Krasnohorivka, Avdiivka, Maryinka, and Pisky,” Ukraine’s general staff said in its nightly briefing note on Facebook.
“Fierce fighting continues,” it added, Reuters reports.
Taliban fighters beat female protesters and fired into the air on Saturday as they violently dispersed a rare rally in the Afghan capital, days before the first anniversary of the hardline Islamists’ return to power.
Since seizing control on 15 August last year, the Taliban have rolled back the marginal gains made by women during two decades of US intervention in Afghanistan.
About 40 women – chanting “bread, work and freedom” – marched in front of the education ministry building in Kabul, before the fighters dispersed them by firing their guns into the air, an AFP correspondent reported.
Some female protesters who took refuge in nearby shops were chased and beaten by Taliban fighters with their rifle butts.
The demonstrators carried a banner which read “15 August is a black day” as they demanded rights to work and political participation.
“Justice! Justice! We’re fed up with ignorance,” they chanted, many not wearing face veils.
“Unfortunately, the Taliban from the intelligence service came and fired in the air,” said Zholia Parsi, one of the organisers of the march.
“They dispersed the girls, tore our banners and confiscated the mobile phones of many girls.”
But Munisa Mubariz vowed to continue fighting for women’s rights.
“If the Taliban want to silence this voice, it’s not possible. We will protest from our homes,” she said.
Some journalists covering the demonstration – the first women’s rally in months – were also beaten by the Taliban fighters, an AFP correspondent reported….
Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, was long suspected by Egyptians of having helped himself to treasures before the vault was officially opened. But while rumours have swirled for generations, proof has been hard to come by.
Now an accusation that Carter handled property “undoubtedly stolen from the tomb” has emerged in a previously unpublished letter sent to him in 1934 by an eminent British scholar within his own excavation team.
It was written by Sir Alan Gardiner, a leading philologist. Carter had enlisted Gardiner to translate hieroglyphs found in the 3,300-year-old tomb, and later gave him a “whm amulet”, used for offerings to the dead, assuring him that it had not come from the tomb.
Gardiner showed the amulet to Rex Engelbach, the then British director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and was dismayed to be told that it had indeed come from the tomb as it matched other examples – all made from the same mould.
Firing off a letter to Carter, he enclosed Engelbach’s damning verdict, which reads: “The whm amulet you showed me has been undoubtedly stolen from the tomb of Tutankhamun.”
Gardiner told Carter: “I deeply regret having been placed in so awkward a position.”
But he added: “I naturally did not tell Engelbach that I obtained the amulet from you.”
The letters, now in a private collection, will be published in a forthcoming book from Oxford University Press, Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World.
Its author, Bob Brier, a leading Egyptologist at Long Island University, told the Observer that suspicions about Carter helping himself to treasures have long been rumoured: “But now there’s no doubt about it.”…
“Ukrainian official: The #Ukrainian Armed Forces have destroyed the last remaining route used by the Russian army to transport their equipment. [Russian] soldiers on the right bank of Dnipro are effectively abandoned. #KhersonisUkraine #UkraineWillWin”
tomhsays
Re: #465 “Trump Lawyer Told DOJ That Classified Material Had Been Returned”
From the NYT story on this, another classic understatement.
“The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, is a possible indication that Mr. Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material.”
“What can one say,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Putin’s Security Council, wrote Friday. “Don’t forget that there are nuclear sites in the European Union, too. And incidents are possible there as well.”
The Russians have given up trying to convince anyone outside of Russia that they are the good guys. They have now slipped into the persona of B-movie gangsters: “Nice business youse guise have here. Be a real pity if something . . . bad . . . happened to it, capiche?”
[…] So, nothing at Mar-a-Lago was ever classified material because it was all declassified by the magical “standing order.” Except for all that classified material that Trump’s lawyer said was returned in June.
After the years of practice that Trump and his people have had, you’d think they’d be better at lying.
Breaking news: Trump kept a file on President Macron of France. Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary Clinton’s director of communications, shared information about one of the files seized at Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.
Without naming the dick by name, it is abundantly clear who she was referring to. Kompromat is defined as “compromising information collected for use in blackmailing, discrediting, or manipulating someone, typically for political purposes.”
[…] But a tweet, shared on Friday night, suggested that information on French President Emmanuel Macron, which was found during the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago, could be maliciously used by a world leader.
“Racking my brain here,” Palmieri tweeted. “Which world leader would find Kompromat on Macron valuable?”
The hypothetical question appears to be referring to Putin. Palmieri did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for clarification. […]
Among the items seized was “info re: President of France.” It is not immediately clear why Trump had this file at Mar-a-Lago or what was included in the file.
Palmieri, in her tweet, appears to suggest that the information is “kompromat” —embarrassing or damaging information that can be used to blackmail or discredit public figures. There is not currently enough information on the seized file to prove or disprove this.
From an article published in May:
Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France and Vladimir Putin of Russia have not been in telephone contact for the past two months. A Kremlin spokesman said France is now considered an “unfriendly” country and discussions between the two leaders are “unnecessary”.
The last time the two men spoke was on 28 May. They were sharing the line with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the problem was the fate of Ukrainian soldiers taken prisoner by Russian forces.
Before that, Macron and Putin spoke on the phone in early May, in March, and five times in the course of February as tension mounted over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Emmanuel Macron met Putin face-to-face in Moscow on 7 February, two weeks before Russian troops entered Ukraine
Critics of the French president say Macron’s high-profile diplomatic efforts failed to prevent war. Macron supporters say he is now one of the few outsiders with a view into Putin’s mindset at this crucial time.
Mykhailo Podolyak, the advisor to the President’s Office, said that Russian troops are shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to cut Ukraine’s south from electricity and blame it on the Ukrainian Armed Forces. An unnamed engineer from the plant told BBC that Russian forces are deliberately destroying the powerlines.
Wonkette: “Merrick Garland Strangely Unmoved By Trump Request To Do Us A Favor Though And Call Off The FBI”
We quit. Your Wonkette is turning in our satire papers and moving to Antarctica to hang with the penguins, because we will never write anything as funny as the latest scoop from Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush:
Shortly before Mr. Garland made the announcement, a person close to Mr. Trump reached out to a Justice Department official to pass along a message from the former president to the attorney general. Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Garland to know he had been checking in with people around the country and found them to be enraged by the search.
[ROTFL]
Oh, really? Trump reached out to the sitting Attorney General to say that everyone in US America is hoppin’ mad about a duly executed search warrant seeking the return of US government property and classified documents? The guy who campaigned on a promise of jailing his opponent for the improper handling of classified documents said “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go?” Sure, Trump blew off a subpoena for at least four months, but if AG Garland could just “do us a favor though,” wouldn’t that be better for everyone involved?
“The country is on fire,” Trump said, according to the Times’s source. “What can I do to reduce the heat?”
Well, that certainly doesn’t sound like him. But on the slim chance that that quote is “true,” yeah, no shit the country’s on fire! That’s why Garland sent the FBI agents in there in plain clothes, with as little fanfare as possible, only to have that orange shitbird announce the “raid” himself, screeching about “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”
He also claimed to have been “working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies” to resolve the issue, conveniently omitting that he’d been asked to give the documents back, defied a subpoena, and refused to hand that shit over even after the head of the DOJ’s counterintelligence division paid a personal visit to his lawyers.
Instead Trump’s surrogates spent six straight days screaming about jackbooted thugs breaking down the door when they could just have asked nicely, and pretending that the whole fuss was about an overdue library book. Look at Pam Bondi, former Florida AG and veteran of Trump’s first impeachment, fantasizing about the FBI storming the beach at Mar-a-Lago with guns a-blazin’ to “make a statement.” [Tweet and video at the link]
The country’s on fire because Trump lit the match and dispatched his minions to slosh gallon after gallon of lighter fluid on it.
But wait, there’s more! Tell us, NYT:
At least one lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge of the document said.
The written declaration was made after a visit on June 3 to Mar-a-Lago by Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s national security division.
Hey there, “one lawyer,” maybe it’s time to CALL YOUR LAWYER! Because that written declaration was patently not true, so there are only two possibilities here: Either the lawyer made that statement in the mistaken belief that it was true, in which case he or she has now become a witness against the client. Or the lawyer knew it was false at the time, which is way worse.
In any event, it goes some way to explaining the reference in the warrant to 18 U.S. Code § 1519, which makes it a crime to cover up, falsify, or destroy “any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States[.]” Telling the government that you don’t have any more classified documents in the storage room in the hallway by the pool when you know you do would fit that bill.
Multiple outlets have reported that the DOJ issued a second subpoena for security camera footage of the storage room, and the Times sources said that whatever was on that tape freaked out investigators at the FBI.
And as for the theory that Trump telepathically declassified the documents with the power of his bigly brain, Haberman and Thrush write that the FBI has talked to a shit ton of Trump’s former and current aides. If there was a “standing order” to declassify any documents Trump took to the Oval Office they’d have said so.
[…] In summary and in conclusion, shit is getting real for Trump. Who should still rot in prison for inciting an attack on the seat of government, also, too. But if he winds up in classified email jail, there will be a certain karmic beauty to that as well.
Hello, gentle drunk readers! Have you been struggling to keep track of all the excuses that former president Donald Trump and his harem of apple-polishers have been throwing out all week trying to explain why old Sweet Potato Suharto kept boxes and boxes of classified government documents stored in the basement we are now informed a “storage room in the hallway by the pool” of his dollar-store Xanadu in Florida? Us too!
So we have put together a probably-not-at-all-comprehensive guide to the main excuses Trump and his lickspittles have been expelling into the atmosphere at a volume exceeding the methane-laden cow farts from an industrial dairy farm. In doing so, we have tried to weed out actual excuses (Trump had unlimited declassification power) from whataboutism (whatabout Hillary/Obama/ Benghazi) from ridiculous and nonsensical counterattacks (the judge who signed the warrant is a Jew, if you can believe such a thing).
In cases where we couldn’t determine exactly when an excuse was first introduced, we tried to pinpoint when it really got going in the zeitgeist.
We have also tried to gauge how long the bootlickers used those excuses before moving on to a new one. Unsurprisingly, in keeping with Trump’s firehose of bullshit communication model, there was a lot of overlap.
Grab your Thermos full of benzoates or whatever you need to not turn into a frothing rage hamster while reliving this week, and let’s get started.
EXCUSE #1:This is all a setup by the out-of-control tyrannical federal government.
Who said it: Lord, who didn’t.
First appearance: Trump himself first floated a version of it when he released a statement announcing the raid on Monday.
Etymology: This excuse depends on not acknowledging at all, except perhaps briefly in the middle of a larger rant, that Trump even held any government property at Mar-a-Lago that didn’t belong to him. For example, Trump in his initial statement said, “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.” This was his only even glancing reference, in the middle of a larger, spittle-flecked harangue, to the fact that the government might have had a goddamn good reason for getting a search warrant for his estate.
How long they test-drove this excuse: This one got a long tryout on Tuesday and much of Wednesday, when the Justice Department still had not said anything to counter the rightwing cacophony. The Republican Party drove right into that information vacuum to test various sub-categories of the excuse. For example, the sub-category of “Rogue FBI planted all the evidence” was still going strong on Thursday morning’s Fox & Friends. Though by that point the fact that the FBI had a duly issued warrant was enough that even Steve Doocy was pushing back on it.
“Surely this won’t come back to bite us in the ass”: Perhaps you don’t want to go too far out on a limb on the planted evidence talking point before Trump inevitably switches to yes, he had boxes of classified documents but it’s okay because he declassified them at some non-determinant point in the past? Too late, we’re hearing sawing noises.
EXCUSE #2:Those boxes were full of mementoes, and anyone who knows Trump knows he likes to collect lots and lots of souvenirs he finds meaningful.
Who said it: The most visible people trying to sell this particular dog’s breakfast seem to have been Lara and Eric Trump, or Slack-Jawed Sammy and his Incredible Botoxed Remora, as they are known around the inside of our brain.
First appearance: Monday evening, a few hours after the raid was announced, Lara and Eric were already touring Fox to test-drive this line.
How long before this talking point disappeared: Not long! Trumpworld seemed to move on by Tuesday morning.
“Surely this won’t come back to bite us in the ass”: Lara told Tucker Carlson guest host Generic White Nazi Guy that her father-in-law “loves to save things like newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, photographs, documents, that he had every right … to take from the White House.” Whoops!
EXCUSE #3: Trump used his power as president to declassify all the documents in the hallway by the pool before they were moved to Florida.
Really got going: Thursday morning when word was finally leaking that the FBI had been seeking code-word level top secret documents that Trump had stored in the hallway by the pool. Uh-oh! Fortunately all the information classification experts on the Right could explain that nuh-uh, it was all declassified while Trump was still in office but the White House Counsel’s Office failed to generate the proper paperwork. That’s cool though, right?
How long they test-drove this excuse: It was dying by Thursday afternoon when multiple lawyers and government employees and legal experts were pointing out that a president does not have unlimited declassification powers, particularly with nuclear-related documents, which are classified by statute (the Atomic Energy Act) that can’t just be unilaterally ignored.
Still, flare-ups were ongoing all day Friday as people sorted out the timeline of when exactly Trump claimed to have declassified all these documents and patiently explained to wingnuts that no, the president could not just declare information declassified at like 11:59 A.M. on January 20, 2017, and then throw it into a moving box with that engraved ashtray that the Russian ambassador gifted him for the Oval Office.
“Surely this won’t come back to bite us in the ass”: Only if you don’t bone up on the different categories of classification and the different rules that govern information under them! Surely you boned up, right?
EXCUSE #4: Trump was so busy those last two weeks, he didn’t have time to properly pack.
Really got going: Trumpworld was trying this one out on Friday, particularly in the form of concrete-headed law professor Jonathan Turley, who never met a Trump crime he couldn’t justify.
How long they test-drove it: Pretty much however long Friday afternoon was, because it’s too silly for even hardcore Trumpists to take seriously. We like to think that us jokingly predicting as early as Monday night that the Right would try this one on for size led to its apparently quick demise.
But more likely it was just quickly overtaken by the next excuse that came on Friday evening.
EXCUSE #5: Trump had a long-standing order that anything he took out of the Oval Office was automatically declassified.
Who said it: Trump himself, coming full circle from Monday, in a statement read by alleged journalist/Trumpworld suckerfish John Solomon, announcing this thing no one had ever heard of before.
How long they test drove it: We’re pretty sure the howls of laughter extinguished this one before midnight.
“Surely this won’t come back to bite us in the ass”: It was biting you in the ass the second Trump opened Friday night’s statement by claiming he often took classified documents up to the White House residence because like any other American employee, he sometimes was so busy he would take work home. No one believes this, because a) Trump is a famously lazy toad who spent most of his time in office watching Fox News, tweeting, and yelling at people, b) so we can all see everything that he ever took to the residence, right? and c) see “a.”
Tethyssays
Russian swine shelling nuclear plants is exactly what I expect from fascists. Hooray for Kherson, but OMFG the fascist fools!! Where exactly do they think a cloud of nuclear radiation is going to go if they make that power plant melt down?
On the idiocy of our very own US fascists, McCarthy asks if Americans are better off than we were two years ago. Yes, not dying of Covid is a huge improvement from two years ago you treasonous sack of worms.
[…] Long story short, the main issue Khomeini had with The Satanic Verses is that the title itself (and much of the book) referred to a legend about the Prophet Mohammed — a legend that he was tricked by Satan into putting some stuff into the Koran about how it was still okay to worship a few of the old pre-Islamic goddesses here and there, but then realized what was going on and took those parts out.
Additionally, there were the following “blasphemies” supposedly contained in the book: God being referred to as “The Destroyer of Man,” criticizing Abraham for the way he treated his wife and son, having a character (who is not meant to be a good guy) refer to Muhammad as Mahoud (an old derogatory term) and insult him in a variety of ways, naming prostitutes after Muhammad’s wives, having a character whose job it was to write propaganda against Muhammad insult Muhammad’s friends, and generally criticizing Islam for a variety of reasons, including perhaps being too restrictive.
Quite notoriously, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam said on several talk shows that he supported the fatwa and was totally fine with someone going and murdering Salman Rushdie, which was a pretty freaking jarring development for Cat Stevens fans. […]
In 1998, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a moderate reformer, announced ever so graciously that the Iranian government would “neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie.” But this did not mean the fatwa went away. In 2006 the Iranian government reaffirmed that they still wanted him killed.
Still, it seemed like something far away, the kind of thing that only comes up in pub trivia. Cat Stevens, back on the Peace Train, started insisting around 2007 that he was only kidding when he said he supported the fatwa and people were taking his comments out of context. Rushdie, who spent several years under police protection, even started going out without any security. […]
And Rushdie may now lose an eye, lose the use of his arm, and suffer damage to his liver. Because this 24-year-old followed the orders of a man who died a decade before he was even born over a book published a decade before he was born and actually tried to kill him. Matar will now likely spend a good chunk of his life, if not the whole of it, in prison — where he will not really be able to enjoy his bounty.
It is one thing for religious people to practice their own religions and hold to their own beliefs, it is another for them to force those beliefs upon others who have nothing to do with their religion and do not believe in it. That never ends well.
[…] “Answer me this question. Is America better off today than they were two years ago? Is the price of gasoline lower? It IS? The price of gasoline is lower today than it was two years. I guess you believe inflation is zero too. I’m not quite sure about your math!” the House minority leader [Kevin McCarthy] sneered.
I don’t know why we’d judge “better off” as just gas prices, but then I drive a plug-in hybrid. Maybe other people care more about gas prices than refrigerated trucks being used as mobile morgues, or underaged whey-faced shitheads stone cold killing people at protests against police brutality, or millions upon millions of people out of work, or the schools shutting down because the president of the United States put his feckless son-in-law in charge of getting personal protective equipment to the states and that son-in-law kept it … for himself? LOL nobody knows :)
In any case, the children are back in school, only regular morgues are necessary now, the unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in 50 years, wages have risen, inflation has slowed, and Jared Kushner is $2 billion richer thanks to an investment in his “hedge fund” from the Saudi government. See, Kevin? Even Jared Kushner is better off than he was two years ago!
In the meantime, even with a 50/50 Senate and a desperately slim majority in the House, Democrats have passed new funding to invest in science and reshoring manufacturing (that will eventually help with supply chains and thus inflation, Kevin!), veterans will finally get help with their illnesses stemming from toxic waste we sent them to breathe, seniors are about to get a cap on the price of their medicine, Kevin, and in the interest of lowering carbon in our atmosphere by a conservatively estimated 40 percent, everybody’s about to get a tax credit for a brand new or used EV or plugin hybrid car (OK, up to an annual income of $150,000 single, $300,000 filing jointly, sorry millionaires). Which might help since Kevin’s party blocked a gas price gouging bill from advancing in the United States Senate. It’s almost as if they want things to get worse
Are things better than they were two years ago? […]
A Louisiana school librarian is suing two men for defamation after they accused her of advocating to keep “pornographic” materials in the parish library’s kids’ section. It’s a rare example of an educator taking legal action against conservatives who use extreme rhetoric in their battle against LGBTQ-themed books.
Amanda Jones, a librarian at a middle school in Denham Springs, Louisiana, filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday, arguing that Facebook pages run by Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames falsely labeled her a pedophile who wants to teach 11-year-olds about anal sex.
Jones, the president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, was alarmed and outraged by the verbal attacks, which came after she spoke against censorship at a Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting. She said she’s suing the two men because she’s exhausted with the insults hurled at educators and librarians over LGBTQ materials.
“I’ve had enough for everybody,” Jones said in an interview. “Nobody stands up to these people. They just say what they want and there are no repercussions and they ruin people’s reputations and there’s no consequences.”
Nationwide, school districts have been bombarded by conservative activists and parents over the past year demanding that books with sexual references or that discuss racial conflict, often by authors of color or those who are LGBTQ, be purged from campuses. Those demands have slowly moved toward public libraries in recent months.
Many conservative activists have referred to people who defend the books as “groomers,” comparing them to child molesters. The Proud Boys, an extremist hate group, has barged into LGBTQ-themed reading events in several libraries, insisting they need to protect children. Some librarians have said they no longer feel safe serving in their roles.
Jones, the 2021 Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educators Middle School Teacher of the Year and the 2021 School Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year, said more than 200 librarians have reached out to her as the insults on Facebook spread. Many claimed they had been victims of similar verbal and online abuse in the past two years. More than 600 people donated a combined $20,000 for Jones on GoFundMe so she could respond with legal action.
The defamation suit seeks damages and asks a judge to issue a restraining order to prevent the two activists from speaking about Jones publicly. She also filed criminal complaints with the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office against the men. The sheriff’s office said the case is under investigation.
[…]
Jones, the president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, was alarmed and outraged by the online attacks, which came after she spoke against censorship at a Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting.
At the start of the meeting, board member Erin Sandefur said an unnamed state official brought some “inappropriate” books available at the library to her attention
“The citizens of our parish consist of taxpayers who are white, Black, brown, gay, straight, Christian, non-Christian — people from all backgrounds and walks of life, and no one portion of the community should dictate what the rest of the citizens have access to,” Jones said at the meeting. “Just because you don’t want to read it or see it, it doesn’t give you the right to deny others or demand its relocation.”
[…]
Lunsford, who runs a conservative activist group called Citizens for a New Louisiana, spoke at the meeting in favor of restrictions on books with sexual content.
Three days after the meeting, Citizens for a New Louisiana posted Jones’ picture on Facebook and asked, “Why is she fighting so hard to keep sexually erotic and pornographic materials in the kid’s section?” Lunsford also submitted records requests to Jones’ school, demanding access to her personnel file and her emails and said he planned to visit her workplace, according to the suit.
Over the next two weeks, the organization’s page posted several more times about Jones, at one point stating she believes “that sharing erotica and instructing juveniles on sex acts is progressive.”
At the same time, another Facebook page called “Bayou State of Mind” posted memes with Jones’ photo and said she is “advocating teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds.” The page, which has 6,300 followers, regularly posts anti-abortion comments, misinformation about Covid vaccines and memes insulting the LGBTQ community. It later mocked her and other librarians fighting censorship. According to the lawsuit, Thames runs the “Bayou State of Mind” page.
People commented on some of the posts with calls that she be physically assaulted, and they circulated where she worked, screenshots show.
Jones said that she was overwhelmed and didn’t leave her house for two weeks, instead she had groceries delivered. She sat down with her teenage daughter to explain the memes and Facebook posts, and worried what her classmates would say to her about them. Even when people told her they were rooting for her, she said it still felt embarrassing.
But she felt compelled to fight back, she said, because she’s well-known in the library world and if she didn’t speak out, other targeted librarians would not either.
“If this takes four or five years, I’m going to fight these people on this,” she said. “Even if I lose, I could say I stood up to them.”
ravensays
This is interesting.
Kazakhstan is going to start shipping its oil through Azerbaijan.
Russia isn’t going to like this.
It’s not as significant as it looks though as only 8% of their Russian pipeline volumes are being redirected.
It is likely if Ukraine falls, that kazakhstan will also be invaded. A large country with lots of oil, gas, and uranium and a small population at 19 million.
Reuters Exclusive-Kazakhstan to start oil sales via Azeri pipeline to bypass Russia
Thu, August 11, 2022 at 11:05 PM·3 min read edited for length
MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) – Kazakhstan is expected to sell some of its crude oil through Azerbaijan’s biggest oil pipeline from September, as the nation seeks alternatives to a route Russia threatened to shut, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Kazakh oil exports account for more than 1% of world supplies, or roughly 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd).
For 20 years, they have been shipped through the CPC pipeline to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, which provides access to the global market.
In July a Russian court threatened to shut the CPC, prompting the Kazakh government and major foreign producers to set up contracts for other outlets as a precaution.
None of the alternatives are as practical as the CPC pipeline, raising the risk of further volatility on energy markets.
…Azerbaijan’s state firm SOCAR to allow 1.5 million tonnes per year of Kazakh crude to be sold through the Azeri pipeline that delivers oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
At just over 30,000 bpd, the volume is a trickle compared to the usual 1.3-1.4 million bpd that flows through the CPC pipeline.
The final contract is due to be signed at the end of August with flows through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline starting up a month later, the source said.
Another 3.5 million tonnes per year of Kazakh crude could start flowing in 2023 through another Azeri pipeline to Georgia’s Black Sea port of Supsa, two sources said.
Combined with BTC flows, the volume would equate to just over 100,000 bpd, or 8% of the CPC flows. KMG declined to comment and SOCAR declined to comment on the specific deal.
Relying on Azerbaijan would allow Kazakhstan to side-step Russian territory. Last month, BP Azerbaijan said it would redirect flows away from the Baku-Supsa pipeline to the larger BTC pipe.
However, the new BTC route means Kazakhstan will have to rely on a fleet of small tankers to take its oil across the Caspian Sea to Baku from its port at Aktau that has limited spare capcity, the sources said.
TCO already began re-routing a small volume of oil by rail to Georgia’s port of Batumi in April when storm damage made part of the CPC terminal unusable.
Two of the sources said TCO was booking more rail volumes and they could increase in September or October.
Kazakhstan separately exports up to 1 million tonnes, or 250,000 bpd, of Urals via Russia’s pipeline system to the Black Sea and to Baltic sea ports.
ravensays
FYI.
Kazakhstan produces 28% of the world’s Uranium.
Kazakhstan has 12% of the world’s uranium resources and in 2021 produced about 21,800 tU. In 2009 it became the world’s leading uranium producer, with almost 28% of world production.
Uranium and Nuclear Power in Kazakhstan https://world-nuclear.org › country-profiles › countries-g-n
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 479
Matar will now likely spend a good chunk of his life, if not the whole of it, in prison — where he will not really be able to enjoy his bounty.
Matar doesn’t care. That’s the thing that the problem that many liberals who slap “COEXIST” bumper stickers on their Prius don’t or won’t get about religion-particularly the Abrahamic ones like Islam: They don’t give a shit about this world. Sure he’ll suffer in a prison, but one day he’ll die and will be receive the boons promised to martyrs. That’s all he cares about.
The flagship climate change and health care bill passed by Democrats and soon to be signed by President Joe Biden will bring U.S. taxpayers one step closer to a government-operated electronic free-file tax return system…
Included is a provision that allots $15 million to the IRS to make plans for a free direct e-file tax return system. Those plans would have to be developed within nine months and would include cost estimates for creating and administering a system. They would also require public input.
There are also legislative attempts to move this effort along.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in July resubmitted a bill called the Tax Filing Simplification Act that would require the IRS to create its own free online tax filing service and move away from its partnership with private online tax preparation companies.
“I’ve been pushing for a free tax filing system for years, and now the IRS is on the verge of having significant funding to modernize its IT systems, which means it’s time to develop simplified filing tools laid out in my Tax Filing Simplification Act,” Warren told The Associated Press.
Russia continues to flood forces into the Kherson area in response to Ukraine’s repeated declarations that it is just this close from launching its long-expected counter-offensive to retake its land. The whole situation continues to have the feel of a trap as Ukraine systematically eliminates ammunition depots and supply routes into the region. [Tweets, images, and maps available at the link]
This now means that both supply routes into the west side of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region are now blown.
Only two bridges connect Kherson and all that red territory to the north of the Dnipro river. The Antonovsky bridge near Kherson (which remains inoperable), and the bridge at Nova Kakhovka. This is why the betrayal at the beginning of the war was so painful—all Ukraine had to do was blow both bridges and Russia would’ve never been able to take Kherson. Local government officials conspired with Russians to sabotage the city’s defense, and countless lives have been lost as a result, and countless more will do so in the months ahead.
Ukraine has also begun hitting the two bridges connecting Crimea (the purple at the bottom of the map) with Kherson oblast. Cutting off Melitopol from the south will be critical to retaking that city. Russia can barge some supplies across the Dnipro, as well as helicopter stuff over, but their insatiable artillery can’t be fed by barges and aircraft. And Ukraine’s degradation of Russia’s air defenses means Ukrainian aircraft can better engage moving targets—those barges and supply helicopters.
Russia isn’t surrendering that territory without a fight, but … its generals may have lost their appetite for being on the wrong side of the Dnipro. [Tweet: “The entire leadership of the occupiers is being evacuated to the the Dnipro” — so, the leadership seems to be evacuating, but they are leaving Russian soldiers in position?]
This could obviously be propaganda, but several Russian generals and other high command have already bit the dust in this region, particularly at Kherson’s airport at Chernobaivka. If true, it could certainly be a sign that Russian high command expects Ukrainian forces to advance.
Some odds and ends, this is a great thread: Russians don’t care about dead Ukrainians or dead fellow Russian soldiers. They don’t even care about starvation out in the hinterlands. What do they care about? Having several varieties of yogurt available at the supermarket: [Tweet at the link]
This one is so fantastical, it can’t possibly be true: [Tweet at the link, claiming that igor was arrested] Igor Strelkov is the war criminal who led Donbas forces in the 2014 war. He also has a regular Telegram podcast (or whatever it is they call it) where he rails against the incompetence of the Russian war effort. His doomcasting is incredibly entertaining, so I’m really hoping this isn’t legit, and that he will continue to entertain us with his coverage of the war. […]
Meanwhile in Russia: Putin’s mouthpieces on state TV are taunting America about “Top Secret” documents sought during the raid of Trump’s estate, which they claim had to do with the newest nuclear weapons developed by the US and gleefully imply that Moscow already got to see them. [“They’ve been studying them in Moscow for awhile”]
If this is true is yet to be determined but it seems the tangerine terror may have outlived his usefulness to Putin.
From my perspective this raises far more questions than answers and I’m sure all the alphabet soup agencies are all over this and probably have been for ages.
Video captured by the independent media site News2Share shows supporters of former President Donald Trump armed with guns, waving confederate and American flags outside of the FBI office in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday.
“We’re here in support of Trump, for what happened to him, the unlawful search with the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago home,” someone at the demonstration told News2Share. “We are sick and tired of this tyrannical government called the Biden regime. We will not stand by and we will not stand down.
“We’re gonna take the fight to the FBI if need be.”
The latest in a string of Republican rantings, the demonstration is in response to the FBI executing a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday—an act that has led to the seizure of 11 sets of classified documents, including those related to nuclear weapons, according to The Washington Post.
Somehow though, Trump apologists still maintain the former president’s rights were violated while they go about the business of threatening the federal judge who signed the warrant and any other official they see fit to accuse without a shred of evidence of widespread election fraud.
In Gillespie County, Texas, a county about 80 miles west of Austin, elections administrator Anissa Herrera said she resigned from her work due in large part to threats she faced, according to the Fredericksburg Standard.
“After the 2020 (election), I was threatened, I’ve been stalked, I’ve been called out on social media,” Herrera told the newspaper. “And it’s just dangerous misinformation.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned such threats in a statement on Thursday. “Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the FBI erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others,” he said. “Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the FBI, are dangerous and should be deeply concerning to all Americans.
They are to Democrats. Many tweeted their outrage at the double standard propagated when a group of white men and women were allowed to threaten federal officials while armed.
A social media user who goes by Jason V. tweeted on Sunday, that the “armed domestic terrorists” probably haven’t been taken down yet “because they’re not black or brown.”
Shannon Watts, founder of the grassroots movement for public safety Moms Demand Action, pointed to a trend of recent violence following GOP reaction to the search of Trump’s home.
The most recent of which is a Capitol Police report that a man started firing in the air then drove his car into a vehicle barricade in a fiery crash early Sunday at East Capitol Street and Second Street.
”When our officers heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately responded and were approaching the man when he shot himself,” Capitol Police said in a news release. “Nobody else was hurt.
“At this time, it does not appear the man was targeting any Members of Congress, who are on recess, and it does not appear officers fired their weapons.”
No other injuries were reported in the incident, and investigators are still looking into the man’s background. But for many, the incident is an example of violence spiraling out of control as Republicans instigate a greater divide between Trump supporters and the rest of the country.
Regarding the protest outside of the Phoenix FBI building, Democrat Eric Smith tweeted congressional candidates of North Carolina:
“This is a Declaration of War & as such the Federal Government will be well within its rights to use all the firepower at its disposal to put these traitors down & down for good”
Majid Padellan, a blogger and influencer who goes by “Brooklyn Dad” on social media, tweeted on Sunday:
“Not a single Republican leader has called upon the armed trumpers at the Phoenix FBI to stand down. Any blood will be on their hands.” […]
Author Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and “the road to recovery has begun,” his agent said Sunday, two days after the renowned novelist was stabbed in the neck and abdomen at an event in western New York.
“The injuries are severe, but his condition is headed in the right direction,” Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said in a statement to The Washington Post, adding that the recovery process would be lengthy.
Rushdie’s son Zafar also released a statement on Twitter on Sunday morning confirming that his father was taken off the ventilator and was “able to say a few words.”
“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humor remains intact,” Zafar Rushdie wrote.
Rushdie, 75, was attacked onstage Friday at the Chautauqua Institution, where he was about to be interviewed as part of a summer lecture series. The targeting of one of the world’s most famous authors sparked anger and concern among fans and shocked the literary world.
Witnesses among the crowd who had gathered to hear Rushdie speak said they saw the attacker stab him multiple times. Wylie told the Associated Press that Rushdie had suffered damage to his liver and nerves in an arm, and that he would probably lose an eye. A doctor in the audience attended to Rushdie before paramedics arrived and transported him to a hospital by helicopter.
Police took Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey man, into custody at the scene. He was arraigned on Saturday, charged with attempted murder and assault.
Born in India, Rushdie had spent much of his life in Britain when he went into hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the author’s execution over the portrayal of Islam and the prophet Muhammad in his 1988 book “The Satanic Verses,” which was deemed blasphemous by some Muslims.
World leaders including President Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack on Rushdie, which many see as an attack on freedom of expression.
Sales of the controversial book have spiked dramatically on Amazon in recent days and, as of Sunday, the novel is number 11 in the bestsellers list. […]
[…] Schiff [Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee] called Trump’s claim of having retroactively declassified the documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago “absurd” during an interview on CBS on Sunday. Schiff noted that a sitting president, not a former president, has declassification authority.
Schiff pointed out that in the warrant, the statutes the DOJ are asserting do not require information to be classified.
“If they would be damaging to national security, it’s a problem. It’s a major problem,” Schiff said.
Schiff also said it’s a “serious problem” if Trump’s lawyers falsely asserted that they turned over all classified information stored in Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives when it retrieved 15 boxes from the resort last January.
“I can tell you anyone in the intelligence community that had documents like that marked top secret SCI, in their residence after authorities went to them, you know, they would be under serious investigation,” Schiff said.
Schiff’s remarks follow a request by him and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. Schiff and Maloney request an “immediate review and damage assessment” following reports of the former president taking highly classified information to Mar-a-Lago. They note that Trump potentially violated the Presidential Records Act and the Espionage Act.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini never read Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses,” his son Ahmed told me in Tehran, in the early nineteen-nineties. The Iranian leader’s murderous 1989 fatwa against the British American writer was a political move to exploit the erupting fury in Pakistan, India, and beyond over a fictional dream sequence involving the Prophet Muhammad. The book’s passages, which portrayed human weaknesses and undermined the Prophet’s credibility as a messenger of God, were blasphemous to some Muslims.
The Ayatollah was shrewd that way. At the time, the young Islamic Republic was emerging from existential challenges: an eight-year war with Iraq that produced at least a million casualties; widespread domestic discontent; deepening political rifts among the clergy; a flagging economy that had rationed basic food and fuel; and a decade of diplomatic isolation. Khomeini condemned Rushdie, as well as his editors and publishers in any language, to death. He called on “all valiant Muslims wherever they may be” to go out and kill all of them—without delay—“so that no one will dare insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth. Whoever is killed in this cause will be a martyr” and ascend instantly to heaven. Tehran offered a reward that eventually grew to more than three million dollars.
Khomeini often capitalized on issues that distracted public attention from the Revolution’s fissures and failures. He had done the same thing after students took over the U.S. Embassy in 1979. In the months after the Shah was ousted, the revolutionaries split over Iran’s political future, a new constitution, and the powers of the clergy. (They also started killing one another.) The Embassy takeover provided a useful diversion. Three of the student leaders later told me that they had planned to hold the Embassy for three to five days to protest the U.S. decision to take in the ailing Shah for medical treatment. But Khomeini went on national radio and encouraged the students to stay there—indefinitely. Fifty-two American diplomats became pawns in Iranian politics. After four hundred and forty-four days, the Ayatollah finally agreed to end the hostage crisis when it was politically and financially expedient for his regime.
Rushdie was also a pawn—and a coincidence of timing. Tehran ignored “The Satanic Verses” for six months after publication, even as it was banned in other predominantly Muslim countries. India, Rushdie’s country of birth, was the first to ban the book, in October, 1988. Iran did not act until February, 1989, when deadly protests over the book in neighboring Pakistan—killing several—intersected with a domestic political crisis. The inner circle of clerics around Khomeini publicly split as the Revolution celebrated its tenth anniversary. Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s handpicked successor and a man he once called “the fruit of my life,” criticized the government for executing dissidents and failing to fulfill the Revolution’s promises. Montazeri’s defiance represented the emergence of a reform-minded faction that favored moderating domestic and foreign policies—so that the Islamic Republic could evolve from a revolutionary society to a normal state that honored man’s law and also God’s law. He challenged Khomeini’s edict on Rushdie, too. “People in the world are getting the idea that our business in Iran is just murdering people,” Montazeri warned.
Khomeini responded by firing his protégé and placing him under house arrest. Four months after the Rushdie fatwa, Khomeini abruptly died of heart failure, at eight-six. Iran was left with twin crises: no official successor and a fatwa that triggered a decade-long diplomatic crisis with the outside world, crippled its international trade, and further isolated the regime.
Now, thirty-three years later, the fatwa lingers as a flash point in Iran’s internal debates and a political tool exploited by its hard-line leaders. One of the most striking facts about Hadi Matar, a Lebanese American who leaped onto the amphitheatre stage at the Chautauqua Institution on Friday and stabbed Rushdie ten times in the face, arm, and abdomen, was that he born in the U.S. almost a decade after the fatwa was issued. On Saturday, Matar was charged with assault and attempted murder.
Matar’s motive and ties to Iran—direct or indirect—were unclear. (In court, the district attorney said only that the attack was “targeted” and “preplanned.”) But Matar’s social-media accounts trumpeted his support for Iran and deep admiration for its leaders. They were filled with pictures of Khomeini; Major General Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force who was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike, in 2020; and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy militia in Lebanon. Matar’s parents reportedly emigrated from southern Lebanon, a Shiite stronghold for Hezbollah. Matar, who lived in New Jersey, was carrying a fake driver’s license, with the name of Hassan Mughniyah, which experts noted combined Nasrallah’s first name and the surname of Imad Mughniyah, the late Hezbollah commander linked to suicide bombings that killed more than two hundred U.S. marines in Beirut in the nineteen-eighties. […]
By this summer, Rushdie, as well as U.S. and European intelligence agencies, believed that the threat from the fatwa had diminished. In the late nineties, a faction of Iran reformers had tried to resolve the crisis over “The Satanic Verses.” The government of President Mohammad Khatami held talks with Britain and eventually restored diplomatic ties, with Rushdie’s status as the central issue. “We should think of the Salman Rushdie issue as completely finished,” Khatami told me and a small group of journalists over breakfast at the United Nations, in 1998. After going into hiding and living under blanket Scotland Yard protection for nine years, Rushdie gradually reëmerged in public with little or no visible security. In 2001, he even had a cameo in “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” […]
Iran’s hard-line clerics have, however, never disavowed the Rushdie fatwa. In 2017, the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was asked about the validity of his predecessor’s edict. Khamenei replied, “The decree is as Imam Khomeini issued.” In a tightly controlled election last year, hard-liners seized the Presidency from reformers who had negotiated a nuclear deal with the U.S. and five other world powers. Rigid ideologues now dominate the executive, legislative, judicial, and military branches. Just five days before the attack on Rushdie, an Iranian news outlet republished the fatwa. […]
Within hours of Matar’s knife attack, Iranian media praised him. Kayhan, whose editor is appointed by Khamenei, declared, “A thousand bravos . . . to the brave and dutiful person who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York.” […]
Literary and political leaders condemned the attack on Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2008, and had become the international face of freedom of expression. […]
The shocking attack on Rushdie last week coincided with the Justice Department’s announcement that a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Shahram Poursafi, had been indicted in a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate the former national-security adviser John Bolton. The former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the former Defense Secretary Mark Esper were also targeted. Both were in office when the Trump Administration killed Suleimani. Bolton, Pompeo, and Esper continue to receive round-the-clock government protection, as do other officials from that era.
The attack also coincides with the countdown on diplomacy over the nuclear deal brokered by the Obama Administration, in 2015, but abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018. Tehran is now estimated to be just days away from producing enough enriched uranium to fuel a nuclear weapon, a key step in building, packaging, and delivering a bomb. This month, Iran was given an ultimatum by European negotiators to decide whether to reëngage and again limit its program after more than a year of talks. […]
“Efforts are bound to be made to somehow equalize or level the acts of Rushdie and his tormentors and would-be executioners. This is a despicable viewpoint.”
The terrorist assault on Salman Rushdie on Friday morning, in western New York, was triply horrific to contemplate. First in its sheer brutality and cruelty, on a seventy-five-year-old man, unprotected and about to speak—doubtless cheerfully and eloquently, as he always did—repeatedly in the stomach and neck and face. Indeed, we accept the abstraction of those words—“assaulted” and “attacked”—too casually. To try to feel the victim’s feelings—first shock, then unimaginable pain, then the panicked sense of life bleeding away […]
Second, it was horrific in the madness of its meaning and a reminder of the power of religious fanaticism to move people. Authorities did not immediately release a motive for the attack, but the dark apprehension is that the terrorist who assaulted Rushdie was a radicalized Islamic militant of American upbringing—like John Updike’s imaginary terrorist in the novel “Terrorist,” apparently one raised in New Jersey—who was executing a fatwa first decreed by Ayatollah Khomeini, in 1989 […] The evil absurdity of the death sentence pronounced on Rushdie for having written a book actually more exploratory than sacrilegious—in no sense an anti-Muslim invective, but a kind of magical-realist meditation on themes from the Quran—was always obvious. (Of course, Rushdie should have been equally invulnerable to persecution had he written an actual anti-Muslim—or an anti-Christian—diatribe, but, as it happens, he hadn’t.)
For the next decade, Rushdie was under protection and, though far from disappearing from the world—for the most part, he went where he wanted—it was always under guard. […] Over time, though, with a courage that seems even more remarkable now than it did then, he dropped the protection and went about unescorted and unprotected—reclaiming his own humanity by refusing to be made into a special case of any kind. He would not allow himself to be reduced to the caricature that his idiotic enemies wanted to make of him, or into the equally caricatural role of a martyr for truth. He was a writer, with a writer’s pastimes and a writer’s rights.
[…] when an autocrat encourages violence, violence happens. When theocrats or autocrats or simple demagogues inflame their followers, fires erupt, and innocent people are burned even if the time between the fuse being lit and the flame exploding may be longer than we could have imagined.
Finally, if more locally, it was horrific because it had seemed to those who knew him that the fatwa had faded in significance and threat […] No one can forget—or now not wince a little at the memory—Rushdie’s hilarious cameo on Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” a couple of seasons ago, where he counselled Larry, then under an imaginary fatwa himself, on the benefits of fatwa sex. Though the apologists for the Iranian government insist that the fatwa had been disregarded or increasingly neglected by the authorities, none in power had had the decency to reject it, much less denounce it—indeed, the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, seems to have reiterated the fatwa as recently as 2019—and the murderous assault on Rushdie only seems to have earned gloating and crowing from the holy men in Iran. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a figure involved in the U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations, announced on Twitter that he “won’t be shedding tears for a writer who spouts endless hatred & contempt for Muslims & Islam.”
Of course, Rushdie did no such thing. […] Full of lore and life, with immensely comprehensive tastes and subjects, over dinner he would talk as readily, and as ably, of movies and TV series and pop music, which he loved, as he would of literature and religion. […] I was always impressed by the effortless equanimity with which, in public at least, he dealt with his strange fate. (We met when we walked through the great 1992 Matisse show at moma together, at the height of the threat, and he was full of delight in each painting as it passed, with a nice, fully developed if slightly ironic sense of how much Matisse had drawn on Islamic civilization, on Persian ornaments and North African textiles, for his inspiration.)
For one true thing is that, unlike his predecessor V. S. Naipaul, whom he greatly admired and who I think he feared did not admire him, Rushdie had, and has, in truth no “Western” bias. […] His commitment to the English language was as real as his commitment to post-imperial writing.
Efforts will be made, are bound to be made, to somehow equalize or level the acts of Rushdie and his tormentors and would-be executioners—to imply that though somehow the insult to Islam might have been misunderstood or overstated, still one has to see the insult from the point of view of the insulted. This is a doubly despicable viewpoint, not only because there was no actual insult offered but also because the right to be insulting about other people’s religions—or their absence of one—is a fundamental right, part of the inheritance of the human spirit. Without that right of open discourse, intellectual life devolves into mere cruelty and power seeking.
“The most rudimentary thing about literature—it is here that one’s study of it begins—is that words are not deeds.” Those were the words of the Soviet dissident author Andrei Sinyavsky as he tried to explain to his equally deaf judges just what a novel is, shortly before being sentenced to a labor camp. […]
No one wants to protect authors from bad reviews, even those by autocrats; it is threats from bullies that they need protection from. Everyone has a right to be offended by whatever offends them, and everyone on earth has a right to articulate their offense. No one has a right to maim or kill someone because our words offend them. Blasphemy is not a mighty category demanding respect but a pitiful invention of those who cannot tolerate having their pet convictions criticized. […]
Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, put out a brave and precise statement on Friday evening: “For 33 years, Salman Rushdie has embodied freedom and the fight against obscurantism. He has just been the victim of a cowardly attack by the forces of hatred and barbarism. His fight is our fight; it is universal.” Though “obscurantism” may be a word that is, well, obscure, to Americans, the point is right. The line between the fight for freedom and the surrender to hatred is absolute. The assault on Rushdie only clarifies its contours.
I presented some text in bold face. It was not bolded in the original.
Reginald Selkirksays
Ukraine hits Russian Wagner mercenary HQ in east
Ukrainian artillery has struck a headquarters of Russia’s shadowy Wagner paramilitary group of mercenaries in eastern Ukraine, reports say.
The attack in Popasna was reported by Serhiy Hayday, Ukrainian governor of Luhansk region, and several pro-Kremlin war reporters…
Wagner has been linked to war crimes…
ravensays
This is a summary of the recent attacks by Russia on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. There is one key fact that is new here. In particular, as a result of the attack, emergency protection was activated in one of the ZNPP power units. As a result, one of the three operating power units is now disconnected.
I’m not entirely sure what they mean by “disconnected”. When you are operating a nuclear power plant, the electricity has to go somewhere. Probably, what they mean is that they shut down one of the reactors.
You don’t just shut down a nuclear power reactor though.
There is a lot of residual heat from the nuclear decay processes.
IIRC, it takes a month for the reactor core to cool enough that you don’t have to actively cool it with running water. That is why the Fukushima reactors all blew up and melted down, loss of coolant.
It really makes no sense for the Russians to shell the reactors that they also control. Unless the plan it to cause a meltdown and blame it on Ukraine.
The Ukrainians already seem to be resigned to the fact that they are going to lose these reactors.
The risk of radiation leakage and fire is high after Russian troops damage the switchgear at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
0Додати у вибране
MONDAY, 15 AUGUST 2022, 11:42 – EKONOMICHNA PRAVDA Ukrainska Pravda.
The Zaporizhzhia NPP is operating with the risk of violating radiation and fire safety regulations. The Russian army fired at a number of buildings, and in particular at the fire station.
This is reported by Energoatom.
It notes that periodic attacks on the ZNPP with multiple rocket launchers fired by the Russian army since last week have caused a serious risk to the safe operation of the plant.
In particular, as a result of the attack, emergency protection was activated in one of the ZNPP power units. As a result, one of the three operating power units is now disconnected.
The attack has also seriously damaged the nitrogen-oxygen station, the combined auxiliary building, the pumping station for domestic sewage, as well as the 750 kV open switchgear (VRP-750).
“The Russian troops fired at the fire department, which is located outside the territory of the ZNPP and used to protect it against fires and extinguish them in case of emergency situations at the station. There are still risks of hydrogen leakage and of the spraying of radioactive substances, and the fire danger is high,” Energoatom added
Three radiation monitoring sensors around the site of the ZNPP dry cask storage were also damaged.
“The nuclear power plant is still occupied and controlled by the Russian military. Considering the fact that it is impossible to predict the actions of the Russian invaders, the threat to the plant’s physical security remains,” the message summarised.
Background:
At a meeting of the UN Security Council, the United States noted that, for the safety of the nuclear power plant, it is necessary to withdraw Russian troops from ZNPP, create a demilitarised zone there and provide access to IAEA experts.
On Thursday, Russian troops attacked the Zaporizhzhia NPP and the territory near the nuclear facility four times.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Russia’s priority over the past week has likely been to reorient units to strengthen its campaign in southern Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Sunday. The UK Ministry of Defence said Russia also appeared to be intensifying attacks on the eastern Donbas front, in what is likely to be an attempt to ensure Ukraine is not able to concentrate forces in the south against Kherson.
Ukrainian forces reported heavy Russian shelling and attempts to advance on several towns in the eastern region of Donetsk that has become a key focus of the near six-month war, but said they had repelled many of the attacks. Ukraine’s military command said on Sunday that Russian soldiers had continued unsuccessfully to attack Ukrainian positions near Avdiivka, which, since 2014, has become one of the outposts of Ukrainian forces near Donetsk.
Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner have filed an appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.
Russian soldiers are taking their families out of Melitopol, according to the BBC’s Russian service.
The broadcaster reports the city’s mayor, Ivan Fedorov, saying: After the partisans and the armed forces of Ukraine have actively worked for another week, the Russian military is taking their families out of the city.”
It comes after authorities in Kherson reportedly said on Sunday that some Russian commanders had left the city.
Putin ready to offer allies in Latin American, Asia and Africa ‘advanced’ weapons
Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow valued its ties with countries in Latin American, Asia and Africa and was ready to offer modern weapons to its allies, reports Reuters.
…
The Russian president’s comments come just a day after he offered to expand relations with North Korea.
In a letter to Kim Jong-un for Korea‘s liberation day, Putin said closer ties would be in both countries’ interests, and would help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the north-east Asian region, North Korea‘s KCNA news agency said.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
Republicans have overwhelmingly nominated 2020 election deniers for posts overseeing the vote in battleground states, according to an analysis from The Washington Post.
The report finds that in states which decided the winner of the last election, the GOP has nominated election deniers to two-thirds of the positions that play a role in certifying the vote, such as governor, secretary of state, attorney general or the federal House and Senate seats.
These nominees include figures such as Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania and Kari Lake of Arizona, both election deniers who are the GOP’s nominees for governor of those states.
Here’s more from the Post’s report:
The predilection among Republican primary voters toward candidates who deny the result of the last election extends well beyond Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona — three states that together accounted for 47 electoral votes in 2020, more than enough to flip the last election to Trump.
In the 41 states that have held nominating contests this year, more than half the GOP winners so far — about 250 candidates in 469 contests — have embraced Trump’s false claims about his defeat two years ago, according to a Post analysis of every race for federal and statewide office with power over elections.
The proportion of election-denying nominees is even higher in the six critical battlegrounds that ultimately decided the 2020 presidential contest, where Trump most fiercely contested the results. In Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, at least 54 winners out of 87 contests — more than 62 percent of nominees — have embraced the former president’s false claims.
The count covers offices with direct supervision over election certification, such as secretaries of state, as well as the U.S. House and Senate, which have the power to finalize — or contest — the electoral college count every four years. Lieutenant governors and attorneys general are also included, with each playing a role in shaping election law, investigating alleged fraud or filing lawsuits to influence electoral outcomes.
Among the six battlegrounds, only Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania have nominated statewide candidates who would have direct power over the certification process and who worked to overturn the 2020 result or have said they would not have certified it.
…In Kabul, and across much of Afghanistan, girls have not been legally able to attend high school for nearly a year, because of a Taliban ban. Officials insist the ruling is only temporary, but have set no conditions or timeline for lifting it.
The ban triggered a wave of depression and anger inside Afghanistan, and widespread revulsion beyond its borders. It also caused less immediately visible splits within the movement itself, reflecting deeper fractures among former insurgents struggling to adjust to running a government….
Across Europe, an area equivalent to one-fifth of Belgium has been ravaged by flames as successive searing heatwaves and a historic drought propel the continent towards what experts say is likely to be a record year for wildfire destruction.
…
The figures were released days after the EU’s Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service (Cams) – which provides the satellite data used by Effis – warned last week that much of western Europe was in “extreme” or “very extreme” fire danger….
China has staged a new round of military drills around Taiwan in response to a brief visit to the island by a delegation of bipartisan US lawmakers. The arrival of the lawmakers took place after the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to the island.
On Monday, Beijing said it had carried out a fresh round of “combat readiness patrol and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island”. Military officials and state media also renewed their “prepare for war” rhetoric on Taiwan, over which Beijing has long claimed sovereignty….
Donald Trump believes the United States “is on fire,” and the responsible way to deal to deal with the conflagration he helped start is to condemn the FBI.
Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland did something unexpected. Under pressure to shed light on the FBI executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, the nation’s chief law enforcement official appeared before the cameras on Thursday, defended federal law enforcement, and announced plans to unseal the warrant related to Donald Trump’s Florida property.
According to a New York Times report, before Garland reached the podium, there was something the former president wanted him to know.
Shortly before Mr. Garland made the announcement, a person close to Mr. Trump reached out to a Justice Department official to pass along a message from the former president to the attorney general. Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Garland to know that he had been checking in with people around the country and found them to be enraged by the search. “The country is on fire” was the message that Mr. Trump wanted conveyed, according to a person familiar with the exchange. “What can I do to reduce the heat?”
[eyeroll]
I have so many questions about this.
Why would Trump, in the midst of a burgeoning scandal, after the FBI had already executed a search warrant at one of his properties, think it was a good idea to “reach out”? Did his lawyers approve of such a move?
How, exactly, did the former president try to communicate with the attorney general? Was there a phone call? From whom? To whom? Was any of this put in writing?
I’m also a little confused by the message itself. As the story goes, Trump wanted Garland to know he’d done some informal polling and found that many of the former president’s followers weren’t pleased. (Trump has routinely shared the details of conversations that happened only in his mind, so whether he actually “checked in with people around the country” is unclear.)
The question at hand was, “What can I do to reduce the heat?” But was that a question Trump wanted Garland to ask himself ahead of the press conference, or was that a question Trump was asking in reference to his own willingness to lower the temperature?
The reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, didn’t clarify matters. That said, if Trump is interested in “reducing the heat,” he should step up sooner rather than later. NBC News reported yesterday:
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning of a spike in threats to federal law enforcement officials since the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.
The bulletin, dated Friday, read in part, “The FBI and DHS have observed an increase in threats to federal law enforcement and to a lesser extent other law enforcement and government officials following the FBI’s recent execution of a search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida.”
It was against this backdrop that the former president used his Twitter-like social media platform to rail against federal law enforcement over the weekend, publishing a series of missives that accused the FBI of “abuses,” “breaking in” to his home, being politically manipulated, possibly “planting” incriminating evidence, and being “corrupt.”
In other words, Trump believes the United States “is on fire,” and the responsible way to deal to deal with the conflagration he helped start is to repeatedly condemn his own country’s federal law enforcement.
Ukraine on Monday said it had struck a base used by a Russian paramilitary group as well as a bridge near the occupied city of Melitopol, according to reports from AFP.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, told AFP the strike was aimed at a base of the Wagner group. The Guardian hasn’t been able to independently verify this report….
Good: Democrats are paying attention to Latino voters.
Under fire over outreach efforts, House Democrats launch new Latino-focused ad campaign
First round targets Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas
Oh, FFS: Multiple Arizona Republicans are already suggesting Tuesday’s elections are rigged if they don’t win
Wonkette: “Lauren Boebert Fairly Certain We’ll All Eat Our Dogs If Dems Pass Gun Control.”
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1553762968571199490
Aaron Rupar:
Video is available at the link.
STEWART: The Toomey amendment is really about capping the fund. It’s about putting caps on it and giving it a sunset clause for ten years. Now, we’ve been through this with the 9/11 First Responders.
Commentary from Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/a-very-pact-sunday-show-rundown-featuring-jon-stewart
Hello, Everyone,
The Infinite Tread reached 500 comments, and then rolled on, automatically, to begin again at comment #1. So here we are.
For your convenience, here are a few links back to the previous 500 comments:
Oh, FFS: Multiple Arizona Republicans are already suggesting Tuesday’s elections are rigged if they don’t win
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2022/07/15/infinite-thread-xxiv/comment-page-1/#comment-2143597
Good: Democrats are paying attention to Latino voters.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2022/07/15/infinite-thread-xxiv/comment-page-1/#comment-2143600
“Lauren Boebert Fairly Certain We’ll All Eat Our Dogs If Dems Pass Gun Control.”
U.S. kills al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, officials say.
Washington Post link
BBC – “Reality of Ukraine war hidden from Fortress Russia”:
Here’s the video report (Twitter link).
I’m reading Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. My review is extremely mixed, but in any event this caught my eye in the discussion of the Russian/Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (p. 446):
From this week’s Meduza news feed:
Since the world was paying more attention to Ukraine and Russia than the US, they had to stir some shit and do their own illegal international action and send a drone to kill people on foreign soil. And Pelosi is also going to Taiwan just to annoy China as there is no other actual reason to go there. I hate the fucking US government sometimes even the wrongly called “left” one.
We seem to be failing again on another emerging disease, monkeypox.
Monkeypox is really rat pox and is thought to be the ancestor of smallpox.
Why is it spreading now?
A number of reasons but one is that we no longer vaccinate for smallpox. I’ve been vaccinated for smallpox like all the boomers. We stopped in the 1970s. There is now a large pool of young people never vaccinated.
If there is a susceptible rodent species in North America, sooner or later monkeypox will find it.
The rodent population in NA has bubonic plague and that entered from Asia in the early 20th century.
There is always the possibility that monkeypox re-evolves into something like smallpox.
We know from other viruses that the way to stop these novel viruses is to get on them early with enough effort. We stopped SARS and Avian flu that way.
Another obscure disease is starting to come into focus.
Because it is here, making Americans sick and spreading rapidly.
The case fatality rate so far is running around 1 in 2,100.
This article notes that one case was in an immunocompromised cancer patient. That isn’t all that reassuring. It is like saying that Covid-19 virus only kills old people. Old people don’t find that all that useful. There are lots of immunocompromised and/or cancer patients in our society.
LOL, “people” pretty vague here.
That would be Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has long been on the FBIs list of ten most wanted criminals due to bombing US embassies.
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/ayman-al-zawahiri
OK, I’ve just learned of the existence of the R9X and it’s bewildering.
It’s a bladed missile. A bladed missile.
SC @9
I’m surprised that using a generic non-dehumanizing term for some human beings would provoke hilarity from your part. Especially with the history of those assassination attempts where the actual target is not who it was intended or who it was announced in addition to the “collateral damage” mentioned or not. And even without collateral damage or mistaken identity, it is still an international crime to invade another sovereign country space in this way (even when the US does it and even if they don’t wanna…).
I was going to say that if the US would quietly accept that a Chinese (or any other country) drone killed someone (again a generic description for a human being…) on US territory then I might ignore when the US does the same. But actually, I would also condemn China (or whoever).
eyeroll
@6, 13 Jean
I feel your pain, but you’ve got to pick your battles. Virtually no one else here on the Infinite Thread wants to hear about uncomfortable imperial shenanigans from unapproved sources. Antiwar rhetoric isn’t in their list of talking points and I’ve given up hope that it ever will be.
Save your sanity and find other antiwar types who actually respect your opinion.
You can roll your eyes all you want at that, it still doesn’t change the fact that the US is stirring some shit in Afghanistan and Taiwan just to prove that they can and that the US President is proud of murdering people with drones in foreign countries. And even the most abject terrorist (which may or may not be the case here) is “people”.
Another issue is that this will also go a long way towards giving more talking points to those who will defend the indefensible from other countries by calling out the US hypocrisy. There was no need to add more of those. But I guess this is an election year so that’s what counts (not that there are non election years in the US).
Jean- Since the world was paying more attention to Ukraine and Russia than the US, they had to stir some shit and do their own illegal international action
Biden having a press conference is a strange way of trying to sneak in an unnoticed assassination.
And Pelosi is also going to Taiwan just to annoy China as there is no other actual reason to go there
Lol, I suspect semiconductors might be the most important reason for visiting Taiwan during a trade meeting in the South Pacific region.
The US doesn’t recognize Chinas authority to dictate who can visit Taiwan, despite China being annoyed by that fact.
Hey all:
Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I need to drop some personal news.
I’m going In for surgery in the morning. Turns out that I have a large, potentially-cancerous mass on my right kidney that has got to go. There is a one-in-four chance they can just remove the mass (it’s sitting close to some major blood vessels). Otherwise they’ll have to take the whole organ. Thank goodness for bilateral symmetry, eh?
Fortunately, according to my urologist, my prognosis is “excellent.” The MRI they did earlier this summer revealed no metastasis. I won’t need chemo or radiation. It’s a pretty common procedure with a high recovery rate. That said, being the bundle of neuroses I am, I’m still scared shitless.
So, in case the worst happens, thanks for putting up with my rants, raves, tantrums, and grossly misinformed musings. Thanks for all those times you called me out on my stupidity. That said, this blog has genuinely helped me grow as a person. I’ve laughed. I’ve cried. It was better than Cats.
See you all later. If not, it was a pleasure knowing you all.
Now why is this a tragedy?
Zawahiri was a terrorist who killed hundreds of thousands of people as the second in command of al Qaeda. Almost all of them were innocent civilians.
The most high profile were the 3,000 at the World Trade Center in NYC, but the vast majority of al Qaeda victims were middle eastern Muslims.
This guy is right up there with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Osama bin Laden, ISIS, and the latest genocidal maniac, Vladimir Putin.
I’ll feel sorry for Ayman al-Zawahiri after I’m done feeling sorry for his hundreds of thousands of victims. That should take a few thousand years.
Good luck.
Trust your doctors. If they say, “It’s a pretty common procedure with a high recovery rate.”, they are the ones that should know.
@ 20
Thanks, Raven. I know I shouldn’t be stressing as much as I am, but what can I say? Anxiety is my resting state.
Tethys @17: I was not saying that this was done sneakily but the total opposite. It was done to draw attention like a spoiled child having a fit. And if you think trade is the only (or even main) reason to be there, you’re naïve.
raven @19: I’m not saying that his death is a tragedy. I’m saying that the US doesn’t give a shit about the rule of law as long as it benefits them at the current moment and under their current circumstances. It’s always “American exceptionalism” (and I hate using ‘American’ because the US is not America but only a part of it).
Akira MacKenzie @18: I hope everything as well as they can and I’m sorry for cluttering the thread with my useless ramblings. What you’re going through is what’s real and important.
Good luck Akira.
All the best, Akira.
Despite the loathsomeness of Ayman al-Zawahiri, I agree with Jean that his assassination cannot be justified: the USA is not entitled simply to kill anyone it wants, anywhere it can get away with it – and this action is, among other things, an assertion that it is so entitled. I don’t agree with Jean about Pelosi visiting Taiwan; the Chinese authorities’ claim to determine who may and may not visit what is, de facto, an independent country, is of the same order of arrogance as the American authorities’ claim to be entitled to conduct assassinations such as that of al-Zawahiri.
On how our days are getting shorter by milliseconds for reasons we don’t fully understand and, if the trend continues, we may need to take a second off :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-02/earth-shortest-day-may-lead-to-leap-second-deletion/101289964
Whilt via Space dot com :
https://www.space.com/chinese-rocket-crash-space-debris-found
& https://www.space.com/this-australian-experiment-is-on-the-hunt-for-an-elusive-particle-that-could-help-unlock-the-mystery-of-dark-matter
Hopefully some interesting stuff for folks here.
Hope the surgery is going well, Akira. Thinking of you this morning.
There is of course a serious discussion to be had about the justifiability and implications of actions like the killing of al-Zawahiri, but Jean’s take was quite silly.
These are just unserious claims, and to cite these two events together [?!] as specifically arousing hatred for the US government, in this moment, is…really strange. The US has engaged in decades of imperialist war and destruction in response to these terrorist attacks, killing innocent people (many with drones) and destroying lives on a massive scale. This – the targeted killing of the fucking leader of Al Qaeda who’s being harbored by the fucking Taliban – is what piques your hatred? Give me a break. It’s like posting in 1960, in response to the capture of Eichmann, that Israel was just trying to get attention and “I hate the fucking Israeli government sometimes.”
And I’m offended by the ludicrous claim that killing al-Zawahiri was undertaken in a frivolous spirit for frivolous reasons. It’s disrespectful to his thousands of victims, willfully disregards his continuing threats, and undermines substantive criticisms.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
Meanwhile, the evidence mounts that the Russians locked more than 50 POWs in a building in Olenivka and blew it up.
Good grief – update to #366 in the previous chapter – Guardian – “Third woman complains at use of her image in Spanish ‘beach body’ ad”:
I just got a call from the hospital. The doctor called in sick. GAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
Hamilton Nolan in the Guardian – “The world is ablaze and the oil industry just posted record profits. It’s us or them”:
More at the link.
Akira MacKenzie @ #32, oh, no!
Francis Scarr (Twitter link):
That picture really captures the essence of contemporary Russia.
Probably too soon for a joke about Zawahiri being unavailable to fill in for the surgery, eh?
Sorry to hear that Akira. You don’t need more stress.
Yes, I agree.
Best of luck, Akira.
I’m half expecting to have my upcoming surgeries postponed because of the ongoing stresses on the health care system in Canada.
More votes in the US today.
Bolts – “What to Watch in the August 2 and August 4 Primaries”:
Just heard back from the urologist’s office. They are rescheduling for the 29th. I got to call me leave/disability provider to renegotiate my recovery.
Akira @ #41, the prolongation of the anxiety sucks, but I’m glad you have a new date.
Guardian liveblog:
This is today’s atrocity from Russia. It is just more threats. OTOH, it is still only 8:00 AM here.
Dmitri Medvedev is just an internet troll.
He is also the second or third most powerful man in Russia.
“Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is a Russian politician who has been serving as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev also served as the president of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and prime minister of Russia between 2012 and 2020. Medvedev was elected president in the 2008 election. Wikipedia”
I’ve been saying for a while that if Ukraine goes, Georgia and Moldova will also go.
So will Kazakhstan and probably the other Central Asian former SSRs.
Kazakhstan can read the writing on twitter and is now looking for allies anywhere they can.
Text quoted by SC @43:
That makes me wonder if Jeremy Corbyn is on Putin’s payroll.
SC @31, so the women’s institute, part of Spain’s equality ministry, disrespected several women while claiming to be launching a campaign supportive of women. Major fuckup.
@32, Best of luck to Akira as she faces health care issues and scheduling difficulties.
Most people have heard about the attack on Ukrainian POWs in the Russian prison camp in Oleniyka that killed 50 POWS.
The Russians claim the Ukrainians shelled it while the Ukrainians claimed the Russians shelled it.
Neither are correct.
It now looks like the Russians just closed up the building and threw a thermobaric bomb inside.
It shows he isn’t qualified to lead any nation.
If the Russians lay down their weapons, then they go home, open a bottle of vodka, and see what is on TV.
If the Ukrainians lay down their weapons, they get genocided, and disappear forever.
Akira @18, I would be “scared shitless” too. Even so-called common or routine surgery is scary. Keep us informed. We are all hoping the surgery and recovery afterwards go well for you. Sorry to hear there was a delay in the schedule.
@ 45
Psst.. Not to be a pedant because it could have been a typo, but I’m a cis he/him.
Kansas City Star
Misleading text urges ‘yes’ vote in Kansas to ‘give women a choice.’ Source is unknown
By Katie Bernard / August 1, 2022
Very unlikely. Putin has no need to pay him, and Corbyn isn’t personally corrupt. Corbyn just suffers from the fairly widespread delusion in sectors of the left that the only form of imperialism in the world is US imperialism, and if the US is doing something (in this case, supplying arms to Ukraine), it must be wrong.
Guardian podcast – “Will Ghana introduce some of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world?”:
Emmanuel Akinwotu has such a pleasant voice. This is the video of the Angel Maxine song mentioned in the podcast.
Janis Kluge is right that this is a war crime, the slaughter of 50 prisoners.
She is so wrong that this is “one of the worst war crimes of this century.
There have been so many war crimes in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Ukraine, etc.. that this war crime is on a long list somewhere in very small print that would take a while just to find it.
It’s probably not even the worst war crime this week in the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russians every day launch cruise missiles at cities in Ukraine without caring what they hit; hospitals, schools, shopping malls whatever. And wherever they have occupied, there are mass graves.
“That makes me wonder if Jeremy Corbyn is on Putin’s payroll.”
Why would he be, if Johnson and his party were already, to get Brexit done? They didn’t need Corbyn. Does anyone here read Sarah Kendzior? It wasnt’t Corbyn to fly out to meet the Russians on his holiday for further instructions.
@Akira MacKenzie
Have a speedy recovery.
raven @ #53:
Kluge is a he.
Akira – hoping for the best.
And sorry for you having to wait to get it over with.
Akira @49, thanks for the reminder. Can’t believe I fucked that up.
In other news: West Virginia senator says victims of child rape ‘romanticize’ abusers, see them as ‘boyfriends’
I doubt that anyone here is shedding any tears over al-Zawahiri. In his case, one wishes there were a hell. However the matter of drone strikes is problematic because:
1) There is no transparency to the process of finding, selecting or executing the target
2) Safeguards, if they exist at all, are very limited and opaque
I understand the reasons for the US policy–the terrorists are non-state actors who have essentially declared war on a sovereign power. If you consider it a war, it is a war with no battlefield. If you consider the acts of terror a crime, there is no method for arresting, extraditing and trying the perpetrators. But regardless of the novelty of the situation and the difficulty of dealing with it, all one needs to do is consider drones in the tiny hands of Cheetolini to see the dangers of continuing this policy.
MMFA – “How Devin Nunes and Kash Patel appealed to QAnon extremists to build Truth Social’s user base”: “Patel has suggested that QAnon is part of ‘our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences’…”
Wonkette: “What Not To Wear To An Alabama Execution”
● Concuring with others including KG@51, “Corbyn isn’t personally corrupt” and it’s very very unlikely Putin (or anyone else) is paying him.
● All the best for Akira!
● There was a wildfire near Marseille today — not quite sure where so I’m unsure how close to the village — but apparently quickly contained.
● I was wondering about this this morning in the heat — low 30℃’s but no breeze so feels much hotter — when getting my almost-weekly supply of olive oil (today’s is an excellent one from a local in- / near-the-village producer), Spain warns heatwave threatens olive oil production (Grauniad edits in {curly braces}):
Olexander Scherba:
Photo at the (Twitter) link. :)
Well, we are not yet done with Herschel Walker as a Republican candidate for the Senate. Soon, I hope this becomes old news.
Wonkette: “Herschel Walker’s Pretty Sure He Can Whoop Elie Mystal In Georgia Senate Race”
snarkrates @ #60:
Well, in this specific case, there was quite a bit of transparency in selecting the target – dude had a $25 million bounty on his head!
CNN – “Biden Justice Department sues Idaho over state’s abortion restrictions in first post-Dobbs lawsuit”:
“Ladies and gentlemen, a video from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry….”
(Twitter link.)
Wonkette: “Fox News So Mad At Joe Manchin Now, HOW VERY DARE HE!”
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657793896
Herschel Walker quoted in Lynna’s #65:
…the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Trump Is Ready To Fck Sht UP For ERIC In Missouri Senate Primary!
“Breaking: #Ukraine may begin the official registration of same-sex marriages shortly. Responding to a petition launched by A. Sovenko, @ZelenskyyUa said that all citizens of #Ukraine enjoy equal rights and freedoms. The matter will now be scrutinized by [Ukrainian] PM @Denys_Shmyhal”
SC@68, That video at youtube, Invasion Of Ukraine — It’s HIMARS O’Clock Tribute Video.
On taxes and Dems’ climate bill, GOP rhetoric runs into reality
According to Republicans, the Inflation Reduction Act includes a middle-class “tax increase” — despite the meaning of the words “tax” and “increase.”
Talibama: Female Journalist Told to Cover Her Legs While Reporting on Execution
The “TALIBAMA: HOME OF CHRISTIAN SHARIA LAW” graphic is worth seeing, (followup to comment 62). “He who is without sin, cast the … Hey lady! Cover your legs, will you? We are trying to kill someone here!”
SC @28, 29
Those are just 2 unrelated actions from the US taken on the same day that will make the entire world less safe which prompted my reaction (there’s a long list of such actions form the US and I’m not rating them against each other or against actions from others). That you would be offended by my arguably silly and clumsy take on them rather than by the actions themselves is on you, especially in view of these actions being at least partly done at this time for political purposes (having a “win” for the elections) rather than for justice (which definitely wasn’t and won’t help reduce terrorism) or trade (which could be done some other way regardless of the legitimacy of China’s attitude and claims).
Anyway, have fun with your little clique here. Goodbye.
(and you can stop rolling your eyes now)
Meduza – “‘Distorted and discredited’ From the peace sign to scare quotes, these are the gestures that now trigger prosecution in Russia”:
Jean @ #76:
I’m fine with that.
Ah, throwing in another weak take for the hell of it. That totally bespeaks good faith.
Oh, good. I was afraid I might pull something!
Kansas is voting today on whether to keep abortion in that state legal or not, a constitutional amendment.
Well, Kansas is deep Red so the outcome is predictable.
Or is it?
The polling data is closer than I would think for Kansas at 47% prohibition to 43% keep it legal.
Still going to be an uphill battle for women.
We might know by late tonight.
blf @ #73, thanks! I didn’t know if it was there yet and was too lazy to check.
@72
Hoorah! My friends in Ukraine will be officially married, and will hopefully survive to enjoy their new legal rights. I hope they stay safe in Kyiv.
Jean @76 Those are just 2 unrelated actions from the US taken on the same day that will make the entire world less safe which prompted my reaction
How is a trade visit to Taiwan (the #1 supplier of computer chips) from the elected representative of California and the Silicon Valley tech industry making the world less safe?
It’s her actual job, you ninny.
The world likes smartphones and computers and high tech controls. Taiwan doesn’t belong to China, and it’s Nancy’s job to forge very strong trade alliances that ensure that the US tech industry has the raw materials to make the tech that the entire world uses to communicate and conduct business.
The GDP of CA is a huge and crucial part of the US economy.
@ 59
No biggie.
@Akira
Good luck on your surgery! I hope the Dr’s prognosis is correct, and the operation goes well. I imagine it’s stressful to have it postponed at the last moment.
Tethys @81
My take on the current events has been called silly and without good faith but I think yours qualify as well. Check her op-ed in the Washington Post for her own views about it and some of the reasons for the visit and tell me who’s the ninny then. And I’m not the only one questioning the pertinence of the visit and the potential security issues (and I’m not talking about partisan politics).
WaPo:
Justice Dept. sues Idaho over near-total abortion ban coming Aug. 25
By Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett / August 2, 2022
@ #84
What is it you specifically object to in that op-ed?
tomh @86
I’m just saying that this is not only a trade delegation visit but a political one done to provoke China and her own words confirm that, specifically this: “visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom”. Regardless of the validity of the Chinese reaction and the US views on Taiwan, this visit is unnecessary bravado which will not help anyone in the region. She might think it helps her and her party for the fall elections though but that’s speculation on my part.
BBC – “Taiwan: Nancy Pelosi trip labelled as ‘extremely dangerous’ by Beijing”:
Well, that’s thuggish and overwrought!
Another BBC article, “Nancy Pelosi’s long history of opposing Beijing,” links to a video report she tweeted in 2019:
From the BBC article:
I support the visit even more now.
I’m losing track of the garbage takes at this point.
Jean @ #86
“visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom”.
I guess what I wondered is, do you see Taiwan as a part of China? Because the many Taiwanese that I know don’t. After all, “Chinese” is not a race, it’s a country of origin. My friends regard themselves as Taiwanese, their country of origin. Yet I know many people don’t agree, or even see any difference between the two, and I wondered if that were your view.
SC @89
So she has a history of provoking China and my take that she wants to provoke China is garbage. Ok, that makes sense.
I’m not saying that China has any right to respond to the provocation that it called for by their own statements but she’s playing a game which will not cost her anything but can very well get others killed. And it will definitely not help anyone or calm things down.
Also, you’re an asshole.
tomh @86
I think the Taiwan people should decide for themselves what they want. I also think that China is one of the 3 big world bullies with Russia and the US and that each one will do as they wish as long as they think they will end up on top. Human lives for them are expendable especially if they are foreign. The US cares a little bit more about their own citizens (and sometimes allies) but to the rest of the world that does not make much difference.
She has a history of defending human rights and democratic movements in China and in Taiwan. These sorts of criticisms veer creepily close to repeating the logic of abusers. Pelosi can visit anywhere she wants that wants her to visit.
I don’t see any problems shown in #87. That’s a good message and more important than currency.
Provocation? So Taiwan existence is a provocation now?
I was unaware of the stark trend in opinion polling on Taiwanese identity in Taiwan.
@ #92
Well, the Taiwanese have decided for themselves what they want, and, at the moment, they want to welcome whomever they like to visit them, regardless of how China feels about it. It’s important to them to be an independent country. They’ve been threatened by China for so long that they’ve grown almost immune to it. I think your fear that this will escalate into disaster is misplaced.
Oops, I mean communicating that Taiwan exists is a provocation. In addition.
CounterVortex – “FBI raids Russian-backed Black Nationalists?”:
tomh @97
I hope you’re right and nobody gets killed because of this visit. But things have already escalated because of it. It’s now a question of where it goes from here.
I concur with SC that the claims of ‘ provocation’ is entirely consistent with the logic of abusers.
China’s Xi Pinging could just shut up and mind his own business about a peaceful visit between two completely independent countries.
Threats of violence from China if people in Taiwan and America speak to each other is not behavior any democratic minded person should tolerate. ‘You’re not the boss of me, so fuck off’ is the core basis of independent democracy and anti authoritarian philosophy.
“‘Truth is so vital to our world’. Mother of 6-year-old boy murdered at Sandy Hook tells Alex Jones to his face she and her son are real.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. It’s horrifying that people have to do this.
Argh, stupid autocorrect.
I did in fact type Xi Jinping, not Pinging.
CNN – “Senate passes long-sought bill to help veterans affected by burn pits”:
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
NBC News:
Associated Press:
New York Times:
Manafort Impresses Prison Buds With Tales Of Breaking Mueller Plea Deal In New Book
Former Trump campaign chairman needed to avoid being seen as a ‘rat’ in prison.
Followup to comment 108.
Posted by readers of the article:
Dave Wasserman tweeted a minute ago: “I’ve seen enough: in a huge victory for the pro-choice side, the Kansas constitutional amendment to remove protections of abortion rights fails.”
I know he knows his stuff, but I won’t be able to believe it until all of the votes are counted.
Lynna @ #109, thank you for sharing those comments.
LOL, Wasserman’s tweet already has around 25,000 likes.
@ 99
As long as the checks clear (sort of speak), I don’t think they give a shit what Putin does on his side of the planet. The enemy of my enemy is my friend… if they also find another group of my enemies.
Akira MacKenzie @ #113, but as he points out:
The (support for the) League of the South poses a direct threat to them, especially since they’re in the South.
The live results of the Kansas abortion vote to remove the right are currently at over 58% tabulated, with NO being the clear winner.
NO 259,950 votes 64.2%
YES 144,978 votes 35.8%
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article263823143.html
Looks like the Kansas Forced Birth amendment is going down in flames.
It isn’t even close right now at almost 2 to 1 against.
The forced birthers and the christofascists don’t have the support they claim they do.
Kansas is almost a worst case for pro-choicers.
Steve Kornacki on MSNBC calling Kansas for no.
Tethys @115, SC @117, and others: Hooray! So glad to see that abortion rights won in Kansas, won decisively. With now more than 80% of the vote in, it is obvious that reproductive rights won in Kansas.
SC @111, you’re welcome. Those comments hit the nail on the head.
Link
Impossible as it is to believe, 50% of the people in Kansas happen to be women, who clearly and overwhelming support reproductive bodily autonomy and privacy at the gynecologist.
It is impossible to believe that MSM entirely forgot the massive Womens March in protest of tfg, and the Blue Wave, judging by their automatic exclusion of relevant words like fascist and sexism to describe GOP efforts.
Exceellent speech at the Natioanl press club by Australian Greens leader Adam bandt here here albeit over an hour long.
With an announcement during that confirming Australia will finally have an official climate target legislated :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-03/43-pc-emissions-reduction-target-to-become-law-greens-support/101295224
With Aussie ABC news report on the Kansas abortion ban here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-03/kansas-voters-reject-abortion-ban-in-referendum/101298262
too for those who may be interested.
Jean@100,
You’re very naive about military matters. If China invades Taiwan in the wake of Pelosi’s visit, it will be because they had already decided to do so at the first opportune moment; they would not mount such an invasion without having the forces they would need ready and plans – both military, and in terms of handling the political blowback and possible sanctions – worked out in detail.
CNN – “Six takeaways from Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Arizona and Washington primaries”:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Get your popcorn: Herschel Walker finally agrees to debate, says he’s ‘ready for Senator Warnock’
The debate Herschel Walker has agreed to is supposed to take place on October 14 in Savannah, Georgia.
Guardian liveblog:
Ukraine update: Russia loses two supply trains in a day … but only one to Ukrainian attack
The veterans toxic exposure bill (the PACT act) has now passed the Senate, intact I believe, on an 86–11 vote which is a larger than the original 84–14 vote, suggesting two thugs who had previously voted against it switched (and one other previous nay-sayer apparently abstained or something). According to Senate finally passes bill expanding benefits for veterans exposed to toxin, teh dummies agreed with the nonsensical thug face-saving absurdity:
I eventually decided to not put Moscow Mitch’s final comments (second paragraph (especially the first sentence)) in because, in a properly functioning legislature, there is constructive “back-and-forth”. However, the Senate, and arguably the entire US Congress (both houses), is currently rarely functioning, much less functioning properly, at all. Moscow Mitch fudged his claim — made a claim which is currently misleading — but was not outright lying.
@ 126
What does Warnock hope to accomplish by publicly debating Walker? To reveal what a gibbering, uneducated, bigoted fool he is? Everyone already knows that and the Georgia’s right winger don’t care. If anything they love how his Walker’s antics “trigger” us and the laugh at our, from their prospective, hysterical responses.
Walker’s campaign isn’t about putting a component individual into office. It’s about unseating a leftish black Democrat with a token Uncle Ruckus to avoid accusations of racism.
Link
A “donate to Charles Booker” link is available at the main link. I disagree with the author’s tendency to lump all “white Kentuckians” into one category. I agree that Rand Paul is one guy who depresses the living shit out of me.
Wonkette: “Defense Department And Army Texts From Jan. 6 Also Deleted? Cool.”
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657800347
Meduza – “The Metropolitan’s projects: Initiatives linked to ‘Putin’s confessor’ received $332 million from Russia’s government and state-owned companies”:
Everything about this report, including the photo at the link, reminds me of the 2014 film Leviathan. I wanted to look up the director, Andrey Zvyagintsev, to see where he stands on the invasion of Ukraine, and found this:
!!!
Under Biden, U.S. uninsured rate improves to an all-time low
When was the last time the uninsured rate was this low? Never. It’s never happened. President Biden says that’s “not an accident” — and he has a point.
Link
Guardian liveblog:
Snark from the Grauniad, Anyone who thinks Birmingham was not on the map needs to just buy a map:
Excerpt from an article linked-to by the above snark, Nadine Dorries said that the Commonwealth Games and people are not impressed:
Another reason Birmingham is “on the map”, so to speak, Why the Birmingham Six’s story must not be forgotten: “It remains one of the gravest miscarriages of justice in British history. […]”
Oh, wow – Ben Collins is livetweeting the Alex Jones trial:
Byline Times – “What Ukrainians Think About Jeremy Corbyn’s Ukraine Interview”: “Chris York reports on the reaction of Ukrainians after the former Labour Leader said the West supplying weapons to the country will ‘prolong and exaggerate’ Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war…”
From Tony Ortega’s Today in Q – “‘I just hope I’m not in last place,’ says Ron ‘Q’ Watkins before finishing dead last.”
SC @139, thanks for that link.
An excerpt I found meaningful:
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Associated Press:
NPR:
“Taiwan: ‘After reunification, we will do re-education’, says the Chinese ambassador to France”
Video at the (Twitter) link. They’re speaking French – no subtitles. The whole thing is fairly unsettling, though not unexpected. He suggests that 10, 20 years ago most Taiwanese people were pro-unification and now most are against it; chalks this claimed change up to the effect of “extreme” political propaganda; and so tries to present “reeducation” as merely a means to counter this alleged indoctrination – after this, Taiwanese people will again come to favor unification. (This is telling given that he’s proposing “reeducation” after unification, so he’s talking about the “reeducation” of a population the majority of whom, he admits, are hostile to unification.) He also tries to compare this “reeducation,” in an obviously canned line delivered unconvincingly, to French schools teaching republican values (the BFM TV interviewer responds well to this ahistorical bullshit).
Idaho nears the fulfillment of Aryan Nations leader’s vision for creating a white-nationalist haven
Not good! – BBC – “Ukraine war: IAEA says Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant out of control”:
More at the link.
Oz Katerji:
Joy Reid tonight is great so far.
Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice, was one of Reid’s guests. She tweeted late last night:
Here’s the background on the nuns’ letter.
Another fallacy about Trans children proves to be wrong.
Social contagion does not explain why Trans people are…Trans people.
And Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria still doesn’t exist.
A few years from now, even this headline will seem ridiculous – that such a claim would ever be taken seriously and research needed to rebut it.
So from the limited bits I’ve been able to stomach…the TERF coverage of the Kansas vote, the Lionesses’ victory, and so forth consists entirely of weird language policing around “girls, “women,” “people,” etc. It’s sad and bizarre. Their thinking is so poisoned that they can’t even just enjoy these things or straightforwardly stand up for human rights.
@ 139 & 148
What next? Bernie Sanders starts speaking glowingly of Caleb Maupin?
SC @147, Yikes! That is really, really scary news.
More text from the link you provided:
The Ukrainian staff at the plant must also be near the breaking point.
Senate votes 95-1 to add Sweden, Finland to NATO
Even Mitch McConnell was onboard:
Wonkette:
Sheesh. Head/desk. Prager University dunderhead …
Video is available at the link.
“‘It’s almost a delusion to think that Ukraine can win this war.’
Former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn Matt Zarb-Cousin backs his old boss’ claim that continuing to arm Ukraine will not bring peace with Russia.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. I don’t like this. He won’t make eye contact. He clearly doesn’t believe what he’s saying here.
“NEW: On eve of first #Iran-US indirect talks in Vienna since March, senior Iranian source tells @amwajmedia that ‘intention and readiness for a compromise exists…but safeguards issues need to be resolved’.
Importantly, he described it as ‘doable’.”
Do it!
“Move.”
“China Cat Sunflower – I Know You Rider.”
“Summer Renaissance.”
blf@137,
I spent a fair amount of time in Birmingham in the 1990s. My partner (now wife) was living and working there – not far from Sarehole Mill. I was working successively in Leeds and Aberystwyth, but spent a lot of weekends and time off there. Not by any means my favourite city, but pleasant enough in parts, and apparently the best place outwith South Asia for baltis – the vegetable and mushroom ones served in the Indian restaurant near her home were certainly the best I’ve ever tasted. In any case, I never had any trouble in finding the place, so it was definitely on the map even then!
As it happens, I’ve just been rereading a series of three novels largely set in Birmingham: Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters’ Club, The Closed Circle, and Middle England, set respectively in the 1970s, 1990s and 2010s, and together making up something of a “condition of England” series, with a lot of social and political history intertwined with the main characters’ lives from adolescence to late middle age. The Birmingham pub bombing features in the first, one of the characters being killed in the explosion. In the third, a secondary character (a Londoner) points out that “Sarehole” is an anagram of “arsehole”!
SC@139, 148, 158,
My opinion of Corbyn has shifted from ambivalence to disgust. I’m even having to question whether a Labour win in 2019 would have been worse than what happened – although I’ve a feeling that in that alternate universe, Corbyn would have been ejected from the leadership (and hence from the premiership) if he’d said anythnig similar. As far as I can judge, support for Corbyn’s view is minuscule within Labour – although as a non-member, I could be wrong.
Paul Krugman has an article on the economic sanctions against Russia.
.1. They aren’t working too well.
For various reasons, including the sanctions, oil and gas prices are up. And Russia is having no problem selling their oil to non-European countries.
.2. They are having trouble buying stuff though including advanced microchips.
That has hit their economy hard.
.3. The sanctions on their own aren’t going to end the war in Ukraine.
.4. I’ll add my own 7 cents here. Russia has proven to be an unreliable supplier and trading partner. It is also a terrorist state that routinely threatens to nuke everyone for some reason or no reason. I’m not sure why Germany is buying Russian gas when Russia just threatened to vaporize Berlin.
There is a lot of natural gas in the world e.g. Central Asia has huge reserves. Even Germany itself has natural gas deposits that they could drill into. Plus the LNG trade.
They really need to get away from Russian natural gas for their own national security.
That’s easy: lack of an immediately available alternative. Gas that could be available next decade, next year or even next month, can’t be burned today.
Sigh.
GOP candidates reject primary defeats, too
After nearly two years of the Big Lie, some Republicans are applying ridiculous election conspiracy theories to their own primary defeats.
Aren’t people tired of this schtick in which Republican candidates whine about non-existent election fraud?
Ukraine Invasion Day 162: large-scale operations yet to come
Map at the link.
ReligionBlog
Biden Issues Executive Order On Access To Reproductive Health Care Services
August 4, 2022
Bloomberg:
Commentary:
Link
Ukraine Update
KG @164,
“That’s easy: lack of an immediately available alternative. Gas that could be available next decade, next year or even next month, can’t be burned today.”
As you know I hadn’t lived in Germany for almost 20 years, and I was shocked to see the degree to which they had made themselves dependent on Russian gas when I returned. Former chancellor Schröder, just like Johnson and Trump, has turned out to be a Russian asset, but questions do have to be asked about Merkel too. Like, who thought this ever was a good idea, and why?
The fact there are nuclear and coal lobbyists about now trying to seize the occasion is not surprising, but mostly a distraction. The renewables are there already, if the will existed to use them. But predictably, who is scheduled to cut down gas consumption in winter? Why, schools and the poor of course. While the German opposition leader flies in his private plane to another privileged politician’s wedding.
rorschach @170
It all goes back to the 70s and German then new policy of rapprochement with the Eastern block and the Soviet Union in particular. That’s when they started building gas pipelines from Siberia to Germany. The expressed idea was that closer and mutually beneficial economic ties would reduce the likelihood of military hostilities. Or maybe the German government just wanted cheap gas for the German industry, then as well as now.
If you squinted hard enough you could say the idea kinda worked, until it didn’t.
Here’s a long read from the Grauniad on the topic.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog, which is already closed for the day (they’ve been closing them earlier this week):
The Christian Right Fires A Warning Shot At Senate Republicans
Obergefell has become the new Roe.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From their coverage of Orbán’s CPAC speech in Texas, which just ended:
The US liveblog is now closed as well. From their closing summary:
Followup to SC’s comment 172.
U.S. says Russia aims to fabricate evidence in prison deaths
Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the attack, U.S. intelligence officials determined.
Sen. Whitehouse:
Followup to SC’s comment 174.
Wonkette; “American Fascists Welcome Viktor Orban Like He’s Hitler Come Back From France”
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657807296
Quoted in Lynna’s #178:
This shouldn’t be allowed by Twitter.
SC @177, so that’s how Kavanaugh escaped a thorough investigation.
You can’t switch from gas or oil to renewables just like that. A lot of German industrial plants, and IIRC German homes, burn gas directly rather than using electricity produced by burning gas.
‘SNL’ veteran Victoria Jackson shares how religious beliefs got her blacklisted in Hollywood
Here’s a link to the Guardian’s…China tantrum I guess liveblog. From there:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
A funny way to prove a point here I guess :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-05/french-scientist-apologises-for-chorizo-star-joke/101305334
Plus great news for the Biloela family of refugees -although it should never have been this hard or taken this long for our govt todothe right thing and so much needless suffering has been inflicted here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-05/qld-biloela-tamil-family-nadesalingam-granted-permanent-visas/101306510
Plus :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-03/trees-and-fungi-how-they-communicate/101276836
On the deep underground connections of trees and fungi all interconnected.
Guardian – “Sandi Toksvig says ‘lives at stake’ after anti-gay Anglican church declaration”:
From the latest summary at the Guardian China-tantrum liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
Apropos of nothing, some time ago I mentioned the most obvious sign of the rising cost-of-living I’d noticed was the outdoor market egg vendor raising their prices for Monster-sized Armoured Organic Eggs from €3.50 to €3.60 to €3.80 this year. Today, I noticed another sign, at one of my favourite restruants — a highly-regarded place known to many locals but few tourists with relatively simply but well-prepared seasonal French cuisine — the standard formula price had gone from €25 to €27; add an apéritif, vin, etc., to that and I usually pay 52€ (actually, 55€ in cash, as they haven’t accepted credit cards since the pandemic lockdowns, with the change left as a thanks). Today it was the usual excellent (even the peas!), albeit for 54€. They were very apologetic, doubly so since they couldn’t, at first, find a bottle of this wonderful digestif (not quite sure what it is) made by the chef-owner’s father they usually offer gratuis.
I haven’t been to any outdoor (or indoor) restaurant or market since May 2020. That will remain the case until we have nasal or buccal vaccines that provide mucosal immunity. Unfortunately the Biden government does not currently financially support the project by Prof Iwasaki at Yale, which is essentially ready to do this.
Guardian liveblog:
The tl;dr version.
.1. DeSantis suspends elected prosecutor over new abortion law
.2. Warren added that no cases regarding violations of the state’s new abortion law have been brought to his office.
It is not obvious to me that DeathSantis has the legal authority to suspend an elected DA for Hillsborough county.
Among other things lacking here are Due Process, hearings, and any sort of laws allowing this to happen.
This is basically nullifying an election by fiat, simply ordering it to be reversed.
Conservatives Are Coming for No-Fault Divorce
From the article above about DeathSantis removing the elected DA.
Sums it up.
I will note here that Warren wasn’t removed for doing anything or not doing anything. He was removed for a pledge he signed to not prosecute abortion cases.
In most cases, a crime is what you did, not what you said you might do.
WTH!!!
The DA is part of the Executive branch, part of law enforcement.
The judicial branch is a separate part of the government and a judge is part of that branch of government.
He now has a judge filling in for the DA.
IANAL and don’t know the details of Florida’s laws and procedures.
But none of this looks remotely legal to me.
PS DeathSantis also did exactly what this DA, Andrew Warren did.
He decided that the Covid-19 virus wasn’t worth worrying about and ignored all the rules and regulations that were made to fight this pandemic virus.
He even ordered the state to not count up how many people died from the virus.
And has the piles of dead bodies of Covid-19 virus victims to show for it.
This is where Europe’s winter heating supply is going.
I will say the Russians show their usual lack of imagination.
.1. Natural gas can be liquefied to LNG and sent around the world.
.2. Natural gas can be stored in underground facilities, which is what everyone does for the winter.
.3. Natural gas is the feedstock for making nitrogen fertilizer, the key input for feeding 7.9 billion people.
They could just convert this to fertilizer and sell it or use it.
NYT
Kari Lake, Backed by Trump, Wins Arizona’s G.O.P. Governor Primary
Running a campaign heavily focused on false claims of a stolen 2020 election, Ms. Lake beat a rival supported by the state’s G.O.P. establishment and its departing governor, Doug Ducey.
August 5, 2022
Dems question Family Research Council’s tax status as a ‘church’
The Family Research Council has established itself as a leading far-right advocacy and research organization. According to the IRS, it’s also a “church.”
Cheney news:
Link
Job market defies expectations with blockbuster growth in July
We’ve all heard plenty of talk about a possible recession, but at least for now, there’s no evidence of it in the surprisingly resilient U.S. job market.
Video titled “The job market is great. Democrats need to sell it.” Available at the link.
Now We Finally Know: Notorious Kremlin-Linked Oligarch Paid For Giuliani’s Trips
Followup to comment 201.
Posted by readers of the article:
System Malfunction: Fox Tries To Attack WH Over Report Showing Massive Job Growth
Lynna… quoting Steve Benem @ # 200: … Republicans have responded to developments like these by pretending not to notice them.
Dunno who doesn’t consider False Noise “personalities” as Republican spokesentities, but –
If Jesus came back and held a news conference with Biden on the White House lawn, they’d slam Democrats for supporting illegal aliens.
Ooops – apologies for not refreshing to see that Lynna had scooped me @ # 203!
Ukraine Update: Russian lines recede south of Izyum as Russia rushes to potential Kherson trap
A heavily armed American Taliban cleric terrorizes a town hall meeting held by Beto O’Rourke
Stop the Medicare “Advantage” Scam Before Medicare is Dead
If it is being marketed like a scam, it is a scam.
Via raven at 196, from Euromaidan Press:
This story has a video clip and a photo of the Portovaya torch, as seem from across Finnish border (about 20 km away, at the Baltic Sea coast near Vyborg where the NordStream I pipeline departs from Russia):
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12564280
Headline: “Here Russia burns away its own billions – The flame seen on video contains a view of current world politics”
Further down, there are some old photos from the Portovaya gas compression facility. There’s a satellite data graph from the US National Institute of Aerospace, showing that occurrence and intensity of fire at the Portovaya facility have exploded this year. Some torching of gas occurs now and then at similar facilities in various countries, due to technical or logistical difficulties, although it is a waste of gas and harmful for the environment.
According to Jessica McCarty, assistant professor at Miami University, the previous fires at Portovaya almost never burned at the gas compression station itself (where the current flame burns) but at the nearby industrial facilities. During May-July, Russia quit its gas delivery to Finland (this small volume was insignificant for Russian economy and not a very big hit for Finland’s energy supply either) and greatly reduced the amount of gas delivered along NordStream I to Germany before briefly cutting it altogether. It seems pretty clear that the current torching is indeed caused by gas surplus in the Russian system.
In 2021, Russia’s total gas export was worth 55 billion euro, most of which went to the EU. Now, Russia stands to lose about 50 billion euro a year just by ending the EU trade, although the future price of natural gas is difficult to predict. It depends a lot whether there’s gas delivery from Russia to EU in the first place.
The Russian national gas company Gazprom has been blaming the recent restrictions on gas delivery along the NordStream I on technical difficulties, which sounds somewhat plausible according to a quoted expert. However, Gazprom has been clearly deliberately dragging its feet in terms of solving the technical problems or using alternate gas delivery routes. There’s a photo of the gas turbine that’s currently stuck in Germany after repair. There’s a tweet from the Gazprom (in English), blaming Western sanctions for their supposed inability to get the turbine back into operation.
Near the end, there’s a mention that torching of natural gas for various reasons was already a widespread practice in Russia, and a major environmental problem. It is illegal but very poorly enforced against. While nearly all of the released methane burns into carbon dioxide (which is a less potent greenhouse gas), it’s still wasted fossil fuel, and the burning generates a large amount of soot particles that spread over the Arctic region, reducing the reflectivity of snow and ice, increasing the warming of the climate.
raven at 196 commented:
The article quotes a Finnish expert who is somewhat baffled on why Russia is resorting to large scale torching of natural gas. My guess would be that the LNG facilities and fertilizer plants that exist in Russia are already operating at full volume (as normally) and storage facilities are full.
OUCH! FOX News Hack Tucker Carlson Lamely Tries to Insult Jon Stewart, Gets Another Brutal Beat Down
A lot of whataboutism reminds me of this SNL skit. A version of the “I’m not touching you” instincts. I’ve got some people making a big deal about why the 1/6 committee isn’t interested in Epps. Buy they can’t/won’t explain…
https://youtu.be/DU_Gd623HJo
“BUT they can’t/won’t…”
The NYT has an analysis of how many states would vote to keep abortion legal.
It is 40 out of 50.
The only ones that would vote against it are in the deep South.
Oregon had an abortion vote in 2018 about public funding, to stop it.
It lost by 65% to 35%.
The only reason the deep South can keep abortion illegal is because they are massive hypocrites. Most girls and women that need an abortion will end up traveling to…Blue states.
Texas Tribune
Jury awards parents of Sandy Hook victim more than $45 million in punitive damages in Alex Jones defamation case
Lawyers for the parents asked the jury to end Jones’ “gold rush of fear and misinformation.” He’ll owe a total of nearly $50 million to the parents.
BY CECILIA LENZEN AUG. 5, 2022
Lynna @207,
“We are in trouble, folks; the fascists are becoming ever more bold and dangerous, as witnessed by a nutball walking into a town hall with an AR-15.”
I am constantly astonished as to how the Democrats are ignoring the looming christofascist takeover of the USA (and its nuclear arsenal) after the midterms. It is likely that there will be no more democratic elections in the US and everyone seems ok with it. The SCOTUS is essentially a Taliban council, just with alcohol, the Secret Service (short:SS) deletes evidence of conspiracy to commit treason with gay abandon, Agolf Twitler is still holding televised rallies…USA is on the brink, and nothing is happening. It’s quite disconcerting.
Germany is not perfect, far from it, people here have in the last 20 years lost the plot intellectually too, burning forests are nowadays the result of “hot weather” or “glass shards”, as opposed to arson, but hey, at least here if you had the religious nutjob neolibs try election interference, there would be riots in the streets. I hope.
This is an update of the Russian deportation plans in Ukraine.
The latest numbers are something like 2.8 million people, 440,000 of them children.
TIL (Things I Learn) online.
How to commit genocide.
.1. Commit atrocities and mass murder. A lot of the population will flee to the West as refugees. In Ukraine’s case, it is 12 million refugees, 7 million internally and 5 million out of the country.
.2. Forcibly deport millions of the population to Russia. These people are ending up at the ends of the earth without much social support. If the typical Russian pattern holds, many of them will be disappeared and/or die one way or another.
.3. Kill a few million of the target population. That will at least quiet them down.
.4. Import your own people into the empty spaces you’ve created.
.5. Forced assimilation.
Suppress the language and culture of the conquered people. Take over the schools and Russify the population. In a few generations, only old people in out of the way places will speak Ukrainian.
This is almost what has already happened to Belarusian. Not too many people speak it any more and there is very little content in the language being created since Belarusian bookstores are illegal.
The old idea that you commit genocide by killing all of the target population is outdated. You don’t even have to kill all that many people.
Refugees, deportations, terrorism, and forced assimilation is all you need. The best method is probably forced assimilation. It will take a while, a generation or two, but in the end it will work. And without the piles of bodies, the world isn’t going to worry about it too much.
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Why Alex Jones’ phone matters beyond the Sandy Hook trials
His cell phone data appears to prove he lied about Sandy Hook and his finances. Could it also help Jan. 6 investigators or even lead to criminal charges?
NBC News:
NBC News:
Blasts Reported at Nuclear Plant Seized by Russia
New York Times:
Commentary:
Link
New York Times:
Commentary:
BBC:
Axios:
North Carolina school district plans to put AR-15s in every school
Herb Scribner / August 6, 2022
Meanwhile, a headline in the Washington Post:
‘Never seen it this bad’: America faces catastrophic teacher shortage
‘Not her body, not her choice’: Indiana legislature passes near-total abortion ban
Herb Scribner / August 6, 2022
Ukraine Update: Oh goodie, the Tankies are losing their minds over Pelosi and NATO
Investigation confirms what we all know: GOP is deliberately targeting corporate climate measures
Senate parliamentarian gives OK for climate, tax, health bill to proceed
Lindsey Graham said that he and other Republicans planned to make the voting process “hell.”
Source : https://todayinsci.com/S/Sasaki_Sadako/SasakiSadako-Quotations.htm
Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima today.
ABC news article on the 77th anniversary here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-06/hiroshima-anniversary-atomic-bombing-russia/101307694
Where we are now nukes~unwise here – just under 6 min long youtube clip.
Thought once that we’d got past this and learnt but seems we’ve gone backwards in this respect so very far.
Thought we’d progessed towards disarming and globally agreeing that nukes weren’t going to be an option but..
I’ve been to Hiroshima. Walked around the Peace Park – Genbakendomu – there. It is incredibly moving and, I really don’t know what to say now. Words don’t suffice.
Abandoned mines and poor oversight worsened Kentucky flooding, attorneys say
“No one is denying the amount of rain we had — it truly was a 1,000 year event — but did the strip mines contribute? Absolutely,” a Kentucky lawyer said.
Background information related to reclamation:
Chris Riddell in the Grauniad, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss: Tory headless chickens (cartoon), “Faced with stagflation, the Conservative leadership candidates have precious little to offer”.
Also, First Dog on the Moon, Let us sing the praises of this magnificent and highly opinionated bird: “Recently some turbo chooks moved in the dam near our house. They are very dramatic creatures there is always a lot going on”. The mildly deranged penguin is upset it isn’t about her, and contains no mention of cheese.
blf @229, those are two good cartoons. I liked the note about the Turbo Chooks being extinct on the mainland, like decency and kindness.
Republicans are sore losers, but it’s more dangerous than that
Well, isn’t this just a terrible shame:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/06/abortion-maternity-health-obgyn/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/06/business/indiana-companies-abortion.html
I’m not posting the article because it is the Wall Street Journal and I avoid Murdoch’s papers.
.1. It’s interesting how many people in Ukraine speak Russian.
It was the language of the conqueror for so long that it was taking over from Ukrainian.
(The two languages aren’t even all that similar considering they are both Slavic languages.)
.2. I was reading a Ukrainian subject website where everything is in English.
Some of the Ukrainian posters were mentioning that they were switching to Ukrainian and having a hard time of it. They know Ukrainian but not well and up until recently rarely used it.
Strangely enough, their English was pretty good though.
.3. They say that President Zylensky’s Ukrainian is getting better.
He is a native Russian speaker from the East and apparently his Ukrainian isn’t the best.
.4. The Russian speaking Russians from Ukraine and the Russian speaking Ukrainians almost all don’t like the Russians any more. Speaking the same language doesn’t count for much when the Russians are wrecking your home and threatening your life.
This is the largest nuclear reactor in Europe.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Russians blow up this nuclear power plant, or disable the core cooling system and let it melt down.
If they end up getting driven out of Ukraine, what is there to stop them?
Nothing.
It’s not like we and the rest of the world are going to like the Russians any less if they do so. We already are at zero regard here.
This is just a coincidence, I’m sure. Nothing to do with a failing nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia being occupied by the Russians.
This isn’t looking very good right now.
The Russians decided to use a nuclear power plant as a military base.
Josh Marshall: Trump’s Grievance Feedback Loop
Crime … lots of it in states that lean Republican.
Excerpt from a description of a Fox News episode in which real-time fact checking revealed the truth:
Commentary:
Link
Stumbled on the first clip – each about 20 plus or so minutes long – in a 7 part series on plant evolution here here which is informative, beautiful and strangely soothing to watch albiet a bit clunky with the apparent robo-narration at times.
Unified Democrats pass critical climate and healthcare bill in face of Republican blockade
Ukraine Update: Logistics, yet again; Amnesty International issues non-apology apology
previous guy’s post-truth gaslighting now goes full nonsense about 6 January 2021
Republicans block cap on insulin costs for millions of patients
Washington Post link
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Salon – “Texas targets trans voters with restrictions”:
Guardian – “Hungary tries to unlock funds frozen amid EU disciplinary process”:
They would be fools to unlock these funds. From Thursday (quoted @ #174 above):
Get the funds from Texas, then, you yutz.
Guardian liveblog:
Today’s Russian war crime is their threat to blow up the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
They’ve mined it and have said they will blow it up if they lose in Ukraine.
I believe them and won’t be surprised if they do exactly that.
It will look a lot like another Russian production, Chernobyl.
Except in a densely population region. Most of the radiation from Chernobyl went north over an uninhabited region and then into…Belarus and Russia because of the way the wind was blowing. That is why the radiation exclusion zone is called the Red Forest and not the Red Cities.
FWIW, these meltdowns can be serious long lived radiation hazards.
A fission nuclear bomb only uses 50-100 lbs of uranium.
“A typical reactor may contain about 100 tonnes of enriched uranium (i.e., about 113 tonnes of uranium dioxide).”
If you run the numbers, the amount of radiation released in a meltdown compares favorably with a nuclear bomb because of the huge asymmetry in fuel loads, lbs versus tons.
Some recent podcast episodes:
War On the Rocks – “Great Expectations? The Next Phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War”:
The Daily – “The Alex Jones Verdict and the Fight Against Disinformation”:
A World to Win – “Chaos in the Tory Party w/ Phil Burton-Cartledge”:
Mad in America – “How Grief Became a Disorder and What This Means About Us: An Interview with Kaori Wada”:
More podcast episodes:
Citations Needed – “Ep. 165 – Labor Union Depictions in Hollywood (Part II): The Rare Pro-Worker Narrative”:
On the Media – “Under The Table”:
You’re Wrong About – “Porn Wars w. Nona Willis Aronowitz”:
Guardian – “The Tory leadership race and the ghost of Margaret Thatcher”:
“Footage from the Antonovsky bridge.”
(Twitter link.)
Nordic News (Twitter link):
lumipuna has been sharing related developments here for a while.
As the midterms near, Republicans aren’t just targeting Democrats, immigrants, journalists, and school teachers. The GOP is also focused on prosecutors.
New Pics Provide Receipts Of Trump’s Document Toilet-Flushing Habits
and
In the UK, I think it’s the case that most insulin users are type 1 diabetics, most type 2 diabetics don’t use it, and most type 1 diabetics have been so since childhood. Anyone know if that is the case in the USA? (My father, unusually, was a type 1 diabetic who acquired the condition in middle age – probably an autoimmune problem. I had to get his death certificate – he lived to 82 – corrected, as it had him down as type 2.)
Apparel company fined by FTC for ripping off ‘Made in China’ tags for fake ‘Made in USA’ tag
The climate and health bill Senate Democrats just passed is a big deal, despite Manchin
Ukraine Update: As Ukraine hits Kherson bridges, a surprise missile makes its exciting combat debut
A nice photo female Ukrainian solders accompanies this update.
NYT:
Maps in Four States Were Ruled Illegal Gerrymanders. They’re Being Used Anyway.
A Supreme Court shift, frowning on changes close to elections, gives House Republicans a big advantage in November
Aug. 8, 2022
New Yorker – “Inside the War Between Trump and His Generals”:
Much more at the link.
Guardian liveblog:
CNN – “First on CNN: Alex Jones’ texts have been turned over to the January 6 committee, source says”:
The Bidens are in Kentucky today. (Photo at the Twitter link.)
Text quoted by SC in comment 259:
I do not believe the denials of Kash Patel and Ezra Cohen. Those two were Trump lackeys through and through. I would not be surprised to learn that the two of them found some way to delay sending help when the Capitol was being attacked on January 6th.
CNN link
SC @262, what? There are no photos of Mitch McConnell comforting his constituents? Hmmm, Senator Rand Paul is also not there.
Worked out well for Keitel and Jodl.
Wonkette: “Republicans Losing Their Sh*t Over IRA Bill. What Fun!”
Followup to SC’s comment 259.
This is a WOW report: Milley Drafted Fiery Resignation Letter After Lafayette Square Incident
Conspiracy theory about ‘new world order’ won’t save Vancouver home from foreclosure, judge rules
The last 48 hours have been horrible for loss (coming here after PZM redirected someone else).
On Sunday, Roger Mosley (Magnum PI, Jericho Mile, Leadbelly, The Greatest) died three days after a car accident. He was 83.
Olivia Newton-John died of cancer on Sunday. She survived it in the 1990s and again in the 2000s, but it returned a third time in 2017.
And on Monday, Gord Lewis died (age 65), guitarist of Canadian Punk Rock legends Teenage Head. He was murdered by his own son.
Bloody hell. This week sucks completely, and it’s only Tuesday.
One more podcast, since it’s fascinating (see also StevoR’s #185):
NBN – “Michael J. Hathaway, What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make“:
@257: How positive was the identification of AGM-88?
This sounds like it could be the work of Tacit Rainbow or a successor. An anti-radar missile/drone.
CNN – “FBI executes search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, former President says”:
George Conway tweeted: “Please retweet if your home or office wasn’t searched today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to a warrant issued by a federal judge upon a showing of probable cause.”
Followup to SC @ #272, this is the NYT account:
F.B.I. Searches Trump’s Home in Florida
The former president said in a statement that Mar-a-Lago had been “raided, and occupied by a large group of F.B.I. agents.”
Aug. 8, 2022 Updated 7:38 p.m. ET
“‘Everyone is a little emotional here’, says the host of a show on [checks news] Fox NEWS.”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
I’m feeling a bit giddy myself. Tfg gets raided by FBI is delightful dinner theatre schadenfreude.
I am torn between two emotions, sadness over the death of “TC” aka Roger Mosley and of Olivia Newton-John.
On the other hand… T**** suffering actual consequences? I never had any hopes for that before.
Ben Collins:
Reginald @271:
There’s a photo.
I am no expert. I am going by the report and the photo.
Josh Marshall:
I notice that one of Trump’s reactions was to claim that the FBI is part of the Democratic Party. In other words, Trump really doesn’t have a leg to stand on, so he is spouting nonsense.
Fox News is throwing a level-eight freakout over the FBI search, (with a legal warrant for the search!), of Trump’s bid, shoddy clubhouse, Mar-a-lago.
Some video of Fox News is posted here
Check in with Aaron Rupar. He is on it.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1556784384413470721
Video at the link.
Never raided by the FBI, Barack Obama.
Jokes:
Donald Trump is at Trump Tower now trying to squeeze Rudy Giuliani down the toilet.
(Overhead in Florida)
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
The Feds.
[posted by Dan Rather]
The look on your face when you learn that the @fbi just raided Mar-a-Lardo and #TFG is shitting a brick!!!#KarmaBoomerang [posted by Michael Cohen,
https://twitter.com/MichaelCohen212/status/1556784238988509185
Nice photo at the link.
Lawrence O’Donnell:
LOL
Lara Trump tweeted:
Some of the documents he has at Mar-a-Lago are so top secret that they cannot even be described without threatening national security. Yes, he has lots of unclassified stuff, but he also has very seriously classified stuff.
Viral Cheney ad to air on Fox News
Alayna Treene / August 8, 2022
Axios
News Roundup: A bad day for Donald Trump, Alex Jones, government toilets and multiple senators
Pharyngula, your help please. There’s a word for where we use one word which is commonly understood to describe larger ideas or processes. My brain won’t throw me an example but hopefully someone out there knows it, I know I’ve read it on here several times.
Thanks y’all.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their recent summary:
Badlands – microcosm?
Sorry – Badland.
Further to Intransitive’s #269, fashion designer Issey Miyake has also died.
Estonian PM Kaja Kallas:
Synechdoche?
Sorry – synecdoche.
Badland@287,
Metonymy?
Synecdoche! There’s a reason this is my favourite internet community, thanks SC and KG
Happy to help! :)
New QAA – “Episode 198: A Home to Die In”:
Guardian liveblog:
Rob Lee has a Twitter thread with videos and photos of the smoke from what appear to be explosions in Crimea.
“The explosions reportedly occurred near the Saki Airbase which is home to the Black Sea Fleet’s 43rd Naval Attack Aviation Regiment.”
@257 @279
Pentagon acknowledges sending previously undisclosed anti-radar missiles to Ukraine
Guardian liveblog:
Xpost from another thread.
The GOP is still trying to use the courts to kill the Affordable Care Act. They might be able to do it with the new Supreme Court.
There is no doubt that many people would die if this happens.
Republicans really do want to kill you!!!
This isn’t hyperbole or something dramatic for click bait headlines. Proof.
This is yet again another attack on the Affordable Health Care act by fundie xians. In this case, they are objecting to preventative health care because it saves many lives.
So is this lawsuit going to work? It probably will because the federal judges in Texas are right wingnuts.
“Pinged a senior Ukrainian Ministry of Defense official just now about these stunning long-range strikes on a Russian air base in Crimea. His reply: ‘It’s just warming up’.”
“On 2nd anniversary of [bogus] elections in Belarus, @StateDept sanctions 2 Belarusian officials ‘for involvement in gross violations of human rights’ & will impose visa restrictions on 100 Lukashenka officials for involvement in undermining democracy, @SecBlinken announces.”
Ahahahahaha: “No more beach 2022 bikini pics. #Russians are hastily leaving #Crimea via the Crimean bridge. ‘There’s a huge traffic jam here’, says the author of the video.”
Guardian liveblog:
Sigh. This level of nonsense was expected, but it is still frustratingly stupid.
Georgia’s Greene wants to ‘defund’ the FBI after Mar-a-Lago search
Marjorie Taylor Greene is talking openly about “defunding” the FBI, and she’s not the only Republican pushing such a line.
The problem is not that Republicans flip-flopped, it’s that they only pretended to care about document retention in the first place.
Trump’s political campaign/organization was already trying to raise money off of the fact that the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1557001529835638786
Steve Benen noted this tidbit of news:
Reminder: today is Primary Day in the following states: Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Link
@31
I’m all for that – legal abortion 52 weeks a year.
Background info that is important regarding the FBI executing a search warrant at Trump’s trash palace:
Link
Followup to SC’s comment 307.
https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1557000451542892544
Map at the link.
NY1:
Appeals court rules Congress can obtain Trump’s tax returns
By Justin Tasolides Washington, D.C.
UPDATED 12:26 PM ET Aug. 09, 2022
NYT Live Updates
Aug. 9, 2022, 10:56 a.m. ET
2 hours ago
Luke Broadwater
I’m not doing tweet o’ the day anymore, but if I were this would be today’s.
Albuquerque police arrest ‘primary suspect’ in slayings of four Muslim men
Wonkette: “Texas Church Illegally Desecrates ‘Hamilton’ With Tacky Evangelicalism And Homophobia”
SC @317, that’s a good one!
In other news: Donald Trump could, in theory, voluntarily release the FBI search warrant used at Mar-a-Lago. Some are challenging him to do exactly that.
Biden signs CHIPS and Science Act, scores another bipartisan win
For a White House eager to show meaningful progress on bipartisan measures that will make a difference, there’s a growing list of credible success stories.
Josh Marshall:
Link
Anti-Trump GOP Collective Launches $1 Million Ad Campaign Against Herschel Walker
Apparently there are still a very few people who call themselves Republican, and think there is anything about the party worth saving. I see the reaction of assorted Republican “leaders” to the FBI search of Trump’s home and I choose to differ. All the same, I wish RAPAC the best of luck in tearing down the worst of the worst.
Link
Former U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp connected to false text about Kansas abortion amendment
“Breaking: The FBI has seized the cell phone of Republican Congressman Scott Perry a day after executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago…”
Guardian – “Brazilians fear return to dictatorship as ‘deranged’ Bolsonaro trails in polls”: “Hundreds of thousands sign pro-democracy manifesto amid fears the president will promote Trump-style insurrection against democracy…”
Kyiv Independent:
Italy’s most decorated second world war resistance fighter dies aged 103:
Grazie, signor Fiorentini!
The future is here and it is as grim as we expected.
The post Roe versus Wade future.
A mother and her daughter are being charged with felonies for a 24 week abortion using DIY drugs in Nebraska.
If you read this article, both the mother and daughter are clueless about how to deal with law enforcement.
There is a lot to unpack in that article which is a roadmap for our future.
They discussed this on Facebook.
That right there is a huge mistake. These days your computers, social media, and phones are known as…evidence.
Facebook is flat out lying here.
They turn over requests from law enforcement on automatic pilot.
Facebook even says it is lying.
They turn over anything the government asks for almost all the time.
Cases like this are not uncommon.
There are well over a thousand in the last 14 years.
There will be orders of magnitude more in the coming years.
This article doesn’t have all the details so it is hard to say what actually happened to get the cops on them. Just guessing, someone ratted them out to the cops and DA.
They seem to be clueless about how to deal with law enforcement though. This is not surprising since most people aren’t criminals and don’t intend to become criminals.
Mom said this to the cops without a lawyer present?
It is almost impossible to trace abortion pills to someone. They are sent through the mail without return addresses, often from Europe. That is the whole point of DIY.
The cops didn’t know about Facebook until daughter told them. She also confirmed that it was after the Nebraska 20 week window. She didn’t have to do that. The Fifth amendment is still the law.
This is what criminalizing abortion does.
It makes abortion seekers into criminals.
The smart, careful, and lucky criminals will never be caught and charged.
The not so bright, careless, and unlucky criminals will be the ones you see in the newspapers and internet.
I’ve looked at some of these women arrested and/or convicted for pregnancy related crimes such as fetacide or child abuse of a fetus.
They fit the profile I outlined above.
They tend to be young, nonwhite, poor, and often cognitively challenged. Sometimes just not the brightest bulb on the tree and/or often addicted to drugs and alcohol which are mind fogging substances.
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Wonkette: “After Trump’s FBI Raid Republicans Go All F**k Tha Police.”
More on the Nebraska mother and teenager charged with felonies after a DIY abortion.
“According to the court documents, police in Norfolk obtained the teen’s medical records as a result of a tip in late April that she had miscarried.” Someone ratted her out.
It is not clear from this article who.
It could have been her medical care providers, doctors, nurses etc.. She was apparently under medical care and had medical care records.
What is clear is what we already know. HIPAA is useless against any sort of law enforcement.
And yeah, Facebook turned over her records from her and her mother’s account on automatic pilot.
I’ve been saying this for a while on multiple forums.
Mostly, I get abuse from people who can’t believe their doctor would turn them in to the cops and vague magic spells using the word HIPAA.
Hopefully, your doctor won’t turn you into the cops. Not everyone is so lucky or even have a primary care provider. For many their contact is going to be the ER.
The fact is, some doctors including a few OB-GYNs and more of the other medical personnel are fundie xians/Catholics/ and so called pro lifers. They will turn you into the police in a heartbeat, not even just for a DIY abortion but for miscarriages and stillbirths.
It appears the explosions at the Russian air base in Crimea may not have been the result of a Ukranian missile attack. Could be partisan action, or simple Russian incompetence.
Latest news on the Musk -Twitter saga :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-11/musk-sells-tesla-shares-worth-us-6-9-billion-cites-chance-of-for/101321248
Via Aussie ABC.
Steve Benen noted that some candidates endorsed by Trump won last night. though there were also some noted Democratic Party wins.:
Link
Trump World hasn’t thought through its ‘planted evidence’ claim
The more Team Trump floats ideas about the FBI “planting” evidence, the easier it is to believe there was incriminating evidence at Mar-a-Lago.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Why it matters that the FBI seized a key House Republican’s phone
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
Iowa man charged with assault after plowing through pro-abortion protesters with truck
Guardian – “Rightwing media embraces Aids-era homophobia in monkeypox coverage”:
More at the link.
Right-wing extremists saying they’ve crossed the Rubicon aren’t kidding. More violence is coming
Guardian – “Newly identified Langya virus tracked after China reports dozens of cases”:
Update to #306: “24 hours later, still traffic jam to leave Crimea…”
Video at the (Twitter) link. Love to see it.Update to #306: “24 hours later, still traffic jam to leave Crimea…”
Video at the (Twitter) link. Love to see it.
I guess I doubly loved to see it! :)
Finland’s parliament hit with cyberattack following US move to admit the country to NATO
SC @349 and 350, Ha! And the video showed very little traffic headed the other way.
In other news, still somewhat related: G-7 ministers demand Russian withdrawal from Ukraine nuclear power plant
Unfortunately, I think that some Russian generals have made statements indicating that suicide for the motherland is a good idea, and/or something along the lines of “If we can’t have it, then nobody can have it.” And other threats were made, as if Russia wanted to leverage the threat of a Nuclear disaster to come out on top in peace negotiations. Looks psychopathic to me.
Wonkette: “Rick Scott Pretty Sure Nazi Gestapo Army Raided Innocent Angel Trump’s Home”
Wonkette: “Wisconsin Primary: Trump-Backed Sociopath Defeats Pence-Backed Sociopath!”
Ukraine update: Videos show extraordinary damage to Russian airbase in Crimea
Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon at Meduza – “‘Like a bad 1980s spy film’ Brittney Griner’s imprisonment reveals Russia’s embrace of pariah identity”:
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657841954
Quoted in Lynna’s #355:
LOL.
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
After the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, Josh Hawley talked up “democratic norms and the rule of law.” Given his record, that was … unwise.
Link
Link
Scroll down at the link to view the video.
Tennessee GOP takes the War on Teachers to the next level.
“‘They (Russians) already feel that the time has come to flee from Kherson and the south of our state in general. There will be a time when they will flee from Kharkiv region, Donbas, Crimea.’ – @ZelenskyyUa”
The before-and-after photos of the airfield are fucking amazing.
Mick Ryan (seems sharp, FWIW):
“I’ve Been Dazed.”
“Bizcochito.”
“Federal investigators delivered subpoenas or paid visits to several House and Senate Republican offices in the Pennsylvania Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to multiple sources.”
LOL. (Twitter link.)
“You’re The One That I Want.”
Wreckers!
This article summarizes what happens if the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant explodes and/or if the Russians blow it up with mines or artillery.
There really isn’t anything new here.
It would be like Chernobyl or the Japanese disaster at Fukushima.
The main damage from the radiation cloud would depend on which way the wind was blowing that day.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
“UPDATE: Man armed with AR-15 style rifle fires nail gun into FBI Cincinnati building, leading to police pursuit and shots fired on an interstate, authorities say. Lockdown on interstate and manhunt for the suspect continues.”
Republicans condemn 87,000 IRS agents who don’t (and won’t) exist
Republicans are so outraged by renewed efforts to enforce existing tax laws, they’re telling some rather brazen lies about the Inflation Reduction Act.
Followup to SC’s comment 374.
Unfolding: Incident at Cincinnati FBI Field Office
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/unfolding
Excerpt:
Link
Videos are available at the link.
The reason Trump has appropriated US classified documents is far more sinister than you might think.
Lots and lots of history, as well as current explanations concerning Trump’s hoard of classified documents. It is not easy to provide excerpts as the article is too long and too detailed. Here is one detail I had not seen before:
Recent podcast episodes:
Maintenance Phase – “‘French Women Don’t Get Fat'”:
Fever Dreams – “Conceptual Lames w/ Jessica Pishko”:
Michael & Us – “#355 – Omni Consumer Products”:
Merrick Garland will be making some sort of public statement within the hour, per CNN.
Medical Boards That Can Strip Abortion Providers of Licenses Are Stacked With Republican Donors
More at the link.
DOJ subpoenaed Trump months before Mar-a-Lago search
DRIED UP: Lakes Mead and Powell are at the epicenter of the biggest Western drought in history
More at the link, including charts and photos.
Wonkette: “Trump Crawling-Out-Of-His-Skin Scared Right Now”
Infighting among the rats on the sinking ship.
Garland: DOJ To Seek Partial Release Of Trump Search Warrant
Cincinnati FBI attack: I expect prominent Republican politicians will deny all responsibility for enraging the wingnuts.
Followup to comment 385.
Posted by readers of the article:
I expect two ‘arguments’: 1 – the shooter is insane/has been under psychiatric care/takes medication for some mental illness; or, B – the shooter is actually a BLM/Democratic/CIA/FBI/NSA/FCC/CNN undercover operative who is setting up a false flag operation to implicate the real ‘Mercuns (that would be Trumpists).
I suppose it is also possible that FAUX Newz, and NewzMax, and talk radio heads, and all the other right-wing mouthpieces will take a step back and say, “Whoah, shit. Our propaganda is putting people in danger. We need to pull it back quite a bit.”
I expect that giant winged porkypines with fly out of me arse backwards long before that happens, but I can dream.
Republicans Are Surprised to See the Abortion Bans They Fought for in Effect
I tried to find out what is going on here and gave up.
It looks like Russia is trying to blow up the Zaporizhzhia NPP and make it look like Ukraine did it.
I’ll be surprised if this nuclear power plant lasts more than a few more weeks.
OMFG.
Link
Update to comment 385: A Federal judge has ordered the DOJ to confer with Trump lawyers and report to him by 3 PM tomorrow about how to proceed on releasing the warrant and related documents.
Okay, then: by 3PM tomorrow. That’s soon! Trump may not be able to drag this one out forever and a day.
It looks like Russia is trying to blow up the Zaporizhzhia NPP and make it look like Ukraine did it.
The Chernobyl incident was a definite factor in the downfall of the Soviet empire. Among many other things. To Russian patriots, such as Valdymyr Putin, what happened at that power plant was a stain on Soviet and Russian pride. A disaster that Soviets and Russians have, since about 2000, sought to minimize (it really was no big deal, very few people were killed, just an overreaction) the incident or, when that fails, present it as the fault of ‘others’ – all those . Including, since it happened in the Socialist Republic of Ukraine, it must have been non-Russians who screwed up. Putin, and his followers (lots and lots of them) view any failure of Russian technology and or people as absolute anathema.
So, blowing up the Zaporizhzhia NPP would fit right in with that. If a second nuclear power plant in Ukraine experiences a major nuclear incident (accident, explosion, failure, whatever) then Putin and his cronies can point and say, in effect, See? The Chernobyl accident had nothing to with Russian expertise, Russian genius, Russian engineering. Those dumb Ukrainians, who blew up Chernobyl by being incompetent, blew up another one by being incompetent (and failing to agree to cheerfully become part of the new Russian Empire).
This version of nationalism — My country could never do anything wrong (and we will lie to deny anything wrong happened, or find a way to blame the ‘other’ — is quite prevalent among the far right — US, Hungary, Russia, Byelorussia. Orban has never done anything wrong and any problem in Hungary is because of ‘them’. Putin has never done anything wrong and any problem in Russia is because of ‘them’. Trump has never done anything wrong . . .
I may be out of line with my reasoning, but, based on experience and education, I may be close.
Blockquote fail on the quote that began my comment. Sorry.
re Lynna @391: If Alvord was correct, then an embryo/fetus could be safely removed from a woman and grown in a tank until ready for birth. Why are the anti-abortion people keeping this technology from the world?
raven @390 and Oggie @393, whatever this is, it is truly scary. It looks like the Russians are being extremely irresponsible/criminal. I will keep an eye out for more information.
In other news, here is some humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
UN alarm as Ukraine nuclear power plant shelled again
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62505815
Feeling sorry for the personnel working there.
NYT on the Cincinnati suspect: “The suspect, identified by the officials as Ricky Shiffer, 42, seems to have appeared in a video posted on Facebook on Jan. 5, 2021, showing him attending a pro-Trump rally…in Washington the night before the Capitol was stormed.”
Link to the article at the (Twitter) link.
Maggie Haberman:
NYT link at the (Twitter) link.
Ukrainian MoD:
Video at the (Twitter) link.
“NEW: Two law enforcement officials have confirmed to NBC News that Ricky Walter Shiffer, the suspect in the attack on the FBI field office in Cincinnati, is dead.
Shiffer was present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.”
Planned his crimes on Truth Social:
Screenshots at the (Twitter) link.
July 31: Trump Sides with Russia Over Brittney Griner
Once Trump is arrested and convicted, should he be used in a prisoner swap with Russia?
The bad news is that the Ukrainian Interior minister agrees with me.
They also seem to think the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is going to be blown up by the Russians.
It’s about time to set up a pool for when the Zaporizhzhia NPP gets “accidently” blown up.
I give it two months.
Shane Harris at WaPo: “SCOOP: FBI searched Trump’s home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say.”
Wajahat Ali riffing with Julia Ioffe:
“Nuclear Documents, why can’t they be kept in a private, unsecured residence? Is this America or a banana republic?”
“If the Regime can come and take classified nuclear documents from Donald Trump’s multi-million-dollar mansion, imagine what they can do to you!”
Tweet o’ the day.
“What’s scary is that all of this could happen to any of us who stole nuclear documents.”
Just gonna leave this here as a monument to GOP consitency:
From Mark Rubio’s Senate page
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “Secret Service watchdog suppressed memo on January 6 texts erasure”:
“Meanwhile in Russia: Moscow’s mouthpieces pulled out what they see as one of their big guns, Steven Seagal. Here are some highlights from his state TV appearance tonight, where he was spreading Kremlin propaganda like there’s no tomorrow…”
Video at the (Twitter) link. I love the part where Solovyov asks him if he’s received threats and promises that if he just publicly says the right thing about Ukraine he’ll be given back his career like it was before and he says yes. That’s totally how things work here.
“Russian media reports — unconfirmed so far — that the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was ousted and replaced by Vice Adm Viktor Sokolov. Guess all it took is losing your flagship and your main naval aviation base, plus having an enemy drone drop explosives on your HQ.”
More than you want to know about Steven Seagal, a former American actor.
I would call him a traitor but he now has Russian citizenship.
I’ve barely heard the name but never watched one second of his films.
Most people say they aren’t very good and he was a B list actor.
He is now an employee of Russian propaganda. Supposedly, he is making a documentary (this will be a propaganda film) about the war.
SC @412,
“Moscow’s mouthpieces pulled out what they see as one of their big guns, Steven Seagal.”
Might the big gun not rather be Agolf Twitler having a meeting with Lawrov in the Oval Office right after being elected? One might argue it was all out in the open then already. No D grade actors needed.
OMFG – Brian Kilmeade last night on Fox put up a ridiculously fake picture of the judge who authorized the Mar-a-Lago search warrant with Ghislaine Maxwell.
Video clip and the original and fake photos at the (Twitter) link.
Republicans foolishly try to roll out the ‘what about Obama’ tack
Desperate for new talking points, Republicans are arguing that Barack Obama may also have improperly taken documents. Reality proves otherwise.
Trump and his lackeys can’t even lie well.
AP – “Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York”:
The Guardian has live updates about the attack on Salman Rushdie. He was stabbed in the neck.
I see others have already reacted to the attempted murder.
.
This is why ex-muslims face far more serious consequences than ex-christians (unless you take a time machine).
Liz Truss weaponises accusations of antisemitism while employing stereotypes of Jews, in order to attack civil servants. Both leaders of civil service unions, and Jewish spokespeople, object.
Another great video from the Ukrainian MoD:
Twitter link. The visuals made me laugh.
@420,
“This is why ex-muslims face far more serious consequences than ex-christians”
I don’t think this is true in the current US. It’s on for young and old, noone is safe there anymore, 50% of the population are unhinged lunatics who may yet sail under a “Christian” banner, but they are as unhinged as any Taliban. And they have weapons. Lots.
Salman Rushdie is apparently alive, being treated in hospital. The Governor of New York has praised a state trooper for saving his life, which suggests “alive” is not just a euphemism for “dead, but they haven’t yet pulled the plug”.
Followup to comment 417.
Trump’s latest attempt to deflect blame on Mar-a-Lago nuclear documents is basically an admission
KG @ #421, that is truly cynical. I’m almost impressed.
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, quoted in the linked article:
Nice backhand.
“dead, but they haven’t yet pulled the plug”
Tricky, neck wounds are. Even if you don’t hit the carotid artery first up. Lots of complications possible. He’ll be in trouble, best case.
Commentary:
Link
The Guardian:
The Washington Post:
Bloomberg:
Breaking News Ireland:
Oil Price:
Oh, FFS.
Link
Russia suddenly really, really wants to ‘protect’ Donald Nuclear Secrets Trump
Matthew Gertz:
This trip to MaL yielded the FBI 11 sets of classified documents.
“NPR Clutches Its Pearls Over Beto O’Rourke’s Motherf*cking Madness”
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657855185
Link
Guardian liveblog:
“Into the Storm,” by Josh Marshall
Yep, Republicans are having a really difficult time dealing with the latest scandal swirling around Hair Furor.
Link
From the New York Rimes, via Steve Benen at MaddowBlog:
Oh. Shit. And. Shinola.
I can’t wait to hear (well, actually, I am dreading it) the convolutions the GOP sycophants are going to come up with to explain that what Clinton (see my #409) or Obama (see Lynna’s #417) did were so much worser and more worser and down right evil. Of course, they have already started the ‘it is no big deal’ (See Lynna’s #436).
And it really makes me wonder just what the Secret Service is covering up (and yeah, this is now in criminal cover-up territory). Just the attempted coup? What did/does the Secret Service know about all the US Government property, some of it classified, Trump took as his own.
Does Trump think these are his own documents? I wonder if he was planning to sell them to make a few more millions on the grift?
From CNN:
Obviously, I was never a hotshot (Firefighter Type 1), but the dangers at a forest fire, not including the fire itself, are scary — lack of sleep, long hours, dangerous roads — and, though the Incident Commander and Staff seek to minimize these issues — mandatory time off, speed limits, traffic control — people really do risk their lives in any position at a wildland fire. A type 1 or type 2 firefighter adds in working on steep slopes, near sawyers, near trees damaged by fire, near rocks that have been destabilized by heating, soil that has been destabilized by water/slurry drops, heavy machinery, extreme heat, etc.
Part of me is really upset that I can no longer perform my old incident jobs. I feel like I am shirking my training and experience. And even after five seasons out of the fire militia, I still kinda miss it. I do not miss the danger (which for me was minimal), but . . .
This guy was a US Government employee, so any family and/or dependents will get some help, but, oh, shit. That whole family.
Guardian liveblog:
Ben Collins, a few hours ago:
Andrew Feinberg, just now:
Ana Cabrera: “FBI investigating ‘unprecedented’ number of threats against bureau in wake of search of Mar-a-Lago, including against agents listed in court records as being involved in the search, a law enforcement source tells CNN.”
“Keyhan paper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran’s Leader, Ali Khamenei, congratulates the man who stabbed prominent novelist Salman Rushdie and calls him ‘courageous’. It adds: ‘A kiss on his hand who tore the neck of God’s enemy with a knife’. Despicable remarks. Sick!”
Similarities with #440.
Rep. Swalwell: “If you’ve been aboard the Trump Train the last 7 years, you’ve been given an unexpected stop. Time to get off. Wherever you think this is going, it’s not. Trump stole Top Secret documents. He’s put a target on the backs of cops. This is getting ugly. Don’t be in the wreckage.”
The House passed the Inflation Reduction Act earlier, 220-207.
NBC News:
Understatement.
The Hill reports this good news:
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Related to @431, I’ve been wondering for some time now what level of water-availability alert the area in which I live was under. The low-resolution maps were ambiguous and there was nothing on council’s site (that I could find). The other day I located a higher-resolution map (and an awkward-to-use query interface), and determined this area is under a Yellow alert (so don’t water outdoor gardens during the daytime, etc.). Yesterday, the council finally(!?) put out a message confirming a “level 2” alert, which after checking this morning, means Yellow (to be fair, they probably didn’t mention the colour-level to avoid confusion with the better-known coloured heat warnings).
Today they announced the fireworks for the 15th (Assumption day (L’Assomption), a national holiday) have been cancelled throughout the area due to the extreme fire risk. That’s sensible, albeit here in the village, the fireworks are fired out over the Mediterranean Sea, so the local risk from the public display is probably very low. It’s private individuals (and perhaps those of the yacht clubs?) which seem, in the immediate local area, to be more dangerous.
Michael de Adder in The Washington Post, Playing the Donald’s advocate (cartoon).
From USAToday:
<
blockquote>I, for one, look forward to Donald Trump pivoting from his current status – a former president of the United States whose home was searched as part of an investigation into possible Espionage Act violations – to one he’ll be more comfortable with: A former president of the United States bragging about violating the Espionage Act.
If you’ve followed Trump over the years – and I pray you haven’t – you can hear his meandering mendacity already: “It was the best espionage. Nobody had ever seen espionage like it. One man walked up to me, a big, tough-looking guy, right out of central casting, and he had tears in his eyes. Tears! And he said, ‘Thank you, sir, for doing such amazing espionage. I wish I could espionage like you.’ It’s such a beautiful thing.”
Only thing missing from this is the word ‘perfect’.
Also from USAToday :
And sorry for the homage to Borkquotia in my $453. The last line is mine, and not part of the unquoted quote.
All Hail Tpyos! # not $.
Back to bed.
Wife and I have been discussing the whole Trump and secret documents at Mar-a-Lago thing. So, at least some of the people who have paid the membership fees at Mar-a-Lago, or are paying the membership fees at Mar-a-Lago, may be (probably are, but that’s not my bailiwick) foreign intelligence agents and/or officers. After all, we have seen (see this from POLITICO </a href> from way back in 2017), Mar-a-Lago is ‘heaven – for spies.’ So spies are paying Trump to stay at Mar-a-Lago so they can spy on Trump, or have paid the membership fees. So Trump has already been profiting from espionage. Unless he was letting the spies stay for free. And I suspect that some of those foreign intelligence assets are still there. Would Trump profiting personally from expenditures by foreign governments for espionage purposes count as a violation of the Emoluments Clause
If only there were a way to preview my comments . . . .Sorry.
As I typo this, six comments (@453–458), three of which are apologies for the Tpyos offerings in the other three.
Has the tithing rate gone up? It’s usually said to be 10%, but now seems to be 50%.
(Can this be done without necessitating an apololgy?)
Wife and I are also wondering just how long it will be until Trump’s phone is seized as part of one of the many ongoing investigations? Or how long until he gets a new phone and the old one accidentally gets dropped into an industrial blender? Or what Secret Service texts are on Trump’s phone? Schadenfreudic minds want to know!
Some good news for once.
The world oil market seems to be stabilizing after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The price of gasoline is coming down here, but not all that rapidly.
Alia Shoaib for Yahoo News:
[LOL]
Commentary:
Link
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Kyiv Independent:
“NEWS
Trump Lawyer Told DOJ That Classified Material Had Been Returned
The lawyer signed a statement in June that all documents marked as classified and held in boxes in storage had been given back.
@maggieNYT @GlennThrush scoop”
NYT link at the (Twitter) link.
Guardian – “Female protesters beaten by Taliban fighters during rare Kabul rally”:
More at the link.
Guardian – “Howard Carter stole Tutankhamun’s treasure, new evidence suggests”:
More at the link.
Guardian review – “Danger Mouse and Black Thought: Cheat Codes review – an out-and-out hip-hop masterpiece.”
I was just listening to them rave about it on this week’s Culture Bunker. I’ve only listened to a couple songs, but they’re fantastic.
“Ukrainian official: The #Ukrainian Armed Forces have destroyed the last remaining route used by the Russian army to transport their equipment. [Russian] soldiers on the right bank of Dnipro are effectively abandoned. #KhersonisUkraine #UkraineWillWin”
Re: #465 “Trump Lawyer Told DOJ That Classified Material Had Been Returned”
From the NYT story on this, another classic understatement.
“The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, is a possible indication that Mr. Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material.”
Kevin McCarthy is an idiot. In his opposition to the landmark legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act, he asked, Answer me this question. Is America better off today than they were two years ago?
Ummmm . . . Oklay, inflation is still up (but receding as the world adjusts to Russia’s crimes), but, um, yeah, we are.
From The Washington Examiner (via MSN):
“What can one say,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Putin’s Security Council, wrote Friday. “Don’t forget that there are nuclear sites in the European Union, too. And incidents are possible there as well.”
The Russians have given up trying to convince anyone outside of Russia that they are the good guys. They have now slipped into the persona of B-movie gangsters: “Nice business youse guise have here. Be a real pity if something . . . bad . . . happened to it, capiche?”
Followup to tomh @470.
Link
Link
Business Insider:
From an article published in May:
Podolyak: Russian troops shell nuclear plant to cut off Ukraine from energy.
Wonkette: “Merrick Garland Strangely Unmoved By Trump Request To Do Us A Favor Though And Call Off The FBI”
“The Top 5 Best Excuses For Why Trump Was Hiding Those Top Secret Documents!”
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657859167
Russian swine shelling nuclear plants is exactly what I expect from fascists. Hooray for Kherson, but OMFG the fascist fools!! Where exactly do they think a cloud of nuclear radiation is going to go if they make that power plant melt down?
On the idiocy of our very own US fascists, McCarthy asks if Americans are better off than we were two years ago. Yes, not dying of Covid is a huge improvement from two years ago you treasonous sack of worms.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-july/u-s-records-over-25000-coronavirus-deaths-in-july-idUSKCN24W1G1
https://www.wonkette.com/salman-rushdie-may-lose-a-damn-eye
More at the link.
Wonkette link
NBC News
In rare move, school librarian fights back in court against conservative activists
By Tyler Kingkade / Aug. 13, 2022
This is interesting.
Kazakhstan is going to start shipping its oil through Azerbaijan.
Russia isn’t going to like this.
It’s not as significant as it looks though as only 8% of their Russian pipeline volumes are being redirected.
It is likely if Ukraine falls, that kazakhstan will also be invaded. A large country with lots of oil, gas, and uranium and a small population at 19 million.
FYI.
Kazakhstan produces 28% of the world’s Uranium.
@ 479
Matar doesn’t care. That’s the thing that the problem that many liberals who slap “COEXIST” bumper stickers on their Prius don’t or won’t get about religion-particularly the Abrahamic ones like Islam: They don’t give a shit about this world. Sure he’ll suffer in a prison, but one day he’ll die and will be receive the boons promised to martyrs. That’s all he cares about.
Expanded IRS electronic free-file tax return system a step closer
Ukraine Update:Russian leadership reportedly retreats from Kherson as bridges are blown
More at the link.
Julia Davis:
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1558289365004128264
Video available at the link.
Commentary:
Link
Link
Oh, FFS.
Trump supporters armed with guns outside Phoenix FBI office prove double standard is alive and well
Salman Rushdie taken off ventilator as ‘road to recovery’ begins, agent says.
Washington Post link
Link
“Ayatollah Khomeini Never Read Salman Rushdie’s Book,” by Robin Wright
New Yorker link
Salman Rushdie and the Power of Words
New Yorker link
“Efforts are bound to be made to somehow equalize or level the acts of Rushdie and his tormentors and would-be executioners. This is a despicable viewpoint.”
I presented some text in bold face. It was not bolded in the original.
Ukraine hits Russian Wagner mercenary HQ in east
Ukrainian artillery has struck a headquarters of Russia’s shadowy Wagner paramilitary group of mercenaries in eastern Ukraine, reports say.
The attack in Popasna was reported by Serhiy Hayday, Ukrainian governor of Luhansk region, and several pro-Kremlin war reporters…
Wagner has been linked to war crimes…
This is a summary of the recent attacks by Russia on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. There is one key fact that is new here.
In particular, as a result of the attack, emergency protection was activated in one of the ZNPP power units. As a result, one of the three operating power units is now disconnected.
I’m not entirely sure what they mean by “disconnected”. When you are operating a nuclear power plant, the electricity has to go somewhere. Probably, what they mean is that they shut down one of the reactors.
You don’t just shut down a nuclear power reactor though.
There is a lot of residual heat from the nuclear decay processes.
IIRC, it takes a month for the reactor core to cool enough that you don’t have to actively cool it with running water. That is why the Fukushima reactors all blew up and melted down, loss of coolant.
It really makes no sense for the Russians to shell the reactors that they also control.
Unless the plan it to cause a meltdown and blame it on Ukraine.
The Ukrainians already seem to be resigned to the fact that they are going to lose these reactors.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian:
“Hypocrisy or a reason for hope? The Taliban who send their girls to school”:
“Wildfires in Europe burn area equivalent to one-fifth of Belgium”:
“China stages new military drills after US lawmakers’ Taiwan visit”:
Why Trump’s message to AG Merrick Garland was so provocative
Donald Trump believes the United States “is on fire,” and the responsible way to deal to deal with the conflagration he helped start is to condemn the FBI.
Guardian liveblog: