In a statement to the judge, Williams apologized to police and Capitol employees. She said, “I barely recognize the young and stupid girl who yelled at police that day. I’m now a responsible woman.”
[tweet and video at the link: "Italy's Prime Minister Meloni becomes truly furious every time someone demands the West should stop supporting Ukraine."] Yeah, it’s sensitive content because she burned the ears off pro-Putin listeners.
A whole series of strange reports concerning Russian forces leaving Nova Kakhovka, which is across the Dnipro, and about 50km up river, from the city of Kherson. Why Russia would do this is hard to say, as it would leave Crimea open to a direct attack, but the Ukrainian military issued almost simultaneous reports saying that Russian forces had left Nova Kakhovka, and that Nova Kakhovka was still under occupation by Russia. So I don’t know…
[…] [Tweet and video at the link: Video of MiG-29 transfer from Slovakia to Ukraine]
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a traveling man. This morning he was in Kherson Oblast visiting towns and villages that had been along the front lines of fighting. [Tweet and video at the link] It’s hard to know at this point how long Zelenskyy will remain in office after this war is concluded. But for now, it’s hard to believe that there is anyone better for this job.
[Tweet and image at the link: “I try to see the beauty of our world. It helps me to live.” accompanied by a photo of Kyiv]
Link. Same link as was presented in comment 483. I added updates Mark Sumner posted at the beginning of the article, and some updates from the end of the article.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is not going to let House Republicans push it around, it made clear in a letter responding to Reps. Jim Jordan, James Comer, and Bryan Steil. Without District Attorney Alvin Bragg even having indicted Donald Trump, the three Republican committee chairs had demanded that he “testify about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision” and turn over documents relating to his investigation, along with information about how his office uses federal funds—this last having obviously been tacked on to provide a flimsy justification for why a county district attorney’s criminal investigation would come under congressional oversight.
Bragg’s office has now responded with a request to meet with committee staff to find out “what information the DA’s Office can provide that relates to a legitimate legislative interest and can be shared consistent with the District Attorney’s constitutional obligations.” As the rest of the letter makes clear, the DA’s office seriously doubts that there is any such legitimate legislative interest/interest consistent with the DA’s constitutional obligations.
Here are the boldfaced subheadings in the letter from general counsel Leslie Dubeck. They should be enough for you to get the general drift:
”Compliance with the Letter Would Interfere with Law Enforcement”
”Requests Regarding the Exercise of State Police Powers Violate New York’s Sovereignty”
”Congressional Review of a Pending Criminal Investigation Usurps Executive Powers”
”Federal Funding is an Insufficient Basis to Justify These Unconstitutional Requests”
In short: pound sand, pound sand, pound sand, and also, pound some more sand. [LOL]
That last bold point is where Bragg’s office does offer Jordan, et al., part of what they’re asking for, but it has the effect of an eye-rolling dismissal [Yep]: Following the point that the Republicans didn’t in any way justify how the office’s use of federal funds would connect to their other demands, it concludes, “Nonetheless, to assist Congress in understanding the ways in which the DA’s Office has used federal funds, we are preparing and will submit a letter describing its use of federal funds.”
In translation: Okay, you’ll get the thing you may have some legitimate right to, but we all know that’s not what you really want. […]
We have a result which we have been working on.
An Agreement was signed on the Establishment of the Field Office of the @IntlCrimCourt in [Ukraine].
This step will allow international justice to be even more active in investigating the crimes of the Russian military on Ukrainian soil….
“If it was a bad idea to threaten default on U.S. debt before, it would be astoundingly, colossally idiotic now,” one observer said. If only the GOP cared.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared on the chamber floor yesterday morning and delivered fairly routine remarks that didn’t generate a lot of attention. The New York Democrat did, however, flag a GOP quote that I hadn’t heard.
“During House Republicans’ annual retreat, House Budget Committee chair and other hard right-wingers said now is ‘the best time’ to double down on debt-ceiling brinkmanship, as news of [Silicon Valley Bank’s] collapse remains front of mind,” Schumer said. “That is reckless and truly clueless. … Instead of calling for calm, House Republicans are sowing chaos by threatening default at a time when banks need stability.”
This morning, the majority leader returned to the floor and reemphasized the same point. “Earlier this week, House GOP members, including the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said now is ‘the best time’ to double down on debt ceiling brinkmanship and hostage taking,” Schumer said, adding, “This is a stupendously bad idea. This is an idea that has no logic, has no linear thinking in it at all.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the Democratic leader was taking some creative license. Perhaps the original quote wasn’t as outrageous as a three-word excerpt made it seem. Maybe the context would be more forgiving.
Or maybe not. Punchbowl News reported yesterday:
The recent collapse of two large regional banks rattled global markets, raising concerns about financial stability during a precarious moment for the U.S. economy. Would this backdrop of uncertainty, we wondered, cause House Republicans to grow wary of launching a debt limit showdown? From our conversations with top GOP lawmakers at the House Republican retreat this week in Orlando, the answer is a hard no. Instead of expressing caution, senior GOP lawmakers are leaning into their plans to demand spending cuts in return for raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
It was this same report that quoted Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, saying, “This is the best time to do it.”
In case this isn’t obvious, “it” referred to the GOP’s decision to threaten to crash the economy on purpose unless Democrats agree to Republicans’ demands — demands that the party, months into the process, still hasn’t yet identified. [!!]
In other words, Republicans were already threatening to impose an economic catastrophe on Americans, on purpose, even before instability in the banking sector. Now, as it becomes painfully obvious that Congress should at least try to govern in a responsible way, key GOP officials, including the chairman of the House Budget Committee, are saying now is “the best time” for an easily avoidable debt-ceiling crisis.
This comes two months after a CNBC host asked Arrington whether his party’s debt ceiling hostage strategy “could turn dangerous.” The Texan responded, “I believe it will and I believe it has to.”
I’m reminded of a column The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell’s wrote last week that the GOP congressman might want to read.
A plea to lawmakers: If it was a bad idea to threaten default on U.S. debt before, it would be astoundingly, colossally idiotic now. Recent financial-market turmoil — in regional U.S. banks, as well as some of the larger European institutions — suggests there might be much more fragility in the financial system than previously understood. In a sane world, politicians might respond to this new information constructively.
Alas, as Arrington has made clear, “colossally idiotic” tactics are taking precedence over “constructive” policymaking.
[…] Trump has chosen the first stop on his reelection tour: Waco, Texas, where religious cult leader and anti-government extremist David Koresh led an infamous clash with federal law enforcement in 1993.
Trump will hold a rally in the town on Saturday, during the 30th anniversary of the deadly standoff.
The Trump campaign told TIME that they chose the city because its voters firmly supported the former president in the past. […]
Trump did win McLennan County, which surrounds Waco, by 23 points in the 2020 election. […]
“Waco is hugely symbolic on the far right,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told USA Today. “There’s not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred—Christian nationalist skepticism of the government—and I find it hard to believe that Trump doesn’t know that Waco represents all of these things.”
[snipped Waco history]
[Trump has] called on his supporters to protest his impending arrest and “TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” – a call for unrest that many likened to his incitement of the violence that broke out on Jan. 6 when a mob of his supporters attempted to stop the transfer of power after President Biden’s 2020 victory.
Even Republicans were concerned about the incendiary language and publicly urged that protests remain peaceful and calm.
Trump has chosen the first stop on his reelection tour: Waco, Texas…” Totally not a cult.
—————–
Dog-whistling retributory militia violence.
—————-
My last semester teaching at Baylor coincided with the Branch Davidian fiasco. It drew far right nutters to the compound and Waco generally like moths to a flame. This is no accidental scheduling.
NATO ally Norway has announced that it is boosting the number of naval patrols near vital undersea gas pipelines off its coast, and released a trove of videos exclusively to NBC News illustrating what it sees as a growing Russian threat in the Arctic.
The videos provided by the Royal Norwegian Air Force capture the high-stakes cat-and-mouse game between the two militaries, with Russian attack submarines patrolling near a maze of undersea pipelines carrying vast amounts of natural gas to Europe and telecommunication cables linking Europe and America.
According to the head of the Royal Norwegian Navy, the videos indicate that Russian attack submarines and planes have expanded their presence in the High North, operating near Norway’s natural gas pipelines that represent a vital energy lifeline for Europe.
“We’ve seen increased military activity around Norway in the High North, in the North Atlantic. We have seen Russian submarines operating differently than they did 10 years ago,” Rear Adm. Rune Andersen said last week from the bridge of the Norwegian refueling ship Maud at the Haakonsvern Naval Base in the city of Bergen.
[…] Norway, with more than 5,000 miles of pipelines, is now supplying 30 to 40% of Europe’s natural gas needs, up from about 20% before the Ukraine invasion. The undersea cables in the North Sea are part of a crucial global communications network that keeps data moving around the planet.
[…] Russia’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet, much of it based at its Murmansk military base near Norway, remains a formidable threat. “The submarines and the maritime and air capabilities of the (Russian) northern fleet… they’re largely unaffected by the war in Ukraine. It’s still intact,” […]
Russian submarines, ships and aircraft in the area appear to be conducting surveillance of the gas pipelines, Norwegian officers said.
“They’re around this area. More than once, they’re going back and forth. They’re following the pipeline, “ said Comdr. Tirrell Herland, a Norwegian naval spokesperson, calling it “suspicious activity.” […]
[…] The spring melt-out could be extreme. Statewide, California has more than twice as much snow stored in the mountains as average for this time of year.
[…] As of Thursday, the Central Sierra Snow Lab was up to just over 690 inches for the season. That is the second highest total on record, beating out the benchmark season of 1982-1983 season. The top mark is 812 inches, a record established in 1952.
While all of this rain and snow has done wonders to wipe away drought conditions, fill reservoirs and fuel wildflower super blooms, there is a looming danger going into April and May.
The recent heavy rainfall combined with Sierra snowmelt could set up a dangerous risk of flooding for communities downhill of the mountains and located in the Central Valley and especially San Joaquin Valley of California. […]
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee for roughly five hours. Members grilled Chew, citing concerns about privacy for Americans’ data, protections for children online and TikTok’s connection to the Chinese Communist Party.
[…] The company has a plan to move data into the U.S., where it would be stored “on American soil” and overseen “by an American company,” Chew said. The company calls the plan “Project Texas,” which is a $1.5 billion program that includes a contract with the Austin, Texas-based Oracle to store data from the app’s American users.
[…] Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, questioned Chew about TikTok’s efforts to combat misinformation, specifically targeting the Spanish-speaking population. Several members have raised concerns about social media companies like TikTok missing misinformation that’s posted in Spanish.
“The Spanish-speaking population is very important to our platform. We do have a lot of Spanish-speaking moderators,” Chew said.
Asked by Ruiz how many Spanish-speaking staff versus English-speaking staff TikTok has to address misinformation, Chew said, “I can get back to you on the specifics but dangerous misinformation is moderated regardless of language.”
“Not to the degree it needs to be,” Ruiz said. […]
Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming — at least temporarily — after a judge on Wednesday ordered that a newly enacted ban be blocked until further court proceedings in a lawsuit challenging it.
On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission introduced a ‘click to cancel’ policy that would require merchants to allow consumers to cancel their subscriptions in the same way that they signed up. Meaning, if you signed up for a new streaming service online, you should be able to cancel that service on the same website in the same number of steps.
While conducting aerial reconnaissance on the Donetsk front, the unit of the SOF detected and pursued a Russian 1L220 Zoopark-2 radar reconnaissance and arms control system, which was constantly changing its position.
After receiving the location of the counter-battery system, one of the Defence Forces units launched an attack on it.
This piece of Russian military equipment was successfully destroyed.
…
The Militarnyi portal reports that the main purpose of different modifications of the Zoo Park system is reconnaissance of Ukrainian firing means and adjustment of fire.
This radar station detects shells in the air and calculates the trajectory of their flight. This information can not only help find a firing position but also the area where a projectile will most likely fall. This helps the occupiers not only detect the Ukrainian firing positions but also adjust their artillery systems against the Ukrainian troops.
Without showing photo or video evidence, James River Church pastor John Lindell told his congregation a “creative miracle” took place involving a woman named Krissy Thompson.
The assertion was made during the Week of Power conference held March 12 through March 16 at the Springfield-area church, according to the Springfield News Leader. Lindell was joined by guest speaker Bill Johnson, the senior leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California.
Video from the conference has been removed from the church’s Facebook page, but it remains on social media and the website ShowMeTheToes.com…
In this intercepted call, the occupiers are discussing cases of desertion from Russian units, and complain about failures in the Bakhmut direction, knowing how many more cities are ahead of them.
Russian RIA Novosti agency published a piece today claiming that T-62 is superior to Western vehicles provided to Ukraine. Funny in itself, the piece is overshadowed by comments from some Russians. Here’s one, callsign “13th’, with his rant.
“Let the politicians put their children in these ‘modern tanks’ and send them into battle.” (This one contains a slur, because of course it does. In fact, the only suspicious aspect of the other one is its slurlessness. That aside, pretty accurate.)
Holy shit. I posted a link to a tweet by a Finnish blogger @ #496 on the previous thread. It was a response to a thuggish tweet from the Russian MFA about Finland’s joining NATO and how ill-advised, hysterical, and Russophobic it is; stating plainly that if the Russians invade Finland they will be killed. Musk’s Twitter has now permanently suspended him. Hypocritical tyrant-ass-kissing fuckers.
George Conway re #15: “Interestingly, this is exactly the kind of post I would put on social media were I a target in a criminal investigation and I wanted to be denied bail.”
larparsays
@SC #15
I not sure about the authenticity of that tweet. I went to Trump’s twitter and it’s not there.
Donald Trump sparked anger by posting a picture of himself holding a baseball bat next to the head of the Manhattan District Attorney leading an investigation into him.
The one-term president posted an article to Truth Social which included a composite picture of himself and Alvin Bragg…
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukraine’s top ground forces commander, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said his forces would soon begin a counter offensive after withstanding Russia’s brutal winter campaign.
He said Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, who have been at the frontline of Moscow’s assault on eastern and southern Ukraine, “are losing considerable strength and are running out of steam”.
“Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliia and Kupiansk,” he said, listing Ukrainian counteroffensives last year that recaptured swathes of land.
…Reuters journalists near the frontline north of Bakhmut saw signs consistent with the suggestion that the Russian offensive in the area could be waning. At a Ukrainian-held village west of Soledar, on Bakhmut’s northern outskirts, the intensity of the Russian bombardment noticeably lessened from two days earlier….
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, offers this news summary of overnight developments to subscribers of its official Telegram channel:
At night, Russian troops shelled a “point of invincibility” in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. Three resettled women from other settlements of the region died under the rubble, and two more people were injured. [The death toll now stands at five.]
Sumy district came under massive fire at night: the Russian Federation used about 10 fighter jets, artillery and “Shahed” drones. Two people were killed in the city of Bilopillya, nine others were injured.
In Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, there were five hits by “Shahed” drones. Air defence forces managed to shoot down one.
The claims have not been independently verified.
A Russian security officer who fled the country because he objected to the invasion of Ukraine has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in high-security prison, Reuters reports, citing Tayga Info, a news website based in Novosibirsk.
Federal protective service Maj Mikhail Zhilin, 36, fled to Kazakhstan last year when Russia announced a conscription campaign, illegally crossing the border through woods while his wife and children drove through a checkpoint.
Zhilin sought refugee status in the former Soviet republic but his request was denied and authorities stopped him from leaving for Armenia.
Kazakhstan handed him over to Russia late last year, leading to the rare conviction of an officer for desertion.
…Though such “death flights” by which thousands perished were routine during Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship, many of their details remain unknown.
After an astounding series of events, however, not only have the pilots of this particular flight been identified and convicted, but the plane itself, a Belfast-built Short SC.7 Skyvan, has been located in the US and will soon be returned to Argentina, where it will be put on display in Buenos Aires at the Museum of Memory set up in the former Argentinian military death camp that it once served.
Cecilia De Vincenti, whose mother, Azucena Villaflor, perished on the flight, said the plane’s return will provide concrete proof against Argentina’s rising tide of dictatorship denialism.
“It will render history tangible: they were alive until 14 December, when they were thrown from this plane, and no one will be able to deny that now,” she said.
Unlike Brazil and Uruguay, where wide-ranging amnesties were passed for crimes committed during their dictatorships, Argentina has tried and convicted about 1,000 former military officers for human rights abuses under military rule. But that consensus shattered under former president Mauricio Macri, who may run again in this year’s elections – and who this week dismissed the issue as “the human rights scam of what happened 40 years ago”….
…“The majority [of targeted workers] were kidnapped right off the assembly line,” said Tomás Ojea Quintana, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the start of the trial. “They were taken by rifle-toting military officers and paraded before the other workers so they could see what happened to their union representatives. This created an atmosphere of terror in the workplace that prevented any wage or working condition complaints.”
The kidnapped employees were immediately fired by the company, sometimes while they were still being tortured on the plant’s premises, according to testimony….
I haven’t been able to find any updates. They would be 91 and 95 now, so I’m not sure what’s happened since. In her 2007 The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein argued that
by focusing purely on the crimes and not on the reasons behind them, the human rights movement also helped the Chicago School ideology to escape from its first bloody laboratory virtually unscathed.
The Macri “human rights scam” quote does suggest a rightwing turn toward a strategy of outright denialism and conspiracism.
…For all his shirt-sleeved photo shoots, his can-do summits with foreign leaders and his emphasis on how “reasonable” his policies are, his government is proving just as extreme as those of Truss and Johnson.
In its legislation, rhetoric and more hidden manoeuvres against strikers, protesters, lawyers, refugees, civil servants, the BBC and seemingly any group that displeases the Tories or their supporters, the Sunak administration is enthusiastically continuing the Conservatives’ post-Brexit journey into dark waters. In January, before many of its most authoritarian policies had even been unveiled, the civil liberties group Human Rights Watch warned that “the most significant assault on human rights protections in the UK for decades” was already under way.
So far, commentators have tended to see the apparent contrast between the technocratic Sunak and the nastier, more populist version as baffling – or as clever tactics, the government tailoring its messages to different audiences. But both interpretations rely on a highly questionable assumption about Sunak and about technocrats: that they are basically moderate. Yet the style of politics he has adopted, and his professional and personal background, are not necessarily reassuring influences at all. What if his elite, business-school worldview is not a check on his government’s extremism, but the opposite?
Technocrats do not always make good democrats. Technocratic government is usually about a small number of experts, with a high opinion of themselves, coming up with supposed answers to a country’s problems, which other politicians, the state bureaucracy and the rest of society are then told to follow. This is the approach being followed by Sunak’s recent summit buddy Emmanuel Macron, in his hugely controversial attempt to raise the French pension age by presidential decree rather than a vote in parliament. The strikes and other protests his actions have provoked suggest that top-down, technocratic government may be harder in economically stressed times.
But technocrats have been involved in far worse projects than Macron’s. The dictatorships of General Franco in Spain and General Pinochet in Chile, for example, were eagerly served by technocrats who saw the absence of democracy and the existence of a police state as ideal conditions in which to conduct socially disruptive economic experiments. Sunak’s government is nowhere near as repressive, yet its latest public order legislation – which means that soon “police will not need to wait for disruption to take place” before they “shut protests down”, in the government’s words – could certainly come in handy if the collapse in living standards forecast for the next two years finally brings furious Britons out on to the streets….
The son of a Russian regional governor who was set to be extradited from Italy to the US has disappeared, according to reports.
Artyom Uss, the son of the governor of the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, was arrested at Milan’s airport in October 2022, at the request of the US attorney general. He was placed under house arrest and required to wear an electronic bracelet.
US authorities have accused Uss of illegal oil and weapons trade, money laundering, and sanction violations.
On Tuesday, an Italian court agreed to his extradition to the US. The following day, he disappeared, AFP reported, citing media reports.
His father Alexander Uss, who has previously denounced his son’s arrest as “political”, expressed his concern. “As a father, I am very worried about my son,” he told a press conference today. He added:
I don’t know where he is and I don’t know what happened in detail. All I can say is that according to Artyom, the apartment where he was staying was well guarded by police. They even checked on him several times a night. So I don’t really understand how he disappeared.
Uss was one of five Russians arrested on Washington’s request for “unlawful schemes to export powerful” US military technology to Russia. The US justice department said some of these had been “discovered on the battlefields of Ukraine”.
KGsays
The Macri “human rights scam” quote does suggest a rightwing turn toward a strategy of outright denialism and conspiracism. – SC@22
The “far right” everywhere (and the boundaries between the far right and the “respectable” centre-right are getting thinner all the time) have learned from Trump that insolent denial of obvious facts accompanied by “scam” accusations, is a viable strategy.
SC @20, On Truth Social, Trump also referred to Alvin Bragg as an “animal.”
As for the baseball bat, I can already see Trump cult followers posting photos of themselves with baseball bats. Very threatening. Very stupid. And that kind of post from Trump is stoking violence.
As conservative politics has become more extreme, libraries have become more common targets. The New York Times reported in the fall, for example, on a report from the American Library Association that found attempted book bans accelerating at a rate unseen in recent decades.
The same article went on to note that public libraries “have been threatened by politicians and community members with a loss of funding for their refusal to remove books,” and in the ALA’s findings, the library association “cited 27 instances of police reports being filed against library staff over the content of their shelves.”
But it wasn’t until yesterday when I saw a Republican member of Congress suggest that the nation’s public libraries be replaced with “church-owned” alternatives. Consider this missive Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana published on Twitter:
“Over time, American communities will build beautiful, church owned public-access libraries. I’m going to help these churches get funding. We will change the whole public library paradigm. The libraries regular Americans recall are gone. They’ve become liberal grooming centers.”
As best as I can tell, the GOP congressman wasn’t kidding.
[…] the idea that libraries pose some kind of ideological threat to the public is both outlandish and unusual.
And yet, here we are, watching Higgins — a member of the House Oversight and Homeland Security Committees — making just such a pitch.
But let’s also not overlook the first part of his message. The Louisiana congressman not only opposes existing public libraries, he apparently intends to “get funding” for faith-based libraries owned by churches […]
To the extent that reality matters, houses of worship are already free to create libraries if they want to, and they’re welcome to open the facilities to the public. Of course, because the United States honors the separation of church and state, those church libraries are privately financed by voluntary contributions […]
None of this makes sense. Americans’ public libraries have not become “grooming centers,” and Congress funding “church-owned” alternatives is obviously at odds with the First Amendment.
But the fact that Higgins felt comfortable espousing such an idea publicly says a great deal about where some on the right find themselves when it comes to libraries, free speech, and church-state separation.
As for Democratic reactions, Rep. Ted Lieu of California, noting his GOP colleague’s tweet, added soon after, “What are MAGA Republicans focused on? Destroying our public libraries and replacing them with church libraries. Imagine how boring: No Lord of the Rings; no dinosaur stories; no books about Charles Darwin.”
This is Trump’s “death and destruction” post that everyone is talking about. The screed was posted on Truth Social, Trump’s anti-truth, anti-factual, bullying platform:
What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former president of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting president in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a crime, when it is known by all that NO crime has been committed […] & also that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country? Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA!
I think that last sentence is pure projection. “Degenerate psychopath” indeed. The rest is a combination of lies and threats.
His rant was targeted at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. See SC’s comment 20.
Marjorie Taylor Greene: “[…] he doesn’t have to say peaceful for it to mean peaceful. Of course, he means peaceful. Of course, President Trump means peaceful protests.”
Yeah, right. He just likes the feel of a baseball bat in his hand while he rants about death and destruction.
Sorry, I’m late for my appointment. We had to stop for the missile launch. [Tweet and video at the link, showing traffic stopped to allow for a roadside Ukrainian HIMARS salvo.]
News came on Thursday that U.S.-supplied Abrams M1 tanks may arrive in Ukraine sooner than expected. That’s because, as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made clear, the U.S. is going to tap the existing stock of older M1A1 tanks rather than wait for new export models of the M1A2 tank to roll off the line. This means that Ukraine will be getting something less than the most up-to-date model, but they’ll be getting it much sooner.
Based on yesterday’s Pentagon briefing, the decision to go with sooner over better appears to have come from Ukraine. According to Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, “DoD, in close coordination with Ukraine, made the decision to buy the M1A1 variant which will enable us to significantly expedite delivery timelines, and deliver this important capability to Ukraine by the fall of this year.” The number of vehicles slated for delivery still seems to be 31. At least for now.
The M1A1 and M1A2 share the same 120mm gun and much of the same structure. Many of the additional armor packages designed for the A2 also work with the A1. Most of the differences between the two are actually internal, with the A2 having improved thermal sights and a new weapons station for the tank commander that includes its own thermal display. That allows the commander to identify and tag potential new targets even as the gunner is already working on an existing target. The A2 also has improved tracks, designed to last longer with fewer repairs. The final configuration of the tanks bound for Ukraine is unclear—there are a lot of options that still fall within the M1A1 family—but it looks like they will be in Ukraine later this year.
——————-
Incredible video and fantastic reporting from Quentin Sommerville at the BBC. This is on the southern front, about 25 km west of Vuhledar, near the town of Velyka Novosilka. The village they are looking into that’s split between Russian and Ukrainian forces is likely Neskuchne. [Tweet and video at the link]
The area that’s covered in this video is a section of the battlefield that’s not considered to be particularly active, with lines that have been nearly static for some time. And still, the level of danger to which the these soldiers are exposed daily is way beyond daunting. The destruction of the front line towns, the rain of artillery, the constant threat from drones. It’s everywhere. Watch these young troops and realize that they—and hundreds of thousands like them—are out there every day.
The map below covers the area where this video was shot. It’s very flat terrain, with few serious obstacles other than streams that have been dammed to make small reservoirs. The ground here is sandier than that around Bakhmut, or up in Luhansk, and it’s easy to see that spring is at least a couple of weeks more advanced in this area. It’s also obvious that it’s already possible to operate tanks and other armored vehicles away from paved roads in this area. [map at the link]
Some of that area to the east of Velyka Novosilka, along that major highway and along two lesser roads running to the north, had been previously occupied by Russia, It was liberated some weeks ago by the same unit featured in the BBC video, the 1st Separate Tank Brigade under Col. Leonid Khoda.
Based on some of the images from the video, I may need to shift the area of Russian control on this map some distance to the south. I’m waiting for those who are better at geolocation to nail down the coordinates for me.
———————-
Video this morning shows that Russia is also now deploying consumer first-person view (FPV) drones, piloted by operators wearing VR goggles, as kamikaze weapons on the front lines. First use appears to be a strike on a barn(?) in the village of Zalizne, west of Horlivka. This looks to be the previous generation DJI FPV drone fitted with what appears to be a contact bomb in a PVC housing. Russia claims it carries 2.5 kg of explosives. A second observation drone has the area under observation. Still, while editing makes it appear there is someone inside at the time of the explosion, it’s not clear whether this is the case, or that the open area at the end of the building is actually connected to the area where what appears to be an unarmed civilian is seen to enter. [Tweet and video at the link]
The “low battery” warning that flashes through the video suggests that this location—about 3km from area of Russian control—represents roughly the upper range for this configuration. It’s unclear how many of these Russia has, or how consistent the design might be from one drone to the next.
Ukraine has been using such FPV drones very effectively, with skilled operators able to fly them right through the hatch of a tank of armored transport. They’ve developed standardized designs that allow an operator to fly one to destination, then move to another with the confidence of very similar performance. With a cost well below $1000 each, these drones make very inexpensive, and very precise, short-range “missiles.”
If you’ve never taken a close look, check out a video to see how precisely and skillfully these drones can be operated. These particular versions, weighted with explosives, are never going to be as quick and responsive as racing drones. How cheap can they get and still be incredibly capable? Really cheap. [embedded links available at the main link]
“Banned books and burning books are both the same,” Linn said. “Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear, not freedom. Fear, not liberty. Fear is control. My husband died as a father of freedom. I am the mother of liberty. Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense mocked Michigan-born Russian citizen Steven Seagal after the action-movie actor reportedly promoted the teaching of martial arts to Russian military recruits.
“It’s been reported that Russia has recruited Steven Seagal to teach martial arts to its soldiers,” the Ukraine government agency wrote on Twitter Thursday.
“Rumor has it that the Seagal-style running technique will be included in the training,” it continued. “Russian soldiers will now be able to run away from their positions with weird hand motions.”
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other former Trump aides cannot claim executive privilege to get out of testifying in the special counsel’s investigation, a federal judge ruled last week, according to an ABC News report. Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, white supremacist former top aide Stephen Miller, former deputy chief of staff and Social Media Director Dan Scavino, former Department of Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli, and other Trump aides are also on the list of members of Team Trump who Judge Beryl Howell ordered to testify.
Some people on that list have already testified to the grand jury while refusing to answer questions about their interactions with Donald Trump, which sort of diminishes the usefulness of their testimony in an investigation of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. They will have to return to answer more questions if Howell’s order is upheld on appeal.
Trump is expected to appeal.
[…] [A] mention of attorney-client privilege is a reference to Howell’s previous decision to allow the special counsel to invoke the crime-fraud exception after showing evidence that Trump used the advice of his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, in furtherance of a crime. Far from being a major step outside norms to destroy “Constitutionally based” standards, the crime-fraud exception has been well established—even if it is more often used in mafia prosecutions than investigations of former presidents [LOL] hoarding classified documents. Howell’s decision there was upheld on appeal.
In the Mark Meadows et al question of executive privilege, Howell ruled that the current president gets to make executive privilege decisions. […]
The appeals court moved at lightning speed to resolve the attorney-client privilege question when it came to Corcoran, so it seems likely that a Trump appeal here would similarly be resolved before long.
The latest intelligence briefing from the U.K. ministry of defense shows another way in which it’s possible to see the Russian army engaged in autocannibalism. [Excerpt from Intelligence Update posting: “The fact Russia has resorted to training its personnel under the much less-experience Belarusian army highlights how Russia’s ‘special military operation’ has severely dislocated the Russian military’s training system. Instructors have largely been deployed in Ukraine. russia likely also views Belarus’s continued indirect support to the operation as important political messaging.”]
[…] their own training instructors “have largely been deployed in Ukraine.” This is what is known as “eating the seed corn.”
But hey, who wouldn’t want their army trained by these highly skilled operatives? [Tweet and video at the link]
If you haven’t already seen it, shortly after we rolled yesterday’s Update around the idea that Ukraine is looking at a counteroffensive centered on Bakhmut, Ukrainian commander of ground forces Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi began officially proclaiming that they would have … a counteroffensive centered in Bakhmut. Syrskyi declared that the Wagner-centered attacks on Bakhmut have “run out of steam” and that …
“Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliya and Kupiansk.”
It hasn’t been difficult to pick up on the suggestions that Ukraine was planning a counterattack at Bakhmut. They’ve been dangling this lure for weeks, with Syrskyi perhaps the most vocal.
Which absolutely means that Ukraine is about to launch a counteroffensive in Bakhmut! Or that Ukraine is about to launch a counteroffensive anywhere but Bakhmut. Or that Ukraine is still preparing for a counteroffensive that won’t come for months.
The many claims that Ukraine is preparing to retake the area around Bakhmut certainly have everyone’s attention. Which means that part of the plan is certainly working. Whatever the plan may be. [:-)]
Russian tank evolution is running in reverse. [Tweet and images at the link]
You’re just in time for a cook-off! [Tweet and video at the link]
Link. Scroll to nearer the end of the article to view these additional updates.
But hey, who wouldn’t want their army trained by these highly skilled operatives? [Tweet and video at the link]
That video is funny/entertaining. Here are a few comments from viewers:
Belarusian instructors perfecting roll over, play dead perhaps?
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See also https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1627244189669892096
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Nice of them to group together, saves of UA shells.
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Looks like they might make a good synchronized dancing or swimming team. [Yes. The choreography was Broadway stage worthy.]
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I’d like to see their synchronized dance when under real fire.
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Oh. I thought it was the Cirque du Soleil unit. My bad.
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I wonder if Belorussia has really excellent dance teams.
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Why are you making fun? Those Belarusian soldiers are clearly rehearsing for RuPaul’s Drag Race. They just need a few tips on makeup.
A discussion about the tensions between the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Wagner group.
[snipped historical details] The Waffen SS and the regular German Army (Wehrmacht) competed for resources and Hitler’s favor, and the right to be featured in Goebbel’s propaganda. The central theme and the reason for the Waffen SS’ existence is based in Hitler’s distrust of his own generals and army. By creating a competing source of military power within Germany, he intentionally divided German military resources […] Hitler felt this helped insulate himself against the threat of a coup.
While the origins of Wagner may not match that of the SS 1:1, the dynamic of the competing military organization that Wagner represented independent of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and the competing power plays between Wagner’s Prigozhin vs. the MoD’s Shoigu and Gerasimov, bear striking similiarities to the rivalries between the Waffen SS and the German Army.
[…] In the context of the failure of the initial invasion, the deflation of the myth of the invincibility of Russia’ army, and Putin’s need for an easy scapegoat, Putin choosing the Summer — Fall of 2022 as the time to inflate Prigozhin’s ego, expand Wagner into a competing force with the Russian Regular Army makes a lot of sense. Putin’s favor for Wagner is represented by Prigozhin expanding voice and support from propaganda. And Putin permitted the top brass of the Russian Army to be pilloried in the State Media. This was clearly political and strategic.
[…] However, Prigozhin and Wagner’s inability to deliver a propaganda victory in Bakhmut may have begun changing Putin’s thinking. To achieve Putin’s ambitions to be remembered as a modern day Peter the Great and to end the Russo-Ukrainian war as a victory, Putin probably began to see Wagner as a poor vehicle to ride.
[…] What was likely a whisper campaign driven by the MoD and possibly the FSB that Progozhin had presidential ambitions began growing–these were not helped by Prigozhin himself, who began providing nakedly ambitious statements. […]
[…] Putin made a sudden decision on Jan 11th to replace Sergei Surovikin—a known Wagner and Prigozhin ally—after just 3 months as the overall commander of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Surovikin was replaced by Valery Gerasimov—the very face of “the Establishment” in the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Army.
Gerasimov began taking steps that were clearly intended to destroy Wagner.
– Around Feb 16th, it was revealed that Wagner could no longer recruit prison convicts, its primary source of recruits.
– Since mid Feb, Prigozhin and Wagner soldiers begin complaining loudly of being deprived of equipment and artillery shells in their attacks.
– In early March, it was revealed that the Ministry of Defense has ordered Wagner to honor its 6 month contracts with its convicts, and that soldiers who complete their commitment will be sent home and pardoned.
This last step may signal the deathknell of Wagner, as Prigozhin’s recruitment blitz really picked up steam between Sept — October 2022, when in the span of 2 months, Wagner obtained an estimated 23,000 convicts. […]
Wagner only has 40,000 or so soldiers in the field. […]
After a month of bombastic pronouncements of defiance and vitriolic denouncements of the Ministry of Defense, Prigozhin now appears to be resigned to his fate, publicly commenting that Wagner is planning on focusing its future on its operations in Africa. [Feeling sorry for Africa]
It seems unthinkable that Gerasimov could take these steps without Putin’s approval.
[…] Wagner’s area of responsibility in Bakhmut is immense. Huge stretches of positions north of Bakhmut, and even some key sectors south of Bakhmut are held by Wagner units. Allowing these units to be depleted by the departure of experienced soldiers, while trying to “swap out the units” represents an immense challenge in planning.
Given that Wagner commanders and Russian regular army commanders have demonstrated neither the desire nor the ability to coordinate their movements, the chances of a chaotic and incompetent transition seem extraordinarily high.
In the coming weeks as the Russian MoD continues its decapitation of Wagner and hollowing out of its forces, a major opportunity for the AFU to reverse Russian progress north of Bakhmut may arise, simply by exploiting the chaos caused by Russian political intrigues.
Independent senator from Arizona and your sister’s ridiculous dipshit girlfriend who managed to piss off the entire family at Thanksgiving Kyrsten Sinema continues to find new depths of megalomaniacal stupid that she can plumb.
And plumb them she will, because this is America, where “being a terrible jerk” is a lucrative career path:
As she races to stockpile campaign money and post an impressive, statement-making first-quarter fundraising number, Sinema has used a series of Republican-dominated receptions and retreats this year to belittle her Democratic colleagues, shower her GOP allies with praise and, in one case, quite literally give the middle finger to President Joe Biden’s White House.
This is Washington DC, and politics […] But still, Sinema seems to have managed the impressive feat of being more of an alienating dickwad to her fellow senators than Ted Cruz. And people haaaaaaaaate Ted Cruz.
Sinema’s sniping spree has delighted the Republican lawmakers, lobbyists and donors who’ve taken in the show, giving some of them hope that she can be convinced to caucus with the GOP, either in this Congress or in the case she’s reelected as an independent.
This is the one difference between Sinema and Cruz, besides the wigs: Sinema has been embraced by the other side of the aisle, because the other side of the aisle is made up of amoral sociopaths whose love of owning the libs is only exceeded by their love of a one-time lib owning the libs.
Cruz, on the other hand, has been equally hated by both Democrats and Republicans since he came to Congress. He’s an equal-opportunity hate object.
Which all raises the question for McConnell: Should his efforts to woo a mainstream Republican fail, would he be better off attempting to cut a deal with Sinema or hope a candidate like Lake can prevail in a three-way race against a current and former Democrat?
Imagine Kari Lake reaching the Senate because Kyrsten Sinema splits the non-Golden Horde vote in Arizona. This is like asking if you’d prefer to cure your constipation with a wheat germ enema or by having Jack Bauer stick his arm down your throat and yank out your intestines.
Some of Sinema’s friends believe she’ll retire rather than risk losing. […] (Her appetites for luxury hotels, car services and charter flights, as laid out in her campaign finance reports, are ample.)
*extremely Eva Peron voice* Don’t cry for me, Maricopa…
“Old dudes are eating Jell-O, everyone is talking about how great they are,” Sinema recounted [about her former colleagues in the Democratic caucus] to gales of laughter. “I don’t really need to be there for that. That’s an hour and a half twice a week that I can get back.”
Presumably she doesn’t like having competition in the self-aggrandizement department, which makes being a politician an even weirder career choice.
“I spend my days doing productive work, which is why I’ve been able to lead every bipartisan vote that’s happened the last two years,” she said.
Three months ago we read a story about Sinema selling her used clothes on Facebook Marketplace at 11 A.M. on a weekday. Apparently she has sold a lot of clothes that way. So yes, she is doing productive work […]
Then there are several paragraphs of blah blah blah about how Sinema has protected rich people from higher taxes, specifically because she loves hanging out with private equity vampires more even than she seems to love ignoring her constituents.
The senator lamenting Washington name-calling and cynicism before an audience of AEI contributors told another, smaller crowd earlier in the year that House liberals were “crazy people,” that “most of my colleagues just aren’t familiar” with tax policy and wondered why other senators didn’t leverage the 50-50 Senate to be a “pain in the ass” like her.
Oh Lord, can you imagine? If every Senator leveraged the Senate like Sinema does, literally nothing would ever get done. The place is already dysfunctional […] The last thing it needs is 99 more Kyrsten Sinemas to throw sand in the gears.
In conclusion, Kyrsten Sinema still sucks, she will always suck, the end.
Tucker Carlson wanted to talk about guns last night. Tucker has well-known masculinity issues and feels very threatened by LGBTQ+ people.
Mix those together in a bucket, why dontcha! And Tucker did. Good LORD.
His monologue was about how “The Democratic Party believes owning a gun is too much autonomy for you.” (LOL.)
He sprinkled in other shit too, of course. He said people who support Ukraine are just conformists who think they specialize in “Eastern European border disputes.” (By the way, that was the eighth sentence of his monologue. That’s how long it took him to […] spread Russian propaganda in a monologue that wasn’t even about Russia and Ukraine. He got back to Ukraine at the end. Handy bookends! […])
And of course he claimed early and often that Democrats want to take your guns, just because they’d like to maybe ban the AR-15s that every white mass shooter seems to be able to get out of a vending machine. […]
But then it took a turn. A real weird turn.
It turns out that because of the disturbing rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and violence — helpfully nudged on by people like Tucker and the sort of vile trash he invites on his show — LGBTQ+ people are arming themselves more, for protection. He heard about it on NPR. And he thinks there’s a double standard here, because on one side, the libs are COMIN’ TO GRAB YER GUNS! But also LGBTQ+ people are arming themselves against morons who both hate LGBTQ+ people and also think the libs are COMIN’ TO GRAB YER GUNS!
“Guns are bad except in the hands of trans people. Wow!” said Tucker. He continued:
“The world is dangerous. You have to be dangerous back.” Is that a quote from an FBI indictment of the Proud Boys? No, it’s from an NPR segment. At this point, it’s hard to tell the difference, and the lip-smacking NPR reporters just say it without any sense of self-awareness at all.
Oh yes, it’s NPR that doesn’t have self-awareness. Go on.
What is going on here? Well, you know what’s going on here is that NPR has decided that guns are bad, except when the enforcers of its ideology have guns. You can’t have guns, but faithful servants of the Democratic Party can. That makes sense because like all totalitarians, they want a monopoly on force, right? So, debate ends at that point when one side has all the firearms. You don’t have to argue. You say, well, you can’t change your sex. “Shut up, bigot. Bang, bang!”
[OMFG]
Cool, he’s telling his excitable white supremacist viewers that trans people are going to murder them once they have all the guns. Does claiming trans people are going to kill his viewers count as inciting violence? We are just curious.
And look: We know Tucker willingly and knowingly lies to his viewers, because we’ve read it in texts and emails released from that Dominion lawsuit. But his viewers are dumbasses who don’t know that. That’s why he gets away with lying to them.
Tucker talked about a trans person WHO SHOT A COP before they took their own life, and he quoted some “research” from grifter troll Andy Ngo to suggest there really isn’t any problem with violence against trans people. […]
Then he got back to the trans people who are arming themselves, specifically a group in New England that’s trying to protect itself from a neo-Nazi group that targets trans people. [tweet and video at the link]
TUCKER: What you’re watching here is not the exercise of the Second Amendment. What you’re watching here is political hysteria, fear ginned up on purpose with maximum dishonesty in order to get people in a state of agitation, armed people in a state of agitation — doesn’t matter if they’re trans or not, whatever that is.
How is that different from the exercise of the Second Amendment practiced by the NRA and the Republicans […] Oh wait, is it somehow just fine when it’s white supremacist conservative dudes who at least present in public as heterosexuals getting ginned up and agitated? Is Tucker fine with that?
TUCKER: It’s the same template always: Scare the crap out of your voters, tell them that their lives are at risk, encourage them to get guns. How do you think that ends?
Dunno, let’s google “Great Replacement Theory” and “mass shootings” and find out. Whoa! Why do some of these Google results have Tucker Carlson’s name in them?
And what was Tucker saying about NPR’s lack of self-awareness?
TUCKER: But by the way, if we’re following the logic here, and why not, that’s in short supply in this country, you have to kind of wonder, like, what’s the limit to this?
Russian propaganda bookend incoming.
TUCKER: So, if trans people are in fear for their lives in every region of the country, including New England, which apparently is crawling with Nazis now, why wouldn’t we be arming them as we are, say, Ukraine’s trans army?
Ukraine’s trans army.
TUCKER: There are famously trans people in Ukraine’s army. They’re very, very proud of that. So, why stop with AR-15s? I mean, why not F-35s or tanks?
Yeah! Could be cool!
So anyway, that is how Tucker incited his bigot viewers last night.
He ended his monologue by dead-naming trans Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine, because of course he did, and by saying there’s “some weird affirmative action program going on” and oh fuck it, go read the rest if you want to.
Donald J. Trump claimed that the failure of the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, to indict him thus far is “quite frankly, a conspiracy” to keep the Republican Presidential candidate from attracting campaign donations.
“Alvin Bragg, who is a disgrace, should have arrested me by now,” Trump said. “He has treated me very unfairly.”
Trump said that he had made repeated calls to Bragg’s office to demand that he be arrested but has received no response.
“There’s something going on,” Trump said. “Obviously George Soros is telling Bragg not to arrest me. This should never be allowed to happen in this country.”
Issuing an ultimatum to Bragg, Trump said that, if he is not arrested by Friday, “I will perform a citizen’s arrest on myself.”
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Trump said. “The easy way would be for Alvin to keep his promise and arrest me, but time is running out.”
A Brazilian government watchdog voted Wednesday to give former President Jair Bolsonaro five working days to return to authorities a set of jewels he received from Saudi Arabia in 2021…
Another set of jewels from Saudi Arabia estimated to be worth several million dollars and also sent to Bolsonaro, according to one of his former ministers, was seized by customs at Sao Paulo’s international airport…
The Federal Court of Accounts, a legislative branch watchdog that oversees actions of Brazil’s executive, also ruled that Bolsonaro must give some weapons he received from the United Arab Emirates to the presidential collection.
Bolsonaro did not declare either set of jewels to tax authorities. Legal experts say he could face prosecution in the case…
Three men who posed as pastors and financial advisors ran a Ponzi scheme that netted them close to $28 million before massive bank account overdrafts blew their cover.
According to the Department of Justice, Maryland man John Erasmus Frimpong was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison on Thursday while a co-conspirator, Arley Ray Johnson, was sentenced to six years on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and securities fraud charges.
The third alleged co-conspirator, Dennis Jali, fled to South Africa in May 2019, the same month that the money started to run dry, the DOJ said in a statement. He was arrested in South Africa, per the DOJ.
The three men launched a phony financial literacy and wealth management firm titled “1st Millions” in August 2017, telling investors that they were investing in forex and crypto ventures and promising monthly returns on investments as high as 35%.
They frequented churches, hotel galas, and upscale events to recruit at least 1,200 victims who poured in millions of dollars, and lied by saying that they were licensed traders under the laws of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, prosecutors said in an indictment…
The three men “presented themselves as ‘pastors,’ and told prospective investors that 1st Million’s work was in furtherance of God’s mission in that it helped churches and their members achieve personal wealth and financial freedom,” prosecutors said in court documents…
The FBI and NYPD are investigating a letter containing a death threat and white powder that was mailed to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is investigating former President Donald Trump, law-enforcement sources told NBC News. … It contained a small amount of white powder. There were no evacuations or injuries, officials said.
As expected after all the threats and dehumanizing language coming from Trump.
Trump on Truth Social:
[Alvin Bragg] is doing the work of Anarchists and the Devil.
See comments 20, 27 and 29 for more of Trump’s attempts to incite violence against Alvin Bragg.
The United States launched airstrikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria on Thursday after a U.S. contractor was killed and five U.S. service members and another contractor were wounded when a suicide drone hit a coalition base in the country’s northeast.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel defiantly vowed on Thursday to proceed with a divisive judicial overhaul, in a move that came just hours after his coalition passed a law making it harder to remove him from office.
House Republicans came up short in their effort to override the first veto of President Joe Biden’s presidency, meaning Labor Department regulations permitting consideration of environmental, social and governance factors in investing will stand. […]
[…] The White House appears ready to reverse a Trump administration plan to relocate the U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Ala., because it fears the transfer would disrupt operations at a time when space is increasingly important to the military.
The Space Command siting decision has been a political football for the past four years.The Space Command siting decision has been a political football for the past four years. Trump made the decision on Jan. 11, 2021, five days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He had said earlier that he wouldn’t decide until he knew the 2020 election results, “to see how it turns out.” Colorado voted against him, while Alabama gave him strong support and its representatives backed his false claim he had won.
Senior military officials argued from the start for remaining in Colorado Springs, where the Space Command and its predecessors have been based for decades, and the Biden administration seems finally to be nearing the same conclusion. “We share the concerns of some military leaders about potential disruption of space operations at a critical moment for our national security,” a White House official said this week.
[…] When Trump gathered his advisers at the White House on Jan. 11, 2021, the senior military official present was Air Force Gen. John Hyten, a former head of the Space Command. He told me in an email: “When asked, I provided my best military advice[,] which was counter to the [Air Force] recommendation of Huntsville. I recommended Colorado Springs. My rationale was that the threat, primarily China, demanded that we move as fast as possible to reach full operational capability and that we could do that in Colorado much quicker than in Alabama.”
[…] Trump’s long shadow reaches to some unlikely places […] President Biden is right to listen to the generals on this one and keep the locus of space operations where it is.
Yikes! Has Rudy Giuliani devolved into even more of a whacko nutjob than before? FFS.
George Soros is a 92-year-old Jewish Hungarian immigrant who escaped Nazi occupation of his homeland, and who huddled in a basement during the 1945 Russian Siege of Budapest before escaping to France and then England. While enrolling as a student, Soros worked as a waiter and as a railway porter and has often said he was encouraged into a life of philanthropy when he received £40 from a Quaker charity with the help of a teacher at his school. In 1956, already a successful investment banker, Soros moved to the United States on what he expected to be a temporary assignment for his British company. He’s been in the U.S. ever since.
Oh, and apparently he tried to kill Rudy Giuliani on the tarmac of an airport in Ukraine.
We know this because, as The Washington Post reports, Giuliani laid out the murder scheme on his podcast. Giuliani was back in Ukraine along with One America News “personality” Chanel Rion in 2019. That ran afoul of Soros’ infinite network of agents, who apparently had the power to “cause trouble.” That sent Giuliani in search of escape by private plane only to learn at the last moment (dum dum dum) that Soros owned the airport! As the plane is just getting ready to leave the runway, a sinister vehicle pulls up with Soros himself inside.
GIULIANI: “It’s like right out of Casablanca, and his car—and, actually, she saw him.
Thankfully, Giuliani and Rion escape at the last moment from Soros’ evil clutches. Though Giuliani thinks they have a picture of the car. Maybe.
This particular trip to Ukraine came months after Donald Trump had tried to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into lying about then-candidate Joe Biden. Giuliani’s claims about Biden’s actions in Ukraine had already been debunked repeatedly by that point, but when you’re knowingly trying to get people to lie, what difference does a debunking make?
We’ve all seen Rudy Giuliani. It makes perfect sense that he might be terrified of a physical confrontation with a 92-year-old. But of course, it’s pretty easy to confirm that Soros wasn’t there, doesn’t own the airport, and also doesn’t control the Ukrainian government. […]
Here are Donald Trump and dozens of other Republicans claiming that New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg is controlled by Soros. [Embedded links for the list below are available at the mail link.]
Here’s Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claiming that Soros is trying to take over the government of Texas.
Here’s former Rep. David Brat claiming that Act Blue is a “Soros-funded resistance group.”
Here’s a San Diego prosecutor accusing Soros of “funding anti-fascists to increase crime,” and specifically of being behind “antifa” protestors who brawled with Trump supporters at a rally.
Here’s Candace Owens insisting that Soros owns Black Lives Matters and pays people to protest.
Here’s The New York Post declaring Soros “the most dangerous man in America” and a whole stack of people, starting with Breitbart, claiming that Soros promised to “destroy America.”
If that last one sounds like it should be the capper for all this, hang on, because transcripts of testimony released in January feature one of the founders of QAnon declaring that the right has been duped by … well, take it away, Jim Watkins:
A: Well, QAnon is a boogeyman that’s invented by the propaganda wing of likely—you know, I don’t know who’s running it, but I know that George Soros finances it. [LOL, LOL, LOL]
Watkins even insists there is a secret paragraph that if included in a story will guarantee a check from Soros. Frustratingly, he doesn’t share that paragraph. [LOL]
But wait! That’s not all.
Here’s Alex Jones also claiming that Soros and the Southern Poverty Law Center hired actors to “dress up as white supremacists” and stage the deadly racist march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Seriously, it does go on. Including into claims that Soros was secretly a Nazi. Because of course it does. He’s also been tied to the Rothschilds, the Freemasons, and the Illuminati, as well as that big Jewish shadow government that the right wing knows is out there.
Funding criminals, creating QAnon, running antifa and Black Lives Matter, just generally being very dangerous and Jewish … Soros is in more places than Savoir Faire. (You don’t have to be as old as Soros to get that joke, but it helps [It’s from an old cartoon, “Savoir Faire is everywhere!]”)
Which is all pretty amazing for a guy who up until 2003 was as likely to donate to a Republican candidate as a Democratic one. Soros—in spite of his increasing wealth—only sporadically gave a donation to candidates or organizations associated with either party. Instead, he concentrated on helping to fund nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that brought assistance to countries emerging from authoritarian rule in Eastern Europe.
However, George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq spurred Soros to donate millions to organizations such as MoveOn.org and the Center for American Progress in an effort to defeat Bush’s reelection. Since then, he’s donated over $32 billion to nonprofit organizations, leaving himself with a net worth around $8 billion and earning him the title of “the most generous giver” on Forbes’ list of philanthropists.
Most of that money has gone out through the Open Society Foundations, which primarily serve as a conduit for grants to NGOs in 37 countries. The stated goals are support of “advancing justice, education, public health and independent media.” In practice, Open Society has provided donations to many groups seeking to help immigrants, promote racial equality, and to oppose authoritarian governments.
So put it all together and George Soros is a Jewish immigrant who is trying to help other immigrants, fight authoritarianism, end racism, and promote transparency. Little wonder he has become a boogeyman for the right.
New conspiracies featuring Soros pop up with such frequency that sites like Reuters have a running update on the latest Soros-themed claims. […] PolitiFact debunked no fewer than 92 Soros conspiracies—one for every year of his life. […]
Elon Musk and others of his ilk have always ridden high on the idea that having a lot of money allows them to “disrupt” the economic landscape through innovation. In practice the only real innovations are technical ones done by others, and what people like Musk have been adept at doing is repackaging risky investment opportunities into sounding like something cutting edge. Disruption mostly means finding alternative investment packaging for start-up businesses.
On Tuesday, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) held a meeting to discuss plans with the public that would allow Elon Musk’s The Boring Company a new permit for its planned Bastrop County facility. That permit would allow the billionaire’s infrastructure tunnel-building company the right to dump “more than 140,000 gallons of treated wastewater a day into the nearby Colorado River.” […]
…The cab rank rule is bound up, inseparably, with the idea that the law is right and its ends are worth upholding. But the law is not always right. Sometimes the law does not reflect the democratic preferences of the people. Sometimes the law is ugly and sometimes it is wrong. Sometimes it evidences the pernicious influence of money on politics. Sometimes the law is the victory dance of power.
Like big tobacco, the fossil fuel industry has known for decades what its activities mean. They mean the loss of human life and property, which the civil law should prevent but does not. The scientific evidence is that global heating, the natural and inevitable consequence of its actions, will cause the deaths of huge numbers of people. The criminal law should punish this but it does not. Nor does the law recognise a crime of ecocide to deter the destruction of the planet. The law works for the fossil fuel industry – but it does not work for us.
Sometimes the law is wrong. What it stands for is the opposite of justice. Today’s history books speak with horror about what the law of yesterday did, of how it permitted racism, rape and murder. And tomorrow’s history books will say the same about the law as it stands today, of how it enabled the destruction of our planet and the displacement of billions of people.
This is why, with respect, it is wrong for the former lord chancellor Robert Buckland to suggest hypocrisy because I would act for those accused of crimes of violence but not for the fossil fuel industry. The difference is that I support the law that imprisons those convicted of violence but I cannot support laws that permit new fossil fuel projects.
We should not be forced to work for the law’s wrongful ends by helping deliver new fossil fuel projects. We should not be forced to prosecute our brave friends whose conduct, protesting against the destruction of the planet, the law wrongly criminalises….
There’s been a marked rise over the last decade of nationalist and authoritarian politics. Global freedom declined for a 17th consecutive year in 2022, according to a Freedom House annual report. The rise of MAGAism in the U.S., neo-fascism in Italy and hard-right politics in Israel are just a few examples of why democracy around globe continues to hang on a knife’s edge. Our guest this week has experienced first-hand the deleterious effects of attacks, perpetrated by opponents of democracy, on civil, political and press freedom. Rula Jebreal is an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, foreign policy expert and visiting professor at the University of Miami. She joins WITHpod to discuss the interconnectedness of the global authoritarian movement, the personal attacks she has witnessed, what is at stake, how authoritarian gains could be rolled back and more.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Three women were among at least five people killed after a Russian missile struck one of the “invincibility points” providing refuge and basic services for Ukrainian civilians in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, local officials said. The Russians attacked overnight on Thursday with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, prosecutors said.
Air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have agreed to create a unified Nordic air defence aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia, they said. The intention is to be able to operate jointly based on already known ways of operating under Nato, according to statements by the four countries’ armed forces. The Danish air force commander, Major General Jan Dam, said: “Our combined fleet can be compared to a large European country.”
Russia’s assault on the fiercely contested eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has “largely stalled”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.
It said in its latest intelligence update:
This is likely primarily a result of extreme attrition of the Russian force. Ukraine has also suffered heavy casualties during its defence.
The ministry said Russia’s situation had likely been worsened by “tensions between the Russian ministry of defence and Wagner Group, both of whom contribute troops in the sector”.
The battle over Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The UK ministry said Russia had probably shifted its operational focus towards Avdiivka, south of Bakhmut, and to the Kremina-Svatove sector in the north – “areas where Russia likely only aspires to stabilise its frontline”.
This suggests an overall return to a more defensive operational design after inconclusive results from its attempts to conduct a general offensive since January 2023.
Police in Russia have placed a former speechwriter for President Vladimir Putin on a wanted list for criminal suspects, the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on dissent.
The Associated Press reports that Abbas Gallyamov wrote speeches for Putin during the Russian leader’s 2008-12 stint as prime minister. Gallyamov later became an outspoken political consultant and analyst who was frequently quoted by Russian and foreign media. He has lived abroad in recent years….
Russia’s parliament speaker has proposed banning the activities of the international criminal court (ICC) after the court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crimes.
Vyacheslav Volodin, an ally of Putin’s, said on Saturday that Russian legislation should be amended to prohibit any activity of the ICC in Russia and to punish any who gave “assistance and support” to the court.
“It is necessary to work out amendments to legislation prohibiting any activity of the ICC on the territory of our country,” Volodin said in a Telegram post, Reuters reported.
Volodin said the US had legislated to prevent its citizens ever being tried by The Hague court and that Russia should continue that work. [Great job, US.]
Any assistance or support for the ICC inside Russia, he said, should be punishable under law.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant earlier this month accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. It said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility.
Russian officials have cautioned that any attempt to arrest Putin, Russia’s leader since the last day of 1999, would amount to a declaration of war.
On 25 March 1949, the Soviet Union resumed its mass deportations in the Baltic states, mostly targeting women & children. Even babies, pregnant women, and separated children were snatched in the night, packed into cattle wagons, and dispersed across remote parts of Russia in labour camps where they faced hunger, cold, and brutality. Many died on the way or shortly after arrival. Some were even settled in nuclear testing fallout zones.
The first wave of mass deportations took place in 1941 after the Soviet Union – in collusion with the Nazis – had first invaded & illegally annexed the Baltic states. The main aim then was state decapitation.
This second wave was much broader, named Operation Priboi (Breaker’). It was mostly targeted at rural communities, ultimately aimed at breaking society and national identity, while providing more hard labour inside Russia.
Around a quarter of the population fell into the Soviet category of ‘undesirables’. However, the snatching was chaotic. Many families were taken randomly just to fill quotas when the listed family couldn’t be found. Some were taken for just having similar names to those listed. Some local collaborators just wanted to settle scores.
Deportations also continued regularly outside of these mass waves.
It’s estimated that about 200,000 were deported just from the occupied Baltic states & a further 6 million forcibly transferred in total by the Soviet Union, mostly based on ethnicity (either by removing entire ethnic groups or targeting ‘undesirables’ specifically within ethnic groups).
Even the Soviet Union eventually denounced its own mass deportations. They were described as “monstrous acts” by Khrushchev & “terrible felonies” by the Supreme Soviet in 1989.
I’m not gonna do the usual screenshotting of bad takes here. The bigger problem is how little the world has learnt about it at all to even have any takes. That’s how history repeats, as we see in the mass deportations that Moscow has resumed in Ukraine today. It’s one part of Russia’s genocidal war that the world finds difficult to comprehend. Some media reports even repeat the nonsense characterisation of it as ‘evacuations’. But mass deportations are key to understanding how Russia intends to consume captured territory. It’s delusional to think you can achieve any peace by giving up on lands and lives already stolen. Every inch of territory consumed only emboldens it to consume more.
But hope remains. The Soviets quietly praised themselves for carrying out the mass deportations in the Baltics. But, many historians argue these crimes were also a major political mistake. They deepened opposition to occupation. The topic was heavily censored but people never forgot. That anger eventually spilled out into the open during the Singing Revolution in the Baltics, leading to the restoration of the modern, independent, vibrant, fully restored states we live in here today.
In the Baltics today, candles will be lit, names of victims will be read out, and displays will fill public squares. Unfortunately, we are no longer just remembering history but all those in Ukraine facing it today.
Join us – in any way you can – to remember the mass deportations and help consign this brutality back into history….
“Bakhmut Demon” reporting from Bakhmut this morning:
“Reporting.
The Russians are gradually exhausting. Everything that was ours remains ours. Russian assaults from the outskirts failed, the fight for Khromovo ended in our favor, and for Ivanovske as well. We stand.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene swept into the District of Columbia jail to check on conditions for the Jan. 6 defendants, with Republican lawmakers handshaking and high-fiving the prisoners, who chanted “Let’s Go Brandon!” — a coded vulgarity against President Joe Biden — as the group left…
Far-right groups have been stoking tensions in UK towns by posting inflammatory leaflets through people’s doors and staging anti-migrant rallies. In one town in south Wales, a local community has banded together and is planning a peaceful counter-protest.
As that money dries up, state lawmakers are grasping for cheaper and more extreme alternatives to demonstrate how tough they are on immigration.
[…] there’s a real budgetary concern that Texas lawmakers are facing as they mull what might be the most audacious anti-immigration plan contemplated by any state over the past decade.
Under Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Texas has spent more than $4 billion on state resources aimed at making a big show of providing border security. The effort, called Operation Lone Star, has seen Texas employ its National Guard to detain migrants on trespassing charges, stage shows of force along the Rio Grand, and sign nearly $900 million in contracts to build around 40 miles of border wall.
Now, Schaefer [lawmaker sponsoring a sweeping effort to give the state unprecedented new powers to enforce the border] is pushing House Bill 20, a law that, if passed, would create a Border Protection Unit empowered to “repel” and “return” migrants seen crossing the border — powers normally reserved for the federal government. The unit would have criminal and civil immunity, and be able to deputize people into its ranks. [Yikes. Sounds like a really bad idea.]
[…] “The guard is pretty expensive, because you’re paying them per diem every day, hotels, and so there’s actually a very expensive cost that comes with the National Guard,” he said. “So in time, hopefully, this will be a more cost-effective way to address the issue.”
That’s not just puffery.
The state has been paying $2.5 million per week to keep Operation Lone Star going […]
The state legislature is currently hashing out the budget for the next two years, and voted out of committee this week a proposal that would give $4.6 billion across several agencies for border security efforts. That includes $1.19 billion to the Department of Public Safety, in which the Border Protection Unit would be housed.
That spending comes as federal COVID-19 aid dollars used to supplement the state’s border efforts run out.
[…] the Treasury Department’s inspector general is examining how Texas used federal COVID aid amid reporting that state officials used $1 billion to cover costs incurred by Operation Lone Star.
The state accomplished that by reportedly shifting public health funds to cover the border initiatives, and then using the federal COVID dollars to cover the resulting loss in public health. [sneaky]
[…] Roberto Lopez of the Texas Civil Rights Project described [the proposed bill] as a potential way to allow local militias, who already play in informal role in policing the border, operate under color of law. […]
Schaefer specified that those hired would be state employees, but that it would be more cost-effective than having law enforcement officials detailed to the border […]
Schaefer’s HB 20 effort is almost certain to be challenged in the courts. A similar proposal in Arizona passed in 2010 was struck down in 2012 after the Supreme Court found that having state law enforcement arrest undocumented immigrants violated the Constitution’s supremacy clause. […]
Law360, New York (March 24, 2023) — Russian email accounts sent a series of hoax bomb threats targeting the Manhattan district attorney and court buildings for three straight days this week amid a grand jury investigation of former President Donald Trump.
The unsubstantiated threats, now under investigation by the New York Police Department and FBI, were emailed to local government officials at a Manhattan community board, according to police. They came from Russian email addresses in the early morning hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, listing government buildings and schools as the targets of alleged pipe bombs, according to the local board official who received them.
“The FBI told me that they appear to be coming from Russia,” said Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3, who read the emails to Law360 Friday. The board received four email threats over the three days, often sent from @mail.ru domains under different names, she said. The NYPD confirmed the board was the recipient of the original bomb threat on Tuesday.
The emailed threats did not mention Trump or the grand jury mulling indicting him for an illegal hush money payment allegedly designed to tip the 2016 election in his favor, the local official said. Still, they used language that echoed his recent attacks on the case, referring to “the downfall of our country” and stating, “You people are destroying America.”
the builders, will use the profits to recycle the money to buy their favorite politician who will use taxpayer money to get reelected
——————–
one of the pretexts is false. Fentanyl, though originating in Mexico is mostly brought in by US Citizens, at ports of entry, not migrants schlepping it across the the desert. Even the CATO institute agrees. https://www.cato.org/blog/fentanyl-smuggled-us-citizens-us-citizens-not-asylum-seekers
——————-
That money [Federal Covid money] was intended to increase the funding that Texas had for purposes of dealing with Covid, and Texas did no such thing with it. I, for one, would love to se a big, fat lawsuit filed to claw back those Covid dollars as having been spent on a political stunt rather than the medical care they were earmarked for.
———————–
I’m sure fixing the electrical grid is next on the list, right?
On Saturday morning, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army reported that Russia had conducted 59 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the front line. That number was the lowest for any complete day in March, but it was also part of a trend. [chart showing the downward trend of Russian assaults on Ukrainian positions is available at the link.]
The change here is far from uniform, and earlier this week Russian activity peaked again with two days where over 100 assaults were staged. However, overall the number of assaults staged by Russia each day appears to be declining. That’s not just true in the areas where fighting has been relatively lower over the last few months, but even in hotspots like Bakhmut.
It could be a sign that Russia’s “big offensive” hasn’t just failed; it’s over.
The erosion of Russian armored forces that required them to bring in 70-year-old T-54 tanks looks as if it may get worse in the near future. [Tweet and images at the link: “The 3 biggest Russian tank factories are idling due to electronics.” […]]
If true, this will greatly reduce Russia’s ability to replace the tanks it is losing in the field. Russia’s need for a swift offensive is clear — if it doesn’t move now, it may have nothing left to move with. But Russia has just spent the last three months in a “winter offensive,” and has very, very little to show for it.
Powerful tornadoes tore through parts of the Deep South on Friday night, killing at least 23 people in Mississippi, obliterating dozens of buildings and leaving an especially devastating mark on a rural town whose mayor declared, “My city is gone.”
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said in a Twitter post that search and rescue teams from local and state agencies were deployed to help victims impacted by the tornadoes. The agency confirmed early Saturday that 23 people had died, four were missing and dozens were injured.
[…] The damage in Rolling Fork was so widespread that several storm chasers — who follow severe weather and often put up livestreams showing dramatic funnel clouds — pleaded for search and rescue help. Others abandoned the chase to drive injured people to the hospitals themselves.[…]
lumipunasays
Re 16: On the Finnish Twitter account that was suspended a couple days ago (probably without human oversight after a mass reporting campaign organized by Russian social media agents) – the account seems to have been reinstated today after a public outcry.
In 2019, a study from Towson University made some pretty explicit predictions about how climate change was affecting the distribution of tornadoes across the United States. Things were changing both in how tornadoes are distributed across the nation, and how they are distributed across the calendar.
Tornado activity is increasing throughout the Southeast and in the southern portion of the Midwest and is decreasing throughout the southern and northwestern portions of the Great Plains and in the northern Midwest. … days with few tornadoes are becoming less common whereas days with many tornadoes are becoming more common … The seasonality of these big tornado days also appears to be changing, as their increase in frequency is greatest in the fall and winter.
That classic Wizard of Oz tornado — striking on a summer day in the plains — is actually becoming less common. What’s becoming more common are clusters of tornadoes hitting further south and further east, and striking in seasons that used to be relatively free of such storms.
But there’s more than just a shift to new areas that are making these tornadoes more deadly. These southern tornadoes are more likely to occur at night, more likely to be shrouded in rain, and are simply more difficult for people to spot before it’s too late.
In 2022, CNN put it this way, the traditional “tornado alley” stretched across Kansas and Nebraska down to central Texas, but in more recent years, more tornadoes “are appearing in the Southeast, in eastern Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.”
As those tornadoes move east, they’re not just becoming more deadly in part because they’re entering areas of high population. […] heavily populated areas in the east and south.
There’s also a different kind of geography at work that makes these storms more difficult.
Unlike the Plains, where a tornado can be seen coming from miles away, the Southeast has more rugged terrain and more trees, making it more difficult to spot a tornado. Many tornadoes occurring in the area are “rain-wrapped,” so they are less visible to the naked eye, CNN meteorologists said.
It’s nice to think that everyone has their weather radio on all the time, or that every small town is covered by tornado sirens audible to everyone. But that’s not the case. Most people take caution concerning tornadoes only when severe weather is already in the area, or when predictions of coming storms have been well publicized. Tornadoes arriving at night, on the leading edge of a series of squalls, are much more likely to find people waiting in bed […]
common is the belief that hills and other terrain features provide protection. The presence of all those tornadoes on the plains for so long left many with an impression that plains were the only place where tornadoes represent a real threat. Forests, hills, and rivers are all cited as supposed “barriers” for tornadoes. They are not.
Compounding all this is that homes in the southeast are much less likely to have basements than they are in some areas of the country. Also, because they have not been part of the traditional “Tornado Alley,” storm shelters are very uncommon.
The death toll for the storms on Friday night currently stands at 24. Most of those were in Mississippi where the town of Rolling Fork (population 1,776) was reportedly “erased” by the storm.
That 2019 study was just one of many warnings that with rising global temperatures will come more severe storms in the U.S. This is a pattern that is expected to get worse. […] That’s not an issue that’s going to be solved by improving weather radios.
SC @55 and lumipuna @67, thanks for those updates. That’s good news in a way, though I am dismayed to hear that Russian social media agents are partially responsible for reporting tweets or Twitter accounts that they think should be removed. I should have known that was happening.
lumipunasays
It’s one week until Finland’s next parliament election, and the political landscape seems to be polarized like never before in my lifetime.
Today, here in Helsinki, a guy reportedly about my age (38) assaulted a much older MP candidate (a longtime MP, a well known politician and the only Finnish Jew in notable political position) in public. He slapped the old man in the face and pushed him to ground and uttered some kind of death threat, along with standard far right babble about Jews and Nato hijacking Finland and so on. Everyone claims to be shocked, yet it all feels so predictable.
The far right (some of whom are running for parliament, not just in the mainstream-racist Finns party but its fringe extremist spinoffs) are apparently trying to spin the attacker as a leftist, because of the Nato thing (the victim is a fiscal conservative whose party supported Nato accession before it was cool). It’s true that Nato remains quite unpopular on the far left, but the types who get really excited about being anti-Nato on social media are usually weirdos who bathe in antisemitic conspiracy theories popular on the nationalist right.
[…] Another group video of Russian forces complaining about the way they were being sent to their death. This particular unit has lost about 135 of their original 161 members. They say that, not only were they forced into a position where they were attacking an unassailable point, but “blocking units” refused to let them retreat. [video at the link, with English subtitles]
This isn’t the first time there have been stories like this. However, in this case the blocking units appear to have been DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic). Early in the invasion, Russian forces put poorly-equipped DNR (and neighboring Luhansk People’s Republic) troops at the head of their advance, exacting a heavy toll on those forces and cushioning regular Russian military. But this time, it was a Russian military unit apparently attached to a DNR command. Those DNR forces chose this moment to get a little revenge by pushing the Russians into a hail of fire, and refusing to allow them to retreat.
It’s another example of how the Russian forces aren’t just made up of the Russian military. They’re regular military, Wagner Group, LNR, DNR, Chechens—all of them not just reporting up their own chains of command, but fully aware that the leaders at the top of those chains are jockeying for political power. They all want to show that their group, and only their group, can have success, while the leadership of the other groups is incompetent. If that means sacrificing a unit of the army, or denying ammunition to Wagner, or letting LNR face an onslaught with rifles picked up after the Charge of the Light Brigade, they’re okay with that.
[One of the Russian soldiers also said that if they didn’t pay a “tax” in money, then they would automatically be sent to the front lines. How corrupt can you get?]
Speaking of Chechens, where is Ramzan Kadyrov these days? After so many videos in which his men were obviously staging an “attack” far behind the lines, did they finally find some trees or telephone poles that could shoot back?
The area north of Kupyansk [map at the link] actually represents something of a puzzle, just in terms of how to map it. Across most of the maps, the yellow color represents that Russia has some reported presence in the area, but hasn’t consolidated control. However, that’s not really true of many of the villages immediately east of the river between Kupyansk and Dvorichna. Ukraine doesn’t have any troops in these villages, but Russia doesn’t actually dare enter them because they are under observation and artillery coverage from Ukrainian forces west of the Oskil River. Assaults toward Synkivka and Hryanikyvka were reportedly repulsed.
In general this whole “Russian offensive” here seems to have stalled out after the re-occupation of a few ungarrisoned towns. Russian sources are bragging that they conducted a “spectacular” artillery bombardment of Kupyansk itself. Ukrainian sources say not so much. Russia likely has dragged some forward artillery to the area around the crossroads at Vilshana. There still doesn’t seem to be an actual threat to Kupyansk or to Ukraine’s control over the highway to the east.
If you watched that BBC video that was included in the Friday update, you’ll know just how wrong it is to say that any area of the front line is really “quiet.” Even the areas where the lines are moving are filled with constant tension, constant danger, the threat of artillery fire directed by drones — or just kamikaze drones — is never ending.
That said, the Svatove area [map at the link] is about as quiet as it gets. Some small adjustments have been made based on some geolocated images. The fighting between Novoselivske and Kuzemivka continues. Nothing else significant seems to be happening here.
There are no reports today of assaults or shelling of those towns along the highway north of Kreminna [map at the link], so Russia may have actually finally pushed Ukrainian forces from this area immediately north of the city. Most of the fighting remains in the forest area south of Kreminna.
I’ve tagged Dibrova as disputed here, but I don’t believe Russia has any presence there, or in Kuzmyne. However, Russian artillery appears to have pushed Ukrainian forces slightly west, so it’s likely neither of these villages has any significant force from either side.
To the south, Russia continues to make small assaults in the direction of Bilohorivka, but they have met with no reported success. The same thing is true for Terny and Spirne just south of Bilohorivka.
The most amazing thing about Bakhmut is that we’re still talking about Bakhmut. [map at the link] The number of days where it seemed as if the city was about to be handed over to the Russians is at least in the dozens. The decision to hold Bakhmut, no matter the cost, is going to be the subject of debate for years, if not generations. […]
The fighting continued to be intense. Every single day brought a string of tragic death announcements, from well known unit commanders and Ukrainians who were famous for some other venture before the war, to foreign volunteers who survived multiple battles elsewhere only to fall at Bakhmut. The cost of not having the lines shift at Bakhmut is enormous.
In general this week, Wagner Group forces picked their way forward in the north and southwest areas of the city, coming within about 1km of the city center and directing still more artillery fire that has eliminated some of Bakhmut’s greatest landmarks. Northwest of the city, what seems to be a mixture of Wagner and regular army made multiple assaults in the direction of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, but these seem to have stalled out over the last couple of days. I’ve actually pushed back a bit on the area previously marked as having Russian presence based on videos and images from this area. Russian forces also continue efforts to press toward Bohdanivka with no apparent progress.
To the south, the Ukrainian military reports more attacks on Ivanivske, but Russia seems to have all but given up on it’s previous plans in this area. Remember when Wagner Group announced it had already taken Chasiv Yar? It never came close. It did throw some shells that way on Friday.
There was also a reported assault “in the direction of” Stupochky on Friday, but I don’t know how far it was from the actual settlement. Klishchiivka did not show up in reports at the end of the week, suggesting that Ukrainian efforts in this direction may have ended.
Actions around Avdiivka largely mirror those at Bakhmut, with Russia attempting to press down to Stepove on the north and attacking Sjeverne on the south. Neither of these seem to have moved the lines.
Right now, as at the beginning of the invasion, Ukrainian forces are within 5 km of the DNR capital. Donetsk has taken repeated hits from Ukrainian artillery, but that the city hasn’t been reduced in the way that Mariupol or Bakhmut has speaks to Ukraine’s and Russia’s absolutely different goals this war. [map at the link]
Again, if you haven’t watched that BBC video about this area, go watch it. This is the daily experience for tens of thousands of Ukrainian forces scattered along lines far from Bakhmut and the areas that have been heavily covered.
As usual, Russia has attacked near Vuhledar. I’ve actually moved the line of Russian presence north on the east site of the town, because it seems that vehicles are getting deeper penetration than they were a month ago. However, the line has zigged south immediately south of Vuhledar, as Ukrainian forces reportedly advanced to a group of now shattered homes along the highway.
From Velyka Novosilka to Vuheldar, every settlement along that road was hit with artillery fire in the last two days, but there doesn’t seem to have been subject to a direct assault.
And that’s pretty much it. Other maps are unchanged from last week.
Adding some sad context to the image that was at the top of the page yesterday. That single image was, like every image, just one cell from a larger story. [Tweet and video at the link: “‘Just a typical day’: we spent the day with the medics rescuing wounded soldiers from #Bakhmut area. ‘Not typical that the guy died, but all the rest was’ says Andrii, visibly upset as he talks about the man who did not make it out.” #AFP report: https://bit.ly/3TEkkrj #Ukraine]
lumipunasays
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blockquote>I am dismayed to hear that Russian social media agents are partially responsible for reporting tweets or Twitter accounts that they think should be removed. I should have known that was happening.
I don’t know if they bother to do it much, but Twitter’s moderation system is famously gameable for anyone who controls or influences a large number of accounts, especially nowadays since human oversight has been all but removed.
On Saturday [today], the first rally of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign will take place in Waco, Texas. The significance will not be lost on many of his supporters: The event coincides with the 30th anniversary of the FBI’s disastrous 51-day siege of David Koresh’s Branch Davidian complex.
That siege ended on April 19, 1993, when FBI agents filled the compound with tear gas and used tanks to plow down walls as part of a failed effort to get Koresh, who was the leader of a cult, and his followers to surrender. After the compound caught fire—exactly how is still debated—76 people, including Koresh and more than 20 children, died. Exactly two years later, Timothy McVeigh, who’d visited Waco during the siege and went on to obsess about it, bombed the Oklahoma City federal building—killing 168 people.
For a not insignificant slice of the right, Waco became the symbol of a federal government willing to target, torment, and—in more conspiratorial tellings—murder innocent people who just wanted to be left alone. Trump’s Waco rally comes as the former president argues that he, too, is being persecuted by three-letter agencies as he awaits a potential indictment in New York state.
This would would not be the first time a Republican presidential candidate—intentionally or not—sent a divisive message to his base, and to his critics, with a choice of venue. For the first major speech of his 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan talked about”states’ rights” a few miles from where three civil rights activists were murdered in 1964 outside Philadelphia, Mississippi. In 2020, Trump chose Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre that left as many as 300 Black Americans dead, for the site of his first rally following the Covid shutdown. In a speech originally scheduled for Juneteenth (it was pushed back in response to criticism), Trump made clear that his reelection bid would center on law and order.
The Waco rally sets up the current campaign as a battle against the Deep State forces Trump claims are intent on destroying him and his fellow patriots. A Trump campaign spokesperson says the location is merely about convenience, telling the New York Times that Waco was picked because of its proximity to Texas’ biggest metropolitan areas. But Trump’s supporters are drawing the obvious conclusion. “Waco was an overreach of the government, and today the New York district attorney is practicing an overreach of the government again,” a retiree who is traveling to the rally from Tennessee told the Times.
Like Trump, Koresh—who considered himself the Lamb of God—was not a natural hero for those on the far right. While forcing his disciples into celibacy, Koresh claimed a divine mandate for personal polygamy, married girls at least as young as 14, and fathered more than a dozen children. Texas child protective services investigated, but it was the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that secured a search warrant after finding evidence that Branch Davidians were illegally stockpiling automatic weapons and grenades. […]
The top commander of Ukraine’s military has said that his forces are pushing back against Russian troops in the long and grinding battle for the town of Bakhmut.
British military intelligence also says Russia appears to be moving to a defensive strategy in eastern Ukraine, AP reported.
“The Bakhmut direction is the most difficult. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the defence forces, the situation is being stabilised,” General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in a post on Telegram giving a synopsis of a telephone call with Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Britain’s chief of defence staff.
The seven-month battle for Bakhmut, where Russian forces have closed in on three sides, is the longest clash of the war, with Russia deploying both regular soldiers and fighters of the mercenary Wagner group.
Russia fired on a humanitarian aid delivery point in the city of Kherson on Saturday, injuring two civilians, according to the Ukrainian military.
Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said: “Russian occupiers continue shelling the places where civilians are provided with aid.
“Last night the Russian army attacked a ‘point of invincibility’ in the Donetsk region’s Kostiantynivka.
“Today’s target for Russian artillery is a humanitarian aid delivery point in Kherson.
“Two people were injured in enemy shelling, a 41-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man,” Prokudin added.
Russia has struck a deal with neighbouring Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its territory, Tass news agency quoted president Vladimir Putin as saying on Saturday.
Such a move would not violate nuclear nonproliferation agreements, Putin said, adding that the United States had stationed nuclear weapons on the territory of European allies.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin said.
“We agreed with Lukashenko that we would place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating the nonproliferation regime,” Tass quoted Putin.
Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense Hanna Maliar went on Facebook to urge Ukrainians to not openly discuss details about the country’s upcoming offensive.
“On live broadcasts, don’t ask experts questions [in the vein of] ‘how is the counter-offensive going?’, don’t write blogs or posts on this topic, and don’t discuss military plans of our army publicly at all. We have one strategic plan – to liberate all our territories. And as for the details – that’s simply a military secret,” Maliar wrote.
She added that details “are disclosed by the three aforementioned officials only when there is a military task requiring it. Because information is also a weapon and we fight with it too,” referring to the supreme commander in chief (president), the defense minister, and the chief commander.
…France’s new law progressively raising the official retirement age to 64, and increasing the contributions necessary for a full pension, has sparked angry protests, strikes, blockades and violence across France for weeks. And French women are on the front line.
Female workers, especially those in poorly paid and part-time jobs, say they will bear the brunt of the legislation and will now have to work even longer than their male colleagues for lower pensions.
“If you’re a woman in France, you should be out on the streets protesting,” said Fabienne Oudart, 56, an artist who joined Thursday’s march in Paris. “Already we earn less than men and that means lower pensions. This reform shows no respect for those women working in low-paid and often part-time jobs.”
Artist Fabienne Oudart, 56, at Thursday’s protest in central Paris. ‘If you’re a woman in France you should be out on the streets protesting,’ she says.
Pierrette Gobinot, 49, who is retraining as an auxiliary nurse, agreed. “Putting the retirement age up to 64 is doubly penalising for us. Even these days many women stop work to look after our children, which means we have interrupted careers and are often missing five or six years of contributions. We have to work even longer to make up for that to get a full pension, and because our salaries are lower our pensions are lower.”
…
The sexual inequality inherent in the law was highlighted in January when the government presented the bill along with an accompanying 112-page report on its aims and effects that showed women would have to postpone their retirement by up to nine months longer than men.
…
Demonstrations are often testosterone-fuelled events and France is no exception. But French women are expressing their anger by making a pointed and political song and dance. During last Thursday’s march Christelle Pink, 38, from Fontainebleau, said: “Politicians may want to work until they’re 64 but their jobs are hardly arduous. They keep pushing up the legal retirement age; 60 is already too old for those in tough, underpaid manual jobs. In the end we’ll be working until we drop. Women are angry. Everyone is angry.”
Natalie, 25, a student at Sciences Po, said: “It’s harder for women to find jobs and have a career, and when they do they have to work harder for less. On top of the violence many women suffer, it is inequality and injustice right to the end. We cannot accept that, which is why we are mobilised.”
“It’s absolutely essential that this reform does not succeed,” added Fabienne Gobinot. “It’s always those at the bottom of the pile, who have poorly paid or part-time jobs like nurses, health assistants and cleaners, who are made to pay – always the same people, many of them women, asked to make the sacrifices.”
Britain’s King Charles on Friday cancelled a state visit to France after social unrest over President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension law erupted into some of the worst street violence seen in years across the country.
The postponement will be a major embarrassment to Macron, who had hoped the monarch’s visit would mark a symbolic step in the two countries’ efforts to turn a page after years of poor relations post-Brexit.
Charles had been due to travel to France on Sunday for three days before moving on to Germany, an itinerary that had been seen as a win for the French leader who has sought to position himself as Europe’s de facto leader.
The king’s visit had been due to include a lavish banquet at the Palace of Versailles and the postponement will pile further pressure on Macron to find a way out of a crisis over his plans to raise the retirement age, which has seen some of France’s worst unrest since the “Yellow Vest” rebellion of 2018-2019.
“The King and The Queen Consort’s State Visit to France has been postponed. Their Majesties greatly look forward to the opportunity to visit France as soon as dates can be found,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.
A source in British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office said Macron had asked for the visit to be cancelled.
The Elysee said it was a joint decision taken by the British and French governments after trade unions called for a further day of nationwide strikes and demonstrations during the king’s visit….
France’s National Assembly is due to adopt a law on Tuesday ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Article 7 is the most controversial aspect of this law, as it will allow AI video surveillance to be used to detect abnormal behaviour. Human rights organisations and the French left have condemned the measure….
It looks like Waco, Texas will make history again, as the first rally for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential run will have an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 attendees. The weekend rally, which is held three decades after the Waco massacre, comes amid looming indictments for Trump. In the morning hours, several people have already queued for the rally. [Tweets, videos and images of pre-dawn lines of Trump fans]
“Very fine people” seem to be pretty damn excited. [Tweet and video]
But, there are people who guffawed at the presence of the Ranch Covidians. [Tweets and images]
And the city of Waco carries sharply negative connotations among many people.
“Waco” has become an Alamo of sorts, a shrine for the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers and other anti-government extremists and conspiracists.
What happened near Waco helped spawn what Fort Worth writer Jeff Guinn calls a “legacy of rage” in his new book about the Branch Davidian siege. The Northeast Texas Regional Militia of Texarkana erected a granite headstone at the site that reads as follows: “On February 28, 1993, a church and its members known as Branch Davidians came under attack by A.T.F. and F.B.I. agents. For 51 days the Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, stood proudly.” As Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh put it, “Waco started this war.”
[…] But not to worry, as firearms are prohibited during the event, which is held at Waco Regional Airport. Even organisers believe that gun bans do work. (Also, for extra security measures, appliances such as toasters will be banned at the event.) [Tweet with list of “Prohibited Items” at Waco rally]
A U.S. service member was wounded on Friday following additional attacks on U.S. bases in Syria after an initial attack on a base by Iranian-backed militias on Thursday, according to multiple reports.
ABC News reported that two attacks occurred at two facilities in the Deir ez-Zor Province in the eastern part of the country.
A U.S. official told the outlet that five rockets hit one facility and injured a service member, who was in stable condition. Three drones attacked the other facility, but no one was injured.
U.S. forces shot down two of the drones, but one was able to get through.
This is the third set of attacks on U.S. bases in Syria in less than two days. A U.S. contractor was killed and another was injured along with five service members after a drone believed to originate from Iran attacked a facility at a base near Hasakah in northeastern Syria.
The U.S. military responded to the attack with airstrikes against facilities used by Iranian-backed groups believed to be responsible for the strike.
After the U.S. response, rockets hit another U.S. base at Green Village in the Al-Omar gas field of northeastern Syria earlier on Friday but caused no casualties.
The most recent attacks, which occurred around the same time, happened at Green Village and Mission Support Site Conoco, ABC reported.
[…] ABC reported that almost 80 rocket or drone attacks have happened at U.S. bases in Syria since the start of 2021.
StevoRsays
ALP landslide in NSW Oz. A religious extremist in the former LNP Premier there loses badly. Electorate results here :
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Kyiv on Sunday said Russia was holding Minsk as a “nuclear hostage” after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to ally Belarus, Agence France-Presse reports.
“The Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage,” the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, wrote on Twitter, adding that the move was “a step towards the internal destabilisation of the country”.
Former Russian state TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova, who in 2022 interrupted a live news broadcast denouncing the Ukraine war, has said her son called her a “traitor” for her actions, adding that she may never be able to return to Russian.
Ukrainian-born Ovsyannikova, who was an editor at Channel One, burst onto the set of the nightly news in March 2022 shouting: “Stop the war. No to war.”
She also held a sign saying: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” It was signed in English: “Russians against the war.”
At the time, she was fined 30,000 roubles (£460) for ignoring protest laws. She continued protesting against the war after quitting her job at Channel One.
Last August, she was charged with spreading false information about the Russian army for holding up a poster that read “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists” during a solo protest on the Moskva River embankment opposite the Kremlin.
She was subsequently forced to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and placed under house arrest in Moscow, where she was to await trial. She faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
However, she escaped her pre-trial house arrest and fled to Europe. She now lives in Paris, France, with her daughter.
Shortly after she left Russia, she said her son had told her that her decision to protest had ruined the family’s life.
She told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg:
My son still called me a traitor, that I betrayed our family. I betrayed our country. I can say that for millions of families [this] is the same situation – war ruins a lot of familes. And this is a real catastrophe because Russians have been destroyed by Putin, not only physically by him sending them to war but also on a psychological level.
Russia is now deep in depression, there is an apathy everywhere and millions of people just don’t know what the future holds.
When asked if she thought it would ever be safe for her to return to Russia, she said:
I can’t go back now. But I do see my future with Russia. My son is there, my family is there, my mum, and they don’t want to leave the country. For me, I am not indifferent to the future of this country and I will fight for the future even being outside of Russia.
Ovsyannikova said she was “ashamed” of Russia for invading Ukraine and recalling how she had “mixed emotions” before she made the 2022 protest, she explained:
A lot of factors came together. Over a long time I realised that the Russian TV became like a gigantic brainwashing machine. Secondly, I have Ukrainian roots – my father is from Ukraine. It was like this huge emotional outburst. But I didn’t really care what would happen to me later.
Ovsyannikova had worked at the channel for nearly 20 years and admitted she had in the past “shut my eyes to it [the propaganda]”, but the war became “a point of no return”.
She said:
This propaganda is made on a very high level…These people who are working in the main media channels, they don’t really believe it. They have similar views to me, and also, you can say that people who are pro-Putin, who are convinced in him, as no more than 10 or 20 per cent.
The arrest warrant handed to President Putin by the International Criminal Court could herald change, she added:
I think this is the first signal that the Russian elite should take notice of, and perhaps some kind of resistance will start within the Russian elite and they might plot against him.
At least this is some kind of hope for me.
The Associated Press reports on the new recruitment campaign launched across Russia seeking volunteers to enlist troops for the war in Ukraine.
Advertisements promise cash bonuses and enticing benefits. Recruiters are making cold calls to eligible men. Enlistment offices are working with universities and social service agencies to lure students and the unemployed.
A new campaign is underway this spring across Russia, seeking recruits to replenish its troops for the war in Ukraine.
As fighting grinds on in Ukrainian battlegrounds like Bakhmut and both sides prepare for counteroffensives that could cost even more lives, the Kremlin’s war machine badly needs new recruits.
A mobilization in September of 300,000 reservists — billed as a “partial” call-up — sent panic throughout the country, since most men under 65 are formally part of the reserve. Tens of thousands fled Russia rather than report to recruiting stations.
The Kremlin denies that another call-up is planned for what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, now more than a year old.
But amid widespread uncertainty of whether such a move will eventually happen, the government is enticing men to volunteer, either at makeshift recruiting centers popping up in various regions, or with phone calls from enlistment officials. That way, it can “avoid declaring a formal second mobilization wave” after the first one proved so unpopular, according to a recent report by the US -based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.
One Muscovite told The Associated Press that his employer, a state-funded organization, gathered up the military registration cards of all male employees of fighting age and said it would get them deferments. But he said the move still sent a wave of fear through him.
“It makes you nervous and scared — no one wants to all of a sudden end up in a war with a rifle in their hands,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal. “The special operation is somewhat dragging on, so any surprises from the Russian authorities can be expected.”
More reaction from Kyiv on plans by Russian president Vladimir Putin to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
In a statement, Kyiv’s foreign ministry described it as “another provocative step” by Moscow that undermines “the international security system as a whole”.
The ministry said:
Russia once again confirms its chronic inability to be a responsible steward of nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and prevention of war, not as a tool of threats and intimidation.
It demanded a Security Council session and called on the Group of Seven countries and the European Union to warn Belarus of “far-reaching consequences” if it accepts the Russian weapons.
The Ukrainian statement added:
Ukraine calls on all members of the international community to convey to the criminal (P)utin regime the categorical unacceptability of its next nuclear provocations and to take decisive measures to effectively deter and prevent any possibility of the aggressor state’s use of nuclear weapons.
The Ghanaian-Scottish architect is curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, and more than half of the participants will be African. The story of architecture we are used to, she says, is incomplete…
At least 19 people from sub-Saharan Africa have died while trying to reach Italy after the boat carrying them across the Mediterranean sank off the coast of Tunisia.
It is the latest disaster involving people departing from north African country, where the authorities have launched a brutal crackdown on undocumented sub-Saharan Africans. Last month, Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, made an incendiary, racist speech in which he claimed irregular migration from other parts of Africa was part of an international conspiracy to change Tunisia’s demographic character.
Over the past four days, five migrant boats have sunk off the southern city of Sfax, leaving 67 missing and nine dead, amid a significant increase in boats heading towards Italy….
Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Tel Aviv against a controversial judicial overhaul, as defence minister Yoav Galant broke ranks to call for a pause in the process.
The latest demonstration to hit Israel’s commercial hub came days after the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to press on with the changes despite mounting international alarm.
But his defence minister said on Saturday that “we must stop the legislative process” for a month in view of the divisiveness of the reforms.
“The growing social rift has made its way into the [army] and security agencies. It is a clear, immediate and tangible threat to Israel’s security,” said Galant, who is a member of Netanyahu’s own right-wing Likud party.
…
The Tel Aviv protest swelled on Saturday to around 200,000 demonstrators, according to Israeli media estimates.
…
A parliamentary committee has amended the draft law with the aim of making it more palatable to opponents, but the opposition has ruled out backing any part of the package until all legislative steps are halted.
In response, demonstrators announced a “national paralysis week”, including countrywide rallies, protests outside ministers’ homes and on Wednesday outside parliament….
Donald Trump, who attempted a coup against the United States government and remains unindicted for any of it, held a “campaign rally” in Waco, Texas on Saturday. The event coincides with the 30th anniversary of the deadly federal standoff at the compound of the arms-hoarding child-raping Waco cult dubbed the “Branch Davidians;” the odds that the Trump camp was not sending a message to the violent anti-government far-right militia crowd whose help he already solicited in his previous coup attempt are vanishingly low.
Trump’s been all but promising that his followers will engage in mass violence if American law enforcement dares lay a hand on him in response to any one of his suspected crimes, so the nods to violent militias have been coming hard and heavy in recent weeks—including a heavy push of antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted from neo-Nazi groups
As for the actual substance of Trump’s Waco event? Don’t worry, there wasn’t any. It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these but Trump hasn’t learned any new tricks, he assembled the usual gaggle of two-bit conspiracy theorists and sedition backers to goose the crowd, and if you’re wondering how the Donald Trump fan club has been doing of late, after Dear Leader mounted an attempted coup, then slithered off to Florida to surround himself with yet another layer of outlet mall lawyers to fend off yet another wave of investigations into his crimes?
Oh, they’re all in fine form, don’t you worry about that. Fine form. [Tweet and image at the link: the image shows vehicles flying QAnon flags and a “Trump or Death” flag, and more.]
Can you imagine living next to that guy. Can you imagine being the poor sap at the printing shop who had to help this doofus turn this junior high clip art into an enormous 6-foot tall homage to a reality TV star turned national traitor. I bet his children not only don’t talk to him, they’ve all moved at least three states away.
You can’t tell me this one isn’t a stand-up comic just pranking the interviewer. I mean, come on: [Tweet and video at the link: “Guy at Trump rally asked why he loves Trump: “His vision, and the fact that he stands for truth .. truth, justice, and the American way. He leads by example. He goes out to these restaurants and meets the people.”]
Donald Trump’s attacks on those who dare prosecute him have been having his desired effect. Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg has been getting death threats. [Tweet and video at the link: “Guy at Trump rally today calls for people to make a “citizen’s arrest” of Alvin Bragg.]
So there’s your crowd. Then there’s the usual Trump preshow. Trump has been doing this, too, since 2016; the premise has been “the people who come to my rallies are mostly children, but I don’t have a monster truck so this will have to do.” [Tweet at the link, with image: “Trump’s plane flew over the rally in Waco with Danger Zone playing in the background.”]
[…] So it’s the same-old same-old, but this time with a heavy tinge of implied violence and a bunch of people onstage who, by definition, think that rallying a crowd to attack the U.S. Congress is a valid Republican response to getting sad news on an election day.
Marjorie Taylor Greene was there to regurgitate antisemitic tropes from whatever neo-Nazi propaganda flier she last swallowed: [Tweet and video at the link. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that Alvin Bragg was “trying to please his master, George Soros.”]
Then there’s this canker. [Tweet and video at the link: Ted Nugent at Trump rally: “I want my money back! I didn’t authorize any money to Ukraine for some homosexual weirdo!”]
As for Trump himself, the man will never learn a new trick. Not ever. He is fueled by grievance and paranoia. Everyone he’s ever met is a big guy with tears in his eyes who thinks he’s Palm Beach Jesus or whatever. [Tweet and video at the link.]
He’ll just go off on whatever tangent he wants to. Did you know he wants to regain the presidency so that he can vanquish his enemies and design better buildings? Of course you do, he keeps saying this crap. [Tweet and video at the link: Trump pledges to get rid of ugly buildings.]
Imagine hearing this and still putting a “TRUMP OR DEATH” flag on your SUV. [Tweet and video at the link.]
You might not know this but Donald Trump is the big cheese in his Florida assisted living facility. [tweet and video at the link]
It’s all just horseshit from top to bottom. […]
[Tweet and video at the link: “Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise and place your hand over your heart for the number one song on iTunes, Amazon, and the Billboard charts. Justice for all featuring president Donald J. Trump and the J six choir”]
[…] So that was that. There was no big announcement that everyone should grab their guns and come gun down Trump’s latest enemies. There was sex trafficker Matt Gaetz, because of course there was. But mostly Trump was just the treasonous ball of crap he’s always been, a man with grade-school solutions to every problem and who only really cares about problems that stand between himself and his imagined future greatness. [video at the link]
Conservatives pushing these child labor bills say they’re necessary because companies are having trouble finding workers in a tight labor market. Rather than making jobs safer or better-paid, they’ve decided to exploit kids. Conservatism in a nutshell, really.
Trump’s speech in Waco felt really mailed in to me. Same material he used in 2018, 2020, and 2022.
Trump rants about dirty airports with QAnon music as his soundtrack
it was pretty much the same old same old Trump speech but here’s the moment when the QAnon music hit in Waco. At least Kool-Aid wasn’t passed around as far as I can tell.
Now it looks like he’ll end up probably getting the whole thing
In his speech at the Waco rally, Trump also called New York prosecutors “absolute human scum.”
Trump’s message to women: “I never liked Horse Face.” “I am the most innocent man in the history of our country. Friends of mine are saying that.”
“2024 is the final battle. That’s gonna be the big one … I told your great lieutenant governor, I said Dan, let’s not do one of those 50/50 areas, or an area where we’re a little behind. Let’s go right into the heart of it” — Trump on why he decided to hold a rally in Waco.
Posted by Evan Vucci:
As footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is displayed in the background, former President Donald Trump stands while a song, “Justice for All,” is played during a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas.
The UK is “muddling towards extinction”, says the Irish thinker and journalist Fintan O’Toole. Neglected by a Westminster political class that’s preoccupied by Brexit, the things that once held it together are disappearing. He tells Ros Taylor how England is embracing a nationalism it can’t articulate, why the SNP has failed to get what it wants, and why the UK is not the natural union that its supporters believe it to be.
In 2016, J.D. Vance informally launched his political career with “Hillbilly Elegy,” a memoir that blames the relative poverty of Appalachian and Rust Belt populations on their own culture. Despite its reactionary premise, mainstream and liberal press outlets were so enamored by the book that they accidentally made Vance a senator.
In this Sight Unseen film review, we recap the ideological currents and industry backers of J.D. Vance’s white trash whisperer shtick and how it blames everyone for Appalachian poverty but corporations and Republicans.
A very long episode out in the field! Annie Kelly headed to Oxford (UK) to attend a protest against “15 Minute Cities” and figure out how boring city planning issues became a fresh vehicle for the so-called “freedom movement” and its wide collection of attached conspiracy theories. These include fears of “climate lockdowns”, a New World Order government instituted by Klaus Schwab and the WEF, Adrenochrome, Aliens, bug eating, “Britcoin” as a control mechanism, and much, much more.
“15-minute cities” are having a moment, and not exactly in a good way. How did a mundane urban planning concept turn into the latest grist for the culture-war mill? Why does the idea of making it easier to walk to school or the grocery store have some people afraid that they won’t be able to leave their homes for more than 15 minutes? And why do some think this is all a plot by the World Economic Forum to force people to “own nothing and be happy”? We break down this conspiracy theory and ask if we can ever get back to reality.
Lynna @ #90, MSNBC is falling right back into its bad habits from the past, covering the rally with a chyron reading “Trump: ‘I am the most innocent man…’….”
A Utah parent said that a book ban law passed in the state made it “much easier” to request that the Bible be removed from schools for its “sex-ridden” content.
According to a complaint filed against Davis High School in December 2022, recently obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, the unnamed parent thanked the state legislature for making it “way more efficient” to request book bans.
“Now we can all ban books and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it,” the complaint says, with just a hint of sarcasm. “Heck, you don’t even need to see the book!”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed H.B. 374 — also called the Sensitive Materials in Schools Act — into law in March 2022. The bill bans books with “pornographic or indecent” material from schools and school libraries. Critics of the bill say it has been used to disproportionately target books written by people of color and books with LGBTQ themes…
In yesterday’s update, Mark Sumner wrote about Russia’s use of FPV drones as kamikaze weapons. Ukraine has already been using them for several months.
An FPV (First Person View) drone is a racing drone piloted by a virtual-reality-headset.
They are much cheaper than your typical drone, as they lack the sophisticated image stabilization electronics and crystal clear cameras of your typical Mavic commercial drone. In other words, they won’t hover over a target and provide perfectly steady video, so you won’t catch these spotting artillery or tracking enemy troop movements. What they do have is speed and maneuverability. Certain models can fly up to 120 miles per hour, and they are unbelievably nimble. Watch one in action with an experienced operator: [video at the link]
That speed and power is part of their military value—those powerful motors allow Ukraine (and Russia, I guess) to add heavier warheads than the small grenades carried by the typical commercial drone. They won’t hit their targets at 120 MPH, but they don’t need to. With a rocket-propelled-grenade (RPG) warhead, these things can be lethal: [image at the link]
This is what it looks like in action: [tweet and video at the link. A drone with a RPG-7 grenade destroys a Russian FV.]
In this Forbes article, tech writer and drone expert David Hambling digs into Russian rumors that Ukraine has bought 50-100,000 FPG drones for use in its upcoming spring counteroffensive. “Russian Engineer” went viral on Telegram with this dire warning:
Recently, it has become known that, in terms of drones, buyers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have bought up almost the entire market of FPV drone components in China, according to indirect estimates, by 50-100 thousand units. They have already trained more than a thousand operators of these models. They make them into kamikaze with a shaped charge warhead from RPG-7, or with a fragmentation grenade. And they have accumulated all this before the offensive.
There are several reasons this is likely all bullcrap: 1) How would this guy know Ukraine’s purchasing decisions? 2) Is he really saying that China can only produce 50-100,000 of these drones? 3) How did he come upon secret information on how many people Ukraine is training to operate drones? And 4) how does he know how many drones Ukraine has already accumulated? I mean, given that he’s the sole source for all this information, we can be skeptical that it’s real.
But that aside, let’s imagine what 50-100,000 kamikaze drones could do to punch holes in Russia’s extensive (and growing) network of defensive entrenchments in its occupied territory. [map at the link, showing Russia’s field fortifications.]
Failing to take any significant ground in their winter offensive, all indications are that Russia will happily sit in those trenches and wait out any Ukrainian response. Back home, Putin has announced a drive to recruit 400,000 new contract soldiers. They won’t get volunteers, and will likely need to do another stealth mobilization, but the last thing Ukraine needs is to give Russia time to plop more bodies in all those trenches. Drone swarms would certainly be useful to speed up Ukraine’s inevitable victory.
This is what drones can do in trenches: [videos at the link]
A couple dozen pinpoint drone strikes on infantry manning a trench would render that segment inoperable. Thousands of these strikes would be game-changing, facilitating an armored spearhead charge straight through Russian lines and into their rear areas. And while I’m going to officially doubt that 50-100,000 drone number, it’s clear that Ukraine is stockpiling those drones. [tweet and video at the link]
That’s what, 120 of them? And unlike the fancy drones with image stabilization and sharp cameras, these only cost anywhere from $350-700 each. As of now, each one of these drones needs an individual operator, and the radio bands to control them are limited. So best-case scenario, we wouldn’t be seeing literal swarms of them descending on Russian targets. But that day isn’t far away.
You might remember the drone light show from the Tokyo Olympics: [video at the link]
Such displays of drone coordination are only getting more complex. [video at the link]
The military application is obvious. So obvious, that it really calls into question, once again, the survivability of conventional forces in such a world. China can build all the billion-dollar warships it wants, but what good are they if they are under attack from wave after wave of drone swarms? Crossing the Taiwan Strait suddenly becomes a near-impossibility.
American forces in Syria have been under sustained drone attack for the past week. For now, they are unsophisticated cheap drones. What happens when this capability becomes available to pretty much anyone? My son is deploying to the Middle East soon. This has suddenly gotten very personal to me.
Electronic countermeasures will be important, obviously, but those can be thwarted.
Ukrainian UAV flies freely around Russian R-330 Zhitel electronic warfare system and helps to adjust artillery fire to destroy it. By the 92nd Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine. [video at the link]
Ukraine hadn’t destroyed a single one of those Russian electronic warfare vehicle all war. This week it has destroyed three of them, all while drones happily fly around them, unscathed, unaffected, within range of the system. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I’m going to guess that the measure-countermeasure-counter-countermeasure game of cat and mouse suddenly landed in Ukraine’s favor.
Even if they worked, Russia doesn’t have enough anti-drone countermeasure devices to cover the entire front. So that “Russian engineer” Telegram blogger has a solution—shotguns.
Our EW [Electronic Warfare] installations have many drawbacks – there are not many of them, they are large, and are in themselves interesting targets. You need a lot of small EW installations so that they are everywhere […]
According to the feedback from the fighters, a shotgun helps specifically against such FPV, specifically the Saiga-12. They fly at low altitudes, and a good shooter may well shoot down this drone.
LOL good luck with that. Talk about a high-stakes shot—identifying the drone, aiming for it while it dives toward the trench at high speed, and then hitting it with a once-in-a-lifetime shot. The author of the Forbes piece drily notes, “No images of drones brought down by shotgun have yet appeared.”
A resolution to exonerate people convicted of witchcraft was one of bills up for consideration by the legislative Judiciary Committee last week. Many supporters turned out to testify…
A pair of Republican legislators on the committee, Rep Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin and Rep Craig Fishbein R-Wallingford, however, were not so quick on calling for the exoneration of women killed in the 1600s after being accused of witchcraft.
“Typically, when somebody wants to have a convict exonerated, whether while they’re alive or after they are dead, they produce evidence that they were innocent. Do you have any evidence that this person was innocent?” Dubitsky asked Beverly Kahn, a supporter of the exoneration resolution.
The specific case Kahn and Dubitsky were discussing was the case of Goody Knapp, a “simpleminded” single woman who was convicted of witchcraft on the basis of a “witch’s mark.” A witch’s mark is a location on the body that the Puritans believed were areas on the body that imps were thought to suckle blood. This, to the Puritans, would indicate a compact with the devil…
“You seem to discount the existence of witchcraft, is that your position?” said Rep Fishbein. “There was a period of my life where I studied the occult. We have individuals who believe they are practicing witchcraft.” …
Not only is he a superstitious twit, he doesn’t know the law. You don’t have to prove a defendant is innocent, just that the case against them does not prove otherwise. In other words “innocent until proven guilty.” And today, a birthmark would be thrown out of court as evidence of witchcraft.
The House Republicans’ sedition caucus has been engaged in a sternly worded letter-war with Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of late. It started with Republican committee chairs Jim Jordan, James Comer, and Bryan Steil demanding Bragg turn over all documents pertaining to his probe of Donald Trump’s possible campaign finance or corporate fraud violations associated with Trump’s 2016 hush money payments to an adult film actress—a blatant attempt to dig through the evidence Bragg has found so that it can be leaked to Trump’s lawyers or so witnesses can be publicly identified, demonized, and threatened.
Bragg’s team responded with a letter essentially suggesting Jordan and company go fornicate themselves, which led to the Republican trio reiterating and doubling down on their demands in a new letter dated March 25.
Most of it’s just a repeat of the previous Republican bellowing, but Andrew Feinberg spotted an intriguing new claim by the Republican trio. Now Jim Jordan and Trump’s other House saboteurs are claiming they need all of Bragg’s information about the Trump investigation not just so the House can prove that Bragg is a big stupid poppyhead, but because House Republicans are looking to write a new law banning former presidents from being indicted for anything, ever.
[B]ecause the federal government has a compelling interest in protecting the physical safety of former or current Presidents, any decision to prosecute a former or current President raises difficult questions concerning how to vindicate that interest in the context of a state or local criminal justice system. For these reasons and others, we believe that we now must consider whether Congress should take legislative action to protect former and/or current Presidents from politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials, and if so, how those protections should be structured. Critically, due to your own actions, you are now in possession of information critical to this inquiry.
That’s right, the party of Lock Her Up now wants to write new laws saying that Actually, people who become president can commit as many crimes as they like and nobody’s allowed to do anything about it.
Shoot someone on 5th Avenue? If a former president does it it’s legal.
[…] Rep. Jim Jordan may have become the most visible House Republican due solely to the aggressiveness with which he covered up his past coverup of college athlete sexual abuse, but he’s on to bigger and better things now. House Republicans have apparently decided that Donald Trump has committed so many likely crimes that rather than sabotage just one or two cases, it’s more efficient to just pass a new law saying nobody can indict him for anything, in any state, for any crime.
The rest of the letter is mostly unsubstantial. Bragg’s team correctly noted in their own letter that Congress has no authority to dip into active criminal investigations by state prosecutors and grand juries […]
Jim Jordan is a pathetic, pathetic man.[…] No, this supposed legislation will never pass […] Jim Jordan and his collaborators are Making Shit Up. Nobody’s going to vote for a new law immunizing former presidents from committing crimes […]
Jim Jordan is just lying to Bragg, flat out. As usual. House Republicans may have oozed into Dear Leader-worshipping fascism, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve suddenly gained any brain cells—or even a thin thread of integrity. Jordan wants to know if there’s any witnesses he needs to tamper with or any justice that needs to be obstructed, and all of the rest of the House Republican argument is slapped together as means to that end. […]
How does anyone Cover Jordan WITHOUT noting his hypocrisy as HE IS THE ONE weaponizing government and trying to cover up crimes by Republicans while accusing democrats?
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“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” — Frank Wilhoit
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So they are openly broadcasting they are removing any blocks in the way for a dictator to take over our country. Why are they still in congress? So many of them helped the Jan 6th insurrection in one manner or another and none of them have been arrested yet???
The eight-year-old Mongolian boy born in US is one of a pair of twin boys named Aguidai and Achiltai Altannar. The news of the boy being named as the reincarnation brought contempt among secular nationalists and alarm among those who felt that it will provoke the rage of the country’s neighbour …
“We have the reincarnation of Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoché of Mongolia with us today,” Dalai Lama told his followers present at the ceremony.
Remember this the next time some idiot conservative whines about “woke army” or the loss of traditional norms of masculinity: [Tweet and images at the link: “The man on the left (pic from 2006) has proven a tougher, more effective war time leader than the man on the right (pic 2009), despite his bigger country and army.”]
This is incredible footage of a couple of dozen Russian infantrymen assaulting a trench with reportedly eight Ukrainian defenders. It’s in two parts: [video at the link]
In their telegram channel, the K2 unit posted:
Six meters wide. 30 meters along. Seven days of constant struggle for this piece of Ukrainian land.
Today we are publishing the continuation of the fight for one of the positions of our battalion. Recall that more than 30 Russians attacked the “T” position.
Our eight brothers in the trenches fought an unequal fight. Most of the enemy group has been destroyed. The invaders, however, approached the trenches.
Our battalion reserve, already rushing to support, has the power to turn the tide of battle.
It is the most intense combat footage I’ve seen to date. The situation is so desperate that the Ukrainian defenders essentially call artillery support on their own position in order to stave off the assault.
In part II, the Russians finally manage to clear the trench (seemingly), before a Ukrainian tank and armored infantry fighting vehicle show up to eliminate the surviving Russians. A note at the end of the video claims that “Despite heroic resistance the position was lost in the night battle. It was regained a few days later and is under K2 control.”
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Is it any wonder conservatives love Putinism?
Russian actress Maria Shukshina 🇷🇺 says that HIMARS hone in and hit those who received the “Sputnik” Covid vaccine.
This is part of the American 🇺🇸 biological weapons program to put chips in Russians so they can be struck by rockets.
Someone explain to me how Americans can put chips in Russia’s own (shitty, ineffective) vaccine?
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Love this video: [“Sneak peak into some training for our amazing soldiers. Thank you Brandon Mitchell for filming and thank you Irena for interpreting.” Video at the link.]
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I’m still laughing at Putin’s claim that Russia will build 1,600 new tanks. [Tweet and video at the link]
What Putin leaves unsaid … why would Russia need to build 1,600 new tanks to maintain a 3-to-1 advantage over Ukrainian ones, if the 10,000 tanks it claimed pre-war were still operational?
Finally, as Mark noted yesterday, Russia can build tank husks, but it lacks the electronics that actually make them operational.
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This is a laugh… [Tweet and graph at the link: showing the Russian governments’s “official” breakdown of combat losses in Ukraine.] Russia claims only 18,000 combat losses, with a quarter of those being POWs in Ukraine’s hands. So only around 13,500 combat dead.
For their part, this is the latest tally from the Ukrainian government: [Tweet and list of losses] It’s fair to say the actual number of Russian dead is somewhere closer to 170,000 than 13,500.
Link. Scroll down at the link to view the updates.
! Netanyahu fires defense minister for calling for a halt to the judicial revolution…
[links to articles providing background]
…And now Israel’s Consul General in New York (important post, given the Jewish community there) resigns. (Zamir was formerly a minister from Benny Gantz’s party and a leftover from the Bennet-a Lapid gov)
[tweet with resignation letter at the link]
Chair of the judiciary committee from the far right, one of the men behind the revolution, responds to the outburst of midnight protests against the destruction of democracy: The committee has completed its review process and bill will go forward to final votes
Main news channel now reporting pressure within the coalition on Bibi to pause legislation. Minister of Justice Levin – the chief architect of this chaos and the crazy coalition negotiation in December, threatening to resign.
Major cracks in coalition: Right wing minister, formerly of Bennett’s party (refused to join Bennett government and rewarded by Bibi with portfolio now): We must admit we erred in navigating our path. Goal was correct but we now need to first build broad consensus around reform
A pause on legislation coming apparently. Levin may resign….
“‘These accusations are completely false’: Biden administration sharply rejects conspiracy theories spread by Netanyahu’s son (and key advisor) over allegations that the U.S. is funding anti-judicial overhaul protests in hopes of leading to his downfall”
Senior Likud sources: Justice Minister Levin must resign
Senior sources at Netanyahu’s Likud party called on Justice Minister Yariv Levin to resign Sunday night, for “bringing Israel to the brink of a civil war.”
More Likud lawmakers reportedly call on Netanyahu to halt judicial overhaul
Amid the unprecedented protests that erupted in Israel on Sunday night following Netanyahu’s decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, several Likud lawmakers and ministers joined Gallant’s call to stop the legislative process of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul.
According to Israeli media reports, these include Ron Dermer, the Minister of Strategic Affairs and one of Netanyahu’s closest confidantes. However, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the man most affiliated with the controversial legislation, is threatening to resign if Netanyahu will delay the final Knesset vote on it, which is scheduled to take place on Monday.
“3 am– After five hours of blockage, bonfires, tents set up, the police have announced they’ll evacuate the protesters– but the cops are massively outnumbered and it is unclear what they can do.”
We are deeply concerned by today’s developments out of Israel, which further underscore the urgent need for compromise. As the President recently discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu, democratic values have always been and must remain a hallmark of the US-Israel relationship. [Uh…]
Democratic societies are strengthened by checks and balances, and fundamental changes to a democratic system should be pursued with the broadest possible base of popular support. We continue to strongly urge Israeli leaders to find a compromise as soon as possible.
We believe that is the best path forward for Israel and all of its citizens. US support for Israel’s security and democracy remains ironclad.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukraine’s ground forces commander said on Monday his troops were continuing to repel heavy Russian attacks on the eastern city of Bakhmut and that defending it was a “military necessity”.
Reuters reports Ukraine’s military said Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi had acted during a visit to the eastern frontline to solve “problematic issues that prevent effective execution of combat tasks” and taken “operational decisions aimed at strengthening our capabilities to deter and inflict damage on the enemy”.
It gave no details, and did not say when the visit took place, but Syrskyi’s comments signalled Ukraine’s intention to keep fighting in Bakhmut despite the heavy death toll there.
“The most intense phase of the battle for Bakhmut continues. The situation is constantly difficult. The enemy suffers significant losses in human resources, weapons and military equipment but continues to conduct offensive actions,” he said.
Praising Ukrainian forces’ resilience in “extremely difficult conditions”, he said: “The defence of Bakhmut is due to military necessity … We are calculating all possible options for the development of events, and will react adequately to the current situation”.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass is carrying reports that an attempt was made this morning to assassinate the police chief in occupied Mariupol.
It quotes a Russian-installed official in the occupied territory as saying: “In the morning they blew up the car of police chief Mikhail Moskvin. He is alive, everything is in order.”
The source informed Tass that the car exploded a few metres away from the police chief.
There have also been explosions reported in occupied Melitopol, which Vladimir Rogov, a local Russian-installed leader, ascribed to the work of air defence.
The head of Israel’s largest trade union group says it is launching a general strike in protest over Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary, the Associated Press reports.
The decision by the Histadrut, which represents more than 700,000 works in numerous sectors, from banks to transportation to health workers, could paralyse large parts of Israel’s economy. Arnon Bar-David, the group’s head, said he made the decision to steer Israel away from “an abyss”.
Israel is on edge this morning after street protests and political drama that dragged on late into the night.
While the mass protest movement appears more determined than ever to stop the government’s controversial plans for the judiciary, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, seems to have lost all control over his coalition.
His televised address scheduled for 10.30am (08.30am BST), in which it was expected he would announce a halt to the proposals, has been delayed – reportedly because of disarray within the government’s ranks.
The far-right elements are determined to press ahead with the proposals to weaken the supreme court in today’s Knesset session, even after the high profile call from the defence minister, Yoav Galant, for a freeze to the legislation.
The Histadrut – the country’s largest trade union, which until now has stayed out of the protests – has announced a general strike; Tel Aviv airport has just gone on lockdown. People are already beginning to gather outside the parliament building in Jerusalem, ahead of a protest called for 2pm….
What happens next is unclear to anyone either inside the Knesset, or protesting outside. But, after 12 weeks of escalating constitutional, societal and political crisis, Israelis are tired. There is a sense that what happens today will be pivotal.
The mass protests that appear to be bringing Netanyahu’s government to the brink are in response to the proposal of a series of reforms; including one to allow a simple majority of 61 in the 120-seat Knesset to override almost any supreme court rulings, and to allow politicians to appoint most of the justices to the bench.
The changes are spearheaded not by the prime minister but by his Likud colleague Yariv Levin, the justice minister, and the Religious Zionist MK Simcha Rothman, who chairs the Knesset’s law and justice committee.
Both men have a longstanding hatred of Israel’s supreme court, which they see as too powerful and as biased against the settler movement, Israel’s ultra-religious community, and the Mizrahi population, Jewish people of Middle Eastern origin. In particular, many on the Israeli right have never forgiven the court for decisions related to Israel’s unilateral withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
It is not lost on anyone that the measures could help Netanyahu evade prosecution in his corruption trial. He denies all charges.
Following the decision by Israel’s largest trade union to strike, protesters from around the country are taking trains to Jerusalem to join protesters outside the parliament building.
Protesters have again cut off the main thoroughfare in Tel Aviv.
Many will be wondering today how this movement affects millions of Palestinians.
The fundamental issue at the core of the protests is preserving the balance of power in Israeli politics. However, for Palestinians, the judiciary is not seen as a balancing force but as part of the system that oppresses them. While they don’t want more powers handed to the far-right government, they won’t lament the weakening of the Israeli courts either.
For example, the supreme court has backed a much-criticised nation state law, which declared that “the right to exercise national self-determination” in Israel is “unique to the Jewish people”, effectively defining Palestinian-Israelis as second-class citizens. Last year, the justices – one of whom is a settler – ruled that 1,000 Palestinians could be evicted from their homes in the West Bank to make way for an army training zone.
Last month, our Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan explained how Israel’s own Arab minority had been alienated by the protest movements:
[This] centre-left rebellion against what is seen as a coup by far-right extremists has a demographic fault line: Palestinian-Israelis, who make up one-fifth of the population, have been conspicuously absent from the protests to date, even though the new government is fervently anti-Arab and the community is likely to be hit hardest by the judicial reforms. The West Bank is already roiling after a year of increasing violence.
For most of those demonstrating, the fate of the judiciary and Israel’s control over Palestinians are separate issues – but for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and anti-occupation activists, the country’s democratic character has long been under question.
Small blocs of anti-occupation protesters have marched at most of the demonstrations, but a refusal to allow Palestinian flags onstage in the Tel Aviv demos, and the fact that only two Palestinian-Israeli speakers have addressed the crowds so far, has left many Palestinian citizens of Israel feeling alienated from the anti-government movement.
Reuters is reporting that the country’s two major ports have halted operations due to the labour strike today, which was called to pressure the government.
Haifa port in the north and Ashdod port in the south have both stopped working, according to officials.
Crowds are gathering in Jerusalem, near the supreme court and the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Supporters of the Israeli government have called a rally outside the Knesset for 6pm tonight with the tagline “Emergency — they won’t steal our election!”
Opponents are already massing for a huge 2pm rally in the same spot.
Right-wing Telegram groups are ablaze about the 6pm rally, using violent language. “we must end Leftists” etc
Far right leaders are using the slogan כָּל דַּאֲלִים גָּבַר, an Aramaic phrase from the Talmud: “the violent side wins”.
The slogan כָּל דַּאֲלִים גָּבַר, “the violent side wins”, is a dog whistle. Right-wing politicians are using it to criticise Netanyahu’s expected climbdown while also signaling to their followers that they should be violent to get what they want.
“Apparently this is the first time in Israeli history that the Histadrut Trade Union federation and the main employers joined in calling a general strike. The last time it happened the British Empire was still in charge here.”
StevoRsays
Remember that MP at the Aussie anti-trans rally the nazis giving the Hitler salute turned up to? Not expellled – tho’ suspended for 9 months :
‘Explosives, Guns, Knives’: Israeli Far-right Groups Call for Violence Against Protesters This Evening
Right-wing WhatsApp groups and social media are buzzing with calls from activists to demonstrate across Israel in defense of the Netanyahu government’s judicial coup, with some activists calling on supporters to take up arms – ‘tractors, guns, knives’ – and attack anti-government protesters.
Protest leaders have turned to the police to ask for protection from far-right activists planning to attack pro-democracy demonstrators.
Guardian liveblog:
The prime minister has broken his silence with a tweet: [tweet at the link]
He calls on “demonstrators in Jerusalem, on the right and the left, to behave responsibly and not to act violently”.
This is likely in response to reports that far-right groups are moving towards the protest rallies. There are concerns about a clash.
Breaking – I understand diplomats at the Israeli embassy in London have gone on strike
StevoRsays
Former public servant Richard Boyle has lost his legal bid to be declared immune from prosecution as a whistleblower, meaning he could face the prospect of life in prison.
Mr Boyle, 46, is accused of 24 offences — including recording and disclosing protected information — stemming from his decision to collect information about unethical debt-recovery practices within the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). He had worked as a debt collection officer at the ATO’s Adelaide office and accused his former employer of covering up serious maladministration and lying to Senate Estimates about his accusations. Mr Boyle first made a public interest disclosure within the ATO, internally, and then made a complaint to the tax ombudsman before he made his revelations as a part of a joint Fairfax-Four Corners investigation.
Couargeous man, disturbing story here WARNING : Contains confronting material, animal slaughter. :
Chris Delforce is remarkably calm for someone who knows this story could put him in jail. “This is always the risk whenever you go out to capture this kind of footage,” he told 7.30. “You might get caught, you might end up in prison for it, you might end up being physically attacked. There are all sorts of risks that go into getting this kind of footage.“You might get caught, you might end up in prison for it, you might end up being physically attacked. There are all sorts of risks that go into getting this kind of footage. “Unfortunately, it’s the only way that anything like this is going to see the light of day.”
Speaking at a protest rally outside the Knesset, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that the government “has undergone a hostile takeover [by] a messianic, nationalist and anti-democratic group.”
Lapid called on the pro-democracy demonstrators to continue and with protests against a government, “which will not stop itself”.
Today (3/27), the Histadrut, Israel’s largest labor union, instructed all government employees to go on strike, including Israel’s diplomatic missions around the world. The Embassy of Israel will be closed today until further notice and no consular services will be provided.
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir invites his followers to tonight’s counter rally: “Today we stop being silent. Today the right wakes up. Spread the word.”
Bethan McKernan reports for the Guardian from Jerusalem:
It is impossible to even get close to the Knesset compound: the parks and roads surrounding it are packed with people singing, playing drums, and waving Israel’s blue and white national flag.
This is perhaps the final push of a 12-week-old protest movement as Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to cave on bitterly contested judicial reforms – at least temporarily.
As with all the other demonstrations across the country in Israel’s biggest ever protest movement, the crowd appears to be diverse – young, old, religious, secular, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi – groups of Israeli society that do not overlap often.
Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of the population, are once again noticeably absent: that community, and the five million Palestinians who live under Israeli military rule in the occupied territories, have long questioned the country’s democratic character.
But there is no denying the zeal and determination of the thousands of people on the streets of Jerusalem holding banners reading “fight for the soul of the nation” and chanting “no to dictatorship”.
“We’re not there yet but we’re making great progress,” said a man who gave his name as Moshe, 63, a retired air force pilot. With a small group of friends, he was handing out Israeli flags. “We have morale, we must keep going.”
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, called on right-wingers to demonstrate this evening outside of the Knesset in support of the government, saying that “in no way can the judicial reform stop.”
A Russian opposition politician who has spoken out against President Putin’s war on Ukraine was poisoned with a highly toxic and carcinogenic substance, it has emerged.
Lab tests showed that Elvira Vikhareva had traces of potassium dichromate in her blood
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited frontline positions in Zaporizhzhia today. Citing the president’s office, it said Ukraine’s president “visited advanced positions in the Zaporizhzhia region, learned about the operational situation, and presented awards to the military.”…
American Federation of Teachers, Jewish Labor Committee presidents voice support for strike
“We strongly back the general strike called by the Israeli trade union federation Histadrut and Israeli universities in defense of democracy in Israel. We stand ready to support our trade union allies in Israel — and all those who are fighting for democracy there — in any way we can, to ensure an independent judiciary and human and civil rights for all,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and president of the Jewish Labor Committee.
“It’s heartening that the Histadrut, an institution that has sustained the Israeli people and the Israeli economy since the country’s founding, made the decision it did. We commend Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David for his statements and his action. All trade unionists know that it is nothing but an illusion that unions can cooperate with an autocratic government while retaining their independent power. This hasn’t happened anywhere in the world.”
(Speaking of education unions, a contract agreement was reached in Los Angeles that now has to get full votes on both sides.)
Netanyahu keeps quiet over fate of judicial coup as he mobilizes right-wingers to protests for it
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly state whether he intends to halt his government’s judicial coup as graphics calling to demonstrate in support the overhaul have been distributed by official Likud channels.
The pro-government demonstration call to go ahead with the judicial coup, warning of attempts to “steal our elections,” and is set to take place in parallels to the anti-coup protests that are already taking place outside the Knesset.
The major protest outside the Knesset in Jerusalem is dispersing
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 112
The head of Israel’s largest trade union group says it is launching a general strike in protest over Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary, the Associated Press reports.
And we can’t get our workers to do something like this when American right-wingers act up because…?
Noa Landau, the deputy editor of the Israeli daily, Haaretz, says the reported deal between Netanyahu and his far-right minister is a very dangerous development.
“Worse & worse: Ben Gvir now says he reached a deal with Netanyahu to delay the judicial overhaul in return to the establishment of a new police force under his direct command,” she writes on Twitter. “Ben Gvir’s private armed forces. Just what we needed…”
[…] [A Wall Street Journal headline nails it:] “Trump’s Legal Strategy: Vilify Prosecutors, Stall Probes and Rally GOP Base.” […] eventually, you can’t stall anymore. The rest of the strategy is all about keeping his base on board, and while Trump definitely thinks that provoking violence from his supporters is a valid option for resisting prosecution, Jan. 6 gave law enforcement a heads-up about what to be prepared for.
Trump’s many lawyers are spread across his many different legal problems—there’s the Manhattan DA’s investigation; the Fulton County, Georgia, investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state; the special counsel’s investigation into both efforts to overturn the 2020 election and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago document hoard; a $250 million civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James over fraudulent business practices; and potentially a defamation suit brought by E. Jean Carroll—and it seems that the overarching strategic brain is Trump’s.
“He plays his own captain, and legally that is suicidal,” former White House lawyer Ty Cobb told the WSJ. “His strategy, to the extent there is one, appears totally reactive.” And while Cobb wasn’t quoted directly questioning the legal firepower Trump is bringing, he did suggest a reason Trump might have trouble recruiting the best lawyers: “Nobody considering assisting the former president at this stage of the game can be unmindful of the extraordinary speed with which Trump turns lawyers into witnesses.”
[…] The operation is fine-tuned for news cycles, but right now, Trump is dealing with legal problems, including criminal investigations, and those are different things. Trump […] really does think he can bully and bluster his way out of anything—and incite a little violence from his supporters when just yelling doesn’t work.
[…] The most immediate legal threat Trump faces is indictments from the Manhattan DA, though the Fulton County DA could be following close behind, and the special counsel is not going away. But Trump is focused on the most immediate threat, so, for now, it’s Bragg on whom the threats and vicious (and often racist) insults fall.
Halfway through his presidency, Donald Trump came up with a curious boast about his skillset. “I know tech better than anyone,” the Republican declared in late 2018.
Soon after, Trump kept this going, telling reporters that “nobody knows much more about technology” than him, adding, “I’m a professional at technology.”
Despite the vast technological expertise of a man who was confused by how Google News worked, the former president’s online endeavors haven’t fared especially well. His blog, for example, launched a couple of years ago, but it was scrapped less than a month later — due to lack of reader interest.
The Trump Media & Technology Group — billed as a business that would compete with both Twitter and Netflix — has faced difficulties of its own, including an ongoing investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Making matters a bit worse, the former president’s social media platform currently exists, though as NBC News reported, some have found it relatively easy to manipulate.
Three TikTok users said they believe their video was the inspiration for thousands of people to troll Truth Social, the social media platform launched by former President Donald Trump. Their goal? To get Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is widely considered to be Trump’s biggest opponent in the 2024 presidential race, trending on Trump’s own platform. DeSantis hasn’t announced his intentions yet, but he is widely expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination.
Peter McIndoe Jr. filmed a video in front of Trump Tower in New York, explaining that if 100 or so people created accounts and used the #desantis2024 hashtag, “it will literally be trending” because the platform just doesn’t have that many users.
The assumption proved true: A few TikTok users persuaded a modest number of people to create Truth Social accounts and publish #desantis2024 messages. A day later, it stood atop the list of the most popular topics on the platform.
Ari Cagan, one of the TikTok users behind the idea, told Vice News, “We wanted to make something trend that would really piss off Trump. We noticed that he was ‘truthing’ a lot about DeSantis. If DeSantis started trending on his own platform, it would annoy him to no end.”
Cagan also told NBC News that Truth Social is “really easy to break into” because its audience is vastly smaller than its better known rivals.
After the pro-DeSantis message fared well, it became more difficult to join Truth Social, though it’s not altogether clear why: Maybe the system’s servers struggled, or maybe Team Trump paused the new-account-approval process in the hopes of stemming the DeSantis-related tide.
Either way, it’s hard not to wonder whether the former president — the “professional at technology” — saw this coming.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 128
Ummmm… Israel? Hi! I was just looking at your policies and actions since the 1940s, and there is something familiar about them. They kind of remind of this bunch that used to pick on your people. You know, stripped them of their rights, forced them to live in ghettos, started killing them. Sound familiar?
No. NO, Israel! I don’t want to hear your excuses. This is EXACTLY how the Nazis behaved toward Jewish folks, and you have no right to whine about “the Shoah” so long as your “Master Race”… I mean, “Chosen People” are committing a genocide of its own.
A former Fox News producer who testified in the Dominion case now wants to amend her deposition — to reflect alleged “coaching” from network lawyers.
As if the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case weren’t already a serious problem for Fox News, a producer named Abby Grossberg added a new wrinkle to the network’s troubles last week by filing a lawsuit of her own.
According to Grossberg, who worked for Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, Fox not only has a “toxic” workplace culture that includes misogyny and discrimination, the network’s lawyers also “coerced, intimidated, and misinformed” her as they prepared her to testify in the Dominion defamation case.
Fox News has denied her claims, calling the allegations “baseless.” (It also initially filed a suit of its own, seeking a restraining order against Grossberg, hoping to prevent her from disclosing information related to the Dominion case, though that case was later withdrawn.) Her lawyers nevertheless said last week that Grossberg was concerned about having given “false/misleading and evasive answers” during her deposition following prep sessions with Fox’s legal team.
The network fired the producer late last week. This morning, as NBC News reported, the producer also took matters a bit further.
The former Tucker Carlson producer who sued Fox News last week alleging she was pressured into giving misleading testimony about the network’s coverage of supposed election fraud has filed new allegations about coercive coaching by Fox lawyers, bias and unprofessional behavior by staff members, and retaliation by the network.
In the Dominion case, Grossberg participated in a Sept. 14 deposition. This morning, she and her attorneys asked to amend her responses, offering what they characterized as more accurate information, free from network pressure.
“Based on what I understood and took away from the deposition preparation sessions I had with Fox’s legal team which were coercive and intimidating,” Grossberg said in an unredacted errata sheet filed in Delaware, “I felt that I had to do everything possible to avoid becoming the ‘star witness’ for Dominion or else I would be seriously jeopardizing my career at Fox News and would be subjected to worse terms and conditions of employment than male employees as I understood it.”
In her new filing, Grossberg also claims that Fox lawyers wanted her to downplay the importance of ratings in the network’s decision-making and that she felt “pressured to respond with a generic ‘I do not recall’ whenever she had the opportunity, even if she, in fact, did have a recollection, albeit perhaps not a perfect one.”
[…] A Fox News spokesperson issued a new response to the latest allegations, which read in part, “We will continue to vigorously defend Fox against Ms. Grossberg’s unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”
[…] I’m still not in a position to evaluate the producer’s claims on the merits. That said, let’s go ahead and acknowledge the obvious: If her allegations are true, and the network pressured Grossberg into delivering misleading testimony during her deposition, that would be a rather significant development.
[…] these are much more than mass protests of the sort that occur with some regulatory across the democratic world. It’s not too much to say that the scale and scope of these protests are without any clear precedent in Israel’s 75-year history. They have continued for roughly two and half months, and they have continued to gather momentum, expand in scope and grow in intensity. They have increasingly cut into the central institution of Israeli society, the IDF. They have united much of the country’s financial sector in arguing that the reforms threaten the future of the Israeli economy. And today they have spurred a general strike which has brought much of the country to a standstill.
[…] a series of observations.
One: Many Americans continue to view Israeli politics as operating along axes defined by the occupation of the West Bank and the long-moribund “peace process.” That is such a central fact of Israeli life that it’s certainly a latent or implicit factor in almost every political question. But in any direct sense, it’s hard to overstate how little any of that has to do with the current conflict. The “peace process” hasn’t figured, in any real sense, into any of the repeated elections of the last three years, or really for any in the last decade or more. Nothing about the current crisis has anything with any of that in any direct sense.
Two: Fundamentally this conflict is about a basic political division in Israeli society and Israeli politics’ long drift to the right. But in the short- to medium-term time horizon, Israeli society hasn’t moved as far or as quickly to the right as Israeli politics has. And the key factor there is the way in which Benjamin Netanyahu has manipulated the country’s factional politics first to remain in power and then to remain in power and out of prison. To a great degree you now have a governing coalition dominated by far-right nationalists because this is the only coalition that could bring Netanyahu back to power.
Political power in Israel rests on national elections in which parliamentary seats are apportioned on the basis of each party’s percentage of the vote. As many as a dozen parties realistically compete for seats, with each needing to get at least 3.25% of the vote to get any seats at all. That electoral threshold, combined with the fluid emergence and demise of parties, creates immense uncertainty in how overall voting percentages will translate into potential coalition seats. Even in an election in which the nationalist right camp and the center-left camp get roughly the same number of votes, the precise mix of different parties and the mix of ideologies and ethnicities which make them up can spell the difference between a narrow majority and a loss of power.
One reason for Benjamin Netanyahu’s long dominance of Israel politics has been his ability to shape the mix of parties running on the right or even shepherd into existence new parties to maximize his chances of building a majority. On paper, Netanyahu is the leader of the largest right-wing party, Likud, and thus the most logical prime minister in a rightist coalition. But really he’s the head of the right-wing bloc and he’s shaped that bloc to keep himself in power.
Sadly, for those of us who wish Israel’s politics were different, Israel could have had a center-right government without any problem over the last few years. The issue is Netanyahu and the increasing maximalism of the far-right parties. A good bit of the opposition is now center-right. But it’s Netanyahu himself who has incubated and cultivated that right-wing maximalism to keep himself in power.
Three: The morning started with widespread reports that after yesterday’s protests, Netanyahu would announce a pause to the judicial reform package. […] It’s universally agreed that if he gave up on the central elements of the package his government would collapse more or less immediately. As I write, he finally seems to have gotten sign off from the most extreme elements of his government for the pause. But this is just a pause. And the strategy behind it is self-evidence. Slow down, make a show of negotiation and hope that the public protest movement will lose steam and focus. Then come back in a few weeks and pass it.
That’s a pretty good strategy or perhaps better to say it’s the only viable one Netanyahu has available. The problem is that this has been going on since mid-January and the protests and backlash have only escalated. It’s really, really hard to keep people in the streets for weeks on end. And everyone gets that this is merely a tactical pause. […]
Four: The latest escalation started when the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant publicly called for a freeze on the legislation. Netanyahu promptly fired him. This triggered a fairly organic new wave of mass protests. Back in 2010 Gallant was slated to be made the head of the Israeli army (the IDF). On paper, that’s equivalent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the US. But the job has an incomparably more central role in Israeli society. His appointment ended up being scuttled over a two separate sets of allegations against him. For present purposes, those controversies aren’t really relevant. What is relevant is that he was among the most senior and revered generals in the IDF.
In the last couple weeks there have been increasing murmurs of dissent from within Netanyahu’s Likud party over the reform package. […] Gallant has repeatedly warned that the crisis is threatening the readiness of the IDF and thus Israel’s security. Because of his military background and role as Defense Minister he’s basically seen as speaking for the country’s security establishment’s warning about the danger of what’s happening. The situation is so volatile in Israel that I am not in a position to say just why his firing spurred quite such an explosive backlash. But I think a key reason has to be that this was seen as the country’s defense establishment saying this has to stop and Netanyahu saying he didn’t care but would do whatever it takes to remain in power and do whatever is necessary to satisfy the extremists keeping him in power.
[…] Five: Initial reports suggest that Netanyahu was able to get the support for a pause from Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir by agreeing to create a new national police force directly under his control. Ben-Gvir represents the most extreme party in the governing coalition and he has constantly chafed at the refusal of the actual national police to treat the protestors as something like state enemies rather than in the vast majority of cases peaceful protestors. If this comes to fruition it’s a very ominous development. In a way it recapitulates a central element of the whole drama: whether central societal institutions which have a loyalty to the state over the government of the moment will be put under the direct and unmediated control of that government.
Three children and two adults are confirmed dead following a school shooting Monday morning at The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville.
The suspect in the shooting was engaged by police and reported dead, according to police.
At the scene, scores of parents and onlookers gathered in a parking lot, awaiting updates, as helicopters circled the area, surrounded by a residential and busy businesses district.
Three children were fatally shot, according to Vanderbilt University Medical Center spokesperson Jessica Pasley. The children were transported to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. […]
KGsays
News from Scotland: Humza Yousaf, the “continuity candidate” in the SNP leadership election following Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, has won a narrow victory over the main bigot candidate (transphobic, homophobic, anti-women’s-bodily-autonomy) Kate Forbes: 52% to 48% in the second round of an instant runoff election. In the first round, Ash Regan, also a transphobe, got 11% to Yousaf’s 48% and Forbes’ 41%. Both Forbes and Regan also campaigned on weakening SNP commitments on mitigating climate disruption. The election of either would have meant the end of the SNP’s agreement with the Scottish Greens (which is short of a full coalition but the Greens have two junior ministers in the Scottish Government). Yousaf campaigned partly on keeping this agreement going, but the narrowness of his win may make him feel he has to tack to the right. Regan is widely regarded as a puppet of Alex Salmond, former SNP leader and First Minister, who now leads Alba, aka the We-Hate-Nicola-Sturgeon Party. She could switch allegiance, but my guess is that Salmond will want her to stay in the SNP. He has called for Yousaf to convene a “Scottish Independence Convention”, but it’s doubtful if this is feasible, as divisions within the independence movement are now so deep – specifically, the Scottish Greens would not attend any such convention if the reactionary Alba was invited.
I hate to burst everybody’s bubble, but Netanyahu is merely postponing this showdown by a month & has *signed a document* granting Itamar Ben Gvir, a convicted terror criminal, a private militia.
Ben Gvir is thrilled: “The reform will pass. The National Guard will be established. The budget I demanded for the Ministry of National Security will be passed in its entirety. No one will scare us. No one will succeed in changing the people’s vote. Repeat after me: DEMOKRATYA!”
Netanyahu attacks the reservists who are protesting as “a minority of extremists” says he, unlike them, is unwilling to lead the country to civil war. He is taking “a pause” for talks, and is trying to being Gantz onside.
You all know my mantra by now: War isn’t about people pointing weapons and shooting at each other. It’s about logistics. Yes, death and destruction are part of the Faustian bargain, but logistics determine overall strategy and eventually crown the winners and losers.
Take Bakhmut, for example. The city has been under siege by Russia for over nine months. Why has this strategically insignificant town in the middle of thousands of kilometers of front line become the focal point of Russia’s efforts? Because given exiting road and rail infrastructure, Russia can easily supply the attack. And why is Ukraine in danger of losing the town? Because Russia has managed to snake its way north and south of the town, putting Ukraine’s supply lines in danger.
And why is Bakhmut ultimately strategically insignificant? Because its capture doesn’t threaten Ukraine’s supply lines. It merely pushes out the front line a few kilometers in a tiny corner of the front. I mean, I know Ukraine’s geography inside out by this point, and even I struggle to find Bakhmut on the big map: [map at the link]
(It’s north of Donetsk city.)
Russia wanted to fight a war based on logistics. Remember the original plan was to envelope the eastern third of Ukraine in a north-south pincer maneuver. [map at the link]
Each one of those was a valid strategy, except Russia couldn’t pull any of them off, their ambition gradually shrinking over the months until we got to where we are today—human wave attacks against deeply dug in Ukrainian defenders around a single strategically unimportant city. Bakhmut mattered when it was the southern prong of a pincer. Not so much when the norther prong—Izyum—was long ago liberated.
How did Ukraine liberate northern Kherson Oblast? By destroying the bridges supplying Russian troops in the area. How did they liberate Kharkiv oblast? By punching through Russian lines and taking Kupiansk—the key logistical hub for the entire Russian presence in that oblast.
How will Ukraine liberate the northeastern corner of the country? By liberating Starobilsk, where the entire region’s rail and road networks connect in a star-pattern. [map at the link]
How will Ukraine liberate southeastern Ukraine? By cutting the land bridge at Melitopoil. How will they liberate Crimea? By destroying Russia’s bridge connecting it to its mainland, and cutting off its water supply at Nova Kakhovka.
So yes, logistics dictate strategy at the macro level, even if Russia never got the memo. But logistics are also important at the tactical level, including decisions on what weapons systems to field.
People get frustrated at the slow pace of Western weapons deliveries, and much of that frustration is justified. But a lot of it isn’t: Ukraine has burned through Western stocks of artillery ammunition, and ramping up increased production doesn’t happen overnight. (Hey, that’s also logistics!) And fielding brand new weapons systems is a challenge even in peacetime. In the middle of a war? The challenges multiply.
I keep reminding everyone that the biggest difficulty in fielding new weapons systems isn’t about the crew manning the weapon. It’s not the people driving the vehicles or pulling the triggers. There have been several stories about how quickly Ukrainians learned to operate the Patriot air defense system. That’s not the hard part! The hard part is maintaining complex machinery and electronics.
It’s the difference between learning to drive your car and learning to maintain it. The vast majority of us can easily do the former, but need specialists to handle the latter. And training a good mechanic takes years. Learning to drive? Months.
So yes, I do wonder how those Patriot systems will be maintained. The current system is to haul even simple systems, like M777-towed howitzers, back to Poland for maintenance. It wastes precious time, putting valuable systems out of service for months. The Patriot batteries will likely suffer the same fate, repeatedly driven across the border for maintenance on a regular basis, because weapons systems break down a lot. As I’ve mentioned before, typically only six of the nine M270 MLRS launchers in my battery were operational at any given time. And they were new at the time (1989).
Which brings us to the M1 Abrams, considered the most difficult American land system to support and maintain. As Mark Sumner wrote a few days ago, Ukraine has asked the U.S. to speed up deliveries of 31 promised M1 Abrams tanks. So instead of sending brand new models of the latest Abrams variant, the M1A2, they will be sending tanks from existing M1A1 stock. This means instead of taking 14 months or so for delivery, Ukraine can expect the M1s by the end of this year.
While the new delivery timetable is more aggressive, people still can’t believe it’ll take over six to nine months to deliver 31 tanks. They scream that the West “doesn’t want to give Ukraine what it needs to win.” Those tantrums, once again, betray misunderstanding of logistics.
The first is that while the U.S. has thousands of M1 tanks in storage, they require a great deal of refurbishment just to get them operational. Tanks already break down like no one’s business. The last thing Ukraine needs is M1s rolling in with 20-year-old parts. American Abrams feature depleted uranium armor so top secret that the U.S. does not (by law) allow its export to anyone, not even our closest allies. Export variants have tungsten armor, so these surplus tanks will need to be retrofitted and rearmored.
(Fun fact: No new Abrams are being built. The A2 variants are actually completely rebuilt A1 models, stripped of everything down to the hull.)
Next, the logistical support chain needs to be built from scratch. The Abrams gets 0.6 miles to a gallon, and that’s assuming proper jet fuel for its jet turbine engine. People are quick to note that the Abrams can run on anything that burns—gasoline or diesel—but it does so at an efficiency cost. I suspect Ukraine will be forced to run diesel in these tanks, so gas mileage will be even worse. An Abrams also uses as much fuel when idling as it does running.
Ultimately, each individual tank consumes 300 gallons of fuel every eight hours. So the battalion of 31 will consume 9,300 gallons in that time period. Without jet fuel, that number will be even worse. A military tanker truck will carry around 2,500 gallons of fuel, so Ukraine will need to significantly beef up its fuel transport and forward storage capabilities to feed this insatiable beast. And that’s just the armor part of the battalion. There are dozens of additional vehicles supporting those tanks.
An American tank battalion will additionally carry six Humvees carrying officers, three cargo trucks (carrying food and other supplies), each towing a 400-gallon water trailer, and nine M113 armored personnel carriers carrying leadership and medics. Here’s where things get fun: That battalion will have 15 maintenance and recovery vehicles carrying mechanics and spare parts, along with 36 mechanics and systems maintainers. (The guys who work on the engines are different from the guys who work on the optics and other electronics.) [That’s a lot of mechanics!!]
There’s more! Three M2 Bradleys carry the fire support teams—the guys who coordinate with artillery. Three more Bradleys carry combat engineers. Then there’s assorted specialists—guys who integrate with military intelligence, guys who fix radios, chemical warfare guys, armorers, etc. In all, those 31 tanks are directly supported by 39 additional vehicles and around 120 soldiers. The 31 tanks have a crew of four, each, or 124. (I’m not even going to try and calculate fuel consumption for all that.)
And none of this includes the supply troops, higher level HQ support, nor any attached infantry, scouts, and combat engineers for combined arms operations and security. An American tank battalion has over 500 soldiers. No idea how Ukraine will organize theirs, so let’s focus just on the tank part.
The 31 tanks will be supported by literally dozens of fuel and supply trucks ferrying everything they need to operate: fuel, lubricant, ammunition, food, water, spare parts, soldier’s kit, and everything else needed to wage war. And every kilometer this battalion pushes into Russian-occupied territory, that’s 2 additional kilometers those supply trucks have to run to keep the vanguard fed. Russia failed its initial assault because it couldn’t handle this task. It can’t be half-assed.
Furthermore, that maintenance supply line is a beast to set up. Each tank company has trucks with spare parts, and they get consumed quickly, so the battalion supply has to keep a steady flow of those parts to the company. That means the next organizational level up in Ukraine’s rear has to be on top of those consumables, ensuring a steady flow of the right parts, which means Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has to be on top of things to make sure the U.S. keeps sending the necessary parts—and quickly.
None of this is to say that Ukraine can’t do this. Of course it can. It has demonstrated time and time again an incredible ability to quickly adapt and integrate its motley assortment of Western military gear. But what it does mean is that it takes time.
The good news is that once this logistic chain is set up, it can be easier to supplement with additional tanks. Thirty-one tanks can become 62, and eventually hundreds. From a political standpoint, I wish the U.S. would announce 500 Abrams just to psych Putin out. But from a practical standpoint? Announcing more Abrams before Ukraine can support even 31 is pointless.
Union has already said ‘pause’ isn’t good enough. They want measure scrapped for strikes to stop. Netanyahu’s speech doesn’t sound like he’s minded to do that at all.
And Ben Gvir’s price for allowing this is essentially the creation of his own militia.
It’s baffling that anyone would report this as Netanyahu backing off. He’s contemptuously doubling down.
…Netanyahu praises the right wing demo which came “spontaneously, with no funding”. Implying by contrast that the protests against him are secretly funded and guided by hidden hand.
(there were ‘spontaneous’ buses organised from 30 cities, ‘unfunded’ banners from large right wing organisations…)
Israel’s labour union calls off strike after Netanyahu pauses bill
The prime minister’s decision to delay – but not abandon – his controversial judiciary bill appears to have had the intended effect on the country’s main labour union.
Hungarian parliament approves Finland’s bid to join Nato
Hungary’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join Nato, bringing the Nordic country one step closer to becoming a full member of the western military alliance.
Hungarian lawmakers voted 182 for and only six against with no abstentions, ending months of foot-dragging by the ruling Fidesz party on the issue.
With Hungary’s approval, Turkey is now the only one of Nato’s 30 members not to have ratified Finland’s accession.
The bill on Sweden’s Nato accession remains stranded in the Hungarian parliament.
In other tank news, Reuters is reporting this morning that the 18 Leopard II tanks pledged to Ukraine by Germany have arrived in the country. 40 Marder IFV’s and 2 armor recovery vehicles from Germany have also arrived.
A few other Leopards have already arrived in Ukraine — 4 from Poland and 3 from Portugal, and, just in the past week, 8 from Norway. 4 Leopards from Canada arrived in Poland last month, though it is not clear if or when they will transfer into Ukraine. Meanwhile, Finland just announced it will be adding 3 more Leopard II’s modified for mine-clearing to it’s next aid package to Ukraine. Finland had already pledged 3 of these mine-clearing tanks, so this will bring the total of those up to 6. Instead of a main gun, these are armed only with a machine gun, but outfitted with a flail mechanism used to clear mines ahead of the vehicle.
The Guardian is reporting that Ukrainian soldiers learning to use the Challenger II tank have completed their training and have returned home to Ukraine. The British MOD would not comment on the location of the 14 Challenger II tanks the UK has pledged to Ukraine, so it is unknown when they will arrive in Ukraine (or whether they may even already be there?). However, completing the training brings Ukraine one step closer to fielding these powerful main battle tanks.
14 tanks sounds like a small number, but consider that the UK has only 157 functional Challenger II’s in total, with a few dozen more that are more or less “parts vehicles” being used to keep the rest running, so 14 tanks actually represents a sizable chunk of the UK’s available store of working Challenger II’s.
Also consider that the Challenger, like the other western tanks to be sent to Ukraine (Leopard II’s and Abrams M1A1’s), are generally considered to be far superior to Russian T-72’s and T-80’s… and even more superior to the aging T-62’s and T-55’s now being sent into Ukraine by Russia. So by comparison, if well supported in the field using combined arms tactics those Challengers should be worth a far greater number of Russian tanks.
The UK is also sending 20 Bulldog Troop Carriers and 30 AS-90 self-propelled artillery guns.
The Bulldogs are upgraded FV-430 series armored vehicles and while they are lightly armed (with just a 7.62 mm machine gun that can be controlled from inside the vehicle), in the 2000’s the armor was upgraded with a reactive armor package and a better engine installed, making the vehicles faster and more nimble.
The AS-90 boasts a 155 mm gun with an effective range of 15 miles (~25 km) using standard ammunition and capable of a sustained fire rate of 2 rounds/minute, though it can burst fire up to 6 rounds/minute for up to 3 minutes. The package to Ukraine will include 45,000 155 mm shells for use with the system.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Monday called it “insane” for former President Trump to kick off his first official 2024 rally with a national anthem sung by incarcerated Jan. 6 rioters and footage featuring the insurrection.
Kilmeade on “Fox & Friends” criticized Trump for the rally’s spotlight on Jan. 6 and the former president’s focus on ongoing investigations into him, rather than on his record or on other issues important to his party.
“Instead, the president of the United States, the former president of the United States, opened up with Jan. 6 video, which is insane. He should be running from that period. I don’t care his point of view. That is not a good thing for him,” Kilmeade said. […]
Let’s check in with genius businessman Elon Musk and his genius plan to [guide] Twitter into profitability by forcing us all to spent eight dollars a month on a “product” with no discernible value:
[posted by Nicholas Grossman] Sir, Twitter is bleeding revenue, we’ve lost a lot of advertisers, we’re having trouble servicing the debt you took on, and even with your brilliant culture war “get this symbol to feel special” marketing, there haven’t been many willing to buy a check for $8. How do we fix this?
Elon Musk replies: “To get Blue Check Verified for $7/month, sign up via web at https://T.co/blue“
Worthless shit that benefits no one: now only SEVEN dollars a month!
To be fair, it appears he’s been trying to push this “discounted” price for a bit. We just happen to be making fun of it right now. […]
But surprise, but we don’t think people are going to be jumping on this one either, because the problem with the absolutely meaningless Twitter Blue “verification” system is not the cost. Hell, all that paid-for blue checkmark tells people is that somebody’s dumb enough to pay for Twitter.
But sure, Elon, good luck!
It’s been a funny few days/weeks for Twitter. People with “legacy” blue checkmarks (read: people who became verified for an actual reason) have been getting messages that say starting on April 1, their “legacy” blue checkmarks will go away, and if they want to keep them, they have to pay their monthly eight-dollar ransom to Elon. [LOL, and JFC]
Of course, paying for a blue checkmark is, again, meaningless.
Will people desperately pull out their credit cards to keep their now-meaningless checkmarks?
[Tweet at the link: “nah. yeet the fucker.”]
It has been noted that April 1 is April Fools’ Day, so it’s entirely possible this is another one of Elon’s attempts to do a “joke.”
Speaking of Elon attempting to do a “joke”:
[Hakeem Jeffries posted] House Dems are fighting hard for the American people. Right-wing extremists are fighting each other.
[Elon Musk replied] That’s what she said.
Dear God. The man can’t figure out how to do a “That’s what she said” joke. If that isn’t the saddest fucking thing we have ever seen, boy howdy. (By the way, Fox News reported that excitedly like “THERE’S OUR JOKEY GUY!”)
And of course, this weekend’s funny Twitter headline is that Elon is now valuing the company at $20 billion, which is less than half of the idiot price he paid for it last year. Elon revealed this in an email to whatever Twitter employees still are there:
The email, which was viewed by The New York Times, was sent to employees to announce a new stock compensation program. In it, Mr. Musk warned workers that Twitter remained in a precarious financial position and, at one point, had been four months away from running out of money. He said “radical changes” at the company, including mass layoffs and cost cutting, were necessary to avoid bankruptcy and streamline operations.
“Twitter is being reshaped rapidly,” Mr. Musk wrote, adding that the company could be thought of as “an inverse start-up.”
Wouldn’t an inverse start-up be like a “finish-down” or something? Whatever it is, it sounds like a winner.
Of course, that’s Elon’s number, so who knows what Twitter’s value really is. Maybe once the dust settles from all the gabillions of people rushing to sign up for Twitter Blue for seven bucks.
The New York Times adds:
Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment and an email to Twitter’s communications department was returned with a poop emoji.
Because that’s what happens now when you email Twitter’s comms department, because Twitter is a real company run by a pretty funny guy.
One more quote from the Times before we injure ourselves laughing:
Mr. Musk also said in the email that he believed Twitter could someday be worth $250 billion.
Maybe if this seven bucks thing doesn’t work out, Elon could try charging people SIX DOLLARS a month for the membership perk of NOT letting one of the Nazis he’s allowed back on the platform guest-post on your account for one day every month.
That would be about as fair and valuable as whatever he is doing right now, yes?
What about five dollars? Would you pay five dollars, and Elon will promise to tell you a new joke every month?
What about four and you also have to do a monthly Zoom chat with Elon so he doesn’t feel lonely?
In other news, here is a followup to comment 147. Readers of the article posted these comments:
Pro tip: if Elon offers you a ride on an “inverse rocket,” do NOT board that thing.
————————
If the government really wants to get rid of TikTok, they should let Elon buy it.
———————–
All the boys upstairs want to see
How much you’ll pay for
What you used to get for free
– Tom Petty
————————–
An “inverse start-up” is the economic version of “alternative facts”
[…] It was too soon for Clark to grasp the significance of what she accomplished Sunday. It was too soon for everyone, really. Incessant giggling was the best way to process her outrageous stat line: 41 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds. It was the ultimate signature performance of a young career bustling with signature performances […]
Clark considers herself “maybe a little too goofy at times,” which is a relief because we’re running out of descriptions that capture what a serious talent she is. She transformed Climate Pledge Arena into her amusement park, weaving through versatile Louisville defenders, draining step-back three-pointers, whipping passes from every angle to find shooters. It was the first 40-point triple double in NCAA tournament history. No woman or man had accomplished the feat, and Clark did it in her biggest game to date, with a Final Four at stake that she had vowed to deliver upon committing to Iowa in 2019.
“She is spectacular,” said Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder, who finally gets to take a team to the Final Four after 38 years of coaching and 850 victories. “I don’t know how else to describe what she does on the basketball court. A 40-point triple double against Louisville to go to the Final Four? Are you kidding? I mean, it’s mind-boggling.”
[…] For the game, she ended up accounting for 71 of their 97 points. Early on, Clark had to match the hot shooting of Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith, who led the Cardinals with 27 points. But for all her scoring prowess, Clark is most dangerous when she’s creating for others. She dished to McKenna Warnock, who had 17 points, and Gabbie Marshall, who finished with 14. With Magic Johnson-like flair, she led an Iowa fast break that resulted in 18 points in transition.[…]
Some analysis from Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem on the deal between Netanyahu and Ben Gvir:
Israel’s extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, backtracked on threats to resign ahead of an announcement from the prime minister, Netanyahu, that he was pausing legislation aimed at curbing the power of the country’s supreme court. In exchange, a statement from his Jewish Power party said that Netanyahu had agreed on the formation of a civil “national guard”, to be placed under his control.
On the surface, this deal sounds – to put it mildly – strange. Ben-Gvir is already in charge of Israel’s police. But Ben-Gvir has long campaigned for more gun permits for Israelis, and the threat of Palestinian attacks against Israelis is his party’s raison d’etre.
Some Israeli commentators said that the agreement amounts to giving Ben-Gvir a private militia. But in a country where reservist military service is already commonplace, it is unclear where the personnel for a national guard will come from – not to mention the funding. Also on Monday, the Knesset passed a state budget for 2023-2024, which does not factor in this latest development.
Netanyahu appears to be playing for time after nearly 24 hours of fractious negotiations with his far-right partners. The issue will not be revisited for another month, and that’s a very long time in Israeli politics.
In a statement, Yair Lapid, leader of Israel’s opposition party, said the party is willing to start talks with Netanyahu’s party again “if the legislation really does stop, genuinely and totally”.
“The state of Israel is injured and hurting. We don’t need to put a plaster over the injuries but to treat them properly,” Lapid said. “We’ve got bad experience from the past and so first, we’ll make sure there’s no tricks or bluffing here. We heard with concern yesterday the reports that Netanyahu told the people close to him that he isn’t really stopping, just trying to calm the situation.”
“If he tries anything, he’ll find hundreds of thousands of patriotic Israelis who are committed to fighting for our democracy standing opposite him, committed to be the fortification that protects the country and its democracy,” he said.
Haaretz liveblog:
Universities to resume regular activities following postponement of overhaul legislation
University heads announced a return to business as usual, effective tomorrow, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement on the postponement of the overhaul legislation and the beginning of negotiations.
“We expect that future legislation dealing with changes to the legal system will be accepted with broad agreement,” the statement said.
“If he tries anything, he’ll find hundreds of thousands of patriotic Israelis who are committed to fighting for our democracy standing opposite him, committed to be the fortification that protects the country and its democracy,” [Lapid] said.
Of course he’ll try something! He’s trying something now! All he does is try shit! What possible element of this man’s statements, actions, or history could lead anyone to believe he won’t try something?
“Former (right wing) Israel def minister Bogie Yalon accuses Netanyahu of crimes against democracy, urges Gantz not to believe in Netanyahu’s call for negotiations as anything but a fraud. says ‘defendant’ Netanyahu only fired the Minister of Defense because he told him the truth.”
Conservative Wyoming lawmakers enshrined the right to make one’s own health care decisions in 2012, and a judge is now using that to block an abortion ban.
When a Wyoming judge temporarily blocked an abortion ban last week, she did so on karmically beautiful legal grounds: Republicans hated Obamacare so much that they amended the state constitution more than a decade ago to enshrine the right to make health care decisions.
Earlier this month, lawmakers in Wyoming passed a ban on abortion “at all stages of pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest that’s reported to police, or to save a woman’s life,” as well as a separate ban on medication abortion. They also threw into the text that they don’t believe abortion is health care, per the Associated Press and the Casper Star Tribune.
Abortion rights advocates sued, citing, among other things, the state’s constitutional amendment that guarantees adults the right to make their own healthcare decisions; the one that voters passed in 2012 with nearly 77 percent support. That amendment was passed in response to the Affordable Care Act, which conservatives viewed as an “encroachment” into their medical decisions. (Ohio has a similar anti-Obamacare amendment in its state constitution, as Quinn Yeargain explained in Bolts Magazine earlier this month.)
During a hearing, Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens pointed out the fatal flaw in the state lawmakers’ argument: “An abortion can only be performed by a licensed medical professional, so what authority does the legislature have to declare that abortion is not health care?” she asked. Owens made the same case about medication abortion: “How is a doctor actually prescribing those pills not health care?”
Bethan McKernan and Quique Kierzenbaum in Jerusalem
After three months of unrelenting public pressure, the biggest protest movement in Israeli history achieved its goal: the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, finally announced a halt to his far-right government’s judicial overhaul weakening the supreme court in a televised address on Monday evening.
Proponents say the changes are needed to curb the powers of the supreme court, which plays an outsized checks-and-balances role in a country with no formal constitution and only one legislative chamber.
It is not lost on anyone that the proposals could help Netanyahu in his corruption trial, in which he denies all charges. Critics of the move say it will undermine democratic norms and the rule of law, allowing the far-right elements of Netanyahu’s coalition to press ahead with draconian measures limiting the rights of minorities, women and LGBTQ+ people.
Even as Israel grappled with nationwide upheaval, a parliamentary committee continued to push elements of the legislation forward to votes on the Knesset floor, and the far-right architects of the overhaul reiterated their determination to pass the most important elements before the Knesset breaks up for the Passover holiday on 2 April.
After a day of fractious negotiations with the prime minister’s office, the far-right coalition party Jewish Power issued a statement on Monday evening saying it had agreed to push the legislation to the next parliamentary session.
For both sides, the fight is far from over. The compromise raises the spectre of new elections if the government collapses through infighting. Many Israelis would dread that prospect: voters have been evenly split over whether Netanyahu is fit to lead the country in five polls since 2019.
After a short stint in opposition, the prime minister returned to office in December for a record-breaking sixth term after convincing three small far-right groups to run on one slate so they could clear the Knesset threshold. The move worked, giving Netanyahu’s bloc a majority of four in the 120-seat Knesset, although he won just 49.57% of the vote.
Much of the Israeli public, jaded by the endless electoral cycle, did not see the threat from the far right coming. In office, Netanyahu’s partners have proved unpalatable to the majority of the country.
Police have released additional footage from the Bricktown arrest Thursday of Oklahoma state Rep. Dean Davis, R-Broken Arrow, that shows him continue to insist officers were constitutionally prohibited from arresting him while the Legislature is in session.
In four excerpts of video footage released late Friday by the Oklahoma City Police Department, Davis, 50, is handcuffed in the backseat of a patrol car, arguing with Sgt. Timothy Brewer, after having been arrested on complaint of public intoxication at a Skinny Slim’s bar in Oklahoma City around 2:15 a.m. Thursday.
“You chose the wrong person, congratulations!” Davis can be heard telling the officer, while also claiming that he had been unfairly singled out of the group who were with him that night…
@Lynna, OM #149
Thanks for highlighting Caitlin’s incredible performance. She did all that while being constantly double and triple teamed.
Go Hawks!
Oggie: Mathomsays
#158:
Well, it is well known that the Kerch Bridge is not the safest place to be. Between explosions and really quick repairs, I’d want to get over the bridge as quickly as possible.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Article: Texas Observer, legendary crusading liberal magazine, is closing and laying off its staff
We just found out the Texas Observer is shutting down this week. Unfortunately, we found out via our friends at @texastribune.
[…]
Below is the letter the editors just sent to our Board of Directors, asking them to please allow us to try and save the Texas Observer
[…]
Bottom line: the staff […] very much want to see our publication survive into its 70th year. But that will take the support of our board AND the generosity of many.
[…]
[Follow editor Kit O’Connell at newsie.social OR kolektiva.social for updates.]
Article: GoFundMe – Help Save the Texas Observer & Fight Staff Layoffs
If the board revisits its decision to cease publication and commence layoffs, funds raised here will be donated to the Texas Democracy Foundation to provide staff pay and benefits. Otherwise, […] will be divided equally among the staff who are being laid off.
An exiled Chinese tycoon [Guo Wengui] indicted in New York earlier this month in a billion-dollar fraud case controls the conservative social media platform Gettr and used it to promote cryptocurrencies and propaganda, former employees have told The Washington Post.
A Columbia man filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft of illegally blocking a proposed citizen-driven ballot question that would have prevented lawmakers from making it harder for voters to amend the state constitution.
The lawsuit, filed by Columbia resident Harry Cooper in Cole County, argues that Ashcroft, a likely candidate for governor in 2024, unlawfully rejected Cooper’s filing, did so after a 15-day deadline and refused to provide a reason, as required by state law.
It alleges that Ashcroft’s actions create a pretext where the secretary of state could block any ballot question he does not like…
The union representing 30,000 education workers reached a tentative deal with the Los Angeles Unified School District on Friday, following a three-day strike that had closed hundreds of campuses and canceled classes for 422,000 students earlier this week.
Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents support workers in the district, said that Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the nation, had met its key demands, including a 30 percent pay increase. The deal must still be voted on by the full union.
Mayor Karen Bass announced the deal on Friday at City Hall with Max Arias, the executive director of Local 99, and Alberto Carvalho, the district superintendent.
“I am grateful that we were able to find an agreement to move forward today,” Mayor Bass said, adding, “I am hopeful that this is the beginning of a new relationship that will lead to a stronger L.A.U.S.D. and a better future for its workers and students in the years ahead.” […]
You may remember this video from February, when Ruslan Zubarev of the 92nd Mechanized Brigade took part in an intense trench battle. He and his partner eliminated four invaders and an armored personnel carrier. Today, Ruslan was awarded the “Golden Cross” by @CinC_AFU [vided at the link]
I wondered at the time why his buddy hunkered in the dugout handing off ammo, grenades, and weapons. Turns out he was concussed. As for Ruslan, he’s a kid: [photo at the link] I’m happy he survived the battle.
Ukraine keeps finding new and creative ways to kill Russian invaders.
Members of the Ukrainian 93rd Mechanized Brigade booby-trapped this building at the coordinates 48°34’45″N, 37°59’54″E. Once it was full of Russian soldiers they triggered the detonators. The result is quite remarkable. [video at the link]
Ukraine suffers devastating defeat. [Tweet and video: showing Ukrainian military trying repel a beaver attack on their positions. [video at the link, it's funny.] Watch Wagner start trapping beavers for its next offensive.
See comment 137 for the big snip of text and map info here. Updates from near the end of Sumner’s article begin below.
[snipped post about banning Belorussian and Russian athletes in the Olympic games.]
German Officials are reporting that at least 18 Leopard 2A6 Main Battle Tanks have been Delivered to Ukraine over the last several weeks; these Tanks are now Active with Mechanized and Armor Division in the West of the Country. [image at the link]
Nice.
Russia has a unique weapon with which it is able to destroy any enemy, including the United States, in case of a threat to its existence” – Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev 🤡
Apparently nuclear threats are no longer enough.
And speaking of, Russia’s decision to place nuclear weapons on Belarus is so stupid, I don’t understand why people are so riled up. Russia has hypersonic missiles with nuclear warheads. If it wants to strike Western targets, it can literally hit any of them at any time. Placing nukes on Belorussian soil gives it zero additional capability, other than to say “the U.S. also has nuclear bombs in Turkey, Germany, and Belgium!” Yes, we do. Great. A nuclear bomb is a nuclear bomb. If one is used, bid adieu to our planet. It doesn’t matter where it was originally stationed.
Hungary has ratified Finland’s ascension in NATO, and Turkey has indicated it will soon follow. Sweden is dealing with some bullshit that will likely have to wait until after Turkey’s election (and hopefully Recep Erdogan’s defeat).
For Mark, since he loves Patron so much: [Tweet and image at the link:
Will Orlando Bloom play @PatronDsns in the newest Hollywood franchise centered on the exploits of the world’s most famous Ukrainian dog? These are merely rumors. In the meantime, Patron shared his vision of a modern-cinema Hero with the popular British actor. 📸 Unicef Ukraine
Patron will be the star no matter who else is in the movie.
StevoRsays
The innermost and thus likely hottest* planet of Trappist 1 which we already expected wouldn’t be habitable – remarkable that we can learn about its lack of atmosphere and still hopeful for the world’s further out esp e & f :
Albeit its lack of atmosphere may mean another further world here that does have an atmosphere could be even hotter eg Venus vs Mercury temps~wise.
StevoRsays
Whyever does this blog eat asterisks? Sigh. Oh well, y’all get the gist I hope. See also & take II for clarity / multiple sources :
The first results from JWST, published today in the journal Nature, indicate the system’s inner-most planet is a scorching ball of rock with no detectable atmosphere. Thomas Greene of NASA’s AMES Research Center and colleagues studied infrared irradiation emanating from TRAPPIST-1b “We found [the planet] to be very hot, in fact, so hot that it’s only consistent with no atmosphere or a very, very thin atmosphere,” …(snip).. Dr Greene said.If TRAPPIST-1b turned out to have an atmosphere, that would have meant other planets in its solar system would definitely have atmospheres. “If they’d found something, that would have been really quite shocking,” Dr Pope said. But, he said, these results are a taste of what’s to come.
“I think the subsequent TRAPPIST-1 results are going to be much more exciting, because they could resolve much deeper controversies relevant to life in the universe.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukraine is aiming to exhaust and inflict heavy losses on Russian forces trying to capture the small eastern city of Bakhmut, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said in a video posted on Tuesday.
In a video showing him addressing soldiers in what appeared to be a large industrial warehouse, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russia was continuing to focus on the Bakhmut area after months of battle.
Moscow sees capturing Bakhmut as vital in its efforts to establish complete control over the Donbas industrial region in eastern Ukraine.
“They do not stop trying to surround and capture the city,” Reuters report Syrskyi said in the video posted on the Telegram messaging app.
“As of today, our main task is to wear down the overwhelming forces of the enemy and inflict heavy losses on them. It will create the necessary conditions to help liberate Ukrainian land and speed up our victory.”
Bakhmut had a prewar population of about 70,000 people but the city has been virtually destroyed in about eight months of intense fighting, often at close quarters.
Syrskyi has been meeting troops near the frontline as Ukraine prepares for a possible counteroffensive after 13 months of war. He said on Monday the defence of Bakhmut was a military necessity.
Syrskyi said his visits to meet troops near the frontline were needed for him and his commanders to agree on plans that would have “real results on the battlefield but not on the maps”.
Russian forces launched 24 airstrikes, 12 missile strikes and carried out 55 attacks from rocket salvo systems in the last 24 hours, according the latest update from the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.
Nearly 4,400 Ukrainian orphans and children [?] are currently held “deprived of parental care” in Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk.
Vereshchuk accused Russia of concealing information about the children, and said Kyiv had deployed a wide range of government agencies to supply evidence to the international criminal court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.
She added:
There’s already enough evidence. We hope our efforts and pressure from the international community will speed up the process of returning our children.
At least 39 people have been killed and 29 injured in a fire that spread through an immigration detention centre in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, near the US border.
Images from the scene showed rows of bodies lying under silver sheets outside the facility in the city across the US border from El Paso, Texas. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from a morgue could also be seen.
The toll of dead and injured was given by an official with Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, which runs the facility. No cause has been given for the cause of the fire.
Ciudad Juárez is a popular crossing point for migrants entering the US. Its shelters host migrants waiting for opportunities to cross or who have requested asylum in the US.
Mexico’s attorney general’s office has launched an inquiry and has investigators at the scene, according to media reports.
Here’s a link to today’s France 24 liveblog covering the tenth day of mobilization:
Nearly two weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron rammed pension reforms through parliament, hundreds of thousands of people are set to take part in strikes and demonstrations across France on Tuesday. The day of action called by unions is the tenth such mobilisation since protests erupted in mid-January against the law, which includes raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Follow FRANCE 24’s live coverage of the protests….
From there:
Reporting outside a Paris university, FRANCE 24’s Clovis Casali says students arrived early this morning to place garbage bins, bikes and trash to prevent access to the university. High schools and universities across France will be shut down, says Casali, as students and teachers join the tenth day of nationwide strikes.
Following violent clashes between protesters and police on March 23, which injured 441 security officials [doubtful] and resulted in 457 arrests, security forces are on high alert.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Monday said authorities have recently noticed a trend towards more violence directed against the state [sure] and were anticipating a “very serious risk to public order” at today’s demonstrations.
A total of 13,000 police agents [[including, no doubt, a sizeable number of agents provocateurs] will be deployed during the protests throughout the day, more than ever before, Darmanin said.
Laurent Berger, the head of France’s largest union, the CFDT, said the violence was a distraction.
“What angers me is that this violence, which I condemn…overshadows the formidable mobilisation which has been overwhelmingly peaceful,” Berger said.
President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity has fallen sharply over the past month, according to an Odoxa poll for Public Sénat, France’s Senate TV channel, with only 30% of respondents believing that he is a “good president of the Republic”….
The focus today, according to French political analyst Jean-Christophe Gallien, is the “battle of the narrative” on street violence.
…
The government’s main political agenda, according to Gallien, is to “try to break up the unity of the unions and try to hook Mr. Berger of the CFDT,” he explained, referring to CFDT union chief Laurent Berger.
CFDT, France’s moderate and largest union, has joined forces with more hardline unions, such as the CGT – unlike past labour mobilisations. Now comes the hard part of maintaining unity…
Latest figures from the education ministry says 8.37% of French teachers are striking today, including 7.60% in primary schools and 9.13% in secondary schools.
On Monday, the Snuipp-FSU, the leading union in nursery and elementary schools, estimated that 30% of primary school teachers would strike today.
On March 23, the last mobilisation day, 21.41% of teachers went on strike, including 23.22% in primary schools and 19.61% in secondary schools, according to education ministry figures.
High schools and universities were blocked early Tuesday in several towns and cities, including Paris, Avignon, Lille and Marseille.
The Eiffel Tower is closed due to the strike, according to authorities. “Due to the national strike, the Eiffel Tower is currently closed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Access to the grounds around France’s iconic site remains open and free. Visitors with e-tickets for today should check their emails, according to the official Eiffel Tower site.
Large crowds are starting to gather at the Place de la République, Paris, at the start of a march this afternoon, says FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent.
Anger at President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform shows no sign of abating, with protests, strikes and unrest set to continue and both sides digging in their heels. To shed some light on the current stand-off, FRANCE 24 looks back at the last times the unions successfully forced the government to U-turn on changing the system: over pension reform in 1995 and over a youth labour law reform in 2006….
Here’s a link to France 24’s French-language liveblog:
L’épreuve de force se poursuit. La France connaît mardi 28 mars une nouvelle journée de mobilisation nationale contre la réforme des retraites. Près de 150 rassemblements ou manifestations sont prévus partout dans le pays alors que le gouvernement, comme les organisations syndicales opposées au projet, campent sur le position….
Les opposants à la réforme des retraites manifestent de nouveau partout en France mardi, pour une dixième journée d’action à haut risque, cinq jours seulement après la précédente marquée par un regain de mobilisation et ternie par de nombreux débordements. Les précisions d’Erwan Lecoeur, sociologue et politologue, spécialiste de l ‘extrême-droite.
…Pourtant, comme lors des neuf précédentes journées de mobilisation, ni Marine Le Pen, ni Jordan Bardella, ni Laure Lavalette, ni Sébastien Chenu, ni aucune figure notable du Rassemblement national ne sera présente mardi dans les cortèges. Car la stratégie du RN relève du double jeu : s’opposer à la réforme des retraites du bout des lèvres tout en apparaissant comme le parti de l’ordre aux yeux des Français.
…
C’est ainsi qu’après avoir longtemps réclamé un référendum sur la réforme des retraites, Marine Le Pen a appelé à la dissolution de l’Assemblée nationale après l’utilisation du 49.3 et le rejet des motions de censure….
Mais à côté de ce discours très critique vis-à-vis de l’exécutif, Marine Le Pen n’appelle pas à la grève, ne participe pas aux manifestations et condamne les blocages….
La stratégie du Rassemblement national dans la rue est en tout point semblable à celle employée à l’Assemblée nationale lors des débats sur la réforme des retraites et, plus largement, depuis le début de la législature à l’été 2022. Avec le dépôt de quelque 200 amendements seulement, les 88 députés RN sont apparus en retrait des débats qui ont fait rage dans l’hémicycle. Même la majorité, avec près de 600 amendements, a davantage voulu modifier le texte du gouvernement que les élus d’extrême droite.
…
Résultat : les sondages indiquent que le Rassemblement national est la force politique qui profite le mieux de la crise politique et sociale….
You’d hope people could see through this bullshit.
One of the most compelling clues as to the origins of a once-in-a-century pandemic was uploaded without announcement – without being noticed for weeks – on a scientific database. And then, just as suddenly, it vanished from public view.
The genetic data, from swabs taken at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, in the weeks after Covid-19 first emerged, was available online for only a few weeks: just long enough for a Parisian scientist to stumble upon it while working from her couch on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month.
Florence Débarre tells Michael Safi how she came to understand the significance of the data – and how it bolsters the theory that the most compelling case for Covid’s first jump from animals to people is that it happened at the market.
As the Guardian’s Ian Sample explains, the market theory of Covid has long been the favoured explanation from scientists. But recently, US government agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Energy have made statements arguing for the theory that Covid may have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. Joe Biden has ordered the declassification of relevant evidence that may support that theory – one initially, and still, endorsed by Donald Trump.
…More than a year into an invasion that, according to Russian planning, was supposed to take weeks, Vladimir Putin’s government is putting society on a war footing with the west and digging in for a multi-year conflict.
Speaking at length to workers at an aviation factory in the Buryatia region recently, Putin once again cast the war as an existential battle for Russia’s survival.
“For us, this is not a geopolitical task, but a task of the survival of Russian statehood, creating conditions for the future development of the country and our children,” the president said.
It followed a pattern of recent speeches, said the political analyst Maxim Trudolyubov, in which the Russian leader has increasingly shifted towards discussing what observers have called a “forever war” with the west.
“Putin has practically stopped talking about any concrete aims of the war. He proposes no vision of what a future victory might look like either. The war has no clearcut beginning nor a foreseeable end,” Trudolyubov said.
During Putin’s closely watched “state of the nation” speech last month, the Russian leader repeated some of the many grievances he holds against the west, stressing that Moscow was fighting for national survival and would ultimately win.
The thinly veiled message to the people, Trudolyubov said, was that the war in Ukraine would not be ending anytime soon and that Russians must learn to live with it.
…
“The country has gone mad,” said Aleksei, a former history teacher at an elite boarding school outside Moscow who recently quit after a disagreement with management over the new “patriotic” curriculum. “I had to stop talking to colleagues and friends. We are living in different realities,” he said.
But while hundreds of thousands of Russians have been silenced or fled the country, a vocal group of war supporters have embraced the country’s new direction.
They too have noted the growing costs of the conflict, but are calling for greater public buy-in while increasingly portraying the war as a global battle with Europe and the US.
At a Moscow launch event in mid-March for the “International Movement of Russophiles,” a group backed by Russia’s foreign ministry and heavily populated with fringe European activists and conspiracy theorists, the message was dire.
“We are not just seeing neo-Nazism, we are seeing direct nazism, which is covering more and more European countries,” said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, during a speech.
Konstantin Malofeev, a conservative oligarch who was sanctioned by the US in 2014 for “threatening Ukraine and providing financial support to the Donetsk separatist region,” said: “We have not seen such hatred since after Russian soldiers ended the war with the victory in Berlin. We stopped that war and now we, the victors, are once again facing the fact that it has risen up from hell against us.”
Yet there were few direct allusions to the situation on the front in Ukraine, and on the sidelines of the conference, some spoke about Russia’s difficult progress and the costs of the war.
“Not everyone in this country yet understands what we’re going to have to pay to win this war,” said Alexander Dugin, a radical Russian philosopher and prominent supporter of the war. “People in our country have to pay for their love for Russia with their lives. It’s serious and we weren’t ready for this.”…
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited Ukraine’s northern Sumy region during his tour of areas of the country that have felt the brunt of Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskiy met officials and local residents in the city of Okhtyrka, which saw fierce battles last year but was never occupied, and Trostianets, which was occupied by Russian forces for a month and liberated in March 2022, Associated Press reports.
Over the past seven days, the Ukrainian leader has visited the Kherson and Kharkiv regions, parts of which were retaken last year from Russia, to the front line area near Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, and to Zaporizhzhia in the south….
A Russian man who was investigated by police after his 12-year-old daughter drew a picture depicting Russian bombing a family in Ukraine has been sentenced to two years in a penal colony, according to a rights group.
Alexei Moskalyov, a single parent from the town of Yefremov, 150 miles south of Moscow, was convicted on Tuesday of discrediting the armed forces, the OVD-Info rights group said.
He has been separated from his daughter Maria since he was placed under house arrest and she was taken into a state-run shelter last month.
Moskalyov was convicted over comments he himself had posted online about the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports. But the investigation last April when Maria, a sixth-grader, refused to participate in a patriotic class at her school and made several drawings showing rockets being fired at a family standing under a Ukrainian flag and another that said “Glory to Ukraine!”.
School officials summoned the police, who questioned the girl and threatened her father. Moskalyov was subsequently fined about £350 for a post online in which he characterised the Russian army as “rapists”. The remarks came in the wake of revelations of alleged war crimes committed against civilians at Bucha in Ukraine.
The case has provoked an outcry among Russian human rights activists and sparked an online campaign to reunite father and daughter, and the banned rights group Memorial said it considered Moskalyov to be a political prisoner.
StevoRsays
@ ^ SC (Salty Current) : yes. Yes I would. Many do. But enough?
Yet it is so transparent, so blatant, so obvs.. yet.. for f.. pitie sake.
@166-167 : Not that this is the first Super-Mercury type world spinning around a red dwarf sun we’ve found :
Maxine Doogan and Tara Burns, contributors to a report, “How the War on Sex Work Is Stripping Your Privacy Rights,” on how cops are snooping on sex workers and using what they learn to spy on the rest of us. David Broder, author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren, discusses the fascist heritage behind Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and her party.
Labour’s governing body has voted to ban Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate at the next election.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) voted 22 to 12 to approve a motion from Sir Keir Starmer to prevent Labour endorsing Mr Corbyn. There is no appeal within Labour’s process.
Mr Corbyn is suspended from being a Labour MP and sits as an independent following a row over antisemitism.
On Monday, the former Labour leader said he was “not going anywhere”.
The BBC understands that Jeremy Corbyn is considering running as an independent candidate in Islington North.
Mr Corbyn criticised the Labour leader, claiming Sir Keir “has broken his commitment to respect the rights of Labour members and denigrated the democratic foundations of our party”, in a statement issued on Monday.
“I joined the Labour Party when I was 16 years old because, like millions of others, I believed in a redistribution of wealth and power,” he added.
“Our message is clear: we are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.”
Last month, Sir Keir announced that Mr Corbyn would not be a Labour candidate, confirming months of speculation.
The NEC has the power to endorse, or not endorse, a candidate selected for election….
Do they have to call him “Sir Keir”? Is that a rule?
Earlier we reported that a Russian man who was investigated by police after his 12-year-old daughter drew a picture depicting Russian bombing a family in Ukraine had reportedly been sentenced to two years in prison.
It appears that the whereabouts of the convicted man, Alexei Moskalyov, are unclear. Court officials have said the 54-year-old fled house arrest overnight, and was not present for the outcome of his trial. He had been wearing a bracelet that tracked his movements but apparently had taken it off.
Moskalyov’s lawyer, Vladimir Biliyenko, told reporters after the hearing today that he learned of his client’s disappearance at the court hearing. He said he had not seen his client since Monday and did not know whether Moskalyov had fled.
He told Reuters:
At the moment, to be honest, I’m in a state of shock.
He said the defence would appeal against the court’s verdict and that Moskalyov’s daughter, Maria, would remain in a state-run shelter for the time being.
Ukraine’s frontline city of Avdiivka “is being wiped off the face of the Earth” amid intensifying Russian shelling, according to its top local official. Russian forces have been making recent gradual gains on the flanks of Avdiivka, and the Ukrainian military said last week that the city could become a “second Bakhmut”. Starting on Sunday, the city’s utilities will begin to be shut off as “more and more of the town is shelled and destroyed daily,” said Vitaliy Barabash, the city’s military administration head.
In an attempt to break the impasse on Tuesday, moderate CFDT union chief Laurent Berger proposed “mediation” in an attempt to find a compromise. But the proposal was immediately dismissed by the government….
Opposition party leaders on the left were quick to criticise the government’s refusal to pause reform plans to allow time for mediation. The Macron government said last week that it was willing to talk to unions – but on other topics, not on pension reform….
While Netanyahu wrote a short, defiant speech “pausing” legislation & everyone else exhaled, the government rushed his flagship bill to stuff the Judicial Appointments Cmte through Knesset procedures & it could be voted on & passed into law AT ANY MOMENT.
(Just as a side note, I don’t care for the use of “defiant” to describe the actions of powerful people like Netanyahu or Putin. His speech in response to a popular uprising against his authoritarianism was arrogant, scornful, and aggressive, not defiant. MSNBC had a chyron this morning: “Trump speaks out amid investigations.” I think “speaks out” should be reserved for people who have generally remained quiet, not those speaking loudly and incessantly.)
lumipunasays
Re: Guardian news via SC at 142:
Hungarian parliament approves Finland’s bid to join Nato
Hungary’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join Nato, bringing the Nordic country one step closer to becoming a full member of the western military alliance.
Hungarian lawmakers voted 182 for and only six against with no abstentions, ending months of foot-dragging by the ruling Fidesz party on the issue.
In other words, an almost unanimous vote, after numerous announcements of delay, with Prime Minister Orban handwaving something about the issue being “divisive” in the parliament, while Hungarian politicians and and political experts struggled to explain to Finnish media what was supposed to be divisive about it.
With Hungary’s approval, Turkey is now the only one of Nato’s 30 members not to have ratified Finland’s accession.
Turkish parliament in Ankara is supposedly preparing to ratify Finland any day now. At this point, Finnish reporters are basically camping outside the parliament building, stalking in doorways and behind windows. Meanwhile, as Turkey recovers from devastating earthquake and prepares for a major election, Turkish MPs could hardly care less about Finland’s Nato accession.
The bill on Sweden’s Nato accession remains stranded in the Hungarian parliament.
Just in case it wasn’t entirely clear that Orban/Fidesz is playing some weird game, probably pandering to Russia, but only as long as Turkey takes the diplomatic heat that comes from from posturing and threatening to block the Nato expansion.
TBI Director David Rausch: “Now I know there will be people who want to criticize us for prayers, but that’s the way we do that in the south, right. We believe in prayer and we believe in the power of prayer, and so our prayers go out to these families.”
The link (with a video) is to a post responding that “If prayers were worth a shit it seems we wouldn’t be having this conversation again today.” It made me think of this NBN episode from yesterday: Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd, Southern Beauty: Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South. The author argues that the rituals surrounding a specific ideal of white femininity help perpetuate a harmful Southern regional identity.
This is similar, and I see it all the time on the HCA reddit: a hostility to any actual measures to prevent needless death and suffering joined to a constantly performed and enforced religious/regional identity based on irrational faith and prayer. And as with the “Southern Beauty,” this is the flip side of the more openly violent elements of regional identity, in this case related to gun ownership and use.
And you can hear the self-martyrdom even in this short clip with the suggestion that they have to preemptively defend themselves from those nasty Northerners. Imagine standing near the bodies of dead children and making it about your own regional identity. (Not to mention that this is the director of a state law-enforcement agency publicly making claims about the identity of his state and region that exclude nonbelievers and even believers who are tired of this whole ritualized performance.)
“This may be the most ‘honest’ cop out answers from one of these murder-supporting, kid-killing, ammosexual gundamentalists yet. It should be a dealbreaker. It’ll barely even get noticed.”
On Monday, a 28-year-old armed with two assault rifles and a handgun broke into a Nashville school and murdered three 9-year-old children and three adults, just the latest deadly school shooting in the United States of America. Republicans are offering a different response than their usual, because of one fact: The shooter is reportedly transgender.
The U.S. has school shooting after school shooting, and Republicans respond with thoughts and prayers and obstruction of meaningful gun laws. But let one shooter be trans, and it’s time for action—action against trans people.
“How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted. “Everyone can stop blaming guns now.” Hormones did not kill those six people—guns did—yet Greene’s apparent implication is that medical care was responsible for the shooting. Meanwhile, Tennessee has banned gender-affirming care for trans youth, although research shows that gender-affirming care dramatically reduces suicide risk in trans and nonbinary youths.
I am just at a loss when it comes to responding to this level of malignant nonsense from Republicans.
Donald Trump, Jr. weighed in. So did Sen. J.D. Vance, writing, “We’re still learning about the horrific shooting in Nashville. But if early reports are accurate that a trans shooter targeted a Christian school, there needs to be a lot of soul searching on the extreme left. Giving in to these ideas isn’t compassion, it’s dangerous.”
Here’s the thing. We don’t know much about the shooter. What we do know is that the shooter’s name was Audrey Hale, and he went by he/him pronouns. We know he was a former student of the private Christian school he attacked, and that access to guns undeniably enabled him to do it.
Most mass shooters, at schools and in other locations, are cisgender males. In fact, at least 95% of mass shootings are perpetrated by cisgender men, according to analysis by Mother Jones magazine dating back to 1982, and a Violence Project analysis dating back to 1966. That a mass shooter is a cisgender man is basically taken for granted at this point. But what they all have in common is the guns they use to murder with.
That’s not going to stop the Republican hate campaign, an effort to distract from the guns and point a finger instead at the shooter’s gender identity. […]
News of a “manifesto” is big among Republicans, even though we have no reliable public reporting on what that manifesto might have said, and despite the fact that Republicans have repeatedly dismissed shooters’ manifestos when they reveal far-right influences. It is by now an article of faith on the right that this was a hate crime against Christians (again, remember that the shooter attended the Covenant School) by a trans person. [JFC] Citing a right-wing tweet about a supposed “Trans Day of Vengeance,” Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted, “This kind of hateful rhetoric – ‘genocide’ and ‘day of vengeance’ – must be condemned. The hate crime massacre in Nashville exposes where rhetoric like this can lead.”
The original tweet has since been taken down, but Hawley’s baseless observations remain. Hawley, by the way, was the lone Senate vote against a hate crimes bill. But now he’s all concerned about hate crimes.
“Transgender people are actually those among us who are more likely to be the target of violent hate crimes across the country every day—because of this very kind of demonization—and the actions of GOP politicians and MAGA commentators will only further embolden the hate that leads to violence,” Michelangelo Signorile wrote.
[…] Republicans are rushing to take one little sliver of the available information and construct a whole new branch of their ongoing campaign against trans people while conducting their well-practiced rejection of the thing we do know every single time we watch the aftermath of a mass shooting—that it happened because of virtually unfettered access to guns in this country.
Six innocent people are dead, three of them children. And it was not the shooter’s gender identity that sent bullets speeding into their bodies.
This article is accompanied by a photo with the caption: “This is a destroyed school at Vyry, Ukraine. It’s not now, and never has been, near the front lines. It’s just one of many locations Russia is destroying with artillery or missiles fired from across the border. 25 March 2023”
Challenger 2 is in the house. And it’s starting to be a pretty full house. [tweet and video at the link, shows Challenger 2 tanks in action.]
All the players—Challenger 2, Leopard 1 and 2, AMX-10rc, Bradley fighting vehicles—are starting to arrive. The first M1 Abrams won’t be coming until late summer, early fall at the earliest, but the rest of the Western gear that had been promised to Ukraine following a meeting of NATO leaders last fall is moving into position. The numbers of such equipment remain relatively low, but at this point Ukraine could certainly outfit a handful of armor companies with a very interesting and potentially powerful set of tanks and supporting vehicles.
At the same time, hundreds or thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have been training on this equipment are returning to the country. So are thousands more that have been in locations across Europe training with NATO forces on Western tactics.
But does this mean Ukraine is ready to go with a spring counteroffensive?
Presumably, Ukraine has been working over the last four months to design the structure of the units that will incorporate these tanks and armored vehicles. They have surely also been putting in place the logistical chains necessary to keep these weapons in the field. Both of those efforts will mean that thousands more Ukrainian soldiers and officers have been away from the fight over the winter, preparing for the moment when these forces rolled out.
In addition to Western tanks, Ukraine has also received an infusion of updated Soviet-era tanks from nations across Europe. Keeping up those levels is critical—even though the modern tanks may be regarded as much more capable, they’re also critically rare.
Back in February, the International Institute for Strategic Studies took a look at Russia’s tank losses in Ukraine. Their estimate was that Russia had lost around 40% of its entire pre-war tank fleet and around 50% of its mainstay, the T-72. In a sense, despite the delivery of aging T-62 and T-54 tanks to the battlefield, Russia’s tank fleet is actually getting newer … because so many of the old tanks are being picked off that it makes the new tanks a higher percentage of what remains. That certainly doesn’t mean the new tanks are invulnerable, or even significantly less vulnerable, to anti-tank weapons. [Tweet and video at the link]
At this point, Oryx reports that Russia has lost at least 460 T-80 class tanks and at least 58 T-90 tanks. There were never that many of these tanks to begin with. The total number of T-90 before the invasion began was estimated to be around 400. The fact that the one burning above is a T-90S says something, because this is an export model. Russia is dipping into tanks it had built for sale to someone else to support its own military.
Even so, after everything that’s happened, Russia still has around 2,000 functional tanks. Almost all of them—so many that it’s not clear Russia could mount a tank company anywhere else in the world—are in Ukraine.
The Challenger 2 is an amazing tank. It may have the record for the longest-distance tank kill in history. It also notched a 200+ to 0 record against Iraq tanks in the Gulf War. Those Iraqi tanks were a mixture of T-54, T-62, and T-72 (including a version made locally in Iraq), with a scattering of other vehicles, including U.S. tanks from the 1950s. Iraq also had a weirdly high number of old Soviet PT-76 amphibious light tanks, a relic of a period in which Saddam Hussein waged war on the “marsh Arabs” within his own country and drained the vast Mesopotamian Marshes that had supported civilization in the region for better than 6,000 years.
Anyway … the Challenger 2 plowed through these Iraqi tanks without taking a single loss, and that is impressive. But it did so on the basis of three things: First, the Iraqi tank operators were almost all poorly trained and undersupplied; second, their tanks were poorly maintained and often poorly positioned to meet the British assault; third, the number of British tanks involved in the attack often meant they outnumbered the Iraqi force in the area.
There are pretty good arguments to be made that the first two of those factors also apply in Ukraine. Right now, some of the Russians sitting in those just arrived T-54 tanks are going to be sitting there staring at unfamiliar controls, or watching a half-assed instructional video on YouTube. But that third fact, the sheer numbers factor, is still not with Ukraine, in spite of all the Russian losses.
Imagine an army that consists of two hundred … let’s say, Jackie Chan clones. That army faces off with two hundred average guys, marches straight ahead, and high kicks, throat punches, comically destroys the entire opposing force without a loss. “Wow,” you say, “these Jackie Chans, they’re so much better than a regular guy.” And they are, but they are not invulnerable. Put a couple of Jackie Chans on the ground against the same two hundred regular guys, and they’re going to be downed soon (assuming Team Regular Guy doesn’t have to follow the martial arts movie rules of lining up to attack one at a time).
That’s kind of where Ukraine is with all their Western tanks. Right now, they can make a company of Challenger 2, they can make a company or two of Leopard 2s. Only Russia still has 2,000 tanks in Ukraine. Many of them may be legitimately bad tanks. All of them may be worse tanks. But what Ukraine doesn’t want to do is send out 14 Jackie Chans only to see them run into 200 regular guys. Even a win in such circumstances would likely come at too high a cost.
What Ukraine certainly wants to do—other than convincing the U.S. and others to send a lot more gear—is to shepherd these resources to generate maximum impact. This is why many people doubt the “drive everything into Bakhmut” scenario. But hey, if you can get Russia to move even more people and equipment to Bakhmut to brace for that big counteroffensive … it just makes every other point of the line weaker.
When Twitter began adding blue checkmarks after the names of some users, it had a simple purpose: they were there as a benefit to the Twitter community. The checkmarks ensured that the person behind the tweet, whether a well-known actor, an author, or a journalist, was who they claimed to be. It was intended to limit the ability of just anyone to hop onto Twitter, sign up as @TomHanks39872, and start peddling megavitamins or spreading false claims about actions at some studio.
The wide use of Twitter, not as traditional social media in terms of “Hey, look at these cute puppy photos,” but as a primary way in which reporters used the platform to release breaking news added tremendously to the value of Twitter, both as a community and a company. For years, the first place people learned about events, from school shootings to FDA announcements to military movements in Ukraine, has been Twitter. The role the platform has played is unique and valuable. Not because of the one-liners, nasty exchanges, or quirky animal videos, all of which certainly exist, but because of the way Twitter had become a “meta news source,” where individuals, media outlets, and wire services all competed to get breaking news in front of human eyes. […]
The previous system of checkmarks served that system by allowing quick verification of sources and information quality. The ease with which disinformation can be propagated through social networks has always been extremely high. The verification system at Twitter represented at least something of a small dike against the rising seas of propaganda.
But now Elon Musk hasn’t just torn down this wall; he’s flipped it on its head. The actions he is taking now at Twitter turn it into a disinformation delivery service for hire. And it’s obvious he’s doing this on purpose.
[…] The ease with which false accounts gained “verified” status was ludicrous, and some of the resulting tweets were hilarious. However, what they represented was a pure reversal of the whole idea of verification.
[…] Under the new version, the system exists as a revenue stream for Twitter, offering a pipeline to distribute information for direct cash payments.
This has not gone unnoticed. As The Washington Post reported last month:
Accounts pushing Kremlin propaganda are using Twitter’s new paid verification system to appear more prominently on the global platform, another sign that Elon Musk’s takeover is accelerating the spread of politically charged misinformation […]
Twitter blue account, $8 a month. Influencing U.S. opinion on the war and providing Republican politicians with false information to use in cutting back assistance to Ukraine? Priceless.
Musk has boosted one of the accounts by replying to its tweets, including one spreading a lie that thousands of NATO troops had died in Ukraine.
Now, following the latest announcements from Musk, things are about to get much, much worse.
This is the Twitter account of the author and senior New York Times war correspondent Carlotta Gall. That account doesn’t have a blue checkmark, probably because Gall never asked for one and her 20K followers failed to rise to a level that caused Twitter’s verification team to check out who was behind the account. However, Gall’s on-the-ground reporting from Ukraine frequently brings her into contact with front-line soldiers and military leadership, and her typical post draws thousands of views from fellow journalists and the public.
This is the Twitter account of Geroman, the unofficial voice of Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in Ukraine. He routinely passes along Russian propaganda videos, claims about “Ukrainian Nazis,” false reports about Russian advances in Ukraine, and claims that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the result of a CIA plan to invade Russia. He also helps spread false claims about U.S. elections and plenty of anti-gay, anti-trans propaganda. Following the recent shooting in Nashville, his account was a clearinghouse for posts that claimed the shooter was connected to everything from Democratic politicians to NATO.
Geroman’s account has a Twitter Blue checkmark because he pays for it.
Starting next month, anyone using the default view of Twitter, the “for you” view, will never see posts from Carlotta Gall. They will see tweets from Geroman because only those with the paid-for Twitter blue checkmark will be visible outside their group of followers.
There are many other unverified accounts that have become among the most authoritative voices on the war, [examples at the link] Not one of them has “Twitter Blue.” They will all be made invisible […] over the coming days.
Musk is promoting this as “the only way” to keep the service from being overrun by bots. There is another way, of course: a dedicated team of community moderators and a dedicated effort to seek out and stop bot farms even before they get going. You may have noticed that Daily Kos is not overrun by bots. In fact, many readers at Daily Kos may go weeks or months before encountering a single example of an obvious promotional post or clear disinformation. The reason for that is simple: a dedicated team in both IT and community moderation shoots down most bot attempts before they can get a single AI tentacle into the group.
Twitter had such a team. Musk didn’t just fire them; he turned their efforts to improve the quality of information on the service into something he could frame as a “crime.” Because, as everyone is well aware, facts have an anti-right bias. [LOL]
What Musk is doing is simple:
– the previous verification system was a service to Twitter users that generated long-term revenue by increasing the quality of information available.
– the new verification system serves to amplify disinformation by those willing to pay for a voice, reducing the value of information on Twitter in exchange for short-term revenue.
Journalists can, of course, step out of invisibility by paying for Twitter blue, and some outlets and individuals may choose to do this. But it will only put them on par with this [Example of propaganda tweet with lies and a video]
That’s an account spreading false claims that Russia had captured a German-made Leopard 2 tank with a crew of “Polish mercenaries” on board. It’s a story designed to not only create the impression that Russian military actions in Ukraine are unstoppable, but promote the idea that NATO forces are directly involved. It’s also a story that was published at a point when there were no Leopard 2 tanks in Ukraine.
It’s exactly the kind of “news” that will now be not just available, but preferentially distributed, on Twitter. […]
Musk bought a service that, for all its faults, had grown into a key component of news distribution in the United States and around the world. He’s converted it into a highway for disinformation, with preferred placement available for a price.
The Washington Post scrapes up a little more information on what the pro-Trump, sedition-backing conspiracy funnel Ginni Thomas has been up in the past few years. It looks like one of her side projects, when she wasn’t Actively Conspiring To Overthrow The United States Government, was a new group called “Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty.”
As the name already suggests, if you’re familiar with far-right conspiracy groups, it is (or was?) a new group devoted to waging “a cultural battle against the left,” as the Post puts it. The “Crowdsourcers” part appears to be either a nod to the project’s astroturfy roots or a hint that the group would focus on the sort of “crowdsourced” hate attacks on random not-conservative Americans that individual online accounts like “Libs of TikTok” have made new careers out of.
[…] The Post’s scoop is that this new Thomas-led group had nearly $600,000 funneled to it between 2019-2022 from anonymous conservative donors. It was funneled through conservative think tank Capital Research Center, which agreed to temporarily host the new similarly aligned group during its startup phase. That’s not an uncommon relationship among these sort of think tanks and ideological groups, notes the Post, but what that really means is that no matter how many of these ratty little things pop up, it’s almost always the same conservative donors, lobbyists, and activists behind all of them.
Sharing office space makes sense when almost every new astroturf group is headed up by the same groups of professional astroturfers. […]
Based on Ginni Thomas’ own promotion of the group, some of the captains of conservatism purported to be involved in the group’s launch included coup-linked Trump White House lawyer Cleta Mitchell, disgraced propaganda producer James O’Keefe, and conservative propaganda pioneer Richard Viguerie, the man who invented direct-mail shitposting long before the internet version existed. But it also sounds like Thomas was perhaps fibbing about all of their involvement, given that Mitchell denied it and the other two refused to talk.
Other names the Post was able to dig up: aspirational fascist Charlie Kirk; a Breitbart News executive; and Allen Freaking West. See, this is what I mean: All of these little groups are just new combinations of the same hundred or so conspiracy-riddled far-right cranks, all propped up by the same handful of ultra-rich donors, all self-promoting each other’s efforts all the time in one big [extremely redacted pornographic scene involving every conservative figure you know].
I suspect this is also why conservatives can so rapidly coalesce around similar or identical talking points whenever anything happens in the news, ever. There’s like a hundred people in the whole damn movement, at least when it comes to top leadership positions, and every last damn one of them knows everyone else’s phone number. […]
As for what happened to “Crowdsourcers,” which from Ginni Thomas’ description is or was a 100% paranoia-based outfit modeled after the folds of Thomas’ own conspiracy-pushing brain, referencing “cultural Marxism” and an “oppressed” conservative “minority,” […] It may still exist, but be dormant. It may have petered out after the initial cash infusion. And if Ginni Thomas was herself paid anything from those funds, she and her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, never disclosed it.
It doesn’t particularly matter. Whether Thomas mounts her pro-sedition campaigns under one name or another is a footnote. It’s the same small set of far-right funders that push these things into being; […] If we never hear the name “Crowdsourcers” again, it’ll just mean that the push to blame all of America’s ills on democracy and “cultural Marxism” and too much tolerance these days will instead have been branded under [a different name].
Crowdsourcers, though. That certainly sounds like it was meant to be a Libs of TikTok-styled campaign targeting individual Americans for public demonization. Definitely a fascist turn-your-neighbors-in vibe on that one.
Here’s something we haven’t run in a while—a FIRMS map. In this case, a map of the area around Bakhmut. [map at the link]
In this case, the map seems to show the heavy fighting and frequent shelling within the city of Bakhmut, as well as artillery being used against Ukrainian positions to the west. Russian sources have taken to using maps of FIRMS in the area because they like how all of these red dots are in areas held by Ukrainian forces. They see it as a signal of how Russia is firing into Ukrainian positions, but Ukraine is unable to fire back.
Undoubtedly, some of the hot spots being picked up by FIRMS are attributable to the battle that’s going on around the city, but there’s a reason that we stopped leaning so heavily on FIRMS maps, and it’s more visible when the map includes a larger area. [map at the link]
Bakhmut is still right at the center of this map, and you can see those same hotspots. Only now, the points picked up by FIRMS are scattered everywhere—a pox upon both their houses. Some of these points surely reflect actual areas of artillery strikes or hits by missiles or drones. Other areas… who knows? Smokestacks. Trash fires. Fields being burned off before planting. The only clear thing is that the noise level is very high. Other areas where the known level of current fighting is very high, like the area around Avdiivka northwest of Donetsk, are almost free of hotspots.
There have been points where FIRMS has seemed to do an eerily good job in mapping current military activity. It seemed to do this well on several occasions during the summer of 2022, even reaching the point where it was possible to track the movement of forces over a series of days. But it’s clear that for there to be more information than noise on these maps, it requires specific conditions on the ground. We’ll keep checking in with them. For now, when someone holds up FIRMS of any area as “proof” of some event in the war, tell them to zoom out and look around.
Sometimes you watch a video and think, “Hey! they’re just repeating everything we’ve been saying for months!” […] This video from the Task & Purpose guys is repeating what everyone has been saying for months—holding onto Bakhmut when it was generating a huge disparity in casualty rates made sense, but what’s happening now is a lot more questionable.
Even if you’ve heard it, click and hear it again. As in several videos in the last year, they do a good job going through the points. [video at the link]
In terms of the actual fogginess when it comes to action on the ground, conditions in and around Bakhmut have been remarkably clear over the last couple of weeks. Part of that is the near-static nature of the battle lines, which have once again come down to Russia working to capture individual buildings. This time, the street names and locations in southern Bakhmut are becoming all too familiar. [Tweet, video and still images at the link]
Fighting within Bakhmut is on this street-to-street, building-to-building basis. But, as we’ve discussed before, even in this kind of fighting Russia has one basic advantage: destruction. The first thing they do when moving into a new location is set up sniper positions to try and take out Ukrainian forces in surrounding blocks; it’s to advance mortars and provide positions for artillery to hit buildings in the next block. They work to make each block unsustainable as a defensive position through hitting buildings again and again until Ukrainian forces pull back. Then they move forward. [map at the link]
That’s how Wagner has fought all along. It’s how they are still fighting. The only way to end this tactic is by counterbattery fire. The rate of Russian artillery being knocked off has doubled over the last month, but clearly, Wagner is still getting the strikes they need to move up. Slowly.
For those concerned about the continued heavy use of Twitter links in these updates—I share your concern. That’s especially true going forward, as it’s clear Elon Musk’s plans for the platform will elevate disinformation distribution and suppress the voices of many of those involved in action on the ground. Expect to see more of these posts captured from elsewhere when possible, even if that means screenshots rather than embedded posts. The biggest issue right now is video, which is sometimes unavailable from any other readily accessible source. But I will be doing what I can to minimize Twitter use going forward.
Link. Scroll down at the link to view these updates.
A federal judge for the D.C. district court ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence must comply with a grand jury subpoena and testify in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to multiple news outlets.
D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg’s ruling — that remains under seal — shut down Trump’s argument that Pence shouldn’t have to testify in front of the grand jury on the grounds of executive privilege.
But he also granted Pence a partial victory, agreeing with his lawyer’s argument that the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause does give the former vice president some limited protections.
Pence’s legal team have been arguing that the clause should make the former vice president exempt from providing records and testifying about communications or activity related to his role as president of the Senate because it is a legislative duty — including presiding over the certification of the election results on Jan. 6.
Boasberg’s ruling agreed that Pence can decline to answer questions related to his legislative actions on Jan. 6 but emphasized he is not immune from testifying on alleged illegal actions by the former president, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Pence has previously vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary, calling the subpoena “unconstitutional and unprecedented.” The former vice president can appeal the decision but so far it is unclear how Pence and his legal team will proceed.
[…] 91% of Florida high school students planning to seek higher education disagreed with the various restrictive policies proposed or implemented by their state and an astounding ONE in EIGHT said they wouldn’t attend a university or college in Florida.
The top reasons cited by liberals for eliminating a college from consideration were location in a state that was “too Republican,” too conservative on abortion laws, that showed a lack of concern on racial equity, too conservative on LGBTQ laws, too easy to get a gun and showed an inadequate focus on mental health
“I can’t go to school in Texas because if I get pregnant I may die” […]
And…if you say “Big deal, they’ll go home after they finish school.”, you’re wrong. Half of all college graduates live within 200 miles of their alma mater, and 4 in 10 live within 50 miles — I’m one of them. A comment was made in the same Democratic Underground story that red states won’t care until sought after athletes refuse to attend their schools — and loudly say that their policies are why they won’t pick them.
We are at the beginning of a hyperpolarized brain drain, folks. Good luck! […]
Comments posted by readers of the article:
While there isn’t a solution for all students, there are options for many. Some states that are neighbors have instate swap agreements where students will pay instate for both. Other schools will have tuition rates that are discounted to instate rates if a GPA is maintained. One of the oldest tricks is to establish residency either before or during attendance.
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After I graduated from college in 1995 in GA, I chose a college in upstate NY for my BFA. So I moved there early-to-mid spring of 1996 and changed my residency to there. When I finished my application process for the college financial aid package that was offered to me, I found out I had earned in-state status for my education costs. […]
for those just out of HS, check the information carefully and plan accordingly. If your parents are willing to help, you can obtain some breaks that will help you.
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It’s worth looking into Canadian schools too. I know somebody who’s from California but got a masters degree in Vancouver. Non-Citizen tuition was about the same as California in-state tuition, and after living in BC for a few months she had eligibility to the provincial healthcare system (apparently including free contraception of all types)
It’s still unclear why Alabama Republicans looked out on the sea of fellow Alabamans and decided that a brick-headed college football coach by the name of Tommy Tuberville ought to represent their state in the U.S. Senate […] In any event, he’s a senator now and has been stinking up the place as a pro-sedition, Trump-allied, stock-trading, racist dispenser of some of the most gallingly dimwitted statements in modern politics; this time around, it’s the United States military that’s bearing the brunt of Alabama’s joke.
[…] Sen. Tommy Tuberville is currently waging a culture war battle against the United States damn military, as in all of it, by single-handedly blocking the promotion of military commanders worldwide. Those promotions get passed through the Senate Armed Services Committee, which means any single senator can stonewall any of them via the usual Senate procedural shenanigans.
Tuberville is blocking all of them, 160 in total, and is vowing that he’s not going to let any Senate-overseen military promotions go through anywhere in the world until the U.S. military reverses its policy of … giving U.S. military servicemembers access to administrative leave and travel cost reimbursement for abortion services if they’re stationed in a Republican religious hellhole like Texas, necessitating extra travel time to and from a state that is not under freaky conservative religious edicts.
[…] Sen. Jack Reed chairs the committee and notes that many of the officers up for promotion are subject to the military equivalent of term limits and will have to be sidelined while waiting for Tuberville’s tantrum to pass.
That could indeed get dicey, as retiring commanders leave their posts while their intended replacements sit twiddling their thumbs due to Alabama Football Guy’s hostage-taking. And while the United States is not currently at war, at least no more than the United States is always at war, the military’s backing of Ukraine, increasing Middle East tensions, and borderline-hostile confrontations with both Russia and China’s militaries mean Tuberville’s act could very well end up harming national security.
[…] “If this was about a list of personnel, people actually doing the fighting, this might be different … If this had to do with winning a war, obviously I wouldn’t be doing this.” That’s the sort of Tuberville claim that he’s already famous for, the dull-witted insistence that he doesn’t know nothin’ about things like details or consequences, so he’s sure it will all work out fine. […]
There’s a reason that most competent lawyers advise their clients to refrain from commenting during criminal investigations and prior to indictments or trials. It’s because there is more than a small chance that they will say something that incriminates them and weakens their defense.
Donald Trump, however, never takes such salient advice because his malignant narcissism compels him to believe that he can’t possibly do anything wrong, and that his way of handling things will always be the best way. Consequently, he regularly shoots his big mouth off at his cult rallies and on television without any regard for the legal consequences of his bellicose babbling.
On Monday night Trump was welcomed back into the bosom of Fox News (where he has been conspicuously absent for some weeks) for some softball questions about his imminent indictments and the investigations currently in progress. True to form, Trump spent much of the interview rambling incoherently and whining about his being persecuted by all manner of evil foes.
The Trump-fluffing Hour with Hannity was typical of how Fox News coddles Trump. Hannity made sure that every question he asked had the answer embedded in it so that Trump wouldn’t have to strain himself coming up with a plausible excuse or a believable lie. Sadly, Trump was too boneheaded to grasp Hannity’s obvious coaching (video below)…
Hannity: I can’t imagine you ever saying “Bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the White House. I’d like to look at them.” Did you ever do that?
Trump: I would have the right to do that. There’s nothing wrong with it.
Hannity: But I know you. I don’t think you would do it.
Trump: Well, I don’t have a lot of time. But I would have the right to do that. I would do that. There would be nothing wrong.
Twice Hannity tried to guide Trump into a response that simply denied that he would break the law. And twice Trump not only ignored Hannity, he explicitly contradicted him, saying that “I would do that,” meaning that he would indeed illegally take classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home/hotel. He’s virtually confessing on national television. But he wasn’t finished incriminating himself…
Trump: Remember this. This is the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. You know that they ended up paying Richard Nixon $18 million for what he had. They did the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. I have the right to look at stuff.
It’s interesting that Trump chose to justify his crimes by associating himself with another disgraced Republican president, Richard Nixon. And Trump specifically cited Nixon for having allegedly exploited classified documents for profit. That’s just so Trump.
However, he was, as usual, completely wrong about whatever he was implying about the Presidential Records Act. It does not give him the powers that he claims. To the contrary, the PRA explicitly states that “Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the [National] Archivist as soon as the President leaves office.” […]
And yet, Trump still wasn’t done dooming his own legal case…
Trump: They have the right to talk, and we have the right to talk. This would have all been worked out. All of a sudden they raided Mar-a-Lago. Viciously raided Mar-a-Lago. I have tape. And I gave them tapes. You know I gave them tapes of storage areas. I gave it to them. I could have held that back. I wasn’t holding anything back that I cared about. I gave them tape. But you know the tape that they don’t want me to reveal? If possible – and they’ve asked me, and so far I’ve adhered to it. The raid itself.
Hannity: Wait a minute. I’ll take that tape.
Trump: I know you would. Everybody would take that tape.
Trump, of course, is lying again about being able to get this “worked out” before the allegedly “sudden” raid of Mar-a-Lago. Trump actually refused to cooperate, and he lied about having turned over everything. That’s why, after nearly a year of defiance and deception (hardly sudden), a subpoena was issued and a search warrant granted.
What’s more, Trump is claiming to have video tapes that he believes would exonerate him. But for some reason he prefers to allow his apparent guilt to fester in the mediasphere, so he hasn’t released them. That makes perfect sense only if you know that there aren’t any such tapes and you’re desperate to convince people that you’re innocent.
This will only get more interesting when Trump goes to trial and he’s asked to produce these phantom exculpatory tapes that he has now claimed publicly to possess. And this, along with all of the other times he’s foolishly spoken out, will make the prosecutor’s job much easier, and a conviction more likely. So Trump should continue to exercise his right to talk his way straight into prison.
The video showing Trump saying, “I have the right to take stuff!” is available at the link.
Twitter on Tuesday restricted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) congressional account for seven days after she repeatedly posted an image of a poster about a rally called “Trans Day of Vengeance.” […]
“The people need to know about the threats they face from Antifa & trans-terrorism!!!” said Greene.
Twitter then sent Greene a notice saying her account functionality would be reduced for seven days, according to a screenshot shared with The Hill and posted by Greene on her personal campaign account. […]
[…] The poster highlights an event on Saturday, April 1 that appears to be organized by Our Rights DC. That Twitter account was locked on Tuesday.
“We need more visibility,” it states, calling on people to gather at the Supreme Court to “stop trans genocide.”
The main wording on the poster says “Trans Day of Vengeance.” […]
Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, said “We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. ‘Vengeance’ does not imply peaceful protest.”
MTG was not the only Republican who copied the poster in order to claim that some kind of “trans-terrorism” was being planned.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Russian president Vladimir Putin is an “informationally isolated person” who had “lost everything” over the last year of war. “He doesn’t have allies,” Zelenskiy said, adding that it was clear to him that even China was no longer willing to back Russia, despite Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Moscow.
Zelenskiy suggested that Putin’s announcement shortly after Xi’s visit that he would move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, closer to Nato territory, was meant to deflect from the fact that the Chinese leader’s visit did not go well. Putin said the move was a counter to Britain’s decision to provide more depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine. Belarus has pinned the move as being a response to Nato aggression on its borders.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed 20 Patriot batteries to protect against Russian missiles, and even that may not be enough “as no country in the world was attacked with so many ballistic rockets”. He added that a European nation sent another air defence system to Ukraine, but it didn’t work and they “had to change it again and again”. He did not name the country.
…
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, is due to visit the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, with Russian media outlets reporting he has arrived. He has described the situation there as very dangerous.
…
Russia’s cyberwar on Ukraine largely failed and Moscow is increasingly targeting Kyiv’s European allies, according to US and French analysts. French defence firm Thales said in a report on Wednesday that Russia was hitting Poland, the Nordic and Baltic countries with an arsenal of cyber weapons aiming to sow divisions and promote anti-war messages.
…
Sweden’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Russia’s Stockholm ambassador to complain about a statement on the Russian embassy’s website that said joining Nato made the Nordic nation a “legitimate target”.
Sweden’s admission to Nato faces challenges as Hungary has grievances about criticism it has received from the Nordic state, and bridging this gap will require significant efforts on both sides, the Hungarian government’s spokesperson tweeted on Wednesday. After months of foot-dragging Hungary’s parliament approved a bill on Monday to allow Finland to join Nato but the Swedish bill is still stranded in parliament.
Hungary’s foreign minister held telephone talks with the Russian deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, about gas and oil shipments as well as nuclear cooperation, the Hungarian minister said late on Tuesday. In a statement, Péter Szijjártó said Novak had reassured him that despite international sanctions, the Russian party would be able to do maintenance work on the Turkstream pipeline.
Also from there:
More than 220,000 Russian personnel have been killed or injured since its troops invaded Ukraine more than a year ago, Britain’s defence secretary Ben Wallace has said, citing the latest US assessment….
Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed Joe Biden’s call to “walk away” from a proposed judicial overhaul that has led to massive protests across Israel, with the Israeli prime minister responding that he does not make decisions based on pressure from abroad.
Netanyahu on Monday delayed the proposal after large numbers of people spilled into the streets. The White House initially suggested Netanyahu should seek a compromise but the US president went further in taking questions from reporters on Tuesday. “I hope he walks away from it,” Biden said.
“Like many strong supporters of Israel I’m very concerned … They cannot continue down this road, and I’ve sort of made that clear,” Biden told reporters during a visit to North Carolina.
“Hopefully the prime minister [Netanyahu] will act in a way that he will try to work out some genuine compromise, but that remains to be seen,” Biden said, adding he was not considering inviting the Israeli leader to the White House, at least “not in the near term”. Previously, the US ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, told local radio that Netanyahu was expected to be invited “as soon as their schedules can be coordinated”.
Netanyahu quickly issued a statement in response: “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.[“]
…
On Tuesday evening, Israel’s far-right government and opposition parties held a first meeting on the judiciary proposals. “After about an hour-and-a-half, the meeting, which took place in a positive spirit, came to an end,” President Isaac Herzog’s office said late Tuesday. “Tomorrow, President Isaac Herzog will continue the series of meetings,” it added.
It comes amid scenes of chaos in Israeli politics, with questions over whether Yoav Gallant, the defence minister fired by Netanyahu, is refusing to step down and concerns the prime minister may have promised too much to far-right politicians in exchange for a deal aimed at quelling nationwide demonstrations.
Netanyahu dismissed Gallant for breaking ranks and openly calling for a halt to the overhaul. However, aides to Gallant said he would remain in his post, asserting he had never been formally notified. Spokespeople for Netanyahu and his party, Likud, made no immediate comment.
…
Later on Tuesday, questions were being raised over Netanyahu’s control over and credibility within his governing coalition, which includes a mixture of rightwing nationalists, religious leaders and far-right figures.
Netanyahu managed to pacify the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the most ardent supporter of the judicial reform bill from the far-right Jewish Power party, only by agreeing to the formation of a “national guard” under Ben-Gvir’s control.
While there were questions over whether Netanyahu had made an empty promise, critics decried plans for what they described as a militia. “The prime minister has bribed the extreme right via a promise to create a militia that would endanger Israeli citizens – particularly the anti-coup protesters – as long as his government survives,” the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper wrote in an editorial. It called on Israelis to “keep up the pressure on Netanyahu until he scraps the coup”.
Protest organisers have promised to continue to hold rallies.
One of Europe’s largest ammunition manufacturers has said efforts to meet surging demand from the war in Ukraine have been stymied by a new TikTok data centre that is monopolising electricity in the region close to its biggest factory.
The chief executive of Nammo, which is co-owned by the Norwegian government, said a planned expansion of its largest factory in central Norway hit a roadblock due to a lack of surplus energy, with the construction of TikTok’s new data centre using up electricity in the local area.
“We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos,” Morten Brandtzæg told the Financial Times…
Twitter has reversed course on plans to limit presence on its “for you” timeline to paying users only, with Elon Musk claiming he “forgot to mention” that other users would be visible as well.
When the company’s owner first announced the plan on Tuesday he said it would limit the tab that algorithmically curates tweets for users to only display accounts who had paid £8 a month for “Twitter Blue” and linked their account to a working phone number.
Musk said restricting it to those subscribers, who will be the only “verified” users on the site after Twitter closes its “legacy” verification program on Saturday, was “the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over”.
The announcement was met with a backlash from many users, however, and later that day Musk said in a second tweet: “Forgot to mention that accounts you follow directly will also be in For You, since you have explicitly asked for them.”
Since its launch under Musk, as a rebranded version of the pre-existing “recommended” feed, the for you tab has proved controversial. It is more aggressively curated than its predecessor, regularly inserting tweets from accounts the user does not follow, and has a noted predilection for pushing tweets from a small number of prominent accounts into as many feeds as possible: such as Menswear commentator @dieworkwear, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and almost every public post from Musk himself….
More at the link. Incidentally, I watched “The New York Times Presents: Elon Musk’s Crash Course” recently, and thought it was worthwhile, if too generous to its subject. (I’m baffled that the company is allowed to “test” this technology on public roads. Whatever knowledge Tesla drivers had going in, the rest of us never agreed to this trial.) (The next episode, about Joe Mercola, is also worth watching.)
Alarmed over young people increasingly proving to be a force for Democrats at the ballot box, Republican lawmakers in a number of states have been trying to enact new obstacles to voting for college students.
In Idaho, Republicans used their power monopoly this month to ban student ID cards as a form of voter identification.
But so far this year, the new Idaho law is one of few successes for Republicans targeting young voters…
A third of the UK’s overseas aid budget was spent by the Home Office on housing refugees in a poorly managed programme that contained few cost-saving incentives, the government’s independent watchdog on aid has found.
In a bid to control soaring costs, Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) recommends introducing a cap on the proportion of the aid budget that can be spent on in-donor refugee costs.
Spending on refugees in the UK from the overseas aid budget was £3.5bn in 2022, the review estimates, adding such a soaring and large UK spend had inevitably caused major disruption to the overseas aid programme.
The watchdog also says it has found worrying evidence that refugees are being mistreated at some of the accommodation. [See also #462 in the previous chapter of the Thread.]
Under UK law, the Home Office is entitled to access the UK overseas aid budget to cover the first-year costs of refugees.
Previous reports, including by the overseas aid select committee, suggested the aid budget was being heavily diverted, but this is the first time the ICAI has set out an authoritative figure or analysed the lack of detailed oversight by the Home Office on the soaring costs of housing refugees.
The report says the Foreign Office “lacking an accurate forecast from the Home Office of the sharply rising ODA (official development assistance) spend on in-donor refugee costs was forced to put its own programming on hold, despite the risk to its partnerships and the many people around the world who rely on UK development and humanitarian aid”.
The report finds the Home Office has faced a critical shortage of accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers due to the large visa schemes established for refugees from Afghanistan and Ukrainian, increasing numbers of asylum seekers crossing the Channel, and a growing backlog in asylum claims processing. This has resulted in the Home Office using 386 hotels around the UK to host refugees and asylum seekers as of March 2023, up from about 200 in October 2022.
ICAI assessed how the high-value private contracts engaged by the Home Office to provide accommodation and services for asylum seekers were managed and “found that the department did not effectively oversee the value for money of these services”. The review found the key performance indicators being monitored had not been changed for four years despite enormous changes in context.
The lack of controls has meant the Foreign Office slicing back its humanitarian budget, resulting in delay and a “very limited humanitarian response compared to prior years in relation to emergencies such as the floods in Pakistan and the famine in Somalia”.
ICAI was told in March 2022 by the Home Office that costs amounted to £120 a person each night (including catering and other services), compared with £18 for longer-term accommodation in houses and flats. ICAI found the officials charged with managing the contracts have not had the appropriate level of commercial experience for contracts of this value.
Dominic Raab claims hotel accommodation acts as ‘incentive’ for small boat arrivals
…We are getting a statement in the Commons later on plans to stop housing new asylum seekers in hotels, and instead to put them in disused army barracks, on ships – and possibly even on a barge.
Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, has been giving interviews this morning and he told Sky News that one reason for moving people out of hotel accommodation, which is costing the government more than £6m a day, was that it was acting as an “incentive” for small boat arrivals.
We must end this perverse incentive through the hotels and more generally with the hospitality that in a broader sense this country gives, encouraging the wrong people, which is the criminal gangs and illegal migrants, to make these very dangerous journeys.
But on Sky, and in other interviews, Raab was less keen to confirm one of the most eye-catching claims in some of the reports about today’s announcement – that asylum seekers will be placed on a barge….
Jenrick says accommodation for asylum seekers should meet their ‘essential living needs and nothing more’
Jenrick says the government will increase funding for local authorities to help them meet the cost of accommodating asylum seekers.
The government is committed to meeting its obligations.
But, he goes on:
Accommodation for migrants should meet their essential living needs and nothing more. Because we cannot risk becoming a magnet for the millions of people who are displaced and seeking better economic prospects.
Yet again, @mfa_russia gets caught promoting fake videos from Ukraine, this time caught out by a geolocation that places the scene of the video in Russian territory. @mfa_russia deleted the tweet without acknowledging it was fake.
The Russian Embassy in the UK still has the tweet with the fake video up. Surely this is exactly the sort of disinformation @elonmusk doesn’t want on his platform [hee], yet Russian state accounts constantly are caught sharing fake videos and images
…
24 hours after the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs deleted their tweet the Russian Embassy to the UK still has their tweet up, which now features a fact check pointing to @GeoConfirmed’s debunk
For even more evidence the video was faked we now have someone who drove from Donetsk to the location just outside of Russian occupied Donetsk where the video was filmed. And @RussianEmbassy still has the fake video up, because they have no shame….
In November 2016, Valerie Haney fled the Church of Scientology in a scene that reads as if it was ripped straight from the big screen: The longtime member and former casting director for the controversial institution’s internal films climbed into the trunk of a Los Angeles-bound car belonging to an actor during a shoot at “Gold Base,” the Church’s international headquarters, and never looked back.
In a new interview, Haney told Rolling Stone the story of the aftermath of her escape from the Church of Scientology, her failed attempts at taking legal action, and the forthcoming arbitration she claims is being forced upon her. Haney explains she was born into a family of practicing Scientologists and raised in Scientology’s Cadet Org, otherwise known as the children’s branch of Sea Org, the arm of the Church made infamous for alleged slave labor. From ages 6 to 12, she claims she faced bizarre procedures like “bullbaiting,” or, as described by RS: “a common Scientology procedure that requires a subject to sit without flinching while insults are being hurled at them by a ‘coach.’” Some examples alleged by Haney include being told, “I am going to fuck you and your mother” and “You are going to suck my dick.” …
Poland is considering creating a wider coalition of countries to block the 2024 Olympics in Paris due to a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to exclude Russians and Belarusian athletes from the international sporting event.
The comments were made on March 29 by the head of the presidential Bureau of International Policy, Marcin Pszydach, on Polish television.
“Such a decision should be made in a wider coalition of countries, and only then, if it is possible to go ahead with a broad front, it will be possible to talk about tough decisions and tough recommendations,” Pszydach said.
Psydach noted that the presence of Russians under a national or neutral flag at international competitions could be used as publicity by Putin or Lukashenko. Therefore, the issue of admitting athletes from Russia and Belarus to international competitions should be approached “as critically as possible.”
“What the IOC is now proposing, diplomatically speaking, is very disappointing. Each of us understands that Russian aggression is connected to this,” Pszydach added.
On March 28, the IOC recommended allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in international sporting events, while still banning anyone who actively supports Russia’s war against Ukraine. According to the body, a final decision has not yet been made, however.
“The IOC will take this decision at the appropriate time, at its full discretion, and without being bound by the results of previous Olympic qualification competitions,” the press release read.
Ukraine has criticized the decision to “clear the path” for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the Olympic Games.
Over 30 countries so far have called on the IOC to continue its ban on Russia and Belarus competing in international sporting events, including the 2024 Olympic Games.
“We will do everything possible to ensure that sport remains free from Russian influence,” Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki said on his social media.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on March 29 that Russia is conducting a psychological operation to undermine Ukrainians’ trust in the leadership’s decisions regarding the defense of Bakhmut.
Russian propaganda presents the battle for Donetsk Oblast’s city of Bakhmut “as an apocalyptic event,” which will ultimately affect the course of the war, according to Maliar.
“Overwhelmed by the approach of ‘the end,’ the frightened society would begin pressuring the country’s leadership to stop defensive operations, according to the enemy’s plan,” explained the official.
Among other goals of Russia’s psychological operation reportedly are demotivating and lowering the Ukrainian army’s morale and provoking Ukraine’s military leadership into wrong actions.
According to Maliar, to achieve this, Russia is spreading the following narratives:
– “The decision to defend Bakhmut is political”;
– “There is no point in holding Bakhmut as almost the whole city is allegedly encircled”;
– “The heroism of Ukrainian defenders is inflated by Ukrainian propaganda.”
Doing this, Russian propagandists “endlessly exploit” the names of President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Commander of the Ground Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi, silencing the fact that military decisions are not made by one or two people but the whole command, said Maliar.
She emphasized that Ukraine’s defense of Bakhmut is currently justified by “operational and tactical expediency.”
It aims to maintain regained positions, prevent Russia from advancing deeper into the Ukrainian territory, inflict significant losses on its troops, and create conditions for Ukraine’s counterattack, according to the military official.
“Bakhmut will be defended as long as it is necessary for us in order to fulfill military defense tasks,” she added. “And it is our military command, not the Russian psychological operations, that will determine how long Bakhmut will be held.”
The battle for Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine’s Donbas region, has been raging for the past seven months. The Russian military is attempting to increase its grip over the entirety of the oblast, around half of which it currently occupies.
Western officials, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, claimed a possible loss of the city would not be a critical juncture in the war.
According to the latest assessment by the Institute for the Study of War, Russian forces have advanced another five percent of Bakhmut in the last seven days and currently occupy roughly 65 percent of the city.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview with Estonian television channel ERR that the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces is planning a counteroffensive in several areas in spring.
The minister believes that in 2023 the world will see “ positive changes for Ukraine.”
“I am sure that we will continue to liberate temporarily occupied territories, as was done in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson (oblasts). This will all continue,” Reznikov said.
Asked when German Leopard-2 tanks would be seen at the front, Reznikov replied that they would probably be used in April-May.
“You will see them in a counterattack, according to the decision of our General Staff. It is already planned in several directions. It depends on when the most suitable moment will be.”
Reznikov also added that a lot depends on the weather conditions. “In spring, the soil is very wet. Only tracked vehicles can be used then.”
When speaking about Bakhmut, an embattled city in Donetsk Oblast that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the war, Reznikov said that Ukrainian forces had significantly reduced the Russian offensive potential, which will help the defenders “keep the front line stable and give time to prepare for a counteroffensive.”
The minister also claimed that Russian forces were short of ammunition. “They have suffered heavy losses with many dead and wounded. On average, they lose at least five hundred soldiers every day,” Reznikov said.
A previously planned hiatus would push back a potential indictment of the former president.
The Manhattan grand jury examining Donald Trump’s alleged role in a hush money payment to a porn star isn’t expected to hear evidence in the case for the next month largely due to a previously scheduled hiatus, according to a person familiar with the proceedings.
The break would push any indictment of the former president to late April at the earliest, although it is possible that the grand jury’s schedule could change. In recent weeks, the Manhattan district attorney’s office hasn’t convened the panel on certain days. But it is District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prerogative to ask the grand jury to reconvene if prosecutors want the panel to meet during previously planned breaks. […]
[…] Democrats like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) were openly disturbed about what looked like direct coordination between the Trump team and House Republicans’ investigative priorities. Raskin told WaPo’s Greg Sargent this:
“This is an extreme move to use the resources of Congress to interfere with a criminal investigation at the state and local level and block an indictment,” […]
[…] the coordination between Trump’s legal team and House Republicans might run even deeper than previously reported:
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have quietly pushed the Republican-led House to intervene. Last month, a Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, wrote to Mr. Jordan calling on Congress to investigate the “egregious abuse of power” by what he called a “rogue local district attorney,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.
That leads us to Tuesday, when CNN published an in-depth look at the extensive coordination between Trump’s team and top Republican members of Congress on issues not just tied to the House GOP’s latest attempt to probe Bragg’s investigation into Trump and the Stormy Daniels hush money payments. Donald Trump himself is not only in direct communications with influential members of the new House majority, like House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, but some House Republicans are taking it upon themselves to keep Trump personally apprised of the status of their investigations.
This bit from CNN is worth the read:
Stefanik and Trump spoke several times last week alone, where she walked him through the GOP’s plans for an aggressive response to Bragg.
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, which is conducting a number of investigations into President Joe Biden, also speaks to Trump on a frequent basis. Both she and Stefanik have endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential bid and are said to be interested in serving as his running mate.
“I keep him up on everything that we’re doing,” Greene told CNN. “He seems very plugged in at all times. Sometimes I’m shocked at how he knows all these things. I’m like, ‘How do you know all this stuff?’”
Multiple sources tell CNN that Trump and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan speak regularly but declined to divulge whether those conversations included Jordan’s investigative efforts.
The Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the resolution that gave a green light for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, an effort to return a basic war power to Congress from the White House 20 years after an authorization many now say was a mistake.
Iraqi deaths are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
“This body rushed into a war,” said Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who has pushed for years to repeal the powers. The war has had “massive consequences,” Kaine said.
Senators voted 66-30 to repeal the 2002 measure and also the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War. If passed by the House, the repeal would not be expected to affect any current military deployments. But lawmakers in both parties are increasingly seeking to claw back congressional powers over U.S. military strikes and deployments […]
Last Saturday, we looked at what appeared to be a decline in Russia’s daily assaults along the front during the month of March. As reported by the Ukrainian General Staff in their 6 AM morning briefings, a high of 170 assaults were launched by Russia at various locations back at the beginning of the month. That number fluctuated up and down during the next three weeks before hitting a low of 59 on March 24. Even so, it wasn’t clear that there was an actual trend. That single entry at the beginning of the month may have been a fluke high, that final number on the chart at the time an exceptional low. Taken together, the two could create the impression of a trend where none existed.
Then we got data for the next four days, and it became clear that the trend is real. [chart art the link]
It would be nice to read this as proof of the “c” word: culmination. It’s been clear over the last month that Russia has been moving forces around as it sought to continue its major attacks near Bakhmut and Avdiivka. That included taking forces from the north and sending them to Bakhmut even as some of the Wagner mercenaries at Bakhmut were reportedly being redirected to Avdiivka.
Reduced Russian assaults really could represent a decline in their ability to launch assaults. […] If they’re not attacking, maybe it means they can no longer scrape together enough men and materiel to launch an attack. Or, considering the number of videos that have come out with Russian units begging “Vladimir Vladimirovich” to please stop sending them into the meat grinder, maybe Russia is running out of units willing to make such attempted advances.
Here’s how the Ukrainian Telegram channel DeepState put events on Wednesday.
No significant changes and events were recorded during the day. Globally, the enemy is slightly slowing down the pace, but does not reject plans to capture Bakhmut, improve the position near Kreminna and Donetsk, as well as the encirclement of Avdiivka.
It’s not just Bakhmut where Russian advances have obviously slowed. At Kreminna, Russia has been unable to dislodge Ukrainian forces from positions adjacent to the city despite a whole winter of concerted efforts. The fight is still happening right on the edge of the city, and the Russian fighters only appear to be getting more inexperienced and poorly equipped over time. [Tweet and video: AFU units succesfully ambushed enemy assault units near Kreminna and showed what remained of their ‘gear’.]
Russian attacks really could be trailing off because their ability to stage these attacks is declining for a combination of reasons. On the other hand, they may not be attacking because they, like everyone else, are bracing for what Ukraine does next. Because the talk of that Ukrainian counteroffensive is everywhere.
For weeks now, reports of the area around Zaporizhzhia have noted that Russian forces are “on the defensive.” That increasingly appears to be the state of things from Kreminna north to Svatove, and on the eastern front everywhere except at Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Marinka. Russia is no longer trying to advance. They’re preparing to receive Ukraine’s counter.
It’s worth mentioning that as often as we talk about Bakhmut, Russia announced that they had captured Marinka a full year ago. They still haven’t taken Marinka. And now fighting there is back to little more than Russia throwing a desultory round of shells at Ukrainian positions.
Here’s Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksi Rezniko appearing last night on Ukrainian TV addressing how Western tanks will be used in Ukraine.
Rezniko: “You will see them on the counter-attack according to the decision of our General Staff. It is already being planned in several directions. It depends on what the most suitable moment is, how they decide. Also, everything depends on weather conditions. In spring, our land is very wet. Only tracked vehicles can be used. I think we can see them in April-May.” [As already noted by SC in comment 210]
So Ukraine’s counteroffensive will begin next month. Or maybe the month after that. And it will be “in several directions.”
Russian officials may dismiss the presence of Western tanks and fighting vehicles in Ukraine. Russian propaganda sites may have been claiming that these tanks were captured by Russian forces weeks before they ever reached Ukraine. But you can bet that in the minds of Russian soldiers and not a few Russian officers, each Challenger 2 is now 100 meters long. Every Leopard capable of sinking a battleship. The time it has taken for these weapon systems to actually reach the front lines has only made them grow. The thought of these things coming over the low, muddy, crater-pocked horizon is the kind of thing that definitely makes a Russian soldier reach for a trenching shovel rather than a rifle.
Russia’s winter offensive failed. Now Russia’s assaults are slowing as it prepares for the tide to start turning the other way.
Everyone is anxious for the counteroffensive to begin, but the most important thing may be that Ukraine’s first assault be successful, because Russia isn’t just looking spent—they’re looking fragile.
In his concurring opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the right to interstate travel is constitutionally protected. Idaho Republicans are working on finding a way around that, at least for minors. They’re creating a whole new crime: “abortion trafficking.”
An “adult who, with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor, either procures an abortion … or obtains an abortion-inducing drug for the pregnant minor to use for an abortion by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state commits the crime of abortion trafficking,” according to the bill.
Curious term, that. Human trafficking, according to the Department of Homeland Security, “involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” But Idaho Republicans are slapping the word “trafficking” onto an older friend or sibling who helps a teenager scared to tell her parents she’s pregnant get medical care, and they’re making it a felony punishable by two to five years in prison.
The interesting runaround here is that they’re not criminalizing the crossing of a state line. The “abortion trafficking” could be something like offering a safe place to self-manage a medication abortion. Parents are allowed to help their teens get abortions—by leaving Idaho, because there’s no legal way to get an abortion in Idaho—but in a minority of cases, teenagers have very good reason not to tell their parents they are pregnant or getting an abortion. In some of those cases, the reasons involve real danger.
Here’s what the medical experts have to say about this:
The American Medical Association, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, the American Public Health Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the AAP, and other health professional organizations have reached a consensus that a minor should not be compelled or required to involve her parents in her decision to obtain an abortion, although she should be encouraged to discuss the pregnancy with her parents and/or other responsible adults. These conclusions result from objective analyses of current data, which indicate that legislation mandating parental involvement does not achieve the intended benefit of promoting family communication but does increase the risk of harm to the adolescent by delaying access to appropriate medical care or increasing the rate of unwanted births.
[…] The Republicans passing the law are “going to say what they’re doing is just criminalizing actions that take place completely within Idaho, but in practice what they’re criminalizing is the person helping the minor,” David Cohen, a Drexel University law professor who litigates abortion-related cases with the Women’s Law Project, told HuffPost. Cohen predicted that Idaho would be the first of many states to pass similar laws—and indeed, the Idaho bill is heavily based on a model bill offered by the National Right to Life Committee.
The Idaho bill has passed the state House once and is up for a vote in the state Senate, where Democrats hold just 7 out of 35 seats. Once it passes the Senate, it will go back to the House for one final vote, before going to anti-abortion Gov. Brad Little for his signature.
No matter how bad things are now, Republicans are always determined to make them worse.
[…] Russian television hosts mourning how Russia is simply failing to make all Ukrainians suffer with constant attacks on the infrastructure. People in Kyiv actually have their lights on, and Russians know it. [Tweet and video at the link, showing Russian state TV hosts lamenting the restoration of electricity to Kyiv]
Why aren’t they suffering, Vladimir Vladimirovich? Why? Well, the biggest reason is that even though Russia has launched some number of missiles or drones against Ukrainian civilian targets almost every day, it’s been 20 days since the last major overnight missile strike. That was back on March 9, when Russia launched an attack using at least 81 missiles and drones. In comparison, last night Russia appears to have launched a single missile and 15 Iranian drones, 14 of which were shot down short of their targets. This is only the second time there has been such an extended gap between large-scale attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure since the series of such attacks began last October.
There are two good reasons for this. One is that as one analysis after another has shown, Russia is burning through its supply of missiles. There’s only so many more times it can manage a stunt like the one on March 9, where it deployed multiple costly missiles like the Kalibr. The attacks over the last six months have consumed supplies of these missiles that it took years to build. […]
The other big reason these missile attacks against infrastructure have slowed is simpler: It’s because they failed.
The whole reason that Russia was attacking Ukrainian cities was never a secret. The relentless fall of missiles and drones was intended to diminish Ukrainian morale, but more importantly it was intended to cripple Ukraine’s infrastructure, leaving people cold, miserable, and ready to sour on the whole idea of fighting Russia’s clearly superior force. That didn’t happen.
The second thing that was supposed to happen over the winter was a major Russian offensive, one that would land them control of Bakhmut, allow them to reoccupy Lyman, and push Ukrainian forces in the north back across the Oskil River. […] Western supporters of Ukraine would see that the situation was hopeless. That didn’t happen either.
What did happen last night? This happened. [Tweet, video and images: “In the early morning in Melitopol there was a series of strikes. Place where the strike was confirmed is the locomotive depot.]
Melitopol is located at least 75 kilometers from the nearest area of Ukrainian control. Many recent distant strikes, hitting Russian locations near Mariupol and in Crimea, appear to have been made using drones. That may also be the case at Melitopol. However, some videos of the strikes appear to show contrails, suggesting that the damage was done using some sort of missile, with speculation centered on the GLSDB that the U.S. has pledged to Ukraine. [map at the link]
The number of locations hit in Melitopol overnight isn’t clear, but the answer appears to be at least “several.” Explosions were reported at the airport, at the rail depot, at a former technical school being used as a barracks for Russian forces, and in buildings housing regional Russian officials. (Note: That little blue square on the south side of the river in the upper left isn’t actually a point of Ukrainian control. It’s Enerhodar, location of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was visited again this week by IAEA officials.)
Viewing Melitopol on the map makes it clear that this is a transportation hub. It’s also the site of a major rail depot with lines that lead north to Vasylivka and south back into Crimea. In fact, that southern rail line out of Melitopol runs through the Crimean city of Dzhankoi, which was also the site of a recent Ukrainian strike. It appears that these strikes may already be forcing Russia to do more transportation by road, resulting in some … difficulties. [Tweet and video at the link: “Slow, log jammed and chaotic. Russian military vehicles going off road into the sidings in an attempt to bypass the jam just makes the situation worse.]
It’s unlikely, between the obvious mud and the still-arriving Western equipment, that Ukraine is going to launch any sort of major assault in the next few days. However, the actions at Melitopol and other points in the south certainly have the look of “shaping the battlefield.” Ukraine is striking transportation hubs, driving Russian forces from established positions, and creating chaos behind the lines. Which is all the sort of things that often come in advance of a major push into an area.
So maybe that big counteroffensive won’t come at Bakhmut, as officials were all but stating last week; it will come south from Zaporizhzhia and cut through the occupied south. That has always seemed like a plan that makes sense.
[…] What’s clear today is that Russian operations have slowed. They are drawing back, waiting to receive a punch. Ukraine is in the position of being able to maneuver and place its forces where it wants. It can decide where and when the counteroffensive really starts.
That’s a great position.
But if Russia commanders are worrying themselves sick over what Ukraine does next, Ukrainian commanders have to be worrying about the same thing. Because about the only thing that could hurt Ukraine worse than a big Russian success would be a big Ukrainian failure. The best way to make sure that Ukraine keeps getting the support of the West, and to see that it doesn’t have to go into next winter worrying about what Russia will do, is to deliver a big success from the spring counteroffensive. And that’s a huge responsibility for everyone involved in turning verbal sparring into kilometers gained on the ground.
Today’s Washington Post contains a detailed debunking of all the claims Russia—and right-wing media—have made about “American biolabs” in Ukraine. In the process, they cover the impact of disinformation campaign in general.
Information can be poison, a dangerous weapon. Disinformation, or organized lying, can be used to wage political warfare. As the historian Thomas Rid wrote in “Active Measures,” his book on the subject, disinformation can weaken a political system that places its trust in truth. “Disinformation operations, in essence, erode the very foundations of open societies,” he wrote.
A reminder: What’s happening to Twitter is turning a large part of the site into a distribution center for disinformation.
In a new investigative report, journalists at Mediazona counted 536 service-related felony cases filed in Russian garrison courts against soldiers since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine started last year. Most of these charges involve AWOL offenses, often resulting in probation sentences that allow offenders to return to combat. More serious crimes include refusal to obey orders, striking a commanding officer, and outright desertion.
Citing national-security grounds (and orders from Russia’s Defense Ministry and Federal Security Service), military courts frequently conceal information about cases involving “crimes against military service.” Mediazona dug through available records and spoke to attorneys to learn what it could about this growing wave of insubordination among Russian troops.
To discuss the investigation, Mediazona reporter and data-team journalist David Frenkel joined The Naked Pravda.
It goes without saying that in the days and hours since the devastating mass shooting in Nashville, Republican hate muppet Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been acting like vile fucking trash. Greene and Tucker Carlson and so many other conservatives are walking over children’s dead bodies right now to seize the opportunity to inject vicious anti-LGBTQ+ hatred into the discourse, specifically hatred against trans people.
Because as we all know, the 98 percent of mass shooters who are cisgender dudes — a large percentage of them specifically white supremacist cisgender dudes — are just lone wolves, whereas one transgender shooter is indicative of an entire movement trying to take down all Christians and probably the baby Jesus himself. [Aptly describing the rightwing panic regarding the shooter in Nashville.]
[…] Before we knew hardly any details about what really happened in Nashville, Greene was on Twitter blaming the murders on gender-affirming medical treatments and mental health drugs. In the time since, she’s been sitting in Congress blaming school closures for more kids identifying as transgender, calling that “devastating.” But Greene fucked around and found out and managed to get her official government Twitter account temporarily suspended yesterday. [Her account has recently been reinstated, unfortunately.]
[…] Greene tweeted a graphic about an alleged “Trans Day of Vengeance” allegedly scheduled for this weekend in DC. Greene, a verifiable fucking idiot, tweeted that it was “organized by Antifa.” As all non-stupid Americans know, “Antifa” is not an “organization” that “organizes” things. It is mostly a scary boogie word stupid right-wing white people say to make each other shit their pants and cry a lot. We guess it is their fetish.
“My Congressional account was suspended for 7 days for exposing Antifa, who are organizing a call for violence called ‘Trans Day of Vengeance.’ The day after the mass murder of children by a trans shooter,” she tweeted.
Stupid, stupid, stupid human.
It’s not entirely clear what this alleged “Trans Day of Vengeance” even is. It’s certainly not a widespread thing being pushed by mainstream orgs. CBS News published parts of statements from the groups putting it together, which disavow violence, clarify what they mean by “vengeance,” and say they are “horrified” and “outraged” by the Nashville shooting. Meanwhile, Newsweek notes that the main group that’s been pushing it has 404 entire Twitter followers and a currently locked account.
[…] she is now whining and bellyaching that Twitter is “whitewashing” the “Trans Day of Vengeance,” which she believes is a totally real and large event organized by “Antifa,” which she again believes is a real entity.
[…] Did we say stupid, stupid, stupid human yet?
She is still going today, saying that she’s being persecuted for “warning about Antifa’s Trans Day of Vengeance,” which will totally happen in front of the Supreme Court. The “global brands” and the “left” are whitewashing the event, she says, and that’s why she was “termporarily” suspended.
Are the global brands whitewashing the event with Jewish space lasers, congresswoman? We are just curious.
Unsurprisingly, she’s also tweeting a clip today from Tucker Carlson’s televised Nazi transmission from last night, where he warned about all the trans people massacring Christians.
[…] So that’s what’s going on with that. Marjorie Taylor Greene is, as always, the real victim.
The Republican responses to this mass shooting are only going to get stupider and more vicious, we fear.
As Tucker Carlson’s “televised Nazi transmission from last night, where he warned about all the trans people massacring Christians” aired, Fox News showed all caps headlines onscreen that read “TRANS KILLER.”
As Wonkette put it: “Lies, incitement, lies, incitement, lies, incitement.”
What Liz Cheney, former member of Congress, posted today:
[…] if we really want to keep our children safe, we need to spend less time banning books and more time stopping the horrific gun violence in our schools.
In the replies on that thread there are a lot people who paid for a Twitter blue check calling her a traitor.
What Adam Kinzinger posted yesterday:
It’s time for America to discuss the availability of guns and it’s impact with mental health. […]
We all believe in the second amendment. But to oppose background checks, and permits to own guns, is simply nonsense anymore.
License to drive, license to arm.
As Wonkette noted:
[…] In the past 24 hours Kinzinger has also retweeted people basically calling that gun-humper Republican congressman Andy Ogles who represents Nashville garbage; made fun of that OTHER dumbfuck Republican Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett, the one whose solution to gun violence is “we’re not gonna fix it”; called Trump fool Katrina Pierson an idiot in an argument about guns; and also retweeted Cheney’s tweet above.
Oh yeah, and he also RTed somebody calling Ben Shapiro hypocritical garbage.
There is so much absolute filth out there today, it’s nice to see some people who are speaking out now in a ways that they certainly didn’t 10 years ago.
Not calling them flaming progressives or anything, but it’s somethin’.
Leah and Mike talk to their old friend and Aftermath OG Claire Headley again this week, this time to discuss Committees of Evidence. What are they exactly, our personal experiences convening, participating and being victims of them, and how they differ from arbitration.
(They said last August after a break that they were starting up the podcast again in a few weeks and it still hasn’t happened. I read or heard somewhere – maybe on Tony Ortega’s podcast – that it is some sort if issue with the organization blocking it, but don’t really know what’s going on.)
Madrid es una ciudad con mucha personalidad pero a la que le falta un símbolo que la identifique como capital, como la manzana de Nueva York o la Torre Eiffel de París. Quizás, y solo quizás, una de las imágenes que se nos puede venir a la mente sea la de los rascacielos que se avistan desde la distancia cuando uno llega en coche, en tren o en avión. Alrededor de esa zona, comenzó a gestarse hace más de tres décadas una megaoperación urbanística para crear un gran centro de negocios: la operación Chamartín, rebautizada como Madrid Nuevo Norte. Pero, años después, todavía no se ha puesto la primera piedra por diferentes motivos.
“Hubo dos ocasiones en las que las administraciones estuvieron muy cerca de firmar el acuerdo: una hubo que suspenderla por los atentados del 11M y la otra se llegó a producir pero fue justo a las puertas de la gran recesión, acababa de explotar la burbuja inmobiliaria y nadie estaba por la labor de hacer desarrollos urbanísticos”, explica Jose Luis Aranda, periodista de economía de EL PAÍS. Para muchos vecinos y asociaciones este proyecto es un “pelotazo urbanístico”. Lo recurrieron y consiguieron paralizarlo, hasta ahora. Hace unas semanas, la justicia dio el aval definitivo a la operación Madrid Nuevo Norte en la que, entre otros edificios, se construirá, la torre más alta de Europa.
“Es una operación monstruo que no tiene sentido. Ya no se hacen estas cosas en ningún sitio. Cuando se hicieron fue un pequeño fracaso. Las dos más conocidas, que se ponen de ejemplo, son La Défense, en París, y los Docklands, en Londres. Pero las dos quebraron a mitad de obra y el estado tuvo que meter dinero, como cuando aquí quebraron los bancos”, dice Félix Arias, urbanista y ex director general de urbanismo de la Comunidad de Madrid entre 1983 y 1991, con quien quedamos para recorrer los barrios y los descampados que en unos años verán trasformado su día a día: “Esto es colonizar el barrio”
La operación busca que Chamartín se convierta en uno de los nuevos centros de Madrid. Un lugar en el que haya vida a todas horas y todos los días del año. Pero, también corre el riesgo de convertirse en un distrito fantasma lleno de edificios de negocio vacíos. ¿Hacen falta más de 20 torres de oficinas nuevas en Madrid? De acuerdo con un estudio de la consultora EY, hay más de un millón de metros cuadrados sin alquilar en la capital y se calcula que hasta el año 2038 no se podrán ocupar las que ahora mismo están disponibles.
Justo al lado de la que será la nueva zona de negocios está la colonia San Cristóbal, un barrio de “casas baratas” construido durante el franquismo para alojar a los trabajadores de la Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid. Sus vecinos se quedarán encajonados a ambos lados de su barrio entre rascacielos y verán cómo sus calles se convertirán en la nueva ‘city’ financiera española. La historia de San Cristóbal está marcada por la lucha contra los proyectos faraónicos y la especulación inmobiliaria desde los años ochenta. Es un lugar muy característico: son bloques de casas humildes pero con un aire especial porque están pensadas para habitar en comunidad y sus calles están llenas de historias familiares de migración del campo a la ciudad. Todos los residentes comparten el diagnóstico que hace Eusebio Casado, presidente de la Asociación Familiar San Cristóbal, durante el paseo que se puede escuchar en el pódcast : “Llevamos en un estado de abandono más de 30 años porque como todo gira en torno a la Operación Chamartín, Madrid Nuevo Norte, Crea Madrid… el barrio está totalmente desolado y abandonado”.
A esta altura, el famoso Paseo de la Castellana es una frontera invisible entre ricos y pobres: en el lado de la colonia la renta mediana apenas alcanza los 18.000 euros, mientras que del lado del complejo de las Cuatro Torres, que ya llevan años allí, se duplica. Todos los vecinos recuerdan la mala experiencia de cuando construyeron los rascacielos con los que conviven enfrente de sus casas desde hace años: “Según iban subiendo les iba desapareciendo el sol y el horizonte. Y una señora decía que le desaparecía la vida”, relata Jorge de Dompablo, un párroco muy peculiar que lleva allí 18 años. “Los que protestaban por la operación eran muchos, porque era su barrio y lo estaban encerrando con estos gigantes, pero se han ido muriendo. No han hecho más que sufrir la espera y el abandono del barrio, pero no han visto, si alguna vez hay algo positivo, ya no lo ven”, sentencia. Las batallas perdidas no le han hecho perder a San Cristóbal ni un ápice del orgullo de barrio que allí sienten: “Yo no vivo al lado de las torres. Las torres están a mi lado”. Esta es la historia de su pasado y de su presente. El futuro, solo lo escribirán ellos.
I haven’t been able to find anything really about this enormous project in English beyond a short Wikipedia page and creepy PR from the companies involved. Here’s one piece in Spanish, but the apparent lack of public discussion about it is very strange.
Biden: “We’re not interfering. They know my position. They know America’s position. They know the American Jewish position.”
[video clip at the link]
What I take from this statement is that Biden feels pretty confident about support for his position. Netanyahu knows his support is cratering.
From the replies: “I would love if one reporter actually asked Biden what the issue is. I can bet my life savings he doesn’t know the actual issue.”
I remember Biden giving a very good speech during the 2016 campaign to the American Constitutional Society or some such about the threats facing the US. He has a strong grasp of these issues.
Heading into the 2022 elections, there were still 12 states that refused to embrace the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. Now, we’re down to 10 — and counting.
The Affordable Care Act recently celebrated its 13th birthday, and the landmark reform law had plenty to celebrate. Not only have all of the Republican predictions about the failure of “Obamacare” been discredited, but the ACA is clearly effective, popular, and affordable. What’s more, it’s withstood far too many legal challenges, and it no longer has a GOP-imposed target on its back. [Good news!]
As a New York Times headline summarized today, “Obamacare Keeps Winning.”
One of its more notable victories came to fruition this week in Raleigh. The Associated Press reported:
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday signed a Medicaid expansion law that was a decade in the making and gives the Democrat a legacy-setting victory, although one significant hurdle remains before coverage can be implemented, thanks to a Republican-backed provision. At an Executive Mansion ceremony attended by hundreds, Cooper celebrated passage of expansion legislation, which he’s ardently sought since being first elected governor in 2016. It took Republicans in charge of the General Assembly all this time to come around to the idea and agree to offer coverage to more low-income adults, with federal coffers paying for most of it.
The good news comes with a notable caveat: The enrollment start date remains up in the air because the law won’t be enacted until North Carolina’s state budget is done.
[…] A decade later, 10 states still won’t budge. That said, North Carolina’s breakthrough came as something of a surprise, so health care advocates have reason to keep trying in the holdout states, hoping that common sense might yet prevail in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, too.
[…] while I hate to realize that I have been driven to such a level of cynicism, is it possible that Republicans’ indifference to, nay their acceptance of, school shootings is driven in part by their animus to public education entirely? Do they see these massacres as another tool by which they can drive parents to home school their kids and eventually destroy public education?
Police agencies were on the scene at multiple schools in Pennsylvania after getting calls about an active shooter on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) have confirmed these to be “swatting” calls — fake calls meant to draw a large police presence — and there’s no known threat to any surrounding schools at this time.
All calls were said to have had similar content, and were made to multiple counties around Pennsylvania. Police had swarmed Altoona, Hollidaysburg, Bishop Carroll, Bellefonte, and other schools across Pennsylvania just after 9 a.m. Wednesday, March 29.
The Altoona Police, and later the Pennsylvania State Police, confirmed that the calls were false alarms. All schools involved have been cleared or are in the process of being cleared by law enforcement, the Pennsylvania State Police said.
[…] It was reported by police that the calls came from out of state, and the FBI will be getting involved in the investigation.
One month before a purported leak of files from Hunter Biden’s laptop, a fake “intelligence” document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and business in China.
The document, a 64-page composition that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake “intelligence firm” called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents.
The author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also concluded that Aspen’s profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence face generator. The intelligence firm that Aspen lists as his previous employer said that no one by that name had ever worked for the company and that no one by that name lives in Switzerland, according to public records and social media searches…
In the wake of deadly mass shootings in schools, Republicans tend to fall into two broad groups. Members of one nihilistic contingent shrug their shoulders, suggest nothing can be done to save lives, and recommend that the United States not bother with any kind of policy conversation.
Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee captured this perspective with surprising candor this week. “We’re not gonna fix it,” the GOP congressman told reporters, referring to the scourge of children being massacred. “Criminals are gonna be criminals.”
The other group doesn’t consider public indifference to be politically viable, so they keep up appearances by peddling insincere proposals that no one takes seriously. Take this HuffPost report, for example.
Congress ought to consider a mandatory death penalty for school shooters, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said Monday after the latest high-profile mass shooting this year claimed the lives of seven people at an elementary school in Tennessee. “We need to consider an automatic death penalty for school shooters,” Scott said on Twitter. “Life in prison is not enough for the deranged monsters who go into our schools to kill innocent kids & educators.”
Evidently, the idea is predicated on the idea that would-be mass shooters might be deterred by new federal laws related to capital punishment. In other words, the Florida Republican — to the extent that he’s remotely serious about this faux proposal — believes there are well-armed people out there thinking, “I’m inclined to open fire in a school, but if I’m caught and arrested, I’ll be subject to an ‘automatic’ death penalty, so I better not do that after all.”
Even if someone were prepared to find such an idea credible, my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explained one rather important flaw in Scott’s idea: It’s illegal.
If a defendant is convicted in a death penalty case, then a separate trial is held in which the jury weighs aggravating and mitigating factors, to determine whether to recommend a death sentence. Prosecutors wouldn’t go through that process if they didn’t have to. Indeed, the Supreme Court has struck down mandatory capital punishment on multiple occasions, reiterating that individualized sentencing is needed.
Scott hasn’t addressed such pesky details, probably because he doesn’t take his own especially seriously.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but the senator, who’s up for re-election next year, makes a lot of media appearances and frequently talks to reporters. When asked what he intends to do about mass shootings in schools, Scott isn’t comfortable replying, “Uh, nothing.”
So he’s maintaining a pointless pretense by peddling a pseudo-proposal: Scott would address mass shootings in schools with a plan for “automatic” executions for school shooters. Is that legal? No. Would it be effective? No.
Does Scott care? Probably not. He wants a talking point, not a solution.
We keep going through this. After related shootings last year, Republicans and their allies ended up trying to blame, among other things, the multitude of doors at schools, abortion, video games, “secularization,” absentee fathers, marijuana, and the absence of government-imposed school prayer. [And now they are trying to blame trans people, and/or “antifa.” It’s ridiculous.]
The Florida Republican is adding to an unnecessary list because it’s easier than owning up to the fact that new gun laws are needed and the GOP doesn’t want to pass them.
John Leguizamo is hosting The Daily Show this week. The satirical news program has been using a rotation of celebrity guests from the world of comedy and acting and politics. Before Leguizamo was known for his film and television acting, he was best known as a comedian who worked one-man-show-style material into theater performances in New York City, like 1991’s “Mambo Mouth.”
On Tuesday, Leguizamo did a piece touching on the response (or pathetic lack of response) from Republicans over the Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting that left three children and three adults dead. Leguizamo remarked, “Like all of you, I’m sick to death of this. And I want you to know, and I want to know, what our representatives plan to do about it, okay?”
Leguizamo went on, “Because if you ask this representative from Tennessee, he plans to do jack shit about it.” He then ran a clip of Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, whose only goal as a legislator seems to be banning drag shows.
[…] In the clip, Burchett says, “We’re not gonna fix it. Criminals are going to be criminals,” and then relates something he says his father told him as a World War II veteran, about fighting in a war. “’Buddy,’ he said, ‘if somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, then there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.’”
Leguizamo parroted Burchett’s ‘not a lot you can do about it’ mantra, responding “That’s the best you have to offer?” Then he said what all of us feel: “You’re a congressman! If you don’t have any ideas for how to keep our kids safe, get the fuck out of the way […]. “And by the way, no disrespect to his father, but going to school in America feels like fighting in World War II? That should be a sign that things are seriously fucked-up in America.”
Then Leguizamo turned to CrossFit hate ghoul Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attacks on trans children, specifically citing one of the three tweets that Greene put out after the police reported that the shooter, while assigned female at birth, used he/him pronouns. All three of those tweets were taken down by Elon Musk’s Twitter. That’s how bad and offensive they were.
[…] Leguizamo responded to the audience’s boos, saying, “I know, It seems crazy because since 99.9% of the mass shooters are not trans.” Here, Leguizamo and The Daily Show used the side camera, as Leguizamo tried a new tack in trying to get Greene on board with gun safety legislation:
“Here’s the thing, Marjorie. I agree with you. I don’t think trans people should be allowed to own assault rifles either. So let’s stop them.
“But just to be safe, we should also ban non-trans people from owning assault rifles, okay? Just in case they become trans, okay? You know what I mean? No assault weapons for anybody. That’ll show them.”
More from Monday. Tweet: Forrest Wilder, former Texas Observer staff
Some folks have wondered why the board didn’t put TO up for sale. […] because another board member had convinced the others that TO wasn’t worth anything on the market, that it had “no intrinsic value.”
Today, two days later. Article: Texas Observer – WE DID IT, Y’ALL!
the Texas Democracy Foundation, the nonprofit parent organization […] voted unanimously to rescind its earlier plan to lay off the 68-year-old magazine’s entire staff and cease publication.
[…]
A GoFundMe effort begun on Monday had raised more than $275,000 on Wednesday […] readers, former staffers and former board members, and prominent journalists from around the country reached out to Observer journalists and allies to express their solidarity with the campaign to keep the magazine afloat.
Among the unexpected sources of support for the magazine was the “fediverse” […] Many comments on the GoFundMe page mention that the donors learned about the Observer through Mastodon – where the Texas Observer was one of the first journalistic outlets to set up its own server
We apologize to the staff for the abruptness of the layoff vote and deeply regret that they found out via another media outlet […] Texas needs progressive investigative journalism more than ever, and we hope the Observer can be reimagined for the next generation.
“Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one but himself.” (Not prescient in that she next suggested that was why he would never be president, alas.)
“Trump isn’t a different kind of candidate; he’s a Mitch McConnell kind of candidate.”
“Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell want Donald Trump to appoint the next generation of judges. They want those judges to tilt the law in favor of big businesses and billionaires like Trump [sic!]. They just want Donald Trump to quit being quite so vulgar and obvious about it.”
“[Trump’s] aim is the same as the rest of the Republicans: pound the courts into submission for the rich and the powerful.”
“And we will not allow a small, insecure, thin-skinned wannabe tyrant or his allies in the Senate to destroy the rule of law in the United States of America. We will not. We will not. …We are ready for this fight. Because it is time to fight again, as it has been time to fight in every generation, for those four simple words that define the promise of our legal system: Equal Justice Under Law. That’s what we’re here for.”
It’s called the Asian swamp eel. And while Floridians may be more used to seeing it grilled and doused in a sweet sticky sauce in sushi rolls, the slippery beasts have become an increasingly problematic invasive species in the delicate Everglades ecosystem…
A judge balked at Fox Corp.’s suggestion that it may be too burdensome for Rupert Murdoch to testify in the $1.6 billion defamation trial against Fox News over its reporting on bogus claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
At a hearing Tuesday in Dominion Voting Systems Inc.’s lawsuit, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis cited a letter from Fox claiming Murdoch’s age and lack of direct control over election coverage warranted allowing his testimony to rest on his January deposition…
Davis said he had heard that the 92-year-old Fox Corp. chairman had publicly discussed his extensive plans to travel while celebrating his St. Patrick’s Day engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, 66…
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World said Wednesday that their Disney-controlled predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers.
The current supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said at a meeting that their predecessors last month signed a development agreement with the company that gave Disney maximum developmental power over the theme park resort’s 27,000 acres in central Florida.
The five supervisors were appointed by the Republican governor to the board after the Florida Legislature overhauled Disney’s government in retaliation for the entertainment giant publicly opposing so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as lessons deemed not age-appropriate.
In taking on Disney, DeSantis furthered his reputation as a culture warrior willing to battle perceived political enemies and wield the power of state government to accomplish political goals, a strategy that is expected to continue ahead of his potential White House run.
The new supervisors replaced a board that had been controlled by Disney during the previous 55 years that the government operated as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The new board members held their first meeting earlier this month and said they found out about the agreement after their appointments.
“We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” board member Brian Aungst said Wednesday. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”
In a statement, Disney said all agreements were above board and took place in public.
“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” the statement said.
Separately, Disney World service workers on Wednesday were voting on whether to accept a union contract offer that would raise the starting minimum wage to $18 an hour by the end of the year.
The agreement covers around 45,000 service workers at the Disney theme park resort, including costumed performers who perform as Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters, bus drivers, culinary workers, lifeguards, theatrical workers and hotel housekeepers.
Workers could see their hourly wages rise between $5.50 and $8.60 an hour by the end of the five-year contract if it’s approved, according to union leaders.
A contract approved five years ago made Disney the first major employer in central Florida to agree to a minimum hourly wage of $15, setting the trend for other workers in the region dominated by hospitality jobs.
Every time an octopus makes a brave escape from an aquarium through a tiny hole or by using tools, the world gasps at how intelligent these ocean creatures really are. And our emotional connection to them was further fortified by the 2020 documentary My Octopus Teacher. Here, viewers watched filmmaker Craig Foster develop a deep bond with an octopus who lived in a South African kelp forest.
…
In 2021, the United Kingdom granted octopuses—along with lobsters, crabs, and other sea creatures—new protections under its Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill after a government-commissioned report confirmed that these animals are sentient, intelligent beings.
“The Animal Welfare Sentience Bill provides a crucial assurance that animal well being is rightly considered when developing new laws,” Animal Welfare Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith said in a statement at the time. “The science is now clear that decapods and cephalopods can feel pain and therefore it is only right they are covered by this vital piece of legislation.”
But have we learned enough about and from octopuses to protect them from the cruelty of factory farming? This is the challenge posed by Eurogroup For Animals (EFA) and Compassion In World Farming’s (CWF) new report as seafood company Nueva Pescanova attempt to finalize plans for the world’s first octopus factory farm in Las Palmas on Spain’s Gran Canaria island.
“Considering what we do know about how complex and highly intelligent octopuses are and much of what they need to thrive, it’s absolutely inexcusable to even consider farming them at an industrial scale,” Katie Nolan, Campaigner for animal-rights group In Defense of Animals, said in a statement.
“We should be focused instead on investing in the creation of a truly sustainable food system that doesn’t cause further animal suffering, or harm human health and the environment.”
Nueva Pescanova recently submitted plans to the General Directorate of Fishing of the Government of the Canary Islands for its octopus factory farm, where it plans to farm up to one million of the sea creatures annually.
The plans outline 40 to 60 fattening tanks, 550 to 650 settlement tanks, 90 to 100 tanks for newly hatched octopuses, and 22 to 36 tanks for breeding. Nueva Pescanova—a resource-intensive land-based operation—has yet to receive all of its needed permits to operate and is awaiting approvals from Spain’s Environmental Impact Assessment.
In the meantime, the EFA and CWF have released their joint report “Uncovering the Horrific Reality of Octopus Farming,” to spotlight that factory farming octopuses in this way poses disastrous consequences for the intelligent animals.
Since the animals are solitary and territorial, farming them at these densities creates conditions for aggression and cannibalism. Nueva Pescanova acknowledges this—revealing that it expects a mortality rate of 10 to 15 percent—and plans to separate the animals by sex and size as a solution.
The factory farm also plans to expose female octopuses to 24-hour periods of light to spur spawning, even though the animals avoid light as a defense mechanism against daytime predators. Nueva Pescanova also acknowledges that this is a stressor for octopuses.
The carnivorous animals will be fed fishmeal and fish oil, food sources that are unsustainable and environmentally risky. When octopuses reach slaughter weight, Nueva Pescanova plans to submerge them into an ice slurry to kill them—which has been scientifically proven to be inhumane.
Further, the environmental impact of the waste associated with factory farming octopuses in this way has yet to be assessed, nor have assessments been properly done of the potential diseases that can emerge from a farm like Nueva Pescanova’s.
“Furthermore, these aquaculture environments are entirely artificial,” the report states. “This contradicts the welfare needs of highly intelligent animals such as octopuses who require varied stimuli within their habitats.”
In addition to EFA, CWF, and IDA, a growing number of members of the scientific community have vehemently opposed the factory farming of octopuses.
Outside of Spain, the United States and Japan are also looking to develop octopus factory farms. However, Hawaii’s Kanaloa Octopus Farm halted operations for not having proper permits.
The new report builds upon existing research around the intelligence of octopuses and presents the animal welfare disaster of factory farming them. However, learning that certain animals—such as pigs, cows, chickens, and fish—are sentient and highly intelligent has not been enough to stop their exploitation for food in factory farms in the past.
EFA CEO Reineke Hameleers is hoping we can save octopuses from the same fate as other food animals before plans for their suffering are finalized.
“Blindly establishing a new farming system without consideration of the ethical and environmental implications is a step in all the wrong directions,” Hameleers said in a statement.
“We’re calling on the EU to include a ban on octopus farming before it ever sees the light of day, in order to avoid plunging more sentient beings into a living hell,” Hameleers said.
Currently, more than 20,000 people have supported IDA’s campaign to demand that Spanish authorities halt Nueva Pescanova’s octopus factory farm.
whheydtsays
Re; tomh @ #236…
From comments on the DailyKos posting about what Disney did, there is–apparently–a legal principle against contracts in perpetuity. Indefinite contract duration has to be anchored to a living person. Part of the Disney agreement runs until “21 years after the death of the youngest living descendant of King Charles III.” That would be Lilibet, who is now 2.
Kentucky lawmakers passed a sweeping bill Wednesday that restricts how doctors and schools treat transgender youths, overriding the governor’s veto and forceful objections by state medical associations, education officials and parents with trans children.
The law — which sparked protests inside and outside the Capitol and takes effect this summer — bans access to gender-affirming health care for trans children, restricts which bathrooms and lockers they use, prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and allows teachers to use students’ birth names and pronouns against their wishes.
“We are denying families, their physicians and their therapists their right to make medically informed decisions,” said state Sen. Karen Berg (D). She noted that the bill was introduced just weeks after her own trans son killed himself. “To say this is a bill protecting children is completely disingenuous. And to call this a parents’ right bill is an absolutely despicable affront to me personally.”
State Sen. Max Wise (R), who introduced the legislation, defended it, saying, “The goal is to strengthen parental engagement and communication in children’s education while protecting the safety of our children.”
The law’s passage comes amid a record-breaking number of anti-trans bills appearing across the country. Republican officials in many states believe it is a culture war issue that could play to their advantage in upcoming elections.
More than 470 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation have been introduced this year, including more than 190 bills that are specifically anti-trans, according to the Human Rights Campaign. While in previous years conservatives have focused on bathroom bills and restricting trans athletes from sports competitions, the majority of bills this year have centered on banning gender-affirming health care.
In Kentucky, the law’s passage — overwhelmingly on party lines — came at the end of a tumultuous and emotional two-month legislative session. It was just one of several anti-trans bills introduced in the wake of the suicide of Berg’s son Henry Berg-Brousseau, who was a spokesperson for a LGBTQ civil rights organization at the time of his death.
On Wednesday, Berg recalled how Henry, 24, called her during his last days and talked about the flood of anti-trans legislation he saw coming and told her, saying, “Mom this is getting really scary.”
From the senate floor, she detailed the final news release written by her son the day before he killed himself. In it, her son warned about surging anti-LGBTQ extremism and violence, and noted how it was being driven by the rhetoric and laws of conservative lawmakers. “We must all work to repudiate anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and falsehoods in the strongest possible terms. Because our lives are quite literally on the line,” her son wrote.
[…]
National statistics show almost half of trans teens experienced suicidal thoughts, and that more than a third try to kill themselves.
[…]
In Kentucky, the anti-trans legislation has come amid an election year and a Republican effort to defeat Gov. Andy Beshear (D).
Wise, who championed the legislation, is a Republican running for lieutenant governor. After weeks of debate and last-minute political maneuvers, it was rushed through the legislature in a space of a few hours March 16.
Within days, Beshear vetoed the bill, warning it could lead to an increase in youth suicide. Republicans, who control both the state Senate and House, attacked his veto. “Today may very well be remembered as the day Andy Beshear lost his bid for reelection,” Republican Party of Kentucky spokesman Sean Southard said in a written statement.
[…]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky said it is already preparing to file legal challenge to the law. “To all the trans youth who may be affected by this legislation: we stand by you, and we will not stop fighting. You are cherished. You are loved. You belong,” the ACLU said in a statement. “To the commonwealth: we will see you in court.”
“We think this bill is unquestionably unconstitutional,” said ACLU of Kentucky executive director Amber Duke. “Trans kids have a right to exist as they are. We’re particularly concerned about how the bill prevents parents and providers to make medical decisions on behalf of their children. That goes against decades of medical advice and best practices.”
Many of those who worked to interfere in American politics also played key roles in Russia’s assault on Ukraine — a fact that is becoming increasingly clear as the war moves into its second year and new intelligence becomes public.
Take a look at a new report released by RUSI, a British government-affiliated think tank which has done great work over the past year analyzing various aspects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
This report is devoted to “unconventional operations” — that is, the role of Russian spies in Ukraine. Thanks to the events of the past eight years, it’s a topic which has intersected with U.S. politics quite a bit. It also features new details regarding some Ukrainians who have cozied up to American political figures […]
Take Andrii Derkach, a former Ukrainian member of parliament who squired Rudy Giuliani around Kyiv in 2019. Derkach spent the run-up to the 2020 election spreading bizarre calumnies about alleged corruption involving President Biden in Ukraine, and also released supposed recordings of Biden speaking with Ukrainian officials while he was vice president.
[…] Derkach had been a Russian military intelligence asset since 2016.
The Ukrainian investigation found that Derkach received monthly payments of between $3 and $4 million from the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, to create “a network of private security firms which would assist in maintaining control in a number of towns by pathfinding and assisting Russian forces upon their arrival.”
It’s not news that Derkach was likely a Russian agent — the U.S. government has also called him that. But the level of detail is striking, and suggests that Derkach was on the payroll of Russian military intelligence at the same time that he fed Giuliani the dirt that he sought in Ukraine, and when a DHL shipping receipt appeared in the House Intelligence Committee suggesting that a package went from Derkach to the office of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). [!!!]
[…] “Given Ukraine’s critical dependence on military-technical assistance from foreign partners, and above all assistance from the U.S., Russian special influence operations to worsen Ukraine’s relations with partner countries, and especially with the U.S., are a constant priority of the Russian special service,” the report reads.
The report also mentions a lesser-known but still important figure: a former employee of Paul Manafort’s named Vladimir Sivkovych.
Manafort associate Rick Gates testified at his former boss’s 2018 trial that Sivkovych worked with the two of them, and the Treasury Department sanctioned Sivkovych weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
[…] Sivkovych, the report says, was tasked with pressing Ukrainian officials to drop the country’s NATO ambitions before Russia’s invasion — part of a scheme intended to stoke mass protests and allow Russia to use the instability as an entrance point.
Most of these efforts failed, leaving Russian authorities struggling to justify the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia was surprised to find Ukraine united […]
Much of the attention in recent weeks has focused on the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Ukraine has continued to hold after months of horrific battles.
Another figure who interfered in American politics — mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin — has been responsible for the Russian assault on Bakhmut, deploying his mercenary group Wagner PMC (yes, it’s named after the German composer who was a favorite of the Nazis) and staffing it with prisoner conscripts, who are used as cannon fodder.
Prigozhin said in an audio recording that he released on Wednesday that the fighting in Bakhmut had nearly destroyed his mercenary outfit.
“The battle for Bakhmut today has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian Army, and unfortunately, it has also badly damaged the Wagner Private Military Company,” he said. […]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Russia’s top security agency says a reporter for the Wall Street Journal has been arrested on espionage charges. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday that Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Ekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information. The security service alleged that Gershkovich “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex.”
Russian forces have had some success in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday evening, adding that their fighters were still holding on in a battle that has lasted several months. The US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War’s regular update appears to support this, saying, “geolocated footage published on March 28 and 29 indicates that Russian forces advanced in southern and southwestern Bakhmut.”
Alexei Moskalyov, a Russian man who was sentenced to two years in prison for discrediting the Russian armed forces, and whose daughter was taken into care, has been detained after fleeing house arrest, human rights activist and lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov said on Thursday. It was earlier reported that Moskalyov was arrested in Minsk in Belarus, having fled his house arrest.
The UK Ministry of Defence reports, citing Russian media, that authorities are preparing to launch a major recruitment campaign aimed at signing up 400,000 new troops to fight in Ukraine.
…
Lawmakers from the pro-Russia, far-right Freedom Party walked out of the lower house of Austria’s parliament on Thursday during a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, protesting that it violated Austria’s neutrality. Austria says its neutrality prevents it from military involvement in the conflict and while it supports Ukraine politically it cannot send the country weapons in its fight against the Russian invasion. The Freedom Party (FPÖ) had warned days before that it would hold some form of protest against the address.
Four bankers who helped a close friend of Vladimir Putin move millions of francs through Swiss bank accounts have been convicted of lacking diligence in financial transactions. The four were found guilty on Thursday of helping Sergey Roldugin, a concert cellist who has been dubbed “Putin’s wallet” by the Swiss government.
…
Dymtro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has criticised the fact that Russia will take over chairing the UN security council on 1 April, describing it as a “bad joke”.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is up to her old tricks—this time, protesting a routine ATF inspection of a Georgia gun store Monday under the guise that there apparently were too many agents from “blue states” conducting the operation. Then, investigative reporter Luke O’Brien joins the podcast to talk about the ongoing trial of Douglass Mackey, a 33-year-old ‘alt-right’ figure dubbed the “Disinformation King” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.. Despite the fact that Mackey allegedly engaged in election interference, he’s become a cause célèbre in right-wing circles—even garnering a number of segments on Tucker Carlson’s primetime Fox News show. Plus! Benny Johnson, the former Buzzfeed writer who was fired for plagiarism before becoming a right-wing media star, ditches Newsmax in order to pursue an independent career.
Disney:
“discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums ”
Haha, DeSantis and his toadies failed to do their homework, just like for those voters they tried to have prosecuted. I love to see their incompetence publicly displayed like this.
…Such perversities are baked in. They are not an accidental outcome of Conservative politics, but the reason for this government’s existence. The Tories were always close to dirty money. Now they represent nothing and no one but the most destructive and inhumane commercial interests, which reward them handsomely for the favour. They are, to a remarkable extent, bankrolled by petro-capital. Dirt is the fuel on which their election machine runs….
European countries are increasingly resorting to illegal pushbacks of refugees and asylum seekers “with minimal accountability”, a report from the continent’s leading human rights body, the Council of Europe, has found.
The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee (CPT) said it had identified “clear patterns of physical ill-treatment” against people trying to cross borders all over Europe….
The deaths of at least 39 migrants in a fire at a Mexican detention centre are being investigated as suspected homicides, a prosecutor has said, accusing those in charge of doing nothing to evacuate the victims.
Authorities faced mounting scrutiny of their handling of the disaster after video surveillance footage appeared to show guards leaving as flames engulfed a cell with migrants locked inside….
Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro has returned from the US after three months and was greeted by hundreds of supporters at Brasília airport.
Bolsonaro, who never conceded defeat in last year’s election, is expected to lead the opposition to the leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, officials in his Liberal party said.
…
Bolsonaro, who holds the former US president Donald Trump as his political idol, attended the Conservative Political Action Conference this month in Washington where he questioned the result of the October election narrowly won by Lula and said his mission in Brazil was “still not over”.
A Moscow court has formally arrested the Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich, in relation to espionage allegations, according to Russian law enforcement agencies.
Gershkovich told the court that he was not guilty of espionage, state-run Tass news agency is reporting.
The court has ordered Gershkovich should be held in pre-trial custody for nearly two months until 29 May, according to a court document.
A lawyer representing Gershkovich was not allowed to attend the hearing, according to Tass.
“They told me they already have an assigned lawyer,” the lawyer said, according to CNN’s Natasha Bertrand.
‘Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting camping in the modern history of our country…led by Howard Schultz, the multibillionaire who is with us only under the threat of subpoena.’…
Hidden in the bowels of an unmarked building, set well back from the fighting, a command center directing operations in the city of Bakhmut was high-tech and humming. Soldiers monitored video screens with live feeds of destroyed buildings and a cratered battlefield.
Six weeks after coming to help defend Bakhmut, the men of the Adam Tactical Group, one of Ukraine’s most effective battle units, were quietly confident they had turned the tide against Russian troops trying to encircle and capture it.
“The enemy exhausted all its reserves,” the commander, Col. Yevhen Mezhevikin, 40, said on Tuesday, straddling a chair as artillery, air defense and intelligence-gathering teams worked around him.
Through wave after wave of Russian assault and tenacious Ukrainian defense, Bakhmut has, over eight months, become a central battlefield of Russia’s invasion despite limited strategic significance.
Russia has lost extraordinary numbers of troops in the battle, and Ukraine large numbers too, and as casualties have mounted, so has the political symbolism of the city. Kremlin officials have described it as a necessary prize in the campaign to seize Ukraine’s Donbas region. To Ukraine, it has become an important line to hold, both to whittle down Russia’s forces and to deprive them of a victory.
But now, Colonel Mezhevikin said, the Russian assaults have slowed and the imminent threat of encirclement has been thwarted. “The density of assaults dropped by several times,” he said. “Before, they could assault in all directions simultaneously and in groups of not less than 20, 30 or 40 people, but gradually it is dying down.”
The commander’s description aligned with those of Ukraine’s most senior military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhnyi, and his commander of ground forces in the east, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky. Both have said in recent days that the situation of Bakhmut was stabilizing, even with heavy fighting for some Ukrainian units.
Colonel Mezhevikin said that he was confident that Ukrainian forces could keep holding the city and push Russian troops back farther. If the Ukrainians hold their recent gains, the battles of the last month at Bakhmut could prove a turning point in Ukraine’s defense against Russia, not only stalling the latest Russian offensive but also in setting themselves up to deliver a knockout blow, he said.
Fresh Ukrainian attack brigades were completing training, he said. “We are holding the enemy here for a bit more, and let them knock them back,” he said, referring to the new troops.
On the city’s northern and southern flanks, where Russian troops had tried to encircle Bakhmut in a pincers movement, the Russians were coming up against Ukraine’s most motivated units and no longer had momentum, he said.
“When they try to reinforce their units, to rotate, they are being destroyed at the very start,” he added.
The center of Bakhmut, however, remained a hot spot where Russian troops were still attacking with significant force, the commander said: “All that’s left for them is to try to advance through the city, because the buildings protect them from fire.”
…
As some other commanders have noted, there are weaknesses and gaps in the Russian defenses. “The same way they can encircle us, they can also be encircled by us if we pierce their defense at any place,” Mr. Filimonov said.
The Russians realize the danger themselves, he said, and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private military company, which is doing much of the fighting at Bakhmut, publicly warned of the danger in a video post as he called for more military support for his own forces.
“If Wagner PMC rolls back, then the following situation will happen in history,” he said in early March. “It is clear that the front will crumble. The front will crumble to the Russian borders, or maybe further [sure, dude].”
Colonel Mezhevikin said there were still strong Russian divisions guarding the critical points of defense but that regular Russian army units lacked morale and were easier to break. “It’s easier to fight them. They are running away,” he said.
But Wagner units, which include convicts, were threatened with physical punishment if they retreated, which made them tougher opponents, he said. “They are scared to give up and to leave positions,” he explained. “They prefer to die here.”
After a mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas last year prompted calls for new gun restrictions, Republican-led states around the country moved in the other direction. One of them was Tennessee, where the governor insisted that tighter firearms laws would never deter wrongdoers.
“We can’t control what they do,” Gov. Bill Lee said.
Tennessee lawmakers have instead moved to make firearms even more accessible, proposing bills this year to arm more teachers and allow college students to carry weapons on campus, among other measures.
Then came the attack on Monday at the Covenant School in Nashville, where a shooter carrying multiple weapons killed six people, including three children. The same day, a federal judge signed off on a state settlement allowing people as young as 18 to carry a handgun without a permit….
In Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia, Republicans have pushed this year to limit gun-free zones, remove background checks and roll back red-flag laws that seek to remove firearms from those who are a danger to themselves or others.
“I think it’s gotten progressively worse over the years,” North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, said in an interview. On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Legislature in his state overrode his veto and eliminated a century-old pistol permitting system.
In 25 states, no permits are required to carry a handgun — nine more than in 2020.
In recent years, Republicans in the Tennessee State Legislature — a 20-minute drive from the site of this week’s mass shooting — have passed a series of measures that have weakened regulations, eliminating some permit requirements and allowing most residents to carry loaded guns in public, open or concealed, without a permit, training or special background checks.
Republican leaders around the country have rushed to burnish their firearms credentials, mindful that even the suggestion they are not all-in on gun rights could have political consequences.
[…]
The Republican initiatives have not been limited to statehouses. In Congress, the same day as the Tennessee shooting, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, postponed a hearing where he planned to make the case for a Republican bill to outlaw one of the modest regulatory efforts undertaken by the Biden administration, a requirement to register so-called stabilizing braces that allow semiautomatic pistols to be propped against the shoulder for easier, more focused firing.
“Democrats were going to turn this tragic event into a political thing,” Mr. Jordan told reporters at the Capitol on Monday night. He said he had no plans to withdraw the measure or to slow his push to loosen gun laws.
[…]
State Representative Bo Mitchell, a Democrat from Nashville, has been outspoken about his opposition to various bills currently under review in the Tennessee Legislature that would expand access to firearms, hoping instead that lawmakers might respond to the recent mass shootings with measures such as expanded background checks and a ban on assault rifles. The state, he noted, has dealt with a series of mass shootings and soaring gun deaths among youths.
“If guns made us safer, Tennessee should be one of the safest states in the country,” he said. “Instead, we have one of the worst gun violence problems in America.”
Dominion Voting Systems and the company’s lawyers have high thresholds to meet in their defamation case against Fox News, but in terms of the political impact of their lawsuit, the revelations have already been devastating — and they somehow keep getting worse.
To briefly recap, a recent court filing presented evidence that suggested Fox News promoted bogus election claims they knew to be false, on purpose, in order to placate its audience and make money. We also learned, among other things, that News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged under oath that some prominent Fox News hosts “endorsed” baseless claims the network knew to be wrong.
As part of a pretrial hearing, Dominion prepared a series of slides that referenced internal communications and testimony. Fox News redacted some pertinent details, but as NBC News reported, the judge in the case yesterday ordered that they be made public. That didn’t do the network any favors.
Ten days after the 2020 election, Fox News’ so-called Brain Room looked into conspiracy theories that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged the presidential election against Donald Trump. The fact-checking and research division of the network came back with a clear decision: Those claims were false. But the misinformation went on the air anyway.
During one deposition, a Dominion lawyer asked David Clark, Fox News’ senior vice president for weekend news and programming, “If the Brain Room had concluded that the charges were, in fact, false, they never should have been aired, correct?” The network executive replied, “Yes.”
But the claims were aired anyway.
What’s more, this wasn’t the only revelation of note from NBC News’ reporting.
– On Dec. 2, 2020, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott sent an email to Meade Cooper, the executive vice president of prime-time programming, complaining about a segment in which an on-air anchor told viewers the truth about some of Trump’s bogus voter fraud claims. “This has to stop now,” Scott wrote. “The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business.”
– On Jan. 20, 2021, News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch emailed Scott, marveling at Trump’s election-related lies. “Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25% of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan 6th,” he wrote.
– Before putting Sidney Powell on the air for a bonkers interview, Maria Bartiromo sent unhinged messages to a producer, saying, among other things, “We have to go to a full on war.” The far-right host added, “We have to keep this president. Noone [sic] thinks anyway that people voted for Biden,” before pointing to non-existent evidence of Dominion wrongdoing. Bartiromo’s weird conspiracy theory also referenced then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and George Soros for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.
[…] Fox News, meanwhile, has denied all wrongdoing and is vigorously contesting the lawsuit. In a statement to NBC News, a network spokesperson said, “[…] The foundational right to a free press is at stake and we will continue to fiercely advocate for the First Amendment in protecting the role of news organizations to cover the news.”
Dinesh D’Sousa has been dishonest his whole life. As a student at Dartmouth, his pieces for The Dartmouth Review were so consistently false his peers called him Distort D’Newsa. With experience, he has become an even bigger liar. He has prospered as a conservative gadfly and fabulist.
It is easy to work his side of the street. You do not need to bear the expense of fact-checkers — or the burden of logic. Take his reaction to the latest American school massacre. He trots out the meaningless pablum that “ Guns don’t kill people. People kill people”. (Note: people with guns kill a lot more people than people without guns.)
However, he reveals his true nature through his confident assertion of complete bullshit — to wit, his tweeted statement, “Well, cars kill more people than guns do.” [Full text of D’Souza tweet is available at the link]
Not only is that a lie, but it is also an easily provable lie. In 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 42,915 people died from car accidents. For the same year, the Gun Violence Archive reported 45,166 gun deaths.
[…] Politicians took the devastation wrought by car crashes and did something about it. They passed laws requiring automobile safety features — like mandating seat belt use and frontal airbags. Traffic experts redesigned roads and signs. And the authorities took on one of the leading causes of crashes — drunk driving. Although, they needed a kick in the ass from a civilian to get on it.
On May 3, 1980, Cari Lightner, a 13-year-old girl, was killed by a drunken hit-and-run driver in Fair Oaks, CA. The 46-year-old driver, recently arrested for another DUI hit-and-run, left Cari’s body at the scene. Cari’s mother, Candace (Candy) Lightner, decided to turn tragedy into solutions and organized Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
From 1980 to 2021, the US automobile fatality rate declined by 64%. From 2000 to 2021, American gun deaths increased by 56%.
It was not smooth sailing. The car lobby, much like the gun, tobacco, lead, and fossil fuel lobbies, was ferocious in protecting profits no matter who got hurt. Lee Iacocca, the creator of the Ford Mustang and the man who rescued Chrysler, was adamantly opposed to saving lives with mandatory airbags. Although, he became a convert. And thousands of Americans are alive today in part because of his epiphany.
[…] In 1971, he and Henry Ford II (then the top executives at the Ford Motor Co.) met secretly with President Richard Nixon to persuade him to kill a pending Department of Transportation regulation requiring airbags in every new car sold in the United States.
[…] In 1990, the former absolutist on airbag rejection boasted that Chrysler was the only car company offering drivers airbags standard on all its vehicles. Ford upped the ante by adding a passenger airbag in all its cars. Today, the idea of a car not having both front and side airbags is hard to imagine — even though side airbags are not mandatory.
Nowhere did this welcome rise of sanity require anyone to ban cars. Why? Because we achieved the result by requiring driver’s licenses, written and road tests, and safety lessons. In addition, the law requires drivers to carry insurance and cars to pass safety inspections.
[…] In contrast, the gun lobby, rallying around the NRA’s bloody standard, has bribed craven conservatives to thwart the will of the majority with a cynical embrace of the Second Amendment.
Their fundamentalist interpretation of that poorly worded passage would have horrified the Founders. I wager that, if they were alive today, they would look at the massacre of children and the daily grind of gun deaths with horror. They would roll up their sleeves and fix it — whatever it took. […]
In this intercepted, Russian serviceman talks about the negative attitude of local people towards Russian soldiers in the occupied territories. He also talks about his daily job in Ukraine (killing people, while his wife supports him), and how Ukrainian saboteur groups successfully act in the occupied territories.
Republican energy policy is clear in a new bill passed by the House (it is really a take-care-of-our-donors policy):
The House on Thursday passed an energy package that was the Republican conference’s top legislative priority, sending the measure to the Senate where the Democratic leader has said it is “dead-on-arrival.”
Supposedly that was their “top priority,” as signaled by the name of the Bill, “H.R. 1.” However, most of their time has been spent on “investigating” Hunter Biden, claiming that the FBI mistreats conservatives, that the Department of Homeland Security should be defunded, etc
[…] Broadly, the bill seeks to bolster fossil fuel production and exports, as well as domestic mining. It also aims to speed up the approval process for energy and other infrastructure projects and repeal some programs in the sweeping climate legislation Democrats passed last year.
[…] “This is just another decades old request from polluters to make their operations cheaper and easier while making Americans’ lives harder and more costly,” he [Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), the top Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources] continued. “It’s not a serious solution to any of our energy goals.”
[…] The GOP package includes a slew of energy policies aimed at bolstering fossil fuels, including provisions that make it easier to sell liquified natural gas abroad, limiting the president’s authority to block crossborder energy projects like it did with the Keystone XL Pipeline and limiting states’ authority to block projects that run through their waters.
[…] reduce the fees that companies have to pay the government to drill offshore.
[…] it would repeal programs in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act that uses both incentives and fees as part of an attempt to get oil and gas companies to reduce their emissions of planet-warming methane and that provides funding for climate-friendly projects.
At first, the Russian pilots all thought it was a scam. But they agreed to go along with it anyway, especially after the initial payments came through.
Last summer, a group of Ukrainian volunteers, working closely with their country’s intelligence service, apparently came close to persuading three Russian aviators who were in the midst of bombing Ukraine to defect with their warplanes in exchange for $1 million a piece. It was a bold, months-long operation, “like a movie,” in the words of one of the Russian marks, a trio of exceptionally well-trained airmen who seemed amenable to betraying their motherland for a sum of money they’d otherwise never see in their lifetimes.
What looked like a legitimate plan to switch sides proved anything but. None of the pilots defected in the end…
In a distant galaxy, a supermassive black hole spewing radiation at near light speed has shifted its angle by a whopping 90 degrees to point directly toward Earth — a sharp turn that’s puzzling physicists.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the hungry black holes at the cores of many other galaxies, and they accrete matter and spew powerful jets of high-energy particles known as relativistic jets. AGN are classified according to what part of the AGN is pointed toward Earth.
PBC J2333.9-2343, a large galaxy about 4 million light-years across, was previously classified as a radio galaxy, meaning its AGN’s gargantuan jets of radiation were pointed perpendicular to our line of sight. But new research published March 20 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society reclassifies the galaxy as a blazar, meaning the black hole’s jets are now pointed directly at Earth. This means the galaxy’s jets shifted by a “dramatic” degree, the researchers wrote in the study…
Thousands of women have gone to the front lines to join the Ukrainian army’s fight against Russia, and they often do so in uniforms that fit poorly because they were made for men…
But local Ukrainian organizations are trying to improve this aspect of military life for women by producing uniforms designed specifically for them, since the government still has no plans to make women’s uniforms…
We guess Russia was feeling weak and puny with its back stuck up against a wall, because it’s taken a journalist from a real country hostage.
Russia’s FSB has detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, from the paper’s Moscow bureau, on what we assume are entirely fictional imaginary espionage charges. The world might be more inclined to take Russia’s statements seriously if it were a real country that didn’t stifle all dissent, murder (often literally) the free press, and wasn’t currently engaged in a genocidal war it started for no other reason but to make the masturbatory fever dreams of its increasingly frail leader come true. Hell, it banned telling the truth about how poorly that war is going. Also, just in general, Russia is a huge fucking liar trusted by no one who isn’t an easily flattered idiot and/or traitor.
This is reportedly the first time they’ve kidnapped an American reporter as a spy since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the first time they’ve kidnapped a foreign journalist since they barged into Ukraine and started killing children. Obviously they’ve kidnapped American lesbian basketball stars and ex-US Marines and others. It’s a pretty big deal that they’ve kidnapped an American journalist.
According to the Journal, Gershkovich had the proper accreditation from the Russian foreign ministry, as all foreign journalists working there must. Since he started with the Journal in January of 2022, he’s been covering a “variety of Russia-related topics, including the recent visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Moscow, close associates of Mr. Putin and tensions between Kremlin officials and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russian paramilitary group Wagner.” He’s also worked for Agence France-Presse, the New York Times and the Moscow Times.
Gershkovich was particularly known for reporting like this: “Putin, Isolated and Distrustful, Leans on Handful of Hard-Line Advisers.” It was full of the kinds of quotes we’ve come to expect about a weakened president, disconnected from reality, who blunderfucked himself into the greatest geopolitical miscalculation of the 21st century when he figured he’d have an easy time invading the country next door and that nobody in the world would really do anything about it.
Fellow journalist Max Seddon, Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times, says on Twitter that this is “yet another troubling sign of the off-the-charts repression, paranoia, and hostility to the US in Russia right now. A moment of which Evan was one of our finest chroniclers.” He links to the article excerpted above.
Gershkovich was kidnapped in Yekaterinberg, in the east of Russia. The FSB says he, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.” They are particularly claiming his trip to Yekaterinberg was not journalism-related, but rather espionage-related. Sure you betcha.
His friends say he was doing reporting on the Wagner group there. […]
“We’re not talking about suspicions,” Dmitri S. Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, said in a daily conference call with journalists, adding, “He was caught red-handed.” Mr. Peskov said he could not provide further details.
[…] The Wall Street Journal, of course, says this is all obvious bullshit.
As of now he’s supposed to be held until May 29. Based on Russia’s past behavior, we are sure that day will come and go and they’ll still be illegally holding Gershkovich hostage and Russia will tell us as little about it as possible. As the Journal writes, “His case, according to TASS, is considered top secret.” He could go to prison for 20 years, according to the New York Times.[Tweet at the link]
Does Vladimir Putin think he’s in a good position to be doing this right now? We know Putin’s sidepiece Donald Trump is making sunny predictions on “Hannity” this week that Russia is about to take over all of Ukraine, but back here on Earth #1, Russia is a laughingstock and a pariah. But yeah, sure, take a hostage. Big strong man!
Many are noting that ever since Russia invaded Ukraine and banned all journalism that hurt Putin’s feelings, American and other foreign press outfits have cut back on their presence in Russia. […] That said, what Gershkovich was doing was by definition what journalists do, and the risks are part of what make the job so vital to the world.
Therefore any commenters who say things like “DURRR DURRRR WHY WAS HE EVEN IN RUSSIA IF HE DIDN’T WANT TO GET KIDNAPPED” will be immediately thrown out of a window. Ha ha just kidding, that’s just a little Russia joke for you!
Republican-controlled state legislatures just can’t seem to be satisfied in their war on public and school libraries, even after they’ve already passed censorship laws that might make Big Brother say “OK, aren’t you kind of piling on?”
A couple of prime examples: In Florida, a bill designed to expand the reach of the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law also contains a provision that would allow rightwing activists even more power to force schools to pull library books from the shelves, and in Missouri, the state Legislature voted yesterday to eliminate all state funding for public libraries from the state budget.
[…] Florida: Ban Books First, Ask Questions Later
Yr Wonkette has already discussed Florida’s bills aimed at expanding last year’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to prohibit acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people in any grade of school, right up through high school. The bill, Florida Senate Bill 1320, would prohibit any use of preferred pronouns for trans people, ban any classroom instruction “on sexual orientation or gender identity until grade 9” — up from the third grade in the current law — and require that high school sex ed classes must “teach that the male and female reproductive roles are binary, stable, and unchangeable,” among other things.
But buried in the bill text is yet another provision that hadn’t gotten much notice until now, as discovered by political scientist Jeffrey Sachs […] SB 1320 would turbocharge book challenges, requiring school systems to immediately remove any books from all school libraries once someone — anyone in the county, not even a parent with kids in the system — files a challenge to the book or other library holding.
Say goodbye to due process! The law appears to ban any materials that depict “sexual” or “pornographic” content, which of course prior iterations of the “Don’t Say Gay” law defined so vaguely that it could apply to damn near anything, and it already has. As WaPo’s Greg Sargent explains, the ban first, ask questions later approach is intentional:
The bill’s chief sponsor, Republican state Sen. Clay Yarborough, doesn’t deny this. He holds it up as a positive. In a statement emailed to me, Yarborough cited the bill’s targeting of sexual material and said he will always “err on the side of protecting children.”
“I do not have any concerns with the materials being removed until an objection is resolved,” Yarborough added.
This is where we remind you again that schools are not throwing porn at children anyway; instead, the existing laws have already been used to pull books like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, which includes a rape scene that’s not prurient, but which is important to the main character’s plight. Students have asked for the book to be restored because they found the book an important work of literature.
[…] If a single complaint can get a book pulled from shelves, she [Kara Gross, legislative counsel for the ACLU of Florida] explained, “It grants enormous power to a single bigoted individual to dictate and control what books other parents’ kids have access to.”
[…] abuse the law by filing so many book challenges that school library staff would have little time for anything else […]
Missouri: House Defunds Libraries To Teach Librarians, ACLU A Lesson
Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives voted yesterday to remove all state funding from public libraries, as revenge on library groups that had dared to sue over a censorship law passed last year. That 2022 law banned school libraries from carrying “sexually explicit” materials. […] Librarians and other school employees could be charged with a misdemeanor and if found guilty would face up to a year in jail and/or a $2000 fine for each charge.
The law includes exceptions for educational materials, like fine art, sex ed, or anatomy or biology texts, […] the law is still so broad that library groups and the ACLU sued to have it thrown out as unconstitutional, or at least to get court guidance on “how and when it applies.”
The suit was brought by the ACLU on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association. The ACLU is representing the librarian groups pro bono, but the lawsuit nonetheless raised the hackles of Republicans, because how dare those librarians push back against a perfectly fine censorship law? […]
And yes, while the law applies only to school library holdings, the public libraries have to suffer because public librarians [also filed a lawsuit] […]
The $4.5 million funding cut was introduced last week […]
An ACLU of Missouri spokesperson, Tom Bastian, said in a statement when the budget cut was introduced that punishing the state’s library patrons was “abhorrent”:
If the members of the committee are concerned about preserving taxpayer funds, they should stop enacting laws they know do not meet constitutional muster, not burden local governments in a misguided effort to silence organizations who object to the legislature’s overreach.
[…] if librarians would just understand that Republicans can do whatever they want, things would run a lot smoother […]
Well we guess Lauren Boebert, the Republican congressman from Colorado, heard people were calling other congressmen idiots and decided to reclaim her title.
The scene was one of those hearings where Congress, the House Oversight Committee in particular, tells DC what to do, since under our lovely arrangement for the nation’s capital, [Republicans] like Lauren Boebert get to badger DC about its personal affairs. And she just REALLY NEEDED this guy on the DC City Council to tell her if it was legal to pee in public.
Did Mr. Charles Allen lead the charge to reform DC’s crime laws? Yes he did lead that committee. And are those new reforms now law? No they aren’t, said Mr. Allen. “Those are not the law?” said Lauren Boebert. […]
“Mr. Allen! Did you or did you not decriminalize public urination?” No he did not. “Did you lead the charge to do so?” No he did not. “Did you lead the charge to decriminalize public urination in Washington DC?” she asked again. “No ma’am,” he said again. “Did you ever vote in favor of decriminalizing public urination in Washington DC?” Still no. “Did YOU EVER support … ” Still no.
Mr. Allen said it was a criminal offense to pee in public. “And you support this?” Boebert asked, about the public pee being criminal. “I voted for it, yeah.”
“You VOTED TO KEEP IT as a criminal offense?”
“That’s correct,” said Mr. Allen.
Lauren Boebert said she had records that said Mr. Allen loved public pee. Mr. Allen said naw that ain’t it.
Is Mr. Allen going to decriminalize pee in the future? Is he going to decriminalize pee the second he leaves here today? Still no.
[…] Having done her participating in Congress, Boebert said “thank you, I yield,” and yielded. [videos at the link]
At Rolling Stone,Nikki McCann Ramirez reminds us of a thing about Lauren Boebert and the subject of having one’s wangus out:
Boebert has personal experience with crime related to indecent exposure. In 2004, her husband, Jason Boebert, pleaded guilty and served jail time after exposing himself to two women at a bowling alley, one of whom was underage.
Classy classy.
We guess Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene heard people calling Boebert an idiot and felt the need to reclaim HER title back, because in Congress yesterday she also bellyached about that time she was in high school and Joe Biden took all the guns out of the schools, and immediately there was a lockdown at HER school. This video helps Greene out with some of the facts she seems confused about, like how Joe Biden hasn’t been president for 33 years, and when the thing at her school happened, the law in question hadn’t even been proposed yet. [video of "Fact Check Incoming!!!"]
But other than that, flawless victory, Marge! And Lauren Boebert!
The agreement invoked a so-called “royal lives clause”: It is valid in perpetuity, or if forever is deemed to be too long, until the “death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England living as of the date of this Declaration.” Such clauses have been employed for centuries as a workaround for restrictions on agreements in perpetuity.
I don’t know why they left out the “21 years after” that you correctly noted is in the clause. Just sloppy, I guess. Btw, the agreement is here, published by the Orlando Sentinel.
Of course, DeSantis (i.e., Florida taxpayers) has signed up Cooper & Kirk, a conservative D.C. law firm, along with four other law firms in an attempt to break the agreement.
What happens if you give a blanket pardon to the most violent criminals, put them in a situation where they are rewarded for displaying more violence, then set them loose in society as “heroes?” Something like this.
Ivan Rossomakhin, a Wagner fighter and convicted murderer has sent shockwaves through Russian society. While on leave from the front, he returned to his home town of Novy Burets and began what locals called ‘a reign of terror and murder’.
During his first day back in his hometown, Rossomakhin stabbed and beat a woman to death. That was after he “threatened to kill everyone in town.”
These are the kind of people being honored for their service with Wagner Group.
This may seem like a diversion from the bombs going off at Avdiivka, or the new equipment driving into Lviv. It’s not.
[…] for two days in a row, I’ve written about the actions being taken at Twitter; actions that have already caused a sharp decline in both revenue and traffic as many people search for an alternative. However, as it happens, there’s already a microblogging platform that has more daily users than Twitter. What’s more, that platform is also the second largest messaging app in the world, bigger than Facebook Messenger and nipping at the heels of the free WhatsApp service.
In what’s become one of the peculiarities of this war, many of the most detailed pro-Ukrainian information, including posts from soldiers on the ground in Bakhmut, and some of the most hardline pro-Russian information, including posts from Wagner Group, can be found in the same place—Telegram. And there are good reasons to think that’s a serious problem.
Increasingly, there are concerns inside Ukraine about the use of Telegram. Though it’s officially headquartered in Dubai, the platform was founded by two Russian entrepreneurs. Their relationship with the Russian government was initially rocky, but in recent years, Telegram has gained support in Moscow, and has been embraced by both military figures and officials as the platform of choice. As The Kyiv Independent points out, Telegram has been praised for its frequent cooperation with Russian authorities and assistance in the “fight against extremism.” In other words, they cooperate readily in turning over user information concerning anyone who comes to the attention of the Kremlin.
If you’ve never used the platform, the answer to how it became so popular is simple. At its heart, it looks like a messaging app, and you can do the same kind of exchange between individuals or groups that you’d do with any such app. But you can also create a public “channel.” That allows the same familiar interface to be used to create a stream of messages to which anyone can listen in or subscribe (here’s the public channel of the pro-Ukrainian military site DeepState as an example [Image and link availableat the main link]).
If you’re a soldier on the ground in Ukraine, you can send texts back and forth with your loved ones at home, or broadcast about the day’s events to journalists around the world, all on the same platform. Which many, many people find very handy.
Telegram, like Twitter, has also become a kind of news consolidation service. However, much more than Twitter, Telegram Channels have largely replaced other media for many readers. It’s not only a way in which journalists first surface a story for other journalists, but a place where news aggregators create their own channels to pull together other Telegram posts. That makes Telegram the second-largest source of news in Ukraine. 41% of Ukrainians report using it as a primary source of news. It’s right behind television at 43%.
That’s the dilemma. Telegram was around well before Russia invaded Ukraine. It became the hot new thing in the years right before the war. Many Ukrainians, like many Russians, and many people around the world—including a growing number in the U.S. where Telegram is increasingly popular, especially among groups like the Proud Boys and other white nationalists—have grown used to Telegram as their primary communication channels with friends and family, as well as how they speak to their world. It’s their Facebook Messenger and their Twitter, in one place. That combination of functionality has allowed Telegram to grow its user base from 5% to 31% of worldwide traffic in under five years.
But if the U.S. has reasons to be concerned about how Chinese authorities may tap into data from TikTok, Ukraine has very good reasons to be concerned about Telegram. It’s not hard to conceive of the company not just handing over information to the Kremlin on request, which they do, but also setting filters to provide a real-time stream of reports from the front lines. Since Telegram supports posting images and video, that could also mean sending Russia a constant set of potential intelligence information on Ukrainian positions and disposition. And Telegram could be dipping not just into the public channels to produce this information, but into private chats.
There’s also this intrinsic issue: Basic Telegram messages, unlike those on almost every other service, travel unencrypted. If you want encryption, you have to pay for it, and most people don’t. So chats on Telegram can be potentially intercepted and read even without the cooperating of Telegram.
Ukraine is saddled with an issue where the plurality of people get their news from a single platform. A majority of people use that platform for their private chats. A majority use it as their only means of social messaging. And that platform that was both founded by Russians and is cooperating with the Russian government.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff has a (very popular) Telegram channel. So do officers in the Ukrainian military. All over the country, officials use Telegram to provide community news and even to send air raid alerts—along with information on shelters. […]
Two campaign news tidbits, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* The latest Quinnipiac poll, meanwhile, found the former president leading the Florida governor, 47% to 33%. Pence was again a distant third with 5% support, followed by former Ambassador Nikki Haley with 4%.
* In related news, Trump’s political operation yesterday accused DeSantis of making comments about foreign policy that reflected a “dangerous lack of historical, intellectual, and diplomatic sophistication,” which struck me as hilarious in light of the former president’s general lack of historical, intellectual, and diplomatic sophistication.
The latest Republican member of Congress to face a possible censure resolution is Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah: Delegates to the Emery County Republican Party Convention are scheduled to vote today on a resolution that accuses the GOP senator of, among other things, giving “aid and comfort to the Democratic party” during Trump’s first impeachment trial.
If you’ve been waiting to see those Western vehicles actually in Ukraine, your BINGO card should be close to complete. [Tweet and video at the link: M2 Bradley, M113, HMMWV vehicles under the Ukrainian flag at an undisclosed location.]
This follows yesterday’s image of a Leopard 2 tank outfitted with a set of extra reactive armor and a shield against grenade-dropping drones. And while this video of Ukrainian soldiers training on Challenger 2 tanks was made in England, images are circulating that also show them in Ukraine, sporting Ukrainian colors. [video at the link]
Recently, images have shown what appears to be a genuinely impressive number of tanks, troops, and armored vehicles at locations in Ukraine, reportedly preparing for the much-talked-about spring counteroffensive. The where and when of that Ukrainian assault is still unknown … unless, of course, Ukrainian officials are chatting about it on Telegram. If they are, let’s hope they’re engaged in a digital Operation Fortitude.
How serious are those videos of an upcoming counteroffensive looking? About this serious. [Tweet and video at the link: large armor grouping in addition to new equipment like Leopard or AMX10, good video, very short snippet, but impressive.]
I’m particularly interested to see how Ukraine puts those AMX-10rc wheeled vehicles to use. No matter what the video below says, the French have used them essentially as tanks, not just as armored scouts. However, that was mostly in conflicts where opponents had no significant armored vehicles and in locations where the wheels gave the AMX exceptional speed and maneuverability. What role will they play on a battlefield where each side has over a thousand main battle tanks, and the ground is sometimes made of meter-deep chocolate pudding? [video at the link]
The issue with gun stabilization is real. If you have to stop, aim, and fire, it really doesn’t matter how fast you get into position. You’re likely to be shredded.
The AMX-10rc seems ideally suited to the role of “aggressive reconnaissance.” I keep thinking about some of those situations in the early days of the Kharkiv counteroffensive when, following the initial breakthrough, Ukraine had vehicles zipping around cities like Lyman and even Lysychansk but couldn’t put the force in place to keep Russia from regrouping in these locations. Maybe something like the AMX could turn such breakthroughs into even bigger breakthroughs by leading those aggressive recons.
As with so many other things, we’re likely to know how these shape up Real Soon Now.
BAKHMUT
Reports from Wagner Group, which were repeated in several locations, made it seem that Wednesday was going to finally be the day they took Bakhmut, with reports of “major assaults” in every direction and fighting “already at the city center.”
However, as far as can be discerned at this hour, Russian assaults at the north and south edges of the city failed to result in significant advance. Heavy attacks seem to be limited to the east and southeast edges of the Ukrainian-controlled area. [map at the link]
Fighting in this area, which is just a couple of blocks from where Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin filmed a video at a captured school on Monday, has been going on at least since Tuesday afternoon. It’s really not clear at the moment if Ukraine still holds positions in these blocks or if Russia has successfully taken these blocks, which do include (largely destroyed) city offices.
Fighting is reported to be very difficult, but there are also reports that in recent days Wagner has been less effective in its ability to direct air strikes and artillery at locations before conducting an attempted advance. That may be another signal of the schism between Wagner and the military; it may be a sign that the military can’t assist because it’s short on materiels; it may be because some Wagner commanders have been redeployed to Avdiivka. And it may just be noise that means nothing at all.
———————-
[…] Let’s look at some more of that gear being laid out before people get it all dirty.
🇺🇸Strykers & Cougars are now in the capable hands of 🇺🇦Air Assault Forces.
Took them for a test drive. I’m glad that the best soldiers in the world are getting the best vehicles from our partners.
They will bring us closer to victory.
Thank you to @POTUS @SecDef & all Americans. pic.twitter.com/AawMwbAkqm
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) March 30, 2023
Link. Scroll down at the link to view these updates.
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas who previously ruled to dismantle the Affordable Care Act struck down a narrower but key part of the nation’s health law Thursday in a decision that opponents say could jeopardize preventive screenings for millions of Americans.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor comes more than four years after he ruled that the health care law, sometimes called “Obamacare,” was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned that decision.
His latest ruling is likely to start another lengthy court battle: O’Connor blocked the requirement that most insurers cover some preventive care such as cancer screenings, siding with plaintiffs who include a conservative activist in Texas and a Christian dentist who opposed mandatory coverage for contraception and an HIV prevention treatment on religious grounds.
O’Connor wrote in his opinion that recommendations for preventive care by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force were “unlawful.”
The Biden administration had told the court that the outcome of the case “could create extraordinary upheaval in the United States’ public health system.” It is likely to appeal.
In September, O’Connor ruled that required coverage of the HIV prevention treatment known as PrEP, which is a pill taken daily to prevent infection, violated the plaintiffs’ religious beliefs. That decision also undercut the broader system that determines which preventive drugs are covered in the U.S., ruling that a federal task force that recommends coverage of preventive treatments is unconstitutional.
Employers’ religious objections have been a sticking point in past challenges to former President Barack Obama’s health care law, including over contraception.
The Biden administration and more than 20 states, mostly controlled by Democrats, had urged O’Connor against a sweeping ruling that would do away with the preventive care coverage requirement entirely.
“Over the last decade, millions of Americans have relied on the preventive services provisions to obtain no-cost preventive care, improving not only their own health and welfare, but public health outcomes more broadly,” the states argued in a court filing.
The lawsuit is among the attempts by conservatives to chip away at the Affordable Care Act — or wipe it out entirely — since it was signed into law in 2010. The attorney who filed the suit was an architect of the Texas abortion law that was the nation’s strictest before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June and allowed states to ban the procedure.
Former President Trump was indicted on criminal charges in New York for his role in organizing hush money payments made to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.
The history-making indictment marks the first time a president has been charged in a criminal matter and comes as several law enforcement entities are investigating Trump’s conduct in numerous probes. […]
Trump’s company labeled Cohen’s reimbursement of the payment as a legal expense and did not disclose them in campaign expense reports.
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald J. Trump on Thursday for his role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to five people with knowledge of the matter, a historic development that will shake up the 2024 presidential race and forever mark him as the nation’s first former president to face criminal charges.
[…] prosecutors working for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, will have asked Mr. Trump to surrender and to face arraignment on charges that remain unknown for now.
Mr. Trump has for decades avoided criminal charges despite persistent scrutiny and repeated investigations, creating an aura of legal invincibility that the vote to indict now threatens to puncture.
His actions surrounding his 2020 electoral defeat are now the focus of a separate federal investigation, and a Georgia prosecutor is in the final stages of an investigation into Mr. Trump’s attempts to reverse the election results in that state. […]
Here’s what else you need to know:
Mr. Bragg and his lawyers will likely attempt to negotiate Mr. Trump’s surrender. If he agrees, it will raise the prospect of a former president, with the Secret Service in tow, being photographed and fingerprinted in the bowels of a New York State courthouse.
The prosecution’s star witness is Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer who paid the $130,000 to keep Ms. Daniels quiet. Mr. Cohen has said that Mr. Trump directed him to buy Ms. Daniels’s silence, and that Mr. Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, helped cover the whole thing up. The company’s internal records falsely identified the reimbursements as legal expenses, which helped conceal the purpose of the payments.
Although the specific charges remain unknown, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors have zeroed in on that hush money payment and the false records created by Mr. Trump’s company. A conviction is not a sure thing: An attempt to combine a charge relating to the false records with an election violation relating to the payment to Ms. Daniels would be based on a legal theory that has yet to be evaluated by judges, raising the possibility that a court could throw out or limit the charges.
The vote to indict, the product of a nearly five-year investigation, kicks off a new and volatile phase in Mr. Trump’s post-presidential life as he makes a third run for the White House. And it could throw the race for the Republican nomination — which he leads in most polls — into uncharted territory.
Mr. Bragg is the first prosecutor to lead an indictment of Mr. Trump. He is now likely to become a national figure enduring a harsh political spotlight.
Specific Charges Unknown, But It’s A Felony
We don’t yet know exactly what charges Bragg plans to bring against Trump.
Reports in recent days suggested that Bragg had gone beyond investigating only Stormy Daniels, and was including the case of a former Playboy playmate, Karen McDougal, who also allegedly received a hush money payment.
The Times and others reported that Trump will face a felony-level indictment. As per other prisoners, he’s expected to be fingerprinted and to have his Miranda rights read to him.
I HAVE GAINED SUCH RESPECT FOR THIS GRAND JURY, & PERHAPS EVEN THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE. THE EVIDENCE IS SO OVERWHELMING IN MY FAVOR, & SO RIDICULOUSLY BAD FOR THE HIGHLY PARTISAN & HATEFUL DISTRICT ATTORNEY, THAT THE GRAND JURY IS SAYING, HOLD ON, WE ARE NOT A RUBBER STAMP, WHICH MOST GRAND JURIES ARE BRANDED AS BEING […]
The White House on Thursday said it has new evidence that Russia is looking again to North Korea for weapons to fuel the war in Ukraine, this time in a deal that would provide Pyongyang with needed food and other commodities in return. It’s the latest accusation that Russia, desperate for weaponry and restricted by sanctions and export controls, is turning to ‘rogue’ nations to help it continue to prosecute the 13-month-old war.
The first Black U.S. vice president, she [Vice President Kamala Harris] also was the highest Biden administration official to visit the continent [Africa], and her visit generated profound excitement. Every street she rode down was filled with people, often holding Ghanaian and American flags, who waved and screamed and cheered, hoping to get a glance into her motorcade. Large posters of her face were posted all over Accra, many of them saying ‘Akwaaba.’ Welcome.
Mexican officials announced on Wednesday that they were investigating a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez as a homicide case, saying that government workers and private security employees had not allowed detainees to escape from the blaze that killed at least 39 people.
Finland won final approval on Thursday to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a major shift in the balance of power between the West and Russia that was set off by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey’s Parliament, in a session that went deep into the night, cast the last vote needed for Finland’s entry into NATO, greatly enlarging the alliance’s border with Russia in a strategic defeat for its president, Vladimir V. Putin. In invading Ukraine last year, he made it clear that he was intent on blocking NATO’s eastward expansion. […]
Master strategist Putin continues to suffer the consequences of his actions, with a brand new NATO presence along 1,300 kilometers of Russia’s border, or just over 800 miles long. Russia’s second most important city, St Petersburg, is just 400 km (250 mi) from the Finnish border.
Yet Russia’s timid response to this massive expansion on its border has betrayed claims that it invaded Ukraine because of its potential NATO ascension. Putin knows NATO is not a threat to its territories, it is only a threat to its imperialistic expansionist ambitions.
More updates from Mark Sumner:
For the last year, Vladimir Putin has been claiming that the Russian economy had not been impacted by the sanctions applied by the West. But last night, on Russian state media outlet TASS, the Russian dictator was forced to admit the truth.
“The illegitimate restrictions imposed on the Russian economy may indeed have a negative impact on [the Russian economy] in the medium term.”
That “may” translates into a 35% year over year drop in revenue for the Russian government, at the same time the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine was raising expenditures by 59%. The result is a record deficit.
Police in Gatineau, Que., say they’ve arrested six suspects accused of “hunting” people they thought were pedophiles in recent months.
While the Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau offered few details in a French-language news release Thursday, similar movements have seen people create fake online profiles to catch the interest of a target, lure them to a meeting, record the ensuing confrontation and post videos online to publicly shame the suspected predators…
All six will face at least one charge each of criminal harassment, police said, while Joey Chartrand faces eight counts of criminal harassment.
With the exception of Breton, each accused will also face at least one charge of intimidation.
With the exception of Chevalier-Robitaille, each accused will also face one charge of distributing child pornography, and all but Jessy Chartrand and Breton will face at least one charge of forcible confinement…
A new analysis of horse bones gathered from museums across the Great Plains and northern Rockies has revealed that horses were present in the grasslands by the early 1600s, earlier than many written histories suggest…
The study also showed that, over time, the genetics of horses in North America switched from being primarily of Spanish origin to a mixture of British and Spanish, reflecting the ascent of different empires…
Prosecutors in the Arab Gulf nation of Bahrain on Thursday have handed down yearlong prison sentences to three people for debating Islamic theology in a series of blog posts and online videos.
The three are part of a local cultural society called Tajdeed, Arabic for Renewal, that says it questions traditional Islamic scholarship and jurisprudence but not the religion itself. Critics, including prominent Shiite clerics in the kingdom, have accused the group of attacking the foundations of Islam and have waged a campaign of incitement against them…
It did not name the defendants, but activists have identified them as Jalal al-Qassab and Redha Rajab, who were summoned to court, and Mohammed Rajab, who lives in Britain. They are free on bail pending appeal…
Trump Jr. starts his podcast: “Well, guys, I guess I got some news at 10-15 minutes ago…
“Apparently, Soros-backed Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is indicting my father. Let’s be clear folks: This is Communist-level shit. This is stuff that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot blush.”
Trump Jr. takes a brief intermission to complain about trans people. Back to indictment news: “For those people who said, ‘It’s not real. Trump’s making it up. It’s not a real issue for us…’ Just wait until they come for you. We’re in a battle for our entire existence.”
Trump Jr. now defending the QAnon Shaman: “Look what we saw just today: The QAnon Shaman released 14 months early after spending two years in jail unnecessarily.”
Trump Jr. back to complaining about big tech canceling people, trans people and hormones. “It’s only going to get worse until we say enough is enough, until we all becomes unafraid to speak up against these injustices.”
Trump Jr. on DeSantis: “When Republicans like Ron DeSantis say, ‘This isn’t a real issue.’ Just wait, Ron. One day you may be the man. The way you’ve handled the last couple of weeks, I actually hope not, unfortunately.”
Trump Jr. spilling some tea now: “The weak-kneed response of so many Republicans, especially those who have done a really good job of paying influencers to make them seem really MAGA. I get it. That’s the game.”
Trump Jr. switched over to a pre-taped interview from earlier today. He’s going to make some calls to his team.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg issued a statement confirming that former President Trump has been indicted by a grand jury. The statement said the district attorney’s office is working with Trump’s attorneys to coordinate his “surrender” and arraignment.
“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal,” the spokesperson said. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”…
Central Park 5/Exonerated 5 member Yusef Salaam put out a one-word statement: “Karma.” Al Sharpton just noted that Trump will be arraigned in the same building they were.
Finland’s application has now been ratified by all members and we will join NATO. Thank you to all countries for your support. As allies, we will give and receive security. We will defend each other. Finland stands with Sweden now and in the future and supports its application.
Leaked IT contractor files detail Kremlin’s stockpile of cyber-weapons
comment bubble on black
Snowden-esque ‘Vulkan’ dossier links Moscow firm to FSB, GRU, SRV
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Thomas Claburn
Fri 31 Mar 2023 // 01:24 UTC
An unidentified whistleblower has provided several media organizations with access to leaked documents from NTC Vulkan – a Moscow IT consultancy – that allegedly show how the firm supports Russia’s military and intelligence agencies with cyber warfare tools.
Journalists from Der Spiegel and Munich-based investigative group Paper Trail Media – in conjunction with The Guardian, ZDF, Der Standard (Austria), the Swiss Tamedia Group, The Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Le Monde – have spent the past few months working with the whistleblower, and have just published a set of articles describing these documents, referred to as The Vulkan Files.
The leak is similar to the 2013 disclosures of US classified surveillance information from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, coincidentally now a Russian citizen.
According to The Guardian, this latest whistleblower chose to distribute the secret Russian documents due to anger over Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine and a desire to see the information reveal some of what is going on inside Russia.
The files, reportedly confirmed by five Western intelligence agencies, describe various Russian hacking tools implicated in major security incidents – such as a reported blackout in Ukraine, and the disruption of the Olympics in South Korea – and in the creation of the infamous NotPetya malware.
They show links between NTC Vulkan and several Russian intelligence and military agencies, including the FSB, GRU, and SRV intelligence apparatus. We’re told the leaked documents also include maps of US energy infrastructure.
The Russian IT company has nothing to do with the similarly named Vulkan 3D graphics platform, which is overseen by the non-profit Khronos Group.
Google-owned Mandiant helped interpret the documents, and considers them probably – though not unequivocally – legitimate.
“The documents detail project requirements contracted with the Russian Ministry of Defense, including in at least one instance for GRU Unit 74455, also known as Sandworm Team. These projects include tools, training programs, and a red team platform for practising various types of offensive cyber operations, including espionage, IO [information operations], and operational technology (OT) attacks.”
In 2020, the US Justice Department indicted six Russian GRU officers for allegedly carrying out attacks on the Seoul Olympics, Ukraine, France’s 2017 elections, and other incidents. The officers remain at large – presumably in Russia.
The leaked files also reportedly link NTC Vulkan to a Russian hacking group called APT29 or CozyBear, based on information from Google security researchers.
One of the tools cited in the Vulkan Files is called Scan-V, which as its name suggests appears to have been designed to scan the internet for vulnerabilities and store what it finds for later analysis and exploitation.
Another, called Amezit, is described by Mandiant as “a framework used to control the online information environment and manipulate public opinion, enhance psychological operations, and store and organize data for upstream communication of efforts.”
A third, called Krystal-2B, is said to be a training platform for coordinating attacks on transportation and utility infrastructure using Amezit.
Gabby Roncone, a cyber security researcher with Mandiant, said the projects associated with NTC Vulkan covers cyber espionage, information operations, and operational technology (critical infrastructure) targeting.
“The thing about these projects contracted by NTC Vulkan is that they all seem to support the broader strategic goals of information confrontation,” said Roncone. “The strategy of information confrontation has largely influenced RU cyber operations in Ukraine in my opinion.”
NTC Vulkan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The IT firm, on its website, claims to help more than 200 companies protect their businesses. ®
Wonkette: “WHAT IS THIS, A BANANA REPUBLIC WHERE FORMER PRESIDENTS AREN’T EVEN ABOVE THE LAW”
A little while ago we were seeing news that the grand jury in Manhattan has also been looking at that OTHER porn peener payoff Donald Trump did, the one involving Playboy model Karen McDougal. “What’s up with the OTHER porn peener payoff?” is a question we’ve been asking ourselves, the Arby’s lady, and our lord and savior Jesus lately.
And weren’t we also just hearing that the grand jury was going to take a break for a month and then come back? […]
Anyway, they’re indicting the motherfucker already related to the Stormy Daniels porn peener payoff. For real. Right now. Breaking news, they voted this afternoon. We’re crossing the Rubicon. We’re passing the point of no return. What is this, CHINESE SOCIALIST RUSSIAN UKRAINE?
[…] Donald Trump is getting indicted, and obviously this is part of His Divine Plan to get inside the criminal justice system with John F. Kennedy Jr. to expose the international pedo ring, HILLARY CLINTON, YOUR COMEUPPANCES ARE AT LAST COMEUPPING!
Anyway, we may have already started drinking.
We are sure Wonkette will spend much time tomorrow laughing and laughing at all the MAGA white fascists who are crying. […]
Like this thing that Editrix Rebecca captured on her New York vacation to which she did not even invite you. Trump or death? Well hmmmmm, that is not actually a tough one at all. [Tweet and image at the link]
Also this is probably the first indictment of many. The Manhattan grand jury is walking so the special counsel and the Fulton County, Georgia, DA can fly. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
[…] good luck, America fuck yeah.
Rachel Maddow hosted her show this evening on MSNBC. She’s not usually there on a Thursday. She made an important point: we are now in for a long, loooong boring time before anything that looks like judgement arrives. Trump gets indicted, and then we all wait while lawyers prepare for a trial by jury, motions are filed, delay tactics are deployed, and so forth.
Still, today was nice. Trump was indicted. Fox News hosts stuttered and sputtered.
Many photos of Hillary Clinton laughing have been posted.
Audible gasps in the Fox News studio were heard live on TV.
Ronny Jackson, representative from Texas and former official liar about Trump’s weight —that Ronny Jackson posted threats, “When Trump wins, THESE PEOPLE WILL PAY!!”
Donald Junior said, “This is, like, communist-level shit!”
Charlie Kirk posted threats.
Lauren Boebert seemed to think Trump is still president.
The internet became wall-to-wall comic one-liners: “After taking my mugshot, the booking officer looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Sir, it has been an honor’,”
“The booking officer saluted me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Mr. President, these are the most magnificent manliest hands I have ever fingerprinted.’ “
[…] JESSE WATTERS (HOST): This is a disgrace, and I think it takes about a week to get the logistics in, so he’ll come up and he will get fingerprinted. And they’ll get a mug shot and then they’ll plaster that mug shot all over the country for the next two years and run against a criminal, and that’s what this is all about.
No one wanted this, not even the left wanted this. But now I’m thinking Bragg got embarrassed because everything you heard over the last 48 hours is they were just going to put this to bed and take a break for a month. So, I don’t know if there was pressure put on him because his numbers went up, in the last couple of weeks when this thing swirled.
So, maybe the left’s calculating, that indicting this guy is going to get him the nomination and they think he’s easier to beat. But, I wouldn’t be so sure about that because there’s going to be a major rally around the flag feeling. I’m starting to feel it right now. I’m angry about it. I don’t like it. The country’s not going to stand for it. And people better be careful, and that’s all I’ll say about that.
Watters also suggested Trump was indicted for “sex.” […]
GREG GUTFELD (HOST): This is how it has to be. This guarantees his nomination. Alvin Bragg is the MAGA Republican of the year. He just got Trump’s nomination. I think if there is a mug shot, which there will be, you’ve got to own it. That’s got to be the poster. He’s an O.G., right? He’s a bad ass if he’s got a mug shot. You might as well go right into it and the thing is, you know, his poll numbers have gone up with this. I just think this is going to make sure he is going to be on the ticket, and to your point, they made that gamble in 2016, they thought that he would lose to Hillary and he didn’t.
[…] Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis said the court was “weaponizing the justice system against a political opponent” and that “no one deserves to be politically prosecuted.” […]
There was a lot of repetition of the phrases “weaponization of our justice system” and “banana republic,” as well as many rants similar to Breitbart’s Joel Pollack’s bid for most laugh-worthy complaint: “an assault on democracy far worse than the Capitol riot.”
[…] “The indictment of a former president is a somber day. It’s also a time to put faith in our judicial system. Donald Trump deserves every protection provided to him by the Constitution and due process under our rule of law,” Rep. Eric Swalwell said in a statement. “As this case progresses let us neither celebrate nor destroy. As the former president continues to call for violence in his name, let all of us, as Democrats and Republicans, condemn his efforts to incite. We are better than that and justice benefits all of us.”
“Our democracy rests on the rule of law. When someone—no matter how powerful they are—is suspected of a criminal act, our justice system investigates, charges, and convicts them in accordance with due process,” Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted. She added, “Make no mistake: the fact that one of the most powerful people in the world was investigated impartially and indicted is testament to the fact that we still live in a nation of laws. And no one is above the law. Now it is up to all of us, as citizens and elected leaders, to support accountability and to follow the facts where they lead.”
[posted by Ted Lieu] “It appears the #TrumpIndictment is a felony indictment, which is more serious than the misdemeanor some have suggested. No one outside the grand jury and Manhattan DA’s office has knowledge of the charges or evidence. Let’s let the judicial system do its job without interference.”
Former President Donald Trump marked his historic and unprecedented indictment with a merch drop.
On Thursday night, hours after a grand jury voted to indict him on charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alving Bragg, Trump’s campaign emailed supporters asking them to purchase a t-shirt to mark the occasion. [photo at the link]
“What better way to show your support for President Trump and our incredible movement during this dark chapter in our nation’s history than to proudly wear the brand-new ‘I Stand with President Trump’ T-shirt,” the email said.
The t-shirt, which is emblazoned with today’s date, comes with a donation of at least $47.
…
Trump has repeatedly attacked Bragg during the investigation — and sent fundraising appeals based on the case. In the message advertising the indictment t-shirt, the Trump campaign doubled down on those attacks by describing the probe as “TYRANNY” and repeating the former president’s exaggerated claims tying Bragg to billionaire financier George Soros.
“With George Soros’ bought-and-paid-for Manhattan D.A. having answered his puppet master’s call to INDICT President Trump for committing NO CRIME, these truly are dark times for our country,” the email said.
Trump is currently also facing two other federal criminal investigations.
NEWS: Donald Trump has been calling up key allies on Capitol Hill tonight to shore up support in the wake of his indictment, including members of House GOP leadership and lawmakers who serve on committees that are trying to investigate the Manhattan DA, per sources.
In these phone calls, which the source described as “check-ins,” Trump has told allies he plans to fight the charges and continued to rail against the indictment & Alvin Bragg.
aka, intimidation and obstruction. Not too late to add more charges. More the merrier.
It’s hard to remember all of the ways Trump tried to manipulate and then, when that failed, intimidate Cohen after this started to come out, and then used his enforcer Barr and the power of the DoJ to try to prevent Cohen from publishing his book and keep him in prison when he was set to be released during COVID.
…Cohen spent the next 16 days in solitary confinement back at Otisville before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted him a preliminary injunction, agreeing that the incarceration was retaliatory.
“How can I take any other inference other than it was retaliatory?” Hellerstein asked at a July 2020 hearing, summarizing the terms of the government’s home-confinement agreement as telling Cohen: “You toe the line about giving up your First Amendment rights or we’ll send you to jail.”
“I’ve never seen such a clause in 21 years of being a judge,” the Clinton appointee added….
Judge Liman dismissed Cohen’s suit (I’m trying to avoid heading down Bivens and other rabbit holes here…), but also plainly recognized that Cohen’s rights had been violated:
As such, Cohen’s Bivens claims must be dismissed. Before doing so, however, this Court pauses to reiterate the profound violence this holding does to Cohen’s constitutional rights. Cohen’s complaint alleges an egregious violation of constitutional rights by the executive branch—nothing short of the use of executive power to lock up the President’s political enemies for speaking critically of him. The Supreme Court’s precedents ensure that there is at best a partial remedy for the abuse of power and violation of rights against the perpetrators of those wrongs. And those precedents rest on a mistaken proposition—that the Court’s reluctance to imply a damages remedy for statutorily created rights where Congress did not explicitly intend for there to be such a remedy necessarily must extend to a reluctance to find such a remedy for constitutionally guaranteed rights.
Footnote #6, for the record:
Defendant Trump also moves to dismiss the claims against him for the independent reason that they are barred by presidential immunity. Because the claims against Trump are dismissed along with the claims against the other individual defendants, the Court need not address his claimed immunity here. Nonetheless, it is worth noting—and rejecting—Trump’s argument that, effectively, a president may never be subject to a damages suit for violations of constitutional rights because “[i]t is blackletter law that a president is entitled to absolute immunity for acts taken within the scope of his official duties,” Dkt. No. 42 at 1 (quoting Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982)), and Bivens claims—if available at all—are available only for actions taken by the official “under color of his authority,” Bivens, 403 U.S. at 389. Trump reasons that “[s]ince a president is entitled to absolute immunity for ‘acts within the outer perimeter of his official capacity,’ it follows that a Bivens claim—which must arise from an act performed ‘under color of his authority’—cannot be maintained against a [p]resident.” Dkt. No 42 at 3. But the language of these two doctrines is not the same, and there is no reason to assume that the one wholly subsumes the other. For an official’s actions to be “under color of authority,” “the conduct must be ‘cloaked with official power and the official must purport to be acting under color of official right.’” Mueller v. Gallina, 137 F. App’x 847, 850 (6th Cir. 2005) (mem.) (internal quotation marks omitted and alterations adopted) (quoting Browning v. Clinton, 292 F.3d 235, 250 (D.C. Cir. 2002)). One could imagine a situation, for example, in which the President ordered Secret Service to kidnap his political opponent a few weeks before an election—asserting, all the while, that he was doing so in an exercise of executive authority. Such an action could be taken under color of authority, while at the same time not legitimately within the president’s official capacity, and thus not subject to presidential immunity.
Both judges clearly recognized the corrupt abuse of power at the heart of Cohen’s treatment. And while he was fortunately able to gain release and the ability to speak publicly, it’s a travesty that not only were Trump and Barr not held accountable but the media coverage of all of this was limited and hugely superficial.
Former US Attorney Geoffrey Berman, a Donald Trump appointee who was later fired by the former President, says top Trump-era officials in the Justice Department pressured his office to “aid them politically,” The New York Times reported Thursday.
“Throughout my tenure as U.S. attorney,” Berman writes in his forthcoming book according to the Times which obtained a copy of it, “Trump’s Justice Department kept demanding that I use my office to aid them politically, and I kept declining – in ways just tactful enough to keep me from being fired.”
“Holding the Line,” which is set to be released Tuesday, and includes the accounts from Berman comes amid a legal battle between Trump and the current Justice Department after it seized classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago residence in August.
In the book, the former US attorney for the Southern District of New York details efforts by the Trump administration’s Justice Department to have words that hinted at Trump in charging documents for Michael Cohen removed, the Times reported. Berman also writes how former Attorney General Bill Barr attempted to have Cohen’s 2018 conviction reversed.
Barr sought to oust Berman in 2020, prompting a tense standoff with Berman who refused to resign until Trump fired him. [I should note here that at the height of COVID Barr used public funds to book a fucking suite at the Pierre in New York for this illicit purpose.]
Before Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts, including campaign finance violations, Berman writes that as his office was making a charging document listing the crimes, a Justice Department official unsuccessfully pressured then-Deputy US Attorney Robert Khuzami for the Southern District of New York to remove references to “Individual-1,” who was identified as Trump, according to the newspaper. Barr, after he became attorney general in 2019, also tried to kill the district’s investigations into others in Trump’s circle regarding possible campaign finance violations, the newspaper also writes citing Berman’s book.
Berman writes that his office was ordered to pause investigative steps, and that, “not a single document in our possession could be reviewed,” according to the Times….
There’s a whole pattern of intimidation, obstruction, and criminal abuse of power (and attempts to legally normalize and protect it) connected to these crimes that’s largely been forgotten.
KGsays
It is valid in perpetuity, or if forever is deemed to be too long, until the “death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England living as of the date of this Declaration.” – tomh@263, quoting Washington Post
A bit of a problem here: there is no such person as “King Charles III, King of England”. The use of an upper-case “K” in the phrase “King of England” indicates that this is a compound proper noun, and hence “King of England” must be one of Charles Windsor’s actual titles if the attempted denotation is not to fail. But it isn’t. The last person to bear the title “King of England” was William III, who died in 1702. By the Act of Union of 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged into the Kingdom of Great Britain, which in turn was merged with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. There is thus no such person as “King Charles III, King of England”, and the alleged agreement is therefore invalid. At least, that’s what I’d argued if I were De Santis’s lawyers.
…At the same time that Barr was trying to cover up that Trump cheated to win in 2016, Republicans on the FEC were joining in the cover-up. After FEC’s General Counsel recommended acting on several complaints about the payments, Republicans Commissioners Sean Cooksey and Trey Trainor refused to do so because, they said, Michael Cohen had been already prosecuted for it and, thanks to Trump’s own actions, there was a backlog of complaints.
…
This was one of 22 credible campaign finance allegations against Trump that Republicans refused to consider. nothing less than a partisan effort to make the leader of their party immune from all campaign finance rules.
There’s a lot of shite being written [link to shite written by Peter Baker in the NYT at the link] about how the indictment of a former President — for actions that stem from cheating to win — will test democracy.
But Trump’s serial cover-ups of his own actions in this and other matters already threaten democracy.
Trump is right: This is about free and fair elections. This is, like most of his allegedly criminal behavior, about his refusal to contest elections fairly. It’s about his corruption of the entire Republican Party, from top to bottom. And it’s about one of at least six times that Trump and his agents have tried to cover up that he cheated to win in 2016.
KGsays
Later on Tuesday, questions were being raised over Netanyahu’s control over and credibility within his governing coalition, which includes a mixture of rightwing nationalists, religious leaders and far-right figures. – SC@202, quoting the Guardian
Or to put it another way, a mixture of far-right figures, far-right figures, and far-right figures.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The US president, Joe Biden, has shared a message for Russia after it detained the US reporter Evan Gershkovich earlier this week:
Let him go.
The Biden administration reacted with fury to the news that Gershkovich, who works for the Wall Street Journal, was taken into custody on Wednesday during a reporting trip to Ekaterinburg, a city near the Urals region.
He has been accused of espionage charges that carry a jail sentence of up to 20 years, but Russia experts say the arrest is akin to hostage-taking, with Moscow planning to use Gershkovich as leverage in negotiations with the US.
The New York Young Republican Club has put out a statement that managed to stand out among the many other voices defending Donald Trump.
Perhaps it’s this line that does it:
President Trump embodies the American people – our psyche from id to super-ego – as does no other figure; his soul is totally bonded with our core values and emotions, and he is our total and indisputable champion. This tremendous connection threatens the established order.
The European parliament has condemned Italy’s conservative government after it demanded that a council stop registering the children of same-sex parents, in its first move to restrict LGBTQ+ rights since taking power.
MEPs said they feared the move against Milan city council, which until recently had been transcribing children born overseas to same-sex couples via surrogacy or IVF into its civil register, was “part of a broader attack against the LGBTQI+ community in Italy”.
The Milan mayor, Giuseppe Sala, had travelled to Brussels this week to garner support and is seeking to form an alliance made up of opposition parties to fight for the rights of same-sex-parent families.
In an amendment to a 2022 report put forward by Renew Europe, a liberal and centrist group, the MEPs urged Italy to “immediately rescind its decision”, arguing that the move “will inevitably lead to discrimination against not only same-sex couples but also primarily their children” and that it was “a direct breach of children’s rights” under a UN convention.
The government of Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party promised to defend the traditional family, has also tabled a bill that would criminalise couples who go abroad to have children via surrogacy.
Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, while IVF is only available for heterosexual couples.
Milan was forced to stop registering the children of gay parents after the interior ministry said it was up to the courts to rule on such a decision.
Thousands of people took to the streets in protest earlier this month, and other mayors are rebelling against the move. “I have always carried out these transcriptions because I am not interested in where the child is born or how,” Antonio Decaro, the mayor of Bari, told Rai TV on Friday. “If they live in my city, I am interested in how that child lives, and they must have the same rights as other children.”
Italy enacted a civil unions law in 2016 when it was governed by a coalition led by the centre-left Democratic party, but the bill stopped short of legalising gay marriage, while a clause that would have allowed a person to adopt the child of their same-sex partner was scrapped after pressure from rightwing parties and the Catholic church.
Italy’s LGBTQ+ community had feared that rights attained so far would be eroded by a Meloni-led government. A common feature of the rabble-rousing speeches given by Meloni, a self-described “Christian mother”, during election rallies was the reiteration of her view that a child should only be raised by heterosexual parents. She has also spoken out against “gender ideology” and “LGBT lobbies”….
The president of Moldova and the prime ministers of Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia attended a ceremony along with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Bucha to mark the anniversary of its recapture after 33 days of occupation by Russian forces.
American far-right extremist Rob Rundo was arrested March 29 at a gym in the capital of Romania, Bucharest, report local media. He’s to be extradited back to the U.S.
According to @EuropaLiberaRo (which references our @Bellingcat @BcatMonitoring investigations, mulţumesc) Rundo was using an identity document in the name “Robert Lazar Pavic” — the same surname as his current/former partner from Belgrade…
Links at the link. Thanks again, Romania, and sorry about all the Nazis.
Respectful Insolence – “Ivermectin goes from being the new hydroxychloroquine to being the new MMS”: “A recent VICE story described a Telegram channel devoted to promoting veterinary ivermectin to treat autism. It has echoes of autism quackery going back at least to the use of MMS (a kind of bleach) to ‘cure’ autism by eliminating ‘parasites’….”
…This is the entire philosophy and culture behind such groups, be they closed Facebook groups or, more recently, Telegram channel[s]: Never question. Always keep searching. And, above all, never accept your autistic child for who he [erg] is. Also, remember that the autistic child is not your “real” child. Something stole your real child from you. Whether it was vaccines, parasites, “toxins,” something else, or—usually—a combination of at least a couple of these things, it was something external that robbed you of your “true” child. Don’t get me wrong, either. This is an entirely understandable human reaction to having your child change or be different from what you had expected or hoped for. It’s basically the changeling myth. (Echoes of this myth are undeniable in “gender critical” reactions to gender-affirming care for trans adolescents.)…
Recent explosions in the Crimean town of Dzhankoi have restricted Russia’s ability to transport military equipment and ammunition, particularly Kalibr missiles, said Ukraine’s Southern Command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk.
Late on March 20, an explosion in Dzhankoi destroyed Russian Kalibr cruise missiles during their railway transportation, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate. Russian occupying authorities in Crimea claimed it was a drone attack.
“They continue trying (to restore the railway connection), work is still ongoing, but a full-fledged railway connection, which would allow them to transfer heavy equipment, has not yet been restored,” Humeniuk said on national television, cited by Ukrainska Pravda news outlet.
The military official added that Russian troops had tried to deliver missiles to the occupied Crimea by transport aircraft, but it is unclear whether they managed to reach the bays.
The Russian missile carriers stationed in the Black Sea have a limited supply of missiles for attacks against Ukraine so far, according to Humeniuk’s March 31 statement, cited by Ukrainska Pravda….
Donald Trump’s campaign against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been aggressive, even by the Republican’s standards. The former president last week called the prosecutor “a degenerate psychopath that truely [sic] hates the USA.” Soon after, Trump said Bragg is “doing the work of Anarchists and the Devil.”
Subtle, it was not.
The New York Times reported that the former president, behind the scenes, hoped that the over-the-top attacks “might persuade” Bragg “to walk away from the case.” In other words, Trump thought he might be able to bully the district attorney into submission. He learned otherwise late yesterday afternoon.
But it wasn’t just Trump. At House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s urging, three powerful House GOP chairs — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin — wrote to Bragg last week, seeking, among other things, his congressional testimony.
As we discussed soon after, it was a difficult move to defend, especially with grand jury proceedings underway. There was simply no sensible justification for congressional leaders interfering with the case. Jordan, Comer, and Steil did it anyway. (They also sought information from former prosecutors who worked with Bragg.)
The general counsel for the Manhattan DA’s office wrote back to the GOP congressmen, denounced their request, and effectively told them to pound sand. That led the trio to send another missive, demanding that Bragg explain himself.
The district attorney’s office wasn’t impressed. NBC News reported this morning:
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a new letter to several GOP committee chairmen Friday that it will not submit to any requests that “interfere” with the office’s Trump investigation. “Like any other defendant, Mr. Trump is entitled to challenge these charges in court and avail himself of all processes and protections that New York State’s robust criminal procedure affords,” the office’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, wrote about the Trump indictment. “What neither Mr. Trump nor Congress may do is interfere with the ordinary course of proceedings in New York State.”
After reminding the congressmen that they still don’t have the authority to interfere in a criminal prosecution at the state level, and noting that they could use their positions to encourage Americans to trust the integrity of the judicial system, Dubeck added a rather pointed paragraph.
“Instead, you and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges and made unfounded allegations that the Office’s investigation … is politically motivated,” she wrote. “We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference.”
This was, as best as I can tell, the first time Bragg’s office has raised the prospect of Trump partisans possibly engaging in “unlawful political interference.”
I won’t pretend to know how Jordan, Comer, and Steil will respond to the latest correspondence, but it’s likely that they’ll soon have a conversation about whether to subpoena the New York prosecutor. That would be absurd, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
How about that Republican claim that “This type of stuff only occurs in third world authoritarian nations,” or Donald Junior’s claim that “This is Communist-level shit.”
Italy prosecuted a former prime minister.
France prosecuted a former president and a former prime minister.
South Africa prosecuted a former president.
South Korea prosecuted a former president.
Brazil has prosecuted more than one former president.
Israeli has prosecuted more than one former prime minister.
Germany prosecuted a former president.
Portugal prosecuted a former prime minister.
Croatia prosecuted a former prime minister.
Argentina prosecuted a former president.
Commentary:
[…] As a recent Washington Post analysis concluded, “[T]here is plenty of precedent for mature democracies to hold elected leaders to account; in fact, it would seem to be an important element of them.”
Quite right. As my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown added last night, Trump’s indictment “is an example of the system working,” not evidence to the contrary.
Many Republicans seizing the opportunity to extend the scam they are running on Trump’s cult followers:
Lindsey Graham: “They are trying to drain him dry. He’s spent more money on lawyers than most people spent on campaigns. They’re trying to bleed him dry. Donald J. Trump dot com. Go tonight. Give the president some money to fight this bullshit! This is going to destroy America!”
One of the constant features of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been the “reconnaissance in force.” This process, in which platoon-size units are sent forward until they make contact with the enemy, then the information they are able to obtain about Ukrainian positions—often indicated by drawing fire—is used to evaluate the next steps. This kind of operation has casualty rates that are often as great as those in the “human wave” attacks in which Russia sent troops across open terrain to face prepared defensive positions.
But here’s a question: Why did Russia do this? It’s one thing to say that they have little regard for the lives of their troops, but Russia certainly has high regard for winning, for capturing Ukrainian territory and advancing. Why proceed in such a foolish fashion? One that not only has a high price in men and materiel, but which often fails to deliver enough information to make the next assault any more effective?
One reason, reported this month in Popular Mechanics, is pretty surprising. The nation that launched the first satellite, and has continued to be one of the world’s biggest “space powers” over the last sixty years, doesn’t have enough intelligence satellites to tell them what’s going on. In fact, their fleet of eyes-in-the-sky is old, designed for other purposes, and just generally incapable of giving Russia the kind of real-time, high-quality view of the battlefield that you would expect them to have in 2023.
Russia has 160 satellites in orbit. Which sounds like a lot … until you consider that SpaceX has around 3,500. Of course, SpaceX’s satellites are almost all designed for internet communication, not spying on objects on the ground. Only that’s kind of the point. Russia’s satellites aren’t designed for that purpose, either.
Russia does have some spy satellites, of course, but the majority of what it has aloft are satellites for communications and to support its GLONAS location system—an alternative to the U.S.-launched GPS. Even some of Russia’s dedicated spy satellites are so purpose-built that they can’t help on the Ukrainian battlefield, like a satellite that tracks warships in the Pacific ocean.
As a result, Russia gets high-quality imagery of the battlefield only once every two weeks. That infrequent availability of images doesn’t just explain why Russia is often left fumbling forward like a man going through a dark room with his hands stretched ahead of him. It also helps to explain one of the big mysteries of the war: Why isn’t Russia using its missiles to attack more strategic targets?
“Because of a lack of reconnaissance capability, Russia is not able to use its high-precision weapons in the planned way,” Luzin told Popular Mechanics. “That’s why Russia started its campaign of missile terror against the cities and civil population of Ukraine.”
Why is Russia conducting reconnaissance in force? Because it doesn’t have good-quality intelligence on Ukrainian positions.
Why is Russia directing missiles at infrastructure rather than concentrations of troops or equipment? Because it doesn’t have good-quality intelligence on Ukrainian positions.
That’s not all. Going back to the beginning of the war, Russia infamously failed in its version of “shock and awe.” The number of air and missile strikes it conducted in advance of rolling tanks over the border was much lower than expected. They were also far less effective. The result was that many of Ukraine’s air defenses and aircraft were left intact. Ukrainian jets and helicopters are still flying on the battlefield today—a factor that few expected at the war’s outset. Russian planes and helicopters are still being shot down by air defense weapons that survived Russia’s initial attack.
Why has Russia never been able to obtain air superiority in the whole course of the invasion? Because it didn’t have good quality intelligence on Ukrainian positions at the war’s outset.
One more thing. If there’s any area where Russia came into the war with an even more lopsided advantage than it holds on tanks, it’s artillery. Ukraine came into the war with around 1,100 Soviet-era towed and self-propelled guns. Russia brought around 4,800 to the fight, most of them self-propelled.
Over the course of the war, Western forces have sent around 400 more guns to Ukraine, including longer-ranging weapons that allowed them to compete with Russia’s best. However, for months Russia enjoyed an advantage in both numbers and range. However, instead of taking out the Ukrainian artillery, Russia used its artillery like it used its missiles—to pound towns and cities, reducing places where Ukrainian soldiers could conduct defense and push them back slowly.
Ukraine now reports that it has destroyed 2675 pieces of Russian artillery. Oryx puts the verified number at just 562, compared to 252 verified losses of Ukrainian artillery. In recent days, Ukraine has been on an artillery hunt, sharply increasing the number of guns it reports as destroyed over the last month. Why, given Russia’s range and numeric advantages, have they not blown more of Ukraine’s artillery away?
Because Russia doesn’t have good-quality intelligence on Ukrainian positions.
If it has seemed that Russia has fought this war like a half-blind bear, stumbling forward until it hits an obstacle, then feeling its way for some alternative, squandering its best weapons on low-value targets, wasting both men and opportunities … that’s because this is true.
On the other hand, Ukraine is getting better quality imaging from commercial providers “at least twice a day in favorable weather conditions.” Those images are also better quality than what Russia gets from its own fleet. In addition, Ukraine is able to use high-precision GPS to guide HIMARS rockets with extreme accuracy. And it can use Starlink to give it what Russia never seems to have—universal and secure communications.
Even high-quality images twice a day isn’t really enough for tactical planning. But it certainly beats getting lower-quality images twice a month.
One of the biggest factors in this war turns out to be a satellite gap. And the nation that launched the first satellite is losing. Drones can certainly help to fill this gap, which is why the Russian Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone is one of the most common (and the most shot-down) UAVs in the conflict.
The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) held its National Conference in Atlanta last week, and because climate deniers jump at every opportunity to embarrass themselves, they invaded the conference and, like unruly and immature students, got thrown out within minutes.
On the first day of the conference, the CO2 Coalition, a climate change denial group, released a report criticizing the NSTA’s Position Statement on The Teaching of Climate Change for its “embrace of the hypothesis of ‘harmful man-made warming’” and “reliance on ‘consensus’ science.” The document argues that “students should be encouraged to review all facts on a subject (in this case climate change) and make up their own minds rather than be indoctrinated into an established political agenda.”
The report then goes on to indoctrinate readers about how we actually need more CO2 in the atmosphere and are also apparently experiencing “slight global cooling,” which, in case you were wondering, are absolute, total, unequivocal lies. To top it all off, the report argues that basically, no one can ever know anything for certain because “scientific consensuses have often turned out to be wrong” and “what is correct in science is not determined by consensus.” [Aiyiyiiyiyi, that is some headache-inducing disinformation.]
The CO2 Coalition “attempted to exhibit” these outrageous falsehoods at the NSTA’s conference but “were asked to leave.” According to a post on Anthony Watts’s boomer climate denial blog “Watts Up With That,” CO2 Coalition members “were evicted from their paid and agreed to exhibit just minutes after the show opened.”
[…] Students have long been a target for climate denial propaganda, and efforts to inject disinformation into schools are actively moving in states like Texas and Ohio. This unfortunate episode at the NSTA’s conference demonstrates once again that climate deniers are not only aggressively pushing harmful disinformation on social media but are also continuing to spread lies in person.
The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has confirmed that Ukrainian aircraft now deploy Western-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), “smart” guidance kits that convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions…
Commentary regarding some MSNBC interviews conducted after the news of Trump’s indictment broke yesterday:
[…] there is no guarantee that Trump will ever be convicted of his many crimes, but a New York City DA has done something that most in the Washington establishment have fought against for decades. A former president has been charged with crimes. This is something that the Department of Justice should have done at least two years back! From all appearances, this is the same case that the Southern District of New York had the goods on with Trump […]
And there is NO REASONABLE EXPLANATION PROVIDED FROM THE DOJ ON THIS!
[…] this leads into the segment with Michael Beschloss. Joy Reid asked Beschloss for his perspective, and he said it out loud: the American justice and political system has treated presidents like kings. And he went further and stated the obvious. If Richard Nixon had been indicted and convicted of his Watergate crimes, we wouldn’t have had a Donald Trump. Instead, President Ford pardoned Nixon.
And Beschloss stated how corrosive this move was on the presidency. Beschloss spoke with Reagan’s Chief of Staff Howard Baker years after the Iran-Contra Affair. Baker let it be known that he had talked with Democrats in Congress, and THEY ALL AGREED THAT REAGAN WOULD NOT BE IMPEACHED OR CHARGED WITH ANY CRIMES! This confirms what the NYT reported many years ago that Democrats didn’t have the stomach to impeach and try Reagan.
And this bipartisan cover for Republican Presidents who commit crimes went up to Donald Trump. Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated in 2007 that there would be no impeachment hearings into the Iraq War. Then, President Obama made the famous, “We are looking forward not backwards.” to wave away investigating of George W. Bush.
What both failed to realize is that this was a one way street with Republicans. They all conveniently forgot about Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Congressman Henry Hyde admitted that Republicans were getting even for what happened to Nixon. That all went down the memory hole.
Then we got Donald Trump.
Beschloss also added that he thinks the DOJ memo on not indicting sitting presidents is just wrong. The infamous memo was written by the Nixon DOJ! And it was not a law but a RULE. But this was written in stone as far as Special Counsel Mueller was concerned who was investigating Trump for his actions with the Russians during the 2016 Election. Mueller decided to let the report “speak for itself.”
Translation: I cannot do anything about Trump’s obstruction of justice. […]
Today at my home, we’re expecting 110 kph wind gusts, large hail, flash floods, and a high probability of tornadoes. That’s springtime in Missouri. I’ll probably abandon my mobile home after this update goes live, as I retreat to somewhere more solid to ride out the storm.
But the last couple of days in eastern Ukraine have seen spring weather of a different sort; a late-season snowstorm that has dropped a dozen centimeters of heavy, wet snow over much of the region (see top image), so don’t be surprised by new videos that once again have a lot of white in the background. Also, don’t be surprised if this slows any potential counteroffensive in the region. [Weather map at the link]
The end of the Battle of Kyiv happened so quickly that, at the time, we didn’t even know what we were watching. The idea that Russia would roll back out of such a large area seemed incredible. It still seems incredible. On the first day it still seemed that Russia was just pulling back to regroup. Then came the second day—this day, one year ago.
On this day on year ago, the Russian war effort in Ukraine’s North completely collapsed. The surviving Russian units were forced to abandon Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions. 33,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian soil were liberated within 48h.
The victories were quickly followed by deep sorrow in the formerly occupied cities where many executed men, women and children were found in the streets, especially in Bucha. [map at the link]
On Tuesday, Gen. Mark Miley testified before Congress on the state of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
According to Miley, roughly 6,000 Wagner mercenaries remain in eastern Ukraine. He broke these from what he called “20 to 30 thousand Wagner recruits,” primarily from Russian prisons. Most of these forces are involved in the attack on Bakhmut, and Miley didn’t mince words in describing the situation.
“It’s a slaughter-fest for the Russians. They’re getting hammered in the vicinity of Bakhmut, and the Ukrainians have fought very, very well.”
Oddly, Miley said that Wagner and other Russian forces, “For about the last 20, 21 days, have not made any progress whatsoever in and around Bakhmut.” It would be nice if this were true, but it’s not. While Russian forces outside the city seem to have been all but halter, those Wagner mercenaries inside Bakhmut are still slowly picking their way toward the center, block by block.
Though it might be understandable if everyone, even Wagner, was taking a day off from trying to advance today. [video at the link showing ice and snow]
Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal reports, Ukrainian commanders are (rightfully) proud of the work their troops have done in Bakhmut and how they have held the city against Russia’s prolonged, all-out assault.
Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said time was working against Russia as it suffers heavy manpower losses and struggles to mount assaults on Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut.
“Our defense forces continue to defend Bakhmut, inflicting great damage on the enemy,” Col. Gen. Syrskiy said in a Telegram post, adding that Ukrainian troops were “breaking the enemy’s fighting spirit and ruining its plans.”
[Photo at the link. Winter-like conditions, Ukrainian soldiers still fighting]
Link. Scroll down at the link to view the updates.
I seem to have eternal winter at my house. More snow. More ice. “Springtime” is at least two weeks late. I cannot imagine fighting in these conditions.
On the heels of a deadly mass shooting at a school in Nashville, DeSantis traveled to Georgia and held an event at a popular gun store, where he complained about “wokeness.”
In his opening monologue Thursday, Stephen Colbert told his audience that he had read the big news that former president Donald Trump had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury just three minutes before he walked out onstage to tape “The Late Show.”
As the crowd inside New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater roared and gave the news of Trump’s historic indictment a standing ovation, Colbert celebrated by taking a bite from a mountain of ice cream in a baseball helmet and gleefully squeezing canned whipped cream into his mouth.
“Ladies and gentlemen, he was right — we’re finally saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again!” Colbert exclaimed. “I didn’t know if this was going to be coming. I thought maybe it would never come. I used to think, ‘Ah, what does it matter if it came?’”
The host added, “I didn’t know it would feel this good.”
[…] On CBS, Colbert said in his monologue that the indictment was “good news for everybody, even him,” joking that the former president could now formally join the “J6 Prison Choir.” Trump collaborated with a group of inmates in Washington who were jailed on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol, and they released a song this month. […]
Kimmel joked that instead of running for president, Trump could start another TV show, floating possible titles like “The Celebrity Apprehentice” and “Arrested Developer.” The ABC host also wondered what it would look like when Trump turned himself in, especially when he is fingerprinted and read his Miranda rights.
“Wait till he finds out, all this time, he had the right to remain silent,” the late-night host mused. “He’s going to kick himself. That’s going to be a tough pill to swallow.”
Some of the hosts wondered what Daniels thought of the indictment. While Daniels’s lawyer Clark Brewster told USA Today that his client called it “a sad day,” NBC’s Jimmy Fallon joked about what she really might have been thinking.
“When she heard, Stormy Daniels was like, ‘Oh, so this is what it feels like to be satisfied?’ ” Fallon said on “The Tonight Show.”
The Twitter account for “The Daily Show” tweeted that actor John Leguizamo had “won the Daily Show guest host lottery” by being the person who got to announce the indictment on the Comedy Central program. But Leguizamo had a message for any children who were witnessing Trump’s indictment and were curious what it all meant.
“Let this be a lesson to all you kids out there, okay?” the guest host said. “If you commit fraud to cover up an affair with a porn star, the law will catch up to you after, like, seven years and a full term as president.”
Yep, Fox News hosts and guests are still promoting violence, though they do try to cover their asses with weasel words and occasional references to “peace.”
Fox News hosts and other conservative commentators fulminated Thursday night against the indictment of Donald Trump, portraying it as an act of political repression, calling for protests and predicting “unrest.”
“It almost feels they’re pushing the population to react,” said Fox prime-time host Tucker Carlson, referring vaguely to Democrats. “‘We think they’re demoralized and passive, let’s see if they really are.’ At what point do we conclude they’re doing this in order to produce a reaction?”
Carlson’s guest, former ESPN personality Jason Whitlock, struck a similar tone: “They are agitating for unrest. That is the only way to interpret this,” he said, before seeming to call for some kind of response: “I’m ready for whatever’s next. And I hope every other man out there watching this show, I hope you’re ready for whatever’s next. If that’s what they want, let’s get to it.”
[…] Former Fox host Glenn Beck visited the show to predict the country would be “at war” by 2025; the indictment’s intent, he warned was “to inflame this country” so that an unnamed entity “could close the cage” on those who react.
While Fox’s early-evening news show delivered a fairly straight discussion of the “historic” nature of the indictment, the opinion hosts who dominate the cable network’s prime-time schedule uniformly presented it as a political plot against the former president.
“It’s an effort to take him out of the political race. That’s not allowed,” said Carlson, describing the charges as “much greater” than the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “If you believe in our system and you want it to continue, you have to raise your hand and say ‘Stop,’ because this is too great on assault on our system.”
[…] Hemingway [Mollie Hemingway, editor in chief of the Federalis] also called for Trump’s supporters to rise up and voice their opposition. “People who care about the country need to stand up and make sure they let it be known that they don’t support this type of political prosecution,” she said.
Watters, meanwhile, maintained that the criminal charges wouldn’t “stick.”
“The president’s not going to go to prison for this. Everybody knows that. So what’s the point?”
But he encouraged his guest, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), to pursue action in Congress — “some sort of resistance, some sort of action, because there has to be a line that they can’t cross.” […]
Sean Hannity spent his entire show saying how “replusive” and “disgusting” it is to indict Donald Trump … and then he ended his show with a disingenuous plea for non-violent protest.
Reginald Selkirksays
Lindsey Graham: “They are trying to drain him dry. He’s spent more money on lawyers than most people spent on campaigns…
“Here is an extremely relevant email from Rupert Murdoch after Jan. 6: ‘We want to make Trump a non-person. Fairly easy unless they charge him and he remains in the news’.”
Florida’s threshold for the death penalty could soon be the lowest in the nation, with the Florida Senate on Thursday passing a priority bill of Gov. Ron DeSantis to require the vote of only 8 jurors out of 12 in order to implement capital punishment.
Unlike the earliest provisions of the bill, the legislation passed by the Florida Senate does not allow a judge to override a jury’s recommendation for a life sentence and give death instead.
If a jury recommends a life sentence, a judge must impose it. If a jury recommends death, the judge can agree or can order a life sentence instead.
Currently, Florida law requires a unanimous jury in order to sentence someone to death. The unanimous requirement came under fire from DeSantis after the jury in the Parkland school shooting case voted 9-3 in favor of death, leaving the gunman who killed 17 with a life sentence…
When gauged on their warmth toward other religious groups, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave the most positive ratings. Atheists gave, by far, the most negative ratings.
Atheists had strongly negative views of every other group except Jews, toward whom atheists were moderately positive. What’s more, atheists harbor far more negative opinions of evangelical Christians and Catholics than evangelicals and Catholics harbor toward atheists. Most strikingly, atheists have overwhelmingly negative feelings toward Mormons, while Mormons have net positive feelings toward atheists….
The single greatest net negative was the atheists’ minus-76-point rating of evangelicals…
Are you a religious group? No, you are not. You are a person.
An interesting dissection of the dynamics at play on the far right:
[…] at its core, what NYYRC [New York Young Republican Club] expressed is a worldview which experiences an attack on Trump as an attack on his supporters. His arrest is the arrest of those who vote for him; a triumph for Trump is a triumph for these followers, and a disaster or humiliation for him is meant to be understood as only provoking those behind him.
Wax [Gavin Wax, the president of the New York Young Republican Club] enthusiastically agreed with me when I put this interpretation of the statement to him.
“This is not just how we’re stating it, it’s how most people in his camp and in his world genuinely feel,” Wax replied. “And he has tapped into that as well. Even in his messaging, he stated repeatedly, ‘they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you, and I can be your retribution.’ He’s a proxy for a much bigger fight.”
Isn’t that cult-y? Don’t critics on both the left and the right who identify this as a trait of a cult of personality have a point?
“I think the attacks of it being a cult of personality are trying to demean the fact that he has a strong following that likes him,” he said.
He went on to describe “low propensity voters” as Trump’s “ticket to the White House,” saying that they “like Trump for Trump, they like his gait, they like his mannerisms, they like the way he carries himself.”
“You can call it a cult of personality, that’s the negative way of saying it, but at the end of the day, he’s simply popular and people do like him,” he said.
President Trump embodies the American people — our psyche from id to super-ego — as does no other figure; his soul is totally bonded with our core values and emotions, and he is our total and indisputable champion. This tremendous connection threatens the established order.
Yep. It’s a cult. Trump is soulless. Also, how do you admire the “gait” of someone who can’t walk down a ramp.
More than anything, the NYYRC admiration for Trump demonstrates the power of the human mind to shape whatever it is seeing and hearing to fit a preconceived notion, or to fit a need for a savior.
People in the cult don’t recognize that they are in a cult. They are good at selectively editing reality.
s there a more annoying, pretentious writer on the planet than a New York Times political reporter who thinks he has something deep to say? Peter Baker makes the case that the answer is no.
The subject is Donald Trump’s Indictment And What It Means For Democracy. Answer: We don’t know, but … we think, with the most furrowed of brows, that maybe it’s better for democracy if Trump gets to be above the law. We’re just asking questions, here.
The indictment “tests democracy,” according to the headline. When Trump got into the White House despite losing the popular vote, we got years of “Trump voter in an Ohio diner” takes, and now we’re supposed to believe that democracy is the concern?
Check out these prose stylings:
For more than two centuries, presidents have been held on a pedestal, even the ones swathed in scandal, declared immune from prosecution while in office and, effectively, even afterward.
No longer. That taboo has been broken. A new precedent has been set. Will it tear the country apart, as some feared about putting a former president on trial after Watergate? Will it be seen by many at home and abroad as victor’s justice akin to developing nations where former leaders are imprisoned by their successors? [Aarrgghh. False equivalence! Also a Republican talking point … and a Donald Trump Junior talking point. Sheesh.] Or will it become a moment of reckoning, a sign that even someone who was once the most powerful person on the planet is not above the law?
[…] You read that pablum and know Peter Baker thinks he’s writing the history while it’s happening.
There are a lot of possible counterfactuals, but maybe if “some” had been less fearful after Watergate, we wouldn’t be here now. And we can’t worry too much about how these charges are viewed by the “many at home” who, to this day and despite all the evidence to the contrary, believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. For them, anything that involves Trump not being a winner among winners is a violation of the natural order of the universe. The criminal justice system cannot run according to the views of the biggest fans of one specific likely criminal. What about top House Republicans using their positions to try to interfere with a criminal prosecution? Is that not a concerning precedent?
The real underlying question here is, “Should we maybe agree that some people are above the law? Because it might get scary if we don’t?” Trump’s years of subverting democracy, and the Republican Party’s eager participation, are what make this moment a scary test. But rather than firmly answering that that means it is particularly important to show that he’s not above the law, the Times and Baker are taking the position that there should be a vigorous debate about whether it would be better to just let Trump slide.
“There is”—there is, just trust him, it’s happening with some people—“consternation that the barrier-shattering indictment would involve something as unseemly as paying hush money to cover up a sexual romp.” […] while it’s true, as Baker points out, that Trump “has been involved in far more earth-shattering events like trying to overturn an election and inspiring an attack on the Capitol to prevent the transfer of power,” the man is tawdry to his core. And if he committed a crime—which is yet to be proved, and he will have the benefit of due process—should Trump get off just because it was an unseemly crime?
As is generally the case with this breed of pontificating that tries to appear Very Serious to cover up the wishy-washiness that defines it, there’s a ludicrous imbalance in the “on the one hand/on the other hand” calculus.
On the one hand, the Founders explicitly envisioned, even putting it in the Constitution, that a former president might someday be charged with a crime. On the other hand, it is possible to locate a legal expert willing to fret about anything if it will get his name in The New York Times. For instance:
In 2008, voters in two small towns in liberal Vermont approved resolutions accusing Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney of “crimes against the Constitution” and instructing their town attorneys to draft indictments. Nothing ever came of it, but it is not hard to imagine a conservative local prosecutor trying to charge President Biden with, say, failing to adequately guard the border.
“This presents the opportunity for potentially thousands of state and local prosecutors to investigate and charge a president without the impediment imposed by D.O.J.’s policy against indicting sitting presidents,” said Stanley M. Brand, a former House counsel whose firm represents a couple of Trump associates in the investigation into the mishandling of classified documents. “It theoretically subjugates the presidency in a way I don’t believe was ever constitutionally contemplated.”
Let’s walk through the so-called logic here, step by step. Voters in two towns voted on something non-binding well over a decade ago, and nothing happened as a result. But now, because of something completely different, we must contemplate the possibility of a local prosecutor trying, for partisan reasons, to do something they cannot do. And, says, a lawyer whose firm represents some Trump associates, maybe criminal charges against a former president will open the floodgates for state and local prosecutors, oh, I dunno, maybe thousands of them, to charge a sitting president.
Like … what? How does any of that hang together? The answer is it doesn’t have to, because it’s political analysis in The New York Times. The fear of giving a straight answer in defense of democracy and [in defense of the] idea that no one is above the law just oozes off the page.
1/ Judge issued ruling on the summary judgment motions in the Dominion v Fox News case.
Fox Corp and Fox News’ motions for summary judgment to dismiss the case have been denied.
Domion’s motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part.
Details to follow…
2/ In its partial ruling in favor of Dominion, the court did determine statements made by Fox were statements of fact and were not statements of opinion.
3/ The court ruled that Fox News is responsible for the claims made about Dominion; but, it left open the question for the jury as to whether Fox Corporation (Fox News’ parent company) is responsible.
4/ The court also ruled that Dominion is entitled to summary judgment on the element of defamation per se. But, left open for the jury whether Fox acted with actual malice when defaming Dominion.
5/ The court also determined that Fox “cannot avail themselves of certain defenses like the neutral report and fair report privileges or the privilege for opinion”
6/ The court rules against Fox in its argument that Dominion is not entitled to economic and punitive damages; says it will be an issue for the jury. Court also notes that there is a presumption of at least nominal damages in Dominion’s favor.
With the news on Thursday that a grand jury in New York had indicted Donald Trump, Republicans erupted into universal support of law-breaking. Whether it was Lindsey Graham tearfully soliciting additional funds so Trump wouldn’t need to pay his legal bills, Ron DeSantis admitting that he had never read the constitution, or the entire cast of Fox News falling down the Q rabbit hole to talk about how “they” are laying a trap for Trump supporters, there was one thing that those screaming about the horror of Trump’s indictment never said.
They never said Trump wasn’t guilty.
[…] In response to Trump’s indictment, Republicans have declared that the U.S. is now a “police state,” told people to be ready with their AR-15s, and made endless attacks on Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. Kevin McCarthy called Trump’s indictment “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA” and every right-wing pundit and politician in piling on a description of Bragg as a pawn of George Soros. In case this isn’t clear, what they’re saying is that Bragg is a Black man who was supported by Jews, so he’s not allowed to charge an important white man.
But again, no one is claiming that Trump is clearly innocent. That would be hard to do since, going back to the Mueller Report, investigators reported that they had “uncovered evidence of potential wire fraud and FECA violations pertaining to Michael Cohen.” The charging documents in Cohen’s own indictment made Trump’s involvement in these crimes blindingly obvious.
That evidence pointed straight at “Individual 1,” the not so coded code name used for Trump during the investigation. It was Individual 1 who arranged six-figure payments to both adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal to keep them quiet about affairs with Trump. The investigation showed that, in spite of his denials, Trump had always been aware of the payments.
It was also Individual 1 who arranged a “catch-and-kill” deal with National Enquirer, in which the tabloid cut a check for McDougal’s story under the pretense of publishing it, then buried the story behind an exclusivity agreement.
These actions included clear violations of campaign and accounting laws. Cohen was found guilty on eight counts of tax evasion and campaign finance violations made at the express request of Trump and with Trump’s involvement. That has always been clear.
However, the federal investigation never got around to charging Trump. Two years ago, the Associated Press reported that the federal case against Trump related to these charges “was dead,” and that no one else was following up.
An attorney for one key witness described the investigation as “dead,” adding prosecutors have even returned certain evidence they collected — a likely indication no one else will be charged. The attorney spoke on the condition of anonymity because prosecutors have not discussed the case publicly.
Why would prosecutors not follow up on what appeared to be a slam-dunk case involving the person behind a crime that had already been successfully prosecuted and charged? Well … reasons.
One current and one former law enforcement official told the AP that factors beyond presidential immunity prevented Trump from being charged for his role in buying the silence of Karen McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels, who said they’d had extramarital affairs with him.
There you go. Two anonymous officials, one of them retired, said there were “factors” that prevented Trump from being charged, but they wouldn’t talk about what those factors might be.
But even these sorry, we can’t charge him, and we can’t tell you why officials didn’t make any pretense that Trump didn’t commit the crime. Because he did. it’s just that, because reasons, he can’t be charged.
Now that Trump has been indicted, everyone Republican seems to be screaming that this is the worst day ever in the history of days, but they’re not coming any closer to explaining just why Trump should not face charges for things he clearly did.
And again, we don’t even know what those charges will be. Most seem to be assuming that Bragg will charge Trump with state charges related to falsifying business records when he shuffled the books around to hide his payments to Daniels and McDougal. The list might include one or more violations of campaign finance law.
However, it’s worth noting that the last witness called before the grand jury wasn’t Michael Cohen, it was David Pecker, the CEO of the company behind National Enquirer, who was granted immunity back in 2018 specifically so investigators could learn about Trump’s involvement with the deal to silence McDougal. That makes it seem that at least some of the charges against Trump might be related to his role in this scam.
It seems likely that the full list of charges against Trump will include charges of violating federal campaign laws, but there may be other things coming that no one is really anticipating. One of those is almost certainly the charge that was the first one laid against Cohen—tax fraud. It’s entirely possible that all the charges against Trump are state charges for tax fraud or accounting fraud, with no federal campaign component at all.
[…] We simply don’t know. Neither do all the Republicans screaming in outrage.
But Lindsey Graham thinks he has a solution.
On the way to the DA’s office on Tuesday, Trump should smash some windows, rob a few shops and punch a cop.
…With summary judgment granted to Dominion on falsity, the big question left for the jury is just whether Fox (1) knew its claims about Dominion were false; or (2) subjectively entertained serious doubt that they were truthful.
Fox not even getting to go to the jury on falsity or opinion are enormous losses for Fox. That’s not necessarily *surprising* given what’s come out in these proceedings, but it’s stunning nevertheless.
Reports that Wagner forces raised a flag “in the center of Bakhmut” are somewhat deceptive. Wagner appears to have planted a flag on one of the taller buildings along the T0513 roadway, in the same area where fighting was going on earlier. This area is near where city offices were located previous to fighting, but it’s not the area where Ukrainian forces have been centered for the last month.
Some stills suggesting that Wagner had advanced several blocks to the north were clearly captured from video taken with a drone.
[“Happy Birthday” celebration for a Ukrainian soldier. Video at the link.]
The Ukrainian military reports that “there is a continuing trend of increased number of cases when groups of Russian personnel escape from their units.”
This reportedly includes 50 Russians who have deserted in the area around Starobilsk, well back from the front lines. It’s unclear if these are troops who recently returned from an area of intense fighting, or if they’re trying to avoid going there in the first place.
Yesterday, the number of reported Russian attacks took a jump to 80. That’s the highest number in the last five days, but still lower than any date in the first half of the month (or in February). But today, the number nosedived again.
During the day of March 31, Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled more than 30x enemy attacks. The fiercest battles remain to be for the settlements of Bilohorivka, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Marinka.
However, I wouldn’t read too much into this. Once again, look at the image above. No one is in a hurry to get out there and slog through a foot of snow on top of all the mud […]
The Ukrainian general staff reports that all these attacks by Russia were “futile.”
[…] You might expect that Donald Trump’s most devoted followers would be devastated or outraged by his forthcoming, still-sealed indictment — and that may be true for some of them — but the QAnon faithful are mostly rejoicing. No, they haven’t turned their backs on him (well … some of them have — a guy who calls himself GhostEzra, in particular, but that is a story for another day), they just think it is part of the “plan” that they have been trusting for the last six years. […]
On the main QAnon message board, Great Awakening, commenters seem to be in agreement that this is all part of the lead-up to THE STORM. In case you need a refresher, THE STORM is the thing they’ve all been waiting for all these years. The day when Trump’s “White Hats” declare martial law and start arresting all of his political enemies/the cabal/the Satanic child sex trafficking and eating ring/Tom Hanks, conduct their trials on air for 10 days, and then publicly execute them all while the “Anons” sit back with their popcorn and “enjoy” the show while we all freak out and look to them for answers about what is going on, finally realizing that they are beautiful, misunderstood geniuses who have actually been right about everything all along.
The going theory seems to be that this will set a precedent so that when all of the other ex-presidents start getting indicted and arrested, we will all think of it as a normal thing to do.
One said:
Only anons would be happy about this. We know the game and we love watching this movie :)
Now when former presidents are arrested the normies will be conditioned to think it’s not a big deal, when they are indicted for SERIOUS crimes against humanity. Meanwhile Trump was indicted for …. now, hear me out, a STORMy Daniels payment!
I LOVE THIS MOVIE.
Another:
This is the event that will unite liberty loving Americans to finally see what we need to do. God is in control. He’s driving right now. NCSWIC. It’s going to be biblical. I’m ready and I know all of us on this board are.
NCSWIC is not a new crime show on CBS, it is an acronym meaning “Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming,” a common QAnon catchphrase.
Another:
This isn’t hitting me like I thought it would. I have opined before about how I used to be pretty good at chess. Had I stayed with it, eventually I would have become a grandmaster, although by no means am I comparing myself to the greats – Kasparov, Karlsson, Fischer et alii – I just made it to master. The point being is this…if I ever were to play President Trump, I would be scared shitless. People have no earthly idea what a massive fucking mistake was just made. I get this funny feeling that he’s just getting started. I’m excited in a way, but apprehensive as well. I am not going to pray as I don’t believe in prayer, but I will remain alert, more so than I have ever been in my sixty years on this planet. Holy cow.
Another:
We are traveling the path of least collateral damage. The future proves past in this case. The arrest of President Trump initiates an important shift in the narrative wherein it is now common place to investigate, indict, and arrest former Presidents.
Had Clinton or Bush been arrested, the normies would have still been under the C.I.A. brainwashing programming and would have undoubtedly fed the Civil War narrative that the Cabal so desperately want. They will all be arrested in time, but the narrative must be put in place before such happenings can commence.
It cannot be understated just how important narrative control is in this situation. The narrative is the battlefield of this 5th Generation War.
Several are citing various Q ‘proofs’ that they believe may refer to the indictment (because of how Q is a time traveler and can predict the future), specifically one that says “First indictment [unseal] will trigger mass pop awakening. First arrest will verify action and confirm future direction. They will fight you but you are ready.” […]
Others noted that yesterday was “0” on the Q Clock — a website that no longer exists but which had been counting down to “something” for some time now. [“The q clock stopped yesterday. And that very same day Trump was indicted. There are no coincidences.”]
On Telegram, QAnon influencer/time traveler/former Ohio Secretary of State candidate ToreSays claimed:
Wait didn’t we have CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS about OBAMAS GAY LOVER who supplied him drugs and sex with? Didn’t he pay him HUSH money ? Why wasn’t he indicted? Impeached?
That’s ok.
Now we can impeach President’s no longer in Office.
Now we can indict them too.
#BatterUp
We did not! Largely because that was not a real thing.
Also on Telegram, rightwing conspiracy site X22 posted:
The bait was taken, Trump will watch the board, he will watch the Republican Party on how they react
He now has the key players chanting the same slogan
NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW
The Precedent has been set, we now know the path forward
Arrests of Former Presidents has been set
Game Over
Now, sure, you may think that this makes absolutely no sense, because no one ever said that former presidents or current presidents or soon-to-be-presidents were free to do all the crime they want. Well, except for Gerald Ford. Surely if there were actual proof that all of the other living presidents are part of a baby-eating Satanic cabal, no one would have a problem indicting them. The biggest obstacle in their way is that these crimes, much like President Obama’s secret lover, are things they made up.
Trump’s crimes, however — at least according to a grand jury — are real.
whheydt @318, oh, right! Thanks for the addition to the list.
In other news:
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a new interview that the number of people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border has reached an “extraordinary height.”
[…] Encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border increased substantially under President Biden, with Customs and Border Patrol reporting nearly 2.4 million encounters from October 2021 through September 2022.
However, the Biden administration’s new asylum policies aimed at discouraging Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants from traveling through Mexico seem to have eased the influx slightly. Between December and January, encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border dropped by nearly 100,000.
[…] In a Republican primary electorate where Trump fatigue has been creeping in, the charges [and indictment] serve as amphetamines that provide the stimulation of outrage to those Republican primary voters who might otherwise be weary of constant drama. But every high is eventually followed by a crash, and the question is whether Trump can keep the outrage pumping for the next two years […]
On April Fool’s Day, Twitter says it will get rid of verification badges for nonpaying users, but it doesn’t seem like a joke.
Journalists, celebrities and other public figures who have not paid for their badge may see the blue check on their accounts disappear after Saturday, but some verified users with large accounts on the platform say they’re not worried about losing their status — nor are they planning to leave the site once their badge vanishes.
“I really don’t think anything will change because I’ll still use Twitter the same way,” said Meecham Whitson Meriweather, who goes by @MediumSizeMeech on the platform and tweets about pop culture to his more than 48,000 followers. “I think the de-verification will go extremely smoothly. It might be chaotic for the first week, maybe, but otherwise, I think it’ll be fine.” […]
Some responses from Twitter users:
“Soon I will lose my blue tick and the last vestige of respectability on these cursed shores.”
———————–
“The idea here now is that if you want the privilege of appearing or being able to interface with a site that was built on free content, from writers and artists, you need to pay the technology company,” Molly Jong-Fast said. “These are the best of the brightest, and they still can’t figure out how, you know, to make a media company works, which I think is pretty interesting.”
Caveats and more weirdness:
The New York Times reported that the platform will make an exception for some of its largest organizations and advertisers, which would be allowed to retain legacy verification badges. The 10,000 most-followed organizations and the site’s top 500 advertisers would keep their badges at no cost, the Times reported. Otherwise, organizations outside of the top 10,000 will be expected to pay $1,000 per month to stay verified.
The Department of Justice filed a motion on Friday to appeal a lower court decision that would allow insurers to stop covering certain preventive services for free in spite of an Affordable Care Act mandate.
The lower court decision came from some dunderhead of a judge in Texas.
NBC News:
A federal judge’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act this week means that patients would have to pay for some cancer screenings that are currently free — a ruling that, if it holds, could make the potentially life-saving tests unaffordable for many, experts say.
The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge slowed sharply last month, an encouraging sign in the Fed’s yearlong effort to cool price pressures through steadily higher interest rates.
A jury has found former internet troll Douglass Mackey guilty of violating people’s constitutional right to vote by disseminating memes encouraging Democrats to vote via text in the 2016 election. The decision comes after more than four days of deliberations.
During the two-week trial, the prosecution presented testimony by MicroChip, a co-conspirator-turned-cooperating witness, who was identified by only his social media handle. On the stand, MicroChip spoke of his mission to sow chaos ahead of the election, driven by his hatred of Clinton, according to reporting by the New York Times. His account was a major pro-Trump engine of disinformation leading up to the 2016 election. The man behind MicroChip has claimed to be a software developer from Utah, and in 2017 told Buzzfeed News that he took Adderall to work 12 hour shifts running an army of bots that generated 35,000 retweets daily.
Mackey, 33, testified in his own defense, saying he’d never intended to trick anyone, the Times reported. As a Trump supporter, he claimed he’d only hoped to catch media attention and get under the skin of his political opponents to potentially “rile them up, get under their skin, get them off their message that they wanted to push.”
Once known to his 58,000 Twitter followers as “Ricky Vaughn,” Mackey was arrested and charged in Jan. 2021. According to a criminal complaint against Mackey, in the months and weeks ahead of the 2016 election, he and unnamed co-conspirators created several phony campaigns encouraging people to vote via hashtags on Twitter and Facebook, while they joked in group chats that the “dopey shitlibs” would fall for it.
“Vote early text Hilary to 59925 today,” said the text on one meme Mackey distributed. It included fine print to make it appear more legitimate, prosecutors say: “Paid for by Hillary Clinton for president. Must be 18 years or older to vote. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Vote by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii.” According to federal authorities, nearly 5,000 voters fell for the text ruse.
In opening statements earlier this month, U.S. Attorney Turner Buford said Mackey set out, with unnamed co-conspirators, to plan a “coordinated attack” on people’s right to vote. He had significant influence on Twitter, Buford said, having been named the 107th most important influencer of the upcoming election in a Feb. 2016 by MIT’s Media Lab, outranking more mainstream names including NBC News, Stephen Colbert, and Newt Gingrich. He used his influence on social media to reach as wide an audience as possible with the goal of not changing votes, but “vaporizing” them, Buford said.
…
According to the 2021 complaint, Mackey and his co-conspirators planned their misinformation campaigns in Twitter DM group chats. In groups with names including Fed Free Hatechat and the War Room, they discussed ways to get the maximum reach, including jumping onto already trending hashtags and appropriating the colors and font of official Clinton campaign graphics to make fake images look more legitimate.
…
Prosecutors said Mackey and his accused co-conspirators were then inspired by a disinformation campaign related to the 2016 vote in England on whether to leave the European Union. One image falsely told opponents of Brexit that they could vote “remain” through Facebook or Twitter, according to the complaint.
Mackey and his associates designed similar calls to action. They created an image urging Clinton supporters to vote on Twitter and Facebook using a hashtag, including her campaign logo and a link to her website for legitimacy. Some of the memes appeared to target Black voters, like one featuring an image of a Black person in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign. Mackey shared a similar message written entirely in Spanish, the complaint said.
A week before the election, according to court filings, Mackey Tweeted about the importance of limiting the Black vote to ensure Trump’s victory. “Obviously, we can win Pennsylvania,” he said. “The key is to drive up turnout with non-college whites, and limit black turnout.”
Twitter suspended Mackey at least twice after he began spreading false information. Prosecutors claimed the memes had already reached a wide audience, however, and continued to spread….
…
Mackey is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 16. He could face up to 10 years in prison.
A particularly dangerous tornado watch includes Nashville, Tennessee, and Tupelo, Mississippi, until 1 a.m. CDT
From CNN meteorologist Gene Norman
A particularly dangerous tornado watch is in effect for northwestern Alabama, northern Mississippi and western and middle Tennessee until 1 a.m. CDT, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
The tornadoes that develop could have EF-2 or higher intensity, with destructive winds over 111 mph, according to the center. Additionally, these storms will contain wind gusts to 80 mph along with hail close to baseball size.
Cities in the watch include Nashville, Tennessee, and Tupelo, Mississippi.
[…] Donald Trump hasn’t just broken the law. He’s done it in numerous and overlapping domains and consistently through his whole eight-year political career. He’s committed monetary crimes tied to his personal business. He’s repeatedly sought to corrupt public institutions, not least by obstructing justice and using the law as a tool of his personal vengeance. He’s incited violence and even orchestrated a multifaceted conspiracy to overthrow the government itself. He has committed crimes of a personal and pecuniary nature and other crimes of a public and political nature. Perhaps his most emblematic offense is confusing the matter by fusing the two in ways that make them almost indistinguishable.
[…] Clearly a president and ex-president who violates the law at every turn, both in pedestrian and commonplace ways as well as grave and extraordinary ones, must be held legally accountable because otherwise the whole structure of accountability collapses. If he’s not, then we have decided on the basis of the most extreme set of facts that presidents can do absolutely anything. We know that that cannot possibly be right. Just on logical principles.
And so, as I said, I have a perfect peace about the whole thing. Not because I know how it will turn out but because I know it is the only possible correct decision. It is not even absolutely essential that Trump be convicted. Certainty of conviction isn’t justice or accountability. I similarly have no personal need for Trump to lose his money or his freedom. I think he deserves both. But that’s for the courts to decide. The administration of the law is how a society speaks to itself about what is acceptable and what is not. And through his actions Donald Trump has left us with only one possible response.
Finland won final approval on Thursday to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a major shift in the balance of power between the West and Russia that was set off by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Whoa, this kind language feeds into the delusions of grandeur some Finns have about our geopolitical importance!
Turkey’s Parliament, in a session that went deep into the night, cast the last vote needed for Finland’s entry into NATO
That is, the session was an all-nighter because the Parliament had many items to discuss, and they apparently do evening/night shifts during Ramadan. The ratification vote was remarkably unanimous after Erdogan gave it a green light. The Kurdish party whatitsname was apparently against, but their members abstained rather than voted no (such democracy!).
Erdogan reportedly signed the ratification today. Now, as soon as the document arrives into the Super Secure Nato Vault in the US, Finland will send its own ratification document to be stored in the same vault, and that’s it. Then, on to lobby for Sweden’s ratification…
Master strategist Putin continues to suffer the consequences of his actions, with a brand new NATO presence along 1,300 kilometers of Russia’s border, or just over 800 miles long. Russia’s second most important city, St Petersburg, is just 400 km (250 mi) from the Finnish border.
That last figure should be barely 150-ish km, or 90 miles. But then again, Estonia is also about equally close.
As for the length of the border, I think that’s a poor (if simple) way to describe it. A better way would be to discuss how the population/economic centers and strategic connections of NW Russia/Belarus and neighboring Nato countries are located in relation to each other. For Russia, St. Petersburg and Murmansk are strategically very important (also as far-reaching naval/missile bases), while Karelia is only sparsely militarized.
Yet Russia’s timid response to this massive expansion on its border has betrayed claims that it invaded Ukraine because of its potential NATO ascension. Putin knows NATO is not a threat to its territories, it is only a threat to its imperialistic expansionist ambitions.
The Russian embassy in Sweden just made a threat that resulted in some kind of diplomatic row, but overall, it’s been fairly quiet. However, analysts say that if Russia had successfully finished the Ukraine invasion last year, quickly and without much losses, the situation would be very different.
It is not clear when the video was filmed. A Facebook post by the brigade said it was filmed in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
A geolocation account on Twitter said that the video was filmed in the village of Vodyane.
Oggie: Mathomsays
From Rawstory but behind a paywall, so this is the MSN feed:
. . . “If they were every one of those Republican politicians needs to be asked this what did you say when Michael Cohen was prosecuted for the same crime? You know who prosecuted Michael Cohen? Not a partisan DA in New York. The Trump Justice Department, the Trump-selected US attorney for the Southern District of New York.”
“The Trump administration indicted Mr. Cohen for the same operative facts — indicted him, convicted him with a guilty plea and incarcerated him,” he continued. “Now they’re squealing like a pig stuck under a gate. But if there is one system of justice if you’re going to indict Bonnie bonnie[sic], you’ve got to indict Clyde.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Vladimir Putin has signed off on a new Russian foreign policy strategy aimed at curtailing western “dominance” and identifying China and India as key partners for the future.
The new document cements the deep cold war-style rupture between Russia and the west over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. The strategy document said:
The Russian Federation intends to give priority to the elimination of vestiges of the dominance of the United States and other unfriendly countries in world politics.
The term “unfriendly countries” is used by Russia to refer to those countries, particularly in Europe and North America, that have condemned Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and adopted sanctions.
The 42-page document, which was published on the Kremlin’s website, said Russia would aim to “create the conditions for any state to reject neo-colonialist and hegemonic aims”. [The gall of these people.]
Announcing the document at a security council meeting, Putin said that updates to Russia’s strategy for engagement on the global stage were necessary due to “radical changes” in the world.
Russia singled out ties with China and India and stressed the importance of “the deepening of ties and coordination with friendly sovereign global centres of power and development located on the Eurasian continent”.
The document also described Russia as a “state civilisation” tasked with defending what it called the “Russian world” of related cultures on the Eurasian continent.
The concept of a “Russian world” is used by the Kremlin to justify its actions in Ukraine with claims that it is defending the country’s Russian-speaking minority.
Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery in the Ukrainian capital, has been summoned for questioning.
Photos released by Ukrainian Security Service show officers outside Pavel’s home on Saturday.
Pavel’s branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church was until recently formally tied to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The BBC reports security services have been searching Pavel’s house at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
It adds that Pavel has been formally notified that he is being investigated on allegations he supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has been summoned for questioning.
Pavel has also been accused of inciting hatred between religions.
He denies any wrongdoing.
Russian state news agency Tass cites a video released by the Vesti media outlet in which Pavel says:
I have been sent under house arrest.
This information has not been confirmed.
The Ukraine government announced it would terminate the lease allowing the monks to occupy part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra for free on 29 March 2023, but said the eviction process could take weeks.
Earlier this week, Pavel and his fellow clergymen ignored a deadline to leave and claimed they were being persecuted.
Despite the church officially breaking ties with the Russian Patriarchate after the invasion of Ukraine last year, Kyiv believes it is still de facto dependent on Moscow.
An eminent Harvard environmental law professor’s links to the fossil fuel industry are under scrutiny from colleagues and students after she was awarded a prestigious research grant to investigate corporate climate pledges.
Jody Freeman, founding director of Harvard’s environmental and energy law program and former Obama-era White House advisor, is a paid board member of ConocoPhillips – a Fortune 500 American multinational oil and gas company that was ranked the 13th most polluting in the world by a Guardian investigation in 2019. The firm’s controversial Willow drilling project in Alaska was recently approved by the Biden administration.
Professor Freeman also co-chairs Harvard’s presidential committee on sustainability and was recently awarded funding by the university’s new Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability to lead research on corporate net zero targets.
Colleagues say Freeman’s fossil fuel ties raises serious questions about a conflict of interest, while threatening to damage the university’s climate credentials.
A letter by the Harvard Faculty Divest steering committee – a diverse group of professors who advocate for an end to fossil fuels – to the president-elect of the Ivy league school sets out the conflict between Freeman’s fiduciary responsibility to ConocoPhillips and Harvard’s own climate commitments.
…
…“We ask not only about a potential conflict of interest, but also about the appearance of a conflict of interest, particularly one that might damage Harvard’s reputation and impair its efforts to be a leader in climate and sustainability work … might not intellectual partnership with a faculty member who has a fiduciary responsibility to a secondary interest, ConocoPhillips, with its mission to ‘explore for, develop and produce crude oil and natural gas globally,’ suggest a conflict of interest with these goals?”
Harvard’s stated goal is to be “fossil fuel-free by 2050 and fossil fuel-neutral by 2026”, while the Salata Institute’s mission is to “develop and promote durable, effective, and equitable solutions to the climate change challenges confronting humanity”.
In a statement to the Guardian, Freeman defended her position…
ConocoPhillips’ Willow project in Alaska is a huge decades-long drilling venture that will release millions of additional tons of planet-warming emissions into the atmosphere every year. The International Energy Agency has warned that new oil projects are incompatible with the world reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050.
…
The intervention calling for an explanation from the Harvard leadership came as students from Harvard Divest wrote an open letter calling on Professor Freeman to resign from ConocoPhillips – or leave her academic post.
The students wrote: ‘Professor Freeman, until now, you have justified your position as helping reform ConocoPhillips from the inside. The Willow Project makes clear that this isn’t working. Despite your years of service, ConocoPhillips remains further from Paris alignment than almost all of its peer investor-owned fossil fuel companies. At a certain point, it is important to ask yourself whether you are being used – if ConocoPhillips isn’t paying for your expertise, but instead co-opting the respect and legitimacy accorded to someone of your position.”
…
The Harvard conflict comes amid growing scrutiny over the deep ties between America’s most prestigious academic institutions and the fossil fuel industry – which are ongoing despite climate pledges by universities like Harvard and Princeton.
On Monday, the Guardian revealed that an Exxon scientist had an office and taught a class at Princeton. Harvard and Princeton are among the top 10 select US universities that received the most donations from the fossil fuel industry between 2010 and 2020, according to Data Progress.
Last year, the Boston Globe revealed how the gas industry secretly helped to write a University of Massachusetts pro-hydrogen academic paper that later got published in a peer-reviewed journal.
“For too long the Ivy League and other elite universities have allowed the fossil fuel industry to insert itself into nearly every facet of their institutions … allowing oil and gas companies, like ConocoPhillips, to gain an aura of legitimacy and greenwash their polluting practices,” said Itai Vardi, a research and communications manager at the Energy and Policy Institute, a fossil fuel and utilities watchdog.
“Universities must listen to their faculty and students [and] cut all research and funding ties with the industry.”
The Russian Federation intends to give priority to the elimination of vestiges of the dominance of the United States and other unfriendly countries in world politics.
Putin could have chosen to be (remain) a trading partner with the United States and other countries. He could have chosen to cooperate with goals like addressing climate change. That would have benefited his “Russian World.” Instead, he’s declaring a new cold war.
Putin is using up, or at least crippling, his conventional military war machine thanks to his ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine, so I expect him to conduct his cold war against the United States and Europe with more cyber warfare.
On Wednesday, Gen. Mark Miley testified before Congress and said that Russia had made no advances in or around Bakhmut over the last 20 days. That’s not quite correct. Within the city, Wagner Group forces have managed to nibble a few blocks here and there, especially at the southeast corner of the area that had been controlled by Ukraine. But honestly, it’s not much.
On Thursday and Friday, Ukrainian forces made small counteroffensives outside of Bakhmut. Neither of them represents major gains, but both help keep the communication lines for the city open. There genuinely does not seem to have been any Russian advance outside of the city over the last two weeks, which is in itself a startling change. For the first half of March, Russia had still managed regular, if incremental, gains outside the city, particularly to the north. They had also made some reported gains elsewhere on the line. However, even when it was all put together, it didn’t really amount to a very productive “offensive” month for Russia.
Overall gains appear to be about 70 km2. Or, to put it visually … [Tweet and map at the link]
This map provides an idea of where Russia has made gains inside the city in the last week, and where Ukraine has pushed the lines back in areas west of Bakhmut. Once again, you’ll have to look carefully. Definitely take advantage of that “open in another tab” option if you’re not on a mobile device that can zoom to full scale. [map at the link]
The Russian gains are that little orange smudge southeast of the city center. The Ukrainian counters are those two blue wedges in the west. Everything here is the opposite of a “huge breakthrough” in terms of area, but that doesn’t mean this map does not represent something huge.
Imagine if someone had told you at the start of March, or the start of February, or the start of January, December, November … that come the first of April, Russia would still not occupy Bakhmut. Once Wagner forces stopped hurling all their men at the same little stretch of road (remember the cement factory? The wine factory? The land fill?) back in early winter, it seemed that they had finally found the trick for taking Bakhmut. By moving around the city, they were able to make some substantial advances for the first time in months.
When Russia successfully occupied Soledar near the end of December, the clock went from ticking to racing, and it seemed as if everyday was carrying Russian forces through another suburb to the north. At the same time, Russia was moving quickly in the south, apparently taking advantage of Ukrainian forces that had been shifted to try and halt the advance through Soledar. Russia occupied Klishchiivka, took the fortified hill to the west, and just two days later Wagner announced that they had taken Mykolaivka and Chasiv Yar.
Except they hadn’t. Not at all. The closest they seemed to get was the highway southwest of Ivaniske. From that point, Ukrainian forces fought the Russian advance to a standstill, then actually forced Russia to fall back on Klishchiivka. Ukraine has even placed a temporary bridge over one that had earlier been destroyed some kilometers to the south so that supplies can come to Bakhmut through the city of Kostyantynivka.
I’ve said it before: the most amazing thing about Bakhmut is that we’re still talking about Bakhmut, and not Kostyantynivka or Slovyansk. There were a lot of days when it seemed like Bakhmut teetered on the brink, but it’s been weeks since we saw one of those days. The price for making that happen is incalculable. The worth of making it happen is still to be reckoned.
WHY IS RUSSIA ADVANCING WITHIN BAKHMUT?
As great as it would be to think that things are completely stable at Bakhmut, that orange smudge on the map still represents how Russia is slowly, block by block, capturing areas in the city, even areas where Ukraine is putting up a tremendous fight.
The image here is from a Telegram page translated from Ukrainian sources [image at the link]. They note that Russian forces, which for some time had seemed to slow their actions in the city, have picked up both pace and intensity. And they have a target:
But in terms of intensity, for some reason it seems to us that their main goal is the city center… They are moving towards it, the tactics of encircling the city have shifted to a different plan, from the south and north, they are climbing right into the center, well, we are ready😉
The “city center” mentioned here, isn’t the area where Ukraine has its forces garrisoned, or the center of the area of Ukrainian control. It’s the area just north and west of that orange smudge on the map, where some of the Bakhmut city buildings were located. Everyone seems to concur that this is the area Wagner is driving to obtain, and recently they ran a video showing a Wagner Group flag on top of one of the buildings just south of this area.
Best guess: Wagner wants to hang their flag on what amounts to Bakhmut’s “city hall,” so they can declare they have captured Bakhmut. Even though about half the city is still controlled by Ukraine.
There are also indications that Wagner may have swapped out their forces in the city over the last week, replacing them with a larger group of fresher troops to make this push. It’s unclear if Ukraine can stop this slow advance without adopting Russia’s tactics of simply leveling blocks.
A member of the pro-Nazi group White Lives Matter of Ohio was arrested Friday after he allegedly threw molotov cocktails at a church planning to hold a drag event.
Aimenn Penny threw molotov cocktails at the Community Church of Chesterland, outside Cleveland, on March 25, according to investigators. The attack left scorch marks on the church and broke a sign, but did no significant damage.
Penny was charged with arson and possession of a destructive device.
He was a known figure in the White Lives Matter group, which protested a drag event in Ohio earlier this month with swastika flags, shouting slurs and praising Hitler, according to FBI investigators.
In an interaction with police at that event, Penny, who is white, said that he is awaiting a national race war, and that he believes all other races have to be eliminated for the U.S. to prosper, according to investigators.
Community Church of Chesterland plans to host a drag event on Saturday. The church has claimed to receive numerous complaints and threats about the event, and is anticipating “potentially violent hate groups” to protest, according to a Facebook post by church leadership.
[…] When his home was searched, investigators found Nazi paraphernalia including swastika flags, a While Lives Matter of Ohio shirt and materials like those used to create the Molotov cocktails. […]
Across 10 states more than 530,000 people were without power, according to poweroutage.us.
A ferocious storm system tore through the South and Midwest Friday, whipping up deadly tornadoes in Arkansas and Indiana, and collapsing a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois.
Central Arkansas suffered “significant damage” Friday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, after meteorologists said a tornado touched down in North Little Rock, pummeling buildings and leaving at least three people dead and dozens injured.
State police also confirmed three people were killed in Indiana, and a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killed one person and injured 28 others, five of them severely, the city’s fire chief said.
Arkansas declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard on Friday afternoon. At a news conference Friday, Huckabee Sanders said 100 guardsmen had been deployed across the state.
“Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm,” she said in a separate Twitter post, adding that the town of Wynne, roughly 100 miles northeast of Little Rock, had also seen widespread damage.
Wynne Police Chief Richard Dennis told NBC affiliate KAIT of Jonesboro, Ark., that the city of roughly 8,000 suffered “total destruction.”
[….] Elsewhere in Illinois, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said approximately 260 people were attending a heavy metal concert at the city’s Apollo Theatre when the roof collapsed during a tornado.
[…] Elsewhere, tornadoes moved through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage. One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa.
[…] Flash flooding from thunderstorms also posed a risk from Midwest to the Lower Mississippi Valley on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The areas with the greatest risk for flooding through Friday night are across the Ohio, Tennessee, and Lower Mississippi valleys.
[…] More than 60 tornado reports across several states were recorded by the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center on Friday and Saturday, bringing death to Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois and Mississippi. [map at the link]
At least 25 people were killed during last week’s devastating tornadoes.
[…] This week’s storm outbreak was well-predicted. Late Friday morning, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center declared a Level 5 out of 5 “high risk” for violent storms in the Corn Belt and Mid-South. It was the first such high-risk issuance anywhere in more than two years.
Through Saturday morning, the Weather Service had received reports of at least 65 tornadoes in seven states from Alabama to Wisconsin — with the most reports concentrated in Arkansas, Illinois and Iowa. The agency received more than 300 reports of large hail — some baseball-size — and damaging winds that exceeded 80 mph in parts of Illinois and Indiana.
The Weather Service issued more than 600 warnings of severe thunderstorms and 200 for tornadoes, both numbers ranking among the top 10 most recorded for a single day. At least four “tornado emergencies” were declared, reserved for only the most extreme tornado situations capable of producing a significant loss of life in population centers.
[…] More rough weather is forecast for Saturday [today], when the system could deliver a few final severe thunderstorms to parts of the East Coast through the afternoon, with the zones of greatest risk in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New York and New Jersey as well as southern parts of Georgia and South Carolina. There is a slight risk tornadoes in both of these zones.
An enormous wind field in the wake of the storm front is predicted to produce gusts up to 60 mph from Missouri to the Mid-Atlantic, prompting wind advisories and warnings for more than 110 million Americans.
There was this thing, just two weeks ago, where I declared that Saturday would be map day. On Saturday, I would create a whole series of maps covering almost all areas of the front then walk through the changes that had occured over the week. These maps could then be referenced throughout the following week when reporting on advances and battles that happened all around Ukraine.
It seemed like a plan. Except, like all plans, it didn’t survive contact with the enemy. The enemy in this case being … nothing. As in, there’s nothing new to map. Nothing has changed around Kupyansk, nothing has changed at Svatove. There’s probably been some change north of Kreminna, only the signals there are too crossed up to map it. Bakhmut we’ve been dealing with in such detail that today is the first day in a week the unit of scale was actually in kilometers rather than just meters.
So I’m faced with a dilemma. I can put up maps for this Saturday, that are the same as last Saturday, and not much changed from the Saturday before that, or I can just walk through the most recent report from the Ukrainian General Staff … and the second one seems more productive. [chart at the link]
On Thursday, the number of attacks against Ukrainian positions popped up to 80. Which was the highest level in five days, but still lower than on any date in the first half of the month. On Friday, it dropped back to 30. For Saturday, the number is 70. That unusually low number for Friday probably shouldn’t have anyone screaming “culminating!” It’s very likely tied to the fact that eastern Ukraine saw what, in military terms, is known as a metric s**t-tonne of snow on that date. On Saturday, forces on both sides scraped away enough slush to get back to shooting, through I really don’t envy anyone who was trying to make an advance through that mess.
Oh, and for those who asked, the statistics are now on the graph, but you’ll really need to use that “open in another tab” bit if you want to read them.
One other number worth noting — this was another night in which Russia did not conduct a major strike with missiles and drones. It looks like Russia sent 5 missiles into civilian positions (probably S-300) and launched a small number of Iranian drones, all of which were reportedly shot down short of their targets. As usual, we don’t know if Russia is hoarding missiles for something “special,” but this is now the longest period without a major attack this year.
There’s not a lot of new information to be gathered from the location of shelling and assaults on Friday, however, west of Kreminna, Ukraine reports repelling attacks at Kreminna, Chervonopovka, Díbrova, and in the Serebryanskogo forest. This seems to indicate that Ukraine has been able to maintain those locations throughout this offensive, in spite of earlier Russian reports of advances.
BATTLE OF KYIV: MOST DECISIVE BATTLE OF THE MODERN ERA
John Spencer is an instructor at West Point’s Modern War Institute research center. This lecture—and warning, it’s a genuine lecture, but also fascinating—covers research he has put together around the Battle of Kyiv, which he calls “the most decisive battle of the modern era.”
Spencer has visited the locations around Kyiv, interviewed those involved, and put together a case study that explains why this battle turned out as it did and why it determined the course of the war. [video at the link]
Ukrainian Pravda reports that Poland is selling Ukraine 100 Rosomak armoured personnel carriers. These will be paid for using funds donated to Ukraine by the U.S. and E,U. [photo at the link]
Reuters reports that the U.S. will announce another $2.6B support package for Ukraine next week, which will include “air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks” as well as more ammunition of several types.
Link. Scroll down at the link to view the updates.
[…] Casey [Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania] began his question by reminding Schultz [Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz] about Schultz’s own activities two years ago, when “Starbucks shut down all stores in the Buffalo area, rented out the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Flew you, Mr. Schultz, and Starbucks senior executives, into town and forced workers to hear you give anti-union talking points.”
Casey went on to point out that while we don’t know for sure how many millions Starbucks Coffee Company has spent on a union-busting law firm like this over the past few years, what is known for sure is that “Under current law, federal law, Internal Revenue Service law, Starbucks is able to write off those costs as a run-of-the-mill business expense—meaning taxpayers. Taxpayers are subsidizing union busting in the United States of America, including that of Starbucks.”
Having laid down the moral implications of the laws that everyone understands have been lobbied for by companies like Starbucks and subsequently exploited by Starbucks, Casey offered up a very easy-to-answer question: “So, Mr. Schultz, I’d ask you, as a private citizen, in your personal capacity, do you believe that corporations should have the right to get a tax break, a taxpayer-provided subsidization, a tax break for union-busting activities?”
Schultz attempted to expand his answer by offering up that there are lots of things “to respond to”—except, of course, the question being asked. He then tried to say Starbucks hasn’t broken the law—which, as Casey pointed out, was not the question being asked. “I didn’t ask you about Starbucks. I asked you about your personal view. Yeah. Do you think that the provisions should stay or the law should be changed?”
Schultz eventually answered truthfully: He indeed supports a loophole that allows taxpayers to front the bill for companies’ anti-labor activities. Of course, Casey was forced to pry that answer out of him about three times. Then Casey asked Schultz whether or not he knows anything about complaints that Starbucks was surveilling workers and their unionization efforts. Schultz went into how proud he is of Starbucks, and Casey reminded him that that’s great and all but immaterial in regard to the question at hand.
Scultz said he was not aware of any surveillance, and admitted it would be wrong if it were true. Then he tried to get righteously indignant that he’s being painted as a union-buster, which prompted the spectators at the hearing to laugh. Schultz has earned this derision.
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a previous finding that Tesla and CEO Elon Musk violated labor laws by firing an employee involved in union organizing and making an apparent threat to rescind stock options if employees unionized.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) determinations in Friday’s ruling, allowing the board to enforce its 2021 order that required Tesla to reinstate former employee Richard Ortiz with backpay and directed Musk to delete a tweet. […]
Republicans on Capitol Hill are amping up their defense of former President Trump in the wake of his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, promising congressional action against the New York district attorney and intensifying their rhetoric with tinges of violence.
[…] Now that it is official, some of Trump’s closest congressional allies are escalating their outrage — at the apparent encouragement of the former president — with everything from symbolic handouts of ham sandwiches to calls for protests and threats of retaliatory congressional investigations.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) earlier this month said, “we don’t need to protest” Trump’s potential arrest, but she changed her tune on Friday.
“I’m going to New York on Tuesday. We MUST protest the unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!” the Georgia Republican wrote on Twitter. Trump is expected to appear in court to hear the charges against him on Tuesday afternoon.
[…] Trump’s campaign on Friday distributed a list of more than a hundred statements from Republicans showing support of him and outrage at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), in a clear sign that the former president is keeping track of which Republicans come to his defense.
[…] House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday pledged that the House “will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.” And Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who served as physician to the president during the Trump administration, warned in a statement that “it will ultimately be Alvin Bragg that pays the price for this abuse of office.”
Representative Barry Moore, a Republican from Alabama, took a creative approach with his response to the Trump indictment. In a reference to the adage that a grand jury would “indict a ham sandwich” — poking fun at the ease prosecutors have in securing grand jury indictments — Moore handed out ham sandwiches at his Capitol Hill office on Friday.
[…] Despite the Trump campaign’s assertions that Republicans are showing “united support” for Trump, some are taking a more subdued attitude about the indictment, waiting to see how the justice process plays out before syncing-up with other GOP lawmakers and calling the indictment a political prosecution.
“I trust our legal system,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told The Hill in a text message. […] “Seems un-American to cheer someone getting indicted or, as well, excoriate a prosecutor before the indictment is even released. I trust our legal system in the long run. We’ll get a clearer picture as time goes on,” he said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said, “Instead of rushing to individual judgment, we must also evaluate the evidence as it becomes available and use it to inform our opinions and statements about what is actually happening.”
President Joe Biden is using International Transgender Day of Visibility on Friday to sharply criticize acts of violence and discrimination against Americans who identify as trans and nonbinary, zeroing in on the growing number of Republican-led bills targeting trans youth.
In a presidential proclamation on Thursday (full text) and a subsequent statement on Friday, Biden acknowledged “a wave of discriminatory state laws” aimed at trans Americans, squarely blaming “MAGA extremists” for “advancing hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender kids and their families.”
[…]
Earlier this month, Biden – who in 2021 became the first US president to ever issue a presidential proclamation to mark International Transgender Day of Visibility – called efforts to restrict transgender rights in Florida as “close to sinful.”
“It just, to me, is, I dunno, it’s cruel,” he added.
The White House also issued a Fact Sheet: White House Honors Transgender Day of Visibility (full text), setting out a long list of initiatives of the Biden-Harris Administration supporting transgender individuals.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Russia’s war against Ukraine has claimed the lives of 262 Ukrainian athletes and destroyed 363 sports facilities, the country’s sports minister, Vadym Huttsait, said on Saturday.
Meeting the visiting president of the International Federation of Gymnastics, Morinari Watanabe, Huttsait said no athletes from Russia should be allowed at the Olympics or other sports competitions.
“They all support this war and attend events held in support of this war,” Huttsait said, according to a transcript on president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s website.
The International Olympic Committee has recommended the gradual return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competition as neutrals. It has not decided on their participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A top Ukrainian cleric from a church with alleged Moscow ties was sentenced to house arrest on Saturday after a hearing into whether he glorified invading Russian forces and stoked religious divisions, the church said.
Kyiv is cracking down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on the grounds it is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow, a charge the church denies.
In a statement, the UOC said a Kyiv court also ordered Metropolitan Pavlo to wear an electronic bracelet. The Interfax Ukraine and Ukrinform news agencies said Pavlo had been given 60 days of house arrest….
More than three dozen editors of news organisations from across the world have signed a letter condemning the detention of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
An experienced reporter of Russian affairs, Gershkovich was working in the city of Yekaterinburg when he was detained. The Kremlin claimed he had been spying and had been caught “red-handed”. However, the Wall Street Journal vehemently denied the allegations against him while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also condemned the arrest. The letter says:
Gershkovich’s unwarranted and unjust arrest is a significant escalation in your government’s anti-press actions. Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalised and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law.
A top Ukrainian official has outlined a series of steps the government in Kyiv would take after the country reclaimed control of Crimea – including dismantling the strategic bridge that links the seized Black Sea peninsula to Russia, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The agency reported that Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, published the plan as Ukraine’s military prepares for a spring counteroffensive in hopes of making new, decisive gains after more than 13 months of war to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but most of the world does not recognise it as Russian territory. The peninsula’s future status will be a key feature in any negotiations on ending the current fighting.
The Kremlin has demanded Ukraine recognise Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledge other land gains made by Moscow as a condition for peace. Kyiv has ruled out any peace talks with Moscow until Russian troops leave all occupied territories, including Crimea. Danilov suggested:
– Prosecuting Ukrainians who worked for the Moscow-appointed administration in Crimea, adding that some would face criminal charges and others would lose government pensions be banned from public jobs.
– Expelling all Russian citizens who moved to Crimea after 2014, and nullifying all property deals made under Russian rule.
– Dismantling the 12-mile (19km) bridge that Russia built to Crimea.
A truck bomb severely damaged the bridge, Europe’s longest, in October. Moscow blamed Ukrainian military intelligence for the attack. Russia has repaired the damaged section of the bridge and restored the flow of supplies to Crimea, which has served as a key hub for the Russian military during the war. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the bomb, but Ukrainian officials had repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge in the past.
Polling stations have opened in a knife-edge election in Finland, with polls suggesting the three leading parties are running neck-and-neck and prime minister Sanna Marin may face an uphill battle to stay in power.
A final poll for public broadcaster Yle – with a margin of error of two percentage points – put the conservative National Coalition party (NCP) on 19.8%, the far-right, nationalist Finns party on 19.5%, and Marin’s Social Democrats (SDP) on 18.7%.
Marin, 37, became the world’s youngest prime minister when she assumed the leadership of the SDP – and the Finnish premiership – in 2019 and has successfully led the country through the Covid pandemic and to the brink of Nato membership.
…
Marin remains more popular than both her party and rival political leaders, with an opinion poll for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper in December finding 64% of respondents felt she had done a “very” or “fairly” good job as prime minister.
But with recession forecast and inflation surging, opposition leaders’ accusations of excessive government borrowing and inflated public spending – along with their pledges to impose tough cuts, particularly on welfare budgets – have proved effective. [FFS]
The NCP’s Petteri Orpo has promised to slash spending on unemployment and housing benefits, while Riikka Purra of the Finns – who were previously part of a coalition government from 2015 to 2017 – says their priority is to cut non-EU immigration.
The leader of the winning party usually has the first go at forming a government, but this may not be the case this time as several parties have already ruled out certain options, especially with the Finns. Coalition talks are likely to be long and hard.
…
As many as 10 parties could win seats in the 200-seat parliament. Polls open at 9am local time on Sunday, with early results from the 31% of voters who cast ballots in advance due at 8pm when voting ends. The outcome should be clear by midnight.
The most important election of 2023 is taking place in Wisconsin, The New York Times said Thursday in an editorial. That election is the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
“The Wisconsin Supreme Court election, pitting the mild-mannered, liberal-leaning family court Judge Janet Protasiewicz against the Trumpist former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, is by far the most important political contest of the year,” The New York Times said.
There is indeed a lot at stake, the future of our Republic.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race “could also determine whether the next presidential election is free and fair, shaking up a swing state court that came frighteningly close to overturning the 2020 vote,” the New York Times said….
Much more at the link. The election is this Tuesday, April 4th. Here’s a link to the Wisconsin Democrats.
Two women have been arrested in Iran for not covering their hair in public after having a tub of yoghurt thrown over them.
Video footage that went viral on social media showed two female customers being approached by a man who engages them in conversation.
He then takes what appears to be yoghurt from a shelf and throws it over their heads.
Iran’s judiciary said the two women had subsequently been detained for allegedly violating the country’s hijab rules.
It added the man was also arrested for disturbing the public order.
The arrests come as Iran’s judiciary chief threatened to prosecute “without mercy” women who appear in public unveiled, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei’s warning came on the heels of an interior ministry statement on Thursday that reinforced the government’s mandatory hijab law.
“Unveiling is tantamount to enmity with [our] values,” Ejei was quoted as saying by several news sites. Those “who commit such anomalous acts will be punished” and would be “prosecuted without mercy,” he said, without saying what the punishment would entail.
Ejei, Iran’s chief justice, said law enforcement officers were “obliged to refer obvious crimes and any kind of abnormality that is against the religious law and occurs in public to judicial authorities”.
A growing number of Iranian women have been ditching their veils since the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of the “morality police” last September. Mahsa Amini had been detained for allegedly violating the hijab rule.
Government forces violently put down months of nationwide revolt unleashed by her death.
However, women are widely seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops and streets around the country, risking arrest for defying the obligatory dress code. Videos of unveiled women resisting the “morality police” have flooded social media.
Under Iran’s Islamic sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. Violators have faced public rebuke, fines or arrest.
Describing the veil as “one of the civilisational foundations of the Iranian nation” and “one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic,” the Interior Ministry statement on Thursday said there would be no “retreat or tolerance” on the issue.
It urged ordinary citizens to confront unveiled women. Such directives have in past decades emboldened hardliners to attack women with impunity.
Nearly two years into protests against a controversial $90m police and fire department training center in Georgia known as “Cop City”, recent weeks saw the first academic, Atlanta-area public opinion poll about the issue.
Top-line results of the recent Emory University poll included: more white residents are for the project than against it, and more Black residents are against it than for it. The numbers add up to a portrait of a city divided in the face of a protest movement – still stunned by the shooting death of one its members at the hands of the police – that has created global headlines.
Several days after the survey was released, a local attorney with a decade’s experience defending Georgia cities and counties published a legal analysis of the city of Atlanta’s contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation to build Cop City.
Results included: if Mayor Andre Dickens decided going forward with the center was not a good idea, he could legally cancel the contract, without penalty. This gave ammunition to local media to press Dickens on whether he would consider this option if opposition continued, or grew.
The two events are part of a recent, steady drumbeat on the ground in the Georgia capital, as the city and police, opponents of the project and outside experts seek to inform or influence public opinion on the issue.
…
Author Will Potter, who has written about the crackdown on environmentalism in the US, observed: “Officials have been making a spectacle of transparency and democracy [regarding the training center]. But what you see now is that the process wasn’t open, and didn’t include a chorus of voices interested in the issue.”
Potter said a heavier crackdown on information about Cop City could be in store. “As the opposition grows, so officials will attempt to restrict information – because they see it as potentially dangerous.”
Starbucks fired Alexis Rizzo, the employee responsible for igniting the Starbucks Workers United union campaign, just days after the company’s former CEO Howard Schultz testified on Capitol Hill about the coffee chain’s alleged union-busting, CNBC confirmed.
Rizzo worked as a shift supervisor at Starbucks for 7 years and served as a union leader at the Genesee St. store in Buffalo, New York, which was one of the first two stores in the country to win its union campaign.
Starbucks Workers United announced Rizzo’s termination in a tweet Saturday and said in a corresponding GoFundMe page that “this is retaliation at its worst.”
“I’m absolutely heartbroken. It wasn’t just a job for me. It was like my family,” Rizzo told CNBC in an interview. “It was like losing everything. I’ve been there since I was 17 years old. It’s like my entire support system, and I think that they knew that.”
Rizzo said her store managers fired her after she finished working her shift Friday. She said they told her it was because she had been late on four occasions — two of which were instances where she had been one minute late. Rizzo suspects she was let go as a result of Wednesday’s Senate hearing, she said.
Schultz faced a volley of tough questions from Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday about Starbucks’ labor and union practices….
The undiminished numbers on the start of Week 13 of the pro-democracy protests across Israel prove Netanyahu has failed to calm the fears his government still plans legislation against the Supreme Court. If anything, his promise of a private militia to Ben-Gvir just stoked them.
The protest movement won’t bring Netanyahu down directly, but they are staying in the streets to ensure that the legislation against the Supreme Court isn’t brought back and the opposition doesn’t compromise in the talks with the president. It will keep the heat up on Bibi
Since the opposition can’t agree to the government’s demand for control over appointments to the Supreme Court, a compromise is unlikely. Parts of the coalition (Deri, Gallant, Bitan) are unlikely to agree now to re-introduce the original legislation, Netanyahu is stuck.
Netanyahu can’t deliver the legislation he promised. He can’t fire his defense minister (despite announcing he would), no-one in Likud will take the job now and Deri is against. His control over the government is weakening. Which is dangerous seeing who some of the ministers are.
A well-known Russian military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in an explosion in a cafe in Russia’s second largest city of Saint Petersburg on Sunday, the RIA news agency reported.
it is unclear if the blast is directly linked to the conflict with Ukraine.
The moment of an explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg. Propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky held an event there. He is reportedly killed and six others were wounded. [video at the link; looks like the driver of the silver car was lucky]
Tatarsky (real name Maxim Yuryevich Fomin) is known as one of the world’s best-known pro-Russian bloggers and a convicted criminal with strong ties to the Kremlin. He is originally from Makiivka, Donetsk region. After he escaped prison in [2014], he joined the Luhansk militia.
Fun fact, the explosion occurred in a cafe owned by Prigozhin
SC @371: “Fun fact, the explosion occurred in a cafe owned by Prigozhin.”
Ah, so now the “tensions” between different branches of Russia’s military forces seem to have broken out into murder on Russian soil. Hmmm. Not a good sign for Russia. I wonder if this is a WTF moment for Putin.
In other news, All of Trump’s legal woes do not seem to be keeping him busy enough. He continues to promote whacko ideas, like a military invasion of Mexico.
Stewing in not-quite-indicted-but-almost semi-exile in his for-profit home and club, the coup-attempting Donald Trump has had plenty of time to think about what he should have done differently with his four years in the most powerful office in the nation. But Donald Trump is now surrounded exclusively by violent batshit cultists of the worst sort; his retinue has been filtered down exclusively to those Republicans who have no problem with mounting a violent attempted coup, if that’s what it takes to keep their own leaders in power.
Yikes! What a picture to paint! Seems to be true though.
There’s nobody left to temper Trump’s stupidest and most illegal ideas, and that’s probably a good chunk of the reason Donald now thinks most of the major errors he made during his administration were because he kept getting talked down from implementing his stupidest and most illegal ideas. Like, for example, a military invasion of Mexico.
No, we’re not joking here. Rolling Stone reports that Donald Trump has been asking his remaining policy advisers to draft up military options for striking Mexican drug cartels—with or without the cooperation of the Mexican government. The options range from Special Forces raids on suspected cartel targets to full-on military campaigns that “include elements of the Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard.”
That’s one of the options that the fascist Center for Renewing America has been publicly boosting, but the number of Republicans in or around Trump’s circle who have been advocating for military strikes on Mexican cartels is large; Rolling Stone cites Reps. James Comer, Dan Crenshaw, Michael Waltz, Marjorie Taylor Green, Beth Van Duyne, former attorney general Bill Barr, Sens. Lindsey Graham and John Kennedy, and sedition-backing Trump official Chad Wolf among those who had expressed support for a military campaign inside Mexico or regretted that Trump didn’t launch them when he had the chance.
There is deep Republican support for waging war inside Mexico, at least from the wing of the party that already considers an attempted coup to be a reasonable option here at home. They’re not too keen on the United States providing weapons to Ukraine to fight off an invasion by Russian kleptocrat Vladimir Putin, but they’re itching to show Mexico some neoconservative shock and awe.
We can’t say, then, that Donald Trump is a fringe figure. […]
The justification for mounting military attacks on targets inside Mexico is the Republican usual. The Center for Renewing America (fascist!) cites “the mounting bodies of dead Americans from fentanyl poisonings,” which Republicans insist is Because Mexico.
But House Republicans are also quick to point out that the fentanyl that comes through Mexico is actually mass-produced in China; Mexican importers then press it into counterfeit pills for the illicit U.S. markets.
It would seem more efficient to mount military strikes on the Chinese factories producing the stuff—oh, but China is a military superpower, or at least a good percentage of one. Mexico isn’t. So there’s your answer.
[…] It’s the American markets that are providing such enormous quantities of cash to Central and South American crime syndicates as to render them into something of pseudo-governments in regions under their control. And it’s not as if we don’t know who’s doing the importing.
In San Jose, California, this week, the Department of Justice charged the head of the San Jose Police Union with attempted opioid smuggling, part of a larger Homeland Security investigation into San Francisco Bay region drug smuggling.
Far-right U.S. militia and white supremacist groups have long used international drug smuggling as a key means of funding their expensive insurrection fetishes; this week saw the arrest of 24 people linked to a white supremacist prison gang and the seizure of “more than 1.9 million doses” of fentanyl—in addition to 177 guns and over 230 pounds of methamphetamines.
But, wait! Aren’t those groups supporters of Trump?
If Mexico wanted to do serious damage to Mexican drug cartels, special military operations targeting ultraviolent U.S. crime syndicates would leave the cartels without most of their major sales channels. […]
Again: Donald Trump is carving his new campaign into something much more vicious than either of his previous two, […] It’s an aggressively fascist brand of “Republicanism” that’s pushing Trump to extremism […]
It would, perhaps, be more accurate to say that the fascists in the Republican Party are enabling and nurturing Trump’s worst proclivities.
Will Ron DeSantis now adopt “bomb Mexico” as a new policy stance? Will it be written into the Republican Party platform, assuming the Republican Party ever again produces a platform that isn’t just a one-page vow to support whatever Dear Leader blurts out? The odds are better than half, because this whole damn party went off the rails long before Donald J. Trump came along.
For most of last year, I happily pointed to sources suggesting Russian troops suffered such poor morale that they would inevitably cease fighting. We hoped for mass surrenders, or troops packing up and returning home. We seized on reports of troops ignoring orders to advance, and videos of families back in Russia furious at their government for treating their loved ones as “meat.” We thought the harsh Ukrainian winter might break the will of the Russian army.
And yet here we are, with Russia making 60-90 attacks every single day. Who knows, maybe some of the above is true, but on the battlefield, we’re seeing plenty of evidence of Russians leaning into the fight, defending positions fiercely, and attacking with energy.
Whether they are so brainwashed that they truly believe that the war in Ukraine is existential to Russia’s existence, or whether the famous Russian passivity to authority overrides their will to survive, it’s clear that hopes that shitty Russian morale would hasten the end of the war has proved unfounded.
In Russia, the “government” is thought to be a separate, almost miraculous entity, something entirely different from the people. Ordinary citizens do not consider themselves as a part of the country, only as expendables.
[…] It’s hard to grasp that as Westerners, and thus we overestimated the desire of Russians to save themselves from senseless and needless slaughter—or at least I did.
Yesterday, Mark Sumner gave a fairly detailed update on the Bakhmut situation—Wagner mercenaries are pushing heavily toward city hall for propaganda purposes, while the pincer movement north and south of the city has stalled. This state of affairs has led various sources on both sides of the conflict to heavily speculate on the relationship between Wagner and Russia’s military.
What everyone agrees on: Wagner is focused on the battle inside Bakhmut, which is now a direct head-on advance against Ukrainian defensive positions. Meanwhile, regular Russian army forces are holding the flanks to the north and south of the city. Everyone also agrees that inside Bakhmut, Ukraine’s defensive lines aren’t concentrated around the administrative city center. There are areas of the city, dotted with defensible high rises, that are easier to hold, but Wagner has clearly decided that planting their flag (not Russia’s) at city hall is more important than militarily defeating the bulk of Ukraine’s defenses. Their thirst for propaganda is deep.
And everyone agrees that the flanks are stalled. The debate is over why.
Theory 1: Russia is undermanned, can’t hold the flanks, and is running out of ammunition
In this reading, Russia is afraid to push those flanks and complete Bakhmut’s isolation because they don’t have enough forces to hold the lines if Ukraine counters. [map at the link]
Look at those two flanks northeast and northwest of Bakhmut. Both have become mini salients of their own, exposed to potential Ukrainian counterattack. It takes significant manpower to protect the flanks on any advance, and there are plenty of indications that Russia simply lacks the bodies. In fact, Ukraine has successfully pushed back the Russian presence southwest of Bakhmut in the last week. See the town just west of Bakhmut on the map above? That’s Invanivske. Russia hasn’t just been unable to keep pressure on that town, and on the Road of Life it sits on (the last road supplying Bakhmut), but it is currently losing ground south of it.
Meanwhile, reports abound of Russia’s “shell hunger,” or lack of ammunition. Russia has explicitly asked China for help (rebuffed for now), so American intelligence claims Russia has gone to North Korea as its desperation grows. So even if it wanted to push forward around Bakhmut, and even if it had the troops to do so, it might not have the artillery firepower to carry out its one and only tactical approach—reduce ground to rubble, send cannon fodder forward to see if any defenders are left, and keep repeating the process until an area is cleared.
Theory 2: Russia is happy to sit by and watch Wagner (and their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin) destroy themselves.
There has been a great deal of palace intrigue over Prigozhin’s obvious political ambitions, and his effort to build his stature in Putin’s eyes at the expense of Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (how has he kept his job this long?). The conflict has erupted out in the open, both with Shoigu and Prigozhin taking verbal shots at each other, and reportedly on the battlefield as well.
In recent months, Prigozhin has boasted Wagner is the only force to advance anywhere on the front line (he’s right, but barely), and complained that his supply shipments of ammunition and artillery support have dried up. Now, many suspect that rather than close the pincer around Bakhmut, Russia’s ministry of defense is happy to leave Bakhmut open to supply so Ukraine can finish off Wagner once and for all. Shoigu has zero reason to give Wagner and that peacock Prigozhin a victory anywhere on the map. They won’t even fly the Russian flag!
Putin has been happy to field multiple armies in Ukraine—Russian army, Wagner mercenaries, Kadyrovite militia from Chechnya, local militias from both the Russian occupied Luhansk (LPR) and Donetsk (DPR) regions, and Putin’s private Rosgvardia national guard. One single powerful defense ministry could one day challenge Putin’s rule. So a fractured military apparatus is by design. Putin wants these factions fighting each other, and we know this because he’s letting the feud play out, regardless the consequences on the battlefield.
But those consequences naturally lead to what we’re seeing in Bakhmut. Unable to take it by themselves, Wagner needs the help of other forces in the area to finish the job. The system itself actively discourages that kind of cooperation.
t’s not clear what Republican Rep. Jim Jordan would be doing with his life if Donald Trump had never existed. Jordan’s devoted his career to shouting very loud defenses of Trump every time Trump appears to have committed a serious act of corruption or straight-up crime, and because Trump is Trump this means Jordan has been screeching nonstop for six years and counting now. What would Jordan even do, in a universe in which Donald Trump didn’t run for office? Would he still be trying to cover up the sexual assault of student athletes he coached back in Ohio? Would he have devoted his life to redeeming the deceased Dennis Hastert? Opened a Richard Nixon theme park?
In this universe, Jim Jordan seems to exist solely to declare that whatever crookery Donald Trump was last caught in is no big deal or was a scheme by Trump’s ever-devious enemies. […] And Donald Trump being indicted for crimes related to the ex-president’s campaign-trail hush money payments to a porn star (a real phrase and a real news event, in this dismal universe) has been sending Jim Jordan into fits.
His latest proposal to solve this problem: Well now, maybe we’re just going to cut off money to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies until they decide to stop all these investigations of Dear Leader. [video at the link]
Wow. Listening to Jim Jordan talk for 22 seconds just doesn’t get any easier, does it.
In any event, Jordan’s problem is that while he has at least some power to sabotage investigations of Trump crimes conducted by the House of Representatives, he and other sedition-backing House Republicans have considerably less power when it comes to shielding Dear Ridiculous Leader from state-level crimes. Jordan is currently demanding Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg turn over the entire case files relating to Bragg’s investigation, another transparent ploy to turn that evidence directly over to Trump himself, but if Bragg and other state prosecutors resist Jordan there’s a limit to how much Jordan can meddle.
Jordan’s only real threat, then, is to tie the criminal investigations of Dear Leader to the appropriations process in an act of brazen crookery. […]
While there is at least a little bit of humor to be had in the most pro-sedition wing of Republicanism jumping to “defund the police” as their go-to answer for defending Golf Boy, Ruler of Them All, it’s probably more important to sit and stew on just how nakedly crooked House Republicans have become. Jordan’s demand that Bragg turn over every detail of his case to House Republicans was crooked from the moment he proposed it; now Jordan is linking funding for law enforcement agencies explicitly to the outcomes of investigations into the coup-attempting former president.
[…] Jordan’s getting Very Damn Close to what would already count as obstruction of justice […]
once House Republicans decided that whatever Donald Trump last said was more important than the rule of law itself, it was inevitable that it would devolve into this.
Peak Tankie: [Tweet and map at the link: shows “Decolonized Eurasia” and the proposed “Soviet Empire.”]
Remember, a tankie believes imperialism is bad, and that only the United States (and Europe) can be imperialists. So literally labeling Russia and China as empires isn’t really imperialism.
Figures an account posting that kind of ridiculous nonsense would have “Trump Lover” in its name.
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Nikolai Patrushev, Russia’s secretary of its security council, has thoughts.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces are becoming a full-fledged army capable of conducting offensive operations. This has already been legally confirmed by Japanese law, which is actually a gross violation of one of the most important outcomes of World War II […]
Russia’s war has dramatically reshaped the world security order. In addition to massive arms buildups in Europe and Asia and the ascension of Finland into NATO (and soon, Sweden), both Germany and Japan have begun a transition from their post-World War II pacifism. Russia may not like it, but Russia (along with Chinese belligerence against Taiwan and in the South China Sea) made it happen. [True]
The collapse of the European Union is just around the corner. [LOL] Of course, Europeans will not tolerate this supranational superstructure, which not only does not justify itself, but also pushes the Old World to open conflict with our country.
Europeans bent over backwards to be pals with Russia: Witness French and German efforts to keep engaging with Putin long after he launched his invasion. The one country to leave the EU (the U.K.) is suffering grievous economic consequences, including bare supermarket shelves, while the few remaining non-EU European states—including pro-Russia Serbia—are desperate to enter the common market. [True]
[America is a] patchwork blanket, which can easily disperse at the seams. Let’s say, as it was originally, they will be divided into North & South … no one can rule out that the South will move towards Mexico, whose land the Americans seized in 1848… [LOL]
This dumbass really thinks that if the U.S. split between north and south, that the “south” part would reunite with Mexico.
To be clear—he really thinks that the Republican dominated south would want to be part of the same country as Mexico.
And this guy is in charge of Russia’s security council.
[T]his is just one of many examples of systematic attacks on the independence of Latin American countries. There is no doubt that sooner or later the southern neighbors of the United States will regain the territories stolen from them.
Now he says that Latin America will … invade the U.S. to regain lost territories?
This kind of thinking really exposes the Russia obsession with who is historically entitled to what land […]
U.S. elites… have never associated themselves with the American people. Their projects such as BLM … and the general planting of transgender theories are aimed at the spiritual degradation of the population already in a state of apathy
You can see why the MAGA right is so enamored by Putin and his ilk. They speak the same deplorable language. Imagine thinking that it was “the elite” that created BLM, when literally the exact opposite was the reality—a movement by some of the most marginalized people in our society challenging the establishment status quo.
[Russia] in many ways surpasses America spiritually, morally and militarily… [LOL, LOL]
American exceptionalism is obnoxious, and somehow Russia manages to one-up it. We can see their morality in action in Ukraine. They shouldn’t be so proud of their mass murder, rape, pillaging, and wanton destruction. Their spiritual leaders have Putin-style dachas, super yachts, and the most expensive cars. And worse than all that, they bless mass murder in Ukraine. And that’s not just their top priests in Russia. Here is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine: [Tweet and images at the link]
That’s an S500 Mercedes, which starts at $112,150 before upgrades. The scarf is a Louis Vuitton, which costs [$687.00] and the watch is a Patek Philippe Calatrava which costs around $35,000. Russian spirituality is clearly for sale and morally bankrupt.
Their military is a joke. And while I bet he’s talking about nuclear weapons, because they’re obsessed with theirs as a point of national pride, at this point no one should assume they’d even hit the right continent (even if they somehow managed to clear their launch tubes).
[In response to the idea that the USA should split into North and South] The people who want such a thing to happen are too stupid to realize the economy of those states will almost immediately tank without the money they receive from the federal government
[…] destabilizing the USA like that would almost certainly result in the US dollar being removed as the world gold / currency standard, and when that happened in the UK the pound sterling lost literally have of its value overnight.
So first they tank their state economy, then what value the dollar has is reduced by 50% on top of it. Their only ways out would be return to the USA with their tails between their legs, which would still be too late to save the dollar … or to just start attacking across the border to steal wealth, food, vehicles, anything they can lay their hands on as the Russians are doing in Ukraine.
It would be an utter and total disaster yet these pin brains thing it would be a great idea. Stupidity marches onwards putting us all at risk.
lumipunasays
Re 363 (Finnish election):
It’s past 10PM here, the election result is still unclear/super close and I’m going to bed soon.
All the big three parties have won more seats while being neck to neck with each other. They were also neck to neck in 2019, but then Social Democrats were able to form a majority coalition with some smaller center/left parties that were collectively much stronger than they are now. Basically, the voters/seats have shifted like this:
Far left -> Social Democrats
Greens -> corporate right
rural interest party -> nationalist right
Now, there will have to be a coalition between two of the big three parties. Social Democrats and corporate right might be the most feasible combination. The only other remotely possible option is a monstrous rightwing coalition.
Until 2010s, the rural interest party used to be one of the big three, but they’ve been gradually displaced by the nationalist Finns party, which has also also grown more openly fascist. During the transitional stage, after the 2015 election, these two formed a coalition with the corporate right, and it blew up a couple years later.
UPDATE: It’s turning out that corporate right has the most seats and presumably will lead the new coalition.
This is remarkable first-person view of the destruction of a Russian tank. [Tweet and video at the link]
Russian sources claim the tank from which this was filmed was destroyed shortly after.
Lots of chatter in the comments over the assassination of a Russian national right-wing blogger in St. Petersburg. Apparently, he had been critical of several aspects of Russia’s invasion. [Tweet and video at the link. Shows moment of explosion]
There may be a Wagner/Prigozhin connection. [Tweet, video and more details at the link]
He was a real piece of shit. [Tweets and videos at the link: “Tatarsky was a real sweetie of Z land: “We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone we need, everything will be as we like.”]
As noted by several Brits (or expats?) in the comments, British supermarkets are back to being fully stocked. That was a temporary matter. But the negative effect of Brexit on the UK economy is indisputable, “Overall, the government’s independent watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, thinks the UK will ultimately be 4% worse off, than it would have been if we had voted no to Brexit.”
NBA star LeBron James and NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes have both said they would avoid paying Twitter Blue’s $8 fee. Other NFL players who have said they would not pay for Twitter Blue include New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas and Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Darius Slay. Author Stephen King said the platform “should pay me.
Actor William Shatner questioned Musk’s decision to create a subscription service, noting he has been on the platform for 15 years “all for bupkis.” Actor Karl Urban said he is “opposed to spending money on social media.” Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander said he would leave the platform once he loses verification.
Former news anchor Dan Rather said he would be “happy to pay for a lot of things” except Twitter Blue. Model Chrissy Teigen called for Twitter to “just take the checkmark already who cares.” Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell also indicated he would not pay.
The White House has announced that it will not be paying for employees to be verified.
Commentary:
[…] Faced with the fact that many of the largest organizations and advertisers on the site would not pay for verification, the company has decided to allow the 10,000 biggest organizations and 500 biggest advertisers (if they even have advertisers) to keep their legacy checkmarks for free. However, major news organizations like The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Politico, Vox and CNN have said they still won’t be paying for verification for their employees.
In a letter to staffers, the LA Times explained that they wouldn’t be paying for them either, explaining that “verification no longer establishes authority or credibility.” The Washington Post explained “It’s evident that verified checkmarks no longer represent authority and expertise.”
Several major celebrities like Shonda Rhimes, Sara Bareilles, Toni Braxton, Gigi Hadid, and Téa Leoni left the platform when Elon first announced his plans for the site and haven’t been back since.
Money has also left Twitter — the company is now valued at less than half of what Musk paid for it, probably because all of the major advertisers left. [LOL]
The thing that Musk and others never quite understood is that celebrities are celebrities with or without “checkmarks” and that people who are actually paid to write for a living are not going to pay Elon Musk for the privilege of writing on his platform. That’s just not how any of this works. He’s made the checkmarks useless and worthless and the only people he can sell them to are his own reply guys. […]
Ex-staffer’s emails, texts are guiding investigators, who increasingly suspect Trump went through boxes after subpoena.
Justice Department and FBI investigators have amassed fresh evidence pointing to possible obstruction by former president Donald Trump in the investigation into top-secret documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home, according to people familiar with the matter.
The additional evidence comes as investigators have used emails and text messages from a former Trump aide to help understand key moments last year, said the people, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation.
The new details highlight the degree to which special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the potential mishandling of hundreds of classified national security papers at Trump’s Florida home and private club has come to focus on the obstruction elements of the case — whether the former president took or directed actions to impede government efforts to collect all the sensitive records.
The emphasis on obstruction marks a key distinction so far between the Mar-a-Lago investigation and a separate Justice Department probe into how a much smaller number of classified documents ended up in an insecure office of President Biden’s, as well as his Delaware home. The Trump investigation is much further along than the Biden probe, which began in November and is being overseen by a different special counsel, Robert K. Hur. Biden’s lawyers say they have quickly handed over all classified documents found in Biden’s possession.
The Trump investigation team has spent much of its time focusing on events that happened after Trump’s advisers received a subpoena in May demanding the return of all documents with classified markings, the people familiar with the matter said. Smith is trying to determine if Trump or others mishandled national security documents, and if there is enough evidence to ask a grand jury to charge him with obstructing the investigation.
[…] In the classified documents case, federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession, the people familiar with the investigation said.
[…] Investigators have also amassed evidence indicating that Trump told others to mislead government officials in early 2022, before the subpoena […]
The death toll from severe thunderstorms in the South, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic has risen to 31, as authorities warned that extreme weather will probably return early this week.
[…] The risk of widespread severe weather was forecast to decrease Sunday across most of the Lower 48 states. However, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center declared an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms over northeastern Texas, including Dallas, and wrote that “several tornadoes” were possible Sunday afternoon and evening, as well as damaging winds and large hail.
The storms are expected to continue into the week.
Tuesday could be a particularly dangerous day, with severe thunderstorms “likely to develop late Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night across the lower Missouri Valley into southern portions of the Upper Midwest, and across parts of the southeastern Great Plains into portions of the Mid South,” the Weather Service said. These thunderstorms could produce “a few strong tornadoes, large hail and damaging wind gusts,” it added. […]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Belarus has started combat readiness inspections of its armed forces, the defence ministry has said in a statement published on Telegram.
The ministry said inspections would determine the capacity of military units to perform at “the highest levels of combat readiness”.
Hahaha.
Finland will officially become a member of the Nato military alliance on Tuesday, the Finnish president’s office has said.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, confirmed Finland will join the alliance tomorrow.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday paid tribute to the courage of nearly 400 residents of a village in north Ukraine who were held in a school basement under Russian occupation for 27 days before they were set free a year ago.
The Ukrainian leader travelled to Yahidne, where he gave an emotive speech recalling how villagers were kept captive in a space less than 200 square metres during the first month of Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
He said that 11 people died during the ordeal.
“These people somehow lived and waited for Ukraine in the dark,” said Zelenskiy who appeared visibly moved on the anniversary. “They lived standing and sitting.”
Reuters reports Zelenskiy was joined on the visit to Yahidne, a village in Chernihiv region, by German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck and Council of Europe secretary general Marija Pejcinovic Buric….
Local news reports say bomb was hidden in bust of blogger gifted to him by suspect moments before blast…
KGsays
lumipuna@378,
With the Social Democrats ending up in third place, I’d think a corporate right/far right coalition now looks more likely, but you’ll know better than me. Where are the Finnish Greens on economic and social issues? Parties with a “Green” label differ a lot on those, and your note that Green voters had shifted to the corporate right suggests to me that the Finnish Greens might be centrist if not centre-right.
In Episode 166 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses how a little-noted US-Mexico dispute on trade and agricultural policy has serious implications for the survival of the human race. Washington is preparing to file a complaint under terms of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement over Mexico’s decree banning imports of GMO corn, slated to take effect in January 2024. Concerns about the (unproven) health effects of consuming GMO foods miss the real critique—which is ecological, social and political. GMO seeds are explicitly designed as part of an “input package” intended to get farmers hooked on pesticides and petrochemical fertilizers, and protect the “intellectual property” of private corporations. Agribusiness, which can afford the “input package,” comes to dominate the market. Eased by so-called “free trade” policies, agbiz forces the peasantry off the market and ultimately off the land—a process very well advanced in Mexico since NAFTA took effect in 1994, and which is intimately related to the explosion of the narco economy and mass migration. The pending decree in Mexico holds the promise of regenerating sustainable agriculture based on native seed stock. It is also a critical test case, as countries such as Kenya have recently repealed similar policies in light of the global food crisis.
The collapse of the European Union is just around the corner. [LOL] – Lynna, OM@376 quoting and LoLing at Nikolai Patrushev [I think]
Yes, and has been not just ever since it was founded, but even before that! (The EU is a successor to the European Communities, three organizations which themselves had a complicated history and were also always just about to collapse.)
MSNBC has been showing Trump’s plane (with his name prominently displayed) at the airport in West Palm Beach at least since 10 AM. He’s not scheduled to leave until noon, but they’re evidently going to breathlessly cover every move he makes until…when? Just hours of free media attention, the day after CBS dedicates a 60 Minutes segment to an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Infuriating.
StevoRsays
So, 11 am USA time – one of the many USA timezones – we get to learn who is the crew of Artemis II to the Moon! :
@388,. SC (Salty Current) : “CBS dedicates a 60 Minutes segment to an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Infuriating.”
Quite possibly & MTG is sure but imagine if they actually ask her some tough and even brutal questuions and disgarce her? Here’s hoping? Hope they make her squirm and embarrassed and expose her for the evil, disgusting, vile ignorami she is. Well, publically and even more than usual anyhow.
agbiz forces the peasantry off the market and ultimately off the land—a process very well advanced in Mexico – SC quoting CounterVortex@386
And also in China. Hence the increase in wildlife farming in agriculturally marginal areas. If Covid resulted from wildlife farming, blame agribusiness and the CCP.
Pierce R. Butlersays
Lynna … @ # 376, quoting DailyKos: … [Nikolai Patrushev, Russia’s secretary of its security council] says that Latin America will … invade the U.S. to regain lost territories?
A threat considered factual by much of the MAGA mob.
Did Patrushev say that to juice their glands, or has the Russian/Republican collusion reached the point where the former now accept the latter’s perspectives as reliable intel on the US situation?
During the gathering near the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday afternoon, the group of roughly 40 people flew “Make America Great Again” flags and chanted “God bless Trump!” At one point, two demonstrators were hit on their heads with skateboards during a clash…
A few minutes after noon, two demonstrators were hit with skateboards. One of the victims — a man who had been leading the chants — was bleeding from the head but ambulatory. The other refused to give his name to a Times reporter.
Huntington Beach police initially detained two men at the scene. Huntington Beach Police Department spokesperson Jessica Cuchilla said one person was taken into custody…
[…] To be clear, obstruction has been a key element of this probe for a while now. It was cited in the search warrant for MAL. But as WaPo puts it:
The new details highlight the degree to which special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the potential mishandling of hundreds of classified national security papers at Trump’s Florida home and private club has come to focus on the obstruction elements of the case —whether the former president took or directed actions to impede government efforts to collect all the sensitive records.
But the bombshell in the story is the suggestion that Trump himself may have gone through the documents in question after a federal grand jury in DC issued a subpoena for their return:
In the classified documents case, federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession, the people familiar with the investigation said.
Investigators now suspect, based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes, these people said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) defended calling Democrats “a party of pedophiles” in a widely panned “60 Minutes” segment Sunday, seemingly claiming that politicians who support children receiving gender-affirming care meets the definition of pedophilia.
The MAGA-aligned conspiracy theory-enthusiast-turned congresswoman’s remarks came after CBS News’ Lesley Stahl asked Greene about her frequent “over-the-top” comments, including, specifically, saying that “Democrats are a party of pedophiles” in a 2022 interview.
“I would definitely say so,” Greene responded during the “60 Minutes” interview. “They support grooming children.”
“They are not pedophiles,” Stahl pushed back. “Why would you say that?”
“Democrats support — even Joe Biden the president himself — supports children being sexualized, having transgender surgeries,” Greene responded. “Sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children.”
“Wow. OK,” Stahl said as she rolled her eyes, for some reason baffled by the Georgia Republicans’ response. [Yeah, that’s not good enough Lesley Stahl. You should have been ready to hit back harder.]
Greene called Democrats “a party of pedophiles” during an appearance on Real America’s Voice in April 2022.
“The Democrats are the party of pedophiles… the party of princess predators from Disney… the party of teachers… trying to transition their elementary school age children,” she said during that 2022 interview.
Note to CBS: Don’t normalize fascists.
—————
Invite shit on your show, then you’ve produced a shit show
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Interesting that Spork Foot talks about schools “indoctrinating” children, but listening to hours upon hours of right-wing radio with her father ISN’T indoctrination. Also, someone should inform Spork Foot is that if a comment appears UNDER HER NAME on social media, SHE SAID IT. Doesn’t matter if it’s the unpaid intern posting it. Someone should tell her to grow up and take responsibility for her words.
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Why does the media insist putting people on TV who encourage nuts to commit violence. This is dehumanizing an entire segment of the US population. This is not serving the American people. Greene is dangerous.
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So Leslie Stahl’s eye roll was the antidote to giving this dangerous and hateful extremist a platform to spew this garbage?
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These pols are not ‘conservative’ in any meaningful sense of the word. Instead, they are racist, fascist, anarchist, nihilistic and radical. Treating them as normal, good faith political actors is a big mistake.
MTG said that while she ws growing up her father listened to rightwing radio all day every day. So she did the same.
Fox News broke their shadow ban of Donald Trump to bring him on Sean Hannity’s program at the end of March. […]
More specifically, Fox News came groveling back to Trump. The interview, shot on the ground of Trump’s Florida resort/compound, Mar-a-Lago, Hannity sat across from the twice-impeached, soon-to-be-indicted Trump and did what Fox News hosts have been doing for the past eight years: attempt to guide Trump’s disastrous interview style into something that isn’t an total incrimination of how mediocre and corrupt he is.
Hannity and Fox failed, of course. Among many ridiculous things he said, there is one section of the interview that Fox News has seemed to have scrubbed from many subsequent postings of the interview (but has been saved for posterity by the internet) that has to do with what exactly Trump may or may not have been thinking in trying to keep boxes and boxes of highly confidential U.S. intelligence on the floor of a storage room in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump also all but confirmed Sunday’s Washington Post story that Trump personally went through many boxes of sensitive records after a subpoena was delivered to him.
Just as with the rest of the interview, Hannity spends a lot of time attempting to insert the correct answer he wants Trump to give to the question, and Trump usually barrels through the correct answer and then obliterates it with his half-sentenced rants. After one such run where Trump blathered away about Biden’s secret documents, Hannity asks: “I can’t imagine you ever saying bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the White House. I’d like to look at them. Did you ever do that?”
The question is significant because part of the federal investigation and possible case against Donald Trump has to do with obstruction, and more importantly intent. Trump’s unwillingness to provide, for over many months, the many boxes of documents he took home from the White House is the reason the FBI was compelled to raid Mar-a-Lago in the first place.
Trump begins with his classic Trump preamble of all of his bad behaviors and ideas:
– Maybe I did.
– Maybe I didn’t.
– But maybe if I did it is fine anyway.
– But maybe I didn’t.
– But I probably did. And it’s fine.
“I would have the right to do that. There’s nothing wrong with it.” Hannity, seeing the possible admission of guilt, tries to undercut it as hypothetical: “I know you. I don’t think you would do it.” It is a pretty awesome thing to watch, a supposed news host offering up blatant coverage for federal crimes that could reach the level of high treason. […] Trump jokes, “Well, I don’t have a lot of time,” and then right back into the fray “but I would have the right to do that. I would do that. There’d be nothing wrong—”
Hannity quickly tries to change tracks, “—Well, let me move on,” but that ain’t gonna happen. Trump goes on, saying: “Remember this. This is the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. Do you know that they ended up paying Richard Nixon, I think, $18 million for what he had? They did the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. I have the right to look at stuff.”
There are many things wrong with Trump’s assertions here:
– The Presidential Records Act was signed into law in 1978, after Nixon resigned from office in disgrace. More importantly, the Presidential Records Act was established in order to change the “legal ownership of the official records of the President from private to public.”
– It doesn’t give him the right to obstruct the process laid out in the act.
– The decades-long lawsuit between Nixon and the Justice Department that resulted in an $18 million settlement to his estate in 2020 was a messy process that had the fact that the Presidential Records Act was not law at the time, and probably most importantly, were items being held to stop Nixon from destroying them per his Watergate scandal.
Also the issue isn’t whether or not Trump looked at boxes but if he decided to look at those boxes and have them moved in an attempt to hide them after the subpoena was delivered to him. It would also leave him on the hook for what items he had not returned, especially if they are proven to be state secrets and not personal things within the realm of reason.
[…] While Trump says he’s given the Feds all kinds of tape, he also says he didn’t give them his special tapes of “the raid itself.” In fact, he says the government has pleaded with him not to reveal these tapes!
Hannity, realizing he sort of has to say something, says, “I’ll take that tape and I’ll air it.” Trump basically makes a ratings joke but then says he isn’t releasing the tape “because of the faces and everything else.” And then the best part: Hannity calls that bluff, “We can pixel them out.” Teehee. Trump steps on any recognition of that flaw in his lie, by finishing, “But I have tapes of the raid and the raid is terrible.” […]
The New York Times boasts around 9.3 million global subscribers and 54.9 million followers on Twitter. But as of Sunday, America’s paper of record no longer has a verification check-mark on the increasingly tumultuous social media platform that Tesla-titan Elon Musk purchased in October 2022 for $44 billion.
[…] now that anybody can pay to have a check mark next to their names, it’s much easier to impersonate notable accounts and fool the masses.
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly saw precisely that play out when a Twitter account with a similar name that had paid for verification tweeted in November that it would be making insulin free.
The account, it turns out, was fake. But the impact was very real. The company’s stock value fell from $368 a share to $346, with its market cap losing approximately $15 billion, according to Marketplace.
[…] Amid announcements from major organizations that they would not be paying, the New York Times reported that Twitter had planned to waive the $1,000 monthly fee for its “500 largest advertising clients and for the 10,000 most-followed brands.” The most-followed companies on the site include accounts from CNN, the NBA, NASA, and yes, the New York Times.
But early Sunday morning, Musk appeared to change his mind. After users noticed that most accounts with legacy verification still had their check marks after April 1, Musk reportedly said Twitter would give accounts a few more weeks before stripping them of their checks. “Unless they tell they won’t pay now,” he tweeted, “in which case we will remove it.”
[…] Musk’s apparent tweet has since been deleted. But so has the New York Times’ check mark.
Fighting the book-banning dunderheads in court … some good news:
A federal judge in Texas last week ruled that Llano County officials must return more than a dozen books they had banned and removed to the county’s library shelves during 2021.
The preliminary order by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman also prohibited the county from removing any other books as the court case is pending. The library’s catalog is required to be updated to show county residents that the removed books are once again available.
[…] In his ruling, Pitman said, “Defendants removed the books at issue to prevent access to viewpoints and content to which they objected.” He added that he does not think the defendants’ reasons for removing the books would “pass constitutional muster.”
In December 2021, the Llano County Commissioner’s Court dissolved the library board to instead appoint others, including other residents who pushed for book removals.
The board then implemented a new policy that required new books to be approved by the board before the library system could purchase the material. Staff librarians and the public were then banned from attending the board’s meetings. [Well that was a bullying move.]
The lawsuit was filed in April last year by patrons of Llano County’s three libraries. The patrons alleged that their First Amendment rights were violated when county and library officials removed the books from the system.
They also argued that their 14th Amendment right to due process was violated because there was no notice posted of the removals and they were not given an opportunity to appeal the board’s decision.
“This is a ringing victory for democracy,” Ellen Leonida, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said in a statement to the Austin-American Statesman. “The government cannot tell citizens what they can or can’t read. Our nation was founded on the free exchange of ideas, and banning books you disagree with is a direct attack on our most basic liberties.” […]
Here are just a few of the books that were previously banned:
“They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.
“Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings.
“In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak.
“It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health” by Robbie H. Harris.
For a glimpse of Fox News’ utter corruption and duplicity, it’s worth reviewing the sequence of events involving the network’s handling of host Jeanine Pirro’s program following the 2020 election, as revealed by filings in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox.
Pirro is a longtime Fox backbencher and notorious font of misinformation and bigotry who hosted a pre-taped show airing on Saturday nights. She leveraged her personal friendship with Donald Trump and the fact that he regularly watched her program to gain prominence at the network during his presidency.
In the post-election period, Fox executives took Pirro off the air because they feared she’d promote election fraud lies — then brought her back and let her air two monologues that they knew were filled with falsehoods, all while her own executive producer denigrated her privately as a “reckless maniac” who “should never be on live television.” To cap it all off, they promoted her to co-host a show that airs live and now has the highest ratings in cable news.
Here’s how it all played out.
– November 6, 2020: Fox cancels Pirro’s November 7 broadcast as executive says she won’t report responsibly on election fraud. Fox executive David Clark, who directly oversaw her show, expressed his concern at the time that he didn’t “trust her to be responsible” and that if her show aired, “her guests are all going to say the election is being stolen and if she pushes back at all it will just be a token.” [image of email conversation is available at the link]
– November 7-12, 2020: Fox calls the presidential election for Joe Biden and, amid a furious viewer backlash, begins attacking Dominion. The internal documents show that Fox feared losing market share to right-wing competitors like Newsmax as viewers turned on the network for being insufficiently supportive of Trump’s fraud lies. Fox executives agreed that they needed to ensure that “viewers know we hear them and respect them,” and punished “news side” staff who aggressively fact-checked lies. Meanwhile, the network proceeded to air Dominion conspiracy theories from discredited sources like Trumpist lawyer Sidney Powell.
– November 13, 2020: Pirro is informed about Dominion’s debunking of falsehoods about the company. Pirro’s executive producer, Jerry Andrews, forwarded Dominion’s “Setting the Record Straight: Facts & Rumors” email to Fox debunking various false claims that had been made about the company, including that it had been involved in the “deletion” or “flipping” of Trump votes. Pirro’s response to Andrews was redacted by the court, but Andrews forwarded it to Clark commenting that she is a “reckless maniac.”
– November 14, 2020, afternoon: Clark and Andrews reiterate to Pirro in emails that Dominion denies the allegations. Andrews told Pirro, “you should be VERY careful w[ith] this. There are things we know now that were not out there on Thursday night when these allegations [about Dominion] first surfaced.”
– November 14, 2020, evening: Pirro makes false claims about Dominion, hosts Powell who spreads more falsehoods with little pushback. Pirro’s show was pre-taped and aired in its normal timeslot. In her opening monologue, Pirro claimed that Dominion’s system “has been tagged as one allegedly capable of flipping votes,” echoing a falsehood debunked by the Dominion fact-checking memo that Andrews had forwarded to her. She also hosted Powell, who, unchecked by Pirro, offered a series of lies about Dominion. [video at the link]
– November 20, 2020: Pirro’s executive producer tells Fox executives her planned monologue is “rife w[ith] conspiracy theories” and shows she “should never be on live television.” Andrews forwarded a draft of Pirro’s intended monologue for the following night to Clark and fellow Fox executive Meade Cooper, writing that Fox’s internal research department “is going through this now” and describing it as “rife w[ith] conspiracy theories and bs and is yet another example why this woman should never be on live television.” In a separate email to Clark, he described the monologue as “completely crazy.”
– November 20, 2020: Fox’s internal “Brain Room” review identifies Dominion falsehoods in Pirro’s draft monologue. […]
– November 21, 2021, afternoon: Andrews says Pirro is “refusing to drastically change the open despite the fact check.” Clark responds, “Understood.”
-November 21, 2020, evening: Fox airs Pirro’s pre-taped monologue with the identified falsehoods intact. [transcript at the link]
Update regarding Trump’s marks in the never-ending scam sending him money:
[…] If there’s one thing the former president knows how to do, it’s separate people who trust him from their money. This was true after Trump lost his re-election bid, at which point his devotees donated millions for an “Official Election Defense Fund” that didn’t exist.
It was true two weeks ago, when the Republican raised $1.5 million after falsely telling his allies he’d be arrested on March 21.
And it was almost certainly true once the indictment news was confirmed, as Trump’s believers again agreed to throw their money at him, thanks in part to the sense of victimization that’s permeated his messaging for years, and thanks also to his political operation’s aggressive tactics — you saw the $47 t-shirt, right? — including the former president using his social media platform to beg for cash over and over and over again.
I don’t doubt that the Republican is worried, not only about the case from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, but also about the possibility of additional indictments. But for the folks overseeing Trump’s fundraising appeals, the developments couldn’t be better.
[…] Trump has raised more than $5 million since news of his indictment broke late Thursday — over $4 million in the first 24 hours and over $1 million in the second 24 hours, a Trump official told Axios on Saturday night.
Jason Miller said the latest post-indictment total is $7 million. No one has verified this. We will know for sure when Trump’s team files financial records.
week ago, Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked whether he’d support a permitless carry measure in Florida, rolling back modest gun safeguards in the state. “I’m for everything,” the Republican governor replied, expressing relative indifference to the details. “I’ve said that from the beginning.”
Seven days later, he followed through and signed a controversial measure into law. NBC News reported:
With little fanfare, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday allowing residents to carry a concealed loaded weapon without a permit. DeSantis signed the bill in a non-public event in his office with only bill sponsors, legislative leaders and gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, in attendance. It was a notable departure for a governor who regularly holds splashy news conferences and bill-signing ceremonies.
It’s almost as if the GOP governor, ahead of his as-yet-unannounced presidential campaign, realizes that signing a bill that lets people carry guns without permits or training might be unpopular with much of the American mainstream.
The new state law, which also does away with background checks and fees for a concealed weapons license, will take effect on July 1. […]
Today, President Biden will continue his Investing in America tour with a visit to a clean energy technology manufacturer in Minnesota to highlight how his Investing in America agenda is building a clean energy economy, bringing supply chains back to the United States, and creating good-paying jobs.
tomhsays
Re: #405
“realizes that signing a bill that lets people carry guns without permits or training might be unpopular with much of the American mainstream.”
It’s hard to argue for that point when over half the states now allow concealed carry without a permit (called “Constitutional Carry” by the gun nuts.) The Florida law allows gun owners to carry a gun into most public places – but not where state lawmakers meet. A Democratic Senator called this “hypocritical.”
Damn, Russia still can’t use the rail part of the Crimean bridge! [Tweet and images at the link] That operation proved gold. Rail is far more efficient than trucks for ferrying war supplies to the front.
Oh, this is cool, using technology to help find land mines. [Tweet and video at the link]
There are new conspiracy theories that this [video of the explosion in St. Petersburg that killed Vladlen Tatarsky] is all staged. Because nothing can happen in today’s world without conspiracies, and especially not when rightwing wackos are concerned. [Tweet and video at the link]
Today, let us count the ways that Vladimir Putin has screwed himself and Russia.
Finland joins NATO
Putin pretended to invade Ukraine because it might one day join NATO. The problem, of course, wasn’t that he felt threatened by NATO. It was that NATO would prevent the kind of invasion he launched last year.
Now, thanks to Putin’s stupidity, NATO has enlarged for real, and now includes a country that shares a long border with Russia. [map at the link]
Sweden will soon join the alliance (likely after the Turkish elections mid-May). But already, Lake NATO is a thing. Russia’s naval access to the Atlantic was always restricted by NATO countries Norway and Denmark, but the noose has tightened further.
Today, Russia threatened to beef up its military presence on the Finnish border, and everyone had a good laugh. [LOL] We’ve seen Russia’s arctic equipment, formerly based around St. Petersburg near the Finnish border, burning in Ukraine. They’ve emptied the area. Finland could waltz into St. Petersburg, reclaiming all the land it lost in the Winter War of 1938 if it so wanted. (It doesn’t.)
What it means is that Finland’s significant intelligence-gathering operation, designed to protect itself against Russia, is now at NATO’s disposal and will soon be plugged into the alliance’s overall intelligence machine. It took less than a year for Finland to abandon its traditional neutrality to join an alliance now clearly designed to contain Russian aggression. Great job, Vlad.
NATO is energized
The last American president was ready to pull the United States out of the transatlantic alliance. Few alliance members were spending 2% of the GDP on defense, as required by the treaty. France was talking about starting its own European army, while everyone else ignored them. Germany had let its armed forces fall into disrepair.
With Europe getting most of its energy supplies from Russia, and with France and Germany particularly eager to boost their relationship with Russia, there seemed little need for the alliance.
[…] No one is questioning the need for NATO anymore.
Germany and Japan rearm
[They] spent the last 90 years or so limiting both the size of their militaries and their engagement in foreign conflicts. The weight of their historical crimes weighed heavily on any actions that might be deemed militaristic by their neighbors—many of which suffered greatly during WWII. Those days are over.
Both Japan and Germany are now in the process of rethinking their roles in the world. Germany is slowly but surely committing to rebuilding its neglected military and, even more importantly, using its significant financial, economic, and latent military power to engage in the Ukraine War—something it resisted at the start of the war, when it was still desperately trying to talk sense into Putin.
Japan is moving forward more confidently, not just growing its military (to Russia and China’s great alarm), but in more aggressively posturing a joint defense of Taiwan against Chinese aggression. […]
Poland is becoming a global military power
Poland is in the midst of a massive military buildup, one that will feature more than 1,000 modern battle tanks, F-35 fighter jets (the most advanced in the world), hundreds of pieces of artillery, and a mind-boggling 486 HIMARS rocket artillery launchers. They are doubling the size of their army from its current 180,000.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization, Russia’s answer to NATO, is all but dead
The “alliance” of central Asian states included Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Armenia is all but out, given the lack of help it has received dealing with military tensions with Azerbaijan. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are literally shooting each other across their border, with Russia’s absence creating a power vacuum in the region. And Kazakhstan?
Kazakhstan signed a new security agreement with China, which has been happily horning in on Russia’s old stomping grounds. Nature abhors a vacuum, after all. […] Relations between Russia and Kazakhstan have become openly hostile.
At least Putin still has Belarus. For now.
China keeps its distance
Days before the war broke out, Russia and China signed an alliance proclaiming a “friendship without limits.” Then the war happened, blindsiding China, and we’ve since learned of many limits to their friendship.
Despite offering Putin a diplomatic boost, the recent visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping was a bust. China continues to deny Russia access to much-needed munitions, particularly artillery shells, and China continues to take advantage of Russia’s economic woes by purchasing its fossil fuels at below-market values.
They may talk about bolstering their alliance and friendship, but it’s increasingly clear that Russia is fast becoming a Chinese vassal state. Russia has zero leverage to exert in their relationship. China doesn’t need anything Russia offers.
According to Politico, Trump has another new lawyer:
[…] Trump has hired a top white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, Todd Blanche, as his lead counsel to handle the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal indictment of [Trump]
NASA on Monday announced a team of four astronauts who will launch on a critical test flight next year to slingshot around the moon, setting the stage for the agency’s long-awaited return to the lunar surface.
In an event held in Houston, the agency named NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen as the crew for its upcoming Artemis II flight, slated to launch in 2024. […]
The astronauts will be the first humans to fly in the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years. They will also be the first to launch aboard NASA’s next-generation megarocket and Orion space capsule. The crew will not land on the moon but will swing around the celestial body, testing the performance of the Orion spacecraft, before returning to Earth.
If successful, NASA has said that the subsequent Artemis III flight will touch down on the moon with a crew that will include the first woman and the first person of color to step foot on the lunar surface. […]
Trump’s arrival in NYC got minute-by-minute coverage by all the networks. That makes him look more important than he is.
BTW, as a followup to comment 409, the new lawyer Trump hired used to represent Paul Manafort.
A telling detail concerning the growing Trump-related circus in Manhattan:
The hubbub accompanying the arraignment has already begun, at least for reporters. A line has stretched out of Manhattan Supreme Court since this afternoon, composed of jorurnalists waiting for tomorrow’s hearing.
Taking a closer look at media coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris:
There’s a conversation that happens every now and then when Democrats get together and start talking about the nation’s political future, about whether President Joe Biden should run for reelection, and about what will happen to the Democratic Party after Biden, however he makes his exit. “I’m worried about Kamala Harris,” they say. “What has she done? Why isn’t she more prominent, more popular?”
This has been, when I’ve heard it, asked in good faith by people who had been excited to see Harris elected vice president. They’re not now Harris haters by any means—they’re mostly disappointed and wondering what happened. But the question’s roots need to be interrogated because they’re coming from a deeply unfair place. The first response is “Okay, but what did Mike Pence do? And since you can’t name anything Pence did [except for that January 6 thing], why are you asking that question about Harris in a way that no one ever asked about Pence?”
That’s a serious question—why?—but the answer isn’t hard. People, even some who are predisposed to like her, doubt Harris because she has gotten media treatment that is uniquely hostile for a vice president. The explanation for that isn’t hard, either. Harris is a woman and Harris is Black and Harris is a Black woman and that underlies the media coverage she gets, which then informs (or misinforms) how even reasonably well-informed Democrats view the vice president. (Harris is, of course, also Indian American, but this isn’t as relevant to her media coverage.)
[…] You don’t hear the specifics of what Harris or Pence are doing, you hear whether they are being criticized or whether they are understood as having power within the administration. And when it comes to Harris, those impressionistic reports are negatively shaped by her race and gender […]
Pence’s […] most visible job was totally craven sucking up to Trump […] imagine if Biden owned a hotel in a country Harris was visiting and she stayed in that hotel despite the fact that it was nowhere near her official business. It would be a major scandal. Yet when Pence did the equivalent, it was “Business as normal.” At every turn, Pence benefited from the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” while Harris is held to a much higher standard.
[…] During her first two years in office in particular but continuing today, Harris had the additional hindrance of needing to be constantly available to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate. So far she has broken 29 ties, which puts her tied for second place among all vice presidents in U.S. history and limits her ability to take longer trips away from Washington, D.C. As a result, her need to be available to do one of a vice president’s most important and impactful jobs has limited her ability to hold the spotlight with flashier appearances.
Most of all, though, when you’re asking “why is my impression of Kamala Harris what it is,” […] media reports are absolutely shaped by racism and sexism, whether or not it’s visible on the surface. […].
I thoroughly enjoyed the series of diaries that were posted here about her African trip. But if it weren’t for DailyKos reporting on it I wouldn’t have known about it. None of the news outlets made it a priority to cover. […]
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I’m almost done with @VP’s recap video for March so I decided to post the fact sheet today. She’s been extremely busy this month! If anyone asks you “Where’s Kamala?” feel free to share this with them. https://twitter.com/LailaBChill/status/1641821632061685764
A recent increase in a number of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) poses a climate threat, scientists say. Five ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons significantly increased in the Earth’s atmosphere between 2010 and 2020, despite being banned in 2010. While researchers think they know the source of three of the CFCs, the origin of two remains a mystery. CFCs are thousands of times more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. CFC emissions overall have declined since the 1980s to about 5 per cent of their peak, and the Antarctic ozone hole is still on track for recovery by around 2060. So these increases came as a surprise to researchers, who published the study today in Nature Geoscience.
Latest in the saga of the Liberal MP who attended the anti-trans rally where the nazis turned up :
Victorian Liberal party president Greg Mirabella says he would have told suspended MP Moira Deeming not to attend the “let women speak” rally on the steps of Victorian parliament that ended as a platform for neo-Nazis.He also told Q+A that Ms Deeming — who said she never condemned rally organiser Kellie-Jay Keen, aka Posie Parker — told him she should have exited when she saw the neo-Nazi group.Ms Deeming was suspended from the Liberal party room for nine months for her involvement in a rally in Victoria. She said she accepted her suspension, and condemned the views held by the group that performed Nazi salutes at the ‘Let Women Speak’ rally. Mr Mirabella was called upon to answer whether Ms Deeming’s actions had played a part in the Coalition losing the Aston by-election. He came to the defence of the controversial MP. “I have no doubt if Moira had her time over she wouldn’t have been there,” Mr Mirabella said on Monday night. “I don’t think she should have been there. “If she had asked my advice I would have said ‘don’t’. “Her biggest mistake on the day, because she told me when she saw the police cordon let the neo-Nazis through, she should have disengaged.” However, Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth and activist Deni Todorovič questioned Ms Deeming’s decision to attend the rally in the first place.
Of course, there was no secret about the anti-trans hate preacher having links to far reichwing extremists beforehand and her whole rally was one of hate and incitement against trans people so yeah. Duh!
Also, yeah, this is a worry :
My Place is part of Mr Bergwerf’s plan to “re-educate” Australians and build a parallel society in preparation for what he believes is the inevitable collapse of civilisation as we know it. ..(snip)… Last November, the group welcomed guest speaker Riccardo Bosi, a former SAS soldier who has called for politicians, health workers, and bureaucrats to be hanged for their role in pandemic management. Mr Bergwerf was also endorsed by Mr Bosi at last year’s federal and Victorian elections.
&
In the days before 7.30 attended his market, Mr Bergwerf shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to a My Place social media channel. When quizzed about its contents, he condemned last month’s demonstration by neo-Nazis in Melbourne but said he believed there was a question mark over the Holocaust in part because “I wasn’t there”.
Business Ukraine magazine posted a tweet and video showing Trump saying, “Ultimately Putin is going to take over all of Ukraine.” [video at the link]
This is good an update of Bakhmut situation as any: [Tweet and map at the link: “To the front. Wagner makes territorial gains in central Bakhmut. It is unlikely that 🇺🇦 troops still have (full) control over the area to the northeast. To the south(west) it is stable. There is a real possibility that 🇺🇦troops have taken up new positions west of the train tracks”]
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin bragged that it had “legally” captured Bakhmut by capturing some administrative buildings. Still, that’s not where Ukraine’s next line of defenses are set up, and no one cares what Wagner lawyers think about the situation.
The flanks, manned by Russian troops, are still sitting quietly. All the action is in central Bakhmut, leading to speculation that the Russian army is allowing Ukraine to resupply the city in order to rid themselves of Wagner once and for all.
TN State Rep Justin Jones has been removed from all committees.
UPDATE: Tennessee Republicans are making their naked power-grab even uglier and more dangerous. This situation is no joke. This is pure fascism. This is terrifying for our democracy. Other Red states are watching and if this is successful they will follow.
[Tweet and video at the link: Tonight as Tennessee House Republicans push forward to schedule vote on our expulsion, Speaker Sexton orders the gallery cleared as crowd chants “fascists.”
Media forced out at as well.
Then, Rep. Lafferty (R-Knox) pushes me and grabs my phone.
This is a sad day for Tennessee.]
I didn’t see a post about this so just a quick diary to alert everyone to the rapid spread of fascism in TN. While corporate media is obsessing with ridiculous wall-to-wall coverage of Donald Trump traveling to New York for his well deserved arrest, the super-majority of Republicans are going full fascism in Tennessee.
Last week, TN Republicans offered thoughts and prayers for the mass shooting and shut down the efforts of Democratic Representatives to talk about gun violence. As students protested in the halls, three Democratic Reps took to the House Well to disrupt Republicans turning a blind eye to the epidemic of gun violence.
Today, TN Republicans have stripped these three Democrats of their committees, sub-committees, turned off their microphones and security badges and are going to hold a vote to expel them.
These are elected officials. They have a right to speak truth to power, to represent their constituents. Republicans are going full fascist by silencing them.
Thousands of TN students are peacefully marching to the TN Capitol in mass again today — which TN Republicans are calling an insurrection worse than Jan 6. It’s Orwellian.
This is not democracy. This is dictatorship. This is more important than watching Trump get a mugshot. This is where Republicans are going, removing Democrats from elected positions. [More tweets and videos at the link]
I’m quoting my own comment on another blog, addressing the commonly asked question “why did the apparently charismatic and successful Finnish PM Sanna Marin lose re-election?”.
Sanna Marin remains very popular with leftist/progressive Finns, but leftist/progressive parties aren’t collectively popular enough to form a ruling coalition. They were barely popular enough in 2019. This time, Marin’s Social Democrats actually won a few more seats from their coalition partners, but said partners also lost many seats to rightwing parties.
It is typical for the ruling party to lose some popularity, because people tend to forget that the other parties, when running previous governments, were also kind shitty and unable to solve all the problems, which was why they were voted out in the first place. This time, it seems like Marin’s charisma and relative competence channeled that loss to the allied parties.
The two main rightwing parties ran both very successful populist campaigns, but they’re quite ideologically divided from each other. One of them (Petteri Orpo’s Conservative Coalition Party) will almost certainly have the prime minister’s seat, but they might form the government with Social Democrats rather than the fascist-lite Finns Party. Either way, it’ll be an awkward compromise, and staying in opposition (and not ruining the country now) would further boost popularity of the Finns Party (so they can ruin the country later).
As for Finnish Greens, they are financially all over the place, and so are their voters. There are always grey area moving voters between parties; in 2019 many of those were successfully captured by the Greens. This time, it was rightwing parties who had the secret sauce.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Finland’s accession to Nato later on Tuesday will be a historic event and direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said, adding the alliance would ensure that Sweden will also become a full-fledged member. “President Putin had as a declared goal of the invasion of Ukraine to get less Nato,” he told reporters ahead of a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers. “He is getting exactly the opposite.”
Finland will become the 31st member of the world’s biggest military alliance on Tuesday. Stoltenberg said Turkey, the last country to ratify Finland’s membership, would hand its official texts to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Tuesday. Stoltenberg said he would then invite Finland to do the same.
…
Ukrainian defence forces destroyed 14 of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones Russia launched overnight, Ukraine’s military has said, with 13 drones destroyed over the Odesa region in the country’s south-west. Ukraine’s South military command said one drone hit an enterprise in the Odesa region, causing a fire, which was eliminated by the morning.
…
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted on his official Telegram channel about a meeting he held yesterday that included among its guests Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state under President Donald Trump.
Lithuania’s parliament decided on Tuesday to ban non-resident Russian nationals from purchasing real estate in the Baltic country, citing risks to national security.
…Now, 40 years since she walked into a Princeton where white men wore badges saying: “Bring back the old Princeton” in objection to the presence of students like her, and after decades of research into public health, [University of Michigan professor Arline] Geronimus is an expert in what she calls “weathering”, a term she coined in the early 1990s. She defines it as “the physiological effects of living in communities that bear the brunt of racial, ethnic, religious and class discrimination”.
Weathering, she adds, “is critical to understanding and eliminating population health inequity” and involves not just the physical and environmental stressors of being marginalised, but the “psychosocial” ones as well – high stress, constant vigilance, a lack of trust that things will be OK. The process, she has observed in her research, leads to premature ageing, chronic conditions and early death.
In her new book, Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress on the Body of an Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society, the pandemic seems to vindicate her thesis. It wasn’t just a person’s age that made them vulnerable to the virus, it was also their weathering. It was already established that Covid killed people in racialised communities at a much higher rate than white ones, but that, according to Geronimus’s research, was because they had higher rates of heart diseases, diabetes and inflammation; all risk factors that made Covid more deadly. Even before the pandemic, people in these communities scored high on the “allostatic load score” – the presence of stress hormones such as cortisol along with inflammation, their belly fat distribution linked to stress, and high blood pressure – leading her to conclude that “if you have a weathered body, you’re more likely to die of infection at a younger age”. That, tragically, has turned out to be consistent with the patterns of death in the pandemic….
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
The Trump arraignment is not the only big political story today. Chicago, the third largest city in the US, goes to the polls today for a mayoral run-off.
Leigh Giangreco reports from Chicago for the Guardian that the election pits two Democrats from the furthest ends of their party’s spectrum against each other. Democrats across the country are watching to see if Brandon Johnson, a progressive who has previously supported the defund the police movement [good grief], will defeat Paul Vallas, who nabbed the endorsement of Chicago’s police union and once described himself as a Republican.
Voters in Wisconsin are also casting ballots today in one of the most important elections of 2023 – a contest that will determine the ideological balance of the state’s supreme court.
My colleague Sam Levine writes that the court will likely determine the future of abortion in Wisconsin, as a lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 ban is already winding its way through the courts. It is also poised to play a hugely consequential role in setting election rules for the 2024 presidential election in Wisconsin, a key battleground state.
Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee judge, is facing off against Dan Kelly, a conservative who lost his seat on the supreme court in 2020. Conservatives currently have a 4-3 majority on the state’s highest court, but one of its conservative justices is retiring, meaning that the outcome of the election will determine the ideological balance of the court.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, writes about Wisconsin for the Guardian today, saying:
What’s happening in Manhattan’s criminal court is obviously important. Holding a former president accountable to the rule of law is essential.
But what’s happening today in Wisconsin may prove as, if not more, important to the future of American democracy. It will either strengthen or weaken the levers of self-government in a state where those levers could make all the difference.
One of the most under-appreciated insane things in recent us politics is that no one ran for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court on the liberal side in the 2017 election.
(It feels like tonight has to be the peak moment for people to appreciate how wild and consequential this is.)
This would be very routine in many other states — nearly every Supreme Court race in Georgia has been uncontested for a decade, if they haven’t been cancelled — but not in Wisconsin.
Maya Wolfe-Robinson, the editor of the series Cotton Capital, explores the revelation that the Guardian’s founding editor, John Edward Taylor, and at least nine of his 11 backers had links to slavery, principally through the cotton and textile industry.
Maya talks to Dr Cassandra Gooptar, who has spent the past two years researching the Guardian’s links to slavery. The Manchester Guardian was founded in 1821, at a time when one industry dominated Manchester – cotton. Maya talks to Dr Matthew Stallard about why Manchester was known as ‘Cottonopolis’ and where its cotton was coming from. She also talks to Prof David Olusoga about the illusion at the centre of British history that conceals the role of slavery in building the nation, and to the teacher and researcher Washington Alcott about the difficulties he faced when trying to document Manchester’s links to the transatlantic slave trade. Prof Gurminder Bhambra believes that to understand the full implications of transatlantic slavery we need to see its place in a wider picture of the British empire.
Cotton Capital is the first episode of a six-part podcast series that is looking at the Guardian’s links to transatlantic slavery and the legacies of that history. It takes listeners from Manchester to Jamaica, the US, Nigeria and Brazil and back to the UK.
A podcast that takes a look at important issues, themes and developments related to the far right across central and eastern Europe and around the world. Hosted by Bellingcat’s Michael Colborne, who oversees Bellingcat’s work monitoring and researching the far right, this podcast focuses on matters relating to the far right that aren’t always discussed in as much depth or detail as they should be.
Ramon Mejía was in the swamp for less than a day before he was arrested, but that brief experience made clear the enormity of what he had gone there to protect. Mejía, an Iraq War veteran and anti-war activist from Dallas, had traveled to the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest wetland in the country, to try to prevent Energy Transfer Partners’ construction of a conduit that would connect the company’s infamous Dakota Access Pipeline to Louisiana refineries….
Mejía, his two colleagues, and a journalist who was embedded with the group were arrested under Louisiana’s newly minted ‘critical infrastructure’ law, which makes nonviolent protest near oil, gas, electrical, and other forms of infrastructure a felony and ratchets up the punishment associated with these actions. Such laws have proliferated across the country in the last five years and are now on the books in 19 states due to the efforts of the conservative legislators’ organization known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the meticulous lobbying of powerful oil and gas companies.
Thus far, states have rarely used critical infrastructure laws against protestors. Until late last year, there was only one other known instance, against Greenpeace protestors in Houston. Nobody has ever been convicted under them.
But the arrest of more than 40 activists in Georgia between December 2022 and early March may signal a turning point, researchers who track these laws say. The activists were protesting the installation of a training center in the Atlanta forest known as ‘Cop City’ and the destruction of one of Atlanta’s vital green spaces.
The activists, many of whom are still detained, were charged under Georgia’s domestic terrorism and critical infrastructure law. Their arrest warrants, issued by county and local police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, don’t accuse the vast majority of them of any specific crimes beyond trespassing, but rather for “participating” with others who have allegedly engaged in far more serious offenses such as arson and discharging firearms. “The arrest warrants are broad and generic and certainly don’t have any individualized facts or information tied to them,” said Lauren Regan, the director of the Oregon-based Civil Liberties Defense Center, which has been coordinating legal support on the ground and will be representing a number of the protesters individually. “They’re basically saying, ‘Because you were wearing black or because you had mud on your shoes or because you had a jail support number written on your arm, you’re guilty for any crimes that anyone else potentially committed.’”
The charges against the Georgia protesters illustrate how anti-protest legislation is wielded to quash both the movement for police accountability and the fight for environmental justice. The goal is not necessarily to win in court but to levy charges of such extreme consequence against protestors that it effectively quells dissent.
…
Critical infrastructure laws represent a backlash to Indigenous-led protest movements, which have stopped or delayed the equivalent of at least a quarter of yearly emissions in the U.S. and Canada, according to a 2021 report by the Indigenous Environmental Network.
The first critical infrastructure laws were proposed and passed following the success of protesters at Standing Rock in temporarily halting the Dakota Access Pipeline, said Emma Fisher, the deputy director at Climate Cabinet, an advocacy and lobbying organization focused on climate change legislation….
When that bill passed in Oklahoma, ALEC took note, drafting a model bill it dubbed the ‘Critical Infrastructure Protection Act.’ Like the Oklahoma law, the model bill had two key components that would become characteristic of nearly all critical infrastructure laws. First, it turned conduct that would have previously been a misdemeanor into a felony—and jacked up the consequences to match.…
“One of the most important takeaways from our research is that these bills are intentionally vague,” Fisher said. “That is causing a chilling effect for protesters and for prospective demonstrators because people are not sure how much danger they might be in.”
Furthermore, the legislation established the concept of ‘vicarious liability,’ leaving organizations potentially on the hook for the alleged actions of even loose affiliates.…
…
ALEC may have provided the language, but the country’s biggest oil and gas manufacturers and associations have worked behind the scenes to get state lawmakers across the country on board with critical infrastructure laws. “The tip of the spear is really the AFPM,” Gibson said—the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a powerful trade organization that represents companies such as Koch Industries, Chevron Corporation and ExxonMobil, among others.
While support for critical infrastructure laws has overwhelmingly fallen along party lines, with Democratic governors vetoing bills in Minnesota and Louisiana, in 2019, Democratic legislators backed them in Illinois and Wisconsin after Koch Industries lobbied to get the trade unions on board. Ultimately, Wisconsin’s Democratic governor signed the bill into law.
Even if these laws have only very rarely been invoked by police, in the wake of the 2020 racial justice uprising, and as the fight for environmental justice continues to intensify, activists and researchers alike fear they could be trotted out and deployed with increasing frequency.
…
It was the 2017 critical infrastructure law in Oklahoma that was seized upon by ALEC and became the template for other such legislation across the country. But Georgia’s Senate Bill 1 was proposed that same session. Legislators at the time said that the bill, which expanded the definition of ‘domestic terrorism,’ was intended to address mass casualty events, citing the massacre of nine Black churchgoers in South Carolina two years prior. The proposal withered on the vine—until legislators copied and pasted the bill’s text into a different one that passed.
“Fast forward until December of 2022, when the first Atlanta forest defenders were charged with the statute for, in essence, trespassing,” said Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. “It was certainly a far cry from what the legislators stated that their intent was in passing the statute.” The statute mandates a prison sentence of at least five years and up to 35 years for people convicted of disabling or destroying “critical infrastructure, a state or government facility, or a public transportation system.”
Regan said applying the law against the Cop City protesters is far-fetched—but again, convictions aren’t necessarily the point. Just being charged brings stark consequences: the activists were initially denied bail and most are currently detained in the DeKalb County Jail, which is notorious for squalid conditions and allegations of mistreatment by staff. According to Regan, a number of activists have complained about being denied medical care and medication while in jail.
“Even though it’s very unlikely that they’ll ever get a conviction against trespassers for domestic terror, and there are a number of serious faults and failures in the state’s prosecution of land defenders thus far, the most negative consequences are already being forced upon citizens who are normally innocent until proven guilty, ” she told Bolts.
On March 23, the protesters still being held in custody in DeKalb County had their second bond hearing. Nine of the 22 were denied bail again and remain detained as of publication. According to Hannah Riley, an activist in Atlanta, the justifications for denying bail included protesters wearing black, having a jail support number scrawled on their arm, and having mud on their shoes. [!]
Meanwhile, a new crop of critical infrastructure bills in legislatures across the country could increase punishment for protesters, from Idaho to Minnesota to Illinois to North Carolina. Utah’s governor just signed two new infrastructure bills into law last month.
Robinson of ICNL noted many of the new bills are somewhat distinct from the previous crop of critical infrastructure laws in that they are allegedly motivated by recent white supremacist attacks on energy substations and are not necessarily based on the language in the ALEC model bill; instead many build off existing law. Nevertheless, he said, “we and others are concerned that even if these bills are being enacted in response to attacks on electric substations, which we do not support in any way—it’s criminal already under the law—that if they’re overly broad or vague, that they could be used in other context against protesters.”
Many state legislatures are also considering broader anti-protest bills at the moment. Cop City is the focal point for that convergence, but there are two bills before the Georgia state legislature that advocates worry could quell protest: a critical infrastructure bill inspired by recent substation attacks, and an anti-riot bill. The punishment for violating either would be up to 20 years in prison.
For White Hat, looking to the past has helped her steel herself against the uncertainty of this new landscape for protest. When she thought about the importance of the land she was defending, what came to mind was a late mentor of hers from Baton Rouge, a Choctaw woman who would come back to the Atchafalaya each year to go crawfishing. Her father had told her stories about how he had stood up against Dow Chemical’s pollution of the swamp back in the 1950s. “I feel connected to that,” White Hat told Bolts, noting that there has been a long history of Indigenous resistance to environmental degradation. “What is different and what is new is that the oil industry and South Louisiana hasn’t experienced this level of an organized resistance movement,” she said. “Ever.”
MSNBC is currently running a chyron reading “Trump campaign raises $7 million since indictment announcement,” based on social media posts by Trump flaks, while displaying and reading from his campaign fundraising emails.
McDonald, like a half-dozen other people whose medical events are shown in the trailer for the anti-vaccine film “Died Suddenly,” did not die as a result of the Covid-19 vaccine….
McDonald has had problems counteracting the viral misinformation about her even among people she knows.
Joe Rogan, who she knew from backstage conversations at comedy sets in Los Angeles, played the video of McDonald’s collapse on his podcast and alluded to links to the vaccine.
“I DM’d him and I’m like, ‘Joe, do you not know who I am?’” McDonald said.
McDonald said Rogan did not respond to her direct message. Rogan and Spotify, his exclusive podcast distributor, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has arrived at a pro-Trump rally near the Manhattan courthouse where he will be arraigned this afternoon.
Dozens of reporters swarmed around Greene as she arrived, and journalists appeared to far outnumber attendees at the rally.
Jess Bidgood, a reporter for the Boston Globe, joked, “I would estimate a 1,000: 1 reporter to protester ratio here at the Marjorie Taylor Greene rally.”
As I mentioned earlier, Trump has been very online as the clock ticks closer to his arraignment. He’s used his Truth Social account to go after DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith, who’s overseeing a separate criminal probe, former attorney general Bill Barr, who’s since turned on Trump in the media, to *checks notes* Karl Rove, who just doesn’t seem to like Trump very much….
Screenshots at the link.
StevoRsays
Hey, Repugs! Party o’ self-proclaimed Law’n’ordure!* Recall how you used to say “Do the crime, do the time?”
Well Trump did the crimes and so…
Oh & remember too, your shrieks & chants for years and years and decades about Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband Bill before her?
LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!
Repeat x infinity one..
Oh & if Trump isn’t a threat & clear and present danger to your national security and safety; why all those necessary precautions in NYC after, y’all know (even if you won’t admit it or teh scale of it) Jan 6th.
Here’s hoping Mango Mussolino gets mad, chucjks his typical tanty and then gets jailed on the spot and additional criminal charges for contempt of court when it happens.
Soon now.
.* Whose ordure, er, order, umm, both actually exactly?
Pay attention. This is the most important thing that happened yesterday. Tennessee had one of the worst histories of disenfranchisement after the end of Reconstruction. Now, gerrymandered white legislators simply expel Black ones.
This is NOT going to sit well and Republicans will repeat this elsewhere. They don’t need to do this: they already have a supermajority. This is simply a giant “FU” to Black people in the state: done to prove they have the power, and will use it
The cruelty is the point
We will see if they carry through (I expect they will).
We will see what the reaction is.
We will see what lessons are drawn from the reaction, or lack thereof.
This is what Democracy dying in broad daylight looks like.
It follows the pattern of most competitive autocracies: when opposition leaders become a problem, you simply ban them, or their party, from government. Or have them arrested on trumped up charges. Regardless, it’s the functional end of a multi-party system.
What remains are merely Potemkin Village elections to create the veneer of democracy, and everyone knows it.
We’ve teetered on the edge with voter suppression and gerrymandering for a long time. This is where we fall completely over the edge.
If the response is muted, we will see it repeated over and over again throughout the former-Slave-owning states: any legislator that gets “uppity” will be tossed out for the temerity of doing their job.
Like most failing democracies, the end comes quietly, almost unnoticed
Good news, as summarized by Steve Benen from a Washington Post article:
In New York, Republican Rep. George Santos has a new problem: Kellen Curry, a military veteran turned business executive, launched a congressional campaign yesterday in the congressman’s district, with an unsubtle focus on “honesty and integrity.”
Ahead of a criminal suspect’s arraignment, nothing conveys a defendant’s confidence more than asking the prosecutor to “indict himself.”
[…] To the extent that anyone might have questions about why, exactly, he threw this particular tantrum, Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff published a report — about a half-hour before Trump’s online tantrum — that said the former president will be “charged with 34 felony counts for falsification of business records, according to a source who has been briefed on the procedures for the arraignment of the former president.”
That reporting hasn’t been confirmed elsewhere, and it’ll be a few hours before we know for sure whether that’s correct. What’s more, we have no idea who Isikoff’s source was.
But as Trump sees it, Isikoff’s source was the district attorney — why he made this assumption is anyone’s guess — which means Bragg “MUST BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED.”
It’s a silly argument, peddled by someone who appears to be quite anxious about his legal jeopardy. It’s also an extension of the former president’s bizarre pattern of arguing that those who suspect him of crimes must themselves be criminals.
For good measure, Trump also apparently noticed yesterday’s Washington Post reporting on his classified documents scandal, which led to a related missive published shortly before midnight.
“Speaking of LEAKS, Special ‘Prosecutor’ Jack Smith (What did his name used to be?) leaked massive amounts of information to The Washington ComPost,” he wrote. “This is illegal, and I assume this Radical Left Lunatic, much to the chagrin of his Trump Hating wife and family, will be PROSECUTED?”
First, Trump’s preoccupation with Smith’s name continues to be hilarious. Second, there’s literally nothing to suggest the special counsel was the Post’s source.
And third, the apparent fact that the Republican wants Smith to also be “prosecuted,” along with the Manhattan district attorney, reinforces impressions that Trump is in the midst of a meltdown.
Chicago’s mayoral race and the election to control the Wisconsin supreme court are grabbing national headlines this week. But many other races will be decided on April 4.
These include mayoral elections in three of Wisconsin’s five biggest cities, referendums, the first round of Denver’s mayoral election, and runoffs that will shape the politics of Chicago’s city council.
Here are 15 elections that Bolts will be watching on April 4. The page is prepared by Daniel Nichanian. More may be added to our cheat sheet through Election Night.
Check back on Election Night as we fill in each result in the second column….
Over 30 counts decided by a grand jury to indict doesn’t sound like a witch hunt. There is sufficient evidence that he broke the law.
MAGA is on chaos because their leader is off the cliff and they’re going over with him. The country is just fine with the rule of law being followed.
What a day to be alive! I’m wearing this right now. [She is wearing an “Indictment Season” T-shirt.]
——————–
laughing at him would hurt him more that any words could
————————
I yearn for a string of days where the Orange Menace isn’t covered by the media circus.
———————–
I’m actually glad this is getting so much attention. It’s shaming and a warning to others. I’m happy to see him getting attention for something he doesn’t have control over.
———————
The judge was crying… He said, “Sir, I’m so sorry they are putting you through this.”
[…] Federal investment attracts private investment. It creates jobs and industries, and it demonstrates we’re all in this together,” Biden said Monday during his visit to the Cummins manufacturing plant. “I’m here to talk about what we’re doing to invest in America, invest in Minnesota, and the progress we’ve made in building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
While Biden’s stop during his Investing in America tour certainly won’t outshine Trump’s perp walk in national headlines, it most certainly did make news locally in outlets such as the Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, and the Minneapolis Fox affiliate, KMSP.
Before Biden’s visit, Cummins announced it would be adding 100 jobs in Fridley along with making a $1 billion investment in its engine manufacturing plants in Indiana, North Carolina, and New York.
So while you’re watching Trump’s perp walk on Tuesday in New York, just imagine how much fun the Biden White House is having.
[…] “Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus – Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government,” Greene [said]
[…] “Every American should take a stand. This is what happens to Communist countries, not the United States of America. We have to take a stand against the injustice, the corruption, and the communist Democrats who are taking our legal code and switching it, manipulating it, and corroding it into something it was never meant to be,” Greene said.
[…] “Also, to the Mayor Adams. As you can see, I’m standing here peacefully protesting, but you called me out by name while you allow crime in your streets,” Greene said, saying that others came “down here to commit assault against people by making loud noises” [New Yorkers drowned out Greene’s speech by blowing whistles] and “assault against police officers who are doing their jobs.”
“Democrats are the party of violence,” Greene added.
[…] “We will not tolerate it. We will not tolerate the hate of the left,” Greene said. “God bless America, God bless President Trump, God bless MAGA.”
Greene departed the chaotic rally after her brief remarks.
…Park View beer garden Midlands announced a promotion called “When it arraigns, we pour $5 drafts.” The deal beginning at 3 PM on Tuesday, April 4, includes local beers plus specials on Ilegal Mezcal. Meanwhile, Capitol Hill restaurant and bar Fight Club will host an all-day happy hour on Tuesday (11 AM to 11 PM) with $10 “Dark N’ Stormy Daniels,” an “IndictMINT Julep,” and “Sad Boys Tea” (vodka, earl grey tea, passion fruit iced tea, lemon, mint syrup). Also in Capitol Hill, Union Pub will offer “speakeasy-style shhpecials” including a dark rum “Stormy Manhattan” for “$13(0,000.00)” and a “Tacopina Tuesday” deal (two tacos for $7 or five for $15)….
Wonkette: “Ron DeSantis Grrr Argh Gonna Lock Her Up Mickey Mouse Now!”
Oh boy, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is one mad little squirt. He just doesn’t know how to respond to the fact that Mickey Mouse flipped him the bird and outsmarted his fascist moves to punish Disney for mildly criticizing his hideously fascist anti-LGBTQ+ “Don’t Say Gay” laws. […]
If you are not aware, the briefest summary we can muster: DeSantis retaliated against Disney’s constitutionally protected free speech by ordering his minions in the Florida Legislature to repeal the special Reedy Creek Improvement District, the special tax arrangement that allowed Disney basically to function as a self-governing city. It’s not even clear that what the Legislature did there was legal (we’d go with “unconstitutional on its face”), and it has the potential to fuck Florida residents over by handing them Disney’s very large tax bill.
[…] In response, Disney’s lawyers pulled a fast one on him, the Reedy Creek board voted to give all its power back to Disney, pretty much permanently, literally the day before DeSantis’s new handpicked goon board was set to take power, and the way they did it, every lawyer in America who isn’t working for DeSantis is still laughing. […]
And that calls for an investigatin’! So DeSantis fired off a pissy baby letter to Melinda Miguel, Florida’s inspector general, DEMANDING she investigate all the stuff and the things. […]
In the letter, DeSantis explains that HE SIGNED the bill to abolish the Reedy Creek District and rename it the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) and HE APPOINTED five new fascist idiots to its board and the OLD BOARD did COLLUSION TREASON DIRTY DOSSIER RUSSIA HOAX with Disney in order to USURP HIM. This went against WILL OF THE (WHITE SUPREMACIST FASCIST) VOTERS (WHO SUPPORT RON DESANTIS) […]
Also something something “ethical violations” and “conflicts of interest” and “self-dealing.” THEREFORE FORTHWITH FORSOOTH please do an INVESTIGATIN’. Both civil and criminal!
We may have paraphrased things a bit, but we feel confident that we have captured the general angrily-pacing-back-and-forth-and-pointing-at-clouds nature of it.
The very smart DeSantis administration that definitely did not just get hilariously outplayed by Disney says what Disney did is just totally invalid, OK?
DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said the agreements “are likely invalid, and all legislative options are back on the table,” although he did not specify what that may entail.
Disney says naaaaaah, actually DeSantis is invalid, but please feel free to come to the Happiest Place On Earth and complain about it […]
Disney has stood by the actions of the Reedy Creek board, saying in a statement last week that “all agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law.”
And Disney CEO Bob Iger is responding as well, calling DeSantis’s tantrums not only “anti-business” but also “anti-Florida.” He made these comments at the annual Disney shareholders meeting:
Iger said Monday that the company will invest $17 billion and create 13,000 jobs at Walt Disney World over the next 10 years. He also took a jab at the governor’s criticism.
“A year ago we took a position on legislation — and, while we may not have handled it well — the governor got very angry with the position we took,’’ he said during the virtual meeting. “…A company has a right to freedom of speech just like an individual does…Our point is, that any action that thwarts those efforts simply to retaliate against a position the company took sounds not only anti-business, but anti-Florida.”
We are not 100 percent sure, but we feel like he’s saying, “Hey, Ron DeSantis what the fuck have you done for Florida lately? Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He said it very mildly and politely, of course.
[…] What we keep seeing lawyers say is that what the Reedy Creek board did here was very legal and very cool, and also very out in the open and not a secret. The fact DeSantis and his jerkoffs didn’t notice is on them.
[…] the Orlando Sentinel had a hilarious editorial this weekend saying much the same thing to DeSantis. […] this conclusion is pretty delightful:
This was a foolish, petty and ultimately selfish political vendetta that could have ended up far worse. If Disney executives had responded to DeSantis in the same vengeful vein — by pulling back even a small fraction of the resources the company has invested in Florida — the economic wreckage could have been massive. Instead, company executives and district officials stayed quiet, bided their time and executed a plan that is both elegant and witty.
From now on, Gov. DeSantis, save your tantrums for your taxpayer-funded mansion and endless trips to court donors and rally support in other states.
Whenever you happen to be in Florida [LOL], focus on your actual job: Running a massive state government where people are dying every day of drug overdoses and mass shootings that you barely acknowledge. Where school boards across the state are grimly awaiting the final price tag of the economically reckless voucher bill you just signed. Where insurance rates are skyrocketing and damage claims from back-to-back hurricanes are being summarily denied. Where, every day, we’re discovering more cracks your machinations have inflicted on the fundamental integrity of Florida’s own government.
Stop letting your inner Donald control your behavior. (In this case, we mean Donald Duck.) All you’ve managed to do so far is create a situation where Disney has more control, and potentially more secrecy, than it ever did. No matter how you try to play this, it seems apparent that you were outplayed.
So take your advice from the Queen (and in this case, we mean Queen Elsa). Let. It. Go.
Yeah, that dude doesn’t know how to quit when he’s behind, and Mickey Mouse is gonna have to beat the crap out of him again and again and again.
Sunday, 20-year-old Angel Reese helped lead her college basketball team, the Louisiana State University Tigers, to a national championship. Reese is an impressive athlete, unanimously selected first-team All-American, and she’s set SEC single-season records in rebounds and double-doubles. However, instead of hailing her achievements, some prominent white men on the internets expressed their displeasure with her “trash talking” another player, something no athlete has ever done at any time anywhere.
Keith Olbermann, primarily known for his politeness and moderate nature, tweeted, “What a fucking idiot” — about a kid, who was simply giving the business to rival Iowa star Caitlin Clark. Olbermann was responding to a SportsCenter video that showed Reese tapping her ring finger at Clark and waving her hand in front of her own face — a reminder that she’d be getting a championship ring, in case you wondered if she was alluding to anyone’s marital state. This was nothing compared to what we’ve seen in the House of Representatives. [video at the link]
Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy also tweeted that Reese was a “classless piece of shit.”
Not surprisingly, Olbermann and Portnoy were seemingly oblivious to how Clark, who’s white, had similarly trash talked throughout the entire tournament, and no one said boo. Reese just backed up her trash talk with victory. This is a familiar turn of events for many Black women who’ve had professional disputes with white women colleagues. […]
See, racism isn’t simply overtly hating Black people. It’s often a refusal to extend Black people the same benefit of the doubt they give other white people. If a white person is seen misbehaving in a brief, out-of-context clip, someone might just assume they’re having a bad day, but a Black woman taps her fingers with mild aggression and she’s a “fucking idiot” and a “classless piece of shit.”
Olbermann had further lectured Reese: “Doesn’t matter the gender, the sport, the background — you’re seconds away from a championship and you do something like this and overshadow all the good. Mindless, classless, and what kind of coach does this team have?”
[…] Olbermann is a liberal white guy, so he has to bend over backwards to explain away his actions. Obviously, he can’t just admit he’d fucked up and examine his own implicit biases. That’s too woke for Olbermann’s Sorkin-style liberalism (where women and minorities simply gaze in awe while a white guy pontificates).
So, Olbermann would “apologize for being uninformed last night about the back story on this,” but his insulting tweet is still out there. He said, “I don’t follow hoops, college or pro, men or women. I had no idea about Clark. Both were wrong.” Now, at best, he’s only sexist and not racist, except the fact remains that his most heated invective was directed at Reese, not Clark. I don’t follow college or professional basketball, either, but it doesn’t take much research to learn that trash talking has occurred on basketball courts long before Reese and Clark were born. [video at the link]
However, Shaquille O’Neal, an actual professional basketball player, didn’t hesitate to let Olbermann and Portnoy know they were full of crap. He replied to Olbermann’s tweet bashing Reese: “shut your dumb ass up leave angel reese alone.” In response to Portnoy’s “classless piece of shit” tweet, O’Neal said: “and so is your mother.” What Shaq lacks in his comeback game he more than makes up for by being seven feet tall.
O’Neal also didn’t buy Olbermann’s lament about how “basketball lost” him due to the apparent lack of sportsmanship.
“Every person that wins TYS-es. Talk your shit. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s classy or not. Doesn’t matter. When I won my championships, you don’t think I was talking smack? Pointing fingers?”
“I know Angel,” he continued. “She is a very classy, nice little girl. But hey, she plays with emotion. She’s from Baltimore. When you grow up in certain areas, you gotta grow up how you grow up. So she talks her talk.”
Shaq is right, and not just because he can crush me with his bare hands, though that’s also a compelling point. It’s great seeing prominent Black men standing up for Black women, especially when white dudes get silly.
It had been obvious for a week that Wagner was fighting to take a couple of buildings in what media outlets insisted on calling “the center of Bakhmut.” Only this wasn’t the geographic center, or the center of the area of Ukrainian control. It was the former administrative center—the rubble of buildings that had once been the equivalent of Bakhmut’s city hall. On Sunday, They achieved this. Or at least they did to the extent of allowing Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin to stick a flag among the debris. At night. Prigozhin then followed up with an announcement that Bakhmut is now “legally controlled by Russia.”
It shouldn’t need to be said … that’s not how that works.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi downplayed Prigozhin’s claims with a thermite-hot burn.
“Prigozhin is probably in Bakhmut because it is not safe for him in St. Petersburg right now.”
Cherevatyi went on to mention how restaurants were blowing up in St. Petersburg and noted that Prigozhin was probably better off sticking flags on the shells of empty buildings. He also accused the Wagner head of “inventing a victory” that doesn’t exist.
[…] Over the last two days, fighting has moved several blocks both in the southeast corner or the city and in the north. Wagner appears to have solidified control over much of the south and east of the city. Fighting is now occurring near Metalurh football stadium on the east, and near the “People’s House” in the north.
And if possible, that fighting has gotten even more intense with the exchange of every kind of weapon reaching what would seem to be an impossible fever pitch.
Every few days, it seems like there’s a need to find a new adjective for the level of fighting taking place in Bakhmut. Websters offers up 272 synonyms for “terrible” and 100 more for “intense,” but all of them seem woefully inadequate. Hellacious may be the closest that can be had without resorting to onomatopoeia. In any case, after a week there in which conditions were [insert term for “terrible” here], they’re worse. [map at the link]
[…] so long as Russian troops are still advancing, things are getting worse by definition. However, things in Bakhmut right now do look bad in a way they really hadn’t over the last month. More unstable.
However, Russia is certainly not advancing without incredible losses. That included being hit by a weapon that has gotten little to no mention in this conflict previous to this … because it’s not usually thought of as an offensive weapon: the UR-77 Meteorite. [video at the link]
The UR-77 is a mine-clearing vehicle, and it fires a “line charge” over a relatively short range. That charge is designed to open a path through which other vehicles can pass through a minefield. To do so, it produces a series of explosions that clear an area 90 m long and 6 m wide. On Monday, Ukraine fired one of those charges into what was reportedly a mass of Wagner forces. The video behind the “sensitive content” flag above doesn’t actually show the kind of detail that would allow you to see individuals that are under this blast. But it certainly isn’t hard to imagine what that might have been like.
Looking at the explosion, meteorite is underselling it. More like “dinosaur-killing asteroid.”
The location for this blast is just off the south edge of this map, near where the T0504 highway (Chaikovskogo St.) meets Korsunskogo St. In this area, Russian forces have reportedly been forced back. If that explosion took out as many as it appears, it’s not hard to understand why.
And there’s another reason to believe that Wagner isn’t going to turn their “invented victory” into the real thing. Reports started rolling in Monday morning that additional forces—including a significant convoy of tanks and other armored vehicles—were heading to Bakhmut. [video at the link]
Fighting at Bakhmut has been at an 11 for weeks, if not months. The terms “meat grinder” and “slaughterfest” were already being used back in October. Now it looks like both sides are carving a 12 onto their amps and turning the dial again.
For years, online alcohol recovery startups Monument and Tempest were sharing with advertisers the personal information and health data of their patients without their consent.
Monument, which acquired Tempest in 2022, confirmed the extensive years-long leak of patients’ information in a data breach notification filed with California’s attorney general last week, blaming their use of third-party tracking systems developed by ad giants including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Pinterest.
When reached for comment, Monument CEO Mike Russell confirmed more than 100,000 patients are affected.
In its disclosure, the companies confirmed their use of website trackers, which are small snippets of code that share with tech giants information about visitors to their websites, and often used for analytics and advertising.
The data shared with advertisers includes patient names, dates of birth, email and postal addresses, phone numbers and membership numbers associated with the companies and patients’ insurance provider. The data also included the person’s photo, unique digital ID, which services or plan the patient is using, appointment information and assessment and survey responses submitted by the patient, which includes detailed responses about a person’s alcohol consumption and used to determine their course of treatment.
Monument’s own website says these survey answers are “protected” and “used only” by its care team…
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Democrats chair Nikki Fried and state Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D) were among 11 people arrested Monday night while protesting abortion legislation outside Tallahassee’s City Hall, police said…
The arrests came hours after the state Senate voted to approve a ban on abortion in most cases after six weeks, which is being described by activists as a near-total abortion ban. It is expected to be approved by the state House and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the coming weeks, and would mark a shift from the 15-week ban DeSantis signed into law last year.
Tallahassee police said protesters were told they could not continue their demonstration after sundown and were arrested for trespassing after multiple warnings…
Anna Eskamani, a Democratic state representative from Orlando who was at the jail late Monday trying to help obtain the release of those who had been arrested, said it was “absolutely ridiculous” for people to be arrested while “peacefully protesting for abortion rights.”
“But Florida is where freedom goes to die, and that became even more evident tonight,” Eskamani said.
In the Atlantic Ocean, between the coasts of West Africa and the Caribbean, there’s a disjointed series of mats and clumps of brown, tangled algae known as sargassum seaweed. It’s supposed to be there. Or, at least, some of it is. In the Sargasso Sea—the only sea without a land border, bounded instead by four currents—sargassum offers critical habitat to marine life and is an integral part of the ecosystem.
But in recent years, things have gotten off balance and out of hand, causing problems for people, the tourism industry, and wildlife. The size of the annual seaweed blob has been growing larger, likely because of climate change and increases in nutrient pollution brought on by human activity. Now, this year’s sargassum mass has officially reached record proportions.
The discontinuous blob currently comprises an estimated 13 million tons of algae and spans about 5,000 miles of ocean from east to west, according to the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab, which has been tracking these sargassum blooms for over a decade. It’s a “record abundance … for this time of year,” wrote USF researchers in a March 31 dispatch. And it’s expected to get even bigger before the warm months are through. Generally, the seaweed hits its peak in June and July…
tomhsays
Read the indictment in the people of the state of New York v. Donald J. Trump.
Akira MacKenziesays
@439
Democrats are the party of violence,” Greene added.
I thought the Dems were the party of cowardice and nonviolence, made up of wimps who wet themselves at the presence of guns and would happily let the terrorists win if it meant no bloodshed.
In the indictment, prosecutors accuse Trump of having “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election”.
“From August 2015 to December 2017, the Defendant orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects,” the indictment reads.
“In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York.”
According to the statement of facts from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the parent company of the National Enquirer, American Media, Inc, at one point bought a story about Donald Trump fathering a child out of wedlock.
“[I]n or about October or November 2015, the AMI CEO learned that a former Trump Tower doorman (the ‘Doorman’ [LOL]) was trying to sell information regarding a child that the Defendant had allegedly fathered out of wedlock,” the statement of facts reads.
“At the AMI CEO’s 4 direction, AMI negotiated and signed an agreement to pay the Doorman $30,000 to acquire exclusive rights to the story. AMI falsely characterized this payment in AMI’s books and records, including in its general ledger. AMI purchased the information from the Doorman without fully investigating his claims, but the AMI CEO directed that the deal take place because of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer A.”
The Manhattan district attorney office’s statement of facts regarding the indictment alleges that the parent company of the National Enquirer, American Media Inc, paid off a woman who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump.
“AMI ultimately paid $150,000 to Woman 1 in exchange for her agreement not to speak out about the alleged sexual relationship, as well as for two magazine cover features of Woman 1 and a series of articles that would be published under her byline,” the statement of facts says. “AMI falsely characterized this payment in AMI’s books and records, including in its general ledger.”
That woman is believed to be Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an extramarital affair with Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the grand jury was hearing evidence about the financial transaction with McDougal, as well as the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels.
According to multiple reports, the next in-person hearing in Donald Trump’s hush-money case will be held in December, and a trial would not start until January 2024 at the earliest.
That schedule means Trump may be asked to appear in court just as voting begins in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, as the 2024 Iowa caucuses are scheduled to take place on February 5….
New assistance package for Ukraine just announced. According to the Department of Defense it includes:
– Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;
– Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
– 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
– 120mm mortar rounds;
– 120mm and 105mm tank ammunition;
– 25mm ammunition;
– Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
– Approximately 400 grenade launchers and 200,000 rounds of ammunition;
– 11 tactical vehicles to recover equipment;
– 61 heavy fuel tankers;
– 10 trucks and 10 trailers to transport heavy equipment;
– Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair;
– Spare parts and other field equipment.
The need for those fuel tanks is something that kos has pointed out in the past. Lots of thirsty equipment being sent to Ukraine.
————————-
NEW DRONES
Nothing has changed more rapidly in this conflict than the numbers, types, and utilization of drones. For both Ukraine and Russia, drones have taken on roles that have, at some times, replaced many older weapons, and at all times made this battlefield a much harder place to survive. Fighting in Ukraine means being under almost constant scrutiny from flying eyes floating quietly overhead, ready to direct artillery fire into anything that looks worth a shell—or to drop a grenade on an even a single soldier whose attention slips for a moment. Even the greatest armor in the world would have a hard time holding up in a place where a hatch left open for a few minutes invites a FPV drone carrying multiple kilograms of high explosives to come racing in at over 150 kph.
For a painful example, here’s what happened to a pair of Ukrainian S-300s that were unfortunately parked together where a Russian Lancet kamikaze drone could find them. [video at the link]
As in so many instances with drone warfare, that Lancet cost a tiny fraction of the systems it took out. On the other hand, a large number of these drones are being taken out in-air by Ukrainian teams pairing some rather old-fashioned tech: searchlights and machine guns. [video at the link]
Now Forbes is reporting that four new drones are making an appearance in UKraine’s arsenal.
Switchblade 600—The big brother to the AeroVironment’s Switchblade 300 has been on the list of items to be sent to Ukraine for some time, but these larger versions, which have a warhead powerful enough to take out armored vehicles, are apparently just now beginning to arrive. (Phoenix Ghost, are you actually there?)
Jump 20—This is another AeroVironment product, which combines the vertical takeoff capabilities of a quadcopter, with the endurance of a winged drone, to create an surveillance drone that can hang in the air for a fairly astounding 14 hours. It also packs a 14 kg payload, so just as with the much-used Russian Orlan-10, it might be fitted out with explosives for some missions.
Cyberlux K8—Which, yes, there is a company called Cyberlux. But what this drone does is anyone’s guess. Considering that their other products are quadcopters (including some rather large ones for carrying commercial cameras) that’s probably a good guess.
Altius 600—This is a really interesting one. It’s a “tube launched” winged drone that looks somewhat like the Switchblade 600, but it has a much longer range (up to 440 km). Altius shows it being launched from the ground, from a truck, and from a helicopter, all using the same tube launcher. It’s also designed to “integrate a variety of payloads” suggesting that it can carry up to 8 kg of surveillance gear, or of explosives.
This is an area that continues to evolve swiftly. The biggest “punch” for drones right now has been in using surveillance drones to guide traditional artillery. But that will only last until we reach the phase where these drones make it impossible for that artillery to survive beyond a single shot. That time is coming, but it’s unclear if this set of new drones will bring it nearer.
SIGNS
This is a call for help. On Tuesday, there were multiple new articles out concerning the high number of defensive positions that have been built in the Crimean peninsula, apparently as Russia prepares for Ukraine to drive for Sevastopol. For example, here’s some comments from The Washington Post.
For months, Russian forces have been building fortifications along key points of access in the Kherson region. They have also built fortifications near Melitopol, across what is known as the “land bridge” connecting Crimea to Russia through occupied Ukrainian territory.
More recently, Russia has heavily fortified its defenses on the peninsula, which is connected to the Ukrainian mainland by the Isthmus of Perekop, a narrow strip of land measuring 4.3 miles at its widest.
Looking at some of these locations, many of these trenches are clearly visible on publically available imagery. You can see the trenches themselves, the clusters of “dragon’s teeth” meant to stop or slow tanks, and some concrete pillboxes. There are rows of depressions clearly meant to hide tanks or other vehicles. In some places, the whole things are braced by wood or even poured concrete.
How effective it might be is hard to say. Over the last few days, videos of Ukrainian tanks demonstrating the grim results of tank vs. trench have been circulating. [video at the link]
The Russians trapped in these trenches didn’t appear to have good support from nearby artillery, so it’s hard to say how closely this might reflect events when it does come time for Ukraine to send tanks into the positions Russia has been digging all over Ukrainian land.
However, here’s a personal plea for assistance: As I’ve been looking around at the publically available imagery, many of these trenches are easy to spot, as are more trenches in areas right along the “neck” of the peninsula. The free-to-play images aren’t quite as up-to-date or high resolution as what satellite firm Maxar shared with the Post, but it’s still not difficult to make out much of the work Russia has been doing.
Only, along with all the easily discernible components of Russia’s defensive network, I’ve run into several of … these. [image at the link] Each of these structures is a loop about 150m across with one end of the loop left deliberately open. Each of them has straight-line structures, or depressions, dug within the loop. All of them are near trenches and other clearly defensive structures but not connected.
I’m not 100% certain these are defensive structures. I’m not discounting the idea that they could be anything from cattle enclosures to the sites of ancient tombs. However, the digging at several of them is clearly fresh, and the proximity to trenchworks certainly suggests that they’re connected to whatever Russia is doing in these areas.
So what are they? They’d make a passable redoubt for combat … say, around 450 AD. But I can’t quite grasp their use now. What do you think? Only one person gets to say “aliens,” but “Swing away, Merrill!” is also acceptable.
—————————————
[Tweet and video of cartoon character, (the cartoon is banned in Russia, produced in Tel Aviv, and tells “the truth without any embellishments.”]
[Image of Finnish military personnel installing the Finnish national flag at NATO headquarters in Brussels.]
It’s been nearly two months since we learned that special counsel Jack Smith, as part of his criminal investigations into Donald Trump, was issuing grand jury subpoenas to some highly prominent figures from the former president’s inner circle, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Not surprisingly, this led to the latest fight over executive privilege. Also not surprisingly, the Republican’s efforts have fallen short.
Two weeks ago, a federal judge rejected Trump’s executive privilege claims and ordered several former administration officials to comply with the special counsel’s subpoenas. The list wasn’t short: Meadows was the most notable name, but the list also included former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, former aide Stephen Miller, former deputy chief of staff and social media director Dan Scavino, as well as White House aides Nick Luna and John McEntee, and Ken Cuccinelli, a former top official in the Department of Homeland Security.
The order led Team Trump to file an emergency appeal. As Politico reported this afternoon, that didn’t work, either.
A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. has rejected an emergency bid by […] Trump to block several top aides from testifying in the special counsel investigation of his effort to subvert the 2020 election. In a sealed order, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s urgent demand to block his aides from being required to appear before special counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury.
As my colleague Lisa Rubin noted, the three-judge appellate panel included Judge Gregory Katsas — who is both a Trump nominee and a former member of the White House counsel’s office during Trump’s presidency.
The developments stand out in part because of the dramatic split-screen: As [Trump] prepared to leave Trump Tower in order to get arrested, his lawyers learned of their latest setback in an entirely different criminal investigation.
[…] It was Meadows who was with Trump in the Oval Office during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. It was Meadows who was involved in the fake electors scheme. It was Meadows who was in frequent communication with far-right GOP lawmakers about efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It was Meadows who allegedly — and quite literally — set fire to documents in a White House fireplace, several times, after having important post-election meetings.
It was also Meadows who reportedly told Cassidy Hutchinson, one of his top aides, that “things might get real, real bad” on Jan. 6.
And now, it’s Meadows — among several others — who’ve been told it’s time to talk to federal prosecutors under oath.
At this point, as an NBC News report noted, Trump’s lawyers can either appeal the case to the full D.C. Circuit, take their chances with the U.S. Supreme Court, or allow the testimony to happen without further delay.
Also posted on Twitter: “Remember when you said you only hire the best people to work in the White House? And then they all quit or went to jail? Yeah, that was awesome.”
Also posted on Twitter: a meme showing a day-by-day weather forecast, with Tuesday marked as “Mostly Stormy” and featuring a smiling Stormy Daniels.
North Carolina State Rep. Tricia Cotham (D), an EMILY’s List-endorsed lawmaker from a heavily blue district in the Charlotte area, is reportedly planning to switch her party affiliation to Republican, thereby handing the state’s Grand Old Party a veto-proof majority capable of banning abortion, among other horrific priorities. And banning abortion is very much on the agenda in the purple state.
On Wednesday, state House Majority Deputy Whip Keith Kidwell (R) introduced a total abortion ban with only a minor exception. Kidwell’s bill, which he called “Human Life Protection Act of 2023,” seeks to make performing an abortion a felony and add civil penalties, including a $100,000 fine and loss of one’s professional license.
Cotham becoming a Republican gives state Republicans the ability to override any veto from Gov. Roy Cooper (D). The news of Cotham’s impending switch was first reported by Axios and is expected to be announced on Wednesday…
All ye believers in the power of love to conquer all, gather round, I have difficult news to share: Rupert Murdoch, exemplar of Eros and man of devotion, has called off his engagement to Ann Lesley Smith after just two weeks. I know, I can hardly believe it either. When I wrote about their engagement—Murdoch’s fifth—I thought to myself, “This is it, baby.” The billionaire has seemingly gotten cold feet and not just because he is 92 years old and his body is slowly yet inescapably shutting down.
According to Vanity Fair, a source said that the media magnate grew “increasingly uncomfortable with Smith’s outspoken evangelical views.” …
Great! This means he doesn’t have an excuse to miss he Dominion trial.
Akira MacKenzie #452
It’s not a mistake or a lack of consistency. While it’s always a bit shocking to sensible people, it’s a defining characteristic of fascism:
…by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.
Carson Briere, the son of Philadelphia Flyers interim general manager Daniel Briere, has been removed from Mercyhurst University’s men’s hockey team, the school announced Monday. Mercyhurst said it would not comment further on the matter.
Briere and Mercyhurst lacrosse player Patrick Carrozzi were charged on March 20 with criminal mischief related to damaged property, criminal conspiracy to commit mischief, along with a summary offense of disorderly conduct. The charges stem from a March 11 incident where Briere was caught on video pushing an empty wheelchair down the stairs at Sullivan’s Pub in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Briere and Carrozzi are scheduled to appear in court on May 22. Briere was a junior on Mercyhurst’s hockey team…
Justice Juan Merchan said he would not have granted a gag order had District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked Tuesday, but made it clear he would consider further motions if necessary. The D.A.’s office submitted printouts of Donald Trump’s problematic recent statements and posts, including one from Truth Social that showed the former president holding a baseball bat next to a picture of the district attorney.
By Jacqueline Alemany
Congressional Investigations Reporter
Justice Juan Merchan explicitly told Donald Trump, “Please refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest … making comments that have potential to incite violence, create civil unrest [or] jeopardize the state or well-being of any individuals.” He also asked Trump not to engage in rhetoric that will “jeopardize the rule of law.”
He also asked that the people ask their witnesses to control their public statements as well. Prosecutor Chris Connolly responded that they would try.
By Jacqueline Alemany
Congressional Investigations Reporter
New IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel delivered a tax-season pledge Tuesday that the agency will use an $80 billion infusion of cash to become faster, more tech-savvy and provide “real-world improvements” to taxpayers…
There’s recently been a new surge of support for the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment (E-BIKE) Act, which was initially introduced in 2021 but didn’t pass. However, now legislators have lots more data now, and examples of where similar programs have had huge success at the local level.
A program in Denver has allowed the city to cut 2,040 metric tons of carbon dioxide and save nearly $1 million in avoided fuel and electricity costs. And so it makes sense that the federal E-BIKE Act has gotten huge support from dozens of environmental and transportation groups including the League of American Bicyclists, Sierra Club, GreenLatinos, Bicycling Monterey, the Outdoor Industry Association, and the Santa Cruz County Bicycle Coalition.
But not everyone is a fan. Senator Mitt Romney and other Republican lawmakers recently had nothing but negative feedback for the proposed Act. Romney called for those who can’t afford to buy a car to simply take mass transit. Raise your hand if you live in a place where mass transit doesn’t exist.
Business Insider reports Romney saying, “I’m not going to spend money on buying e-bikes for people like me who have bought them—they’re expensive. Removing automobile lanes to put in bike lanes is, in my opinion, the height of stupidity, it means more cars backing up, creating more emissions.”
For one, the E-BIKE Act specifically makes e-bikes far less expensive, and, for many trips, removes the need to drive cars at all. Also, the Act isn’t targeting folks like Romney—it’s intended largely for low-income Americans. The proposed E-BIKE Act would give Americans who earn up to $150,000, or up to $300,000 for joint tax filers, a refundable tax credit of 30% off the purchase of an e-bike, up to $1,500…
A Fox News segment gave rise to the hashtag #PresidentFraud on Twitter after a guest was asked how the Manhattan DA brought Donald Trump’s indictment if there wasn’t enough satisfying evidence put forth in front of the grand jury.
“I think there’s no question about it that he wants to humiliate President Fraud, or President Trump,” he responded…
eFile.com, an IRS-authorized e-file software service provider used by many for filing their tax returns, has been caught serving JavaScript malware.
Security researchers state the malicious JavaScript file existed on eFile.com website for weeks. BleepingComputer has been able to confirm the existence of the malicious JavaScript file in question, at the time.
Note, this security incident specifically concerns eFile.com and not IRS’ e-file infrastructure or identical sounding domains.
Just in time for tax season
eFile.com was caught serving malware, as spotted by multiple users and researchers. The malicious JavaScript file in question is called ‘popper.js’: …
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump both shared articles from right-wing outlets reporting that Loren Merchan worked for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign back in 2019. “Seems relevant… yet another connection in this hand picked democrat show trial. The BS never ends folks,” Don Jr. wrote in a tweet linking a Breitbart article on Loren. Sharing the same article, Eric wrote, “They are all hand picked. It is all pre-arranged. This corruption is on a different level.” …
As Donald J. Trump became the first former President in U.S. history to be arraigned, his wife, Melania, marked the occasion by sending thoughts and prayers.
According to Mike Lindell, better known as the MyPillow guy, the former President was “surprised” to be on the receiving end of his wife’s thoughts and/or prayers.
“Mr. Trump had not been expecting to receive thoughts and prayers,” Lindell said. “He’s mainly been focussing on donations.”
Although it is not known how many thoughts and how many prayers the former First Lady sent, sources familiar with her thoughts and prayers believe that they are considerably fewer than the number of felony counts in her husband’s indictment.
Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Mrs. Trump said that she would have “no comment” on the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg. “I have a saying,” she said. “ ‘When they go low, we go high.’ ”
Progressives won their first majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 15 years on Tuesday night when Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Justice Daniel Kelly, a victory that will have huge repercussions for voting rights and abortion access. Protasiewicz currently holds a 57-41 lead with an estimated 63% of the vote counted in her bid for a 10-year term to succeed retiring conservative Justice Pat Roggensack.
Though the race was officially nonpartisan, the ideological battle lines were unmistakable. Protasiewicz’s victory in this $45 million contest―which shattered the record for the most expensive state Supreme Court race in American history―now gives liberals a 4-3 majority on the Badger State’s highest court. Kelly’s allies, including Republican megadonors Dick and Liz Uihlein and the powerful business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, tried to avert this outcome by running a barrage of ads attacking Protasiewicz as weak on crime, but their message failed to have a big enough impact. […]
tomh @463, meanwhile, Donald Junior posted a picture of Judge Juan M. Merchan’s daughter.
As Joyce Alene posted:
It’s an effort to show the judge has a conflict because his daughter worked for the Biden-Harris campaign. That’s not a conflict for the judge & exposing his family to risk by posting photos like this, completely unacceptable.
And, Trump gave a speech at Mar-a-Lago that attacked the judge again … and that attacked his wife again.
A few details that explain why Marjorie Taylor Greene was hard to hear during her short speech in Manhattan:
[…] Well there was a Trump guy, and he didn’t even know MTG was talking, and he was giving out free whistles because they needed to make a noise for Trump.
Greene was apparently there for about eight seconds, as was George Santos. Only the most serious lawmaker types. She was really upset about the whistles. “You send your henchmen down here to commit assault against people by making loud noises,” she apparently said, in comments that were supposed to be directed at New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Maybe she thought they were Jewish Space Whistles. […]
There seemed to be a theme among Trump’s supporters: [photo posted by Ben Collins shows Trump supporters carrying a large sign that says: Bragg’s Jews: Michael Cohen, Allen Weisselerg, David Pecker.][…]
There was also a guy there who said he wanted to hang Joy Reid and Don Lemon. Some of Trump’s supporters simply walked around asking “What about Hunter Biden?” Some yelled, “there are only two genders.”
At the link, there’s also a video of MTG running away from her own event as New Yorkers peacefully invite her to leave.
A few excerpts from the speech Trump delivered at Mar-a-Lago this evening:
He also attacked the judge presiding over the case, Justice Juan Merchan, calling him a “Trump-hating judge.”
“You want to get President Trump at any cost,” Trump said. “As it turns out ,everyone who has looked at this case…says there is no crime and it should never have been brought. Never have been brought.”
“We have this Jack Smith lunatic threatening people every single day through his representatives,” Trump said. “They’re threatening jail terms. But talk about aTrump and you’ll go free.”
“From the beginning, the Democrats spied on my campaign,” he said. “Remember that? They attacked me with an onslaught of fraudulent inventions. Russia, Russia, Russia. Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.”
“We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. We can’t let that happen,” he said. “I have no doubt nevertheless that we will make America great again.”
You would think that perhaps Trump wasn’t listening today when
Justice Juan Merchan explicitly told Donald Trump, “Please refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest … making comments that have potential to incite violence, create civil unrest [or] jeopardize the state or well-being of any individuals.” He also asked Trump not to engage in rhetoric that will “jeopardize the rule of law.”
Following former President Donald Trump’s indictment, Rumble promoted videos of right-wing pundits and QAnon figures pushing civil war rhetoric on its “Battle Leaderboard Top 50.”
[…] The posts came while a Manhattan grand jury heard testimony as part of an ongoing investigation […]
Trump’s right-wing media allies have gone well beyond merely downplaying and defending his wrongdoing. The right-wing echo chamber has devolved into full blown wartime rhetoric, comparing the indictment to the atrocities committed by communist dictator Joseph Stalin, fearmongering that America will soon witness political executions, and predicting or alluding to — if not encouraging or calling for — retaliation including violence and civil war.
[…] Launched in 2013, Rumble plays an important role in the alternative digital infrastructure, which caters to the extreme right. For years, conservatives have falsely claimed that social media platforms are biased against them, while building alternative platforms with little to no content moderation or concern for user safety. Rumble co-founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski has echoed that sentiment, promoting Rumble as an alternative that is “immune from cancel culture.”
Rumble publishes a “Battle Leaderboard Top 50” on its platform, ranking top performing videos from the previous 24 hours or so and promoting them on a list that is prominently displayed in two different spots on its homepage. Media Matters found that Rumble promoted numerous videos from right-wing pundits and QAnon figures seemingly agitating for civil war on this leaderboard. […]
On the other hand, very few Trump supporters showed up to protest his arrest in NYC. So far, it looks like they are talking big, but not doing much. During MSNBC’s coverage this evening, Rachel Maddow made the point that Trump has been practically begging people to protest for a couple of weeks now. To no avail.
Here are some examples:
“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social early Saturday morning [March 18]. “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
“WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE,” he wrote. “THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
Very few people seemed to be moved to actually protest. Some House Republicans talked about trying to defund Alvin Bragg, but for the most part it seems like Trump is screaming but no one is following his orders.
Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson won the race for mayor of Chicago Tuesday by defeating former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in a major win for progressives. Johnson leads Vallas 51.4-48.6 with 91% of the estimated vote reporting in the nonpartisan race to succeed Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was denied the possibility of a second term after she took third in the Feb. 28 primary.
Johnson, who is the third African American elected to the post, was outspent by roughly a 2-1 margin, with Vallas running ads arguing that the commissioner supported defunding the police. Johnson has sought to distance himself from the attacks, declaring at a debate, “I am not going to defund the police,” but that didn’t deter Vallas from continuing to make use of 2020 comments in which Johnson said of the defund movement, “I don’t look at it as a slogan. It’s an actual real political goal.” […]
StevoRsays
The Gestapotato confirms hisna dtheLNP’s racism opposing the Indigenous Voice to Aussie Parlt :
Big news from Scotland, which few here are likely to have noticed: Peter Murrell has been arrested! Peter who? I hear you say. Chief executive of the Scottish National Party until a few weeks ago, and husband of Nicola Sturgeon (until recently Scottish National Party leader and First Minister in the devolved administration). Police are searching the couple’s home in Glasgow, and the SNP HQ in Edinburgh. The issue is what happened to £600,000 in donations to the SNP, which was supposed to be used to campaign for a fresh independence referendum, but which is alleged to have been used instead to pay for the day-to-day running of the party. Questions are already being asked by political opponents about what both Sturgeon, and her successor Humza Yousaf, knew, and when they knew it. Another obvious question: did Sturgeon know or suspect this was coming, and resign (her resignation was unexpected, although there were other possible causes) in order to get her preferred successor into office (he won a narrow victory in the SNP internal election and is now FM) before the fecal solids hit the air conditioning equipment? Further to that, did the police hold off until the leadership contest was over and if so, were they pressured to do so? Can Yousaf survive? Can the SNP? Murrell hasn’t yet been charged with anything; I’ll keep the thread updated.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is visiting Poland, while Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen are in China.
Poland’s agriculture minister Henryk Kowalczyk has formally resigned from his post, saying he decided to quit the position due to the European Commission’s decision to extend duty free imports for Ukrainain grain until June 2024. Polish farmers had called for the introduction of tariffs. Export bottlenecks caused by Russia’s invasion mean large quantities of Ukrainian grains, which are cheaper than those produced in the European Union have ended up in central European states, hitting prices and sales of local farmers.
…
The six Leopard 2A4 tanks Spain has promised to send to Ukraine will leave the country in the second half of April, defence minister Margarita Robles told state broadcaster TVE on Wednesday, pushing back the estimated shipment date. The German-made battle tanks have not been used since the 1990s and had been mothballed in reserve, requiring refitting and battle readiness tests after initial doubts as to whether they could go into combat again.
…It seems that, through its political impact and close affiliation with the governing coalition, the Catholic church in Poland has accelerated the cultural and generational shift against religious conservatism.
Young voters are expected to turn out in large numbers in this year’s election….
Twitter has been accused of bowing to government pressure in India by blocking scores of prominent journalists, politicians and activists from its platform in recent weeks….
The fortune of Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest person, has topped $200bn for the first time as shares in his French LVMH luxury goods empire hit a record high.
The 74-year-old has become only the third person in history to amass an estimated fortune above the $200bn (£160bn) threshold. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have previously hit the milestone before their fortunes dropped back as technology companies’ share prices fell.
Arnault’s fortune increased by $2.4bn on Tuesday to $201bn, according to the daily-updated Bloomberg billionaires index. His wealth has increased by $39bn so far this year as shares in LVMH have risen 30%, thanks to soaring demand for luxury goods among the world’s wealthy….
Somehow none of this ever comes up in media coverage of Macron’s pension age hike.
This isn’t a prediction. It isn’t a hint. It’s just a note. And my note is, this election was a release valve for twelve years of Democratic rage in Wisconsin about Republicans rigging our state and smashing our democracy—and then using that power to rip away our rights.
StevoRsays
The (Australian – ed.) federal government has brushed aside a call from former defence leaders who are urging it to release a secret report into the national security risks posed by climate change.Last year, the government asked the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) to examine the external risks posed by climate change as the region grapples with increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather events.
Senior ministers have also made several blunt public warnings about the impact climate change could have on broader regional security, and the threat that poses to Australia.
Last December, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil told the National Press Club that increasingly extreme weather was “creating massive movements of people that may become unmanageable” and would also create “food and energy shortages” in the region, which Australia would have to help tackle. … (snip)
Here’s a clip (Twitter link) of Lindsey Graham on Fox begging for money for Trump. People have pointed out the aural resemblance to televangelists and the visual resemblance to Trump. Remember during the 2016 election when Trump had that whole shtick about being self-funding?
Without explanation, Twitter added a label to NPR’s account deeming it “U.S. state-affiliated media,” a designation that puts the nonprofit media company in same category as state propaganda outlets like Russia’s RT.
NPR believes the designation was done by mistake. A spokesperson for the outlet told Mediaite: “This must be a mistake as it contradicts Twitter’s own guidelines. We have reached out to Twitter to have the label removed.”
Indeed, as Twitter users pointed out in response to the new label, the platform’s own guidelines held that “State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media.”
Those guidelines were stealth-edited, however, after the change to NPR’s status, to remove the reference to the American media company.
Unlike RT and other outlets that have typically been labeled “state-affiliated” by Twitter, NPR has editorial independence from the U.S. government, which funds just 1% of NPR’s budget.
It is unclear why Twitter would change NPR’s status (Requests to the platform’s communications team now receive a poop emoji as an auto-reply)….
Astronomers have discovered two new black holes that are the closest ones to Earth known, and also represent something that astronomers have never seen before.
The black holes, designated Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2, were discovered in data collected by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia spacecraft.
Gaia BH1 is located just 1,560 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus, while Gaia BH2 lies 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. In cosmic terms, both black holes are therefore situated in Earth’s backyard.It isn’t just the proximity of these black holes to Earth that makes them extraordinary, however. They are orbited by stars at much greater distances than has previously been observed in other black hole-companion star pairings.
“What sets this new group of black holes apart from the ones we already knew about is their wide separation from their companion stars,” discovery team leader Kareem El-Badry, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts and the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany,
…The cultural code in farm communities dictates that children must behave as though animals are commodities and avoid challenging social norms shaped by agriculture or be prepared to be treated as pariahs. As Long’s lawsuit notes, she and her daughter “feared that deviation from a 4-H program through resisting the slaughter of livestock would upset other 4-H members and community members.”
This is why the child’s defiance was so threatening to the fair, its agents, and, by extension, the American agricultural system, and why it was met with the full force of the law. By suggesting that animals may deserve mercy and that the people who raise them might not want them killed, the family broke a social contract, a rupture that is apparent in Long’s correspondence with county fair officials. Sending Cedar to slaughter was “to teach our youth responsibility” and was “unfortunately out of my hands,” Shasta Fair Association CEO Melanie Silva told Long in an email. There was no opt-out clause, no room for individual conscience or moral judgment.
That’s a feature of 4-H’s livestock projects, not a bug. Farm animals are to be treated as abstract and fungible, as indistinguishable from one another as one cellophane-wrapped steak is from the next. If an exception is made to spare one animal’s life, the whole ideology is undermined.
…
Perhaps the county’s brutal response to a single girl’s act of mercy came in part because she reminded the adults around her that they were not metaphysically bound to cruelty to animals; they could choose mercy, but chose not to. One child’s torch-bright act of conscience illuminated the willingness of adults around her to substitute the brittle formalisms of market logic, economic exchange, and contract for the operation of ethical reflection, a kind of moral torpor without which modern animal agriculture would be impossible.
…
A girl and her 4-H goat paint a picture of farming and food that is a far cry from the ceaseless brutality [word choice!] of the industrial abattoir. In death, Cedar may well remind parents that as long as 4-H teaches children to treat animals as commodities, the slaughterhouse will always be the final destination. The mercilessness of the meat industry may, at any moment, barge into their pastoral scene, sirens blaring, search warrants in hand, to execute a contract and a beloved animal alike.
…Jamie Bell of Duncan Lewis solicitors, who is representing Gurung and another Nepalese man in the same situation, said: “These men risked their lives working to protect the British embassy in Kabul. They were lawfully evacuated to the UK and were led to believe that they were to be granted permanent residence in the UK. Instead, after being allowed to build a life in the UK, they have been betrayed and detained. Those responsible should be ashamed of how they have been treated.”…
Olga Skabeyeva hails Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s efforts to “save the world from the degradation of homosexuality”
Museveni recently said he would sign into law a bill imposing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”…
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. “Well and today it was finally revealed who will save the world from homosexuality. You won’t believe it, it’s Africa!”
I like the fact that Brandon Johnson is also a member of the Chicago Teachers Union. He won Chicago’s mayoral election yesterday.
A good summary of why the other guy lost, (excerpted from a Chicago Sun Times article):
[…] Despite an avalanche of business contributions that allowed him to outspend Johnson by a 2 to 1 margin, Vallas could not overcome his own statements — on talk radio, Facebook and Twitter — that left voters in this overwhelmingly Democratic city believing he is an anti-abortion, pro-voucher Republican. […]
My favorite reveals from yesterday were how lame and ineffectual the coverup was.
They were writing checks. Checks! It’s all traceable. It’s all evidence now in the criminal case.
At one point, we learned yesterday, Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg allegedly jotted down the particulars of the agreement to reimburse Michael Cohen for his hush money payment to Daniels on Trump’s behalf.
HE WROTE IT DOWN!
Prosecutors appear to have the document with those notes, according to the statement of facts filed in the case: “The TO CFO [Weisselberg] memorialized these calculations in handwritten notes on the copy of the bank statement that Lawyer A [Cohen] had provided.”
A few more telling details from Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago last night:
[…] To some extent, he played the hits. Among other things, Trump described the efforts to impeach him for his role inciting the violent January 6 attack on the Capitol as a “hoax.” He also called his impeachment for allegedly withholding aid from Ukraine in an effort to extract political favors a “hoax.” Trump repeatedly, falsely suggested he won the 2020 election and claimed Biden benefited from “millions of votes illegally stuffed into ballot boxes and all caught on government cameras.” He also suggested Biden benefitted from “collusion” between the Justice Department, FBI, and Facebook who, Trump claimed, conspired to suppress information about the “Hunter Biden laptop from hell.” [Yeah, yeah. Boring repetition of old lies coupled with expressions of sheer stupidity.]
Along with all of these nefarious plots against him, Trump suggested the country was “going to hell” under Biden with “raging crime statistics,” a “crippled” economy, and a military that has “now gone woke at the top levels.” Trump declared it is “the most embarrassing time in our country’s history, in my opinion,” and warned we are on the brink of “all-out nuclear World War III.”
“It can happen,” Trump said. “We’re not very far away from it, believe it or not.” [Biggest, scary threat he could think of.]
It was the full array of MAGA movement obsessions ripped straight from internet comment sections and conspiracy forums. The audience at Mar-a-Lago included many prominent true believers, such as former Arizona gubernatorial candidate and election conspiracist Kari Lake, MyPillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who had also given a speech at a pro-Trump rally earlier that day in Manhattan. [All the usual dunderheads. Add Matt Gaetz.]
[…] In his speech, Trump specifically focused on the quartet of prosecutors who are currently investigating him: Alvin Bragg, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, and Tish James. In Trump’s telling, all of them are wildly corrupt and unfairly targeting him.
[…] At Mar-a-Lago, Trump also took aim at Jack Smith, the federal special counsel who is investigating his role in inciting the violent January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and his handling of classified documents after leaving office. Trump dismissed Smith as “a radical left lunatic known as a bomb thrower,” suggested Smith’s name might be fake, and described the documents probe, which included a raid on Mar-a-Lago last August, as the “boxes hoax.” […]
Link. Many thanks to Hunter Walker for watching the Trump speech so we didn’t have to.
Posted by a reader of the article:
Trump is like toxic waste, i.e. cannot be recycled.
A fire has broken out at a building belonging to Russia’s defence ministry in the centre of Moscow, the Russian state-run Tass new agency is reporting, citing emergency services.
This morning, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Poland, where he is meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda. The Ukrainian president had good reason to thank his hosts, and not just because of Poland’s overwhelming military support in the conflict or because of how Poland has taken in over 1.5 million Ukrainians displaced from their homes.
Earlier this week, Poland reportedly handed over the first four of a fleet of MiG-29 jets it is transferring to Ukraine. On Wednesday, four more were transferred. Another eight are soon to follow, bringing the total fleet of updated MiG-29 fighters to 14.
At the start of 2022, Flight International listed Ukraine as having 43 MiG-29s in its Air Force. Since then Oryx has confirmed a loss of 17 of the twin-engine Soviet-era jets. As with all Oryx numbers, it’s likely that Ukraine has lost others that haven’t been verified—especially if those jets were brought down over Russian-occupied areas, or made it back to some point in Ukraine far from the front lines before failing. In any case, the fleet being provided by Poland certainly goes a long way to boost the Ukrainian Air Force supply of these planes. It may actually represent the majority of MiG-29s now in Ukrainian service.
But wait! Just last month, Slovakia sent its first four Mig-29s to Ukraine out of a promised 13. These two donations exactly match Oryx’s documented losses since the invasion began. Poland has also said it would send its remaining 15 MiG-29s to Ukraine, but it’s first waiting for the arrival of new Western planes, including 32 F-35s that were part of a deal made last month.
Ukraine could soon have more of these fighter jets than it did at the outset of the war.
AMMO, AMMO, AMMO
On Tuesday, the United States initiated a new assistance package for Ukraine. This time around, most of the $2.6 billion in assistance is targeted toward ammo—ammo for tanks, ammo for small arms, but especially ammo for artillery, for HIMARS and for other MLRS.
Recently, there have been reports that some actions near the front have faltered for lack of available ammunition. These reports have come from both sides, with Wagner Group constantly harping on its need for more artillery shells to finish off Bakhmut, and Ukrainian troops complaining of their inability to follow up on an identified Russian weak point due to lack of ammo for tanks.
Over and over again, there have been suggestions that the world simply can’t keep up with the pace of ammunition being expended in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For Russia, that may well be true. In March, defense analysts estimated that Russia was expending around 10,000 shells a day. In Pentagon briefings, U.S. analysts dropped their figures from 20,000 a day in January to around 5,000 a day in March.
But those were low-end estimates. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov put Russia’s average rate of fire for the month of March at 15,000 rounds per day. Official Ukrainian military numbers put it at 20,000. Other Ukrainian sources insisted the number was an order of magnitude higher than U.S. estimates—40,000 to 50,000 per day. All these were actually below what the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in January and February, where they put it at 60,000 shells a day. Before the invasion, Defense Express estimated that Russia had more than 500,000 artillery shells in inventory. Other estimates have put the number of shells in Russia’s basement at over 5 million, which sounds like a lot. Unless you’re blowing through them at 50,000 a day.
Ukrainian military analysts at Militarnyi estimate that Russia has used at least 7 million artillery shells since the war began. That’s not quite World War I levels, where an estimated 1 billion artillery shells of all makes and sizes were expended over the course of the war, but it’s still a lot. That would mean Russia has a burn rate of 17,000 shells a day, every day, over the course of the conflict.
How much is Ukraine expending? That’s just about as much of a guess. Everyone agrees that it’s a lot less than Russia, but is it half as much? A fifth? Maybe even 10 to 1, as this story from El País (and Ukrainian leadership) suggested just last month?
Russia has numerical superiority of 10 heavy guns to every one at the disposal of Kyiv. Furthermore, Ukraine is running low on ammunition and requires urgent supplies of shells, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has warned.
Trying to pick some reasonable numbers out of all this, it seems like that Russia has expended between 10,000 and 20,000 shells a day. Ukraine somewhere closer to 4,000 to 5,000.
Can Ukraine sustain that pace, or even increase it if necessary to support a counteroffensive? Just preparing for an advance could mean days of heavy artillery bombardment before the first tank rolls. The U.S. alone has delivered over 200,000 rounds of 155 millimeter ammo to Ukraine. Again, that sounds like a lot, but it could be just a 40 day supply in a war that has now lasted over 400 days.
That rate of consumption has generated hundreds of stories like this one from CNN.
Running full-tilt, as it was on a recent January morning, the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant churns out roughly 11,000 artillery shells a month. That may seem like a lot, but the Ukrainian military often fires that many shells over just a few days.
… The Army is planning a 500% increase in artillery shell production, from 15,000 a month to 70,000, according to Army acquisition chief Doug Bush.
Even with that increase, it may still seem that Ukraine is in an ammo bind. However, the European Union has also more that tripled production since the invasion began. A total of 18 nations have signed onto a plan to increase 155 mm shell production, and those increases are already affecting deliveries. Also, the CNN number undersells U.S. production a bit, because—thanks to direct exports that aren’t funneled through the Army—overall U.S. production of 155 mm ammo is expected to be 600% higher by the end of the year. By the end of 2024, it should be at 90,000 per month.
Right now, production available to Ukraine provides enough 155 mm ammo to support a fire rate of about 1,000 to 1,500 rounds a day. By the end of the year, that number could be closer to 2,500. However, that’s a bit deceptive as Ukraine tends to get this ammo in tranches from allies, not a monthly delivery.
Then there’s this story from Euromaidan Press on Ukraine’s domestic efforts to supply it’s 152 mm Soviet-designed artillery, an effort that is netting about 1,000-2,000 shells a month. Fortunately, additional shells are coming in from Poland, Latvia, and other allies in Europe. Right now, total European production of 152 mm shells is estimated at about 50,000 a month, or about 1,700 a day.
These numbers—around 3,000 rounds a day—represent the current sustainable rate of fire for Ukraine. Expect it to be around 5,000 in the next few months. This can be supplemented by tapping into the stockpiles of shells that were available before the invasion began, not just in Ukraine, but the U.S. and all the European allies. It’s likely that Ukraine could sustain its current rate of fire, or even increase it, indefinitely.
On the other hand, Russia’s production capacity has been variously rated at 20,000 to 70,000 shells a month. And that was before any effects that sanctions may have had on these factories’ maintenance. That means at best, Russia can build, in a month, what it was firing in less than four days. Even if Russia has managed to double their pre-war capacity, they are still seriously hurting for ammo.
The numbers suggest that Russia has relied heavily on tapping pre-war stockpiles and has largely burned through their supplies. As the Kyiv Post noted, there have been numerous instances of Ukrainian forces overrunning Russian artillery bunkers to discover boxes of ammo where almost 50% of the shells were corroded or [ruined] by rust. In a January article, CNN noted that many Russian shells arriving in Ukraine were over 40 years old. That’s a pretty good sign that the newer materiel has been expended.
All of this suggests that no matter how much Yevgeny Prigozhin whines about it, the Russian military is not denying shells to Wagner Group to make them look bad. Russia is simply running out of shells. When they launched their “winter offensive,” they pushed forward north of Kupyansk, at Kreminna, on all sides of Bakhmut, at Avdiivka, at Marinka, and at Vuhledar. Every single one of those advances involved Russia using the same tactic it has used throughout this war and in previous wars: heavy artillery bombardment to support short movements by infantry and armor. Some of these locations, like Kupyansk, have essentially gone silent over the last month.
There may be no better explanation of why every one of these attempted advances failed to make significant gains in the last three months than the diminishing ability of Russian artillery to crush the territory ahead of the infantry. General Mud played a role. Russian incompetence certainly helpd. Ukrainian bravery can never be discounted. However, where Russia has tried to operate without their infantry plowing the ground ahead of them, they’ve generated situations like Vuhledar, where at least two tank platoons are dead on the field.
Russia is running out of the shells that it needs to act like Russia.
It is still true that Russia has a lot more artillery than Ukraine. However, at this point Ukraine is probably getting more shells per month than Russia. If that’s not true already, it soon will be. By the end of the year, the difference may be 2:1 in Ukraine’s favor. Russia may have a lot more guns, but that won’t matter much if they can’t keep them firing. [Video of Russian ammo dump hit by Ukrainian artillery.]
This also makes it seem like those earlier periods, when Ukraine was concentrating heavily on taking out Russian ammo depots, may have been a very smart and informed move. They weren’t just removing shells that Russia could use at that moment, they were taking away ammo that Russia may never replace. [Yes!]
Russia went into this war claiming to have a “modern” military built around the much-hyped combined arms ability of the Battalion Tactical Group. That turned out to be a laughable facade. […]
But the U.S. estimates that Russia’s daily expenditure of artillery is down to one-fourth of what it was just months ago. That’s not just Wagner’s use of artillery. That’s the whole Russian military.
It’s likely because the estimated rate of 5,000 shells a day now represents a maximum of what Russia can deliver through production and scraping the bottom of its old supply closets. It would not be surprising to see that number continue to decline. After all, 5,000 shells a day represents a burn rate of 150,000 a month—and that’s more than double the high-end estimates for what Russia can produce.
[…] Russia has reportedly gone hat in hand to China for a source of ammo and been rebuffed. Now the rumors suggest that Vladimir Putin is having to beg Kim Jong-il for whatever North Korea can scrape together. What’s clear is that Russia is not going find many other sources of 152 mm ammo other than its own factories.
Now the question for Ukraine is: Can it build up the necessary stockpiles of ammunition to support a counteroffensive, while still providing the cover fire its forces need to sustain positions in Bakhmut and Avdiivka?
The federal grand jury seated by special counsel Jack Smith has reportedly heard additional testimony from former Homeland Security officials about Donald Trump’s efforts to seize voting machines following the 2020 election. CNN reports that both former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and former Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli testified that Trump went ahead with plans to seize the machines even though they repeatedly told him that he did not have this authority.
A report in January revealed that Trump had drafted at least two versions of an executive order in December 2021, directing the military to seize voting machines after discussions with convicted former national security advisor Michael Flynn and retired Col. Phil Waldron. Waldron was also the author of an extensive presentation in which he claimed that the voting machines had been tampered with by foreign governments. He urged Trump to declare a national emergency and use U.S. marshals and National Guard troops to manage a “secure” election. Flynn and Waldron reportedly had multiple meetings with Trump and took a “how to overthrow democracy” slideshow around Washington, where it was played for Republican members of Congress, who were eager to participate.
The latest testimony apparently focused on Wolf and Cuccinelli telling the jury that Trump continued in these efforts even though they told him repeatedly he did not have the authority to seize the machines. Additional testimony on the subject came from former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, but this was reportedly given to investigators in a closed-door meeting, not to the jury.
All of this testimony shows that Smith’s investigation is focusing heavily on Trump’s efforts to overturn the election that extended beyond the specific scheme on Jan. 6.
[…] Much of this testimony appears to be new information not heard in either Trump’s impeachment trial or previous investigations.
The House Select Committee did have one of the drafts of Trump’s executive order, one that ordered the Department of Defense to take charge of the voting machines. That order contained a vast collection of improbable and unsupportable claims, including that the voting machines had been altered by “a massive cyber-attack by foreign interests,” that the machines “intentionally generated high number of errors,” and that voter databases could not be trusted because they had been “hacked by Iran.” It also leans heavily on a “forensic analysis,” which actually confused counties in Michigan and Minnesota. The order ended by instructing officials to take seven steps, starting with:
“Effective immediately, the Secretary of Defense shall seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records…”
That the jury is hearing this testimony means that Smith is interpreting his writ beyond the narrow confines of just how Trump’s actions contributed to violence on Jan. 6 but all the ways that Trump sought to undermine the election. It’s also unlikely that the jury would be hearing this testimony unless Smith thought there was a good possibility that it would support criminal charges.
Now that the appeals court has removed another layer of doubt around whether or not Trump could halt some testimony—no, he can’t—Cipollone and O’Brien are also likely to be asked about an infamous Oval Office meeting in mid-December. That was the “rancorous meeting” at which Trump, Flynn, attorney Sidney Powell, and others launched so deeply into sedition that even Mark Meadows reportedly turned away. Cipollone and O’Brien were reportedly first-hand witnesses to that event.
Between Waldron’s military coup presentation, attorney John Eastman’s plan for declaring Trump the winner on Jan. 6, the Jeffrey Clark plan to replace the attorney general and declare the vote invalid in several states, the scheme laid out for Pence to simply ignore the vote in seven states, and straight out calls for violence and threats on Jan. 6, Trump tested the waters on just about every illegal option he could use to make himself dictator. Smith has plenty to look at. […]
A near-century old abortion ban that fueled one of the largest ballot drives in Michigan history was repealed Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, just months after voters enshrined abortion rights in the state’s constitution.
“Today, we’re going to take action to make sure that our statutes and our laws reflect our values and our constitution,” Whitmer said at a bill signing outside of Detroit.
The 1931 abortion ban made it a four-year felony to assist in an abortion. Roe v. Wade had made the law null and void until the landmark decision was overturned in June by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Courts blocked the ban from taking effect while a citizen-led initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution received more signatures than any other ballot proposal in state history to put the question before voters. Voters overwhelmingly approved the proposal in last November’s midterms, making the 1931 law unconstitutional and unenforceable.
The 1931 ban could have been enforced in the future had voters collected enough signatures to once again amend the state constitution and repeal abortion rights. Whitmer’s signature Wednesday eliminated that possibility, erasing the law completely.
“We cannot allow archaic laws to remain on our books under the assumption that they’ll never be used again,” said Democratic state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky. “We don’t know what the future will hold and we don’t know what plans abortion opponents have.”
Last month, the Michigan House and Senate — each with a two-seat Democratic majority — voted to send a repeal of the abortion ban to the governor. A majority of Republicans opposed the bill, speaking out ahead of the vote on the legality of abortion as a whole. […]
ount on The New York Times and star political reporter Peter Baker to ask the really important questions. Questions like: Should President Joe Biden be a little jealous of all the attention Donald Trump is getting as a result of becoming the first former president to be indicted on criminal charges? If you think the part of that sentence following “as a result of” kind of answers the question, well, that’s why you’re not a star New York Times political reporter.
In an article co-written with Michael Shear on that important subject of how much attention Trump is getting versus how much Biden is, Baker’s signature style is fully on display: the cobbled-together “on the one hand, on the other hand” thoughts that always land on the side of things being bad news for Democrats, wrapped up in a package of smug, overwrought prose, in which what attempts to pass for nuance is really just incoherence.
Let’s take a look at some of the more egregious passages, starting with the very first paragraph:
The president of the United States spent four minutes on Tuesday talking to the American public about the possibilities and dangers of artificial intelligence. No, not that president. The one who actually occupies the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is the president of the United States and it is insulting to begin an article with the premise that when people read “the president of the United States,” their minds go to anyone else. And seriously, even among people who consider Donald Trump to be “my president” more than two years after he left office, does anyone read that a person spent four minutes talking and think, “Ah, that’s Trump. Always so disciplined in the amount of time he speaks”? Does anybody think that Trump would talk in any kind of sustained way about “the possibilities and dangers of artificial intelligence”? At most what you’d get would be “in a rambling speech mostly focused on Mr. Trump’s grievances but at times touching on [topic, unrelated topic, and] the possibilities and dangers of artificial intelligence …”
[…] Let’s jump ahead a bit:
The tale of two presidents on this spring afternoon, one quietly focused on technology policy, the other having his fingerprints taken, underscored the unique challenge that has confronted Mr. Biden since taking office more than two years ago. No commander in chief in more than a century has been eclipsed in the public eye by the leader he succeeded the way Mr. Biden has at times. Now with the first criminal prosecution of a former president in American history, it will be that much harder to command the national conversation.
Excuse me? One of these two men just became the first former president to face criminal charges, and it’s a challenge for the other guy, the one in the White House decidedly not being fingerprinted? Did a Trump adviser provide talking points for this article?
Still, anti-chaos may be appealing to voters exhausted by Trumpian turmoil, but it has not historically been a big ratings draw.
The assumption [from Peter Baker] throughout is that Trump is right: Attention is the only currency that matters, and Biden’s team must on some level be delusional to think that projecting calm and competence could ever pay off. Take the fact that while Biden went to Minnesota to focus on manufacturing there, cable news was fixated on Trump’s flight from Florida to New York, and:
The White House was left to make the best of the situation. Jeffrey D. Zients, the new chief of staff, posted an image of the front page of The Star Tribune of Minneapolis featuring the headline “Biden touts investment in Minn.”
It may not be a pretense from the White House in preferring good local coverage with strong local hooks over blanket coverage of criminal charges on cable news. “How great is it to come to a political rally where we talk about solutions and the future,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at that event.
[…] There’s very valid media criticism to be written about the fact that Trump’s every word gets blanket coverage on the cable news networks while the good work the Biden administration is doing is often ignored. Decisions by news executives to air Trump’s post-arraignment speech in full or in part are seriously questionable [MSNBC did not air it]—as during the 2016 presidential campaign, it’s bad editorial practice to give Trump what amounts to free campaign ads by airing his every word.
But while it’s true that the Republican base seems to be rallying behind Trump, at least temporarily, as he came under the possibility of indictment and the possibility was then realized, it’s equally problematic to run with the idea that this in some way puts him in a position of strength just because he’s in the headlines.
Large turnout today in France: 3.5 million people according to the CGT, 1.08 million according to the Interior Ministry.
The unions have called a tenth day of mobilization on the 28th (this coming Tuesday).
Quoted in Reginald Selkirk’s #498:
She’s a literal Nazi (Vice link).
Followup to comment 483.
More updates from Ukraine:
Link. Same link as was presented in comment 483. I added updates Mark Sumner posted at the beginning of the article, and some updates from the end of the article.
Manhattan DA’s office politely tells Jim Jordan to pound sand
More at the link.
Zelenskyy’s nightly video message (Twitter link; English subtitles):
Key GOP chair: This is ‘the best time’ for a debt ceiling crisis
“If it was a bad idea to threaten default on U.S. debt before, it would be astoundingly, colossally idiotic now,” one observer said. If only the GOP cared.
SC @3, that’s good news.
Bad news: Trump Will Hold His First 2024 Campaign Rally In Waco On Anniversary Of Anti-Gov’t Cult’s Deadly Siege
Followup to comment 5.
Posted by readers of the article:
Link
Video snippets are available at the link.
Link
NBC News:
Link
New York Times:
Mother Jones:
Good idea.
Special Operations Forces destroy expensive Russian Zoopark radar
Woman’s toes grew back because of prayer, Missouri pastor says. Website wants proof
Dmitri:
“They still can’t take this fucking Bakhmut.”
Dmitri:
“Let the politicians put their children in these ‘modern tanks’ and send them into battle.” (This one contains a slur, because of course it does. In fact, the only suspicious aspect of the other one is its slurlessness. That aside, pretty accurate.)
“Donald Trump just posted a photo of him holding a baseball bat next to a photo of DA Bragg. This is totally cool, @SpeakerMcCarthy, right?”
Photo at the (Twitter) link. This has to be bordering on criminal, especially as part of a pattern of conduct.
Holy shit. I posted a link to a tweet by a Finnish blogger @ #496 on the previous thread. It was a response to a thuggish tweet from the Russian MFA about Finland’s joining NATO and how ill-advised, hysterical, and Russophobic it is; stating plainly that if the Russians invade Finland they will be killed. Musk’s Twitter has now permanently suspended him. Hypocritical tyrant-ass-kissing fuckers.
George Conway re #15: “Interestingly, this is exactly the kind of post I would put on social media were I a target in a criminal investigation and I wanted to be denied bail.”
@SC #15
I not sure about the authenticity of that tweet. I went to Trump’s twitter and it’s not there.
larpar @ #18, it was on his stupid platform.
Yahoo!/Independent – “Anger as Trump posts picture of himself wielding baseball bat next to Alvin Bragg’s head”:
There’s a photo at the link.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Uki Goñi in the Guardian – “‘No one can deny it now’: death flight plane to be returned to Argentina”:
(Argentina did have an amnesty law for many years but it was revoked in 2003.) Among those tried and convicted – to 10 and 12 years, respectively – were two Ford executives, Pedro Müller and Héctor Sibila, in 2018:
I haven’t been able to find any updates. They would be 91 and 95 now, so I’m not sure what’s happened since. In her 2007 The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein argued that
The Macri “human rights scam” quote does suggest a rightwing turn toward a strategy of outright denialism and conspiracism.
Related to #22, Andy Beckett in the Guardian – “Behind the smile, smart suits and ‘reasonable’ solutions lies Rishi Sunak the authoritarian”:
Also in the Guardian:
“‘Historic moment’ as El Salvador abortion case fuels hopes for expanded access across Latin America”:
“Rahul Gandhi found guilty of defaming Narendra Modi”:
“French strikers won’t provide red carpets for King Charles’s ill-timed visit”:
Guardian liveblog:
The “far right” everywhere (and the boundaries between the far right and the “respectable” centre-right are getting thinner all the time) have learned from Trump that insolent denial of obvious facts accompanied by “scam” accusations, is a viable strategy.
SC @20, On Truth Social, Trump also referred to Alvin Bragg as an “animal.”
As for the baseball bat, I can already see Trump cult followers posting photos of themselves with baseball bats. Very threatening. Very stupid. And that kind of post from Trump is stoking violence.
A particularly bad idea: One House Republican not only condemned public libraries, he suggested they be replaced with “church-owned” alternatives.
This is Trump’s “death and destruction” post that everyone is talking about. The screed was posted on Truth Social, Trump’s anti-truth, anti-factual, bullying platform:
I think that last sentence is pure projection. “Degenerate psychopath” indeed. The rest is a combination of lies and threats.
His rant was targeted at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. See SC’s comment 20.
Marjorie Taylor Greene: “[…] he doesn’t have to say peaceful for it to mean peaceful. Of course, he means peaceful. Of course, President Trump means peaceful protests.”
Yeah, right. He just likes the feel of a baseball bat in his hand while he rants about death and destruction.
Ukraine Update: U.S. tanks will arrive in Ukraine sooner as military dips into existing inventory
More updates coming soon.
100-year-old woman slams Florida book bans and brings the house down at school board meeting Video at the link, scroll down to view.
Excerpt:
Ukraine Mercilessly Mocks Steven Seagal Over Russia Military Report
NYC Mayor Eric Adams Taps Woman As New Rat Czar, Shattering Glass Ceiling
Reginald @32, that’s funny!
In other news: Judge orders Mark Meadows and other former Trump aides to testify in special counsel’s investigation
Good.
Followup to comment 30.
More Ukraine updates:
Link. Scroll to nearer the end of the article to view these additional updates.
From text quoted in comment 35:
That video is funny/entertaining. Here are a few comments from viewers:
A discussion about the tensions between the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Wagner group.
Link
“Kyrsten Sinema Was Worried Some Democrats Didn’t Hate Her Yet”
https://www.wonkette.com/kyrsten-sinema-senate-arizona
Sheesh. Tucker Carlson being even more obnoxious:
Wonkette link
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Brazil watchdog tells Bolsonaro to cede jewels from Saudis
3 fake pastors made $28 million in a financial literacy Ponzi scheme called ‘1st Millions’ and tried to scrub an online article about a previous Ponzi scheme right before they were caught
NBC News:
As expected after all the threats and dehumanizing language coming from Trump.
Trump on Truth Social:
See comments 20, 27 and 29 for more of Trump’s attempts to incite violence against Alvin Bragg.
NBC News:
New York Times:
Authoritarianism (or perhaps fascism] at work.
Roll Call reports this good news:
Link
Washington Post:
Washington Post link
Rudy Giuliani claims that George Soros personally tried to kill him in Ukraine
Yikes! Has Rudy Giuliani devolved into even more of a whacko nutjob than before? FFS.
Elon Musk’s Texas plans include dumping 142,000 gallons of wastewater into Colorado River—per day
Much more at the link.
Cartoon: Future IPCC reports
Tweet (thread) o’ the day.
Jolyon Maugham at the Guardian – “Why I’m joining more than 100 lawyers in refusing to prosecute climate protesters”:
Why Is This Happening? with Chris Hayes – “The Dire Threat of Global Authoritarianism with Rula Jebreal”:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Update to #16: the account is back! (To be clear, I don’t know anything about this guy, but suspending his account over that tweet was ridiculous.)
Even the tweet is back (link @ #496 in the previous chapter).
Bad Baltic Takes (Twitter link):
“Russian losses per 25/03/23 reported by the Ukranian General Staff.
+720 men
+6 tanks
+11 APC’s
+7 artillery pieces
+9 MLRS
+1 Helicopter
+6 UAVs”
Dmitri (Twitter link):
Marjorie Taylor Greene visits future home
The town fighting the far-right with Welsh cakes
Texas Has Been Spending Federal COVID Money On A Big Border Display Of Force
As that money dries up, state lawmakers are grasping for cheaper and more extreme alternatives to demonstrate how tough they are on immigration.
Russian Emails Behind DA Bomb Hoax Amid Trump Probe
By Frank G. Runyeon
Followup to comment 62.
Posted by readers of the article:
Ukraine Update: Russian assaults appear to be declining as Russian tank factories reportedly close
More updates coming soon.
Tornadoes rampage across Mississippi, killing at least 23 people and leaving wake of destruction
Re 16: On the Finnish Twitter account that was suspended a couple days ago (probably without human oversight after a mass reporting campaign organized by Russian social media agents) – the account seems to have been reinstated today after a public outcry.
Followup to comment 66.
Yes, the climate crisis is behind more—and more deadly—tornadoes like those on Friday night
SC @55 and lumipuna @67, thanks for those updates. That’s good news in a way, though I am dismayed to hear that Russian social media agents are partially responsible for reporting tweets or Twitter accounts that they think should be removed. I should have known that was happening.
It’s one week until Finland’s next parliament election, and the political landscape seems to be polarized like never before in my lifetime.
Today, here in Helsinki, a guy reportedly about my age (38) assaulted a much older MP candidate (a longtime MP, a well known politician and the only Finnish Jew in notable political position) in public. He slapped the old man in the face and pushed him to ground and uttered some kind of death threat, along with standard far right babble about Jews and Nato hijacking Finland and so on. Everyone claims to be shocked, yet it all feels so predictable.
The far right (some of whom are running for parliament, not just in the mainstream-racist Finns party but its fringe extremist spinoffs) are apparently trying to spin the attacker as a leftist, because of the Nato thing (the victim is a fiscal conservative whose party supported Nato accession before it was cool). It’s true that Nato remains quite unpopular on the far left, but the types who get really excited about being anti-Nato on social media are usually weirdos who bathe in antisemitic conspiracy theories popular on the nationalist right.
Followup to comment 65.
More Ukraine updates:
<
blockquote>I am dismayed to hear that Russian social media agents are partially responsible for reporting tweets or Twitter accounts that they think should be removed. I should have known that was happening.
I don’t know if they bother to do it much, but Twitter’s moderation system is famously gameable for anyone who controls or influences a large number of accounts, especially nowadays since human oversight has been all but removed.
Well, that’s funny looking borkquote.
Link
More at the link.
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian – “‘Working till we drop’: why women are on the front line of French pension protests”:
More at the link.
LOL – France 24 – “Charles III’s state visit to France postponed due to unrest over pension reform”:
France 24 – “Critics claim Paris using 2024 Games to introduce Big Brother video surveillance”:
Tweet o’ the day.
Weekend with Wackos in Waco: A sizable crowd of Ranch Covidians arrived early to see Trump
American service member wounded amid additional attacks on US bases in Syria
ALP landslide in NSW Oz. A religious extremist in the former LNP Premier there loses badly. Electorate results here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-25/western-sydney-electorates-return-to-labor-in-2023-election/102145798
StevoR @ #82, great news!
:D
More good historic news here and proud of my state for this :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-26/sa-first-jurisdiction-to-establish-voice-to-parliament/102146780
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian:
“Architect Lesley Lokko: ‘There is a sense in Africa that it is our time’”:
“Refugees trying to reach Italy die after boat sinks off coast of Tunisia”:
“Israel defence minister urges pause in judicial overhaul as thousands rally in Tel Aviv “:
Trump’s Waco, Texas rally was a low-effort whine-o-thon attended by gullible sedition backers
AL SHARPTON: Does Trump have an obligation to denounce the rhetoric and what’s happened to Alvin Bragg?
JOE TACOPINA: What someone sent to Bragg has nothing to do with Trump
S: He posed with a bat!
T: He took it down
S: So I stabbed you in the back, but I took the knife out
Aaron Rupar:
Aaron Rupar:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1639861101667012608
Trump speaking about Putin and Ukraine:
In his speech at the Waco rally, Trump also called New York prosecutors “absolute human scum.”
Trump’s message to women: “I never liked Horse Face.” “I am the most innocent man in the history of our country. Friends of mine are saying that.”
“2024 is the final battle. That’s gonna be the big one … I told your great lieutenant governor, I said Dan, let’s not do one of those 50/50 areas, or an area where we’re a little behind. Let’s go right into the heart of it” — Trump on why he decided to hold a rally in Waco.
Posted by Evan Vucci:
Some podcast episodes:
The Bunker – “Does the UK face extinction? – Fintan O’Toole on the Union’s future”:
If Books Could Kill – “Hillbilly Elegy”:
Here’s the Citations Needed episode from 2020 on the movie version – “News Brief – Review: Netflix’s Charles Murray-Themed Hallmark Film ‘Hillbilly Elegy'”:
QAA – “Episode 223: Attending the 15 Minute Cities Oxford Protest with Annie Kelly”:
The War on Cars – “102. CONSPIRACY!”:
Lynna @ #90, MSNBC is falling right back into its bad habits from the past, covering the rally with a chyron reading “Trump: ‘I am the most innocent man…’….”
Parent thanks Utah for book banning law that makes it ‘so much easier’ to challenge the ‘sex-ridden’ Bible
SC @92: AAAAaarRRRgggGGG! I am so effing fed up with the nonsense associated with media coverage of that preening, posturing, orange Mussolini.
Ukraine Update: Is Ukraine developing a 100,000-strong drone swarm attack?
More Ukraine updates coming soon.
Do these CT GOP state reps believe in witches? They won’t say.
Not only is he a superstitious twit, he doesn’t know the law. You don’t have to prove a defendant is innocent, just that the case against them does not prove otherwise. In other words “innocent until proven guilty.” And today, a birthmark would be thrown out of court as evidence of witchcraft.
House Republicans pondering new bill allowing Trump to commit whatever crimes he wants
Followup to comment 97.
Posted by readers of the article:
Dalai Lama names Mongolian boy as new Buddhist spiritual leader
Followup to comment 95.
More Ukraine updates.
Link. Scroll down at the link to view the updates.
Cosmetic brands may have to disclose fragrance ingredients — a welcome change for Canadians with allergies
Natan Sachs (Twitter thread):
The thread appears to be ongoing.
“‘These accusations are completely false’: Biden administration sharply rejects conspiracy theories spread by Netanyahu’s son (and key advisor) over allegations that the U.S. is funding anti-judicial overhaul protests in hopes of leading to his downfall”
FFS.
This Twitter thread has videos of the protests in Israel and updates.
Haaretz has a liveblog – “Chaos Night in Israel: Hundreds of Thousands Take to Streets After Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister.”
“NETANYAHU PRESENTS A CLEAR , IMMEDIATE & MATERIAL DANGER TO THE SECURITY OF THE STATE– headline of Israel’s #1 tabloid, Yediot Ahronot.”
Photo at the (Twitter) link.
Haaretz liveblog:
“3 am– After five hours of blockage, bonfires, tents set up, the police have announced they’ll evacuate the protesters– but the cops are massively outnumbered and it is unclear what they can do.”
NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson tweeted a statement:
Tweet o’ the day.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The Guardian now has an Israel liveblog. From there:
Arieh Kovler:
“Apparently this is the first time in Israeli history that the Histadrut Trade Union federation and the main employers joined in calling a general strike. The last time it happened the British Empire was still in charge here.”
Remember that MP at the Aussie anti-trans rally the nazis giving the Hitler salute turned up to? Not expellled – tho’ suspended for 9 months :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-27/moira-deeming-liberal-vote-on-expulsion-from-parliamentary-party/102148216 7
Haaretz has a liveblog for today:
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
James Rothwell, Telegraph:
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-27/richard-boyle-case-goes-to-trial-after-immunity-defence-fails/102148790
Couargeous man, disturbing story here WARNING : Contains confronting material, animal slaughter. :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-27/pork-industry-carbon-dioxide-stunning-hidden-cameras-730/102094548
“Palate cleanser” jaw-dropping tree and Aurora image from 6 years ago :
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170320.html
Haaretz liveblog:
Israeli embassy in US now officially on strike:
!!!:
Guardian liveblog:
Haaretz liveblog:
The Times:
Link at the (Twitter) link.
Guardian liveblog:
Haaretz liveblog:
(Speaking of education unions, a contract agreement was reached in Los Angeles that now has to get full votes on both sides.)
@ 112
And we can’t get our workers to do something like this when American right-wingers act up because…?
Guardian liveblog:
Former Trump lawyer describes his current legal strategy as ‘suicidal’
Prank exploits Trump’s social media platform to annoy former president
@ 128
Ummmm… Israel? Hi! I was just looking at your policies and actions since the 1940s, and there is something familiar about them. They kind of remind of this bunch that used to pick on your people. You know, stripped them of their rights, forced them to live in ghettos, started killing them. Sound familiar?
No. NO, Israel! I don’t want to hear your excuses. This is EXACTLY how the Nazis behaved toward Jewish folks, and you have no right to whine about “the Shoah” so long as your “Master Race”… I mean, “Chosen People” are committing a genocide of its own.
More bad news for Fox.
Former Fox News producer makes new claims about coached testimony
A former Fox News producer who testified in the Dominion case now wants to amend her deposition — to reflect alleged “coaching” from network lawyers.
A Few Observations on Israel’s Spiraling Crisis, by Josh Marshall.
Nashville school shooting: Three children, two adults fatally shot at Covenant School, hospital officials say
News from Scotland: Humza Yousaf, the “continuity candidate” in the SNP leadership election following Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, has won a narrow victory over the main bigot candidate (transphobic, homophobic, anti-women’s-bodily-autonomy) Kate Forbes: 52% to 48% in the second round of an instant runoff election. In the first round, Ash Regan, also a transphobe, got 11% to Yousaf’s 48% and Forbes’ 41%. Both Forbes and Regan also campaigned on weakening SNP commitments on mitigating climate disruption. The election of either would have meant the end of the SNP’s agreement with the Scottish Greens (which is short of a full coalition but the Greens have two junior ministers in the Scottish Government). Yousaf campaigned partly on keeping this agreement going, but the narrowness of his win may make him feel he has to tack to the right. Regan is widely regarded as a puppet of Alex Salmond, former SNP leader and First Minister, who now leads Alba, aka the We-Hate-Nicola-Sturgeon Party. She could switch allegiance, but my guess is that Salmond will want her to stay in the SNP. He has called for Yousaf to convene a “Scottish Independence Convention”, but it’s doubtful if this is feasible, as divisions within the independence movement are now so deep – specifically, the Scottish Greens would not attend any such convention if the reactionary Alba was invited.
Noga Tarnopolsky:
Ukraine Update: Why sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks is harder than just sending 31 tanks
More updates coming soon.
Quite:
It’s baffling that anyone would report this as Netanyahu backing off. He’s contemptuously doubling down.
Arieh Kovler:
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
More Ukraine updates:
Link
20 Striking Images of Protest Against Israeli Democracy Under Siege
Rare moment of truth from a Fox News host:
Link
Re: Lynna, OM @ #145….
January 6 and all the various cases against him are his record.
https://www.wonkette.com/elon-musk-values-twitter-at-20-billion
whheydt @146, true!
In other news, here is a followup to comment 147. Readers of the article posted these comments:
Caitlin Clark’s magic made NCAA history
Washington Post link
Guardian liveblog:
Haaretz liveblog:
Huh?
From my #150:
“If he tries anything, he’ll find hundreds of thousands of patriotic Israelis who are committed to fighting for our democracy standing opposite him, committed to be the fortification that protects the country and its democracy,” [Lapid] said.
Of course he’ll try something! He’s trying something now! All he does is try shit! What possible element of this man’s statements, actions, or history could lead anyone to believe he won’t try something?
“Tennessee Republicans in 2023:
Banned drag shows
Moved to significantly expand access to guns in the state via a series of bills — including one which would lower the carry age from 21 to 18″
“Former (right wing) Israel def minister Bogie Yalon accuses Netanyahu of crimes against democracy, urges Gantz not to believe in Netanyahu’s call for negotiations as anything but a fraud. says ‘defendant’ Netanyahu only fired the Minister of Defense because he told him the truth.”
Tweet o’ the day.
@10
Anti-Obamacare Law Comes Back to Bite Republicans on Abortion
Guardian liveblog:
‘You chose the wrong person’: video shows more details of Oklahoma Rep. Dean Davis arrest
Russian armoured cars “drive over the speed limit” on Kerch Bridge: minus 5 Russian cars
@Lynna, OM #149
Thanks for highlighting Caitlin’s incredible performance. She did all that while being constantly double and triple teamed.
Go Hawks!
#158:
Well, it is well known that the Kerch Bridge is not the safest place to be. Between explosions and really quick repairs, I’d want to get over the bridge as quickly as possible.
Article: Texas Observer, legendary crusading liberal magazine, is closing and laying off its staff
Mastodon thread: Texas Observer
Article: GoFundMe – Help Save the Texas Observer & Fight Staff Layoffs
Washington Post:
Lawsuit accuses top Missouri election official Ashcroft of illegally blocking ballot measure
New York Times:
Followup to comments 137 and 143.
More Ukraine updates:
https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1640449863572914177
Commentary and updates from Mark Sumner:
See comment 137 for the big snip of text and map info here. Updates from near the end of Sumner’s article begin below.
Patron will be the star no matter who else is in the movie.
The innermost and thus likely hottest* planet of Trappist 1 which we already expected wouldn’t be habitable – remarkable that we can learn about its lack of atmosphere and still hopeful for the world’s further out esp e & f :
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00876-7
Albeit its lack of atmosphere may mean another further world here that does have an atmosphere could be even hotter eg Venus vs Mercury temps~wise.
Whyever does this blog eat asterisks? Sigh. Oh well, y’all get the gist I hope. See also & take II for clarity / multiple sources :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2023-03-28/james-webb-space-telescope-trappist1-rocky-exoplanet-atmosphere/102142158
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “At least 39 dead after fire at migrant facility in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez”:
Here’s a link to today’s France 24 liveblog covering the tenth day of mobilization:
From there:
Also from there – “A look back at when French protesters defeated government reform plans”:
Here’s a link to France 24’s French-language liveblog:
YT link to an interview about the growing involvement of young people in the protests – “Réforme des retraites : les jeunes toujours plus impliqués”:
Also from there, re the far right capitalizing on this episode – “Sur les retraites, la stratégie du double jeu du Rassemblement national”:
You’d hope people could see through this bullshit.
In the Guardian:
“‘Being truthful is essential’: scientist who stumbled upon Wuhan Covid data speaks out”:
Podcast – “‘It’s way beyond just science’: untangling the hunt for Covid’s origins”:
“Putin prepares Russia for ‘forever war’ with west as Ukraine invasion stalls”:
Guardian liveblog:
@ ^ SC (Salty Current) : yes. Yes I would. Many do. But enough?
Yet it is so transparent, so blatant, so obvs.. yet.. for f.. pitie sake.
@166-167 : Not that this is the first Super-Mercury type world spinning around a red dwarf sun we’ve found :
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/astronomers-spy-surface-airless-mercury-world-180972954/
.***
Of course, hatred, nazis, unwillingness to let people, just be who they are in peace :
https://jezebel.com/of-course-terfs-have-found-common-cause-with-white-nati-1839129243
Wildflowers
-Thingsof Stone & Wood song 9
New episode of Jacobin’s Behind the News podcast – “Neo-Fascism in Italy w/ David Broder”:
@My previous comment :D’oh. Wrong song.
This Should be Wildflowers now
Then there’s their Finmgertips
BBC – “Jeremy Corbyn: Labour vote to ban ex-leader standing as candidate”:
Do they have to call him “Sir Keir”? Is that a rule?
Guardian liveblog:
Oh & one old song of ’bout that era for GOTS :
iNsuRge – Time Bomb
Plus :
WARNING : Suicide, self-harm and Nuclear War depictions
A Perfect Circle – So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
Oh &
Major Kong’s descent
Nawal Al-Maghafi at the BBC – “Martine Vik Magnussen: Billionaire’s son admits role in death to BBC”:
Guardian liveblog:
France 24 liveblog:
Noga Tarnopolsky:
(Just as a side note, I don’t care for the use of “defiant” to describe the actions of powerful people like Netanyahu or Putin. His speech in response to a popular uprising against his authoritarianism was arrogant, scornful, and aggressive, not defiant. MSNBC had a chyron this morning: “Trump speaks out amid investigations.” I think “speaks out” should be reserved for people who have generally remained quiet, not those speaking loudly and incessantly.)
Re: Guardian news via SC at 142:
In other words, an almost unanimous vote, after numerous announcements of delay, with Prime Minister Orban handwaving something about the issue being “divisive” in the parliament, while Hungarian politicians and and political experts struggled to explain to Finnish media what was supposed to be divisive about it.
Turkish parliament in Ankara is supposedly preparing to ratify Finland any day now. At this point, Finnish reporters are basically camping outside the parliament building, stalking in doorways and behind windows. Meanwhile, as Turkey recovers from devastating earthquake and prepares for a major election, Turkish MPs could hardly care less about Finland’s Nato accession.
Just in case it wasn’t entirely clear that Orban/Fidesz is playing some weird game, probably pandering to Russia, but only as long as Turkey takes the diplomatic heat that comes from from posturing and threatening to block the Nato expansion.
From Twitter:
The link (with a video) is to a post responding that “If prayers were worth a shit it seems we wouldn’t be having this conversation again today.” It made me think of this NBN episode from yesterday: Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd, Southern Beauty: Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South. The author argues that the rituals surrounding a specific ideal of white femininity help perpetuate a harmful Southern regional identity.
This is similar, and I see it all the time on the HCA reddit: a hostility to any actual measures to prevent needless death and suffering joined to a constantly performed and enforced religious/regional identity based on irrational faith and prayer. And as with the “Southern Beauty,” this is the flip side of the more openly violent elements of regional identity, in this case related to gun ownership and use.
And you can hear the self-martyrdom even in this short clip with the suggestion that they have to preemptively defend themselves from those nasty Northerners. Imagine standing near the bodies of dead children and making it about your own regional identity. (Not to mention that this is the director of a state law-enforcement agency publicly making claims about the identity of his state and region that exclude nonbelievers and even believers who are tired of this whole ritualized performance.)
According to the France 24 liveblog, the unions have called another (11th) day of action on April 6.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN). (Twitter link)
“This may be the most ‘honest’ cop out answers from one of these murder-supporting, kid-killing, ammosexual gundamentalists yet. It should be a dealbreaker. It’ll barely even get noticed.”
The Republican refusal to blame guns for mass shootings gets a new angle
I am just at a loss when it comes to responding to this level of malignant nonsense from Republicans.
Ukraine Update: Western tanks are in Ukraine, but how they will be used is an open question
This article is accompanied by a photo with the caption: “This is a destroyed school at Vyry, Ukraine. It’s not now, and never has been, near the front lines. It’s just one of many locations Russia is destroying with artillery or missiles fired from across the border. 25 March 2023”
More updates coming soon.
Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a disinformation service for hire, and it’s getting much worse
Ginni Thomas backed Donald Trump’s attempted coup. Now the Supreme Court spouse has a new project
“Inverse start-up”? Doesn’t that just mean “ending”?
Followup to comment 190.
More Ukraine updates:
Link. Scroll down at the link to view these updates.
Federal Judge Orders Pence To Testify About Conversations With Trump Leading Up To Insurrection
Good news … so far.
The Red State brain drain accelerates. Progressive students refuse to attend college in a Red state.
Comments posted by readers of the article:
Racist pro-sedition jackass holds U.S. military promotions hostage until Pentagon meets his far-right religious demands.
On FOX News: Trump Confesses that He Stole Classified Documents, Despite Hannity’s Coaching
The video showing Trump saying, “I have the right to take stuff!” is available at the link.
Link
Context:
Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, said “We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. ‘Vengeance’ does not imply peaceful protest.”
MTG was not the only Republican who copied the poster in order to claim that some kind of “trans-terrorism” was being planned.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also from there:
Guardian – “Israel’s Netanyahu rejects Biden’s call to ‘walk away’ from judicial overhaul”:
Norwegian company says TikTok data centre is limiting energy for manufacturing Ukraine ammunition
Guardian – “Twitter to no longer only promote paid-for accounts after backlash”:
More at the link. Incidentally, I watched “The New York Times Presents: Elon Musk’s Crash Course” recently, and thought it was worthwhile, if too generous to its subject. (I’m baffled that the company is allowed to “test” this technology on public roads. Whatever knowledge Tesla drivers had going in, the rest of us never agreed to this trial.) (The next episode, about Joe Mercola, is also worth watching.)
Republicans Face Setbacks in Push to Tighten Voting Laws on College Campuses
Guardian – “Overseas aid budget cut to meet soaring costs of housing refugees in UK”:
From the Guardian UK liveblog:
Just grotesque.
Eliot Higgins (Twitter thread):
Links, etc., at the link.
Former Scientology Member Shares Shocking Story of Forced ‘Religious Arbitration’
Kyiv Independent:
“Poland discusses creation of coalition to boycott 2024 Olympics over Russian participation”:
“Official: Russia trying to undermine trust in Ukraine’s decisions about Bakhmut”:
Kyiv Independent – “Reznikov: Counteroffensive planned in several areas in spring”:
Manhattan Trump grand jury set to break for a month
A previously planned hiatus would push back a potential indictment of the former president.
link
Trump is a private citizen … and yet, all of these whacko Congress Critters are working directly for him.
About time: Senate votes to repeal Iraq war powers, 20 years after US-led invasion began
Ukraine Update: Russia looks to be hunkering down as everyone waits for Ukraine’s counteroffensive
More updates coming soon.
New Idaho anti-abortion bill seriously abuses the concept of human trafficking
Followup to comment 214.
More Ukraine updates:
New episode of Meduza’s podcast The Naked Pravda – “The Russian military’s growing discipline problems”:
Russian spies more effective than army, say experts
Followup to comment 190.
Wonkette:
Video snippets are available at the link.
Followup to comment 219.
As Tucker Carlson’s “televised Nazi transmission from last night, where he warned about all the trans people massacring Christians” aired, Fox News showed all caps headlines onscreen that read “TRANS KILLER.”
As Wonkette put it: “Lies, incitement, lies, incitement, lies, incitement.”
What Liz Cheney, former member of Congress, posted today:
In the replies on that thread there are a lot people who paid for a Twitter blue check calling her a traitor.
What Adam Kinzinger posted yesterday:
As Wonkette noted:
https://www.wonkette.com/liz-cheney-gun-control
Re Reginald Selkirk’s #208, this is from December 2021 – Fair Game – “Episode 69: Claire Headley on Committees of Evidence”:
(They said last August after a break that they were starting up the podcast again in a few weeks and it still hasn’t happened. I read or heard somewhere – maybe on Tony Ortega’s podcast – that it is some sort if issue with the organization blocking it, but don’t really know what’s going on.)
Hoy (El País podcast) – “Madrid Nuevo Norte: el barrio pierde ante la ‘city’ financiera”:
I haven’t been able to find anything really about this enormous project in English beyond a short Wikipedia page and creepy PR from the companies involved. Here’s one piece in Spanish, but the apparent lack of public discussion about it is very strange.
Noga Tarnopolsky (Twitter link):
From the replies: “I would love if one reporter actually asked Biden what the issue is. I can bet my life savings he doesn’t know the actual issue.”
I remember Biden giving a very good speech during the 2016 campaign to the American Constitutional Society or some such about the threats facing the US. He has a strong grasp of these issues.
As Medicaid expansion advances, ACA scores yet another victory
Heading into the 2022 elections, there were still 12 states that refused to embrace the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. Now, we’re down to 10 — and counting.
Link
Link
Not helpful.
How a fake persona laid the groundwork for a Hunter Biden conspiracy deluge
Sen. Rick Scott has a new idea to address school shootings. Is it legal? No. Would it work? No. Does the Florida Republican care? Probably not.
Reginald @228: many layers of fakes. Many layers of lies. It gets to be exhausting to try to debunk them all.
In other news: ‘Get the f— out of the way’: John Leguizamo has a message for do-nothing-about-guns Republicans
This if a followup of sorts to comment 229.
Video at the link.
Here’s the speech I mentioned @ #224 (YT link) – “[American Constitution Society] National Convention 2016: Vice President Joe Biden.”
Follow-up to #163.
More from Monday.
Tweet: Forrest Wilder, former Texas Observer staff
Today, two days later.
Article: Texas Observer – WE DID IT, Y’ALL!
Article: Guardian
Statement: Texas Democracy Foundation
From the same 2016 convention as at #231, and similarly prescient – “ACS National Convention 2016: Sen. Elizabeth Warren.”
“Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one but himself.” (Not prescient in that she next suggested that was why he would never be president, alas.)
“Trump isn’t a different kind of candidate; he’s a Mitch McConnell kind of candidate.”
“Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell want Donald Trump to appoint the next generation of judges. They want those judges to tilt the law in favor of big businesses and billionaires like Trump [sic!]. They just want Donald Trump to quit being quite so vulgar and obvious about it.”
“[Trump’s] aim is the same as the rest of the Republicans: pound the courts into submission for the rich and the powerful.”
“And we will not allow a small, insecure, thin-skinned wannabe tyrant or his allies in the Senate to destroy the rule of law in the United States of America. We will not. We will not. …We are ready for this fight. Because it is time to fight again, as it has been time to fight in every generation, for those four simple words that define the promise of our legal system: Equal Justice Under Law. That’s what we’re here for.”
Asian swamp eels spread in the Everglades. ‘Potentially the worst species we’ve had yet’
Murdoch Engagement Travel Plans Upend Fox Claim Trial Attendance Too Burdensome
NPR:
Disney World board picked by DeSantis says predecessors stripped them of power
By The Associated Press / March 29, 2023
Noooooooooooooooooooooo! – VegNews – “The World’s First Octopus Farm Will Have a Cannibalism Problem, Report Warns”:
Re; tomh @ #236…
From comments on the DailyKos posting about what Disney did, there is–apparently–a legal principle against contracts in perpetuity. Indefinite contract duration has to be anchored to a living person. Part of the Disney agreement runs until “21 years after the death of the youngest living descendant of King Charles III.” That would be Lilibet, who is now 2.
Apologies if I’ve already linked to these:
Annie Lennox, “Money Can’t Buy It.”
Thelonious Monk, “Raise Four.”
My suggestion for Tweet of the day or even longer here – Cathy Wilcox is a superb cartoonist :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2023/03/24/art-is-going-to-disappear-when-the-puritans-take-over/comment-page-1/#comment-2172884
WaPo:
Kentucky lawmakers pass major anti-trans law, overriding governor’s veto
By William Wan / March 29, 2023
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @232, that is so awesome. Thanks for posting that.
In other news: The Same Russian Agents Who Meddled In US Politics Set The Stage For Ukraine Invasion
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
New Fever Dreams – “Meme Court ft. Luke O’Brien”:
Lucid and concise analysis by Joshua Leifer in the Guardian – “Israel hasn’t been a democracy for a long time. Now, Israelis need to face this fact”: “The protest movement will either transform into a call for genuine democracy – for Palestinians and Israelis alike – or it will remain locked in the current impasse…”
Disney:
“discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums ”
Haha, DeSantis and his toadies failed to do their homework, just like for those voters they tried to have prosecuted. I love to see their incompetence publicly displayed like this.
In the Guardian:
George Monbiot – “The UK’s ‘green day’ has turned into a fossil fuel bonanza – dirty money powers the Sunak government”:
“Refugees subject to widespread physical ill-treatment, Council of Europe finds”:
“Migrant deaths at Mexican detention centre investigated as suspected homicide”:
“Jair Bolsonaro lands back in Brazil and is expected to lead rightwing opposition”:
Guardian liveblog:
From yesterday:
Videos at the (Twitter) link.
NYT – “Ukrainians Directing Soldiers From a Hidden Hub See Bakhmut Going Their Way”:
NYT:
After Mass Shootings, Republicans Expand Access to Guns
By Mike Baker, Serge F. Kovaleski and Glenn Thrush / March 30, 2023
Judge in defamation case reveals details Fox News tried to hide
Link
Dmitri:
Subtitled audio at the (Twitter) link.
Republican energy policy is clear in a new bill passed by the House (it is really a take-care-of-our-donors policy):
Supposedly that was their “top priority,” as signaled by the name of the Bill, “H.R. 1.” However, most of their time has been spent on “investigating” Hunter Biden, claiming that the FBI mistreats conservatives, that the Department of Homeland Security should be defunded, etc
Link
‘This is like a movie’: Ukraine’s secret plan to convince 3 Russian pilots to defect with their planes
Guardian – “‘Vulkan files’ leak reveals Putin’s global and domestic cyberwarfare tactics”:
Object mistaken as a galaxy is actually a black hole pointed directly at Earth
Local groups work to give Ukrainian women soldiers uniforms that fit
Followup to SC’s comments 243 and 248.
Manly, War-Winning Non-Loser Vladimir Putin Kidnapping American Journalists Now
Update regarding the Republican war on libraries:
Link
Boebert bloviates:
https://www.wonkette.com/lauren-boebert-dc-public-urination
Re: whheydt @ #238
That’s an interesting wrinkle. This is from the latest story in the WaPo about the situation, How Disney outmaneuvered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
I don’t know why they left out the “21 years after” that you correctly noted is in the clause. Just sloppy, I guess. Btw, the agreement is here, published by the Orlando Sentinel.
Of course, DeSantis (i.e., Florida taxpayers) has signed up Cooper & Kirk, a conservative D.C. law firm, along with four other law firms in an attempt to break the agreement.
Ukraine Update: Preparations for the Ukrainian counteroffensive are looking very serious
More updates coming soon.
Two campaign news tidbits, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Salt Lake Tribune:
Purify the Cult!
Followup to comment 264.
More Ukraine updates:
Link. Scroll down at the link to view these updates.
NPR:
Judge’s ruling undercuts U.S. health law’s preventive care
By The Associated Press / March 30, 2023
A Manhattan Grand Jury has voted to indict Trump. We haven’t seen the full list of charges yet.
Link
Followup to comments 269 and 270.
New York Times:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/reports-grand-jury-votes-to-indict-trump
From Trump’s Truth Social post yesterday:
LOL, LOL LOL LOL
https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1641556043175002114
video at the link
Fox News is spouting word salad like this: “Trump is a bad ass.” “Trump is the O.G.” “He’ll have a mug shot!”
Much stuttering and wild hand waving.
Associated Press:
Politico:
New York Times:
Finland Clears Last Hurdle to Join NATO, Reshaping Balance of Power
New York Times link
Followup to comment 279.
Mark Sumner:
More updates from Mark Sumner:
Link
Gatineau police arrest 6 alleged pedophile hunters
Tweet o’ the day.
Horses came to American West by early 1600s, study finds
Bahrain sentences 3 for questioning Islamic teachings
Ben Collins on Twitter:
From the TPM liveblog Lynna linked to @ #272:
Central Park 5/Exonerated 5 member Yusef Salaam put out a one-word statement: “Karma.” Al Sharpton just noted that Trump will be arraigned in the same building they were.
Sanna Marin tweeted:
Welcome, lumipuna! :)
SC @285, I saw the video that Donald Trump Junior posted. What a doofus!
He thinks that indicting Trump Daddy is as bad as what Stalin or Pol Pot did!?
Actually, it made me laugh.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/31/vulkan_files_russia/
Wonkette: “WHAT IS THIS, A BANANA REPUBLIC WHERE FORMER PRESIDENTS AREN’T EVEN ABOVE THE LAW”
Rachel Maddow hosted her show this evening on MSNBC. She’s not usually there on a Thursday. She made an important point: we are now in for a long, loooong boring time before anything that looks like judgement arrives. Trump gets indicted, and then we all wait while lawyers prepare for a trial by jury, motions are filed, delay tactics are deployed, and so forth.
Still, today was nice. Trump was indicted. Fox News hosts stuttered and sputtered.
Many photos of Hillary Clinton laughing have been posted.
Audible gasps in the Fox News studio were heard live on TV.
Ronny Jackson, representative from Texas and former official liar about Trump’s weight —that Ronny Jackson posted threats, “When Trump wins, THESE PEOPLE WILL PAY!!”
Donald Junior said, “This is, like, communist-level shit!”
Charlie Kirk posted threats.
Lauren Boebert seemed to think Trump is still president.
The internet became wall-to-wall comic one-liners: “After taking my mugshot, the booking officer looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Sir, it has been an honor’,”
“The booking officer saluted me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Mr. President, these are the most magnificent manliest hands I have ever fingerprinted.’ “
Right-wing media react to report of Trump’s indictment
Watters also suggested Trump was indicted for “sex.” […]
There was a lot of repetition of the phrases “weaponization of our justice system” and “banana republic,” as well as many rants similar to Breitbart’s Joel Pollack’s bid for most laugh-worthy complaint: “an assault on democracy far worse than the Capitol riot.”
More at the link.
Followup to comment 290.
Democratic Party responses to Trump’s indictment:
Link
From the TPM liveblog:
Melanie Zanona, CNN:
Josh Marshall:
It’s hard to remember all of the ways Trump tried to manipulate and then, when that failed, intimidate Cohen after this started to come out, and then used his enforcer Barr and the power of the DoJ to try to prevent Cohen from publishing his book and keep him in prison when he was set to be released during COVID.
Judge Hellerstein ordered Cohen’s release to home confinement:
Judge Liman dismissed Cohen’s suit (I’m trying to avoid heading down Bivens and other rabbit holes here…), but also plainly recognized that Cohen’s rights had been violated:
Footnote #6, for the record:
Both judges clearly recognized the corrupt abuse of power at the heart of Cohen’s treatment. And while he was fortunately able to gain release and the ability to speak publicly, it’s a travesty that not only were Trump and Barr not held accountable but the media coverage of all of this was limited and hugely superficial.
They also leaned on SDNY:
There’s a whole pattern of intimidation, obstruction, and criminal abuse of power (and attempts to legally normalize and protect it) connected to these crimes that’s largely been forgotten.
A bit of a problem here: there is no such person as “King Charles III, King of England”. The use of an upper-case “K” in the phrase “King of England” indicates that this is a compound proper noun, and hence “King of England” must be one of Charles Windsor’s actual titles if the attempted denotation is not to fail. But it isn’t. The last person to bear the title “King of England” was William III, who died in 1702. By the Act of Union of 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged into the Kingdom of Great Britain, which in turn was merged with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. There is thus no such person as “King Charles III, King of England”, and the alleged agreement is therefore invalid. At least, that’s what I’d argued if I were De Santis’s lawyers.
Here’s more, from Empty Wheel:
Or to put it another way, a mixture of far-right figures, far-right figures, and far-right figures.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
KG @ #296, LOL, too true.
From today’s Guardian US liveblog:
WTAcultishF.
Guardian – “MEPs condemn Italy’s move to stop registering children of same-sex parents”:
Kat Abughazaleh, MMFA:
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Tony Ortega – “Q patriots buckle up for a wild ride after the indictment of Trump announced.”
Screenshots at the link.
Guardian liveblog:
Photos at the link @ #297.
Michael Colborne, Bellingcat (Twitter link):
Links at the link. Thanks again, Romania, and sorry about all the Nazis.
Respectful Insolence – “Ivermectin goes from being the new hydroxychloroquine to being the new MMS”: “A recent VICE story described a Telegram channel devoted to promoting veterinary ivermectin to treat autism. It has echoes of autism quackery going back at least to the use of MMS (a kind of bleach) to ‘cure’ autism by eliminating ‘parasites’….”
Kyiv Independent – “Southern Command: Explosions in Crimean Dzhankoi hinder Russia’s transfer of weapons”:
For the first time, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has warned congressional Republicans about their possible “unlawful political interference.”
How about that Republican claim that “This type of stuff only occurs in third world authoritarian nations,” or Donald Junior’s claim that “This is Communist-level shit.”
Italy prosecuted a former prime minister.
France prosecuted a former president and a former prime minister.
South Africa prosecuted a former president.
South Korea prosecuted a former president.
Brazil has prosecuted more than one former president.
Israeli has prosecuted more than one former prime minister.
Germany prosecuted a former president.
Portugal prosecuted a former prime minister.
Croatia prosecuted a former prime minister.
Argentina prosecuted a former president.
Commentary:
Link
Many Republicans seizing the opportunity to extend the scam they are running on Trump’s cult followers:
https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1641620245273034756
Video at the link. Lindsey has tears in his eyes.
Ukraine Update: One unexpected factor explains so much about how Russia is conducting its invasion
More updates coming soon.
Climate Deniers Get Expelled From National Science Teaching Association Conference</>
Ukraine’s Air Force now using JDAM “smart” bombs
Commentary regarding some MSNBC interviews conducted after the news of Trump’s indictment broke yesterday:
Link
Followup to comment 309.
More Ukraine updates:
Link. Scroll down at the link to view the updates.
I seem to have eternal winter at my house. More snow. More ice. “Springtime” is at least two weeks late. I cannot imagine fighting in these conditions.
Clueless Republican shenanigans:
Florida’s GOP governor spoke at Adventure Outdoors, which bills itself as the “largest gun store in the world.”
After Trump indictment is handed up, late-night hosts bring house down.
Washington Post link
Yep, Fox News hosts and guests are still promoting violence, though they do try to cover their asses with weasel words and occasional references to “peace.”
Washington Post link
Sean Hannity spent his entire show saying how “replusive” and “disgusting” it is to indict Donald Trump … and then he ended his show with a disingenuous plea for non-violent protest.
Oh, is he actually paying people he owes?
Re: Lynna, OM @ #307…
Don’t forget (former) VP Spiro Agnew.
“Here is an extremely relevant email from Rupert Murdoch after Jan. 6: ‘We want to make Trump a non-person. Fairly easy unless they charge him and he remains in the news’.”
Screenshot at the (Twitter) link.
Legislature on verge of changing death penalty requirement to 8 of 12 jury votes
How not to interpret a poll
Mormons probably like you. Atheists probably don’t
Are you a religious group? No, you are not. You are a person.
An interesting dissection of the dynamics at play on the far right:
Link
Statement issued by NYYRC:
Yep. It’s a cult. Trump is soulless. Also, how do you admire the “gait” of someone who can’t walk down a ramp.
More than anything, the NYYRC admiration for Trump demonstrates the power of the human mind to shape whatever it is seeing and hearing to fit a preconceived notion, or to fit a need for a savior.
People in the cult don’t recognize that they are in a cult. They are good at selectively editing reality.
Followup to SC’s comment 295.
This New York Times analysis of Trump’s indictment is just gross
Angelo Carusone, MMFA (Twitter link):
Mark Sumner:
SC @324, all good news … so far.
Steve Vladeck (Twitter link):
Followup to comments 309 and 313.
More Ukraine updates:
Link
Tweet o’ the day.
https://www.wonkette.com/qanon-people-rejoice-over-trump-indictment
I saw the tweet just before I read your post. Wow. Happy Birthday, guy. Wishing you health, joy, safety, freedom, victory, and peace.
whheydt @318, oh, right! Thanks for the addition to the list.
In other news:
Link.
Problem not solved. Bandaid not holding. Human rights still being ignored.
Good point:
Link
Twitter is scheduled to begin removing verified check marks from non-paying users on Saturday.
NBC News link
Some responses from Twitter users:
Caveats and more weirdness:
HuffPost:
The lower court decision came from some dunderhead of a judge in Texas.
NBC News:
PBS:
What a week – update to #244 – Rolling Stone – “Douglass Mackey Found Guilty of Violating Rights With 2016 Memes Telling Hillary Fans to Vote By Text”:
There are major tornadoes going through several US states right now, including Arkansas and Iowa.
CNN has a liveblog covering the tornadoes.
Giant tornado in Iowa. (Twitter link)
CNN liveblog:
So I made a found poem from the CNN tornado liveblog.
“Live”
a safe place
the worst forecast
high risk days
expected
a major outbreak
people are trapped
cut in half
isolated
completely shattered
without power
shaking violently
debris
you need to take them seriously
when warnings are issued.
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/how-to-think-about-the-trump-indictments-and-find-inner-peace
Re: 279 and 280 (also, SC at 287 – Thanks!)
Whoa, this kind language feeds into the delusions of grandeur some Finns have about our geopolitical importance!
That is, the session was an all-nighter because the Parliament had many items to discuss, and they apparently do evening/night shifts during Ramadan. The ratification vote was remarkably unanimous after Erdogan gave it a green light. The Kurdish party whatitsname was apparently against, but their members abstained rather than voted no (such democracy!).
Erdogan reportedly signed the ratification today. Now, as soon as the document arrives into the Super Secure Nato Vault in the US, Finland will send its own ratification document to be stored in the same vault, and that’s it. Then, on to lobby for Sweden’s ratification…
That last figure should be barely 150-ish km, or 90 miles. But then again, Estonia is also about equally close.
As for the length of the border, I think that’s a poor (if simple) way to describe it. A better way would be to discuss how the population/economic centers and strategic connections of NW Russia/Belarus and neighboring Nato countries are located in relation to each other. For Russia, St. Petersburg and Murmansk are strategically very important (also as far-reaching naval/missile bases), while Karelia is only sparsely militarized.
The Russian embassy in Sweden just made a threat that resulted in some kind of diplomatic row, but overall, it’s been fairly quiet. However, analysts say that if Russia had successfully finished the Ukraine invasion last year, quickly and without much losses, the situation would be very different.
A video shows Ukrainian marines destroying a column of Russian tanks with US-made Javelin missiles
From Rawstory but behind a paywall, so this is the MSN feed:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “Harvard professor’s fossil fuel links under scrutiny over climate grant”:
Text quoted by SC @347:
Putin could have chosen to be (remain) a trading partner with the United States and other countries. He could have chosen to cooperate with goals like addressing climate change. That would have benefited his “Russian World.” Instead, he’s declaring a new cold war.
Putin is using up, or at least crippling, his conventional military war machine thanks to his ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine, so I expect him to conduct his cold war against the United States and Europe with more cyber warfare.
Cartoon: “Ban this.”
Ukraine Update: Battle of Kyiv was ‘the most decisive battle,’ but Bakhmut may be just as important
More updates coming soon.
NAZI update, Ohio:
Link
Followup to SC in comments 339, 340, 341 and 342. (SC, I liked that found poem, creative, but also terrifying.)
At least 7 dead and dozens injured as tornadoes devastate parts of Midwest and South
Across 10 states more than 530,000 people were without power, according to poweroutage.us.
More details at the link.
Followup to comment 353.
The Washington Post is reporting that at least 11 people were killed during the severe weather and tornadoes.
Washington Post link
At least 25 people were killed during last week’s devastating tornadoes.
Followup to comment 351.
More Ukraine updates:
Link. Scroll down at the link to view the updates.
Starbucks and union busting, an update:
Link
Video at the link.
Federal appeals court upholds finding that Musk, Tesla violated labor laws
Link
I don’t think that Marjorie Taylor Greene or any other protestors will be allowed anywhere near the courthouse.
CNN:
Biden marks International Transgender Day of Visibility by blasting Republicans targeting trans youth
By Maegan Vazquez, CNN / Fri March 31, 2023
The White House also issued a Fact Sheet: White House Honors Transgender Day of Visibility (full text), setting out a long list of initiatives of the Biden-Harris Administration supporting transgender individuals.
A quick reminder that The Cruelty Is the Point.
Historic electoral defeat for the Gestapotato in Oz :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-02/dutton-defends-aston-by-election-loss/102176908
Plus :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-02/nsw-premier-chris-minns-won-t-work-with-one-nation-mark-latham/102177210
Also :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-02/tax-experts-climate-scientists-saying-same-thing-allegra-spender/102170828
Lynna @ #353, thanks!
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “Finland begins voting in knife-edge election”:
Speaking of elections… – Wisconsin Law Journal – “The most important election of 2023 is taking place in Wisconsin”:
Much more at the link. The election is this Tuesday, April 4th. Here’s a link to the Wisconsin Democrats.
Guardian – “Two women attacked with yoghurt in Iran arrested for not covering hair”:
Guardian – “‘Cop city’ backers and opponents battle for public opinion over $90m project”:
Much more at the link.
CNBC – “Starbucks fired the employee responsible for igniting the Starbucks Workers United union campaign”:
Anshel Pfeffer (Twitter link):
Tweet o’ the day.
Guardian liveblog:
NOËL (Twitter link):
“A video showing Tatarsky receiving some little figurine before the blast. Telegram channels speculate that the bomb was hidden inside this item.”
(Twitter link)
SC @371: “Fun fact, the explosion occurred in a cafe owned by Prigozhin.”
Ah, so now the “tensions” between different branches of Russia’s military forces seem to have broken out into murder on Russian soil. Hmmm. Not a good sign for Russia. I wonder if this is a WTF moment for Putin.
In other news, All of Trump’s legal woes do not seem to be keeping him busy enough. He continues to promote whacko ideas, like a military invasion of Mexico.
Yikes! What a picture to paint! Seems to be true though.
But, wait! Aren’t those groups supporters of Trump?
It would, perhaps, be more accurate to say that the fascists in the Republican Party are enabling and nurturing Trump’s worst proclivities.
Link
Ukraine Update: Is the Russian military using Bakhmut to destroy Wagner mercenaries?
More updates coming soon.
House Republican threatens to defund the police if they keep investigating Donald Trump
Followup to comment 374.
More Ukraine updates:
Follow up to comment 376.
Posted by a reader of the article:
Re 363 (Finnish election):
It’s past 10PM here, the election result is still unclear/super close and I’m going to bed soon.
All the big three parties have won more seats while being neck to neck with each other. They were also neck to neck in 2019, but then Social Democrats were able to form a majority coalition with some smaller center/left parties that were collectively much stronger than they are now. Basically, the voters/seats have shifted like this:
Far left -> Social Democrats
Greens -> corporate right
rural interest party -> nationalist right
Now, there will have to be a coalition between two of the big three parties. Social Democrats and corporate right might be the most feasible combination. The only other remotely possible option is a monstrous rightwing coalition.
Until 2010s, the rural interest party used to be one of the big three, but they’ve been gradually displaced by the nationalist Finns party, which has also also grown more openly fascist. During the transitional stage, after the 2015 election, these two formed a coalition with the corporate right, and it blew up a couple years later.
UPDATE: It’s turning out that corporate right has the most seats and presumably will lead the new coalition.
Followup to comment 374 and 376.
More Ukraine updates:
Link
Forbes:
The White House has announced that it will not be paying for employees to be verified.
Commentary:
Wonkette link
Justice Dept. said to have more evidence of possible Trump obstruction at Mar-a-Lago.
Washington Post link
Ex-staffer’s emails, texts are guiding investigators, who increasingly suspect Trump went through boxes after subpoena.
Washington Post Link
Frank! (Twitter link)
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Hahaha.
Also in the Guardian:
“Panic and emotional pain as alleged deep-cover Russian spies vanish”:
“Russian police arrest woman over bombing that killed pro-war blogger”:
lumipuna@378,
With the Social Democrats ending up in third place, I’d think a corporate right/far right coalition now looks more likely, but you’ll know better than me. Where are the Finnish Greens on economic and social issues? Parties with a “Green” label differ a lot on those, and your note that Green voters had shifted to the corporate right suggests to me that the Finnish Greens might be centrist if not centre-right.
CounterVortex – “Podcast: Mexico and the struggle for the genetic commons”:
A book he cites and links to is Helen Anne Curry’s 2022 Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction, published by UC Press. Here’s a piece by her at their blog: “The race to protect the food of the future – why seed banks alone are not the answer.”
(The corn varieties pictured there are stunning.)
Yes, and has been not just ever since it was founded, but even before that! (The EU is a successor to the European Communities, three organizations which themselves had a complicated history and were also always just about to collapse.)
MSNBC has been showing Trump’s plane (with his name prominently displayed) at the airport in West Palm Beach at least since 10 AM. He’s not scheduled to leave until noon, but they’re evidently going to breathlessly cover every move he makes until…when? Just hours of free media attention, the day after CBS dedicates a 60 Minutes segment to an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Infuriating.
So, 11 am USA time – one of the many USA timezones – we get to learn who is the crew of Artemis II to the Moon! :
https://www.space.com/nasa-artemis-2-moon-crew-announcement-livestream
@388,. SC (Salty Current) : “CBS dedicates a 60 Minutes segment to an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Infuriating.”
Quite possibly & MTG is sure but imagine if they actually ask her some tough and even brutal questuions and disgarce her? Here’s hoping? Hope they make her squirm and embarrassed and expose her for the evil, disgusting, vile ignorami she is. Well, publically and even more than usual anyhow.
StevoR, it was on last night.
Christopher Miller, FT:
Photos at the (Twitter) link.
LOL. (YT link)
And also in China. Hence the increase in wildlife farming in agriculturally marginal areas. If Covid resulted from wildlife farming, blame agribusiness and the CCP.
Lynna … @ # 376, quoting DailyKos: … [Nikolai Patrushev, Russia’s secretary of its security council] says that Latin America will … invade the U.S. to regain lost territories?
A threat considered factual by much of the MAGA mob.
Did Patrushev say that to juice their glands, or has the Russian/Republican collusion reached the point where the former now accept the latter’s perspectives as reliable intel on the US situation?
Scuffle at pro-Trump rally in Huntington Beach leaves 2 injured
SC @393, that was great!
In other news: Did Trump Himself Rifle Through MAL Docs After Grand Jury Subpoena?
Followup to 388 and 390.
60 Minutes Gets MTG To Open Up About … Dems Being Pedophiles?
Video at the link.
Followup to comment 398.
Posted by readers of the article:
MTG said that while she ws growing up her father listened to rightwing radio all day every day. So she did the same.
These 100 seconds may be the most damning of Donald Trump’s interview with Hannity
Video snippets are available at the link.
Followup to comment 334.
Link
Vengeful Elon.
Fighting the book-banning dunderheads in court … some good news:
Link
Here are just a few of the books that were previously banned:
“They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.
“Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings.
“In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak.
“It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health” by Robbie H. Harris.
Fox’s handling of Jeanine Pirro’s election conspiracy theories reveals the full extent of its corruption
Update regarding Trump’s marks in the never-ending scam sending him money:
Link
Axios:
Jason Miller said the latest post-indictment total is $7 million. No one has verified this. We will know for sure when Trump’s team files financial records.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure allowing Floridians to carry concealed loaded weapons without a permit.
Good news from the White House:
Re: #405
“realizes that signing a bill that lets people carry guns without permits or training might be unpopular with much of the American mainstream.”
It’s hard to argue for that point when over half the states now allow concealed carry without a permit (called “Constitutional Carry” by the gun nuts.) The Florida law allows gun owners to carry a gun into most public places – but not where state lawmakers meet. A Democratic Senator called this “hypocritical.”
Ukraine Update: Finland joins NATO as Putin continues own-goaling himself
According to Politico, Trump has another new lawyer:
NBC News:
Link. Photos at the link.
Trump’s arrival in NYC got minute-by-minute coverage by all the networks. That makes him look more important than he is.
BTW, as a followup to comment 409, the new lawyer Trump hired used to represent Paul Manafort.
A telling detail concerning the growing Trump-related circus in Manhattan:
As reported by Talking Points Memo.
Taking a closer look at media coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris:
Link
Posted by readers of the article:
The Artemis II crew : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-04/nasa-names-first-moon-crew-in-50-years/102183246
On a sadly much less positive note :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2023-04-04/ozone-cfcs-increased-atmosphere-banned-montreal-protocol-climate/102172590
Latest in the saga of the Liberal MP who attended the anti-trans rally where the nazis turned up :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-04/greg-mirabella-qa-moira-deeming-shouldnt-have-attended-rally/102182918
Of course, there was no secret about the anti-trans hate preacher having links to far reichwing extremists beforehand and her whole rally was one of hate and incitement against trans people so yeah. Duh!
Also, yeah, this is a worry :
&
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-04/anti-vax-group-my-place-plan-to-influence-your-local-council/102166182
FFS! These Fucking People.
As the headline notes this group is getting involved in local politics and wants to take over at the councils level so .. yeah, worrying.
Followup to comment 408.
More Ukraine updates:
Link
Fascism on full display in TN as 3 Democratic State Reps are Banned from Committees + more
TN State Rep Justin Jones has been removed from all committees.
Rachel Maddow covered the Nashville school walkout. See also:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
To KG at 385 and anyone else,
I’m quoting my own comment on another blog, addressing the commonly asked question “why did the apparently charismatic and successful Finnish PM Sanna Marin lose re-election?”.
As for Finnish Greens, they are financially all over the place, and so are their voters. There are always grey area moving voters between parties; in 2019 many of those were successfully captured by the Greens. This time, it was rightwing parties who had the secret sauce.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Guardian – “Extraordinarily stressed and vigilant? How racism makes people physically ill”:
More at the link.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
Taniel (Twitter link):
Guardian – “Cotton Capital: the bee and the ship – examining the Guardian’s links to slavery”:
This is great.
The Bellingcat Monitoring Podcast has four episodes now, and they’re all worthwhile. Their description:
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
Bolts – “‘A Weapon by the State to Silence Our Voices'”:
MSNBC is currently running a chyron reading “Trump campaign raises $7 million since indictment announcement,” based on social media posts by Trump flaks, while displaying and reading from his campaign fundraising emails.
Ben Collins at NBC – “Heather McDonald’s on-stage collapse became anti-vaccine fodder, but she’s alive and joking”:
From the article @ #425:
Guardian liveblog:
I think it might already be over.
Scott McFarlane, CBS:
Video at the (Twitter) link.
TPM has an arraignment liveblog. From there:
Screenshots at the link.
Hey, Repugs! Party o’ self-proclaimed Law’n’ordure!* Recall how you used to say “Do the crime, do the time?”
Well Trump did the crimes and so…
Oh & remember too, your shrieks & chants for years and years and decades about Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband Bill before her?
LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!
Repeat x infinity one..
Oh & if Trump isn’t a threat & clear and present danger to your national security and safety; why all those necessary precautions in NYC after, y’all know (even if you won’t admit it or teh scale of it) Jan 6th.
Here’s hoping Mango Mussolino gets mad, chucjks his typical tanty and then gets jailed on the spot and additional criminal charges for contempt of court when it happens.
Soon now.
.* Whose ordure, er, order, umm, both actually exactly?
Related to Lynna’s #416 – Brynn Tannehill (Twitter link):
Good news, as summarized by Steve Benen from a Washington Post article:
Ahead of a criminal suspect’s arraignment, nothing conveys a defendant’s confidence more than asking the prosecutor to “indict himself.”
Link
Trump needs to complete the meltdown.
More Perfect Union (YT link) – “We Uncovered the Corporations Bringing Back Child Labor in America”:
Bolts – “The 15 Elections to Watch on April 4”:
Donald Trump spent arraignment eve calling on Manhattan DA to ‘INDICT HIMSELF’
Posted by readers of the article:
White House lines up split screen between Biden touting jobs and Trump’s perp walk
Guardian liveblog:
Greene drowned out by protesters, compares Trump to Jesus ahead of arraignment
Yep, pretty much as expected.
Washingtonian – “Trump’s Indictment Means Bar Specials in DC”:
Wonkette: “Ron DeSantis Grrr Argh Gonna Lock Her Up Mickey Mouse Now!”
Shaq Kindly Requests Keith Olbermann, Other Idiot Shut The F*ck Up About Lady B-Ball Phenom Angel Reese
SC @440. That’s funny. Glad to see some people having fun making fun of Trump’s indictment.
In other news, here is the Ukraine update: Ukraine Update: In Bakhmut, an unusual weapon put to use with devastating results
More updates coming soon.
OK, “Trump under arrest at New York criminal court” is a chyron I can enjoy.
“Donald Trump’s arraignment now underway” – also very pleasant to see at long last.
Alcohol recovery startups Monument and Tempest shared patients’ private data with advertisers
Reportedly, 34 counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy. Some are saying all 34 are felony counts.
You could have mentioned that Curry will be running as a Republican.
WaPo:
Florida Democratic chair, lawmaker among 11 detained at abortion rally
Hannah Knowles and Kelsey Ables / Updated April 4, 2023
The Stinky Seaweed Blob Approaching Florida Is Absolutely Humongous
Read the indictment in the people of the state of New York v. Donald J. Trump.
@439
I thought the Dems were the party of cowardice and nonviolence, made up of wimps who wet themselves at the presence of guns and would happily let the terrorists win if it meant no bloodshed.
Guardian liveblog:
Reginald @448, good point.
In other news, here are more Ukraine updates:
Another setback for Trump’s legal team: In Jan. 6 probe, appeals court rejects Team Trump’s emergency appeal
Bill Pascrell, Jr. posted this:
Also posted on Twitter: “Remember when you said you only hire the best people to work in the White House? And then they all quit or went to jail? Yeah, that was awesome.”
Also posted on Twitter: a meme showing a day-by-day weather forecast, with Tuesday marked as “Mostly Stormy” and featuring a smiling Stormy Daniels.
North Carolina Democrat Plans to Switch Parties, Allowing Republicans to Ban Abortion
@235
Runaway Bride Rupert Murdoch, 92, Calls Off Engagement After Two Weeks
Great! This means he doesn’t have an excuse to miss he Dominion trial.
Akira MacKenzie #452
It’s not a mistake or a lack of consistency. While it’s always a bit shocking to sensible people, it’s a defining characteristic of fascism:
The Super Mario Bros. Movie review: ‘Lazy and for fans only’
The Super Mario Bros. Movie Stinks
Mercyhurst cuts Carson Briere after video showed him pushing wheelchair down stairs
Read the statement of facts in the case.
WaPo:
By Jacqueline Alemany
Congressional Investigations Reporter
By Jacqueline Alemany
Congressional Investigations Reporter
New IRS leader promises faster, easier tax filing process
Mitt Romney Trashes E-Bikes, Says Adding Bike Lanes Is the ‘Height of Stupidity’
Fox News Mocked After Guest Calls Trump ‘President Fraud’ in Apparent Gaffe
IRS-authorized eFile.com tax return software caught serving JS malware
Oh Look, Trump’s Sons Suddenly Care About Judicial Conflicts of Interest!
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link.
Mrs. Melania Trump has been caught plagiarizing Michelle Obama before.
Good news: Liberals take charge of Wisconsin Supreme Court for first time in 15 years with Protasiewicz victory
tomh @463, meanwhile, Donald Junior posted a picture of Judge Juan M. Merchan’s daughter.
As Joyce Alene posted:
And, Trump gave a speech at Mar-a-Lago that attacked the judge again … and that attacked his wife again.
Followup to comment 439.
A few details that explain why Marjorie Taylor Greene was hard to hear during her short speech in Manhattan:
https://www.wonkette.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-passion-of-the-trump
There was also a guy there who said he wanted to hang Joy Reid and Don Lemon. Some of Trump’s supporters simply walked around asking “What about Hunter Biden?” Some yelled, “there are only two genders.”
At the link, there’s also a video of MTG running away from her own event as New Yorkers peacefully invite her to leave.
A few excerpts from the speech Trump delivered at Mar-a-Lago this evening:
You would think that perhaps Trump wasn’t listening today when
As was noted upthread by tomh in comment 463.
On Rumble’s leaderboard, right-wing pundits and QAnon figures are agitating for civil war after Trump’s indictment
On the other hand, very few Trump supporters showed up to protest his arrest in NYC. So far, it looks like they are talking big, but not doing much. During MSNBC’s coverage this evening, Rachel Maddow made the point that Trump has been practically begging people to protest for a couple of weeks now. To no avail.
Here are some examples:
Very few people seemed to be moved to actually protest. Some House Republicans talked about trying to defund Alvin Bragg, but for the most part it seems like Trump is screaming but no one is following his orders.
Brandon Johnson wins race for Chicago mayor, securing big victory for progressives
The Gestapotato confirms hisna dtheLNP’s racism opposing the Indigenous Voice to Aussie Parlt :
Big news from Scotland, which few here are likely to have noticed: Peter Murrell has been arrested! Peter who? I hear you say. Chief executive of the Scottish National Party until a few weeks ago, and husband of Nicola Sturgeon (until recently Scottish National Party leader and First Minister in the devolved administration). Police are searching the couple’s home in Glasgow, and the SNP HQ in Edinburgh. The issue is what happened to £600,000 in donations to the SNP, which was supposed to be used to campaign for a fresh independence referendum, but which is alleged to have been used instead to pay for the day-to-day running of the party. Questions are already being asked by political opponents about what both Sturgeon, and her successor Humza Yousaf, knew, and when they knew it. Another obvious question: did Sturgeon know or suspect this was coming, and resign (her resignation was unexpected, although there were other possible causes) in order to get her preferred successor into office (he won a narrow victory in the SNP internal election and is now FM) before the fecal solids hit the air conditioning equipment? Further to that, did the police hold off until the leadership contest was over and if so, were they pressured to do so? Can Yousaf survive? Can the SNP? Murrell hasn’t yet been charged with anything; I’ll keep the thread updated.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also in today’s Guardian:
Maria Skóra – “In Poland, the Catholic church backed abortion bans and authoritarian politics. Young people are turning away”:
“Twitter accused of censorship in India as it blocks Modi critics”:
“Fortune of world’s richest person Bernard Arnault tops $200bn”:
Somehow none of this ever comes up in media coverage of Macron’s pension age hike.
Drones aim to undo Ukraine’s Russian landmine problem
The Morning Joe segment about Lindsey Graham is pretty funny.
Ben Wikler on Twitter:
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-05/government-urged-to-release-climate-change-security-risks-report/102191106
The excellent under the radar ABC MediaWatch show on One Neuron’s homophobic hater & almsot our PM Latham :
https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/latham/102182214
The LNP leftovers :
https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/mediabites/mediabites-2023-ep19/102193050
& https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/trump/102182204
Trump in custody at last.
Yesterday’s tweet (thread) o’ the day.
Here’s a clip (Twitter link) of Lindsey Graham on Fox begging for money for Trump. People have pointed out the aural resemblance to televangelists and the visual resemblance to Trump. Remember during the 2016 election when Trump had that whole shtick about being self-funding?
Mediaite – “Twitter Called Out For Labeling NPR ‘State-Affiliated Media’ Despite Own Guidelines — So They Changed The Guidelines”:
Spaaaaace neeewews :
https://www.space.com/newfound-black-holes-closest-to-earth-gaia
Vox – “The viral story of a girl and her goat explains how the meat industry indoctrinates children”:
Guardian – “Nepalese guards airlifted from Kabul to UK now face deportation”:
Francis Scarr, BBC:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. “Well and today it was finally revealed who will save the world from homosexuality. You won’t believe it, it’s Africa!”
Followup to comments 420 and 475.
I like the fact that Brandon Johnson is also a member of the Chicago Teachers Union. He won Chicago’s mayoral election yesterday.
A good summary of why the other guy lost, (excerpted from a Chicago Sun Times article):
Is You Takin’ Notes On A Criminal Fuckin’ Conspiracy?
Link
A few more telling details from Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago last night:
Link. Many thanks to Hunter Walker for watching the Trump speech so we didn’t have to.
Posted by a reader of the article:
Guardian liveblog:
Ukraine Update: What happens next in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be down to a single word: Ammo
More updates coming soon.
Grand jury hears how Trump tried to seize voting machines despite being told he lacked authority
Good news.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer strikes 1931 abortion ban from Michigan law
The New York Times’ Peter Baker strikes again