Fox News sent out a statement acknowledging a chyron that ran late Tuesday during former President Trump’s post-indictment remarks that called President Biden “wannabe dictator.”
“WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED,” the Fox News chyron read just before 9 p.m., as the network showed a split screen of both Biden speaking at the White House and and Trump giving remarks at his New Jersey golf club.
“The chyron was taken down immediately and was addressed,” the network said in a statement to The Hill Wednesday afternoon…
Their response seems to contain neither an apology nor a retraction.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed civil rights lawyer Nusrat Choudhury to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, making her the first Bangladeshi-American and female Muslim federal judge in the United States.
Choudhury, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, was confirmed on a 50-49 vote. She will also be the first Bangladeshi-American federal judge…
Several US federal government agencies have been hit in a global cyberattack that exploits a vulnerability in widely used software, according to a top US cybersecurity agency.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “is providing support to several federal agencies that have experienced intrusions affecting their MOVEit applications,” Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said in a statement on Thursday to CNN, referring to the software impacted. “We are working urgently to understand impacts and ensure timely remediation.” …
…When the facts are added up, it generates a much less cozy narrative that doesn’t fit into a neat paragraph anyone and their AI assistant can crank out on demand.
– Republicans were never seriously thinking about anyone but Trump. He’s been the leading candidate from the beginning and remains so, with an average 30-point advantage over the field.
– The only thing that ever affected Trump’s popularity is the impression that he was a loser, and the only thing that might shake Republicans away from him is the idea that he can’t win.
– Indictments have barely moved Trump’s numbers in any meaningful way, and have certainly not caused Republicans to come flooding back. They never left.
– Indictments have not generated a fundraising bounty for Trump, who has raised just a small fraction of what he grifted from Republican donors following his 2020 election loss.
– There’s absolutely nothing in the polls or the money to suggest that Trump has benefited from being indicted, or that President Biden has been harmed.
The TL;DR version might be simply this: President Biden and the DOJ are not on trial. Donald Trump is on trial.
Republicans aren’t concerned about Trump’s baggage getting in the way of the policies. They love the baggage and don’t have any policies. As Trump observed at a rally this week, talking about things like a tax cut puts Republican voters to sleep. It’s only things like attacking trans kids and tearing apart the government that interests them at all. The cruelty is the point.
Hate is the message. Trump is the messenger. Just as it’s pointless to try and convince Republican voters to vote “Republican light” by having Democrats run to the right, it’s pointless to try to position another Republican as the “reasonable alternative” to Trump. That is exactly what Republican voters don’t want. They have zero interest in “reasonable.”
But the biggest lump of BS in the media narrative might be what that “indictments are good for Trump” is meant to imply—that holding Donald Trump up to even a fraction of the consequences faced by any other American for committing some of the most serious federal offenses is politically costly, and that Democrats are going to pay.
Gunfire is heard in Nova Kakhovka, occupied Kherson region. Also intense artillery is reported since an half an hour ago.
Rogov claims, Ukrainian forces trying to land troops on the left bank. Big grain of salt.
More footage…
Videos at the link – one was just added a minute ago.
Oggie: Mathomsays
and that Democrats are going to pay.
This has been a truism among most news organizations, right or center, for decades. No matter how bad what a Republican has done, no matter how bad the news is for the GOP, no matter how good what a Democrat has done, no matter how good the news is for the Democratic Party, the talking heads, the opinion pieces, the editorials, all point to how bad this is for the Democrats.
Really low oil prices early in Biden’s term was bad for the Democrats (it will rise and the Dems will get the blame). Oil prices go up, bad news for Biden and the Democrats. Oil prices come down, bad news for Biden and the Democrats as it means the economy has collapsed. And, strangely, the pundits keep being wrong. And give the same opinion the next time.
Footnote 11 of Justice Barrett’s majority opinion in Brackeen (on Texas’s unpersuasive attempt to get around limits on parens patriae standing), could have *lots* of implications for U.S. v. Texas (the immigration enforcement case) and Biden v. Nebraska (the student loan case).
Both of those cases involve challenges to federal policies by *states,* which, historically, have not been viewed as proper plaintiffs in such cases unless they’ve suffered a unique and distinct injury (that other states *don’t* suffer). Here’s Barrett reaffirming that principle.
UPDATE: Thursday, Jun 15, 2023 · 3:47:56 PM MDT · kos
This speaks to the main story below: [New map showing confirmed Russian equipment kills]
Each of those dots is confirmed Russian equipment kills during the counteroffensive. The cluster at the bottom is five Russian self-propelled howitzers, all destroyed in the same field. All of this equipment is in front of Russia’s prepared defenses, making it so much easier for Ukraine to destroy.
We often talk about the difference between “strategic” and “tactical” when discussing military matters. The former speaks toward broad goals: the thing that must be done to win the war. The latter refers to the individual steps taken to move toward that strategic goal.
Ukraine has always understood this. Russia: clearly not.
Ukraine’s big spring counteroffensive is in its nascent steps, with just three of its 12 new “storm” brigades in action (and none of its heavy-armored brigades). What we are currently seeing down in Zaporizhzhia oblast in southern Ukraine could be the main thrust, or it could be a diversion. We have to wait and see. But either way, Ukrainian advances in the area are, thus far, tactical.
It is militarily irrelevant whether Ukraine holds Makarivka or not. What matters is that it is an important stop toward Ukraine’s broader strategic goal: driving south to the Azov Sea and cutting Vladimir Putin’s precious “land bridge” connecting mainland Russia to the Crimean Peninsula.
Or, maybe holding Makarivka forces Russia to overcommit its reserves to that advance, freeing up another part of the front, working toward what might be Ukraine’s real strategic objective. The point is, Makarivka (and we’ll talk more about that town later in this update) is not in itself important. It won’t end the war. It’s just a waypoint toward that grander strategic goal.
Here’s another way to look at the distinction: After 10 months of bloody effort, with tens of thousands of lives lost and multitudes more maimed, Russia conquered the city of Bakhmut.
The entire time, people like me wondered at the cost Russia was paying for a city with zero strategic value. Some accused people like me of being high on copium, trying to minimize Russia’s big accomplishment.
Yet look at Russia’s situation now. Has Bakhmut gotten Russia any closer to ending the war? Of course not. In fact, it depleted their forces to such an extent that it has likely made it easier for Ukraine to accomplish its goals. And with Ukraine now making gains in Bakhmut’s northern and southern flanks, it won’t be long before the city is either abandoned by Russia, or it becomes a graveyard for many more invaders.
It wasn’t always that way with Bakhmut. Once upon a time, Bakhmut was the southern half of a pincer maneuver that would cut off Ukrainian defenses on the entire Donbas contact line. [map at the link]
Yet here’s the thing: That southern pincer only made sense, strategically, as long as Russia held Izyum. And that all ended on Sept. 10, 2022, when Russia retreated from the city during Ukraine’s liberation of Kharkiv oblast.
That northern pincer had long been dead in the water, as Russia’s mighty army crashed into a Ukrainian wall at tiny Dovhen’ke. But while tactically Russia was having a rough go trying to meet its strategic objectives, at least they had strategic objectives. A pincer would’ve isolated Ukraine’s formidable defenses in the Donbas, as well as the twin fortress cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, and would’ve ultimately fulfilled most of Russia’s initial war aims:
– All of Donbas (Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts) would be under Russia control.
– An estimated 30-50% of Ukraine’s army would be surrounded, in danger of destruction or surrender.
– Russia’s land bridge to Crimea would be secure.
– Russia could hold around a quarter-million civilians in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk hostage, threatening mass death.
– Ukraine’s allies would apply pressure to end the war.
At that point, Russia would be in the driver’s seat, happy to swallow its ill-gotten gains, freezing the conflict until the next time it was ready to fight again.
That pipe dream all ended with Izyum’s liberation, but a funny thing happened: Russia never developed new strategic goals. The pincer was gone, but the generals in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia never got the memo and they continued their mindless advances toward nothing. Indeed, taking Bakhmut and Vuhledar became the goals, without regard to any broader picture.
Russia never took Vuhledar, and never will. Occupying Bakhmut took monumental effort by Wagner mercenary forces, and then … nothing. It’s just sitting there, and Russian forces inside Bakhmut are sitting ducks to Ukrainian defenders raining death from the heights surrounding the town. If the “strategy” was a one-week propaganda boost, then …congrats? They didn’t even get that, with their victory parade interrupted by marauding pro-Ukrainian Russian rebels romping through Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk border regions.
Ever since the Kharkiv counteroffensive last fall, Ukraine’s strategic goal had been obvious: slow any Russian advances, bleeding the Russian war effort dry, while the West trained and equipped its 12 new storm brigades.
Now, with the tables turned and Russia on the defensive, it has the opportunity to do exactly the same thing: use its meticulously laid and extensive network of defensive emplacements to bleed Ukraine dry and strip it of its precious Western gear. With its fierce defenses of Bakhmut, Vuhledar, and other critical spots along the front line since the start of this year, Ukraine just showed Russia exactly how a strong defense can change the course of the war!
If Ukraine’s counteroffensive falters, it is more likely the West might tire of the effort and start looking for a negotiated settlement. Meanwhile, Russia could use the time to rebuild its tattered and shattered military, train new forces on modern battlefield combined-arms tactics, lean on its allies (and particularly China) to help equip those new forces, and then be ready to resume its offensive six to 12 months down the road.
But unbelievably, that’s not what Russia is doing. [map at the link]
Ukraine is pushing down from Velyka Novosilka, and has reportedly gotten as far south as Makarivka, just above that black pointer on the map above. Russia has decided that Staromaiors’ke, on the black pointer, is important. It is the only road up to Rivnopil, to its northwest, which sits on higher ground. If Staromaiors’ke falls, that Russian garrison up there is cut off and would have to either surrender or be eliminated.
There’s tactical sense in that, if the goal is to hold Rivnopil. But …
This is me screaming: Why would you defend open territory when you have perfectly good prepared defenses just a few kilometers south?
Why on god’s green earth are they fighting up there? Ukraine’s push south has been stopped the last several days because—get this—Russia has sent multiple waves trying to retake Makarivka!
So imagine if you’re Ukraine: Do you push south and deal with Russian defenders in their well-prepared trenches, or do you sit there nice and cozy and pick off charging Russians out in the open? [image at the link]
Ukraine has only committed one or two of its new storm brigades in this axis, and both are light infantry units designed to clear open space. The heavy-armored brigades won’t arrive until they have to punch through that main line of defense. Yet Russia seems to be overcommitting its reserves, out in the open, to plug an approach that hasn’t even breached its lines.
Ukraine’s best-case scenario never looked as good as this!
Elsewhere on that front line, Ukraine announced that its forces advanced “up to one kilometer” south of Vuhledar, likely ending Russia’s efforts against the town once and for all. [tweet and video at the link]
Again, notice that these are light and mechanized (mounted) infantry. These brigades will have some tanks for fire support, but the heavy tank brigades are still being held back, and we won’t likely see them until Ukraine reaches Russia’s main defensive lines.
And while one kilometer doesn’t sound overly exciting, note that these approaches toward the main lines are heavily mined, riddled with ambush points with infantry manning anti-tank missiles. They have to be methodically cleared, and light infantry is the best for this task.
We won’t see any rapid movement until a main defensive line is breached, and Ukraine can romp in the backfield.
[Tweet and video of Ukrainian secondary school students celebrating graduation during an air raid.]
Life goes on, but it doesn’t. Those boys will all go into the Ukrainian military. A good percentage of them won’t be with us in one year.
When Donald Trump was caught laundering money through his casino, he made a deal to pay $10 million and the problem went away. When Trump was caught defrauding people with his fake university, he paid $20 million and the problem went away. When Trump was caught stealing money from his own charity, he paid a fine of $2 million and the problem went away.
All his life, Trump has been convinced that so long as he was able to pull a few more million out of the family vaults, there was nothing he couldn’t get away with. And he’s been right. His deep pockets have allowed him to dodge and delay every legal issue he’s faced, and each time agencies charged with enforcing the law decided they’d rather have Trump’s money than justice.
n the last five years, Trump has only gained an extra layer of protection. Impeached for attempting to blackmail Ukrainian leaders into making false statements against Joe Biden, then impeached again for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Trump was never in serious danger so long as Republicans had more than a third of the Senate. Republicans have made protecting Trump not just a cause, but the cause. To a very large extent, the modern Republican Party exists to create a protective screen for Trump.
Except this time, all the money, all the lies, all the threats, and every chyron on Fox News is not going to be enough. This time, Trump is in trouble.
Considering the kid glove treatment Trump was given in his appearance at the Miami courthouse, it may not seem that way. When 25-year-old Reality Winner was taken before a federal judge on a single charge of mishandling classified documents, the government argued that not only was she a flight risk, she was a “threat to the public.” Her parents offered to put up their house as collateral. Her attorneys offered to severely restrict her movements and her access to the internet. The government was having none of it. Winner was held without bail until trial.
But with Trump … There’s no choice about having your photo taken when facing federal felony changes. Except for Trump. There’s no way that someone facing multiple charges of violating the Espionage Act would not see severe restrictions on their movement before trial. Except for Trump. There’s no way that someone with overseas properties, overseas bank accounts, and a private jet who was facing charges with a possible total sentence measured in centuries would not be considered a flight risk. Except for Trump.
Every time judge Jonathan Goodman referred to Trump not as “the defendant” but as “the former president,” it underscored that in spite of the seriousness of the charges, Trump’s money and power are still shielding him from the treatment that would have been received by any other person standing in the docket.
It would be easy to believe that somewhere around December 2024, after the next election has been decided and a dozen different appeals have been made, the government would simply put out its hand, take another check from Trump, and let the whole thing go away.
That’s not going to happen. Because this time, even those who most want to protect Trump can see the truth of the indictment documents. This time, he ****ed up.
When the announcement came out that Trump was to be indicted by the Miami grand jury seated by special counsel Jack Smith, Republicans did their one job: They rushed to Trump’s defense. From Jim Jordan to Marjorie Taylor Greene to Josh Hawley, they dragged out the expected screams of indignation and reached truly mesmerizing heights of “what aboutism” as they threatened to indict everyone who had so much as registered as a Democrat.
Then the actual indictment was unsealed, and the protests became distinctly muted. It wasn’t just an instantly meme-able image of the bathroom stocked with boxes of classified documents, it was 40 pages of absolutely damning incidents in which Trump, given every opportunity to do the right thing, did the wrong thing. Then he did the wrong thing on tape. Then he explained that he knew he was doing the wrong thing. On tape.
Somewhere out there, a lot of new desks are being ordered for Republican offices to replace all the ones that got damaged by the head-pounding.
As The Washington Post reports, Trump’s attorneys tried to broker a way out of all this over a year ago. They knew just what that kid glove treatment in Miami demonstrated again: If the Justice Department could find a way to let Trump off, they would let him off. They urged Trump to just hand over what he had and put an end to it.
The evidence that this would have worked, and wouldn’t even have required Trump to cut a check, is abundant and obvious: Not one of the charges on Trump’s indictment has anything to do with a document that was voluntarily returned. That’s true of the hundreds of classified documents that were in the boxes handed over to the National Archives in January 2022 after nearly a full year of resistance. That’s true of the additional folio of documents Trump’s attorneys handed over in June of that year after first claiming there were no more documents in Trump’s possession.
Every single charge comes from a document that Trump not only refused to provide, but went out of his way to deny he was holding. He lied to the FBI. He lied to his own attorneys. He lied to everyone.
Interviews with seven Trump advisers with knowledge of the probe indicate he misled his own advisers, telling them the boxes contained only newspaper clippings and clothes. He repeatedly refused to give the documents back, even when some of his longest-serving advisers warned of peril and some flew to Mar-a-Lago to beg him to return them.
The saying “it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up” may seem trite, but in this case it’s doubly true. If Trump had listened to his attorneys, he’d be in the clear. If Trump had admitted to having the documents and given them back, he’d be in the clear. Hell, if Trump had fessed up after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago and simply said he thought he had them all and had made a mistake, there would not have been an indictment.
Trump had stupendous, illogical, unlawful, almost endless opportunities to get out of this—opportunities that would have been given to no one else. The DOJ would have taken any excuse not to indict Trump. But this time, Trump only took all that extra rope and fashioned it into an extra-long necktie. He made it impossible to simply let him go.
This morning, The Washington Post is wondering if Trump “bodyman” Walt Nauta is going to flip and testify against his boss. It’s possible. Nauta was clearly acting on Trump’s orders when he hauled those boxes out of the store room and lined them up for Trump’s perusal. His lie to the FBI was clearly done with the intent of protecting his boss. If Nauta flipped, it would be another solid nail in Trump’s coffin.
It’s possible … but it’s not necessary. What’s already in the indictment is more than sufficient to see Trump convicted.
This isn’t to say that the DOJ won’t reach some kind of deal with Trump. There’s no doubt they would love to be going on to other cases (there was that guy who tried to overturn the election and incite violence … What was his name again?). There’s also no doubt that a conviction for Trump won’t mean what it did for an ordinary citizen like Winner, or a retired Army lieutenant, or an NSA contractor.
But it’s not going to be signing a check this time. These charges are serious, and conviction on even one of them is going to result in at least a period of probation and severely restricted movement. Conviction on multiple charges is going to mean prison time.
Then Hawley and Jordan and Greene can scream even lounder. It won’t help Trump.
Bernie Kerik had a plan to keep former President Trump in office after losing the 2020 election — and he knew how much it would cost. Roughly.
Per an email surfaced in a defamation lawsuit brought against Rudy Giuliani, Kerik wrote to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in a Dec. 28, 2020 missive that he would need “between $5 to $8M” to put a plan into action that would pressure state legislators into throwing their electors behind Trump.
It was one feature of a broader effort to co-opt state legislatures into a scheme that would have seen them try to send slates of fake electors to Washington on January 6. A “strategic communications plan” attached to Kerik’s email indicated he would need millions of dollars to work alongside Giuliani to “pressure” state lawmakers into cooperating.
Kerik is a longtime Giuliani confidante who served as commissioner of the New York City Police Department during Giuliani’s mayoralty. Thanks to a recommendation from Giuliani, he went on to serve as the interim interior minister of Iraq during the country’s occupation by U.S. forces. In 2010, Kerik went to prison after pleading guilty to a slew of charges including tax fraud and making false statements to the White House in conjunction with his vetting for federal posts. Kerik was pardoned by Trump in 2020.
The message with Kerik’s multimillion-dollar ask and strategic plan emerged in a defamation lawsuit that Giuliani faces brought by two Georgia poll workers, Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman….
This new email is further indication of how the efforts to overturn the election were intertwined with requests for cash — and the eye popping sums that were involved….
For months, the BBC has been communicating in secret with three North Koreans living in the country. They expose, for the first time, the disaster unfolding there since the government sealed the borders more than three years ago.
Starvation, brutal crackdowns, and no chance to escape.
Round the cycle turns. As millions are driven from their homes by climate disasters, the extreme right exploits their misery to extend its reach. As the extreme right gains power, climate programmes are shut down, heating accelerates and more people are driven from their homes. If we don’t break this cycle soon, it will become the dominant story of our times.
A recent paper in the scientific journal Nature identifies the “human climate niche”: the range of temperatures and rainfall within which human societies thrive. We have clustered in the parts of the world with a climate that supports our flourishing, but in many of these places the niche is shrinking. Already, around 600 million people have been stranded in inhospitable conditions by global heating. Current global policies are likely to result in about 2.7C of heating by 2100. On this trajectory, some 2 billion people may be left outside the niche by 2030, and 3.7 billion by 2090. If governments limited heating to their agreed goal of 1.5C, the numbers exposed to extreme heat would be reduced fivefold. But if they abandon their climate policies, this would lead to around 4.4C of heating. In this case, by the end of the century around 5.3 billion people would face conditions that ranged from dangerous to impossible.
These conditions include extreme disruption, morbidity and death through heat-shock, water stress, crop failure and the spread of infectious disease. The figures do not take into account the effect of rising sea levels, which could displace hundreds of millions more.
…
India, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and central America face extreme risk. Weather events such as massive floods and intensified cyclones and hurricanes will keep hammering countries such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Haiti and Myanmar. Many people will have to move or die.
In the rich world we still have choices: we can greatly limit the damage caused by environmental breakdown, for which our nations and citizens are primarily responsible. But these choices are being deliberately and systematically shut down. Culture war entrepreneurs, often funded by billionaires and commercial enterprises, cast even the most innocent attempts to reduce our impacts as a conspiracy to curtail our freedoms. Everything becomes contested: low-traffic neighbourhoods, 15-minute cities, heat pumps, even induction hobs. You cannot propose even the mildest change without a hundred professionally outraged influencers leaping up to announce: “They’re coming for your …” It’s becoming ever harder, by design, to discuss crucial issues such as SUVs, meat-eating and aviation calmly and rationally.
…
As governments turn rightwards, they shut down policies designed to limit climate breakdown. There’s no mystery about why: hard-right and far-right politics are the defensive wall erected by oligarchs to protect their economic interests.…
In some cases, the cycle plays out in one place. Florida, for example, is one of the US states most prone to climate disaster, especially rising seas and hurricanes. But its governor, Ron DeSantis, is building his bid for the presidency on the back of climate denial. On Fox News, he denounced climate science as “politicisation of the weather”. At home, he has passed a law forcing cities to continue using fossil fuels. He has slashed taxes, including the disaster preparedness sales tax, undermining Florida’s capacity to respond to environmental crises. But the hard right thrives on catastrophe, and again you get the sense that it can scarcely lose.
…
It is easy to whip up fascism. It’s the default result of political ignorance and its exploitation. Containing it is much harder, and never-ending. The two tasks – preventing Earth systems collapse and preventing the rise of the far right – are not divisible. We have no choice but to fight both forces at once.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley claimed on the Senate floor that the foreign national who allegedly bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter has 17 audio recordings of their conversations, but questioned whether those tapes even existed in an interview with CNN days later…
The worst inflation in 40 years has been quite the ride for consumers over the last two years, and recently, it’s even helped the unthinkable become increasingly mainstream. Some economists are asking: Are consumers actually getting ripped off? This once fringe economic hypothesis has captured headlines more and more this year amid persistent inflation, even if it usually goes by another name. After years of being labeled a conspiracy theory, some economists believe that “greedflation” or, to put it the way an early prognosticator defined it: “profit-led inflation,” is to blame for at least part of the recent rise in consumer prices.
[. . . ]
The third wave of inflation, the one we’re getting now, is this unusual profit-led inflation story,” Donovan went on to explain. “This occurs where firms towards the end of the supply chain, so that’s consumer facing companies or near consumer facing companies, increase margins and pretend it’s all due to costs and other factors. They sneak in a margin increase.”
Donovan was one of the first on Wall Street to argue that “profit-led” inflation has been a serious thorn in the side of the Fed as it tries to return price stability to the economy back in March. And on Thursday, he pointed to evidence for his view in the “rise in retail profits as a share of GDP.” Retail profits surged 86% between the first quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2022, according to Fed data, while GDP rose roughly 20% over the same period. That’s all consumer-facing greedflation.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Another day, another childish tantrum. He really has no clue, does he?
SO NOW THAT EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS THAT THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, PLUS THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, TOTALLY EXONERATED ME FROM THE CONTINUING WITCH HUNT BROUGHT ON BY CORRUPT JOE BIDEN, THE DOJ, DERANGED JACK SMITH, AND THEIR RADICAL LEFT, MARXIST THUGS, WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST ME, APOLOGIZE, AND RETURN EVERYTHING THAT WAS ILLEGALLY TAKEN (FOURTH AMENDMENT) FROM MY HOME? THIS WAS NOTHING OTHER THAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!
Reginald Selkirksays
@19: Prosecutors will be carefully watching all of Trump’s tweets: “Is he confessing anything new today?”
Oggie: Mathomsays
AND RETURN EVERYTHING THAT WAS ILLEGALLY TAKEN (FOURTH AMENDMENT) FROM MY HOME?
So if I were to go somewhere and steal some government property (I do know some places where it would be ridiculously easy (not classified shit, but other stuff)), and put it in my home, then, according to Trump, for law enforcement to remove the stolen goods from my home would violate the 4th Amendment? How is recovering stolen goods unreasonable search and seizure? By the Seven Levels of Purple Plupefect Hell, I think Trump really does believe that all the official papers from his Presidency (even the papers pulled out of the toilet, or the ones taped back together) actually belong to him.
And he deserves to be mocked (the Twitter (bleah) captures in the article are good). Can you imagine the damage these asshats could do if they were actually smart and/or competent? Also, considering that most of these GOP asshats come from weathy/upper middle class families and have been to college, it makes me realize that, with enough money, any idiot can get a law degree.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) tried to hit President Joe Biden with his best shot on Thursday, but got his critics all fired up instead.
Cruz attempted to explain why Biden is so invincible in the Senate, saying it’s because of loyalty from Democratic lawmakers.
But his explanation somehow involved devil costumes, the full moon, child murder and Roll Hall of Famer Pat Benatar:
Ted Cruz: “I don’t think Senate Democrats, if you had video of Joe Biden murdering children dressed as the devil under a full moon while singing Pat Benatar, they still wouldn’t vote to convict.”
Cruz may have been referring to Benatar’s 1980 track “Hell Is For Children,” which caused the song’s title to trend on Twitter.
But the lyrics aren’t about the devil claiming children, as Cruz seems to think.
Vladimir Putin is threatening the nuke the world once again as a close ally confirmed Russia stands ready to use devastating missiles if necessary.
Putin announced shortly after the start of his “special operation” in Ukraine last year that his nuclear arsenal was on high alert and could be deployed immediately if necessary.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, and close Putin ally, Maria Zakharova reiterated Moscow is prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its interests.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Zakharova said: “Russia’s nuclear deterrence policy is strictly defensive.
“The hypothetical use of nuclear weapons is clearly limited by extraordinary circumstances within the framework of strictly defensive purposes.” […]
An undersea tunnel could one day connect Europe’s high-speed rail network to north Africa under plans revived by the Spanish and Moroccan governments.
Spain on Friday confirmed €2.3 million (£2 million) in funding for a design study on the Gibraltar strait fixed link – a planned railway tunnel linking the country with Morocco.
It comes after the two governments said in April they wanted to re-launch the mothballed project, which has been on ice since 2009.
The so-called “Europe-Africa Gibraltar strait fixed link” could resemble the Channel Tunnel between Dover and Calais and bridge the nine-mile continental divide…
As the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, Laughlin filed a lawsuit last year against the Erie Reader alleging that he had been defamed in an opinion column published by the newspaper.
The lawsuit opened up Laughlin to discovery — and wound up churning up several emails related to former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to get Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in their state.
Among the most notable communications was between Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano and then-One America News anchor Christina Bobb, who has since become part of Trump’s legal team.
Mastriano, a staunch Trump ally who last year failed to win his race to become Pennsylvania’s governor despite Trump’s support, told Bobb that he was worried about Trump’s proposals to have state legislatures throw out certified election results, as other Republicans had told him such a scheme would be “illegal.”
The emails reveal that Trump personally called Mastriano to push him on the legality of the scheme and gave him materials that falsely accused Dominion Voting Systems of rigging the election for Biden.
Other emails show that Laughlin was not happy about some of the actions that fellow Republicans were taking to get Trump back into the White House, including an attempt by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) to get every single mail-in ballot thrown out.
“We’re not saying a word on this crap,” Laughlin wrote in December of 2020. “Mike Kelly is hurting our party right now.>/blockquote>
And I am gob smacked that even Mastriano, the poster child for Christian Nationalist Fascism, recognized that Trump’s election theft ideas may be illegal.
Enough Republican members showed up in the Oregon Senate on Thursday to end a six-week walkout that halted the work of the Legislature and blocked hundreds of bills, including some on abortion, transgender health care and gun safety.
In other news, this is a followup to Reginald @3: Nusrat Choudhury received zero votes from Senate Republicans, which is just a disgraceful showing on the part of Republicans. She was confirmed to the federal judgeship on a 50-49 vote.
Part of what he said is just a straight up confession. It’s not a defense, it’s just confession. Part is a legal argument that is just not the law. The, “I did not know what was in the boxes,” is disproved by his voice on tape. […]
The House Appropriations Committee made it official this week, moving forward with massive funding cuts, giving in to the 11 Republicans in and allied with the Freedom Caucus, and reneging on the budget agreement House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made with President Joe Biden. They set a spending cap that’s $119 billion less than what was agreed to in that debt ceiling deal, and about $130 billion less than current funding.
That means funding cuts from one-quarter to one-third to everything but defense, military, and VA construction, as well as homeland security, which the Republicans exempted from cuts. In typical vengeful fashion, they are proposing a 59% cut in the financial services appropriations bill, which funds the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President, the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and a few dozen independent agencies.
The proposal Republicans put forward wouldn’t only cut next years’ funding: It would also claw back $115 billion that has already been enacted for a variety of departments and agencies, including the EPA, Department of Agriculture, and the IRS. That money would be plowed into restarting the ridiculous border wall project and other border security measures, as well as “fending off Chinese aggression.”
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Republicans for letting the 11 members run the show, and for setting the stage for what looks to be an inevitable government shutdown. “Why did we try avoiding a default to make sure that America pays its bills with a topline spending agreement? What was it all for? Because now all we’re engaging in is right-wing theater […] And Democrats will not let it happen.”
For the extremists who are controlling the Republicans, “shutting down the government is in their DNA,” he said Thursday. “They don’t care about government. And so what we see right now, taking place in the appropriations process, is perhaps an effort by some extreme MAGA Republicans to drive us toward a government shutdown,” Jeffries told reporters. “And that’s a shame.”
Just to rub Democrats’ noses in these ridiculous cuts, the Republicans also screwed Democrats on earmarks, the district-specific funding requests individual members make. Republicans made fewer requests than Democrats, but are getting almost three times as much funding approved. In like-for-like comparisons, a fire station project in a Republican district in Ohio is getting $2.25 million, while one in a Democrat’s district in Massachusetts is getting $1 million. A library improvement project in a Republican district in Pennsylvania is getting $5 million, while one in Democratic New Hampshire is just getting $1 million.
In the set of earmarks for the Homeland Security appropriation bill, Republican Congressman Trent Kelly of Mississippi got $3 million for a DeSoto County Operations Center project, while Democratic Congressman Andy Kim of New Jersey got only $637,195 for a similar project in his district. In Michigan, an earmark to replace lead service lines in St. Charles, Michigan, represented by Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, got $1 million, but a water infrastructure improvements project in Indiantown, Florida, in Republican Congressman Brian Mast’s district, got $3 million.
These kind of snubs toward Democrats are only going to make it harder for McCarthy to avoid a shutdown. Democrats will not be willing to help him or Republicans out at all, and will be happy to let him own the shutdown when the Senate refuses to go along with the extremists’ tantrum.
Even Republicans on the Senate side reject the House antics. They are working with the majority Democrats to abide by the funding agreement in the debt ceiling deal. […]
[…] a well-founded worry that they’re going to be dragged along into a shutdown. The Republicans could easily take the Senate back in 2024, with a very tough map for Democrats. They are watching an out-of-control House sabotage that effort.
The clear answer for the majority of Republicans who don’t want to be swept up in this chaos is to forcefully reject it. They have the numbers to tell the extremists to pound sand, and to force McCarthy to make concessions to them—when pigs fly.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
A delegation of African leaders began a peace mission in Kyiv on Friday, undeterred by what Ukraine said was a barrage of Russian missiles intended to greet them in the Ukrainian capital.
There’s an issue with their plane (which flew into Poland) and they seem annoyed.
Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia has delivered its first tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
“This is a deterrence measure,” the Russian president said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.
Russian and Belarusian military officials signed a pact in May that provides for Moscow to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on foreign soil is Russia’s first since 1991….
Minneapolis police use excessive force and discriminate against Black and Native Americans
The Minneapolis police force use excessive force and discriminate against marginalized groups, including Black and Native Americans and people with behavioral issues, attorney general Merrick Garland said as he announced the findings of the justice department’s investigation following George Floyd’s death.
“We found that MPD … engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, unlawfully discriminating against Black and Native American people in enforcement activities, violating the rights of people engaged in protected speech and discriminating against people with behavioral disabilities and … when responding to them in crisis,” Garland said.
Garland also said the justice department and the city of Minneapolis “have agreed in principle to negotiate towards a consent decree”.
That the sort of agreement federal prosecutors reach with cities to reform their police departments following investigations into how they interact with the community.
“We observed many MPD officers who did their difficult work with professionalism, courage and respect. But the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible,” Garland said. “As one city leader told us, ‘these systemic issues didn’t just occur on May 25 2020. There were instances like that, that were being reported by the community long before that.’”
Garland then got into the specifics of what the justice department determined the Minneapolis police did, including instances of brutal treatment of citizens and racist language.
“We found that the Minneapolis police department routinely uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust, deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers,” the attorney general said. He related a 2017 incident in which a police officer fatally shot a woman, who an officer said “‘spooked him’ when she approached his squad car. The woman had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in a nearby alley.”
Garland said Minneapolis police “routinely disregard the safety of people in their custody”.
“Our review found numerous incidents in which MPD officers responded to a person’s statement that they could not breathe with a version of ‘you can breathe. You’re talking right now.’”
The attorney general also related a story of four Somali American teens who were stopped by police. “One officer told the teens, ‘do you remember what happened in Black Hawk Down, when we killed a bunch of your folk? I’m proud of that. We didn’t finish the job over there. If we had, you guys wouldn’t be over here right now.’” The comments were a reference to a 1993 battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, involving US special forces.
“Such conduct is deeply disturbing, and it erodes the community’s trust in law enforcement,” Garland said.
The Minneapolis police also beat up reporters, Garland said.
“One officer approached a journalist who was filming while holding up his press credential and shouting, ‘I’m press.’ The officer … forcefully pushed the journalist’s head to the pavement … and when the journalist held up his press credential again, an MPD sergeant pepper sprayed him in the face and walked away.”
[Kristen] Clarke elaborated further on the investigation’s finding that Minneapolis police discriminated against Black and Native American people:
We found that MPD disproportionately stops Black people and Native American people. During stops involving Black and Native American people, MPD performs searches more frequently than during stops involving white people, even when they behave in similar ways. MPD also … uses force during stops involving Black and Native American people more frequently than they do during stops involving white people, even when they behave in similar ways.
The determination came after a deep analysis of police data, Clarke said. “We reviewed over five years of MPD data from November 1 of 2016 to August 9 of 2022 on roughly 187,000 traffic and pedestrian stops. We also conducted interviews and ride alongs and we reviewed other documents and information that the city provided.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey took the podium to remark on the justice department’s findings.
“Today marks a new chapter in the history of public safety in Minneapolis,” Frey said.
“Our success won’t be relegated to a report. It won’t be relegated to compliance figures or a judge’s signature,” Frey vowed. “Our success will be defined by the people of Minneapolis feeling safe in fact feeling safer when interacting with police in our city. We are not going to stop until every single person in every single neighborhood and zip code will feel safe interacting with the police.”
After all that, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara spoke to reporters.
“We are incredibly thankful for the deep dive assessment that the United States department of justice has done on behalf of the people of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis police department,” O’Hara said. “We acknowledge the pain, anger, frustration, fear and sense of vulnerability that many people in our community have endured.”
He continued: “Our goal is to move forward together and ensure that we provide the best possible policing services for all members of our community. I promise you today that our department will be transparent and will provide an ongoing accounting of our successes as well as our challenges while at the same time continuing our dedicated efforts to keep all people of Minneapolis safe and secure, today and tomorrow.”
“Out of the darkness and trauma our residents and our police officers have experienced over the last three years, we will emerge as a beacon of light for the rest of the world,” O’Hara concluded.
The centre of the fighting in Ukraine has switched to the road to Mariupol where the Ukrainian offensive is slowly pushing back Russian forces, with British Challenger tanks ready to join battle, a minister in Kyiv has said.
Hanna Maliar, a deputy defence minister, said the most active fighting was no longer around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, but in the south and specifically in the direction of the two coastal cities of Berdiansk and Mariupol.
“If the first week the epicentre was the east, now we see that the fighting is moving to the south and now we see the most active areas are Berdiansk and Mariupol,” Maliar said.
“In the east, the enemy has turned on all the forces to stop our offensive. And they are massing forces there to stop us. In the south they are not very successful.”
The movement towards Mariupol, infamous for the devastation visited upon it in the first months of the full-scale invasion, is still incremental, with the front said to have been pushed back by about a kilometre.
A broad coalition of groups in Atlanta has launched a referendum to give voters a chance to say whether they want the controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” built in a forest southeast of the city.
The effort requires organizers to collect about 70,000 signatures from Atlanta registered voters in 60 days. Then the question of the city canceling its agreement with the Atlanta Police Foundation to build the $90m center can be added to municipal election ballots in November.
The push comes after an estimated thousand people who showed up at City Hall on 5 June proved insufficient to stop Atlanta’s city council from approving some $67m for Cop City. Meanwhile, machines have already begun clear-cutting trees on the project’s 171-acre footprint in South River Forest.
The referendum faces what one organizer called “an atmosphere of repression” – including two activists being charged with felonies last week while putting up fliers, bringing total arrests since December to 50.
The largest group of arrests, on 5 March in a public park in the forest near where the project is planned, was followed by local government closing the park, effectively shutting off tree-sitting protests by “forest defenders” that had gone on for more than a year.
“We’re at the stage where they’ve pushed people out of the forest, they’ve arrested people … they’ve fenced off the forest, they’ve even begun clear-cutting,” said Kamau Franklin, founder of local group Community Movement Builders. “We’re at the stage where the most direct, legal mechanism to stop this project is by referendum.”
Cop City came to global attention after police shot dead Manuel Paez Terán, an environmental protester, in a January raid on the forest – the first incident of its kind in US history. The state says Paez Terán shot first and a special prosecutor is evaluating the case.
Meanwhile, the movement opposing the project has drawn a wide range of people locally, nationally and internationally who oppose police militarization, urban forest destruction amid climate change and environmental racism. Most residents in neighborhoods surrounding the forest are Black.
Most of the organizations driving the referendum are also Black-led, including the regional chapter of Working Families Power, Black Voters Matter and the NAACP. Officials from Georgia governor Brian Kemp down to the mayor have consistently referred to opposition against the center as the work of white “outsiders”.
“That narrative is false,” said Britney Whaley, regional director of Working Families Power. “This has been national, but it’s also been community-grown for a few years now.”
…
Organizers of the Cop City referendum pointed to the state’s heavy-handed approach to protesters as a primary concern. There have been 42 domestic terrorism charges to date. A bail and legal defense fund’s members were also arrested and the state added fundraising to its criminal description of the training center’s opposition.
In that context, it took about a dozen attempts at finding a legally-required fiscal sponsor for the referendum, which may need as much as $3.5m to reach success, said spokesperson Paul Glaze.
Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter – one of two organizations that agreed to take the sponsorship role – said the recent Atlanta Solidarity Fund arrests were done “to send a message, in hopes it would have a chilling effect. We’re not naive about what the threats are – but we believe our community cares about this issue.”
Getting into Atlanta’s communities will take a massive campaign, said Mary Hooks, national field secretary for Movement for Black Lives and part of the team overseeing the signature gathering. Hooks hopes to get canvassers into at least 200 of the city’s 243 neighborhoods, and said more than 3,000 volunteers had already signed up.
“This is an opportunity to protect direct democracy … when so many people are being left out,” she said.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday questioned why a visiting delegation of African leaders planned to travel to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin after a Russian missile strike overshadowed their visit to Kyiv.
“…This is their decision, how logical it is, I don’t really understand,” he was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters at a joint news conference with the African leaders.
…The incredibly heavy-handed response from those in power just shows how concerned they are about how effective we can be at successfully preventing deportations, immigration raids, evictions, stop and search, new fossil fuel extraction and arms production. As the saying goes: direct action gets the goods. We must continue this resistance.
Carrie Johnson recently confirmed she was expecting her third child, and I wish her stamina. At one point I also had three children under the age of three-and-a-half, and can confirm it’s quite a handful. However, at least I was not also married to a toddler at the time….
An Indian court has blocked the screening of an Al Jazeera documentary about the country’s Muslim minority, fuelling fears that the right to criticise the government is being eroded….
Their button-up shirts and chinos have prompted mockery but experts say the far-right group is becoming increasingly violent…
(The India piece has the the “fueling fears” trope; in this one it’s the cut-&-paste “There has been a rise in white nationalism and far-right politics in countries around the world in recent years,” itself related to the dynamic described in #s 5 and 7 above.)
Tuesday night was an unusual evening in domestic politics. On the one hand, President Joe Biden delivered remarks at a White House event celebrating the Juneteenth holiday. On the other hand, his immediate predecessor simultaneously delivered a series of strange lies to a group of supporters in the wake of his federal criminal indictment.
The circumstances surrounding the split-screen were jarring enough, but Fox News viewers saw something far more outlandish. As NBC News reported, around 9 p.m. ET, Fox viewers saw all-caps text at the bottom of the screen that read: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.”
I’m mindful of the fact that all kinds of manipulated images are often circulated online, but this one was real: Fox News actually featured this on-air graphic. [Tweet and image at the link]
Part of the problem, of course, was the bizarre lack of professionalism and absence of standards, but making matters worse was the fact that the underlying allegation was utterly bonkers: Whether one loves or hates the incumbent president, Biden is not a “wannabe dictator,” and he did not have his political rival arrested.
A Washington Post analysis described it as “a baseless allegation,” adding, “[T]he chyron, which appeared for about 30 seconds, didn’t come out of nowhere; in many ways, it was a culmination. For days and months, Trump and his allies have been pointing in this direction, despite the lack of any actual evidence that Biden played a role in the decision to indict Trump.”
For its part, Fox didn’t seem especially eager to defend the on-screen phrasing. In a statement issued the day after the incident, a network spokesperson said the chyron “was taken down immediately and was addressed.”
But “was addressed” is a great example of passive-voice phrasing. What exactly happened to the person responsible for the absurd message? The Daily Beast reported this morning that the producer who authored the chyron has “parted ways” with the company.
Former Tucker Carlson Tonight managing editor Alexander McCaskill, who features prominently in a toxic work environment lawsuit by a former colleague, is no longer with the network. McCaskill confirmed his exit in a private Instagram post reviewed by The Daily Beast, in which he said it was “the best place I’ve ever worked” and claimed he asked Fox “to let me go.”
Though the reporting hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, Carlson himself acknowledged the developments as part of his new Twitter-based program. The producer also published a photo online of him leaving Fox’s office building with his belongings in a box.
The story did not escape the attention of the White House. Presidential press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Fox’s message during a briefing this week, and she replied that the chyron was “wrong,” adding, “There are probably about 787 million things that I can say about this.”
The number was not accidental: In April, Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems in which the network agreed to pay $787.5 million.
Good news, as summarized by Steve Benen from an NBC News article:
Two months after Tennessee Republicans expelled Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson from the state legislature, the Democrats won primary races for their old seats yesterday, and they appear well positioned to return to the state capitol.
More good news, as summarized by Steve Benen from a Washington Post article:
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kalama Harris picked up endorsements this morning from several of the nation’s leading labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and AFSCME.
[…] It was Meadows that Kerik was giving updates to, and it was Meadows that Kerik was repeatedly contacting to shake both petty cash and seven-figure sums from.
[…] As far as Kerik was concerned, it was Trump’s White House chief of staff who was coordinating election nullification efforts.
And Meadows has been as silent as a mouse as multiple state and federal investigations swirl and America sees numerous violent backers of the election-erasing scheme convicted for their own parts in a seditious conspiracy.
Kerik? Kerik’s probably the same petty grifter he always was, still attached to equally petty crook Giuliani in an effort to scrape up whatever scraps Republican rubes will give him. But Meadows keeps getting named, time and time again, as the key White House player who either knew of or coordinated each of the Trump team’s various election-sabotaging plans.
That’s a hell of a thing, and most of America is still waiting very, very patiently to hear what prosecutors intend to do about it.
Florida Rep. Byron Donalds has made a name for himself in the Republican world by being as shameless as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, but wrapped up in a version that seems less unhinged.
On Thursday night, Donalds took his self-described “Trump-supporting, gun-owning, liberty-loving, pro-life, politically incorrect Black man” brand of saying absurd things in defense of right-wing corruption and brought it to the friendly studio of Newsmax. Lining up with the defense that Trump refused to give back boxes of classified materials and possibly hid some of that material so it would not be found because it was his magical right to do so, Donalds offered up a new level of ludicrous.
Are you ready for it?
“Do you know how many documents a president of the United States leaves with? You think a president has time before he leaves the White House to go through all his documents? That doesn’t even make any sense because he’s still running the country until January 20. Noon on January 20.”
[video at the link]
The previous 44 guys in the job didn’t have the same problem. In Trump’s defense, he’s a crook.
A couple weeks ago, […] Ted Cruz got on Twitter and said that the new “Kill the Gays” law in Uganda is “horrific and wrong.” Also “grotesque” and “an abomination.” We don’t know why he tweeted it, though we have our own personal theories. We don’t think it’s because he’s a good person. Just a week or so prior he was announcing investigations into Bud Light for, um, being nice to a transgender lady. He’s not a good person.
But something led him to speak up and say hey, at the very least, Uganda should not KILL GAY PEOPLE.
And American right-wing Christians lost it at him on Twitter, because they are psychos and lunatics. Donald Trump’s former homeschooled lawyer Jenna Ellis was furious. She tweeted, “You can condemn a law that imposes the death penalty for homosexuality without being pro or #LGBTQ. Like Bud Light, you should have just said nothing. Not this.” Then she lied about what the law says, claiming as many American fascist Christian supremacists are that the law only provides the death penalty for raping children. What the law actually says is serial-killer-grade homicidal, and anybody who supports it should never be allowed near other humans or animals.
The American Family Association is one of the United States’s most notorious anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups, though it’d probably be more efficient just to call them Nazis at this point. One of their resident Christian supremacists, Jameson Taylor, was speaking before the National Association of Christian Lawmakers at Liberty University last week, and Right Wing Watch brings us this clip of him chastising Ted Cruz for even suggesting that killing gay people is bad.
If you watch nothing else in this video, skip to about 30 seconds in and watch for what happens at 0:33. It’ll make the quote that follows extra weird for you. That’s all we will say about that. [video at the link]
“Sen. Cruz seems to have forgotten that following British law, the American colonies imposed the death penalty for sodomy,” Taylor smugly proclaimed. “Thomas Jefferson, among others, sought to change these laws, calling instead for castration and that was because he wanted to reserve the death penalty only for murder and treason. Likewise, the very lenient Quakers in Pennsylvania preferred to punish sodomy with whipping, forfeiture of one-third of one’s property, and six months hard labor for a first offense. I would thus refer Senator Cruz to hashtag ‘American founding’ and hashtag ‘divine law and natural law.’”
OK, sicko. Lecturing Ted Cruz by sneering about the good old days when the [gays] were put to death. Or maybe castrated. Or maybe whipped. And then he said “natural law,” because that’s one of those made-up phrases Christian supremacists like to throw around. They think it puts a scholarly veneer on what is really just an extremely psychologically damaged and disturbed hatred cloaked in the garb of really fucking stupid religious beliefs.
These are the people who want to take over America by force, because they know they can’t take over America through normal democratic means. (By the way, it surprises us NOT AT ALL that Donald Trump’s prime dumbfuck lawyer who tried to help him overthrow the government to steal the presidency, John Eastman, also used to be the chairman of the National Organization for Marriage. [!!!] This is all the same project.) They know most voters turning 18 hate them, think they are demented freakshows, and don’t want to live next door to them. They know their own kids are leaving home and leaving their churches and never speaking to them again, or just keeping them at arm’s length, and one of the main reasons for that is because their families and churches are so vile and evil toward LGBTQ+ people. There are articles all over the internet about this.
And these things they know are making white fascists like Jameson Taylor and his pals at the American Family Association hate group and other Christian supremacist organizations seething mad.
So mad, apparently, that they feel the need to scold Ted Cruz of all people for gently suggesting that maybe it is sick and evil to kill people for being gay.
Our refusal to provide ATACMS to Ukraine in effect gives Russia safe haven for these attacks against Ukrainian civilians. I don’t know how the Administration can justify this. At least enable Ukraine to hit the Russian Navy and Air Force in Crimea.
Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers detailing secrets about America’s policy during the Vietnam War, has died at the age of 92, the Guardian can confirm.
In March, Ellsberg announced he had terminal cancer. The former US government analyst’s leaks revealed to the public that successive presidents believed American troops could not win in Vietnam.
Wonkette: ‘Food For Everyone!’ Says Indicted Deadbeat.
After Donald Trump was executed 37 times in Miami by the Deep State, for the made-up crime of bringing his own […] American nuclear secrets home from the White House, he visited the Versailles restaurant in Little Havana. […] everybody goes to Versailles if they want to hobnob with the Cuban community in Miami.
While he was there, the patrons sang “Happy Birthday” to him, and the very generous Trump said, “Food for everyone!” [video at the link]
[…] He really emphasized it. He was doing a thing.
[…] everybody in the reality-based world knows Donald Trump is a notoriously cheapass [person] who doesn’t pay his bills. Not his lawyers, not his contractors, and he FOR DEFINITE is not buying lunch for a bunch of people he’d never deign to share oxygen with if he wasn’t trying to grift them.
Well, we have a surprise (SPOILERS AHEAD, NO FURTHER YOU MUST GO IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS) and it is that Donald Trump did not even actually follow through on “Food for everyone!” The Miami New Times reports he was there literally 10 minutes, and nobody even had time to place an order on Trump’s tab in that time.
So technically this is not a post about an unpaid bill! It is about a lying man who lies to people and gets their hopes up. About yummy lunches, about stolen elections. […]
Looks like some Trump assholes managed to get takeout, though: [Tweet and image at the link]
The New York Daily News teaches both sides of the controversy:
Trump defenders on Twitter noted the GOP frontrunner only said there’d be food for everyone at the restaurant — not that he was buying it.
We’d say that’s impossible because nobody is weird and socially awkward and brain-diseased enough to stand in restaurants and loudly exclaim that this is where all the people are going to eat the food.
But this is a man who, as president, upon leaving hurricane victims, was often known to say “Have fun!” or “Have a good time!”
And this is a man who has been bragging for several years straight about the time he (allegedly) aced a dementia test where he had to pick out which one was “camel.”
So who knows, maybe he really was just correctly identifying “what is restaurant.”
Wonkette: fair as fuck to Donald Trump. Never say otherwise.
Watching Bugs Life with the twins. I think I understand one of the reasons conservatives don’t like Disney — the workers rise up to overthrow the parasitic and powerful wealthy.
In a sit-down interview with Christian Broadcasting Network News, aka that thing whut Pat Robertson wrought, Republican presidential contender and malfunctioning Disney robot Ron DeSantis was asked about history. Welcome, America, to the most cringeworthy segment of pandering you have ever seen. [video at the link]
In terms of, you know, throughout history, I mean, I think like, you know, could I have been there with Jesus’ disciples?
I mean, you know, these are people who, you know, Peter just fishing one day and all of a sudden this guy comes up to him, catches all the fish and says you know, you’re gonna be a fisher, I want you to be a fisher of men, come with me.
And so these guys all went out, uh, and they dedicated their life to spreading the gospel, and they all were killed for it, you know they tried to kill John, John ended up, you know, being able to survive, but I mean the intent was to put him to death too, and you know, to talk about what that was like, um, talk about what their impressions are, you know, whether that—I look back at that and would love to have been, uh, been able to be there with them.
…
…
Okay, uh … hang on. Hang on, this one’s going to take a while to digest. It tastes like lard and motor oil. One second.
All right, let’s start over. Ahem.
For starters, this may be the most concise summary of the gospels anyone has ever given. It really touches all the highlights, doesn’t it? There’s a guy fishing, and then another guy comes up with really top-notch fishing skills, and then yada yada everyone gets killed, and don’t you wish you could go back there and, like, interview them to find out what their impressions are?
If only some of them had written this stuff down, then we could have known how they felt about it.
All right, fine, I’m over it. I suppose we shouldn’t be terribly surprised that when it comes to describing the whole New Testament, a Florida Republican is mostly going to remember the fishing and the murder. It does sort of sum up the whole state oeuvre. And really now, there’s hardly anyone who, if able to go back to just one point in world history, wouldn’t immediately go with “I want to go hang out with Jesus’ friends and ask them about the vibes back then.”
Not Jesus, of course! Jesus is very preachy and has a whole lot of opinions that even after two millennia don’t go down well among conservative Republicans—Ron himself seems to know that’d be an awkward conversation. Instead he seems to want to talk to the disciples about fishing and what it’s like being murdered. Sure.
I know it’s early in the campaign season to already be saying this, but Ron? Please stop. Please stop talking. You are not good at it. If anyone is telling you you are good at it, they are lying to you. You have the personality of a gasoline-soaked rag and the charisma of a decaying alligator corpse.
Please, please stop talking.
birgerjohanssonsays
OK, it is this link https://youtu.be/RzjI6l7yntQ
Those machines were mostly good for getting their own crew members killed.
Oggie: Mathomsays
birgerjohansson:
To be fair, during WWII, all combat aircraftwere barely controllable death traps.,
Oggie: Mathomsays
Actually, once in the air, the bombers were generally pretty stable, bit take offs and landings? Not easy.
OK the first link worked.
The film had the script changed during filming, and two directors. But the style is so cool the film is still watchable. The 1990s were weird.
Donald Trump has had so many lawyers and so many cases over the years, it’s nearly impossible to keep track.
The Washington Post on Friday attempted to, taking a look at some of the “dozens of attorneys who have defended Trump since 2016.”
Trump is continuing to search for an attorney to add to the exceptionally small legal team defending him in the Special Counsel’s 37 criminal felony indictments case that alleges classified documents mishandling, which includes charges under the Espionage Act, along with obstruction charges, and making false statements.
Part of the problem, reportedly, is lawyers wondering whether or not they will get paid.
Last week two of trump’s lawyers resigned from defending him in that case.
Now, one of those attorneys, Jim Trusty, who appeared on multiple cable news shows adamantly defending the ex-president, has quit, this time from a different case.
Citing “irreconcilable differences,” Trusty notified the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that he is resigning from Trump’s lawsuit against CNN.
“Mr. Trusty’s withdrawal is based upon irreconcilable differences between Counsel and Plaintiff [Donald Trump] and Counsel can no longer effectively and properly represent Plaintiff,” Trusty writes in his motion to withdrawal which was reported by Politico’s Kyle Cheney.
MSNBC anchor and legal contributor Katie Phang commented, “Dropping like flies.”
Car dealerships have been around forever. But that dealership model is very specifically designed; though a dealership might bear a big corporate name — like Ford, for example — these dealerships are not owned or operated by the manufacturer. They are separately owned franchises.
Recently, though, a new model has started to crop up: direct-to-consumer sales. This model — utilized by Tesla — cuts the middleman out of the transaction.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill June 13 that prohibits car manufacturers from using this direct-to-consumer sales model in Florida. The bill represents a big protection for dealerships and serves as a bit of a blow to manufacturers.
Though laws like this one are nothing new, the bill, which will go into effect July 1, carries a notable exception that will allow (TSLA) – Get Free Report, and other newer EV manufacturers, to carry on with their direct-sales method.
The bill says that a manufacturer cannot own or operate a dealership if that manufacturer has, in the past, distributed cars “under a franchise agreement in this state with an independent person.”
This essentially prevents all legacy automakers from going direct-to-consumer, but it will allow for the newer brands, namely Tesla, Rivian and Lucid, to take advantage of the direct-sales model.
The move comes a little under a month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk helped DeSantis launch his presidential campaign through a Twitter Spaces interview.
During the glitchy event, DeSantis praised Musk for his purchase of Twitter, calling him a “free speech advocate.”
Oggie: Mathomsays
Sorry, third from last paragraph sounds like corruption.
Oggie: Mathomsays
For those vacationing in National Parks this year, we have the <a href=https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/national-park-service-humorous-guide-to-petting-bison/ar-AA1cBa9p#image=1″>National Park Service Wildlife Petting Chart.
The Justice Department has arrested and charged a Russian national for his alleged role in multiple LockBit ransomware attacks against victims in the U.S. and around the world.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, 20-year-old Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov is accused of carrying out five cyberattacks between August 2020 and March 2023, four of which deployed the notorious LockBit ransomware…
Astamirov, who was located and arrested in the U.S. after law enforcement traced a portion of a victim’s ransom payment to a cryptocurrency address under Astamirov’s control…
Breaking: Federal prosecutors in Boston have filed criminal charges against three men for a string of attacks on the homes of @laurenchooljian and another [New Hampshire Public Radio] journalist last year. Story coming soon @nytimes…
The vandalism took place shortly after Chooljian and NHPR ran an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by Eric Spofford, who owned a network of rehab centers in NH.
The complaint says that “a close personal associate” of Spofford orchestrated the attacks….
Wow, I was just listening to the podcast – The 13th Step – yesterday! I’m about in the middle, and she’s just starting to talk about the retaliation and I thought it sounded extreme.
Link to a NYT background piece and more at the link.
…The complaint says that one of the men who was charged, Tucker Cockerline, bought bricks from Home Depot hours before one of those bricks was used to smash a window at Chooljian’s house. (Cockerline’s lawyer declined to comment.)
Obviously there’s nothing amusing about this in general, but his name is funny and it’s funny that he purchased bricks to throw through someone’s window.
In July of 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security added the Hangzhou, China-based encryption chip manufacturer Hualan Microelectronics, also known as Sage Microelectronics, to its so-called “Entity List,” a vaguely named trade restrictions list that highlights companies “acting contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States.” Specifically, the bureau noted that Hualan had been added to the list for “acquiring and … attempting to acquire US-origin items in support of military modernization for [China’s] People’s Liberation Army.”
Yet nearly two years later, Hualan—and in particular its subsidiary known as Initio, a company originally headquartered in Taiwan that it acquired in 2016—still supplies encryption microcontroller chips to Western manufacturers of encrypted hard drives, including several that list as customers on their websites Western governments’ aerospace, military, and intelligence agencies: NASA, NATO, and the US and UK militaries. Federal procurement records show that US government agencies from the Federal Aviation Administration to the Drug Enforcement Administration to the US Navy have bought encrypted hard drives that use the chips, too…
Scientists have discovered cannabidiol, a compound in cannabis known as CBD, in a common Brazilian plant, opening potential new avenues to produce the increasingly popular substance, a lead researcher said Thursday.
The team found CBD in the fruits and flowers of a plant known as Trema micrantha blume, a shrub which grows across much of the South American country and is often considered a weed, molecular biologist Rodrigo Moura Neto of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro told AFP…
The equipment sent by Stockholm was intended for civilian mine clearance, said Swedish Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin.
This operation will help Ukraine secure the areas that were affected by flooding after the explosion of the Kakhovka dam, he noted…
Oggie: Mathomsays
Obviously there’s nothing amusing about this in general, but his name is funny and it’s funny that he purchased bricks to throw through someone’s window.
Well, yeah, because there are no rocks in New Hampshire. No glacial cobbles. Not even granite. In the Granite State.
An Illinois man is facing charges after investigators say he took a shot at a home intruder, then woke up with a bullet in his leg.
On the night of April 10, the 62-year-old Lake Barrington man dreamed that someone was trying to break into his house, so he grabbed his .357 revolver and fired at them, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a June 13 news release.
When he awoke, he realized there was no intruder and he had instead shot himself, the release said. The bullet went through his leg and into his bed…
They also learned the man had a revoked Firearm Owner’s Identification card, which Illinois residents must have in order to legally possess any guns or ammo…
“I am the NRA”
Reginald Selkirksays
A truck driver who expressed hated of Jews was convicted Friday of barging into a Pittsburgh synagogue and shooting everyone he could find, killing 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror for which he could be sentenced to die.
The guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion after Robert Bowers’ own lawyers conceded at the trial’s outset that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
Jurors must now decide whether the 50-year-old should be sent to death row or sentenced to life in prison without parole in a penalty phase that begins June 26…
…
All four Aces were brought up in Provo, a deeply religious town in the US state of Utah, about 45 minutes away from the headquarters of the Mormon church.
“If you’re not familiar with Mormonism, it’s just intense Christianity, really,” says Cristal. “But it’s a way of life in Utah. It’s the world you live in. We didn’t know people that weren’t Mormon in high school.”..
As soon as they could, they disavowed Mormonism and fled Utah for Los Angeles. But though their bandmates supported them, they were still tied to the church.
So when, in 2016. the sisters presented the band with a song called Loving Is Bible – a “grand declaration” that God is tolerant of all sexualities – it caused a certain amount of internal friction…
Oggie @ #64, yes, it’s especially funny if you know the region! We have…no shortage of rocks. I just heard on the podcast that in one of the attacks they missed the window and the brick was found lying on the ground next to it. LOL.
Whenever I need to check in on the latest statements from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Russian state media and numerous Twitter accounts are there to either promote or analyze Putin’s words. Like this ludicrous interview from Tuesday, when Putin said that Ukraine lost 7,000 men, 160 tanks, and 360 armored vehicles in the opening days of the counteroffensive.
But it’s not really necessary to deal with translations from RT, or with news analysts trying to make sense of Putin’s claims—not when there are any number of Republican sources right here in the United States ready to repeat Putin’s every lie and tell me, every day, how the war in Ukraine will inevitably lead to a Russian victory. [Tweet from Senator Dick Black: “Ukraine’s offensive hit a steel wall. 7,000 KIA, 160 tanks and 360 armored vehicles destroyed in just one week with trivial gains. It is a pointless bloodbath. Charred Leopard tanks and Bradley vehicles lie everywhere. Telling Ukraine to fight “for as long as it takes” is inhuman. End this tragic war now.”]
(Black is a former Virginia state senator, not an actual U.S. senator, no matter how he styles himself.)
Still, an even more direct means of transmission is available. A group of African leaders on an outreach trip to both Ukraine and Russia this week didn’t need to do anything to get Putin’s latest message, because he delivered it to them in the form of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones all directed at Kyiv while the peace delegation was in the city.
The peace delegation, which includes leaders from Comoros, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia, met with Ukrainian officials on Friday and was scheduled to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later in the day. Those meetings came after Russia launched a reported six “hypersonic” Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missiles and six 3M54 Kalibr cruise missiles into Kyiv. Ukrainian air defenses, including the mighty patriot system, reportedly shot down the full dozen. Air defenses also knocked down a pair of Russian surveillance drones reportedly in the area.
Even if the missiles didn’t actually reach the buildings where the delegation was staying, the visiting leaders seemed to receive Putin’s message quite clearly. As their train arrived in Kyiv, air raid sirens were sounding, and they spent part of their first night in the city in a shelter.
The leaders are reportedly in Ukraine prior to flying on to Russia. In both places, they’re asking leadership to agree to a set of “confidence building measures” that could be used as the basis of peace negotiations. Reuters has seen a draft framework and reports that it includes a proposal to lower sanctions on Russia and suspension of the International Criminal Court charges against Putin. It also includes proposals for removing tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus (which may not exist, and if they do, just happened today) and a Russian troop “pull back,” though how big of a pull back isn’t described.
Ukraine has made it clear that they’re not interested in negotiating a peace that would leave Russian forces in control of Ukrainian territory.
As Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs wrote, “Putin ‘builds confidence’ by launching the largest missile attack on Kyiv in weeks, exactly amid the visit of African leaders to our capital. Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace.”
South Africa is actually one of Russia’s partners in the BRICS economic alliance. Launching missiles at your ally’s peace delegation seems like something that ally might remember in the future.
The African leaders complain that sanctions against Russia are hurting their economies, as Russia is one of their major trading partners. If this is true, it’s deeply unfortunate. But considering that Ukraine’s economy fell by 29% last year and is expected to fall by even more this year, especially following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, Zelenskyy may not be extremely sympathetic to these arguments.
HOW TO KNOW WHEN PUTIN IS LYING
The obvious answer is to check whether or not his lizard-thin lips are moving. However, there’s another even better reason why we can be sure that Putin’s claims of mass destruction of Ukrainian forces are completely false.
And it has to do with Bigfoot.
When I was a kid, I loved stories about Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman, the Loch Ness Monster, and just about every form of strangeness that ever walked, crawled, or swam […] I would sit up at night listening to Frank Edwards and sticking pins into maps, plotting my own expedition to find Mokele-Mbembe.
At the time, the arguments that the world might still be populated by plenty of things we simply hadn’t seen seemed convincing. After all, it’s a big world, there are a lot of trees out there, and most people didn’t run around with a Polaroid glued to their hand. Except now we do. Steve Jobs killed my Bigfoot dreams.
Since Russia launched its illegal invasion of Ukraine, there have been periods in which operational security—especially on the Ukrainian side—has been very tight. Ukrainian forces have generally cooperated in putting their phones down and not sending along those images of a critical battle, a line of smashed vehicles, or a liberated settlement. They’ve been really good … for a day or two. Then we get to see.
There are nearly 1 million people involved in this fight, almost every one of them is carrying a device that can take video and still images, and all of them can squirt those images straight onto the internet with or without the approval of their leaders. Plus this is taking place in a country where there are millions of civilians who are also nearly all equipped with their own in-hand TV studios. Then there are drone videos. There are civilian volunteers driving right out to the battle front. There are journalists mingling with the troops. There are videos produced by military units that have astoundingly professional polish. There is satellite imagery, available even to civilians, so good that it can often not just spot a vehicle, but determine the make.
Since Tuesday, Putin has updated his claims. He now says that Ukraine has lost 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles.
Sadly, there is no Bigfoot. Happily, there are also not 186 dead Ukrainian tanks sitting out there in the roughly 5-kilometer zone along the front lines. If there were, Russia would not still be sending out videos of the same handful of vehicles lost in the first two days of the counteroffensive.
Earlier this week, Reuters sent news crews right into the thick of the counteroffensive, to the just liberated towns of Storozheve and Neskuchne. They did not pass 160 dead Ukrainian tanks. But they did pass something.
The road into the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Storozheve is lined with the corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armored vehicles.
The grisly scenes bear witness to the ferocity of fighting as Ukrainian troops recaptured Storozheve and several other villages in the past few days as part of a counteroffensive in southern and eastern Ukraine.
These villages have been occupied by Russia since March 2022, just weeks after the invasion began. Now Russia is gone from those locations, except for the Russian bodies that are still awaiting cleanup everywhere along the line of advance. In that same interview where he falsely claimed 160 Ukrainian tanks had been lost, Putin also said that 54 Russian tanks had been destroyed. That part may be pretty close to true. So far, Oryx has cataloged 35 Russian tanks lost since the counteroffensive began around the first of the month. Given another couple of days to catch up to the latest photos, they may well match Putin’s number.
Meanwhile, the actual number of Leopard tanks damaged or destroyed so far seems to be five. At least two of these have been recovered and are being repaired.
Ukraine is on the offensive, but Russia is losing more men and more vehicles. […]
THAT’S NOT A TANK. YES IT IS. NO IT’S NOT.
When Western allies began delivering a bigger variety of vehicles to the Ukrainian military, there was some debate over what can properly be called a “tank.” For example, the French AMX-10rc may look very like what used to be called a “light tank,” and it may play that role for France’s military in Africa. But it also has wheels instead of treads so … not a tank.
On the other hand, when Russia began to run low on its supply of T-80s and T-72s and began sorting through warehouses for aging T-62s (which entered service in 1961) and T-54s (entered service 1948), people made fun of Russia for hauling out such antique hardware. But no one doubted that these old dogs were real tanks—real bad tanks. But still, tanks.
Except it turns out they are not. Or at least they’re not being used as tanks. [map at the link]
On Monday, Ukraine reported that it had liberated the town of Lobkove. At the time, there were also reports that Russian forces had fled from positions in Pyatykhatky and Zherebyanky to regroup around Luhove. But on Thursday there were reports that Russia had arranged a new offensive and was pushing up from Luhove with the intention of reoccupying this area.
On Friday, there are reports of heavy fighting west of Pyatykhatky and around Zherebyanky as, once again, Russia seems intent on defending the area ahead of its defensive line. But there’s an interesting detail to this fight. According to multiple Russian sources, both T-62 tanks and T-54 tanks are in the area, not acting as tanks, but as supplemental artillery. [Not that effective. See below.]
For the crews of these tanks, whose armor would be excessively Swiss-cheesy when encountering anything more modern, sitting some distance from the battlefield must be appreciated. But in terms of acting as artillery, these things have to suck. They have none of the tools that help artillery be accurate over long distances. The old D-10 tank guns on these vehicles can theoretically lob a shell around 15 kilometers, they just can’t hit anything. Their maximum accurate firing range is about 2 kilometers, and that’s with a visible, stationary target and a lot of time to aim.
Furthermore, tank barrels aren’t designed for that kind of wear. “According to the Russian independent news outlet The Insider, Russian tank barrels have a service life from 210 rounds of armor-piercing sub-caliber rounds to 840 rounds of high explosive and shaped charge rounds,” reported Defense Blog. “At the same time, rifled artillery barrels, depending on caliber, projectile type and range, have a life of up to 2,000-3,000 rounds.”
Still, a lot of what’s happening now on the southern Ukraine front seems to be coming down to counter-battery fire. These tanks aren’t taking out Ukrainian guns, but they may at least draw fire away from Russia’s real artillery. If so, prepare for some big numbers in terms of Russian tanks lost over the next couple of days, even if these tanks were not being used as tanks.
Elsewhere on the southern front, Ukraine is reportedly staging a fresh assault on the area around Robotyne, which would be the spot where that handful of Leopard tanks and Bradley IFVs were lost last week. Maybe Russia will soon have something new to photograph. Hopefully not.
Ukraine has also reportedly made advances near Vuhledar following another failed Russian assault in the area, but the extent of this advance isn’t yet clear.
WHEN DO WE GET ANOTHER KURSK?
While Russia is busy using its tanks as artillery, the few Leopard tanks damaged so far have been due almost entirely to mines. None of them has been taken out by a hit from another tank.
Throughout the invasion, actual tank-on-tank combat has been rare, and when it has happened it’s been in the form of one or two tanks on each side, duking it out around a row of trees or among the buildings of a small village. There have been none of the massive tank battles that were key to shifting fates in World War II. Which really seems kind of surprising, considering how many decades Western analysts spent sweating over the idea of Russian tanks pouring through the Fulda Gap.
For tank fans, it’s been something of a disappointment. No one has seen the kind of Leopard 2-on-T-80 action so many craved, and even the approach of drier weather didn’t mean rows of tanks sailing across fields to confront their opposite numbers.
So far in the counteroffensive, a large part of that has been defined by those mines. There are so many mines so tightly packed up there on the perimeter of Russian-occupied territory that picking a route through them is slow, tedious, and extremely dangerous business. Three of those five damaged Leopards were trying to clear mines. [Tweet and image at the link]
If there are going to be any real tank battles—engagements with a large number of tanks blasting away on each side, testing their armor and aim—those are going to happen on the other side of the Russian defensive lines. Even then, it seems improbable. At some point, when a path through the mines has been cleared and the way south is open, Ukraine may actually mount an armored force with a hundred tanks or more, all rolling in the same direction. Russia may form up to meet them, but it’s more likely to be mines, trenches, and artillery all the way down.
If Russia really does square up in a tank vs. tank faceoff, it’s going to be because they’re desperate. And a lot of Russians in very old tanks are going to be unhappy.
———————-
Just when you thought the Mariupol circus was the saddest form of Russian entertainment: [Tweet and video at the link. Strong men tear apart thinks like hot water bottle and tennis balls.]
————————–
Ukraine is going to have some very well-trained pilots. Now, will they let them take the planes home at the end of the course? [Tweet and video at the link. “Sweden signed a deal with Ukraine today on the training of Ukrainian pilots on Swedish JAS-39 Gripen fighter Jets to start. Well done Sweden!”]
—————————
This is a counter-battery radar system, so taking it out is a very good thing for gunners in the Bakhmut area. [Tweet at the link]
Oggie: Mathomsays
SC: Oh, I know the region. Went to college in Rindge. Was a ski instructor at Crotched Mountain. Lived in Peterborough. Yeah, rocks and frost heaves.
8pm EDT June 16 2023: We are still monitoring a tropical wave south of the Cabo Verde Islands. A tropical depression is now likely to form by the early to middle portion of next week as it moves westward across the tropical Atlantic.
2-day genesis probability: low (…30%)
7-day genesis probability: high (…70%)
Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who after experiencing a sobbing antiwar epiphany on a bathroom floor made the momentous decision in 1971 to disclose a secret history of American lies and deceit in Vietnam, what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, died on Friday at his home in Kensington, Calif., in the Bay Area. He was 92.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, his wife and children said in a statement.
…
The disclosure of the Pentagon Papers — 7,000 government pages of damning revelations about deceptions by successive presidents who exceeded their authority, bypassed Congress and misled the American people — plunged a nation that was already wounded and divided by the war deeper into angry controversy.
It led to illegal countermeasures by the White House to discredit Mr. Ellsberg, halt leaks of government information and attack perceived political enemies, forming a constellation of crimes known as the Watergate scandal that led to the disgrace and resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
And it set up a First Amendment confrontation between the Nixon administration and The New York Times, whose publication of the papers was denounced by the government as an act of espionage that jeopardized national security. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the freedom of the press.
Mr. Ellsberg was charged with espionage, conspiracy and other crimes and tried in federal court in Los Angeles. But on the eve of jury deliberations, the judge threw out the case, citing government misconduct, including illegal wiretapping, a break-in at the office of Mr. Ellsberg’s former psychiatrist and an offer by President Nixon to appoint the judge himself as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“The demystification and de-sanctification of the president has begun,” Mr. Ellsberg said after being released. “It’s like the defrocking of the Wizard of Oz.”
…
He earned a doctorate at Harvard, joined the RAND Corporation and began studying game theory as applied to crisis situations and nuclear warfare. In the 1960s, he conferred on Washington’s responses to the Cuban missile crisis and North Vietnamese attacks on American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin.
By 1964, Mr. Ellsberg was an adviser to Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara. As American involvement in Vietnam deepened, he went to Saigon in 1965 to evaluate civilian pacification programs. He joined Maj. Gen. Edward G. Lansdale, the counterinsurgency expert, and for 18 months accompanied combat patrols into the jungles and villages.
What he saw began his transformation. It went beyond the failure to win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese. It was a mounting toll of civilian deaths, tortured prisoners and burned villages, a litany of brutality entered in military field reports as “clear and hold operations.”
“I saw it was all very hard on those people,” he told the syndicated columnist Mary McGrory. “But I told myself that living under communism would be harder, and World War III, which I thought we were preventing, would be worse.”
To Mr. McNamara, Mr. Ellsberg forecast a dismal prospect of continued death and destruction, ending perhaps in an American withdrawal and victory for North Vietnam. His reports went nowhere. But Mr. McNamara summoned him in 1967, with 35 others, to compile a history of the Vietnam conflict.
Mr. Ellsberg’s contribution to the study was relatively modest. But he was deeply disturbed by its sweeping conclusions: that successive presidents had widened the war while concealing the facts from Congress and the American people. Mr. Ellsberg returned to RAND in 1968, but he began quietly acting on his changing views, composing war policy statements for Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential race and attending antiwar conferences.
In August 1969, he went to a War Resisters League meeting at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and heard a speaker, Randy Kehler, proudly announce that he was soon going to join his friends in prison for refusing the draft.
Profoundly moved, Mr. Ellsberg had reached his breaking point, as he was quoted saying in “The Right Words at the Right Time” (2002), by the actress Marlo Thomas. “I left the auditorium and found a deserted men’s room,” he said. “I sat on the floor and cried for over an hour, just sobbing. The only time in my life I’ve reacted to something like that.”
Mr. Ellsberg began to oppose the war openly. He wrote letters to newspapers, joined antiwar protests, composed articles and testified at the trials of draft resisters. He also resigned from RAND, under pressure.
…
The Pentagon Papers revealed not only that successive presidents had widened the war, but also that they had been aware that it was not likely to be won. The documents also disclosed rife cynicism among high officials toward the public and disregard for the enormous casualties of the war. Mr. Ellsberg called the conflict “an American war almost from the beginning.”
The White House soon began to pursue Mr. Ellsberg, who had gone into hiding. Under President Nixon’s domestic affairs adviser, John D. Ehrlichman, a unit called the “plumbers” was formed to plug leaks and carry out covert operations, including burglaries at the office of Mr. Ellsberg’s psychiatrist (no damaging files were found), and in 1972 at the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. The arrest of the burglars there began an unraveling that led to Mr. Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
Mr. Ellsberg, who surrendered, and Mr. Russo, his colleague, were charged with espionage, conspiracy and other crimes carrying a total of 115 years in prison. After a procedural mistrial in 1972, they were tried in 1973 before Judge William M. Byrne Jr. in federal court in Los Angeles. Before the case went to the jury, however, the judge dismissed all the charges on the grounds of government misconduct.
Judge Byrne said that G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, who engineered the Watergate burglary, had broken into the office of Lewis J. Fielding, Mr. Ellsberg’s former psychiatrist, in a failed attempt to find damaging evidence against him; that the F.B.I. had illegally wiretapped Mr. Ellsberg’s conversations; and that during the trial Mr. Ehrlichman had offered the judge the directorship of the F.B.I.
While Mr. Nixon resigned and Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Ehrlichman and other Watergate figures went to prison, Mr. Ellsberg continued to be active in the antiwar movement, speaking at rallies and campuses across the nation. He also advocated disarmament and spoke against nuclear weapons,…
…
He is survived by his wife, his children, five grandchildren and one great-granddaughter….
Huffman even called protesting moderators “landed gentry.”
“[…] people who get there first get to stay there and pass it down to their descendants, and that is not democratic.” He added that he plans to make […] policies so users can vote them out.
[…]
In a blog post […] it respects the right to protests. However, the rules state that the company can remove moderators if they are uncooperative.
[…]
A study published last year estimated that they spend 466 hours per day on maintaining these communities. […] if Reddit paid them $20 per hour, it would cost them $3.4 million annually.
“Reddit represents one of the largest data sets of just human beings talking about interesting things,” Huffman said. “We are not in the business of giving that away for free.”
I mean holy shit dude. […] It came from millions of people who gave you that content for free. And many of them […] through third party apps because those apps made your site much more useful without charging you a dime.
[…]
Remember how Musk talked about “lords and peasants.” […] guys in full control […] literal dictators, […] trying to set their users against those who have provided massive value to the site for years for free. It’s disgusting.
we – the so-called “landed gentry” – definitely want to comply with the wishes of the “royal court,” […] we figured that the only reasonable thing to do was directly ask how you’d like things to progress
[…]
Our final tally is as follows:
* Return to normal operations: -2,329 votes
* Only allow images of John Oliver looking sexy: 37,331 votes
state Sen. Rachel Hunt (D) […] she’s running for lieutenant governor to combat anti-choice Republicans who recently passed a 12-week abortion ban […] The video is still available on Twitter, but the Hunt campaign cannot currently advertise or promote the video on the platform.
[…]
she’s deeply concerned that Twitter believes content regarding abortion rights should be prohibited.
StevoRsays
About 200 counter-protesters have drowned out opposition against a storytelling event hosted by a drag artist at a Perth library. Drag artist Cougar Morrison hosted a book-reading event at Maylands Library today, which was met with opposition in the lead-up. Protesters outside the library said the event exposed children to “grooming”, and their opposition was intended to “protect the children”. However, Morrison told the ABC the protesters’ fears were unwarranted. “We all have working with children cards,” she said. “There has not been a huge amount of backlash to drag story time until recently, and it’s really an echo response from the transphobic rhetoric we’ve seen in the US.” … (snip) .. When asked what she (homophobic bigot protester -ed) was afraid would happen, Ms Gallina said she was not sure.”But, they’re allowing children to listen to stories that are not appropriate,” she said. However, Morrison refuted the comments, and said the books and her attire were appropriate for children.
A longtime producer for Tucker Carlson has been ousted from Fox News after being found responsible for an on-air headline that referred to US President Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator”. The producer, Alex McCaskill, confirmed his exit in an Instagram post. … (snip).. It was during the last minutes of Carlson’s former timeslot on Tuesday when the message appeared under separate on-screen boxes that showed Mr Biden and former US president Donald Trump talking. It read: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.” Carlson, in a Twitter monologue posted on Thursday, said “the women who run the network panicked” about the post and scolded the person responsible.
Guessing McCaskil will be heading straight to QANN or Newsmaxx or joining the Trump campaign… But still.
KGsays
Reginald Selkirk@66,
Further bad news for that guy: acting out dreams (which often involve fleeing from or retaliating against an attacker) is called RBD – REM sleep behaviour disorder – and appears often to be an early sign of developing Parkinson’s disease or other neurodegenerative illnesses (there are other causes such as certain drugs); see February 2023 Scientific American, pp.54-59. During REM sleep, most skeletal muscles are effectively paralysed, in RBD this inhibition fails. RBD should not be confused with sleepwalking and sleeptalking, which usually occur during non-REM sleep.
Reginald Selkirksays
@25 @35 “Tunnel of Hercules” ?
StevoRsays
“Until a Drag Queen walks into a school and beats 8 kids to death with a copy of ‘To KillA mockingbird‘ I think you’re focusing on the wrong shit.”
– Wanda Sykes
Spot on meme / quote seen on fb just now.
Reginald Selkirksays
@60,64,69 brickthrowing
FBI: 3 men used bricks, spray paint to vandalize the homes of 2 New Hampshire journalists
The charge of conspiracy to commit interstate stalking carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case…
1) They conspired.
2) They crossed state lines.
That’s why the feds are involved, and I doubt they will get off easy.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar confirmed troops were “engaged in active moves” to advance the counteroffensive in the country’s south.
Maliar said:
Practically in all sectors where our units are attacking in the south, they have registered tactical successes. They are gradually moving forward. At the moment, the advance is up to 2km in each direction.
Ukrainian forces around the devastated city of Bakhmut, captured by Russia last month, were trying to push Russian forces out from the outskirts of the town.
Russia has not officially acknowledged Ukrainian advances and said it had inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv’s forces in the previous 24 hours.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the developments saying “every soldier, every new step we take, every metre of Ukrainian land freed from the enemy is of utmost importance.”
A delegation of African leaders met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and urged Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate and negotiate, hours after sheltering from missile strikes on the capital. The diplomatic team called their visit a “historic mission” and voiced the concerns of a continent suffering from the fallout of the war, including rising grain prices. The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said both sides needed to stop fighting and “this war must be settled and there should be peace through negotiations”. Zelenskiy rejected any negotiations with Moscow, saying he had made clear to the African leaders that “permitting any talks with Russia now, when the occupier is on our land, means freezing the war, freezing pain and suffering”.
FBI agents arrested a Michigan man on Friday accused of planning a mass killing at a synagogue in East Lansing, according to federal court documents filed in the Western District of Michigan.
Seann Patrick Pietila discussed the attack on Instagram, court documents said, where he frequently posted anti-semitic remarks about hating Jews and being inspired by the men convicted of two mass shootings in New Zealand and Norway, who shot and killed dozens of people – driven to the murders by religious hatred and far-right extremism.
He was charged with one count of interstate communication of threats and made his first appearance in court on Friday, court records show…
…Baden believes tactics to block access to both abortion and gender-affirming care will intensify as the next election cycle approaches, with young people as a key messaging strategy. She points to Idaho’s recently enacted travel ban for minors seeking abortions out of state. “They start with minors because they think they have both an easier messaging win and easier legal avenues,” she said. “I think we’ll see more of those kinds of bills next year, but … that is just a testing ground for them.”
Branstetter, too, sees restrictions for young people as the beginning of a larger escalation. “They’re dropping the pretense that this was about young people,” she said. “We’re probably stepping into a legislative session and an election where outright bans on gender transitions for anyone of any age are on the table.”
For her, that prospect is yet another reason to see abortion and transgender rights as two sides of the same coin. Both impact historically marginalized groups, both employ technologies that help people break free of gender norms, and both save lives. Said Branstetter, “Their goal is to make people so scared of trans freedom that you’ll sacrifice your own … [but] trans rights are women’s rights.”
Finland will slash spending, cut immigration and tighten up citizenship rules under a new four-party coalition government including the far-right Finns party and headed by the conservative leader Petteri Orpo.
The coalition of Orpo’s National Coalition party (NCP), the Finns, the Swedish People’s party (RKP) and the Christian Democrats has a majority of 108 MPs in the 200-seat parliament and was unveiled on Friday after 11 weeks of sometimes stormy negotiations.
Analysts have described it as arguably the most rightwing administration in Finland’s history. A radical austerity programme has already been promised, and the Finns party is taking a hard line on development aid, the climate crisis and immigration….
Meet Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev, who demands that Russian scientists should develop biological weapons that will only affect the ‘Anglo-Saxons’ to counter ‘US biological labs in Norway’.
“We need to deal with the Anglo-Saxons. This is the main enemy,” Gurulev said
WarGonzo reports that Ukrainian forces have entrenched on the borders of P’yatykhatky.
“If we delay the cleanup any longer, then the Ukrainians will bring in such a number of personnel and equipment that the settlement will have to be abandoned.”
Former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich on Saturday identified five factors that underscore how far down the right-wing rabbit hole twice-indicted ex-President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have dragged American politics.
“‘Authoritarianism’ isn’t adequate” to “describe what Trump wants for America,” Reich wrote in a Guardian opinion column. “It is fascism. Fascism stands for a coherent set of ideas different from – and more dangerous than – authoritarianism.”
Reich noted what he believes differentiates fascism from mere authoritarianism.
According to Reich, Trump and the GOP have embraced the following:
Rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman depends on galvanizing popular rage.
Popular rage draws on a nationalism based on a supposed superior race or ethnicity.
That superior race or ethnicity is justified by social Darwinist strength and violence, as exemplified by heroic warriors.
Strength, violence and the heroic warrior are centered on male power.
Those tenets, Reich concluded, “are not the elements of authoritarianism. They are the essential elements of fascism.”
1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Disdain for human rights
3. Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
4. Rampant sexism
5. Controlled mass media
6. Obsession with national security
7. Religion and government intertwined
8. Corporate power protected
9. Labor power suppressed
10. Disdain for intellectual and the arts
11. Obsession with crime and punishment
12. Rampant cronyism and corruption
The only two the GOP hasn’t hit under Trump are 5 & 6. Well, control of mass media is partially done.
[…] Florida Governor DeSantis decided to veto flooding projects in Democratic districts of Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties [and for fewer, but some projects requested by Republicans]. The improvements that he vetoed were for “culverts, road resurfacing and adding more drainage infrastructure” that would help alleviate flooding in blue districts according to reporting from Anne Geggie of Florida Politics.
The $3.14 million in reductions — all having to do with flood control and drainage — were among the half-billion that Gov. Ron DeSantis excised from the 2023-24 budget Thursday.
– An appropriation for $800,000 to improve Lauderhill Maple Run drainage that Democratic Rep. Lisa Dunkley proposed accounted for the biggest chunk felled in the tri-county water-handling vetoes. It would have provided pipes and discharge control structures to remove water from roadways in the Maple Run neighborhood.
– Next came an appropriation Republican Rep. David Borrero requested to resurface Southwest Fifth Street between Southwest 112th and 113th Avenues and add new drainage structures.
– Improving drainage on Southwest Ranches roads failed in two places. DeSantis vetoed the $340,200 Democrat Mike Gottlieb requested to improve Southwest 69th Street, as well as the same amount for drainage improvements Democrat Robin Bartleman requested for Southwest 57th Court.
– Bartleman was dismayed the Governor cut $262,500 that would have rehabilitated deteriorating drainage culverts along the South Broward Drainage District’s (SBDD) C-1 Canal.
– A $200,000 flood mitigation project in Parkland that Democrat Rep. Christine Hunschofsky requested was stripped from the budget as was $150,000 Republican Rep. Rick Roth requested for South Bay stormwater and flood control management.
– Roth also saw the Governor veto his request for $1.5 million that would have improved sanitary sewer overflows for the Glades Community, but that’s not just water that falls from the sky. It would have involved better stormwater handling too, however, the request said.
Using the office of the Governor to punish his political opponents for petty and vindictive purposes is appalling and I thank Anne Geggie for her reporting. National media has picked up her reporting and is provides another example of cruelty by the Republican Party for the nation to see.
Desantis also refused flooding improvements in central Florida that abut Disney World.
They included the following projects.
– Orange County Utilities – Orlo Vista Integrated Water Resources Project, flood mitigation for the Orlo Vista neighborhood: $2 million
– Osceola County Buenaventura Lakes Drainage Improvements, project to remove 142 homes and businesses from repetitive flood risk: $1.8 million
– Oviedo West Mitchell Hammock Water Treatment Facility – Tank Construction, construction of a new 2.5-million-gallon water tank: $1 million
– Seminole County Midway Drainage Improvements, flooding mitigation projects for the Midway community: $1 million
– Purpose Built Florida – Lift Orlando, funding to address the root causes of generational poverty in low-income communities: $1 million
This punishment of Democratic counties is nothing new for the racist, misogynist, and homophobic fascist that is hoping to become the Grand Wizard of America. He is the great white hope for some GQP power brokers as Trump is politically vulnerable in a general election due to indictments for rape, espionage and is under investigation for insurrection and treason and the fact that he is a despicable human being.
Desantis was silent for days while he fundraised and campaigned in Ohio while unprecedented rainfall flooded many parts of Fort Lauderdale in Broward County, which made international headlines as a jaw dropping example of unpredictable climate disaster. [video at the link]
DeeSantis wasted no time campaigning after the Category 5 Hurricane Ian flattened the red counties in SW Florida. Funny that.
[…] the 2023 Hurricane Season climate disruption could bring catastrophic wind and flooding to Florida this summer, repeatedly. […]
Rates have gone up there because most insurance companies have pulled out of FL because of the repeated weather disasters there. The remainder charge 3-5x what the rest of the country pays because of this. There is also some sort of state agency insurance you can get in the areas no insurance company will cover, and that’s also outrageously high and infamously slow at paying claims.
[…] These people think their wealth will protect them from natural and climate disasters, but it won’t. And they will find their wealth much reduced when businesses and people flee the state in huge numbers
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our asshole legislature has allowed the Insurance Companies to have “Florida only subsidiaries’. The premiums would be much lower if the risks were spread out over all the areas the companies do business.
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“What fresh Hell is this?” is becoming my morning mantra, as DeSatan continues to insist on destroying humanity.
I realize that “Florida is where people come to die”, but I’m wondering why he’s trying so hard to speed up the process. I didn’t bargain for people like him to be running things, back when I settled here; mainly to escape winter and Midwest Xtianists.
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Until it washes away Ron’s own mansion or MarALardo none of the GQP [Grand Q’Anon Party] will really care.
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He also cut huge amounts of funding for SFS college for nursing while nurses are leaving Florida in droves. So stupid.
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This is not the only problem for Florida…the greening disease, which causes fruit to drop, unripened, now infects almost all citrus groves in Florida. Besides criminalizing field workers without papers as felons, driving them out, there is much less left to pick, with the smallest harvest in decades. But those Florida republicans who hate socialism and want to cut the Federal debt have a plan…
“..citrus farmers hope federal disaster aid will defray costs from hurricane damage. The U.S. House voted to approve block grants for citrus growers Monday as part of a bill introduced by Rep. C. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.). (From the Wash Post this morning).
If republicans weren’t hypocrites and liars, they would have no talkings points at all. (The greening disease mentioned is currently incurable.).
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They [Insurance companies] have already pulled out as national companies. […] Florida had to allow “Florida only” insurance subsidiaries because the companies said they would pull out otherwise and stop writing home policies. Without those policies, banks won’t provide mortgages. There goes the real estate market.
Florida residents pay huge home owner insurance rates — not something mentioned in all those glossy “affordability” write ups.
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The skeptic in me thinks that the Grand Wizard’s plan is not only to punish Democratic districts in the near term, signaling just how much he despises Democrats, and fluffing up his MAGA ‘street cred’, but also, in anticipation of the next flooding disaster, to simply let it happen, declare an emergency, and wait for the Democratic Federal Government come in and pay for it. A win-win!
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You might want to spend money on flood mitigation because flood water and storm surge does not honor boundaries.
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) claimed Thursday that another source in the GOP’s Biden family probe has been missing ― for the last three years. The lawmaker complained to Fox News host Sean Hannity that MSNBCrides him over informants who have disappeared…
Reginald Selkirksays
ibid:
“Nine of the 10 people that we’ve identified that have very good knowledge with respect to the Bidens, they’re one of three things,” he said. “They’re either currently in court, they’re currently in jail or they’re currently missing.”
If House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was expecting a thank you from the Freedom Caucus and other Republican nihilists for capitulating to them and agreeing to renege on the debt ceiling agreement he made with President Joe Biden, he doesn’t know the extremists: Of course they’re not happy. They don’t necessarily know what they want, but they do know they want to raise hell about it. And as usual, the likeliest victims are the most vulnerable Americans.
What this means is that all the big must-pass bills besides the 12 appropriations bills are going to be a massive fight, none more so than the reauthorization of the farm bill, and with it the fight that the extremists are still mad about: food assistance. That includes again trying to force everyone getting SNAP aid to prove they’re working, and also banning universal free school meals. [!!!]
The extremists don’t think the concessions McCarthy made to them are good enough and want to make sure, in the words of Florida Man Rep. Matt Gaetz, that they aren’t using “budgetary gimmicks” to move money around, but are actually taking it away from programs. Like the Community Eligibility Provision in the National School Lunch Program. The budget released by the Republican Study Committee, which comprises the hardest-right 175 or so House members, rescinds the program that provides for universal free school meals in areas that qualify economically.
It’s not that huge of a program now, but it does mean that in low-income areas, school meals are available to all the kids and none of them have to be ashamed or subject to school authorities embarrassing them in front of their schoolmates, by, for instance, ripping food away from them because they have school lunch debt. It also means that all of the kids receive at least one or two nourishing meals every day and are ready to learn. [All good … so Republicans want to take it away.]
That program is run by the Food and Nutrition Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, and is just one of many programs that will need to be reauthorized in the farm bill. So is SNAP, as the food stamp program is now called. The hardliners among the House Republicans are still mad that McCarthy “watered down” his demands for work requirements in the debt ceiling deal, and they are going to demand to be appeased this time. McCarthy has supposedly told his more reasonable colleagues that they’ll have to appease the extremists, and at least fight for tougher restrictions.
Plenty of House Republicans don’t want to hear that.
“We’ve negotiated a new level of requirements on SNAP and I think it’s time to move forward from there,” Rep. John Duarte of California told Politico. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska agrees. “You can’t just have an agreement and then say we’re gonna change it,” Bacon said. “In the end, if we get a bipartisan bill, you’ll get enough Democrats on board where [opposition from some far-right House Republicans] won’t be an issue.”
Even one Freedom Caucus member, Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, who serves on the Agriculture Committee, is worried about what his pals could be doing on the farm bill. “I don’t have a lot of confidence of anything passing the House anymore under the current environment,” he told Politico, adding “there’s certain members … that I don’t think anybody can change their opinions.”
He’s not wrong. There’s a bunch of them just spoiling for a fight, any fight, even if it’s with each other. “There are many country club Republicans up here that seem perfectly content to manage the decline of this country,” Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona said on a right-wing radio show this week.
If you’re keeping score, that’s the Freedom Caucus and fringe members fighting with each other, with other House Republicans, with Senate Republicans, and with McCarthy, who will undoubtedly capitulate to them in the end. They’ve agreed with the majority of Democrats that the appropriation bills they pass will meet the debt ceiling agreement, roughly $120 billion more in spending than the House now says it will provide.
Over in the Senate, Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, has said point-blank that Congress is “done” talking work requirements. They won’t be in her bill.
Beyond that, Senate Republicans (who disproportionately represent federally funded farm states) as a whole don’t like making waves on the farm bill. They want it to pass and they want their constituents and friends in the agriculture lobby groups to be happy. Many also recognize that rural communities need food assistance as much as urban ones, and have decided that’s not a fight they need to have. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has made a point of calling out the farm bill as a major priority.
This bill is going to be moving apart from, and in parallel to, the funding bills, but with plenty of cross-contamination in the battles. Just like the spending fight will almost certainly end in a government shutdown, the farm bill will probably limp into next year without having been reauthorized, dragging well into the 2024 campaign cycle. That is exactly the thing McConnell wants to avoid. Maybe he can help McCarthy and the rest of the Republicans find some spine to stand up to the nihilists.
[…] one part of the appeal of Donald Trump has been clear: He’s a racist. A misogynist. An unfettered narcissist whose wealth and connections have allowed him to cheat contractors, defraud investors, insult whoever he chooses, endanger workers, and sexually assault women.
He’s so crude he’ll talk about the size of his daughter’s breasts in a radio interview. So heartless he’ll make his disdain for prisoners of war and Gold Star parents into a campaign plank. So brazen he’ll tell obvious lies, tell a different lie five minutes later, then deny what he said on camera in front of an audience.
Trump is an unrepentant bully. That alone is enough to make him appealing to many, for the same reason third-grade bullies have henchmen.
But it’s not the big pull. The big pull, the thing that turned Trump from a clown on a gaudy staircase into a nightmare in the White House, is that he holds out the same offer to his followers that he enjoys: the promise of cruelty without consequence.
Over the course of Trump’s time in the big chair, he pardoned Steve Bannon when his former campaign chief defrauded fans out of $25 million to pay for a fictional border wall. He gave racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio a pass on contempt of court. Right-wing pundit Dinesh D’Souza got to blow past giving illegal campaign contributions. Erstwhile foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was given a gold star after lying to federal investigators. Conservative talk show host Conrad Black may have lost when he appealed his obstruction case to the Supreme Court, but Trump took care of that. Conservative lobbyist Roger Stone was convicted of seven felonies with direct connections to Trump’s campaign. Just like that, Trump set him free. […]
[…] it wasn’t just that Trump brushed away laws like cobwebs when it came to his friends. He made it abundantly clear that he was there for those who would swear allegiance, like a trio of Republican ex-congressmen—Duncan Hunter, Chris Collins, and Steve Stockman—who were given passes on everything from securities fraud to money laundering.
The franchise was also extended to those who did things that Trump and his fan base admired. That included giving full pardons to Dwight and Steven Hammond, a pair of Oregon ranchers and serial arsonists who were part of Ammon Bundy’s anti-government uprising.
Then Trump topped himself by pardoning Clint Lorance for casually ordering the murder of two civilians in Afghanistan. And pardoning Mathew Golsteyn for murdering a civilian. And he pardoned Edward Gallagher, who not only murdered a prisoner by slowly sticking a knife into his neck, but went on to desecrate the man’s body before posing for a few pictures.
All of them were found guilty in military courts before officers and men who had served in the same areas. All of them had their convictions reversed, and their crimes blessed, by Trump.
If there’s any doubt that this trend would continue, Trump has already declared he would pardon a “large portion” of those convicted in the Jan. 6 insurgency. […]
It’s been said many times that in the modern Republican Party, cruelty is the point, But Donald Trump’s real promise is that those who follow his path get to be cruel—and never pay for it.
Trump himself is the exemplar of this system. He’s weathered over 3,000 lawsuits, often resulting from his refusal to pay his debts. He’s walked away from charges of racial discrimination with nothing more than a promise to be good next time. He’s faced down 106 charges of money laundering, class-action lawsuits for condos that were never built, state charges over charitable theft, and a federal case over a fraudulent “university,” and the worst thing that happened to him was that he had to carve off less money than he spent decorating his tacky apartment. Even a jury trial finding that Trump sexually assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll didn’t result in a dip in his polls, or cost him more than he can grift in “donations” from his followers in less than a week.
All of this is why it’s vitally important that Trump not just be indicted, not just be found guilty, but that he pay by serving a serious, lengthy prison sentence. Otherwise, his supporters will receive exactly the message Trump has been sending them all along: Special people, people like Trump, can always walk away. [Yep.]
Even the courtesies that the FBI and Department of Justice have been providing Trump so far—the courtesy warnings before indictments are produced, the waving of mugshots, the failure to impose any bail or travel restrictions—only serve to reinforce the message that, even when caught, nothing bad really happens. His followers see that. They internalize it. They live it. [Yep.]
Trump himself keeps complaining that if the government can come after him, they can come after anyone, and in a way that’s true: If Trump has to pay, then his promise to his supporters falls apart. Only by seeing that Trump receives punishment on the scale of anyone else charged with the same crimes can his supporters be convinced that their bully can’t protect them. That the next pardon won’t have their name on it. That eventually, everyone has to pay for their actions.
That lesson had better be taught. It had better be clear. And it had better be soon.
[…] Doris Kearns Goodwin drew a contrast between public opinion (which appears, on the surface, static) and public sentiment, which shows signs of moving against Donald Trump.
There are those who say “nothing matters” but the truth is it all matters.
E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against Trump will begin on Jan. 15, 2024.
It falls between the Oct. 2, 2023 trial of Letitia James’s $250 mil civil fraud case and the Mar. 25, 2024 trial of Alvin Bragg’s 34-count indictment on felony falsification of records charges.
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With other trial dates TBD in between or surrounding🤘🏼
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“You can’t vote for someone who’s under investigation by the FBI!” – Presidential candidate Donald Trump, 2016
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Judges are going to need a shared calendar in order to know whether or not Trump can be in their courtroom or if he has to be at one of his other trials
[…] Karl Rove/Wall Street Journal:
Trump Invited This Indictment
His childish defiance of the law comes at a high cost to him—and to the country.
The blame for this calamity rests solely on Mr. Trump […]
Extreme as this situation is, it could easily have been avoided if Mr. Trump simply followed the law […] If then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows ordered the trucks heading south to Mar-a-Lago to detour to drop off records at the archives’ warehouse in Suitland, Md., it might have enraged Mr. Trump when he found out, but it would have spared the country from the ugly months ahead.
No matter the outcome, America will pay a high price for the former president’s reckless petulance. So will he.
Quinta Jurecic/The Atlantic:
Trump Can’t Bluster His Way Through Court
A courtroom is an inhospitable place for the former president’s efforts to define his own reality.
Trump has built a political juggernaut out of shameless lying. Or perhaps not even lying. It’s practically a cliché at this point to refer to the philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s definition of bullshit, which Frankfurt describes as distinct from, and worse than, a lie, in that the bullshitter doesn’t even care whether or not what he’s saying is true. Trump is a consummate bullshitter—but the courtroom is an inhospitable place for that sort of bluster. It’s an environment designed for careful, systematic evaluation of meaning and argument. In court, Trump is no longer on his home turf. In that sense, the Mar-a-Lago indictment represents the latest collision between the legal system and Trump’s insistence on defining the terms of his own reality.
[…] Peggy Noonan/Wall Street Journal:
The Indictment Can Only Hurt Trump
Even his loyal supporters will understand that his mishandling of documents endangered U.S. security.
This won’t solidify his position with hardline supporters. [Doubt that.] Deep down they know “What about Hillary?” doesn’t answer the questions: “Why would Trump do this? Why would he put America in danger? Who did he show those papers to?”
As to soft Trump supporters, the charges do nothing to keep them in his camp. They reinforce the arguments of former Trump Republicans now backing other candidates: He was our guy but in the end he’s all danger and loss.
David Rothkopf/Daily Beast:
Donald Trump Is About to Have His Wile E. Coyote Moment
The double-indicted ex-president will soon look down to discover he’s over the cliff and there’s nothing and no one left to support him.
This is what is happening to Trump. He’s churning along confident that the MAGA rocket pack that has boosted his political career for the past seven years will continue to carry him forward, intimidating his rivals, and guaranteeing him political relevance and all the grift that goes with it.
But that MAGA rocket pack was apparently supplied by the ACME Rocket Pack Company and as everyone knows, ACME is the only company that rivals Trump’s own enterprises for its record of failures.
Sure, you’re hearing that Trump being indicted is actually helping him with his base. But that is pure hooey peddled by the hooeymongers in the media who have been serving as stenographers simply repeating verbatim talking points produced by Team Trump’s ACME Hooey Machine. The facts show that Trump’s support is beginning to erode in multiple meaningful ways. The ground is literally giving way beneath his feet, even if he and a goodly chunk of the punditerati don’t know it yet.
What is more, it is a phenomenon that is only likely to accelerate.
Josh Barro/”Very Serious” on Substack:
It’s Time for GOP Candidates to Pile On Trump
To run against Trump, you have to run *against* Trump. Otherwise, you’re just running to lose to him.
These candidates are confused about the source of their problems.
Their main political problem is that Trump is far ahead of them in the polls. Republican voters like him a great deal and are eager to make him president again. Most Republican primary voters don’t care if Trump commits crimes, such is their loyalty to him. When your opponent is so popular the voters don’t care if he gets indicted, your problem isn’t the indictment. It’s his popularity.
[Posted by Lakshya Jain]:
Yeah, I don’t think Biden is going to get some massive boost in approval. I think his age is a very real liability that caps a lot of this, but the GOP nominating Trump is more likely than not to obviate those voter concerns and result in a worse GOP defeat than 2020.
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Our focus group for @nytopinion found the same thing: “Disapproving 2020 Biden Voters” who spent 85 minutes of a 90 min focus group complaining about Biden and saying they don’t think he’s fit to serve thru 2028…but the final 5 mins they say they’d pick him over Trump anyway.
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Biden got to be the nominee precisely because he united the clans as best as anyone could, and it’s unclear who else could actually do that in this short of a time. When Trump’s less popular than ever, it’s not faulty logic to go with the incumbent president who won last time.
Jamil Smith/Los Angeles Times:
Republicans are trafficking migrants to California. Are we too tired to protest?
There was Juneteenth this month, of course, […] holiday celebrating African Americans’ final emancipation from enslavement. And three summers ago, we had the all-too-brief rebellion against racism and police brutality in the wake of a terrible few months filled with Black death. Both arrived at historical moments when America had a choice to either collectively progress towards racial equity or remain true to its bloody roots.
I’m reminded now of something that a policing expert told me when I wrote about Juneteenth three years ago, as the uprising was swelling around the world. Speaking about emancipation, he told me “it took so much blood and so much treasure that the nation was too exhausted to stay focused on what you do to actually build freedom.” He touched upon what I sense looking at today’s America. Folks are tired. I know I am.
Greg Sargent/Washington Post:
As more schools target ‘Maus,’ Art Spiegelman’s fears are deepening
Right-wing culture warriors pushing restrictions on classroom instruction sometimes defend these measures by insisting that they avoid targeting historically or intellectually significant material. In their telling, these laws restrict genuinely objectionable matter — such as pornography or “woke indoctrination” — while sparing material that kids truly need to learn, even if it’s controversial.
A new fracas involving a school board in Missouri will test this premise. The controversy revolves around Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about the Holocaust, and it indicates that those seeking to censor books seem oddly unconstrained by the principle that they are supposed to avoid restricting important, challenging historical material.
“It’s one more book — just throw it on the bonfire,” Spiegelman told me ruefully, suggesting the impulse to target books seems to have a built-in tendency to expand, sweeping in even his Pulitzer-winning “Maus” under absurd pretenses.
[snipped video compilation of “Most Humiliating Moments of MTG’s life”]
Twitter ran ads from household-name brands like Disney, Microsoft, and The Telegraph newspaper alongside neo-Nazi propaganda this week. Family-friendly media conglomerates, tech giants, and legacy newspapers running ads on social media platforms may try to do so with some confidence their names won’t appear plastered next to racist, hateful imagery, but that’s far from guaranteed on Elon Musk’s new Twitter. Users tweeted screenshots of the ads beside clips an antisemitic film, and Gizmodo was able to verify that the ads were still being shown against the videos via simple searches.
How the snafu began: Verified Twitter users with blue check marks in their bios have been sharing long clips of the 2017 antisemitic film Europa: The Last Battle, which the Anti-Defamation League considers a “World War II revisionist film.” …
This year, we have witnessed perhaps the most significant protests against the Iranian regime since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In response, the bloodthirst of the Mullahs has been on full display.
Despite this, Iranian women continue to protest for the basic right to wear the hijab — or not. Though the world may ignore the plight of these women as the news cycle moves on, as it always seems to do, these protests persist. And so do the consequences.
Iranian women face daily threats of violence. More than 90 girls’ schools across Iran have suffered from apparent poisonings. Last month, Iran put on trial the brave women reporters who visited Mahsa Amini — the woman whose death sparked the protests — in prison and told the whole world what the regime had done to her.
[…] Where are all the media headlines giving them the attention they deserve? Where are our leaders around the world drawing their red lines?
[…] The hallmark of this era may very well be the absence of outrage when women are repeatedly abused by societal power structures.
[…] The reality is that Islam, like all other religions, must contend with modern times and the unstoppable human quest for fundamental rights and human dignity. With global communications, increased education and the freedom to engage on a global scale, citizens cannot be kept in the dark about what happens in other parts of the world. In a world where everyone knows everything that’s going on, religious leaders must face their own reckoning, which will come sooner than expected when they fail to bring reformation in their own culture.
[…] Nowhere in the world’s major religions, including Islam, is the quest for fundamental rights and freedom left to God alone, and in no religion are expressions for fundamental human rights viewed as acts against God.
[…] Ultimately, we must take hope in the human spirit. Human dignity can never be suppressed indefinitely. One way or another, the Iranian regime as it is currently constituted will fail unless there is reform.
When it does, it will be women who played a crucial role in their liberation. Those women should not feel alone. […]
As we see in the packed Indianapolis courtrooms where my law students and I represent low-income tenants each week, evictions across the country are rising. Census figures show nearly 8 million households are behind on their rent, teetering on the edge of joining those who line up to hear when they’ll be ordered by a judge to move. With these evictions comes huge and often irreversible damage to families’ finances and physical and mental health.
The chief driver of this crisis is our nation’s appalling shortage of affordable housing. Tenants and other activists rightly push forward plans for expanded public housing, housing vouchers for all who are eligible, and rent control. But we should not neglect an immediate, obvious remedy: stop evicting so many people.
It really can be that simple. Our state and local governments together operate a massive, ruthlessly efficient collection and repossession machine for the benefit of landlords, particularly corporate landlords. We the people run this machine, so we can decide to pump the brakes.
Consider my home state of Indiana, which has one of the nation’s highest eviction rates. That is in large part because our lawmakers and courts have chosen to make evictions remarkably fast, cheap and easy. Fast: Tenants can be ordered out of their homes as quickly as 10 days after a case is filed. Cheap: It costs as little as $104 for a landlord to file an eviction case. And easy: Most tenants here don’t have lawyers, most judges here tell tenants that even egregiously unsafe conditions are not an excuse for non-payment of rent, and our state does not require a landlord to have good cause for evicting a tenant. [JFC]
Nearly all states make eviction filing a snap, as sociologist and “Evicted”author Matthew Desmond and colleagues found in an analysis of 8 million court records from dozens of jurisdictions across the country. They found that low fees and lax procedures caused courts to, in their words, “act more like an extension of the residential rental business than an impartial arbitrator between landlords and tenants.”
The top beneficiaries of courts’ eviction mills are the ever-expanding institutional, aka corporate, landlords that have built an increasingly dominant presence in communities across the country. These mega-companies file for eviction much more quickly than the vanishing breed of mom-and-pop landlords. For example, Indianapolis Star analysis of the 2021 eviction filings in our community showed that 88 percent of the cases were initiated by corporate landlords. Surveys show landlords are well aware of the advantage our justice system gives them, so they eagerly use the courts to jump the line in front of tenants’ competing obligations like utilities, food and healthcare.
Our governments should not be providing landlords with VIP access to court orders and police muscle that other litigants don’t have access to. […]
For example, our county’s local courts require mandatory mediation for parties who seek civil jury trials, post-divorce-decree rulings, or two hours or more of court time for contested family law hearings. In our state’s foreclosure cases, settlement conferences are mandatory. Applying similar rules to eviction cases would put an end to the current phenomenon of landlords rushing to court for a “gotcha” filing, sometimes within days of a tenant being late on rent.
[…] a little additional time is often precious. Even an extra week or two before an eviction case is filed or heard in court could be the time needed for another paycheck or a tax refund to arrive, or a relative or social service agency to come through with the rent owed, any one of which can prevent a renting family from becoming homeless.
Many landlords admit they regularly uses the court eviction process to shake down tenants for late rent rather than to truly seek possession of the rental property. The fix here is obvious: raise the court filing fees substantially. If our governments are going to operate a for-hire collection and enforcement apparatus, let’s at least make it less of a bargain.
Finally, […] We should protect tenants by requiring a landlord to show good cause for refusing to renew their leases. And we should adopt “clean hands” requirements to block landlords with housing code violations from evicting tenants.
Since we control the eviction machine, we can even decide to shut it down during times of health, economic or weather emergencies. We proved this option works when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-triggered eviction moratorium prevented 1.5 million evictions, saving families and communities untold disease spread and suffering.
[…] 90 percent of tenants go to eviction court without an attorney, while landlords virtually always have a lawyer. When the very roof over a family’s head is at stake, all communities need to follow the lead of the cities that have ensured tenants have a lawyer by their side. […]
Last night, the Dodgers gave a special Community Hero award to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for their incredible charity and advocacy work in the LGBTQ+ community for the last several decades — particularly the incredible work they did to help and take care of people and encourage safe sex during the AIDS crisis while the Reagan administration was sticking its fingers in its ears and pretending it wasn’t happening.
This lovely gesture almost didn’t happen, thanks to the efforts of the right-wing wackos who spent the last two months demanding that the Dodgers rescind the award, claiming that the group was an “anti-Catholic hate group” — and the Dodgers’ caved, for a time, before they realized the error of their ways.
Last night, despite all of this hysteria, the Dodgers played to 49,000 fans at their Pride night event last night [Yay! Success.], while a bunch of strident sourpusses stood around outside, sounding like the Westboro Baptist Church screaming about how much Jesus hates everyone who isn’t them. In hopes of furthering their pretend “Go Woke, Get Broke” nonsense that they think they’re using to force all of the companies to side with them in their stupid culture war that no one else cares about, many on the Right posted pictures and footage of the stadium over 4 1/2 hours before the game even started, claiming that their boycott worked and no one showed up. I am not a big sports person, but it does seem to me that baseball games are long enough without showing up 4 1/2 hours early. [LOL]
Speaking to a crowd outside, Pizzagate idiot Jack Posobiec gave an absolutely unhinged speech about demons and exorcisms that is sure to resonate with an increasingly secular country.
“They are not the Sisters of Perpetual indulgence, they are the Sisters of Demonic Possession,” he cried, apparently unaware that that is also a pretty cool name. “That is what they are. And we are here, we’ve all gathered here today, with the bishops, with the Priests, to perform an exorcism. Because we need to exorcise Dodgers’ stadium. We need to exercise the demons in our midst. Because we know that when the serpent approaches you in the desert, what do you say? You say ‘Get behind me Satan!’ ‘Get behind me Satan!’ ‘Get behind me Satan!'”
Do you though? That seems like it might wig the serpent out and cause it to bite you.
Via ABC:
Fans were still able to make their way into the stadium and the Sisters were given their Community Hero award from the Dodgers in a small ceremony before the game. Eventually, the stands filled up with people ready to celebrate Pride and watch a baseball game.
[…] Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts made it clear all were welcome at the ballpark ahead of the game […]
“I love everyone… Anyone who wants to come in and support the Dodgers, I’m all in, we’re all in,” said Roberts.
Calling the Sisters an “anti-Catholic hate group,” because they are drag queens who dress up in silly nun outfits and have silly nun names is just a tad ironic given how often the Catholic church has functioned as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group over the years. […]
many on the Right think that Catholicism is basically witchcraft. They are just always looking for any excuse they can find to justify their bigotry as something other than “We just really don’t like LGBTQ people, because of how we are assholes.” […]
The Dodgers may have lost to the Giants last night, but the real winner was America. That may seem strange to say in light of the teeming jackasses outside the stadium and the people who tried to shut down the event — but ultimately, those people didn’t get what they wanted. The show (or game, in this case, went on). People had fun, the Sisters got their award, and not only did the bigots lose, but they had to stand outside listening to Jack Posobiec ramble on about demons, which seems like a terrible time.
…
Last week, Patrick released an episode with Kashif Khan as a guest. Khan claims that aliens edited human DNA just before the start of recorded history to restrict lifespans to a maximum of 120 years. Khan stated that his unfounded belief stems from characters in historical myths living for centuries. Patrick doesn’t challenge it, hypothesizing that those mythical figures might have been aliens themselves or human-alien hybrids.
The discussion with Khan isn’t an outlier. Patrick has invited guests to talk about aliens secretly living among us, how the truth about UFOs being kept from the public, and weird ideas about the pyramids. You know, normal stuff from someone who should probably also stay off the racing commentary circuit.
A Kentucky mother of three was forced to travel hundreds of miles to Illinois to receive an abortion after her fetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, a serious birth defect where the skull doesn’t develop, at her 20-week ultrasound appointment.
“The only option I had here was to continue carrying her with the same outcome for another you know, 17, 18 weeks,” Heather Maberry, 32, told ABC News. “I said, ‘I physically can’t and mentally can’t continue carrying her knowing that she’s never gonna breathe, we’re never going to have a life with her.’ So, we came to the decision that we were going to try to get an abortion.” …
On Wednesday night, Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas became the first Black woman to play for the Democrats in the yearly Congressional Baseball Game. This marks the first time this has ever happened in the event’s history after being around for over a century…
Death for some, survival for others. Children survived a plane crash.
[…] The Cessna U206G Stationair hit the trees, broke apart and plunged nose-first to the forest floor. When Colombian special operations soldiers reached the wreckage two weeks later, they found three bodies. Mucutuy, Murcia and a third adult were dead. But there was no sign of the children. The collision had barely damaged their seats — and the discovery of a diaper, a half-eaten piece of fruit and small footprints sparked an unreasonable hope: Could they still be alive?
[…] it was difficult to imagine. Family members believed the children might have the skills to survive in the jungle. But this was a notoriously dangerous stretch, infested with jaguars and venomous snakes.
Finally, after more than five weeks of searching, came the miracle: The children were found alive. Even baby Cristin, who’d turned 1 in the forest.
They had survived the seemingly impossible. First, the plane crash that had killed all the adults. Then 40 days in the most inhospitable of environments.
But their battles, it would turn out, were far from over.
The travelers were midway through their 95-minute flight on May 1 when the plane vanished from tracking systems. The search began immediately, with a days-long walk into the forest. A team of six Indigenous men led by Edwin Paky, 36, swung machetes to hack a path through the virgin forest, making slow progress toward the crash site.
They knew the forest well enough to be confident. But also well enough to be wary.
This was one of the densest, wettest, least explored corners of the Amazon basin, an interlude wedged between the Caquetá and Apaporis rivers in southern Colombia. The air was humid; the terrain, sodden. [map at the link]
[…] Measures to relieve poverty in conflict-torn rural areas that had long suffered state neglect. Old guerrillas were rearming; new groups were mustering.
The result: A region now “complex and extremely insecure,” said Carlos Lasso, a security analyst at the Alexander Von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute in Bogotá.
[Rescuers] noted signs of life: The plane door was open. Several bags had been brought outside. An improvised camp — little more than a bed of twigs — lay near the wreckage.
To Paky, it was obvious. The kids were alive.
[…] María Fátima Valencia’s missing daughter had been found dead. But her grandchildren were still unaccounted for. Searchers and officials believed they had wandered into the forest.
At home in their Indigenous community near Araracuara, Valencia, 63, saw the children nearly every week. She knew they were strong. They had to be — they lived in a region of Colombia almost entirely disconnected from the central government. No cell service. No electricity. No roads. The only means of travel? Walking paths and rivers. Reaching the nearest highway took three hours by boat and three more on foot.
[…] Lesly, the oldest child, was raised to survive. Like other Huitoto children, she knew from a young age how to walk in the jungle, fish its waters, which fruits to eat and which to avoid. At 13, she lived as an adult. While her parents worked, she cared for her younger siblings and cooked. Her responsibilities left her little time for mischief or mirth.
“A very smart girl,” Miller said. “Very serious. Short-tempered. Responsible.”
If anyone had the strength and cunning to survive the jungle, her family believed, it was Lesly.
Gen. Pedro Sánchez was less sanguine. The head of Colombia’s Special Operations Joint Command, he was admired for his competence and organizational capacity. But he had never taken on a mission like this.
It was dubbed Operation Hope. It had taken the first searchers more than two weeks to locate the plane — but that was only the beginning. From there, they calculated how far the children might walk in a day to establish a search perimeter. Its size was stunning: More than 160 square miles, in a forest so dense that visibility was less than 60 feet. And so wet it would rain more than 16 hours per day.
Most daunting of all, the children were moving targets. They’d have to comb the same quadrants repeatedly.
“This was my most difficult, most complicated mission,” he said. “Supremely complex.”
His team needed to invent new methods of search. They strung up lines of construction tape with whistles attached so the kids could signal them. They set up a loudspeaker and a large light to orient the rescuers and save them from getting lost themselves. They determined that sound carried more than 2 miles, so they blasted a message, recorded by Valencia in their Indigenous language, telling them to stay put. And they dropped food they hoped the children would find.
Within days, nearly 200 responders — a mix of Colombian special operations and Indigenous volunteers — had ventured into the forest. Sánchez was encouraged. […]
By May 20, Sánchez was convinced they were close. They’d found footprints. He told his superiors they were hours from finding the kids. Then a massive rain drenched the forest. The footprints were washed away. The trail was lost.
[…] Lesly knew her mother was dead. Mucutuy was lying motionless. So were Murcia and Mendoza. But elsewhere in the wrecked cabin, her siblings were stirring. She pulled her baby sister from her mother’s arms and brought her other siblings out of the wreckage, she told her grandparents. She held one of her brother’s diapers to a gash in her head, her grandparents told The Washington Post.
Outside the plane, Lesly set up a basic camp, stringing a towel and a mosquito net to provide shelter, and settled down to wait. They stayed for a long time […]
With no help coming, Lesly said, she decided to leave the wreckage. She had been taught the importance of a water source. So she gathered all the provisions she could find: 11 pounds of the yuca flour called fariña, a pair of scissors, the mosquito net and the baby’s bottle. Then the four children set out in search of a river. For shelter at night, they relied on little more than a webbing of branches strung overhead.
The forest didn’t scare Lesly, she told her grandparents. Nor did its animals. But now it was strange. She heard her grandmother’s disembodied voice — the searchers’ broadcast — but didn’t understand. Was Valencia in the helicopter she saw passing overhead? She made out other voices in the forest, but was nervous to go to them. She was afraid she’d be punished for leaving the plane site. To muffle the baby’s cries, she put a hand over her mouth.
[…] The children found some of the food dropped by the searchers and foraged for seeds and fruits. But it wasn’t enough.
A hunger was closing in. The children’s time was running out.
[…] Then came the faint sound of a baby crying. The searchers stopped and listened.
Another wail.
“I think those are the children!” Kumariteke said, he later told reporters.
They rushed toward the sound. And then there they were — dirty, skeletal, weakened, but alive. Lesly was holding Cristin, now 1. Nine-year-old Soleiny stood beside them.
It was June 9. Forty days after the crash.
“Tenemos hambre,” Lesly said. We’re hungry.
They found the last child, 5-year-old Tien, lying on the ground 50 feet from the others.
“My mom died,” he said.
“But your grandmother is looking for you,” one of the Indigenous rescuers said. “We’ll take you to her.” […]
I snipped the rest of the story, which includes a custody battle.
Well, it’s happened, just as I predicted. The Golden Goose that was so beautiful is being slaughtered by Fools. MAGA has left Fox for more promising “prairies.” Long live the King. The only solution for Fox News is to bring back Trump Allies and MAGA—Backing No Personality Ron DeSanctimonious has been a disaster….
….Also—Do not broadcast negative ads against Republican and Conservative Candidates by Perverts and Misfits like the Failing Lincoln Project, and others. Roger Ailes never allowed that—And neither should a new and less successful Fox. Big turnoff! MSDNC and Fake News CNN will never allow positive Republican ads or hit pieces on Crooked Joe Biden. Fox must get smart fast before it’s too late. Only “TRUMP” can save Fox News. It is in freefall!
Oggie: Mathomsays
With all of the talk about Trump’s mishandling of documents, I think an important connection has been missed. By me. One of the most important reasons that many classified documents are classified is source protection. Just how accurate are our satellites? How deeply have we infiltrated Russian military computer systems? Who gave or sold us this information about a rival and/or enemy?
And that last one, if that information is compromised, people die. Generally, very secret information is only held by a few people. If that secret information suddenly shows up in a rival intelligence service’s briefing, then it can come down to a process of elimination (sometimes literally) to find out who leaked, or sold, the information.
It was niggling in the back of my mind for the last month or two and, once that niggling happened while I was on the computer (rather than lying in bed, or driving, or shopping . . .) I quickly found what I was looking for.
Leading counterintelligence officials issued a memo to all of the CIA’s global stations saying that a concerning number of U.S. informants were being captured and executed.
The CIA’s counterintelligence mission center investigated dozens of incidents in the last few years that involved killings, arrests or compromises of foreign informants. In an unusual move, the message sent via a top secret cable included the specific number of agents killed by other intelligence agencies, according to The New York Times.
Officials said that level of detail is a sign of the significance of the cable. Announcing the specific number of killings is rare as that figure is typically held under wraps from the public and even from some CIA employees, the Times noted.
The cable, which also cited the issue of putting “mission over security,” comes amid recent efforts by countries like Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan to find CIA informants and turn them into double agents, the Times reported.
The memo also noted long standing issues like placing too much trust in sources, a speedy recruiting process and inadequate attention to potential intelligence risks among other problems.
The uptick in compromised informants highlights the more sophisticated ways in which foreign intelligence agencies are tracking the CIA’s actions. These mechanisms include artificial intelligence, facial recognition tools and other hacking methods, per the Times.
The New York Times also reported that CIA case officers were sometimes promoted for recruiting spies often regardless of the success, performance or quality of that spy.
“No one at the end of the day is being held responsible when things go south with an agent,” Douglas London, a former CIA operative who was unaware of the cable, said to the Times. “Sometimes there are things beyond our control but there are also occasions of sloppiness and neglect and people in senior positions are never held responsible.”
People who have read the cable added that it was intended for the officers who are most directly involved in enlisting and vetting potential new informants, the Times reported.
The CIA declined to comment on the matter.
Notice I left the date in the header. October of 2021. Trump left office in January of 2021. He took extremely sensitive documents with him, including, we now know, documents containing information that came from non-technical sources — people. And over the next nine months, enough foreign non-technical intelligence sources were captured or killed, that CIA Counter-Intel sent out a top secret, and very specific, memo.
At the time, the working theory was that other nations were becoming better at counterintelligence through AI, facial recognition, etc. Of course, the CIA has access to the same, or homologous, software. Perhaps the increase in NTI disappearances was through Trump’s insecure hoarding of National Security documents, at least one of which we know he shared with an ineligible person. Of course, Trump was also ineligible at the time, so . . .
Anyway, this is me, spit balling. And, through my study of history, I know that accidents, coincidences and outright stupidity have probably killed more spies and agents than counterintelligence operations (of course, CI gets the credit). Could Trump’s stupidity have killed valuable intelligence sources overseas?
Tethyssays
The Golden Goose that was so beautiful is being slaughtered by Fools.
Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum
Jack has your goose,
And a few of your chums.
The economy is slowing. Rising interest rates and stubbornly high inflation are squeezing indebted households. And just about every forecast is warning that a recession is looming.
But there is one bright spot — one place where the flashing red lights are shrugged off by an army of consumers perfectly content to spend generously: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour…
Could Trump’s stupidity have killed valuable intelligence sources overseas?
Almost assuredly YES. But that will probably never come out in any of the public court proceedings. He should NEVER be allowed access to any sensitive information again, and he should absolutely NEVER be allowed to hold any public office again.
A 76-year-old woman who had been declared dead, and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake earlier this month, has died after seven days in intensive care, her family said Saturday.
Gilberto Barbera Montoya, the woman’s son, told The Associated Press that doctors at the state hospital where she was rushed after the initial incident said that she died on Friday evening.
Bella Montoya initially had been admitted with a possible stroke and cardiopulmonary arrest, and when she did not respond to resuscitation a doctor on duty declared her dead, the ministry said…
UPDATE: Saturday, Jun 17, 2023 · 4:14:42 PM MDT · kos
Russian source Rybar claims Russia has retreated from Pyatykhatky, which would mean they are finally falling back to their first line of defense in this axis. [map at the link]
Russia has an extensive network of entrenched defenses across the entire front line, but particularly in southern Ukraine, where Ukraine’s biggest strategic victory would be won—the severing of the “land bridge” connecting mainland Russia to the Crimean peninsula.
Brady Africk has done unbelievable work using satellite imagery to map out these defenses: [map at the link]
Ukrainian forces pushing south haven’t even reached the first line of those fortifications, as breach operations are brutally difficult and expensive in blood and equipment.
But Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka dam opens up an intriguing new possibility, as entire swaths of former reservoir empty out.
With the Kakhovka dam gone, the reservoir is emptying out. [Images at the link]
What’s intriguing is where some of this new land is showing up.
Here is the reservoir before, with the red signifying Russian control: [map at the link]
And now: [image at the link]
The reservoir south of Zaporizhzhia city is emptied out and is open, drying land. And given the location of the original riverbed, there seems to be plenty of room for that eastern part of the reservoir to continue draining.
In other words, an entire new open approach seems to be opening up south that bypasses Russia’s meticulously prepared defensive lines. [map at the link]
Of course this will be muddy for a while, and approaching wide open mud flats in plain view of enemy drone surveillance might be prove ultimately prohibitive. But at the very least Russia should be nervous, and will likely expend effort fortifying the newly exposed areas.
But longer term, this will extend the active front, as what was once an impassable reservoir will eventually revert to that original Dnipro river. And Ukraine has dam control further up the river, meaning it could cut the river’s flow, narrowing it even further ahead of an attack. That could put the Kakhovka Nuclear Power Plant at Enerhodar (the narrow chokepoint on the west edge of the map above) in play for a Ukrainian counter attack, not to mention opening up new avenues south to Crimea.
Would be ironic if Russia’s bizarre decision to blow the damn doesn’t just cost their precious Crimea its water supply, but also allows Ukraine to bypass many of their defenses.
——————-
Ummm….
We have reached the stage in which Putin says “Zelensky isn’t a Jew, he’s a disgrace to the Jewish people” and masses of Russians applaud him. [tweet and video at the link]
He says his Jewish friends say Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy isn’t a Jew. I don’t think that’s how it works…
———————–
Zaporizhzhia Front Map (June 17th)
Ukrainian Forces 🇺🇦 have liberated the settlement of Lobkove located near the Dnipro River in Zaporizhzhia
Lobkove’s neighboring settlement, Pyatykhatky, is currently contested. Both settlements have been under Russian control since April 20 [tweet and map at the link]
This is actually right near the reservoir’s edge: [map at the link]
As you can see in this map, Lobkove isn’t on the first line of Russian defenses, which is immediately south, but not before routing through the settlement of Pyatykhatky. Yet Russia is doing the exact same thing they are doing in Makarivka, further east of here—furiously counterattacking the Ukrainian advance instead of retreating to their perfectly fine defensive line to the south. Control of the town has see-sawed back and forth over the past seven days. Sure, this slows down the Ukrainian advance, but it’s exponentially easier for Ukraine to destroy Russian forces out in the open, than to root them out from entrenched defensive positions.
It is utterly bizarre that Russia insists on fighting for territory in front of its defenses. If Lobkove was that important, like Makarivka, then Russia would’ve built its trenches in front of the settlement. Truth is, Lobkove isn’t important, but the approach to the south is. Russia is defending the strategic city of Melitopol, not the irrelevant town of Lobkove.
Yet here is Russia rushing reinforcements to hold Pyatykhatky, when their line is right there next door. Russian war reporter WarGonzo reports:
It is reported from the field that the enemy is still on the outskirts of the settlement and has entrenched himself in several houses, where in the morning light armored vehicles approached along with the infantry. You can’t hear the shooting battle in Pyatikhatki, our artillery is working on enemy positions.
As mentioned earlier, if we allow even more delay in cleaning up the village, then the Ukrainians will bring in such a number of personnel and equipment that the settlement will have to be abandoned.
[…] We are truly lucky that Russia is this stupid.
Whatever time Russia buys today, Ukraine will get back on the back side after it breaches these lesser-manned trenches.
————————
I have two favorite kind of war videos. The first is soldier coming home to wife/husband/child/mom/dog videos. The other is stuff like this:
Ukraine is rebuilding the Bairak bridge. This bridge was blown by Russia in an attempt to stop the Kharkiv offensive (Bairak was one of the first places Ukraine attaked). Obviously it didn’t slow down much. [Tweet, and video at the link.]
I can see sporadic “Ukraine Update” stories for a year after the war ends, just of videos of Ukraine rebuilding. And you might all get tired of them and readership and commenting might fall off, but I won’t care, because this is what makes the entire sacrifice worth it.
And if you’re wondering why Russia wouldn’t simply destroy this bridge once again, the answer is simple—Russia would rather kill civilians by targeting residential apartment blocks, than hit militarily significant targets. It’s been inexplicably that way the entire war, and Russia doesn’t seem to have any interest in adapting. It would rather throw a genocidal temper tantrum than actually try and win the war.
The city of St. George must issue a permit for a Utah-based group that organizes drag performances to host an all-ages drag show in a public park, a federal judge ruled, calling the city’s attempt to stop the show unconstitutional discrimination.
“Public spaces are public spaces. Public spaces are not private spaces. Public spaces are not majority spaces,” U.S. District Judge David Nuffer wrote in a Friday ruling granting the preliminary injunction requested by the group. “The First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures that all citizens, popular or not, majority or minority, conventional or unconventional, have access to public spaces for public expression.” …
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Lead-up to p5 #476, from a former Twitter employee.
Mastodon Thread: Rod Hilton
I want to expand more on the […] Boulder, Colorado office. The story that leads up to this building even existing is bizarre
[…]
Twitter operated out of a Boulder office on Walnut St. for years […] It grew fast. […] floors 1 and 2 were leased to other companies. […] Twitter Boulder had segmented into 3 classes. The upper class on floors and 3 and 4 in the actual office (where all the executives were located). The middle class in the dungeon [basement]. The lower class dumped into the [unbranded] unloved fake office [around the block and up an elevator.]
[…]
In response to the general dislike for the two attempted expansions, [the real estate team] announced in early 2020 that they would soon begin construction on a brand new office […] Dorsey announced that the entire company was Work From Home Forever—permanently. […] most employees wanted to continue working remotely indefinitely, and even before the pandemic hit it was looking unnecessary. […] It honestly seemed like […] the team designing and building it simply never got a memo to stop, and kept at it.
[…]
On June 13 2022, […] the new office opened. […] Countless art installations from who knows how many local artists […] All built to entice people to return to the office at a company that had announced [work from home] forever, and most of whom got fired before ever seeing the inside.
Pennsylvania’s plan for the work involves trucking in 2,000 tons of lightweight glass nuggets for the quick rebuilding, with crews working around the clock until the interstate is open to traffic. Instead of rebuilding the overpass right away, crews will use the recycled glass to fill in the collapsed area to avoid supply-chain delays for other materials, Shapiro has said.
After that, a replacement bridge will be built next to it to reroute traffic while crews excavate the fill to restore the exit ramp, officials have said…
As Russia has carried out its unprecedented cyberwar in Ukraine over nearly a decade, its GRU military intelligence hackers have taken center stage. The notorious GRU hacker groups Sandworm and APT28 have triggered blackouts, launched countless destructive cyberattacks, released the NotPetya malware, and even attempted to spoof results in Ukraine’s 2014 presidential election. Now, according to Microsoft, there’s a new addition to that hyper-aggressive agency’s cyberwar-focused bench.
Microsoft this week named a new group of GRU hackers that it’s calling Cadet Blizzard, and has been tracking since just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Redmond’s cybersecurity analysts now blame Cadet Blizzard for the destructive malware known as WhisperGate, which hit an array of government agencies, nonprofits, IT organizations, and emergency services in Ukraine in January 2022, just a month before Russia’s invasion began. Microsoft also attributes to Cadet Blizzard a series of web defacements and a hack-and-leak operation known as Free Civilian that dumped the data of several Ukrainian hacking victim organizations online while loosely impersonating hacktivists, another of the GRU’s trademarks.
Microsoft assesses that Cadet Blizzard appears to have the help of at least one private sector Russian firm in its hacking campaign but that it’s neither as prolific nor as sophisticated as previously known GRU groups plaguing Ukraine. But as Russia has switched up the tempo of its cyberwar, focusing on quantity rather than quality of attacks, Cadet Blizzard may play a key role in that brutal cadence of chaos.
StevoRsays
High concentrations of phosphorus have been detected in ice crystals spewed from the interior ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, adding to its potential to harbour life, researchers say.Phosphorus is fundamental to the structure of DNA and a vital part of cell membranes and energy-carrying molecules existing in all forms of life on Earth.The discovery of this essential mineral was based on data collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft — the first to orbit Saturn during its 13-year landmark exploration of the gaseous giant planet, its rings and its moons from 2004 to 2017. The findings were published by a German-led international team of scientists in the journal Nature and announced by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) outside of Los Angeles, which designed and built the Cassini probe.The same team previously confirmed that Enceladus’s ice grains contain a rich assortment of minerals and complex organic compounds, including the ingredients for amino acids, associated with life as scientists know it.But phosphorus, the least abundant of six chemical elements considered necessary to all living things — the others are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur — was still missing from the equation until now.
Earth may have formed much more rapidly than previously believed after born as tiny millimeter-sized pebbles that accumulated over a period of just a few million years.
The new theory also implies that rather than water being delivered to Earth by icy comets, this vital ingredient for life is present on our planet due to our young planet thirstily sucking up water from its space environment. The theory could have important implications for the search for life outside the solar system, indicating that watery and habitable planets around other stars may be more common than currently theorized.
The new theory put forward by the team suggests that around 4.5 billion years ago when the sun was an infant star surrounded by a disk of gas and dust, known as a proto-planetary disk, tiny particles of dust would be quickly sucked up by forming planets once they reached a certain size. In the case of the infant Earth, this “vacuuming up” of disk material ensured our planet was supplied with water.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Friday that an August election scheduled by Republican lawmakers that could make it harder for abortion rights supporters to amend the state constitution can proceed.
The ballot measure in the August election will allow voters to decide whether to raise the threshold of support required for future state constitutional amendments to 60%. Currently, just a majority is needed.
The ruling is a blow to reproductive rights advocates, who had filed suit to have the election nixed. Those advocates pointed to the fact that Ohio Republicans — only earlier this year — had enacted a different law that had effectively scrubbed most special elections in August from the state’s calendar, after officials called them overly expensive, low turnout endeavors that weren’t worth the trouble…
I’ve been writing recently about the corrupt monstrosity that is the “No Labels” third party effort and the way the insider sheets in DC persist in labeling this an action on behalf of centrists. It is in fact a lifestyle front group run by the husband and wife team of Mark Penn and Nancy Jacobson, some of the most retrograde players from the dark side of American politics. The effort is funded by a who’s who of right-wing Republicans. But I want to step back from this story to note a feature of the 2024 presidential election that is already coming into view.
The 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were both quite close. Numerous factors distinguish one from the other and set the stage for the very different results. But one of the biggest factors was the role of third party candidates which made it possible for Trump to slip in by pulling both major party candidates down below 50%.
Donald Trump’s vote percentage was very similar in both elections. Joe Biden’s percentage was significantly higher than Hillary Clinton’s. There are numerous factors that explain the different results. It is likely impossible to figure out which was the most important and how much difference each accounted for. Certainly we won’t settle that question here. But it was a key difference.
Step back and you’ll see that a key driver of the result in 2024 will be how much Donald Trump and the right generally will be able to replicate that crowded field. No Labels is part of that. It is literally funded by the top Republican donors in the country and run by a couple of reprobates […]
Then there’s the primary campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It’s amazing how open this one is. His top backers are Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone. He’s a creation of the world of MAGA.
[…] I knew he was a big anti-vaxx guy. But seeing some of his recent stuff, I didn’t grasp how far off the trail he’s gone. He’s basically on board with all the conspiracy theories that animate MAGA. Vaccine denial is only one of them. For the moment he’s putting up decent primary support numbers, overwhelmingly because of the name.
Now he’s running in the Democratic primary. There’s every reason to believe he or someone like him will also run in the general.
The point for the moment is not to convince you that these are bad actors or don’t deserve your vote. You know that. The point is that we can now see with some clarity a key outline of the 2024 election. Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee. As I’ve argued for months, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. There’s every reason to think that Biden will defeat Trump in the general election in another not-that-close but still nail-biting result.
[…] I’m not saying a Biden victory is guaranteed by any means. I simply mean it’s the most likely outcome. How does that picture get changed? By getting one or two third party candidates into the race who can, as they did in 2016, siphon off 4% or 5% of the vote and bring Joe Biden down into a range where Trump can slip back into the White House via the electoral college.
[…] no third party challenger in 2016 had $100 million like No Labels supposedly is ready to field. The leading MAGA degenerates like Bannon also didn’t have the clarity they do now to see that fielding the right third party challengers are likely Trump’s only path back to the White House. […]
<>blockquote>“He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. There’s no question about it. This is a perfect example of that. He’s like a 9-year-old — a defiant 9-year-old kid who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it. It’s a means of self-assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. And he’s a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s, his personal gratification of his ego. But our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.”
Wonkette: “Greg Abbott Pretty Sure Texas Construction Workers Can Go Without Water”
Last year, 279 people died from heat-related illnesses in Texas — the most heat-related deaths the state has had since 1999.
In hope of beating that record, Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill this week that, among other things, will bar local municipalities from mandating water breaks for construction workers. Why? Because it really hurts businesses to have to provide 10 minute breaks every four-and-a-half hours so that construction workers can drink some water so that they don’t die in triple digit heat.
HB 2127, introduced by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, is aimed at overturning progressive policies enacted by cities and barring them from reenacting them ever again. Supporters of the law, which include lobbying groups like the Federation of Independent Business (and probably zero construction workers), claim it is just too confusing for businesses to have to abide by a “patchwork” of local ordinances and regulations. The new law will make it so no local ordinances can provide greater protections for workers than the state requires.
“We did across-the-board regulatory preemption so that local governments — the city of Austin, for example — are not going to be able to micromanage businesses in the state of Texas, especially driving up the costs for local businesses,” Abbott said, according to the Texas Tribune. “We are going to have one regulatory regime across the entire state on massive subject areas that will make the cost of business even lower, the ease of business even better.”
And dying on the job even more likely!
The law won’t go into effect until September 1, but it’s still worth mentioning that temperatures in Texas will be in the triple digits for the next seven days. It will also, according to opponents of the law “make it more difficult for cities and counties to protect tenants facing eviction or to combat predatory lending, excessive noise and invasive species.”
Geoffrey Tahuahua, president of Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas, a supporter of the bill, tried to claim that OSHA already protects worker safety enough in this regard and that, free of these regulations, businesses will be more inclined to protect workers simply out of the goodness of their hearts.
“They try to make one size fits all, and that is not how it should work,” he said. “These ordinances just add confusion and encourage people to do the minimum instead of doing the right thing.”
There is very little evidence that, without regulations, businesses will just do the right thing on their own.
The Texas Tribune also reports that David Michaels, the former head of OSHA vehemently disagrees with Tahuahua.
“Under OSHA law, it is employers who are responsible to make sure workers are safe,” said Michaels, now a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health. “And we have compelling evidence that they are doing a very poor job because many workers are injured on the job, especially in Texas.”
Michaels pointed out that OSHA does not have a national standard for heat-related illnesses and issues citations only for over-exposure to heat after an injury or death, but not before that occurs.
“The better solution would be to have a national standard, but since we do not, local ordinances are very important for saving lives,” he said. “Prohibiting these local laws will result in workers being severely hurt or killed.”
[…] Not to get conspiratorial, but I would bet that a large part of the issue is that it is easier to find people willing to work construction in places like Dallas and Austin, that have these regulations, than it is to find them in places that do not — leading to more actual economic growth. Abbott probably also doesn’t want it to be more pleasant (and possible) for people to live in these areas than to live in the areas of Texas that do not have such protections. The big fear among conservatives is always that if people see how pleasant life is with progressive policies, they will never vote Republican again. It’s a lot easier to keep something from people than it is to take it away. Once they have it, the “But that’s COMMUNISM!” and “Think about the job creators!” arguments just don’t have the same effect.
What I would love to see, […] would be for President Biden to launch an infrastructure project and poach as many Texas construction workers as possible for work in other states, depriving Texas of the ability to build anything at all. Obviously that wouldn’t happen because people have lives and obligations in their own states, but it would be highly satisfying.
birgerjohanssonsays
LGBTQ issues , the Ukraine war
Four LBTQ milbloggers get together and form the North Atlantic Friends Organisation (NAFO).
Here is their latest podcast. https://youtu.be/6QsRuaWrsO8
Reginald Selkirksays
@134 Bill Barr:
Does have any regrets about having been an enabler for Trump when he served as attorney general? Because he was helping Trump to put his interest ahead of the country’s, and to gratify his ego.
#AdjacentCell
The junta’s constitutional amendments could let it consolidate power over an unstable nation.
The ruling junta in Mali is holding a constitutional referendum as part of a transition back toward civilian rule, but experts and political opponents say the true aim is consolidating its power in the increasingly violent and unstable Sahel region, which runs through Mali and several other countries.
The junta, which came to power in an August 2020 coup, has promised to stabilize the country where violent insurgent Islamist groups compete with it and each other for control. Instead, violence on the part of the Islamists and the junta — backed by the Russian mercenary Wagner group — has increased exponentially, with civilians bearing the brunt of the horror.
The vote has been delayed several times, most recently in February of this year, citing logistical reasons. Presidential elections are to be held in February 2024, though it’s unclear whether the junta will adhere to that timeframe.
Some of the proposed constitutional amendments give more power to the president, rather than than the parliament — hence the political opposition. Though it’s unclear whether the current leader, Col. Assimi Goïta, will stand in any future election, certainly an ally or proxy for the junta will. That could effectively legitimize the junta’s control and perpetuate the current violence and instability.
“The fear I have for Mali is that we might see, effectively, the restoration of military power which is kind of like going back to the ‘70s and ‘80s, which are commonly referred to in the African politics literature as the ‘Dark Decades,’” according to Daniel Eizenga of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. “That was a really terrible time, but [the current situation] looks kind of like a prelude to re-experiencing that,” he told Vox in an interview.
Security forces have already voted, and civilians are set to vote Sunday, June 18 — a simple “yes” or “no” in response to whether they approve of the changes the junta has proposed to the 1992 Malian constitution, created by civilian leadership after the overthrow of dictator Moussa Traoré in 1991. Opposition to the changes include a contingent of influential imams who oppose the idea of Mali as a secular country, as well as political parties and civil society groups that reject mechanisms for the junta to consolidate power under the guise of the democratic process.
However, the international community has pushed for the referendum as part of Mali’s path back to civilian governance; regardless of the flaws in the process, it’s a necessary step in the transition.
[…] Goïta’s leadership is actually the result of a second coup that he staged in May 2021, seizing power from the transitional president and prime minister. Goïta had previously taken power from Mali’s last elected civilian, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta — commonly referred to as IBK — over allegations of corruption and worsening security and economic conditions.
Though the coup sparked international outcry, thousands of Malians had protested IBK’s poor handling of the country’s crises, and supported the military forces as they took the capital Bamako. Islamist terrorist groups and separatist groups flush with weapons and insurgents after Libya’s collapse in 2011 have wreaked havoc across the Sahel region, particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
[…] United Nations peacekeeping forces and French military forces had been in Mali since 2013, in an effort to help the government combat extremist forces. However, the junta effectively forced French forces out in 2022 and on Friday demanded that UN peacekeepers leave the country “without delay.”
Though the efficacy of both forces [French forces and UN peacekeepers] in containing the violence has been dubious at best, the calls for their removal has more to do with the junta’s efforts to whip up populist, nationalist, and anti-colonial sentiment than it does with the military’s own efforts to stabilize areas where insurgent groups are in control.
[…] “based on the available data through the first quarter of 2023, we anticipate roughly a doubling of violence since the junta took power.”
That is primarily due to the Moura massacre in Mali’s southern-central Mopti region. As Vox’s Jen Kirby wrote in a March report on the Wagner mercenary group:
In January, a group of independent United Nations experts called for an investigation into reported abuses in Mali, including a potential mass execution in Moura. Malian troops and Russian mercenaries — who are fighting an insurgency — were accused of murdering hundreds of people last March, many of them likely civilians with no apparent ties to insurgent groups.
[…] “part of the logic seems to be to alienate international forces like those comprising [the UN peacekeeping forces], so as to limit scrutiny of the military’s operations particularly with Wagner support.”
[…] “Too much power in the hands of the future president will squash all the other institutions,” Sidi Toure, a PARENA spokesperson, told Reuters Friday. […]
The referendum has brought about a serious debate about the role of religion in society and politics in the majority-Muslim country, particularly as a rejection of the French model of secularism. Imams are a major force of opposition to the draft constitution […] “the hopes for emboldened democracy in Mali, I think, are pretty low.”
Results of Sunday’s referendum are expected within 72 hours after the election, according to Agence France-Presse.
The developers of Bluesky believe that they are developing a protocol. The users want it to be a Twitter substitute, with Twitter’s ease of use but no Nazis or other harassers. This is a problem.
The developers repeat that they are developing a protocol. But few of the users know what that means, so they continue to believe that Bluesky will be their Twitter replacement.
The protocol, apparently, is a way of setting up Bluesky to be part of a federated system, like Mastodon. But the developers believe it will be without Mastodon’s problems. And the users are not ready to take on the responsbilities that federation is likely to require…
Vladimir Putin has written the staff playbook for Republican lawmakers when it comes to restricting LGBTQ+ rights.
On Wednesday, Russia’s State Duma passed the first reading of an anti-trans bill to ban legal and surgical gender changes. All 365 deputies present at the meeting supported the bill. The bill is expected to easily pass the required second and third reading in the Duma, as well as a single reading in the upper-house Federation Council. Then Putin will be able to sign the bill into law.
Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a package of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that included a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. A federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked the ban from going into effect in a narrow ruling allowing three transgender children to continue receiving puberty blockers. Elsewhere, at least 19 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming treatment for minors.
The anti-trans law before the Russian parliament goes even further than the laws enacted in Florida and other Republican-controlled states: It would cover adults as well as minors.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin almost sounded as if he could be a spokesperson for DeSantis.
Volodin said: “In the United States, where these new pseudo-values are promoted, the proportion of transgender people among teenagers is already three times higher than among adults. This is the result of propaganda.”
The bill bans “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” including hormone therapy, and “the state registration of a change of gender without an operation.”
Russian human rights lawyer Max Olenichev, who works with the LGBTQ+ community, told the Associated Press that once the new law goes into effect, the only option for those seeking to transition through medical care or changing their gender in documents would be to leave the country. […]
Human Rights Watch pointed to a cruel aspect of the bill that allows unnecessary surgeries to be carried out on intersex children—those born with variations in their sex characteristics—to “normalize” their healthy bodies.
[…] transgender men [in Russia] were hesitant to change the gender marker from female to male in their passports because of the threat of military conscription. […]
The anti-trans bill is the latest move in a widening crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights that has been underway since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. It’s part of a broader campaign to suppress human rights, free speech, and dissent.
In November, Russia expanded its own notorious 2013 “Don’t Say Gay” law, which banned “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among minors. The new law banned LGBTQ+ ‘”propaganda” among all adults, levying penalties for “the imposition of information” that might arouse interest in “sex reassignment” and homosexual relationships. It applies to films, books, advertising, television, social media, and more.
That law has the full support of the Russian Orthodox Church […]. Under Patriarch Kiriil, Russia’s dominant church has also fully supported Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“The Church has always supported banning not just the LGBT agenda, but any agenda promoting sin in the public space,” Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for Church Relations with Society and Media, said.
“Any sin injures the public consciousness, and we therefore consider it completely unacceptable to promote sin if we seek a society based on true values of marriage, family, fidelity, sacrificial service, and patriotism.”
Putin has sounded like many Republican politicians in the U.S. when railing against gay rights. He has tried to justify the war against Ukraine as an existential fight against Western liberal values that pose a threat to Russia, including LGBTQ+ freedoms.
In his Sept. 30 speech announcing the annexation of four Ukrainian territories, Putin said:
“Do we want children from elementary school to be imposed with things that lead to degradation and extinction? Do we want them to be taught that instead of men and women, there are supposedly some other genders and to be offered sex-change surgeries? This is unacceptable to us; we have a different future.”
[…] the anti-gay laws that Putin has introduced over the past decade also lead growing numbers of LGBTQ+ Russians to leave the country. Meduza reported that this trend has intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine; many have settled in Turkey as a first stop.
There is also a community of Russian LGBTQ+ people who have emigrated to the United States. They now see a similar pattern to what happened in Putin’s Russia to what is going on in the U.S., with Republican-controlled state legislatures passing a growing number of anti-gay and anti-trans laws.
[…] LGBTQ+ Russians thought they would be safer and freer in the United States, but some are considering leaving for Canada given the raft of anti-gay legislation in many U.S. states.
[…] The American Civil Liberties Union reports that it is tracking more than 490 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in U.S. states.
Fatal shootings broke out in Illinois, Missouri and Washington on Sunday in a night of gun violence that has left more than 30 people injured.
[…] At least one person was killed with 19 more injured at a strip mall in Willowbrook, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago, police said.
Eric Swanson, the deputy chief of the DuPage County Sheriff’s office, told a news conference that deputies “heard numerous gunshots fired and responded to an area where a large gathering of people was happening.”
Preliminary witness and victim reports indicated “that there were at least 20 individuals shot,” he said. “At this time one victim is deceased,” he added.
He added that the victims had been taken to nearby hospitals, adding that the names and ages of the victims were not available.
“The motive behind this incident is unclear and this is still an active investigation,” he said.
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital said it received 12 patients in relation to the shooting Sunday, seven of whom were treated and released. Four patients remained in good condition, with one person described as being in “fair” condition.
Some witnesses told NBC Chicago they were leaving the gathering when shots rang out
“We were all just out, and next thing you know, shots just got going off,” said Craig Lottie. “Everybody ran, and it was chaos.”
The shooting came hours after two people were killed and three injured near the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival in Washington State.
There, police said the suspect shot “randomly into the crowd,” at a campground near the Gorge Amphitheater, in the small city of George, around 149 miles east of Seattle.
Another deadly shooting took place just after 1 a.m. in St. Louis, Missouri. One person was killed and 9 others injured, according to St. Louis Metropolitan Police.
Those who were shot ranged in age from 15 to 19 years old, police said Sunday. The person killed was identified as a 17-year-old, according to police chief Robert Tracy.
Tracy said officers in the area noticed a group of people fleeing a building downtown and called for backup at the same time that multiple calls came in reporting a shooting.
It appears the shooting occurred at a party being held on the fifth floor of the building, an office space, Tracy said. The bullet casings at the scene indicate more than one gun was fired and “multiple firearms” were recovered at the scene.
One person of interest, a juvenile, has been taken into custody, Tracy said.
There have been 307 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Gun Violence archive, a nonprofit that tracks incidents and which defines a mass shooting as a single incident in which at least four people — other than the shooter — are shot.
The US, which has already promised to send Ukraine its combat-proven M1 Abrams tanks, is expected to follow in the UK’s footsteps and also send armor-piercing depleted-uranium tank rounds designed to defeat even hard-to-beat armor…
Bees, for example, can count, grasp concepts of sameness and difference, learn complex tasks by observing others, and know their own individual body dimensions, a capacity associated with consciousness in humans. They also appear to experience both pleasure and pain. In other words, it now looks like at least some species of insects—and maybe all of them—are sentient.
No Labels, the self-proclaimed centrist political organization with about as many principles and integrity as its founder Joe Lieberman, is proving once again that it definitely has a label: Republican, just as long as that Republican isn’t Donald Trump. The group, which says it rejects politics that aim to “hurl pot shots at the other side” or “stir up hate and recrimination,” has decided it’s just fine to embrace the pot-shotters and haters. They just draw the line at Trump.
The group is indicating that they’ll back off their threat to run a third-party candidate in 2024 if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerges as the Republican nominee. Because if DeSantis is known for one thing, it’s absolutely not for rejecting the politics of hate and division. They’d have to look hard to find a candidate who embodied Trump’s fascistic instincts more fully than DeSantis. But if he’s the nominee, they’d be just fine with that…
The ammo dump that was targeted by Ukraine in Kherson Oblast near Crimea appears to have been placed at or near the railway station in town. That makes this attack a two-fer, because not only has a large cache of ammunition been destroyed, Rykove is a key junction in the railway line that supplies Crimea.
After the huge ammo dump explosions from last summer Russia quit storing so much ammo in one place. So maybe this cache had just been unloaded and hadn’t been distributed yet. Or maybe they thought it was safe this far from the front lines.
It isn’t known yet what Ukraine used. This town is out of HIMARS range, so Storm Shadow is a likely cause — or partisans could have blown it up.
Or maybe it was the ubiquitous careless Russian smoker. [satellite image and video at the link]
From the report below:
“this railway artery has been known for a long time, and they have been delivering ammo there for days and months for more than 8 months they actively used this particular station, the territory was usually guarded by “elite” troops, including bearded men [Akhmat] the scale of destruction is maximum, there were a lot of ammo and it detonated for more than 5-6 hours as of now, after the explosions in Lazurny and Rykovo, at least fifty-two ‘200″ single-cell “military” and a very large number of “300” with various types of injuries, limb amputations, etc. are known”
[Tweet at the link]
Partyzany is apparently the former name of Rykove.
⚡️Air Force: Ukraine hits Russian ammo depot in occupied Kherson Oblast.
Ukrainian forces hit a Russian ammunition depot in the village of Partyzany in southern Kherson Oblast, Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told national television on June 18. [Tweet and image at the link]
The aftermath. [Tweets and images at the link]
———————
There are numerous reports that Ukraine is close to liberating the town of Robotyne, which is northwest of Tokmak. Even if Ukraine takes the town, it will be tough sledding from there. Russia has a formidable array of defensive lines between there and Tokmak.
The situation in Rivnopil, which is a Russian salient, seems to be that Russia’s grip is slipping. There have been reports of some Russian soldiers fleeing. [tweet and images at the link]
Former Attorney General Bill Barr blasted former President Trump’s defense in the classified documents case as “absurd” and said the former president “absolutely” was mischaracterizing the Presidential Records Act.
“The legal theory by which he gets to take battle plans and sensitive national security information as his personal papers is absurd. It’s just as wacky as the legal doctrine they came up with for having the vice president unilaterally determine who won the election,” Barr told Robert Costa on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” in an interview Sunday morning.
Trump was not charged with violating the Presidential Records Act, but he and some supporters have cited the act to claim Trump was allowed to take the sensitive material after he left the White House.
“The whole purpose of the statute, the Presidential Records Act, was to stop presidents from taking official documents out of the White House. It was passed after Watergate. That’s the whole purpose of it. And therefore, it restricted what a president can take. […]” Barr said Sunday
.
“Obviously, these documents are not purely private, it’s obvious. And they’re not even now arguing that it’s purely private. What they’re saying is the President just has sweeping discretion to say they are, even though they squarely don’t fall within the definition. It’s an absurd argument,” Barr added.
[…] “The Department had no choice but to seek those documents. [Those Republicans’] basic argument really isn’t to defend his conduct, because Trump’s conduct is indefensible. What they’re really saying is, he should get a pass because Hillary Clinton got a pass six or seven years ago,” Barr said. “That’s not a frivolous argument. But I’m not sure that’s true.”
“If you want to restore the rule of law and equal justice, you don’t do it by further derogating from justice. You do it by applying the right standard here. And that’s not unfair to Trump because this is not a case where Trump is innocent and being unfairly hounded. He committed the crime, or if he did commit the crime, it’s not unfair to hold them to that standard,” he said.
“He’s like a nine-year-old, defiant nine-year-old kid, who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it. It’s a means of self-assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. And he’s a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s, his personal gratification of his ego, but our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this,” Barr [former Attorney General Bill Barr] said of Trump.
“Donald Trump, if you believe what he said when they left, that means he didn’t pick the very best people and doesn’t know how to pick personnel. If you believe what — about them what he said at the beginning, the great stuff, then this guy is the worst manager in the history of the American presidency,” Christie [Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R)] said of Trump.
“Either way, Republicans should listen to what he says. He’s a petulant child when someone disagrees with him … if you disagree with Donald Trump, the petulant child comes out and he calls you names,” Christie added.
Former U.S. vice president and benign colon polyp Mike Pence will never be confused with a vertebrate, but he does sit up straight and look you square in the eye when repeating what he thinks Jesus would say if Jesus were the corporate spokesperson for a Fort Wayne-based lunchmeat company that’s trying to get out in front of a listeria outbreak.
Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Pence mildly rebuked the man who literally tried to get him killed two years ago and expressed zero regret for it afterward. And, no, Pence didn’t take exception to Donald Trump’s murder-adjacent proclivities. Instead, he claimed, with his trademark mealy aplomb, that Trump has been walking away from his pro-life commitments and is now—not before, when Pence was his No. 2 and they were running up massive public debts—no longer serious about reducing the deficit.
You see, Pence is running for president and—unless he’s asked to face Nikki Haley one-on-one in the GOP kids’ table debate or suddenly comes down with a wicked case of ennui—he plans to see it through to the end. And in order to remain—bwahahahahahah! … hoo-boy … *wipes away tear*—viable as a candidate, he needs to create ideological space between himself and Trump while somehow taking credit for all the stuff they did together that wasn’t transparently felonious or barf-baggingly amoral.
Oh, and there’s the small matter of Trump’s having been indicted twice since leaving the White House, including for stealing incredibly sensitive government secrets and storing them in a resort ballroom “in which events and gatherings took place.” But come on now. It’s rude to ask Pence about that, because it shocks and frightens him—and when the color drains from Mike Pence’s face, he gets angry cease-and-desist letters from Elmer’s Glue.
So when Todd asked Pence if he’d pardon Trump as president, Pence pounced like a NyQuil-besotted banana slug.
Watch: [video at the link]
TODD: “You have been asked a few times whether you would pardon the former president if he’s convicted and you were the president. Would you?”
PENCE: “Well, I just think the question is premature. Honestly, Chuck, I’ve pardoned people who were found guilty of a crime …”
TODD: “What was your bar for a pardon?”
PENCE: “Well, let me say first and foremost, I don’t know why some of my competitors in the Republican primary presume the president will be found guilty. Look, all we know is what the president has been accused of in the indictment. We don’t know what his defense is. We don’t know if this will even go to trial. It could be subject to a motion to dismiss. We don’t know what the verdict will be of the jury.”
Erm, he’s not the president, Mike. You might remember the moment his ex-ness became official. You almost met Jesus that day. But your work here wasn’t done. And Jesus felt a migraine coming on and didn’t want to deal with a guy who wouldn’t stop asking if it was really safe for him to be left alone with the Virgin Mary.
TODD: “If you were President Biden, would you pardon him right now?”
PENCE: “I just think this whole matter is incredibly divisive for the country. And, uh, look, I, uh, I just think at the end of the day, it is saddening to me that we are now in this moment.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake, you translucent twit. The dude has almost certainly committed high crimes against the republic and—uh, you know—tried to kill you. The correct answer to Todd’s question is, “Fuck no! Are you fucking mad!? I hope he rots in prison!” But you do you.
Of course, it would be fun to see both Pence and Chris Christie qualify for the debates, because if they did, the first question from the moderator might be, “Hands up if at any point Donald Trump tried to kill you,” and at least two candidates would be forced to comply. Maybe more. Who really knows? The dude keeps a lot of secrets, and it may take several more years to recover them all.
Mesenchymal stem cells aren’t pluripotent but they’re pretty darn close. They can become bone, muscle, blood vessels, and connective tissue cells, and even liver cells. A new source […] was discovered [in 2007]: menstrual fluid.
[They’ve since shown promise in regenerative studies on strokes, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, liver function, Covid, hernia mesh inflammation, infertility, and wound healing.]
Reginald Selkirksays
@151
PENCE: “Well, I just think the question is premature. Honestly, Chuck, I’ve pardoned people who were found guilty of a crime …”
Duh. People who are found innocent don’t need to be pardoned.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Clarification of the pyrex discussion from the previous page of comments.
There are two companies allowed to distribute Pyrex kitchenware [circa 2020]:
* International Cookware for Europe, Middle East & Africa
[Uppercase PYREX, made in Châteauroux, France, borosilicate]
* Corelle Brands for US, Asia & Latin America
[Lowercase pyrex, soda-lime]
While the Pyrex® brand was born […] in Corning, NY, it has been made in various places […] Currently [2015=World Kitchen, 2023=Corelle Brands] manufactures Pyrex consumer products in Charleroi, PA
Corning had licensed out the Pyrex brand to Newell Cookware Europe. A soda-lime factory in Sunderland, UK had made Pyrex from 1922 to 2007. Arc International acquired Newell in 2006, and moved production to France (boro plant linked above?). They sold their Pyrex division to International Cookware group. Which was bought by private equity Kartesia in 2020. Duralex bought in 2021.
So US went boro-to-soda in the 1940s. And Europe went soda-to-boro in 2007.
A representative at Corelle Brands told us, “Pyrex glassware [has] been manufactured from heat-strengthened soda lime glass since the 1950s.” However, they did not disclose when Pyrex stopped using borosilicate altogether, and to our knowledge the company never made a formal announcement.
* From the works cited, the author seems to have done legwork interviewing folks who’d know what’s publicly knowable.
* Proper handling tips at the link. (TIL casserole dish + room temp baking sheet + oven rack.)
I had an ordinary Corelle bowl time-bomb in the cupboard from post-dishwasher stacking.
Researchers with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies have been testing a new method for signal timing in which an algorithm measures traffic volumes at an intersection in real time and tells the controller which direction to grant a green light.
In laboratory testing, the system — called max-pressure signal timing — has been found to significantly improve traffic flow by allowing more vehicles through a single green light, said researcher Michael Levin, an assistant professor in the U’s civil, environmental and geo-engineering department…
StevoRsays
Spaaace neeeeewwwws! Watch this Mercurian space :
Europe’s Mercury probe BepiColombo will take a close look at its target planet on Monday (June 19), and we can expect some exciting new images to reach Earth soon after that.
The flyby will be BepiColombo’s third of Mercury and will see the spacecraft whizz past the planet at a superclose distance of just 147 miles (236 kilometers) at 3:34 p.m. EDT (1934 GMT). That’s closer than the probe’s two orbiters will circle during the main mission.
The main goal of the flyby, however, is not to take stunning close-ups of Mercury’s surface, but to slow the probe down using Mercury’s gravity so that it can enter the planet’s orbit in late 2025.
On the campaign trail, voters are confronting a public conversation that’s never happened before: Republican presidential hopefuls are weighing in on whether they’d pardon Donald Trump after the 2024 elections. Some have endorsed the idea, while others have left the door open to the possibility.
But it’s not just White House aspirants engaged in the conversation. National Review’s Rich Lowry, a prominent conservative voice, wrote a piece for Politico last week, arguing that a pardon for Trump — in the event that the former president is convicted — would help “drain poison” from our political system.
Two other conservative commentators, Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka, made a similar pitch in The Washington Post.
In his 2020 victory speech, Joe Biden declared that “to everything there is a season — a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow. And a time to heal. This is the time to heal in America.” If he wants to deliver on his promise to heal the country, he could do so with one action: Pardon Donald Trump.
[OMFG and JFC]
Pletka and Thiessen added that with a pardon for his predecessor, “Biden would be a true statesman. Sparing the country the ordeal of a trial would go a long way toward repairing the nation’s frayed political fabric.”
To be sure, this is a conversation with many dimensions. We could explore the dubious idea that our politics would benefit from less accountability for criminal wrongdoing. We could review Biden’s pre-election vows not to pardon Trump. We could explain that the former president is already facing charges in New York, with more charges likely in Georgia, and that even if the Democrat were inclined to rescue his predecessor, Biden lacks the authority to issue pardons for state crimes.
But in the Post opinion piece, the line that stood out for me was the idea that Biden has the power to spare the country “the ordeal of a trial.” This, of course, was a common refrain roughly a half-century ago: As Richard Nixon faced the very real possibility of a criminal trial, Gerald Ford, his Republican successor in the White House, pardoned the former president and said the move was ultimately intended to help the country, not Nixon.
But there’s something else that would spare the country “the ordeal of a trial”: a guilty plea.
In fact, the focus on Biden seems altogether misplaced. Trump took classified documents; Trump refused to give them back; and Trump was indicted for his alleged crimes. None of this has anything to do with the incumbent president.
It’s not unreasonable to think the Republican’s criminal proceedings — any of them, really — would generate political turmoil. But why put the pressure on Biden to curtail the process when it’s within Trump’s power to accept responsibility for his apparent actions?
If he did, it would open the door to a very different kind of conversation about a possible pardon.
[…] Trump is dealing simultaneously with his comeback campaign, multiple criminal indictments, the prospect of additional criminal charges, and the growing contempt of those who worked alongside him during his tenure in office.
It’s amazing in part because there’s no modern precedent for anything like this, and in part because it intensifies the challenge for Trump’s followers.
It’s clear that these voters are not going to listen to Democrats. Or scholars. Or judges. Or prosecutors. Or journalists. But perhaps they’d consider trusting the word of people Trump himself put in key positions of authority, and who worked alongside him for years while he was in the White House?
Examples of former Trump admin officials now condemning Trump are available at the link.
Why did GOP leaders allow right-wing members to hold a fake hearing honoring Jan. 6 rioters, their family members, and their political allies?
In the U.S. House, when a party is in the minority, it will sometimes organize events that are intended to look like real congressional hearings, but they’re really not. It’s the House majority that controls the committees, and it’s up to committee chairs to decide whether or not to hold proper, legitimate hearings.
Members in the minority will occasionally organize informal meetings, describe invitees as “witnesses,” and hope the media takes an interest, but for all intents and purposes, they’re theatrical presentations, intended to shine a light on concerns the majority prefers to ignore.
What’s weird is when members of the majority feel the need to hold their own fake hearing. Politico reported:
…Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), joined by a handful of others from the conference’s right flank, hosted an event last week with former Trump acting assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, people charged in relation to Jan. 6, defendants’ family members and allies. The event featured a veritable kitchen sink of conspiracy theories as well as rehashed false claims, including that the 2020 election was “stolen” and that the Jan. 6 committee “doctored” video.
Just so we’re clear, this was not an actual congressional hearing. The far-right Floridian, however, wanted it to be perceived as one. Gaetz pretended to be a chairman, recognizing members and witnesses, alerting participants to when their time had expired, and explaining that the “testimony” could be used in official proceedings. (That last part was true but irrelevant: Anything can be used in official proceedings, including the blog post you’re reading now.)
The GOP congressman labeled this exercise a Capitol Hill “field hearing,” and he invited a motley crew of House Republicans to join him: Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Troy Nehls of Texas, and Ralph Norman of South Carolina. The ostensible point was to further the far-right investigation into “the weaponization of the federal government.”
But just as notable was the message Gaetz sent with his list of witnesses. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, who covered the event, highlighted the Republicans’ guests:
– The wife of Ronald McAbee, who is awaiting trial for allegedly attacking a police officer and dragging him into the mob while wearing a black vest that said “SHERIFF.”
– Underwear model John Strand, sentenced to two years and eight months for being part of the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 and pushed past police officers.
– Activist Brandon Straka, sentenced to home detention and probation and fined for his Jan. 6 actions.
– The aunt of Matthew Perna; Perna committed suicide while awaiting sentencing for his role in breaching the Capitol.
– Ed Martin, an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” effort leading up to Jan. 6.
– And Jeffrey Clark, the Trump Justice Department official who tried to get states to toss the election results.
Greene told the guests they were victims of “sick, evil people.” Norman added that he considers it “heartbreaking … the way you all have been treated.” [OMFG]
[…] the gathering was intended to honor “participants in the [Jan. 6] riot, family members of Jan. 6 rioters and organizers of the attempted overthrow of the 2020 vote. [Awful … and correct]
So why does this matter? In part because of the timing: It was not a coincidence that Gaetz and his radical allies held their faux hearing on midday Tuesday, just as Donald Trump was being arraigned in a Florida courthouse.
The larger partisan trajectory is also notable: In the immediate aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Gaetz was among the loudest Republican voices suggesting that Jan. 6 rioters might actually have been radical leftists pretending to be Trump supporters. More than two years later, the Floridian and his confederates have not only abandoned that line, they’re now heralding the rioters as heroes and martyrs.
But I’m also struck by the fact that the ersatz hearing was allowed to happen in the first place. It wasn’t exactly surprising to see unhinged members of Congress taking fresh steps to embrace what Politico’s report described as “Jan. 6 extremism.” This is, after all, the path they’ve followed for far too long.
What was surprising was the fact that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his GOP leadership team — who are supposed to maintain some degree of control of their conference — didn’t prevent this radical event from taking place.
As many news outlets have reported, the Republican-led House of Representatives introduced a resolution last week attempting to censure and fine Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, for, among other things, his efforts, statements and actions to investigate and confirm collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian Federation regarding the 2016 election. That resolution (essentially a scattershot, inflammatory manifesto of right-wing grievances) was put to a vote on June 14, 2023, and it failed by a vote of 225 -196, with several Republicans crossing the aisle to vote against their own party. Five Democrats and two Republicans voted “present” in connection with the failed resolution.
With those facts in mind, please read this article by the New York Times capitol reporter, Karoun Demirjian. After reciting the introductory facts, Demirjian writes the following:
The vote was 225 to 196 to table, or kill, a resolution by Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who has allied herself closely with the former president. Twenty Republicans joined Democrats in voting to sideline it, with another two G.O.P. lawmakers voting “present” to avoid registering a position. In a surprise, five Democrats also voted “present.”
[***]
…[W]hile the measure, which accused Mr. Schiff of willfully lying for political gain, was highly partisan, it raised complicated questions about accountability and revenge. Mr. Schiff’s claims that there was “ample evidence” that Mr. Trump colluded with Russia were undermined by the conclusions of the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who wrote in his report that his investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” Republicans have wielded that determination to accuse Mr. Schiff of lying.
There are two errors here. The first is the assertion that it was a “surprise” that five Democrats also voted “present.” The clear and unmistakable implication from Demirjian’s article is that Schiff did not have the full support of his caucus in opposing the resolution. That’s quite wrong, and the reason why it is wrong is explained below.
But the language bolded in the subsequent paragraph is far more troubling. Demirjian states as a fact — not an opinion, not a viewpoint, but as a fact — that Rep. Schiff’s claims were undermined by the conclusions of special counsel Mueller. That statement is further emphasized by Demirjian in her sentence stating, “Republicans have wielded ‘that determination’ to accuse Mr. Schiff of lying.”
Before we get to the substance of that paragraph by Demirjian, take a look at the following analysis piece, on the very same subject, written by Steve Benen for MSNBC.
Benen writes:
[W]hether Republicans want to hear this or not, the seriousness of Trump’s Russia scandal has not been discredited, and when Schiff said there was “ample evidence” connecting the former president’s political operation and his Russian benefactors, he was correct. In fact, a Senate Intelligence Committee’s report — written in part by the panel’s then-Republican majority — at one point literally described a “direct tie between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services.
Benen also addresses the fact that five Democrats voted “present.” But unlike Demirjian, he actually explains why they voted the way they did:
If you look at the roll call, you’ll note that five House Democrats voted “present” Wednesday, but that’s not because they’re Schiff critics. Those five members serve on the House Ethics Committee, and as a Politico report noted, “Democratic ethics panel members generally vote present on any ethics matters that come before the House.”
So, let’s be clear. It was no “surprise” that five Democrats voted “present.” Contrary to the implication in Demirjian’s New York Times piece, it was simply the fact that those Democrats were following protocol as members of the Ethics Committee. But anyone following Demirjian’s reporting would have instantly (and reasonably) concluded that five Democrats believed, somehow, that Schiff may have been culpable and deserving of censure.
That’s not just sloppy reporting on Demirjian’s part, it’s tantamount to misinformation.
But let’s presume it was unintentional and that Demirjian was simply negligent in failing to determine why those five Democrats voted in that fashion. What is neither unintentional nor negligent is her assertion as a matter of fact that Schiff’s claims were “undermined” by the Mueller report and its conclusions. That is at best a matter of serious dispute and at worst a complete mischaracterization. But in either case it is an opinion, not a fact. […]
Anyone who has actually read the Mueller report (and the Senate intelligence committee report describing Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election) will come away with the clear understanding that there existed multiple and numerous knowing avenues of communication between the Trump campaign and the Russian intelligence services regarding the 2016 election, specifically Russia’s intention and efforts to influence the outcome.
As Benen has previously written:
As regular readers know, investigations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee documented the extent to which Trump and his team welcomed, received, and benefited from Russian campaign assistance. (They also obstructed the investigation into this assistance — by some measures, 10 times.)
The evidence also showed there was coordination and high-level connections between Trump’s political operation and those responsible for the attack on our elections. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report at one point literally described a “direct tie between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services.”
[…] Republicans have widely branded the Mueller investigation (and by implication, the Republicans’ own Senate investigation) a “hoax,” implying that the entire effort was utterly groundless, and a political “smear.” They have to do this because the implications otherwise are quite damning: Trump in fact conspired with known Russian sources to engineer the election’s outcome. That would make Donald Trump a traitor in the eyes of most Americans.
But repetition of that lie has already obtained its desired result: the Republican rank and file refuse to believe what is actually spelled out in detail in both the Mueller report and the Senate investigation.
What the New York Times’ “capitol reporter” did here was feed directly into that narrative [appalling]: Namely, that Schiff had been “undermined” by the Mueller report. And to add insult to injury, Demirjian falsely implies that five Democrats may have also felt he was “undermined” by voting “present” on the GOP resolution to censure him. But as Benen and many other investigative reporters have shown, Rep. Schiff wasn’t undermined at all. He was validated.
For example, from Ryan Goodman, writing for Just Security:
The redacted Mueller Report documents a series of activities that show strong evidence of collusion. Or, more precisely, it provides significant evidence that Trump Campaign associates coordinated with, cooperated with, encouraged, or gave support to the Russia/WikiLeaks election interference activities.
In short, there was plenty of evidence of “collusion.” Mueller, however, was looking for crimes provable beyond reasonable doubt. As Mueller himself stated, and as reported by Philip Bump for the Washington Post at the time:
“We did not address ‘collusion,’ which is not a legal term. Rather, we focused on whether the evidence was sufficient to charge any member of the campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy. It was not.”
Nor, pursuant to DOJ policy, was charging Trump with criminal liability even considered by Mueller.
“Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. That was our decision then and it remains our decision today.”
For example, as Goodman notes, “We don’t know what the Special Counsel’s Office or the FBI have assessed, for example, with respect to whether Trump associates engaged in reciprocal efforts with Russian agents without entering a criminal agreement to do so, whether Americans have been witting or unwitting Russian assets, and what leverage or influence Moscow may have over particular individuals.” Nowhere in Demirjian’s reporting is any acknowledgment of that fact, nor even any mention of the equally damning Senate report at all.
If the implications of Trump’s treachery with Russian intelligence weren’t so grave, this might be forgivable.
[…] This is worse than lazy journalism. This is misinformation with serious national implications. The only question is whether it’s a product of sheer incompetence or biased intent.
[…] After Trump was arraigned he went back to Bedminster to make his big speech, and — um — this guy showed up. Yeah, this fuckerhead is real. [video at the link]
He glorifies the Confederacy and Secession and he knocks the “Slavery Narrative” because he claims that there were also black slave owners who ultimately fought on the side of the Confederacy as if that somehow magically erases all the evil the South ultimately wrought.
Technically, he is correct but he also misses the point. The implementation of Slavery in America was uniquely brutal and racial. The Dread Scot decision found that the Constitutional support for the slave trade and its racial components undermined the rights of All Africans, even those born here, and denied them full citizenship.
This guy really, really, seriously, doesn’t understand any of that.
And it’s also clear that his comprehensive failures are not an accident or a fluke. By the rhetoric that he uses — which smacks of Prager U and Thomas Sowell — he as been strategically disinformed. […] to believe that the poor South has been unfairly vilified. That Slavery wasn’t a racist institution.
Let’s just quote from the Articles of Secession on that point;
Georgia: For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic. This hostile policy of our confederates has been pursued with every circumstance of aggravation which could arouse the passions and excite the hatred of our people, and has placed the two sections of the Union for many years past in the condition of virtual civil war.[…]
While the subordination and the political and social inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it was plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen. The opposition to slavery was then, as now, general in those States and the Constitution was made with direct reference to that fact. […]
Texas: Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated Union to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility and secure more substantially the blessings of peace and liberty to her people. She was received into the confederacy with her own constitution, under the guarantee of the federal constitution and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery– the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits— a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time. […]
They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States. […]
We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
So, the argument that Racism had nothing to do with the establishment and continuation of Slavery — is simply put. fucking. nonsense.
Also, this guys argues with the interviewer about the details of the Indictment which he claims to have read, but he continues to deny that Trump lied to and manipulated his own attorneys in order to obstruct the DOJ retrieving the classified documents he had stolen.
And he doesn’t believe that the Neo-Nazis outside DisneyWorld protesting their LGBTQ police — the ones with the Ron DeSantis flags — were real. He says they were “Plants.”
Yeah, so there’s that.
Ok, so just to complete the point there is also this guy on C-Span. [video at the link]
“I have not heard one white Democrat apologize for slavery,” he said. “I haven’t heard any Black person say thank you to the over 300,000 white men who died to free those Black slaves.”
“I just, I’m astonished,” he added. “I realize we’re focusing on slavery, but my descendants are from Scotland and Ireland. We never owned slaves.”
Congress did apologize for Slavery in 2008 in a resolution by Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN). https://www.npr.org/…/congress-apologizes-for-slavery… […]
The South in the Civil War fought to preserve slavery as noted above in their articles of secession, but the North wasn’t fighting to End Slavery – they were responding to having been attacking and attempting to keep the nation as a single unit.
The Civil War had 300,000 casualties, but frankly, far less than half of them died to end slavery. Most Northern soldiers were also racists, the abolitionist movement was largely part of the fringes.
Lincoln himself didn’t plan on ending slavery until he decided to use his war powers with the Emancipation Proclamation as a way to blackmail the South into surrendering by threatening to take their slaves away and recruiting them into the Union Army. Any state or county that ended their rebellion would get to keep their slaves.
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
The Emancipation Proclamation was a BLUFF. At best, it was a half-measure. It was a demand to cease hostilities or else we make your slaves into warriors against the South. If the South had surrendered before the deadline of Jan 1, 1863 they would have kept *all* their slaves. Every. one. of. them.
It wasn’t until later that Lincoln decided the entire institution of slavery needed to end and he advanced the 13th Amendment, however, that measure has a loophole that allows for slavery and indentured servitude to continue to this very day “for the duly convicted.”
Some people have said “Thank you” but that is somewhat muted by the fact that Slavery continues, reconstruction failed, and the KKK rose while Jim Crow, segregation, voter suppression, discrimination and racial bias have slowed but not stopped.
The throngs of teen and 20-something women flowed into the ballroom of the Gaylord Texan hotel on a Friday night this month in a blur of shimmer and pink. There were sequins. There were bell-bottoms. There were sequin bell-bottoms. Most opted for some form of heel — often platformed, sometimes bedazzled. Others sported go-go or cowboy boots. (Kari Lake’s daughter wore a rose gold pair of the latter.) […]
They were ready for their trip back to the 1970s — or to a certain anti-feminist version of the era, anyway.
“That decade fundamentally changed the narrative surrounding women, what our role should be, what our lives should look like,” said Alex Clark, the evening’s unofficial emcee for the Young Women’s Leadership Summit, an annual event thrown by Turning Point USA, a sort of MAGA youth group. “All these years later, I’m not sure that was very good advice. Are you?”
Clark, who hosts a pop culture podcast for Turning Point, dressed for her opening-night speech in a sequined shift dress. The summit’s branding stretched across the screen behind her, all groovy lines and fat serif fonts in mustard, mauve and sienna. It was inspired, at least in part, by “Mrs. America,” the 2020 miniseries about the failed fight to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (with an implicit solidarity with Phyllis Schlafly, not Gloria Steinem).
“In the ’70s, women were given all sorts of lies,” she continued. “They just told us, ‘Well, you can be a man.’ And I guess we’ve kind of accomplished that. But are we happier?”
The attendees couldn’t speak from experience, having been born in the ’90s and 2000s. But Clark, who just turned 30, was very sure the answer was no. “What I’m here to tell you is, if you were to just go back to biblical roots in what God had designed for women to do, we will be happier,” she told them. [head/desk]
What does it mean to be young, female and conservative in America, 2023?
At the leadership summit, there were answers. It means posing for selfies in a mirror made to look like a magazine cover with a headline that reads, “Birth control is so last year.” It means having it all — but having kids and a husband before trying to get the rest. It means buying tampons and beauty products and other items from companies that market themselves as pro-Christian or anti-“woke.” It means embracing a particular kind of American nostalgia, one where women’s liberation means being free from the complexities of modern gender politics.
Perhaps most of all, it means seeing transgender women as a grave threat to womanhood.
“They ruin opportunities for women,” said Heaven Angel Martinez, a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who described the topic of being transgender as “absolutely” her top political issue.
[…] “This is a fight against cultural evils — against the erasure of women,” said Georgia Chapa, a student at Texas A&M University.
Chapa had been to a number of Turning Point events. In her experience, the co-ed ones are (informally) more oriented to partying and finding a “dudeservative” to marry, she said, while the women’s summit is more of a “feminine escape.” It’s women supporting women — specifically, women supporting women in their choice to reject liberal gender politics.
[…] In the exhibition hall, the young women were greeted with products that were created for feminine non-feminists. Like Garnuu, a brand that proudly declares that feminine products are for “Girls Only. Period.” Or Hope Beauty, which sells “biblically inspired cosmetics.” Or the Right Stuff, a dating app for women who want to filter out any men who might be — as Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk put it during a session on dating advice — “feminized versions of metrosexual culture.” Or Turning Point’s official merchandise, which includes a sweatshirt proclaiming, in the style of the Chanel No. 5 logo, that, “No 1 cares about your pronouns.”
“There ain’t nothing wrong with being a trad wife,” right-wing commentator Benny Johnson assured the attendees, using a term that refers to women who embrace a return to the traditional roles of homemaker and child-rearer.
Johnson’s wife, Kate, led a lecture on post-pregnancy beauty standards — namely, that having them is good — in a session titled “Hot Mom Summer.” In another room, Hope Beauty’s founder demonstrated how to apply lip liner — but never too much. (“We’re not into the drag queen makeup here!” she said to laughter.) Later, a panel of Christian chiropractic doctors and conservative health influencers presented a crash course in homeopathy in a session called “Anti-Woke Wellness.” (The advice: Ditch your hormonal birth control, planned hospital births and perfumed household products, if you can.) […]
Like a lot of women here, Reyn was worried about transgender women. Reyn is a competitive swimmer, and she was concerned about what it would mean to compete against athletes who are transgender women […] No wonder Riley Gaines was a star here. The recent University of Kentucky graduate made headlines in early 2022 when she tied for fifth place in the 200 freestyle final at the NCAA championships with Lia Thomas, a trans woman who swam on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team. Gaines spoke out against sharing the podium with Thomas, and the right-wing media heralded Gaines as a hero.
[…] the former president’s legal and political dramas seemed irrelevant to the culture war these young women were gearing up to fight. The ballroom roared with approval, for example, when Greene called for President Biden to be impeached — but it was mention of her federal bill to criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender youth that earned Greene a standing ovation. […]
Tourist Vessel Disappears in Area of Titanic Wreck.
A search-and-rescue mission is underway in the North Atlantic for the missing craft, the Coast Guard said. It is unclear how many people were on board.
A submersible craft disappeared in the area of the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic on Monday, setting off a search-and-rescue operation by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to the agency and the tourism company operating the craft.
Petty Officer Lourdes Putnam confirmed that Coast Guard officials were searching for the submersible, which is operated by OceanGate Expeditions. It was not clear how many people were on board, and Officer Putnam offered no further details. The company’s website said its submersibles carry five people.
[…] Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard said that the agency did not have the right equipment in the search area to do a “comprehensive sonar survey of the bottom.” He said,“Right now, we’re really just focused on trying to locate the vessel again by saturating the air with aerial assets, by tasking surface assets in the area, and then using the underwater sonar.” […]
The Marine Institute at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, which partnered with OceanGate on the trip, said in a statement that it became aware on Monday morning that OceanGate had lost contact with its Titan submersible. One Marine Institute student who was on a summer employment contract with OceanGate was safe, the statement said. “We have no further information on the status of the submersible or personnel,” the statement said. […]
Hamish Harding, the chairman of a Dubai-based sales and air operations company, Action Aviation, is among those aboard the missing submersible, according to Mark Butler, the company’s managing director. Harding, who holds several Guinness World Records, including for the longest time spent traversing the deepest part of the ocean on a single dive, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday that a dive had been planned for Sunday: “A weather window has just opened up,” he wrote. […]
More than 90 other Palestinians were wounded, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli army said seven of its soldiers were also wounded.
Israeli military forces raided a refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Monday, igniting the fiercest day of fighting in years as Palestinian militants detonated roadside bombs and Israeli helicopter gunships struck Palestinian gunmen to rescue troops trapped in the hourslong firefight.
At least five Palestinians were killed, including a 15-year-old boy, and over 90 others were wounded, Palestinian health officials said. Seven Israeli soldiers were also wounded, the army said.
The Israeli military said forces stormed into the Jenin refugee camp in the early morning to arrest two wanted militants. They faced fierce resistance. Palestinian militants said they ambushed Israeli armored vehicles with explosive devices, disabling several vehicles with troops trapped inside.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht described Palestinian militants’ use of at least one powerful roadside bomb as “very unusual and dramatic.” Five mangled vehicles were stuck in the firefight for hours, requiring the military to dispatch helicopters as part of an elaborate evacuation operation.
It was the first such use of a helicopter gunship in the occupied West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising around two decades ago, Israeli media reported. The Jenin refugee camp, long a militant stronghold, witnessed some of the biggest battles at the time.
At least one Apache helicopter fired missiles at Palestinian gunmen to try to clear the area while security forces worked to extract the trapped vehicles, the Israeli army said. The local branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad based in Jenin said its fighters opened fire at the combat helicopter. The group praised its fighters and warned Israel to “reconsider its calculations before its soldiers set foot on Jenin’s land.”
[…] “They were shooting at anything and everything that moved,” hospital director Tawfik al-Shobaki said of Israeli forces.
As the Israeli military eventually withdrew its damaged vehicles from the camp in the late afternoon, Palestinians ventured out to assess the heavy damage and bury their dead.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified those killed as Khaled Asasa, 21, Qassam Abu Sariya, 29, Qais Jabarin, 21, Ahmed Daraghmeh, 19, and 15-year-old Ahmed Saqr. Of the 91 Palestinians wounded, at least 12 were in critical condition, hospital officials said. Wissam Bakar, director of Jenin Government Hospital, said a 15-year-old girl was among the critically wounded.
Islamic Jihad claimed two of the dead as its fighters — Qais Jabarin and Qassam Abu Sariya.
A Palestinian cameraman, Hazem Nasser, wearing a clearly marked press vest, was among those seriously wounded in the fighting. His colleagues said he was shot when a building — where journalists had camped out to cover the clashes — came under Israeli fire. […]
An Associated Press journalist at the scene said that he saw the military shoot directly at Nasser. The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the shooting.
[…] The escalation was the latest in more than a year of near-daily violence that has wracked the West Bank.
Israel and the Palestinians have been gripped by months of violence, focused mainly in the West Bank, where 124 Palestinians have been killed this year. The city of Jenin has been a hotbed of Palestinian militancy.
[…] Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in the West Bank in response to a spasm of Palestinian violence early last year. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have surged during that time. Israel says most of the dead were militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed at least 20 people this year.
The Kremlin has doubled its wine allowance for Russian officials to alleviate the stress of Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
Sources told the exiled Verstka news website that Russian government officials have taken to sipping cognac throughout the day and turning up to meetings drunk and morose. […]
Other than enjoying German beer when he was stationed in Dresden as a Soviet spy in the 1980s, Vladimir Putin is not known as a drinker.
Verstka’s sources confirmed that he has not hit the bottle to cope with the disappointment of his invasion of Ukraine, but many of his senior lieutenants have. […]
A government strategist said that the Kremlin had recently increased the allowance of wine at official banquets to two bottles per person.
The stories of excessive drinking among the elite tally with reports that purchases of vodka and anti-depressants have spiked since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine last year. […]
According to Verstka, government officials show no sign of slowing down their own consumption amid claims they are “missing or disrupting meetings, using illegal substances and attending events while drunk”.
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
CLAIM: President Joe Biden withheld 1,850 boxes of classified documents from his time as vice president.
THE FACTS: The National Archives and Records Administration says the boxes of files referenced in that figure are actually Biden’s Senate papers, which are housed at the University of Delaware. The federal agency told the AP that the files of Congress members are considered their personal property and are not subject to the same restrictions as presidential records, which are considered government property. While the FBI has searched the Delaware university records as part of a larger search for classified documents, there is no evidence they were withheld from authorities in any way. As former President Donald Trump faces federal charges of illegally hoarding White House documents, he has repeatedly drawn comparisons to the boxes of government records kept by Biden as proof he’s being unfairly persecuted. “By the way, Biden’s got 1,850 boxes,” Trump said at a recent campaign rally in Georgia. “He’s fighting them on the boxes. He doesn’t want to give the boxes and then they say, ‘Trump is obstructioning’.” On social media, supporters have echoed the figure. But the 1,850 boxes referred to in these claims are being falsely conflated with classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president that have been found in other locations, such as one of his former office in Washington and his Delaware home. Instead, the university documents are from the Democrat’s many years serving in Congress as a U.S. senator from Delaware, according to NARA and the University of Delaware. Biden donated the files to his alma mater more than a decade ago. Daniel Holt, an assistant historian in the U.S. Senate’s Historical Office, also cited the chamber’s website, which states that “records created and maintained within a senator’s office are the property of the senator.” David Super, a professor of law and economics at Georgetown University’s law school, added that the documents Biden provided to the university aren’t subject to the Presidential Records Act, which Trump and his allies have frequently and misleadingly invoked. “Mr. Biden was incapable of creating records of his own presidency before he was elected president,” he wrote in an email. While the records are not currently available to the public, there is no indication Biden has resisted the FBI’s efforts to review or retrieve documents from the university — nor any other location where the agency has been investigating, added Super. Indeed, the White House disclosed in January that a lawyer for Biden had located what was described as a “small number” of classified documents from his time as vice president during a search of a former office space in Washington. The documents were turned over to the Justice Department, as were an additional batch found at Biden’s house in Wilmington, Delaware. […]
— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.
Massachusetts church was not holding same-sex wedding when it was hit by lightning and burned down.
CLAIM: A church in Boston was hosting a same-sex wedding ceremony when it was hit by lightning, sparking a fire that left no survivors.
THE FACTS: The First Congregational Church in the town of Spencer — which is in central Massachusetts, not the Boston area — did burn down on June 2 after it was hit by lightning. But there was no wedding being held at the time, nor any injuries reported, the local fire chief told the AP. The church caught fire on a Friday afternoon earlier this month when a storm was moving through the area, the AP reported. Social media users initially shared video of the church engulfed in flames with posts containing homophobic rhetoric and criticizing the church’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues. The church’s Facebook page has published positive messages about Pride month in the past. But in recent days, some users shared the footage with false claims that the blaze took place in Boston and that it occurred amid a same-sex wedding ceremony. A video shared on TikTok and Twitter shows the steeple of a church building ablaze as it slowly falls to the ground. “Church burnt down by a lightening, in Boston, In the USA, during a marriage ceremony of homosexual couple. No survival from the participants,” reads one post on Twitter, misspelling “lightning.” However, the historic church in Spencer — about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Worcester — was closed when the fire broke out, not hosting a wedding, according to Spencer Fire Chief Robert Parsons. No injuries were reported in the fire, which drew nearly 100 firefighters from close to 20 departments. “There was no wedding going on and actually the church was closed up and locked. No one was working in the church,” Parsons said in an email. Parsons and the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services also confirmed the cause of the fire was a lightning strike. Jake Wark, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts fire service, said state police fire investigators worked with local officials to determine that the lightning started a blaze in the building’s attic, which rapidly spread through the wood-framed structure. Parsons previously told the AP that the building was a total loss.
— Associated Press writer Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed this report.
Fabricated Trump Truth Social post about Walt Nauta circulates after court appearance.
CLAIM: A screenshot shows a Truth Social post from former President Donald Trump saying his personal aide and alleged co-conspirator Walt Nauta was the one who packed up his “personal papers” when he left the White House.
THE FACTS: The image is fabricated and Trump never posted such a statement on Truth Social. Many social media users shared the bogus post as real after Trump pleaded not guilty to dozens of felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents, suggesting it showed the former president was pointing the finger at Nauta for possessing any classified documents. Nauta, Trump’s valet before joining him as personal aide in Mar-a-Lago, was indicted last week on charges that he moved boxes of documents at Trump’s direction and then misled the FBI about it. Nauta did not enter a plea Tuesday because he did not have a local lawyer with him. The post circulating on social media shows Trump’s Truth Social profile. “Many people are saying the theft of Nuclear and Military Secrets is a very serious crime,” it begins. The post goes on to say that Trump asked his “LOYAL aide Walt Nauta” to pack personal documents before leaving the White House and is confident Nauta didn’t “place any Nuclear Secrets” inside because he knew that would get the former president in “trouble.” “So let’s just see what Judge Cannon says. Good Luck, Walt! We are behind you all the way!” it ends. While Trump did publish a flurry of posts on his social media platform about the case before and after his court appearance, the post shown in the image was not one of them. […] The image circulating on social media also contains signs it is not real, including a watermark from imgflip.com, a meme generator website that allows users to mimic Trump’s Truth Social posts. […] Trump did post about Nauta on Truth Social on June 9, but it was to protest his inclusion in the indictment. “They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about ‘Trump.’ He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!” Trump wrote.
— Karena Phan
Posts misrepresent data on terrorism and migration in Poland.
CLAIM: A map shows that Poland has not been the target of any terror attacks, the lack of which is a result of the country’s “strict no-migrants policy.”
THE FACTS: The map only shows terror attacks from 2012 through 2015 — but the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database shows six such attacks in Poland since 2015 and dozens prior to 2012. Additionally, Poland is open to migrants as a member of the European Union, and experts say the data shows migrants are in fact more likely to be victims of terror than perpetrators. Yet a screenshot of the map spread online in recent days alongside the erroneous claim. “Here is a map of terror attacks in Europe,” one tweet states. “Poland has a strict no-migrants policy. Draw your own conclusions.” It is true that the map, built by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, does not show any terror attacks in Poland. However, while the map only shows attacks recorded in the Global Terrorism Database over a four-year period, the database has records of attacks from 1970 through 2020. During that time, Poland has seen 42 terror attacks. […] While Poland does have lower levels of migration than other countries in the European Union, it doesn’t have a “no-migrants policy.” As a member of the EU, Poland must adhere to freedom of movement rights, which allow EU citizens and their families to reside freely in member countries. As of late May 2023, approximately 1.6 million Ukrainian refugees from the Russia-Ukraine war were registered for temporary protection in Poland, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Regardless, the map doesn’t show that terror attacks in the countries with higher migration rates were perpetrated by migrants, as the posts suggest, noted Miller. In fact, she added, most terror attacks are carried out by “domestic assailants,” and immigrants are more likely to be victims than perpetrators. […] more populous countries have more attacks, not because the migrants are the ones responsible. To the extent that there is a relationship to migration, especially in the case of people coming to Europe from non-European countries, it’s due to the attacks on the migrants — not by them […]
China and the United States hailed ‘progress’ and pledged to stabilize a spiraling relationship on Monday but stopped short of achieving a significant breakthrough after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Xi Jinping.
[…] Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC News on Monday that his trip to Beijing marked an ‘important start’ in stabilizing U.S. ties with China and that the countries should move on from the spy balloon incident that postponed his visit earlier this year.
Donald Trump is losing another lawyer in another pending case. It’s actually his second time losing this same lawyer in a matter of days. Jim Trusty had recently parted ways with the former president after Trump’s latest criminal indictment. Now, the lawyer wants off Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN, which seeks $475 million from the cable network over an alleged ‘smear campaign.’
More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.
Houston Chronicle:
COVID-19 expert Peter Hotez said on Twitter he was ‘stalked’ outside his home Sunday morning by a pair of people espousing anti-vaccines views and encouraging him to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the subject. The confrontation stemmed from a podcast Joe Rogan posted June 15 interviewing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in April launched a campaign to run for president in 2024.
“Today is a good day to remember: Christianity is the faith and America is the place slavery came to die,” the Missouri senator tweeted, managing to fail at both grammar and a basic grasp of history.
In reality, as Jeet Heer and many others pointed out in response to Hawley’s inane commentary, the United States lagged decades behind most other countries in the Western hemisphere in abolishing slavery. England, Mexico, France, and Denmark had all ended slavery before we adopted the 13th Amendment in 1865.
And while it’s unclear from a logical or even syntax perspective what “Christianity is the faith” is supposed to mean in that tweet, Hawley also seems to be whiffing on the irony that Americans used Christianity to justify slavery in the first place. Frederick Douglass had this to say on the subject: …
Russia created a Tank Bomb by packing an ancient tank with 6 tons of explosives and sending it toward the Ukrainian lines with the driver jumping out and letting it continue on its own.
Unfortunately for them it went kaboom way too early. [Tweet and video at the link]
It was pretty crude, but if it had gotten through it would have killed many. What Russia failed to do was send one or two other vehicles ahead of the Tank Bomb as sacrificial lambs to clear some of the mines to give the tank bomb a better chance of making it.
A video of @benweideman then me discussing the Russian T55 packed with explosives. Pack a tank with explosives, have a volunteer drive it, then jump off after pointing it toward the enemy. What a stupid way to conduct armored operations by the Russians
Russia, of course, claims the attack was a roaring success. […]
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Close combat between Ukrainian and Russian troops in a network of trenches. NOTE: The video shows Russian troops getting shot at close range. You have to open the link if you want to watch it.
Explicit content: fighters of the 73rd Maritime Special Operations of the Ukraine Armed Forces entered a well-equipped Russian trench on the southern front to destroy a group of 10 Russian servicemen (uncensored + some subtitles added). pic.twitter.com/uxFRkm3esL
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 19, 2023
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Russia is attempting to launch its own offensive near Kreminna. [Tweets at the link]
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An interesting story that Hillary Clinton says Vladimir Putin told her. [Tweet and video at the link]
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[Tweet and video showing detonation of Russian stuff]
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Thus with all officials of Russia’s Vichy governments. [Tweet and images at link. A Deputy Prime Minister is targeted by car bomb in Russian-occupied Simferopol, Crimea.]
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If it’s a day ending in Y, it must be insurance fraud. [Video at the link]
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A Ukrainian drone halts construction of Russian defensive lines without even dropping a bomb. [Tweet and video at the link]
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This is what all the heroic warriors will be wearing this summer. [Tweet and video at the link: 🇺🇦 Ukrainian soldiers organized a fashion show 🥰 ]
It’s also important to stay clean. [Tweet and video at the link: Ukrainian soldiers take a shower after leaving the trenches … looks like a fire hose, and muddy, fully-clothed soldiers.]
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Russians left to die by their own army are rescued by Ukrainians. [Tweet and video of Ukrainian Special Forces rescuing russian soldiers who don’t know how to swim. They were left to die by their own.]
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Where’s a Stinger when you need one? [Tweet and video at the link]
Hunter Biden will plead guilty to three federal offenses in a plea deal: two tax misdemeanours, one offense of illegally owning a firearm (lying about his drug use when he bought it). Thisapparently concludes the federal investigation into him.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 187
Thisapparently [sic] concludes the federal investigation into him
That is, until the Republicans take Congress back.
[…] in Nevada, Republican congressional candidate David Flippo recently used social media to promote an image of a makeshift hut, telling the public, “This is not a village in a 3rd world country, this is the US border!” As Politico noted, the photo was actually taken in rural Africa. Asked for an explanation, the GOP campaign accused Politico of being a “propaganda arm” for Democrats.
Why would a private citizen being charged with two tax misdemeanors and a charge over possessing a gun for 1 week “have immediate reverberations in the 2024 presidential election”? And why is @CNN adopting that Republican narrative with zero scrutiny?
[…] Hunter Biden isn’t on the presidential ballot next year. That’s Joe Biden, who has not smoked crack and lied about it on a gun application. However, Biden’s likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is the one who has been indicted for all the crimes, including alarming violations of the Espionage Act. Even if Hunter Biden were running for president, I’d still vote for him over Trump because he hasn’t stolen classified documents and actively obstructed justice. Oh, and he’s also not fascist scum.
Republicans insist, without evidence, that Joe Biden is directly connected to his son’s legal problems, which they claim are far more serious than what Hunter’s actually facing. Here is a quick Whitman’s sampler of stupid. [Tweet at the link]
Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Into Hunter’s Penis Committee, tweeted, “Hunter Biden’s getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery.”
Comer claimed Hunter Biden received a “sweetheart plea deal,” a term that Sen. Marsha Blackburn repeated because she is not known for her original material. She said it’s “no coincidence that less than a week after [Donald] Trump is arraigned by the DOJ, Hunter Biden is pleading guilty to a sweetheart deal with no jail time.” No, I think it is a coincidence, or more specifically, two unrelated sequential events.
Matt Schlapp, who has his own issues, tweeted, “A sitting President just orchestrated a sweetheart deal for his son in order to boost his re-election. All election interference.” Joe Biden didn’t negotiate this plea deal. That was US Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, who was appointed by Donald Trump. [So very correct!]
Sen. JD Vance said, “Any other American would have the book thrown at them.” (That’s a lie.) “The president’s son gets a slap on the wrist. This is exhibit 1,402 for why I’m holding Biden’s DOJ nominees. We have a two-tiered justice system in our country. It’s a disgrace.” No, Senator, you’re the disgrace.
Perhaps the most absurd response comes courtesy of Rep. Lance Gooden, who tweeted, “DOJ brought 3 week charges against Hunter to try to trick the American public into thinking they aren’t politically biased. But Hunter will see zero days in jail even thought he has committed many crimes.” (The oh-so-many crimes remain unproven.) “Trump faces 450 years over a paperwork dispute.”
Stealing classified documents and showing them off to random people is not a “paperwork dispute” no matter how hard the MAGA cult tries to soft-pedal Trump’s treason crimes. Actual voters don’t buy it, either. Stop making the “Biden Crime Family” happen. It’s never going to happen.
A new report in the Financial Times appears to confirm that the main Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, is recruiting and training a militia to join the country’s war effort against Ukraine.
The “Uran” battalion, which translates to Uranus, is to be made up of employees of Roscosmos, as well as those from its dozens of state-owned subsidiaries in the aerospace business. Recruits will receive a 100,000 ruble ($1,200) sign-up bonus, and a monthly frontline duty salary of 270,000 rubles, according to the report. This is far above the wages paid to most employees of Roscosmos…
Tethyssays
I expect it will be a very short trial after tfg helpfully explained how his golf shirts were stolen by the FBI.
Judge Cannon’s Order: “This case is hereby set for a Criminal Jury Trial during the two-week period commencing August 14, 2023, or as soon thereafter as the case may be called…”
Judge Cannon’s order (more):
“Any change of plea must be taken prior to 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before trial is scheduled to begin”
Lynna, OM @ # 171 quoting a Kossack: … he claims that there were also black slave owners who ultimately fought on the side of the Confederacy … Technically, he is correct but he also misses the point.
Last I heard, historians have failed to find any of the claimed “Blacks who fought for the CSA“. Lots of slaves did get dragged into Confederate military service, but they cooked, cleaned, dug, and drove – they didn’t receive or use weapons. Confederate law explicitly banned that (until about the last month of the war).
The Civil War had 300,000 casualties…
That’s only off by about half a million (if by “casualties” one means “fatalities”, not the standard usage).
It really bothers me when progressives get the facts wrong.
On Sunday, news broke about an OceanGate Expeditions tourist submarine headed for the wreck of the Titanic that went missing with five people aboard. Soon after, details emerged about the sub’s non-standard design that did not meet regulations, including steering apparently handled by a $30 Logitech F710 wireless PC game controller from 2010…
Use the sub to goad about regulations? There’s reciprocity in death and callousness. I’ll have have to think that for a bit though. I want an idea of what doing that wrong looks like.
Reginald Selkirksays
@196:
Submarine tourism is such a small market I don’t know if guidelines for safe operation exist.
This one operates in international waters, which brings up the question if jurisdiction.
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #197…
One might expect the regulations to go by country of registration (of the “mothership”…those small, deep submersibles, aren’t ocean-going vessels in their own right). That, of course, opens up the whole “flag of convenience” can of worms. The last recourse being to bar port calls if the ship and/or submersible fails to meet the standards of any country where they make port.
I figure negligence and callousness stands despite what the law is. Like not caring what the law say with abortion ultimately. But this group will have complicated empathy for one another.
In a baffling turn of events, the Donald Trump-appointed federal judge overseeing his Mar-a-Lago classified documents debacle appears to have placed the case on warp speed—setting a trial just two months away…
A restaurant in California has been ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to employees after it hired a priest to extract workers’ confessions, in what federal investigators are calling “the most shameless” acts of corruption an employer has taken against its staff.
The US Department of Labor said an employee testified that owner Che Garibaldi, who operates two locations of Taqueria Garibaldi in northern California, hired a fake priest to hear confessions during work hours and “get the sins out,” including asking them if they had been late for work, stolen money from the restaurant or had “bad intentions” toward their employer…
North Carolina’s state House speaker is being sued by a local elected official who alleges the powerful Republican ruined his marriage by having an affair with his wife.
Lawyers for Scott Lassiter claim that for more than three years Speaker Tim Moore “willfully interfered in the marital relationship” between Lassiter and his wife, who leads an agency within the state courts system…
Lassiter wants at least $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages against Moore and another unidentified man whom Lassiter said conspired with Moore in recent weeks to install a camera outside Lassiter’s suburban Raleigh home…
Donald Trump has a court date. And a judge. For those who assumed that the Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon would naturally remove herself from presiding over this trial, especially after her actions earlier in the same case ended up with the 11th Circuit stepping in to reverse her every decision and scold her for breaking every judicial convention … think again. Because everything about the order she just issued indicates that Cannon intends to be in the big chair when testimony begins.
The order calls for the case to begin on Aug. 14, or “as soon thereafter as the case may be called.“ Pretrial motions are to due by July 24. The statement anticipates a two-week trial before the jury.
No one should anticipate that Trump’s trial will actually start promptly on that date. It’s common for cases before the federal court to be continued to a later date. If there is anything that Trump has proven himself to be good at when it comes to court cases, it’s delay, and Cannon has demonstrated that she is his willing partner in pumping the brakes. This is a placeholder date. The difference between Aug. 14 and when a gavel actually hits the table is likely to be measured in months.
Even though Trump’s arraignment was held at the federal courthouse in Miami, the trial is scheduled for the Alto Adams Courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida. This is is the normal courthouse for the Southern District of Florida, where Cannon normally hears cases, and where she presided over the whole “special master” fiasco.
The difference between the date on the order and the date on which things might get rolling is highlighted by some of the conditions Cannon attaches to her order. For example:
Any motion for a continuance of trial shall (1) set forth in detail which factors constitute grounds for a continuance pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(B), including the complexity of the case, 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(B)(ii), the security clearance process, and any anticipated impact of the Classified Information Procedures Act, Pub. L. 96–456, 94 Stat. 2025, 18 U.S.C. App. III §§ 1–16; and (2) indicate whether the reasons served by granting the continuance outweigh the defendant’s constitutional and statutory rights to a speedy trial.
This paragraph anticipates that there will be a continuance because of the need to obtain security clearances for attorneys and staff, the issues caused from the numerous classified documents at the heart of the case, and the inherent “complexity of the case.”
Of the two dates, the July 24 date may be the only one that matters, because Trump’s team is likely to wait until the last possible minute of that day before handing in their paperwork, which will be a request for a continuance—one that moves the date for filing more requests for a continuance weeks into the future.
Unless something happens in that time to replace Cannon at the helm, don’t expect any of these requests to be denied.
she wouldn’t recuse herself, now they have moved the trial to her district. From what I understand, she was chosen not randomly but because the Miami clerk checked the box that says she was the original magistrate in this case so it automatically assigned her to it. Jack Smith needs to step in now or this is going to be a sh*t show.
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I suspect that Jack Smith needs more than just, “but she did such-and-such last trial” as a reason for why she should be removed from the case. Jack’s going to have to wait for her to fvk up big-time, which for Loose-Cannon, will thankfully be sooner rather than later. [I agree]
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t’s a sensitive docs case… every lawyer handling those cases knows the pressure points for the prosecution are the documents themselves … there will be piecemeal motions for each document about full discovery of the document itself … then admissibility if some at trial … each of the docs can potentially be it’s own case which goes through motion practice, interlocutory appeals then all the way to SUP Ct … rinse repeat for the next Doc … it’s gonna happen … note my predictions from here and we will circle back on this next year when these exact issues are winding their way up and down the court system
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As someone who hasn’t practiced in federal court in decades, I’m intrigued by your statement that each document could be the subject of an appeal. Under what theory of appealability?
I ask because here in California, you can seek interlocutory appellate review of almost any order, but issues of admissibility of evidence are an important exception. Our case law considers a post-judgment appeal an adequate remedy for any error in admitting or excluding evidence, so there are no grounds for review by pretrial writ.
My recollection of federal practice is that interlocutory review is quite limited. It’s basically the collateral order doctrine. Which is another reason I’m interested in your comment. I know this is arcane stuff, but would you mind elaborating further?
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They would still need some jurisdictional basis for their appeals. If they can’t identify one, the appeals can be dismissed fairly quickly.
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The Guardian: Trump and his legal team spent the afternoon before his arraignment interviewing potential lawyers but the interviews did not result in any joining the team in time for Trump’s initial court appearance scheduled for 3pm ET on Tuesday after several attorneys declined to take him as a client.
Trump has also seemingly been unable to find a specialist national security lawyer, eligible to possess a security clearance, to help him navigate the Espionage Act charges.
The last-minute scramble to find a veteran trial lawyer was a familiar process for Trump, who has had difficulty hiring and keeping lawyers to defend him in the numerous federal and state criminal cases that have dogged him through his presidency and after he left the White House.
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today (June 20) is the deadline for “all attorneys of record and forthcoming attorneys of record” to get in touch with the Justice Department’s litigation security group so that they can expedite “the necessary clearance process”. Maybe we’ll get a clue as to how strict deadlines will be in this case by the end of today (June 20).
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Can Trump get a security clearance now that his was taken away by Biden. I would think not.
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a criminal jury needs to be unanimous and I agree that is worrisome in FL. Then again there was a MAGA nut on the NY civil trial of Drumpf and we got a unanimous decision. OTOH Grand Juries don’t have to be unanimous, just need to hit a threshold which I believe was 12 out of a minimum of 16 participating.
As you’d expect, news that the long-running Hunter Biden investigation is ending with pleas to a few relatively low level infractions that are unlikely to result in jail time has been met with gnashing of teeth and donning of sack cloth in “Where’s Hunter?”/Biden Crime Family land. But they are holding on to one faint glimmer of hope. Is the investigation really, really, really over? As in super double over?
Let’s take a look.
Biden’s lawyer Christopher Clark said in a statement this morning that “it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved.” Reporting in various publications based on anonymous sources and ‘sources close to the negotiation’ basically confirm that. Politico for instance reports this: “The plea agreement is intended to be a comprehensive resolution of Hunter Biden’s potential legal liability in all matters investigated by federal authorities, a person familiar with the negotiations said.”
So seems clear enough.
But there’s more!
The Department of Justice released a statement by US Attorney David C. Weiss in which he gives a pretty unremarkable recitation of the agreement. Then tucked inconspicuously down at the end of paragraph five he writes: “The investigation is ongoing.”
So is this done or is there more to come?
Generally speaking you plea out as a global resolution to everything your facing. Otherwise, why are you doing it? That can’t be treated as an absolute rule. But it’s generally how things work. Add to this the fact that not only is Biden’s lawyer saying this but reporters covering this seem to think this is done as well.
But then why that statement?
Right wingers first seized on this as evidence that there’s more to come and their grandest hopes aren’t actually dashed. But then they came up with alternate explanation. Maybe they’re keeping the case open on what is now a phantom investigation for the sinister purpose of keeping an excuse not to turn materials over to Reps. Comer and Jordan. For the moment they appear to be going with both: the dream is alive and the fix is in, with maybe some trend toward the latter.
I’d like to conclude this post with a silver bullet explanation.[…] But at least for now there’s no clear or obvious answer. Even the reporters following this closest don’t seem quite clear what it means. Politico for instance speculates that while Hunter Biden himself may face no more exposure the investigation might be continuing with potential charges for others. It’s just not clear. Maybe it’s just boilerplate and it doesn’t really mean anything. The folks who I’d expect would know don’t seem to know.
In any case, if you see people discussing this still dangling thread to the Hunter Biden drama, that’s the best we have so far.
On Monday, Donald Trump sat down for a face-to-face interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier. Perched on a familiar stool in front of cameras that have spent so much time pointed his way that his face must be burned into their core, and fresh off his prime time CNN promo in front of a hand-selected audience told to cheer his every utterance, Trump must have anticipated some easy sledding.
Only Baier did the surprising thing: He asked actual questions, ones that didn’t just tee up Trump to repeat some part of his long-established rant. Questions like why Trump held onto the classified documents in the face of multiple requests from the National Archives and Department of Justice, and why he continues to refuse to admit he lost the 2020 election. But nothing may be funnier than when Baier asked Trump about why everyone he ever worked with, all those “best people” he hired in 2016, absolutely came to loathe him.
Baier’s list of people who were appointed by Trump to the most important positions in government, but who wouldn’t now support his run for street cleaner, is a reference that should be returned to again and again. A chief of staff. Another chief of staff. Defense secretary. Attorney general. Press secretary. Secretary of state. Secretary of transportation. UN ambassador. And Mike Pence. [video at the link]
If that’s not enough of Trump slamming Bill Barr, don’t worry. There’s plenty more.
In response to why he hired people who had “very small brains,” were “dumb as rocks,” or were “gutless pigs,” Trump’s response was that he hired “10 good people” for every one of these very bad people. And then Trump can’t name a single one. [LOL] The best he can do is say that he had very good people in charge of the economy. That would be this economy. [chart at the link, Trump performed impressively badly, and Biden’s numbers are mostly very good.]
Trump’s “best” accomplishment was exactly like his best people: a disaster. He crashed the economy in a way that hasn’t been seen … since the last time a Republican was in the White House. That economy sprang back under Biden, but still hasn’t stabilized from the mismanagement of Trump’s nameless people.
During his interview with Baier, Trump mostly allowed the Fox anchor to finish his questions, something he did not allow CNN host Kaitlin Collins or any other woman who dared direct a query his way. However, there was one point at which Trump seemed determined to get out his gallop and trot right over Baier. [video at the link]
Trump’s insistence on throwing out one debunked conspiracy and one proven false narrative after another on this point is illuminating both because it’s clear he doesn’t want to give Baier time to confront any of these claims one at a time, and because it’s all just a litany of names and gibberish that’s unidentifiable to anyone not part of the MAGA horde. It’s all “the 51 agents” and “real recounts”—phrases that wouldn’t mean a thing to someone who had not been neck-deep in conspiracy land. Even Baier seems exhausted by the effort to get Trump to deal with the facts.
But the part of the interview already making the news outside Fox is the part where Trump confesses to withholding the documents. Again. And the part where he claims that the Bedminster document, the one he was caught talking about on tape and waving around to visitors, doesn’t exist.
Confronted about the documents, Trump gives what might be his best reason so far when it comes to withholding highly classified national defense documents: Trump didn’t hand over the boxes because he was concerned about running short of golf shirts. And he had apparently filed away some pants. As one does. [video at the link]
If you’re keeping track of Trump excuses, there are three Trump has repeated numerous times.
The documents were planted.
The documents were declassified by telepathy.
The Presidential Records Act lets me keep whatever I want.
To these, America can now add “I was too busy” and “because there were shoes.” And shirts. And pants. Boxes of pants. Trump also repeats the “everything was declassified” lie at the end of this ramble, along with another claim that the National Archives might be “stuffing” other documents in.
But even the pants aren’t the most ludicrous part of this statement. There’s also the part where Trump proclaims that the Bedminster document—the document that Trump was caught on tape declaring “like, highly confidential”—isn’t real. On the recording, Trump can be heard describing the document, explaining how it was prepared for him, and warning about its sensitivity. “As president, I could have declassified it,” said Trump. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
But now Trump says the document doesn’t exist.
Trump: “There’s no document there. Those were newspaper articles. They were copies of articles and magazines. There was no document there.”
So Trump is saying he told people that a collection of newspaper articles and magazine clippings were “secret” and that he could have declassified them?
Despite having described the documents as having been prepared by General Mark Milley, Trump insists to Baier that he “has never seen a document from Milley,” and that “Miley was just incompetent.” Making him a perfect fit with every other person Trump appointed.
To top off the theme of the evening, after Trump insists there was nothing but a collection of newspaper clips and magazines, not a classified document, Baier makes one more stab.
Baier: “According to the people in the room who testified …”
Trump: “These people are very dishonest people. They’re thugs.”
Of course they are. […]
By any measure, Trump’s interview was a laughable disaster. However, don’t get the idea this means Fox is shutting the door on Trump. Those who tuned in live may have seen Trump get confronted over several issues. Those who are following Fox’s coverage today are getting none of that, because this is what Fox News’ front page coverage of their Trump interview looks like on Tuesday morning. [Screen capture showing Fox headline: “Trump reveals he told Putin to halt Ukraine invasion.” Bullshit.]
Even when Trump lies to Fox News face to face, it’s not as if they’re going to report it. Instead, they’re digging deep to find a way to put a positive spin on the results. For those who are interested, the inspirational words that kept Putin from invading Ukraine, according to Trump, were “don’t do it.”
It’s not much of a story. But then, Fox isn’t much of a news organization. Notice that while they included clips of Trump making statements of his relationship with Xi and giving his rants about the dangers of the left, they failed to include any clips when editing his “boxes of pants” defense into something more reasonable.
Trump may hate everyone. Fox News may know he’s awful. But they both know they are dependent on the same awful audience for their financial survival.
In that case, Fox News should fail financially. Trump should fail financially (and on every other level as well).
There’s an unhinged, anti-vax conspiracy theorist running for president and unfortunately he’s doing so in the Democratic primary. Nepo baby candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast last Thursday and spouted a bunch of nonsense about vaccines and the war in Ukraine, which he absurdly claimed cost “$8 trillion … That’s $24 trillion that they had to print to pay for nothing.”
“That money, the way they’re paying it back,” he said, “it’s a hidden tax called inflation, and it hits the poor and the middle class”
Yeah, so everything that guy just said is bullshit. Congress has committed $113 billion to our ally Ukraine. (Please note that a trillion is a thousand billions or roughly the number of blows to the head Kennedy Jr. seems to have suffered.)
Kennedy Jr. also shared a number of debunked conspiracy theories, including the popular one about how the CIA assassinated his uncle, John F. Kennedy, and could possibly do the same to him because he’s not at all dangerously paranoid.
“Well, I got to be careful,” Kennedy told Rogan. “And I’m aware of that — I’m aware of that danger. I don’t live in fear of it, you know, at all. But I’m not stupid about it, and I take precautions.”
I’d love to know the “precautions” a private citizen takes to avoid getting whacked by the same shadowy figures who apparently took down a president. Does he spring for a SimplySafe system with the doorbell camera?
In an upcoming New Yorker profile titled “Is R.F.K., Jr., the First Podcast Presidential Candidate?” Kennedy said with all due humility, “The same way my uncle discovered television in 1960 and realized it was going to be a new path to the White House, podcasts are a good media for me, because my weakest media is the short sound bite.”
I don’t think the problem is that Americans weren’t hearing the full scope of Kennedy Jr.’s dementia. What Kennedy Jr. loves most about podcasts, it seems, is that he’s “able to outrun the censorship juggernaut” or in other words, his favorite podcast hosts let him say whatever goofy ass shit he wants unchallenged. For instance, Rogan shamelessly extended a platform for Kennedy Jr.’s baseless claims that vaccines cause autism. (They do not.) [Tweet and video at the link]
When vaccine researcher Dr. Peter Hotez criticized Rogan for broadcasting Kennedy Jr.’s BS, Rogan challenged him to “debate” Kennedy Jr. on his podcast as if that is a valuable use of anyone’s time, let alone a medical professional’s. Rogan also offered to donate $100,000 to the charity of Dr. Hotez’s choice, which is not how actual charity works. (Rogan earns an estimated $60 million a year, so this is chump change.)
Dr. Hotez considered this an offer he definitely could refuse, and there was a back-and-forth Twitter exchange where Kennedy promised a “respectful, congenial, informative debate that the American people deserve.” The American people might bear responsibility for 27 seasons of “The Bachelor” but they don’t deserve a “debate” between an entitled crackpot and serious person.
Chief Twitter troll Elon Musk claimed Dr. Hotez “hated charity” and was “afraid of a public debate, because he knows he’s wrong.” He’s not a scientist. He’s a chicken! Coo-coo-coo-chaw!
Sunday, Dr. Hotez explained to MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan that actual scientists write papers supporting their positions. They don’t rhetorically arm wrestle idiots.
I have a new book coming out that basically says 200,000 Americans needlessly perished, because they believed the anti-vaccine disinformation and refused to take a COVID vaccine during our Delta wave and BA.1 Omicron wave in 2021-22 after vaccines were widely available.
So the point is anti-vaccine disinformation, it’s always done a lot of damage and harm, but now it’s a lethal force in the United States, and that’s why we have to have that discussion. And I offered to come and go on Joe Rogan again — I’ve been on a couple of times — and have that discussion, but not to turn it into the Jerry Springer Show with having RFK Jr. on.
[Tweet and video at the link: “Debates with anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists only serve to elevate them—and most importantly, they don’t change anyone’s mind.”]
Some of Rogan’s creepier fans stalked Dr. Hotez’s home in Texas. He claims one asshole shoved a cellphone in his face and asked if he would accept Rogan’s challenge. “They were clearly lying in wait,” Hotez told the Washington Post. “It’s very sad. All we were trying to do is get a cake for Father’s Day.”
Kennedy Jr. also had a cozy chat last week with Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson, a noted crackpot who has it out for feminists, minorities, and queer people. Peterson recorded the interview as a podcast for the right-wing Daily Wire, which is not an ideal venue to reach potential Democratic primary voters.
YouTube yanked the video for “violating YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities,” the company said Monday in a statement.
Kennedy and Peterson claimed (stupidly) that YouTube was “interfering” with a presidential campaign. “Should social media platforms censor presidential candidates?” Kennedy whined on Twitter, where of course the video remains up. We’re not sharing the link here, but Kennedy repeated an Alex Jones-addled conspiracy theory that chemicals in the water were “turning the frogs gay.” Kermit was no longer sexually interested in Miss Piggy. He just found her fabulous.
Cranking the crazy up a notch, Kennedy told Peterson, “I think a lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys, it’s probably underappreciated on that how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of the sexual dysphoria that we’re seeing.”
Yes, Kennedy Jr. believes polluted water turns kids TRANSGENDER. Don’t worry. We don’t “underappreciate” how deranged this man is.
Details of the former president’s agreement to work with a Saudi firm to develop a hotel and golf complex overlooking the Gulf of Oman highlight the ways his business and political roles intersect.
On a remote site at the edge of the Gulf of Oman, thousands of migrant laborers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are at work in 103-degree heat, toiling in shifts from dawn until nightfall to build a new city, a multibillion-dollar project backed by Oman’s oil-rich government that has an unusual partner: former President Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Trump’s name is plastered on signs at the entrance of the project and in the lobby of the InterContinental Hotel in Muscat, the nearby capital of Oman, where a team of sales agents is invoking Mr. Trump’s name to help sell luxury villas at prices of up to $13 million, mostly targeting superrich buyers from around the world, including from Russia, Iran and India.
Mr. Trump has been selling his name to global real estate developers for more than a decade. But the Oman deal has taken his financial stake in one of the world’s most strategically important and volatile regions to a new level, underscoring how his business and his politics intersect as he runs for president again amid intensifying legal and ethical troubles.
Interviews and an examination by The New York Times of hundreds of pages of financial documents associated with the Oman project show that this partnership is unlike any other international deal Mr. Trump and his family have signed.
The venture puts Mr. Trump in business with the government of Oman, an ally of the United States with which Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, cultivated ties while in office and which plays a vital diplomatic role in a volatile region. The Omani government is providing the land for the development, is investing heavily in the infrastructure to support it and will get a cut of the profits in the long run.
Mr. Trump was brought into the deal by a Saudi real estate firm, Dar Al Arkan, which is closely intertwined with the Saudi government. While in office, Mr. Trump developed a tight relationship with Saudi leaders. Since leaving office, he has worked with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to host the LIV golf tour and Mr. Kushner received a $2 billion infusion from the Saudi fund for his investment venture.
Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, has already brought in at least $5 million from the Oman deal. Under its terms, Trump Organization will not put up any money for the development, but will help design a Trump-branded hotel, golf course and golf club and will be paid to manage them for up to 30 years, among other revenue.
The project could also draw scrutiny in the West for its treatment of its migrant workers, who during the first phase of construction are living in compounds of cramped trailers in a desertlike setting and are being paid as little as $340 a month, according to one of the engineers supervising the work. […]
Not ‘the Hamptons of the Middle East’
In February, Eric Trump, the former president’s son who is overseeing the project for Trump Organization while also playing a role in his father’s re-election campaign, traveled to Oman to visit the cliff-side site where the golf course will soon be built. He met with executives from Dar Al Arkan, the Saudi firm, as well as top government officials from Oman who control the land.
“It’s like the Hamptons of the Middle East,” Eric Trump said in an interview, declining to address other questions about the project.
Oman, in fact, is nothing like the Hamptons. It is a Muslim nation and absolute monarchy, ruled by a sultan, who plays a sensitive role in the Middle East: Oman maintains close ties with Saudi Arabia and its allies, but also with Iran, with which it has considerable trade.
[…] Oman is also a buyer of weapons from the United States, including Lockheed Martin’s F-16 fighter jets and a Raytheon-manufactured missile system that it agreed to purchase last year. […] it was through Dar Al Arkan, the Saudi real estate company, that Mr. Trump and his family firm got into the Oman project.
[…] Mr. Trump was on hand to close the deal in New York in November, just before he announced his 2024 presidential bid. Executives from the Saudi real estate company visited Trump Tower and showed off designs for the project, and Eric Trump signed paperwork confirming the deal.
“Our partnership with Trump will distinguish our first project in Oman and put it on the global map,” Yousef Al Shelash, the chairman of Dar Al Arkan, said in a statement issued as the deal was signed. […]
Links to Foreign Governments
In Oman, the government’s contribution to the Yiti project starts with the land: It has set aside nearly 3,000 acres along the Gulf of Oman for the project, a quarter of which it has turned over to the Saudi-run Dar Al Arkan. The Omani government will be paid back over time for the land, and get a cut of the profits from the project, according to a detailed description of the deal made public in a financial filing in London.
Separately, the government of Oman is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade highways and utilities […]
“What you see in front of you — that’s a billion dollars’ worth of investments,” said Ammar Al Kharusi, the head of development at the Oman government’s tourism agency, as he stood on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the first phase of the Yiti project, where hundreds of workers toiled below, as countless trucks and at least a dozen cranes hauled in and lifted loads of steel and other building supplies to construct this new metropolis.
Next door is the second phase — called Oceana at Aida — that will be built by Dar Al Arkan on a desertlike plateau towering nearly 450 feet above the Gulf of Oman, offering extraordinary views.
[…] Dar Al Arkan is one of the country’s most important beneficiaries of a decision more than a decade ago by Saudi Arabia to pump in billions of dollars of government funds to help create a modern, mortgage-backed housing industry in an effort to expand homeownership. It is also a major investor in Saudi Home Loans Company, which has profited as government dollars flow into the mortgage industry.
Dar Al Arkan more recently moved into international luxury real-estate development, this time through a London-based subsidiary it set up called DarGlobal.
DarGlobal is teaming up with luxury brands like Missoni, Versace and Lamborghini — as well as the Trump family — on projects outside Saudi Arabia targeting international buyers. DarGlobal is targeting buyers who will pay as much as a 30 percent premium for a “branded” townhouse and can often buy their units with cash, according to a confidential company document obtained by The Times.
[…] The 30-year agreement between DarGlobal and the Trump family designates the Trump Organization as the hotel manager that will “direct the management and operation of a world-class, super luxury hotel to be constructed by Dar Oman within its Aida project in Oman.” The deal puts the Trump company in charge of the hotel budget, its restaurants and any retail stores. The Trump Organization will set prices and market the hotel once it opens under the name Trump International Hotel Oman.
It will have similar management rights over the 18-hole golf course and golf club, which will be known as Trump International Golf Club Oman. There will also be over 200 “Trump branded residential villas,” according to one company document published in January, and marked confidential.
The Trump family, the agreement says, will not have to commit its own money to the project, but it will have detailed oversight including reviewing a “model room” that DarGlobal will build to sign off on the design.
“Dar Oman will design, develop, construct, equip and furnish the hotel, at its sole cost and expenses, in accordance with the specifications, standards and requirements issued from time to time by the hotel manager,” the financial documents say, referring to the Trump Organization.
Working in the Heat
[…] The army of workers, in orange, blue or yellow overalls, move deliberately, many of them with their heads covered with towels and other fabrics stuffed under their hard hats to try to protect themselves from the heat, routinely above 100 degrees, during 10-hour shifts. They live mostly in trailer camps adjacent to the construction site, or they arrive in fleets of buses that run through the billowing clouds of dust that blow through.
[…] the State Department listed “labor exploitation of foreign migrants” as among the human rights issues it is monitoring in Oman.
[…] “It’s too hot — too hot,” said Mathan Mp, 38, who is from Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India, said as he took a break from supervising dozens of workers at the project site. “But we came for work. We have a time schedule. We have to finish the project.”
[…] The Trump-branded project is being built just above the seaside village of Yiti, where there are now more donkeys, goats and stray cats in the streets than people, as many have moved away as the construction projects have accelerated.
The few remaining residents do not know a great deal about Mr. Trump, having only a general impression of him as a rich businessman and politician.
Htim Talbi, whose family has lived in Yiti for six decades and remains in one of the few occupied homes in the dusty town, said he harbored a far-off dream that he might somehow afford one of the luxury townhouses.
“Trump — he is your king from America,” Mr. Talbi said, after inviting a visitor to his village inside to an air-conditioned room to sit on the floor and share a pot of tea. “Welcome to Oman.”
Lots of photos and more details are available at the link.
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—In a statement on behalf of Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch apologized for what he called the network’s “regrettable flirtation with accuracy” in its programming on Monday night.
In his apology, which was strikingly heartfelt and anguished, Murdoch criticized the Fox personality Bret Baier for “disseminating information that was recklessly and unforgivably true.”
“As long as I live and breathe, this will not stand,” he said.
Murdoch implored Fox’s viewers to ignore “this embarrassing incident” and instead focus on the network’s “long-standing record of gaslighting and mendacity.”
Hoping to earn back its viewers’ trust tonight, Fox will air a three-hour special, “Crime of the Century: Joe Biden’s Fifteen Hundred Boxes in Chinatown.”
WaPo: Arkansas federal judge blocks first ban on gender-affirming care U.S. district judge in Arkansas issued a permanent injunction against a state law that banned trans youth and their families from seeking gender-affirming medical care
By Anne Branigin / June 20, 2023
A federal judge has struck down a 2021 Arkansas law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth, forbidding the enforcement of the nation’s first law blocking medical treatment for transitioning young people.
U.S. District Judge James Moody of the Eastern District of Arkansas ruled the law unconstitutional, saying it violated the rights of doctors and discriminated against transgender people. Gender-affirming medical care includes such treatments as puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The law also prohibited doctors from referring trans youth to other providers for gender-affirming care.
Moody’s closely watched ruling marks the first time a federal court has decided the legality of such bans, which have been taken up by a growing number of state legislatures in recent years. As of June 20, at least 20 additional states have enacted restrictions or bans on gender-affirming care, according to data compiled by the ACLU. Florida’s effort to limit such care for trans youth has also severely restricted access to transition-related care for adults.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement posted on Twitter that in his ruling “Judge Moody misses what is widely known: There is no scientific evidence that any child will benefit from these procedures, while the consequences are harmful and often permanent. We will appeal to the Eighth Circuit.”
… leading medical associations, including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, all recommend transgender youth be able to access this kind of health care.
[…]
This is the first federal court ruling on a categorical ban on gender-affirming care and follows rulings in Florida, Alabama and Indiana blocking enforcement of those bans while challenges against them proceed.
[…]
In his decision [full text] Tuesday, he wrote: “Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing.”
A doctor in Tennessee has lost his medical license after a local news investigation revealed he was selling bogus COVID-19 vaccination waivers to essentially anyone—including patients he had never met, patients in far-flung states, and one black Labrador retriever named Charlie.
In a consent order signed May 16, the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners determined Robert Coble had violated state statutes on the grounds of “unprofessional, dishonorable, or unethical conduct,” and “making false statements or representations, being guilty of fraud or deceit … in the practice of medicine.” …
At least one Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter is flying with what appears to be a new and previously unseen kind of underwing pylon system. While we currently don’t know the exact purpose of this pylon, it raises some very interesting questions, especially bearing in mind the previous adaptations that have been made to the MiG-29 (and other Soviet-era combat aircraft) to allow them to carry new weapons of Western origin.
Especially intriguing is the origin of this photo. It was posted today to the official Twitter account of the Ukrainian Air Force, together with the caption “New day — new challenges!” That phrase could well suggest that some new kind of capability is being used. Either way, the fact that the Ukrainian Air Force chose to publicize this particular photo also indicates they are happy to show something of that new capability, whatever it might be…
John Eastman, the Trump-allied lawyer who created a memo arguing that then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, is set to face disciplinary hearings starting Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The counsel for the State Bar of California is asking a court to revoke Eastman’s license to practice law in the state. Eastman faces 11 disciplinary charges alleging he engaged in a plot to push a far-fetched legal strategy for Pence to overturn Biden’s victory as a joint session of Congress counted the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors alleged that Eastman made false and misleading statements with his baseless claims of widespread election fraud, including his remarks at the “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse shortly before the Capitol attack…
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #214…
I’m will to go with “frustrations”. The evangelicals are frustrated that the rest of the country doesn’t want the sort of restrictive laws that they are pushing. And to be fair, it’s likely that most of the evangelicals wouldn’t actually want to live under the sort of laws they claim to want.
Last Friday, Russian sources reported that Ukrainian armor had begun moving toward Pyatykhatky. As with so many locations in Ukraine, there are multiple settlements of that name, including a small city of around 20,000. This isn’t that Pyatykhatky. This is a village of a few hundred people, almost all of them living in homes that lie along one central street. It’s located about 3 kilometers from what had been the front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces for the last year, just southwest of Kamyansk and less than a kilometer from the even smaller village of Lobkove, which Ukraine officially liberated last week.
Earlier, there had been reports that Russian forces, fleeing from the fighting at Lobkove, had actually abandoned Pyatykhatky. However, Ukraine made no immediate move to bring its forces into the village, so Russia crept back and prepared their positions there.
On Friday, Russian sources reported that Ukraine was again advancing, but sent reassuring messages that they were holding their positions and still in complete control of Pyatykhatky. A few hours later, the same Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces were entrenching on the northern edge of the village. However, Russian troops were still holding their positions. A couple of hours after that, they reported that Ukraine had partial control of the village. But Russia was holding its positions.
By Saturday morning, Russian Telegram was confidently reporting on how they were directing artillery into the Ukrainian-controlled town of Pyatykhatky. And, of course, holding their positions. [map at the link]
A summary of this four-stage report:
– They are attacking, but we are holding.
– They are at the edge of the village, but we are holding.
– They are in the village, but we are holding.
– They control all the village, but we are holding … from a distance.
It’s both amusing and instructive. There have been multiple reports at locations all along the front of Russian forces abandoning positions and retreating to locations closer to their actual defensive lines. However, these have rarely been followed by reports that Ukraine has moved immediately into these areas. There are at least three good reasons for this.
First, many of the reports are likely false. For months in advance of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces have seemed to be in a state of nearly constant dread. That they, once they started running, might run until they reach a position of some apparent safeness seems understandable. However, it’s just as likely that the panic on the side of both Russian forces and Russian sources causes them to immediately cry disaster. […]
Second, Ukraine seems to be moving very methodically. There are certainly places, such as the area just north of Robotyne, where things are definitely not going according to plan. No one back in Kyiv wrote a note that said “deposit Leopard tanks and Bradley IFVs here.” But in general, everyone in the Ukrainian military seems to be on the same page, the page that says, “Don’t rush forward and risk a disaster to make things move quickly. Take it slow. Take it carefully. Win.”
Third: Mines. The density of mines in the area where fighting is now taking place, in what Russia is passing off as “the gray zone,” appears to be surprising even to the Ukrainian forces. [Tweet and Image at the link. the image shows a shocking number of mines.]
The level of mines is great enough that Ukraine is not moving until it is prepared to do so in a way that clears those mines, providing lanes through which armor can advance. [Tweet and video. the video shows a Russian minefield in Ukraine’s south being cleared using an American M58 MICLIC rocket=projected mine-clearing line charge.]
In that advance toward Robotyne back on June 10, multiple Leopard 2 tanks that had been modified for mine clearing were damaged, and one or two were likely lost (though they reportedly did a good job of protecting their crews). Ukraine now seems to be making more use of systems like the U.S.-made M58 above, or the Soviet equivalent, the UR-77 “Meteorite.” [Tweet and video]
It’s difficult to tell whether these systems are as quick or as effective as mine-clearing tanks, and it’s certain the first vehicles through the corridors opened with these tools will be those equipped to deal with any remaining mines. However, these remote systems look to be safer when it comes to exposing both equipment and crews to the danger of hitting those mines, or from being slowed to a near stop while still in range of Russian artillery.
There’s another lesson from Pyatykhatky, and it may be even more important. It’s the part that happened next.
On Sunday, Russian sources once again began talking about the village. This time, they claimed that Russian forces had regrouped at the next village to the south, Zherebyanky. Then Russian forces reported that they had surged out of Zherebyanky, counter-counterattacked Pyatykhatky, and retaken the village. Big huzzahs all across Russian social media.
The problem with Russia’s good news coda is that it didn’t happen. Or at least most of it didn’t happen.
It seems that Russian forces did regroup at Zherebyanky, and they did launch an attempt to retake Pyatykhatky, only that attempt failed disastrously. The road between the two villages swiftly became a scrap yard of destroyed Russian vehicles. Ukrainian artillery easily began punching away at not just the Russian armor along the road, but the forces massed inside Zherebyanky. By Monday not only was Ukraine still in possession of Pyatykhatky, they were forming up to attack Zherebyanky—an operation that is reportedly underway now.
Once again, Russia is insisting on pouring everything into defending an area ahead of its defensive line. Not only that, it’s stripping local areas of resources in the effort, making it unclear exactly who will be available to defend those lines when Ukraine reaches them. Which will be soon.
This strategy, if it is a strategy, is utterly bizarre.
RUSSIA’S KA-52 HELICOPTERS ARE GOING DOWN
When looking at the issues that are slowing Ukraine’s advance in Zaporizhzhia, there’s another big item on the list in addition to strategy–mines–and Russia’s incomprehensible defense. The fourth speedbump is Russia’s fleet of Kamov KA-52 “Alligator” helicopters, which Russia has promoted as “flying tanks.”
From the first day that Ukraine began the counteroffensive, those heavily armored single-seat gunships have reportedly been rushing forward in waves, multiple times a day, sometimes in company of other types of helicopters, to spray unguided missiles into Ukrainian positions. They may not be accurate, but they have been coming in numbers and making such frequent sorties that they’ve become a significant issue. [Tweet and video at the link]
On Saturday, The Guardian reported on the destruction these helicopter raids were doing among Ukrainian forces and how difficult they were making it to advance. “There are constant attacks from helicopters, three or four times a day,” one soldier in the area reported.
The KA-52 in particular was reported to be difficult to shoot down. The helicopters are flying low, barely above treetops, popping up only long enough to fire their missiles while surrounded by a spray of protective flares. Then they are down low again, heading back to reload for another run. The speed, altitude, and distance of the attacks made it difficult for Ukrainian forces to deal with this constant overhead threat.
The KA-52’s armor also means that the kind of close-by explosion that might take out their thin-skinned relatives is shrugged off by the Alligator. Another part of the helicopter’s design makes it extra tough. Most helicopters have one set of spinning blades. Those blades create a significant amount of torque, which would spin the helicopter around in circles except that the torque is offset by the blades on the tail. The KA-52 has two sets of counter-rotating blades. That means it doesn’t immediately go into a spin when it takes a hit to the tail, as do many helicopters. A KA-52 without the tail rotor can’t maneuver well, but it remains flyable and controllable. [Tweet and video at the link]
Russian state media has clamped onto the Alligator as Russia’s front-line hero in Zaporizhzhia, crediting the helicopter with killing multiple Leopard Tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles that were actually damaged when hitting mines. However, something is wrong with Russia’s hometown hero. Like … they’re starting to fall at a pretty incredible rate. [Tweet at the link. “[…] downing another Ka-52 in the Donetsk region.’]
As the Kyiv Post reports, a big part of this seems to be simply experience and plenty of MANPADS available to front line forces.
“The pilot of the Russian helicopter… was moving… at an altitude of less than twenty meters, and the distance to the Ukrainian positions was more than four kilometers… so ‘Putin’s vulture’ felt almost invulnerable… The missile fired from the Igla MANPADS hit the tail projection of the helicopter. Later, ‘Lyto’ and his brothers watched a picturesque picture: the vaunted twin-rotor “Alligator”, leaving behind a trail of greasy thick smoke, began to sharply lose [altitude] and disappeared from sight in a few seconds.”
That KA-52 may well be the one seen flying tailless in the video above. Even if it limped back to base somewhere, it won’t be returning to action soon. The number of such reports of KA-52s damaged or downed has been ticking along like clockwork over the last week, with two KA-52 reportedly taken down on Sunday, another on Monday.
Originally, Russia built about 200 of the KA-52. Oryx documents 35 lost in Ukraine. That doesn’t include any of those lost during the last two weeks of the counteroffensive, but it does include some that were taken out on the ground by long-range attacks.
There have been at least two videos of KA-52s stuck on the ground because of rust and corrosion to the airframe—not a great look for a helicopter that’s only been in service for two decades. Additionally, there are videos showing that the twin-rotor system is intolerant of manufacturing flaws or maintenance errors, leading to a high degree of shaking that can render the aircraft unusable. A lot of these helicopters have been enjoying the Russian weather over the last two decades, left out winter and summer, before being hauled to Ukraine.
Somewhere just over half the original KA-52s may have been in flyable condition at the invasion’s outset. Subtract those 35 at Oryx, then remove another 25 to 30 which have been lost since the date of his last cataloged loss. When those that are now dead on the runway are added in, it’s uncertain how many remain in flying shape is unknown. Likely no more than 50. Maybe considerably fewer.
Right now, the KA-52 remains a threat to Ukrainian front-line forces. If Russia hoards them carefully, the remaining Alligators could still take a big bite of an advancing Ukrainian force without air support at a critical time. Only Russia doesn’t seem to be shepherding these forces any more closely than anything else. When the critical time arrives, the Russian Alligator may be extinct. [Tweet and video at the link]
Reports of the destruction of Russian equipment at Zherebyanky keep growing. It’s starting to sound like Vuhledar, take two. [video at the link]
There are multiple reports that Russia has mined the cooling system at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant. I’m trying to determine if there is anything to these reports and what it might mean.
Followup to Reginald @117, plus followup to speculation about Russia mining the cooling system of a nuclear plant.
Posted by readers of the Ukraine Update article quoted in comment 218:
The cholera-like bacteria vibrio, which local health authorities said can cause acute intestinal infections, has been found in several rivers and estuaries following the devastating collapse of Kakhovka dam.
To clarify: The bacterial genus Vibrio includes many different species. Cholera is caused by the species Vibrio cholerae. Several other species of Vibrio can cause acute intestinal illnesses that may resemble cholera.
———————–
Vibrio can also infect wounds. In 20+ years of doing wound care, the fastest I ever saw somebody head South was a guy who cut his foot while getting his boat on a trailer. He was in salt water and so he just dried the wound off and covered it with antibiotic ointment. He was awakened by horrible pain and went to the ER. 3 weeks of IV antibiotics and numerous debridements he left the hospital with his leg and life. It was by no means clear he would leave with either about 28 hours after the cut.
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if Russians blow up the ZNPP cooling system there’s no telling what will happen. I doubt whether it would be as bad as Chernobyl because ZNPP has light-water reactors, but it’d be quite bad — worse than Fukushima.
DW has published Clare Roth’s story “Zaporizhzhia: What would happen if there was an accident?” on the topic.
We’re talking Putin’s Russia, and unfortunately I’m expecting them to commit yet another major war crime here.
—————————
It will be bad. There will be no containing it. Fire. Explosions. Leaks into the river. It will poison everything downstream and downwind. There will be no controlling it.
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Firstly ZNPP is in cold shutdown, so the reactors aren’t in a state where they can go critical, nor is the spent fuel. A meltdown could happen without cooling water, but that mainly means the fuel rods in the reactor or in the pools would melt, and while that would be a local environment catastrophy, it’s not a China Syndrome—nor would the reactors be if they melted down. Chernobyl spread most of it’s radiation throughout Europe due to the fire in the reactor and after the explosion liberated radioactive isotopes. ZNPP is in a very different situation. Short of the Russian’s triggering one of their own nuclear weapons within the facility, Europe is not threatened by them sabotaging the plant.
Secondly, combat around ZNPP is just as risky as if the Russian’s sabotage and blow the plant up.
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Russia might try to work a manufactured crisis to get a pause in fighting, only agreeing to outside support under that condition. The biggest immediate concern is that the Russians are incompetent, and efforts to create a manageable crisis could easily get out of hand. Then, if the demand for a cease in hostilities is not met, they would try to blame the West for the ensuing catastrophe.
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Regardless of its operational status the plant needs to be cooled to stay cool. It the cooling system suffers an irremedial failure, it will build heat at a certain rate it until that heat causes something else to blow. Eventually what we are looking at is something like Fukashima times six.
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The issue with an incident at nuclear power stations is that it’s ultimate effects cannot necessarily be predicted from the scale of the initial fault.
[…] I really think that, when the ZNPP comes into play, Ukraine will give it a wide birth, surround it, and wait it out, offering favourable terms to any occupiers inside, all handled through a 3rd party (probably the IAEA). It’s not right, it’s not just, but the stakes are too high. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe CANNOT be risked in any way whatsoever. Unfortunately Russia is well aware of this.
With subreddits tagged NSFW, in addition to applying an age gate for desktop viewers and restricting access […] in the Reddit app, Reddit also doesn’t show ads. This cuts into its ability to monetize them
[…]
moderators of r/MildlyInteresting moved […] to NSFW after a user vote. However, […] Reddit-employed administrators […] were involved: […] the entire mod team was removed […] eventually being reinstated.
[…]
other newly NSFW subs that lost their mods Thursday still don’t have them. r/interestingasfuck (11 million subscribers), r/TIHI (1.7 million subscribers), and r/ShittyLifeProTips (1.6 million subscribers) […] are currently unmoderated.
KGsays
Kennedy repeated an Alex Jones-addled conspiracy theory that chemicals in the water were “turning the frogs gay.” Kermit was no longer sexually interested in Miss Piggy. He just found her fabulous. – Lynna, OM@207 quoting wonkette
Great Sasha Velour interview and discussion of Drag here :
By many measures, drag is more popular than ever. At the same time, there’s a growing number of states passing or debating laws to restrict or ban the art form. But what is drag? And what does it represent to those who create it? One of today’s reigning queens explains the significance to Jeffrey Brown for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.
Unlike other impeachment efforts, Boebert said, hers uses a procedural tactic that requires the House to hold a floor vote.
“I am bringing my articles of impeachment against Joe Biden to the House Floor in a privileged motion, meaning that every Member of Congress must vote on holding Joe Biden accountable,” Boebert tweeted…
I am surprised Boebert would have the knowledge and the power to do that.
…
So when Missouri’s abortion ban took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Barnes and Taves decided to fight back. Along with rabbis and ministers across several denominations, they joined a first-of-its-kind lawsuit arguing Missouri blurred the line between church and state, imposed a particular Christian idea of when life begins over the beliefs of other denominations, and threatened their ability to practice their religions.
As the nation nears the one year anniversary of the fall of Roe, the Missouri case is one of nearly a dozen challenges to abortion restrictions filed by clergy members and practitioners of everything from Judaism to Satanism that are now making their way through state and federal courts — a strategy that aims to restore access to the procedure and chip away at the assumption that all religious people oppose abortion.
In fact, many of the lawsuits are wielding religious protection laws enacted by anti-abortion state officials to target those officials’ own restrictions on the procedure…
@Reginald Selkirk 224
I think that’s the kind of thing they’re better at than policy. Their habitual motivational instincts are better for sneaky ways of getting around things. And she probably had help.
It seems that ProPublica—the investigative outlet that outlined how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury travel and other gifts from a Texas billionaire—has recently been looking into Justice Samuel Alito, and Alito is not happy about it. The justice is so upset, in fact, that he took to the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal to issue a rebuttal to a story that hasn’t even run yet—which is absolutely wild behavior for a man in his position.
We don’t know all the accusations yet as, again, the story hasn’t been published, but Alito says ProPublica will make the case that he should have recused himself in cases where Paul Singer, a billionaire hedge fund manager, was connected to an entity that had business at the Supreme Court. Therefore, he should have listed gifts from Singer on his 2008 disclosure forms. Alito disagrees with these claims, saying that he didn’t know Singer was connected to any cases before the court because his ties were through shell corporations, like LLCs. He also attempts to explain that it’s totally fine and normal for him to have accepted a seat on private flight to Alaska and a stay at the King Salmon Lodge for a 2008 fishing trip. Why? The private jet was already flying there, and the lodge was “modest” and “rustic” and only served “homestyle” food. I’m serious. I truly have to print Alito’s reasoning: …
Former Del. Lashrecse Aird was projected to win the Democratic primary in a key Virginia state Senate race, according to The Associated Press, unseating the controversial state Sen. Joe Morrissey (D) in a contest that focused largely on abortion.
Aird was backed by a slew of high-profile Democrats in the state, including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who were determined to oust the scandal-plagued Morrissey, one of the rare “pro-life” Democrats still serving…
A highlight of Tuesday’s proceedings was Eastman’s attempt to call a man named Joseph Fried as an expert witness. Fried is a public accountant who wrote an eBook that questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s presidential win. California State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland saw right through the strange request.
“I don’t see how Mr. Fried is qualified to be an expert,” she told Eastman, according to an NPR reporter in the courtroom. “He has no experience in voting or election matters.”
State bar attorney Duncan Carling agreed. “We don’t believe the opinion of a CPA… is relevant,” he said, adding that the accountant “never identified any instances of fraud” in the election…
Former Virginia state Sen. Glen Sturtevant narrowly defeated incumbent state Sen. Amanda Chase, who has described herself as “Trump in heels,” in the GOP Virginia state Senate primary Tuesday, according to projections.
The Associated Press called the race for Sturtevant around 8:55 p.m. EDT…
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) announced Wednesday that she is running for Delaware’s vacant Senate seat…
She officially filed paperwork Tuesday to run for the seat, which is being vacated by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who announced last month he wouldn’t be seeking another term.
Carper, who signaled during his announcement last month that he wanted Blunt Rochester to run, endorsed her Wednesday shortly after her campaign announcement…
A Western North Carolina congressional candidate backed by President Donald Trump has been sentenced for a federal campaign finance violation.
Lynda Bennett of Haywood County received probation and is to pay $7,600 in fines and assessments after hiding a $25,000 illegal loan, according to a June 20 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper for the District of Columbia.
Federal prosecutors had recommended that sentence for Bennett, 65, who lost in a 2020 GOP primary runoff to Madison Cawthorn, the eventual general election winner and one-term congressman…
tomhsays
Re: #227
That ProPublica piece on Alito has now been published here
Donald Trump says the nation’s global standing is one of our most important issues. If that’s true, he’s effectively telling voters not to support him.
Fox News’ Bret Baier began his interview with Donald Trump this week with the same first question the host asks every 2024 presidential candidate: “What do you think is the most important issue facing the country right now?”
The Republican talked about the economy, border security, and what he described as getting “the woke out of our military,” whatever that meant. But the former president eventually turned his attention on a broader point of concern.
“Basically, respect all over the world. We don’t have it anymore. We had tremendous respect three years ago. We don’t have respect anymore. They don’t listen to us. They don’t care about us. They just don’t do what we want them to do and what they have to do, especially since we make life very good for many countries. And we have to get that respect back. And if we don’t, we’ve got some big problems.”
[I think I can hear laughing.]
Though it doesn’t generally receive a lot of attention, this has long been one of Trump’s curious preoccupations. At a campaign event in 2020, for example, the then-incumbent turned his attention to one of his very favorite falsehoods: “You know, we’re respected again. You may not feel it, although I think you do. You may not see it. You don’t read about it from the fake news, but this country is respected again.”
As regular readers know, it has long been foundational to the Republican’s worldview: The United States was an international laughingstock for decades, Trump has long argued, but thanks to how awesome his awesomeness is, he singlehandedly restored the nation’s global stature. It was a ridiculous idea he brought up constantly, seeing it as one of his most important accomplishments.
Even in his strange farewell address, delivered on his final full day in the White House, Trump found it necessary, one last time, to boast to Americans, “The world respects us again.” In an apparent message for his Democratic successor, the Republican added, “Please don’t lose that respect.”
None of this made any sense. After roughly 46% of American voters put Trump in the White House, the nation’s international stature collapsed. Remember this Washington Post report from 2020?
New data from Pew Research Center shows that many of the countries that have traditionally been the United States’ closest allies are now far less likely to view the country with approval. In 11 countries for which there are more than five years of data, the percentage of people viewing the United States with approval is at a recorded low in nine. The median percentage expressing favorable views of the United States across each of the countries surveyed is also at a record low, with about a third of respondents holding a favorable view.
[…] global support for the White House was high during Barack Obama’s terms, but then collapsed after the Democrat was replaced by Trump.
[…] The good news is, after President Joe Biden took office, the United States’ standing sharply improved. A Gallup report found in 2021 that approval ratings of U.S. leadership around the world “largely rebounded from the record-low ratings observed during the Trump administration.” […]
A year later, Gallup released another report on the United States’ standing among NATO members, concluding that U.S. leadership in the Biden era “was stronger across much of NATO than it had been in years, after languishing at low levels during the Trump administration.”
And yet, there was Trump on Fox News this week, insisting that we no longer have “respect all over the world.” […]
Makes You Miss Scalia
This is just an unbelievable course of conduct by a sitting justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last evening a head-scratcher of an op-ed appeared in the conservative-friendly confines of the WSJ opinion page, authored by Justice Samuel Alito himself.
It turned out to be an effort by Alito to get ahead of an as-then-yet-to-be-published ProPublica investigative piece about unreported travel and accommodations Alito received on an Alaska fishing trip while a justice. ProPublica published its report later in the evening.
Rather than commenting to ProPublica when it reached out to him for its story, Alito ran to his buddies at the WSJ and launched his defense there, which included a broadside against ProPublica.
A sycophantic editor’s note sat atop the Alito op-ed, with snarky quotes impugning ProPublica (whose founder is former longtime WSJ managing editor Paul Steiger):
Editor’s note: Justin Elliott and Josh Kaplan of ProPublica, which styles itself “an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force,” emailed Justice Alito Friday with a series of questions and asked him to respond by noon EDT Tuesday. They informed the justice that “we do serious, fair, accurate reporting in the public interest and have won six Pulitzer Prizes.”
(I should note that ProPublica reporter Justin Elliott is a TPM alum.)
The op-ed itself is classic Alito: a bundle of peevish insecurity, paranoid defensiveness, hyper-technical word play, and utter lack of self awareness.
My favorite Alito “defense” is his claim that the seat aboard billionaire Paul Singer’s private plane would have otherwise been unoccupied so no additional expense was involved in hauling Alito to Alaska: [Tweet at the link]
I’ll let you dig in to the ProPublica piece and make your own judgment, in part so you can see the Alito fishing pics: [Tweets and photos at the link … they caught really big fish.]
For what it’s worth, I read the ProPublica piece less as an indictment of Alito for failure to report or of the lax ethics rules binding Supreme Court justices and more as a window into the corrupt project to swing the court towards the right:
Leonard Leo, the longtime leader of the conservative Federalist Society, attended and helped organize the Alaska fishing vacation. Leo invited Singer to join, according to a person familiar with the trip, and asked Singer if he and Alito could fly on the billionaire’s jet. Leo had recently played an important role in the justice’s confirmation to the court. Singer and the lodge owner were both major donors to Leo’s political groups.
What it reads to me as: Leonard Leo was trotting out his newly confirmed show pony Samuel Alito in front of the megadonors who fund the conservative legal movement. No amount of ethics rules and regs will crack the foundational corruption of that effort.
Mark Sumner wrote about the place yesterday, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, on the road to Melitopol. It’s a tiny nothing kind of place. Its name literally translates to “five huts,” and it’s close to being accurate. Yet after liberating the settlement over the weekend, Russia has been furiously counterattacking it. And that’s weird for one simple reason.
Pyatykhatky is the last settlement before Ukraine hits Russia’s first lines of defense around Zherebyanky. As such, all Russia has to do is sit in those covered, protected positions, under cover of artillery and extensive minefields, and dare Ukraine to push forward. And if Ukraine does, and clears one of those lines, there’s plenty more behind those.
This is the most heavily defended corner of the map. Both Russia and Ukraine know that if Ukraine punches through here, Russia is in deep trouble. But getting through those lines will be a long, bloody slog under the best conditions. Or maybe not, because Russia is sacrificing its men and equipment out in the open fields between Pyatykhatky and Zherebyanky! [Tweets and videos at the link]
We’re seeing this all over the front: Ukraine picking off counterattacking Russians out in the open field, obviating the need to destroy them in protected positions.
So why are they doing this? There can only be two reasons:
Political: Putin doesn’t suffer any lost territory, and is demanding Russia take back anything lost. He claims this is Russia, after all, having illegally annexed the region. Or some local generals want to ingratiate themselves by heroically taking back what is claimed. Either way, the end goal is the same: Make Putin happy.
Military: Perhaps Russia has no faith in its prepared defenses, and literally thinks it can do a better job of halting the Ukrainian advance out in the open. Ukrainian artillery outranges Russia’s, and their Western gear is more accurate. Maybe they feel like sitting ducks in those trenches, or maybe they’re undermanned, or maybe they just don’t know how to properly use them. There’s an art and a science to proper defensive emplacements, with overlapping fields of fire and vantage points, etc.
Whatever the reason, so long as Russia keeps fighting ahead of its defensive lines, it will certainly slow the Ukrainian advance, but not in any way that ultimately delivers Russia’s war aims. Just like bombing civilian rather than military targets, Russia is failing War Fighting 101.
Meanwhile, one retired Ukrainian general is claiming that Russia has thrown 90% of its reserves into stopping the Ukrainian advance, while Ukraine has only committed 25% of its forces. The latter is clear enough. We’ve only seen three of the 12 Western-equipped storm brigades thus far. If Russia has committed the bulk of its forces already, then things are certainly looking up for Ukraine. I’ll remain skeptical until proven otherwise. As of now, Russia’s tactics may be wasteful and idiotic, but they have effectively slowed the methodical Ukrainian advance.
Ultimately, Ukraine is trying to reach Melitopol, and is pushing into the Vasylivka-Tokmak-Melitopol defensive triangle. […]
Remember, Ukraine is just now approaching the first defensive line. Unless that extensive layered network of defensive trenches are sitting empty, the task ahead is monumental. We have to hope that Ukraine chose to attack directly into this because it knows something that we don’t.
Kind of related: Russia has instituted a curfew in Vasylivka. Ukraine isn’t too far off.
Good news! Some creative accounting just freed up another $6.2 billion in aid for Ukraine. [Tweet and video at the link, with details concerning a Pentagon recalculation of aid provided so far, finding that it overestimated the cost by $6.2 billion.]
Despite the MAGA teeth-gnashing, the bulk of our aid to Ukraine has been surplus gear that was in storage or being phased out. It’s saving us money not having to keep this stuff around. Yet since the war began, the Pentagon was counting the replacement value of the equipment, rather than its book value. It would be like donating your 30-year-old Honda to charity, then claiming a tax writeoff for the cost of a brand new Honda.
That $6.2 billion isn’t just a nice chunk of change for Ukraine, but with the proper revised accounting, that money will go further. So how about a couple hundred more M2 Bradleys, and lots and lots of new tanks? [Tweet: “An American accounting error is the size of most European countries air forces.]
A new aid package will be announced today. It will likely be more ammunition, as Ukraine can’t get enough ordinance. But it sure would be nice to get some new hardware into the mix.
The reason the U.S. hasn’t offered anything more than replacement vehicles is likely simple: logistics and training. Ukraine simply doesn’t have the capacity to support more Western gear at this time. Ukraine certainly isn’t publicly asking for more armor. Its public pleas are for more air defenses and F-16 fighter jets.
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Ford released its 2024 Super Bowl commercial early [LOL]: [Tweet and video at the link: “Fighters of the 406th Artillery Brigade of the Armed Forces Navy on a night combat mission to destroy a Russian tank.” The artillery is pulled by a Ford truck. Good video.]
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Footage of a daytime HIMARS strike on a Russian base. [Tweet and video at the link] How did Ukraine discover this base? Apparently, some helpful Russian soldiers posted some easily geolocated pictures.
Less than a month ago, Marianne Williamson’s longshot presidential campaign suffered a setback when the self-help guru’s campaign manager and deputy manager resigned. Soon after, The Daily Beast reported that “at least 10 staffers” had left Williamson’s operation. This week, we learned that her latest campaign manager has also parted ways with the Democrat.
May more staffing difficulties befall her until she finally gives up and leaves the race.
[…] Singer didn’t just happen to going to Alaska. He was going to Alaska specifically to spend quality time with Sam Alito. The whole thing had been arranged by The Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, who asked Singer if he and Alito could fly up with him on his private jet.
And here’s where the whole picture starts to come into focus — both the Alito story and the Thomas ones. Needless to say, none of these billionaires are just old friends in the sense you or I might recognize. […] they didn’t just glom on to their justice on their own. Everyone here is part of Leo’s network. Harlan Crow is a big Republican donor but also a big Federalist Society donor. So is Paul Singer. So is the owner of the fishing lodge. […]
As I said, the full picture starts to come into focus. Somewhat like some colleges or the service academies match a sponsor family with first-year students or cadets, Leo seemed to do that with incoming Supreme Court justices. […]
As we’ve noted before, there’s a long arc of the Federalist Society’s role placing justices on the Court. […] We focus a lot on the pipeline the Federalist Society created to place ideologically true justices first on the appellate courts and then finally on the Supreme Court. What gets much less focus and what these stories highlight is the way the justices are essentially kept by the Federalist Society and the sponsor families once they ascend to the Court. It makes you wonder: which families got assigned to Neil, Brett and Amy?
In any case, it’s probably wrong to see this too much in transactional terms. Certainly, all of these lavish gifts should be reported and the justices should recuse themselves when cases arise dealing with their “close friends.” But the larger issue is the way the justices remain “kept” in perpetuity by the right-wing activist donor network that placed them on the Court in the first place. […]
[…] what we see here — the sponsor families, the kept justices — is an essential part of the corruption of the current Supreme Court.
This week, President Joe Biden will host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state dinner — only the third foreign leader to receive such an honor at the Biden White House, the other two being the presidents of France and South Korea. They have a lot to talk about: A White House statement on the meeting has a long list of discussion topics, including climate change and security in the Indo-Pacific region (read: countering China).
But there’s a word missing from the agenda that is, arguably, the most important of all: democracy.
Since Modi took office in 2014, and especially after winning reelection in 2019, he has systematically taken a hammer to the core institutions of Indian democracy. The prime minister’s government has undermined the independence of the election supervision authority, manipulated judges into ruling in his favor, used law enforcement against his enemies, and increased its control over the Indian press.
The prime minister’s anti-democratic behavior has accelerated over time. In the past year alone, Modi’s government has:
– Expelled the leader of the opposition party, Rahul Gandhi, from parliament after he was sentenced to two years of prison for allegedly defaming the prime minister with a joke.
– Taken over one of the few remaining independent television stations through a crooked billionaire ally.
– Created an official panel empowered to take down social media posts critical of the government.
– Sent tax officials to raid the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, a move widely seen as retaliation for a documentary critical of Modi.
Being in power has become self-reinforcing for Modi. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has used its electoral dominance to silence critics and stack the electoral deck against his opponents, making the upcoming 2024 parliamentary election a significant uphill climb for other parties. That vote is shaping up to be critical for India’s democratic future.
[…] This assault on democracy is a deeply ideological project. The BJP is the electoral offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a radical Hindu nationalist organization to which Modi has belonged since he was 8 years old. Christophe Jaffrelot, a leading India scholar at France’s Sciences Po, told me that its ideology amounts to “an Indian version of fascism.”
[…] The easiest way to understand what Modi has done to India is to see it as kind of a mutually reinforcing cycle of two different agendas.
The first is using the powers of the premiership to spread Hindutva ideology and polarize the electorate along Hindu-versus-Muslim lines. The second is consolidating power in his hands and weakening countervailing authorities — including the judiciary, oversight commissions, the free press, and opposition parties.
The more the Hindu public is converted to his ideology, the more popular Modi becomes, providing him political cover to pursue attacks on judges, bureaucrats, and reporters. The more he controls India’s government and the press, the easier it is for him to spread Hindutva propaganda.
[…] The party’s success at selling its Hindutva narrative since Modi’s ascension is not the only part of this story, but it has been an essential one. Modi and state-level BJP leaders have relentlessly hammered Hindutva themes in their speeches and pursued policies undermining Muslim rights and inflaming Hindu anxieties about their Muslim neighbors.
[…] In effect, the BJP has used the power of the state to convince Hindus that what unites them against Muslims is more important than what divides them among each other.
One especially egregious example is the so-called “love jihad,” a conspiracy theory that Muslim men are seeking to marry Hindu women as part of an organized plot to convert them to Islam and erode India’s Hindu majority — a pernicious myth that has led to the arrest of Muslim men. Modi and other BJP officials have even promoted a film spreading this idea.
Research suggests these anti-Muslim efforts have deeply affected public attitudes and, even more ominously, behavior. A 2022 paper by Varshney shows a spike in lynchings of Muslims that coincides almost exactly with Modi taking power.
[…] Some of Modi’s tactics involve clever legislation. Take campaign finance: Under Modi, Parliament set up a new system that allows for unlimited donations through the purchasing of electoral bonds — a system that all but announces to wealthy donors that the government knows which party you gave money to.
[…] The recent state-level conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his subsequent expulsion from Parliament speak to the way that both law enforcement and the legal system have been politicized across the board.
Tax enforcement plays a similar role. When a leader of the independent Election Commission voted to penalize Modi for hate speech on the campaign trail in 2019, he swiftly came under tax investigations — as did his sister, wife, and son.
[…] it is also important to note that Indian democracy is not dead yet. There are upcoming scheduled elections in 2024, and there is a chance — unlikely, but a real one — that Modi may go the way of Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.
That the BJP can still lose elections has been demonstrated by recent state-level defeats, like in the fiercely contested 2021 West Bengal election. India’s federal system means that state governments have a reasonable amount of power.
And even at the national level, opposition parties still retain some capacity to get their message out.
[…] A slide toward Hindu nationalist authoritarianism in India doesn’t serve America’s interests, especially given the ever-present risk of conflict with nuclear-armed Pakistan. And the contradiction between the administration’s soaring rhetoric about democracy and its relative quiet about the world’s most important instance of democratic backsliding is glaring.
There are some actions the administration could take that could matter at the margins — at the very least, by suggesting during the upcoming state dinner and future engagements that there might be some cost if Modi takes things too far.
But at the same time, the United States’s ability to change the course of Indian domestic politics should not be overstated. What happens in India will ultimately be determined by what Indians decide to do in 2024 and beyond — choices that, given India’s size and rising influence, will have profound consequences for the future of democracy around the world.
Saturday was a big night for Donald Trump. He was heading back to Fox to sit down with Bret Baier to show America’s enraged senior citizens he’s still got it. His face was caked with orange goo, his combover was neatly parted a millimeter above his left ear, and his signature red tie dangled several inches below his groin. […]
And then … he whiffed it. No, that’s too generous. Honestly, what is the word for going on television and admitting that, yes, you did realize you had classified documents in your pool locker, and, no, you didn’t give them back when the government asked, and, yes, you knew they weren’t yours, but actually you were far too busy for 18 straight months to go through the stuff you stole on the way out of the White House and pull out your golf sweaters and commemorative Time Magazine covers, so, yes, you did fail to comply with a grand jury subpoena?
Hindenberg-ed? Is that a word?
We’ve had a good laugh at Baier growing a pair and telling Trump to his face that he lost the election, although he made up for it later by calling Hunter Biden a drug dealer on air. And speaking of drug dealers, check out this clip flagged by the Daily Beast. [video at the link]
Trump begins by dissing his wife and praising China. As you do.
Seems Melon was “in charge of a blue ribbon committee” stacked with “socialites” that considered the problem of addiction in America. But Trump asked Xi Jinping “Do you have a drug problem?” and Xi said “No, no, no, I do not have a drug problem … because we immediately give a quick trial and a death penalty to drug dealers.” (Bullshit.)
“A drug dealer will kill approximately 500 people during the course of his or her life,” Trump babbled on, repeating claims debunked long ago when he previously advocated for mass murder.
Baier then pointed out that Trump supported the First Step Act in 2018, to reform prison sentencing and help offenders return to society. Of course, this being Fox, Baier highlighted the small percentage of those released who re-offended. But Trump countered by pointing to Alice Johnson, a “high quality” woman who “got like 50 years in jail.” Trump pardoned Johnson in 2020 after Kim Kardashian lobbied him on Johnson’s behalf — an avenue for clemency so improbable that it only served to highlight the hopeless plight of tens of thousands of prisoners who don’t have access to a billionaire celebrity to champion their cause.
“But she’d be killed under your plan,” Baier interrupted.
“Huh?” asked the stunned mango.
“As a drug dealer,” Baier pushed.
“Uhhhh, it would depend on the severity,” Trump demurred, just seconds after scoffing that Americans needed to quit being “babies” and start mass murdering people involved in the drug trade.
“According to your data, she’s technically a former drug dealer. She had a multi-million dollar cocaine ring,” Baier pressed. “So even Alice Johnson in that ad?”
“She wouldn’t have done it if it was death penalty,” Trump blarbled. “In other words, if it was death penalty, she wouldn’t have been on that phone call.”
No one has conclusively proved that the death penalty is a deterrent to violent crime, and indeed a 2018 study showed that the murder rate declined in countries which abolished capital punishment. Whether imposing the death penalty for non-violent drug offenders would act as a deterrent has never been tested, although Trump seems quite certain that it would eradicate the problem. And with it the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive punishments!
Trump went on to say that Johnson “wasn’t much of a dealer” and “got treated terribly,” which is clearly the case. Naturally, he refused to grapple with his own policy prescription which would treat her better by summarily murdering her, although he concedes that perhaps “the country isn’t ready for it.”
He also launched into a disquisition on China’s “weakness” in the 20th century because “they were all drugged out.” Then “things happened and they had strong leadership and things happened and they started to build.” Which is an impressive yadda-yadda-yadda-ing of the Communist Revolution and a strongman state.
“If you speak to President Xi, he would tell you ‘without the death penalty, we would have a non-functioning country,'” said the guy who routinely accuses his enemies of being “MARXIST COMMUNISTS.”
But as always, Trump returned to his favorite subject: his own victimhood, albeit through the prism of a poor Black woman who turned to narcotics distribution in desperation and got a five-decade sentence.
“Honestly, she was treated terribly,” Trump went on. “She was treated sort of like I get treated.”
The former president had no comment on whether the death penalty for violation of the Espionage Act would have been a sufficient deterrent that he wouldn’t have committed the crime 37 times. And strangely, Fox’s very serious journalist Bret Baier never asked.
The Estonian Parliament on Tuesday passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage. This makes Estonia the second Central European country to do so, after Slovenia. The law will come into force on January 1, 2024…
Recently shared Photo by a 🇺🇦#Ukrainian soldier of the 47th mechanized Brigade confirms that 🇷🇺#Russians haven’t recovered the Leopard 2A6, Bradley’s and many other vehicles. The fact that Ukrainian Troops probably secured that area gives the opportunity to recover the vehicles. [Tweet, image and map at the link]
These are the vehicles that Russian propaganda have shared over and over again, from different angles, since the debacle. The fact that they don’t have other footage of destroyed Ukrainian equipment suggests that things have gone better elsewhere along the front.
What’s interesting here is that a Russian soldier took pictures of himself next to the vehicles in broad daylight, suggesting that they’d be able to take the vehicles for themselves. It’s noteworthy that they never did.
Four people have been injured after a man allegedly attacked diners with an axe at several Chinese restaurants in Auckland, New Zealand.
Footage showed people running from one restaurant after witnesses said the man entered and started hitting people at 21:00 local time Monday (09:00 GMT.)
They told local media he was carrying a number of other weapons, including a “hammer-like thing”.
A Chinese national was arrested at the scene, police said.
He has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm. He has not been named and his age has been withheld.
Police said the attack did not appear to be racially motivated and was being treated as an isolated incident…
With a unanimous vote late Tuesday afternoon, members of Davis School District’s Board of Education moved to return the religious text to library shelves for students of all ages.
The highly anticipated reversal comes about one month after a review committee of staff and parents appointed by the district was initially determined that the Bible contained “vulgarity or violence” and should have access limited to just high schools…
Animal welfare workers found 146 dead dogs at the home of an Ohio canine rescue group’s president, according to a news release.
On June 16, the Portage Animal Protective League arrived at the Mantua home with a search warrant, which it obtained “after receiving a tip that an animal cruelty charge was pending” against the homeowner, the organization said in a June 19 release.
“The homeowner is known to be a founding operator of Canine Lifeline, Inc., a nonprofit animal rescue,” the release said.
Inside the home, workers found 146 dogs “in varying stages of decay,” many of them in crates and cages, the organization said. There were no dogs alive on the property.
The organization will carry out necropsies on the dogs to determine their causes of death, according to the release…
Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded vote-by-mail access for people with disabilities — specifically people who are blind or paralyzed and need assistance marking their ballot.
Advocates say Abbott’s veto of House Bill 3159 is a blow for voters with disabilities who have for years called for the Legislature to grant them a way to mark their mail-in ballots without having to rely on anyone else.
Co-authored by state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and state Rep. John H. Bucy III, D-Austin, the bill would have allowed voters who need help casting a ballot, such as people who are visually impaired or are paralyzed, to do so “privately and securely” by requesting an electronic ballot and using a computer to mark their choices. The bill still would have required those voters to print out, sign and return their ballots by mail.
[…]
In a resolution explaining his veto Saturday, Abbott called the intent of the bill “laudable” but said the bill does not limit the use of an electronic and accessible ballot by mail only to voters with disabilities. He says the bill would allow “any voter who qualifies to vote by mail to receive a ballot electronically.”
[…]
“Greg Abbott either didn’t read this bill closely enough to understand what it really does or is deliberately working to make it harder for Texans with disabilities to vote,” Katya Ehresman, the voting rights program manager for Common Cause Texas, said in a statement.
The way in which some senators are abusing the chamber’s informal rules on “procedural holds” is clearly getting out of hand. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, for example, has imposed a blockade against U.S. military promotions, as part of a tantrum over abortion policy. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is standing in the way of EPA nominees, because he’s upset about how an environmental policy he helped write is being implemented.
And last week, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance announced blanket holds on Justice Department nominees in response to federal prosecutors having the audacity to charge Donald Trump with multiple felonies, just because they have extensive evidence of alleged criminal wrongdoing.
“I think that we have to grind this department to a halt until [Attorney General] Merrick Garland promises to do his job and stop going after his political opponents,” the Ohio freshman declared, indifferent to the fact that (a) Garland is already doing his job; and (b) the attorney general isn’t going after his political opponents.
Okay, that does establish the absurdity factor. But wait, there’s more.
Yesterday, Vance nevertheless seemed eager anew to justify his tantrum — by pointing to Hunter Biden’s plea agreement. “Any other American would have the book thrown at them. The president’s son gets a slap on the wrist,” the Republican senator wrote on Twitter. “This is exhibit 1,402 for why I’m holding Biden’s DOJ nominees. We have a two-tiered justice system in our country. It’s a disgrace.”
Given the relevant details of the underlying case, none of this made any sense. He apparently didn’t care.
Vance’s antics are, however, starting to generate some attention. The Washington Post’s editorial board, for example, concluded last week, “To decry what he wrongly claims is the politicization of law enforcement, Mr. Vance is, well, politicizing law enforcement.”
The editors added, “Senators in both parties need to respect a president’s right to make appointments. It’s unconscionable to treat the people charged with keeping us safe, whether career prosecutors or generals, as pawns in partisan fights.”
Writing in The New York Times today, columnist David Firestone agreed and helped highlight the stakes.
… Mr. Vance must know the Justice Department will never withdraw the indictment of Mr. Trump, so his blockade of the department’s promotions and executive hires could go on indefinitely, no doubt pleasing Mr. Trump and his supporters. Preventing new federal prosecutors from taking their jobs, however, will eventually have a serious effect on the government’s ability to fight federal crimes and should alarm anyone who cares about the rule of law.
When I wrote about this last week, I heard from a handful of readers who pushed back against the idea that “holds” matter: All they do, critics said, is require senators to jump through some procedural hoops ahead of a confirmation vote, by standing in the way of the usual “unanimous consent” steps that allow the institution to function. It’s not as if individual senators can block nominees indefinitely, right?
It’s not quite that simple. As the aforementioned Post editorial explained, “Holds cannot ultimately stop confirmations, but breaking through them requires significant and valuable Senate floor time — typically two or three days per nomination.” [That’s a lot of time! … especially when one considers how many days legislators actually work when compared to how many they take off. “The House works about two days a week and the Senate works a little more than that, according to federal records.” Link ]
Given the number of nominees conservative senators are now holding up, we’re talking about a confirmation process that should take hours, but which would instead take several months.
The obvious solution would be for senators to be more responsible, but if that’s not going to happen, and consequential abuses are going to become more common, it’s apparently time for a larger conversation about reforming the way the chamber does business.
The Hill reported that some Senate Democrats “say they’re ready to take another look at rules reform.” It’s an effort worth watching.
A moment of confusion for Trump. You can see his brain break in real time … and then you can watch him try to recover by spouting a bunch of nonsense accompanied by a few wildly chopping hand gestures.
Video at the link.
Baier points out that people like Alice Johnson, who’s sentence Trump commuted, would be killed under his “death penalty for drug dealers” proposal.
The rightwing censorship advocates at “Moms For Liberty” are taking a little trip down memory lane at the group’s annual meeting, announcing yesterday on Twitter that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak at their “Joyful Warriors Summit” in Philadelphia, to be held the last weekend of June. While most of us only became aware of Moms for Censorship as it became a central astroturf player in rightwing efforts to ban books featuring anybody gay (including penguins) and anybody Black (including everybody Black), the group got its start in Florida during the pandemic, opposing mask mandates and spreading antivax bullshit. Kennedy’s planned appearance at the Mad Moms confab is almost a sort of homecoming.
Kennedy is nominally running as a Democrat, albeit a crazy conspiracy-spouting one, and you’ll no doubt be surprised not at all to learn that the other speakers at the convention will include Kennedy’s fellow candidates Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, but not Tim Scott or Chris Christie, […] Other prominent wingnuts include historical disinformation disseminator Dennis Prager and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, plus other mixed nuts.
Here’s a very patriotic Declaration of Independence-themed preview video [video at the link], to prove that the Founders would approve of the Mad Moms. We should probably point out that none of the colonists’ grievances against King George III had anything to do with The 1619 Project or Gender Queer being on school library shelves. After nearly a full minute of patriotic glurge […], the video says remarkably little about the conference, except that attendees can be 100 percent sure that everyone else there will agree with them. As far as we can tell, the testimonials were recorded at the end of the 2022 summit, so that may explain a lot.
About that video, I watched it. The joyful women warriors featured in the video look like they are on some kind of drug that makes them higher than a kite … and very much all smiles, sparkling eyes and melodramatic intensity. We are promised that their conference will “knock your socks off.” Looking at their roster of mostly male, far rightwing political doofuses (and whatever Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is), I doubt that my socks would be knocked off even if I had a front row seat.
“Moms for Liberty” are famous for abusing teachers and other parents, up to and including death threats and whatever the actual unhinged fuck this is, and RFK Jr. making common cause with them is just the latest and grossest instance of him cozying up to actual fascists and the far Right; the previous most recent instant of such was when the antivax foundation that he founded and that now pays him half a million dollars a year started begging the Actual Nazis who run Gab to feature him and his work.
We’ll just close with some excellent news for Yr Wonkette, which is that we will not be requesting travel costs, registration fees, or a per diem from Yr Editrix to attend this train wreck, no, not even if it were tax deductible, feh!
Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia remains dead. But his sense of irony has still been immortalized in Wednesday’s big ProPublica story about Sam Alito and his adventures inspiring Hemingway to write “The Old Man and the Sea.”
It turns out that Rob Arkley II, the California millionaire who owns the lodge that hosted Alito and the lucky billionaire Paul Singer who by a strange coincidence was traveling there at the same time and gave Alito a lift on his private jet, has some experience taking Supreme Court justices on fancy fishing vacations in Alaska. And we have long known about Scalia’s penchant for accepting luxury vacations from rich people. Or at least we have known about it since the justice went tits-up at a Texas hunting ranch owned by some oil gazillionaire back in 2016. Thus:
In June 2005, Arkley flew Scalia on his private jet to Kodiak Island, Alaska, two of Arkley’s former pilots told ProPublica. Arkley had paid to rent out a remote fishing lodge that cost $3,200 a week per person, according to the lodge’s owner, Martha Sikes.
Who among us …
On June 9, Arkley’s group chartered a boat, the Happy Hooker IV, to tour Yakutat Bay.
Literally they sailed around Kodiak Island, Alaska, in a boat called the Happy Hooker. Again yr Wonkette posits that we all live in a Christopher Buckley novel.
A photo captures Arkley and Scalia later that day gazing off the side of the boat at the famed Hubbard Glacier. At one point, a guide chiseled chunks off an iceberg and passed them to Scalia. The justice then mixed martinis from Grey Goose vodka and glacier ice.
Yep, there is a picture in the ProPublica story of Scalia standing on the deck of the Happy Hooker IV and waving a bottle of vodka over a cocktail mixer and a handful of martini glasses laid out before him. Vodka? What savages. All those billions, at least buy yourselves some class.
We just cannot with the image of a Supreme Court justice who thought climate change was a bunch of hooey scraping ice off of one of the world’s quickly disappearing glaciers to put in his Grey Goose martini. Maybe our descendants will, in some future post-environmental apocalypse hellscape, at least get to burn this picture for warmth while somewhere off in hell, Scalia laughs maniacally as he and Satan share a couple of stogies.
And would you believe Scalia didn’t report this trip on his 2005 financial disclosure forms? You would? Good for you, mix yourself a martini as a reward.
Scalia appears to have flown to Alaska on Arkley’s jet right from a Federalist Society meeting in Napa, California, where the justice had given a speech. ProPublica notes that the common link between Scalia’s and Alito’s trips, besides Arkley, was Federalist Society head honcho Leonard Leo. Arkley and Paul Singer, Alito’s benefactor, are heavy donors to the Society, and Leo admitted to helping organize Alito’s trip.
Contacted by ProPublica, Leo released a whiny-ass statement denying that any “event, dinner, or trip would influence” Scalia or Alito’s approach to the law. Which, even if remotely believable, is beside the point. Judicial ethics rules, as Leo well knows because he’s not a fucking moron, are supposed to prevent even the appearance of a conflict. Scalia and Alito could have spent their time in Alaska talking about nothing but their furry characters with their rich buddies, but the public has no way of knowing that.
Leo also name-checks current and former liberal justices to make a point about … something or other:
Justices Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor also have regularly received a level of hospitality from friends and strangers that most Americans never experience, but, like their conservative colleagues, they don’t disregard the law because of outside influence. They’re smart and equally strong-willed and independent — just wrong about their proper role and what the Constitution means.
Again, in case Leo is a regular Wonkette reader, the issue is not necessarily that rich people extend the justices generous hospitality. The issue is whether the justices report said hospitality on their financial disclosure forms and whether they recuse themselves from cases in which their rich hosts might have an interest, all in the name of not sullying the Supreme Court’s legitimacy as one of the major public institutions in American life.
If Leo wants to get one of his billionaire benefactors to fund some right-wing “journalism” outlet’s investigation of whether Planned Parenthood ever took Ruth Ginsburg on a luxury vacation she forgot to report, we say go for it. It won’t change the fact that Antonin Scalia and Sam Alito are ethics-free sacks of crap.
The New York State Legislature gave final approval on Tuesday to legislation that provides legal protection for New York doctors to prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in states that have outlawed abortion.
Debate is one of the cornerstones of the American political system. It’s rooted in the noblest of sentiments: that the population should hear from candidates and, duly informed, decide among them.
It’s what Abraham Lincoln did, right? He became a national figure because of his debates with incumbent Sen. Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Those Lincoln-Douglas debates didn’t result in Lincoln’s ousting Douglas, but they did pave the way for his election as president in 1860. Two noble candidates, exchanging views, influencing the electorate.
This is no longer how it works. At the presidential level, debates are functionally useless. And below that level, it’s even worse.
[…] We have turned “debate” into a cudgel meant not to inform but to entertain, to validate our skepticism and to feed our dislike of our opponents. Change my mind: Maybe we should stop?
Hi from the desert! I’m in the complete other corner of the US. It’s so different and beautiful. Thanks to everyone for keeping up with events and analysis!
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a rioter who savagely assaulted an officer defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to more than 12 years in prison, calling him a “one-man army of hate” whose severe punishment might act as a deterrent to future acts of political violence….
The defendant, Daniel Rodriguez, 40, who had previously admitted to driving from California to Washington to do armed battle on behalf of former President Donald J. Trump, expressed some regret for his actions as he asked the judge for leniency. But after receiving his sentence, Mr. Rodriguez smiled and let out a defiant shout of “Trump won!” before being led out of the room by federal marshals.
Six people are accused of forging dead people’s signatures to get a Republican candidate on the ballot in time for congressional primaries, Colorado’s attorney general announced.
Alex Joseph, Terris Kintchen, Patrick Rimpel, Jordahni Rimpel, Aliyah Moss, and Diana Watt all face one felony count of attempt to influence a public servant and one misdemeanor count of perjury, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a release Tuesday.
According to a court affidavit, the six people worked for the petitioning company Grassfire LLC, which was hired by Carl Andersen’s campaign to circulate a petition to gather 1,500 signatures necessary for Andersen to be put on the 2022 Republican primary ballot for the US House of Representatives.
The document says Chris Byrne, a criminal investigator for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, reviewed the petition and found that the six petitioners had collected signatures of at least 21 deceased people…
birgerjohanssonsays
God Awful Movies just provided us with a 1961 film.
“GAM409 The Flight That Disappeared.”
Hypothetically, if the plane you are on gets teleported into a time vortex and people from the future put you on a trial for doing something (which is still in your future) that will cause the end of everything…
What specific thing is that likely to be?
.
I get that for P Z it will have something to do with spider development, but what about you?
@260 I find the switch in our brains to turn off empathy, which authoritarians all over the world then force the use of into law because they believe that everyone should think like they do.
redwoodsays
@260 Or, more simply, I find a magic potion that can turn everyone in the world into Trump. It then gets stolen from me and used.
Jeansays
All these SCOTUS corruption talks make it look like the Federalist Society is like an “escort” agency with a madam (Leo), the Johns (billionaires) and the “escorts” (justices and other judges). The main difference with real escorts is that it’s the American democracy that gets screwed.
Texas’ Senate voted Wednesday to start state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial on Sept. 5 and to bar his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, from voting on the historic proceedings.
The Republican-controlled chamber approved rules prohibiting Angela Paxton from voting due to conflict of interest concerns.
She had issued a statement earlier this week announcing her intention to vote at the impeachment trial.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@260
a trial for doing something (which is still in your future)
Establishing premeditation, eh? Nice try!
KGsays
“If you speak to President Xi, he would tell you ‘without the death penalty, we would have a non-functioning country,’” said the guy who routinely accuses his enemies of being “MARXIST COMMUNISTS.” – Lynna, OM quoting Wonkette@242
I feel impelled to defend Trump from the implicit charge of inconsistency here! Bullshit aside, there’s nothing Marxist or Communist about Xi Jinping’s regime, and it’s completely consistent for Trump to respect and admire it and him. China is reported now to have more billionaires than the USA, and higher levels of income inequality. Xi has made himself in effect dictator-for-life (he is as it happens the son of Xi Zhongxun, himself a senior CCP official – many of his most senior subordinates are similarly the children of the party aristocracy). Xi’s regime in many ways resembles classic fascism: capitalists can make huge profits and fortunes, and exploit their workers as much as they like (since there are no free trade unions), but are subordinate to the one-party state, and can be deprived of their wealth, liberty and lives if they offend the Great Leader. Corruption is rife, but whether it is punished is purely a matter of political convenience. Surveillance is probably the broadest and deepest of any state in world history; foreign policy is increasingly aggressive.
Incidentally, all the members of the 7-strong Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CCP, Xi’s immediate circle, are men, and all of them are Han Chinese. The same is true of the 24-member Politburo (of which the Standing Committee forms a subset). This Politburo is the first in 25 years to include no women. Han Chinese men make up around 30% of China’s adult population. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in action!
Mr Musk, who turns 52 later this month, also tweeted: “I have this great move that I call ‘The Walrus’, where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing.”
He later tweeted short videos of walruses, perhaps suggesting his challenge to Mr Zuckerberg may not entirely be serious…
That’s going to disappoint a lot of people who would like to see Musk get the @#$% beaten out of him. Best outcome would be they both lose.
Ukraine has attacked a bridge linking southern Ukraine to the Crimean peninsula with long-range British missiles, Russian officials say.
The two parallel Chonhar bridges were both damaged, said the Russian-installed governor in occupied Kherson Vladimir Saldo. No-one was hurt.
Mr Saldo said it was likely British Storm Shadow missiles were used in an attack “ordered by London”.
The bridge is the shortest route from Crimea to the front line in the south.
It is also an important link to the occupied city of Melitopol, which lies on the coastal route from the Russian border across southern Ukraine to Crimea…
In a de-escalation of internal GOP tensions, House Republicans are now aiming to refer a Biden impeachment resolution to two committees instead of holding an immediate vote on impeaching the president.
The House will vote Thursday to send a resolution offered by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., to the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees. By forgoing the impeachment vote, Republicans will be able to avoid, for now, a messy fight that was already dividing the conference.
The House Rules Committee advanced the plan in a last-minute meeting Wednesday night after huddling with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who urged rank-and-file Republicans at a closed-door meeting earlier in the day to oppose Boebert’s resolution, arguing that such an important issue should go through the committee process, three GOP sources who heard the comments confirmed…
A Republican group opposed to Donald Trump will run a new ad on Fox News and CNN this week in which an unexpected figure makes the legal case against the former president: Trump himself.
The new ad from the Republican Accountability Project highlights old comments from Trump on the importance of classified documents as he accused 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton of mishandling sensitive materials.
“I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” he said in a clip from a 2016 rally. In a clip from 2020, he said people “go to jail for that.” …
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday he believes Russia acted in “good faith” amid the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, adding the U.S., in fact, bore heavy responsibility for the ongoing war…
The U.S. Air Force has announced that it is ordering AMRAAM missiles worth $1.15 billion from Raytheon Missiles and Defense to supply to Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Defense reported on June 20.
The AIM-120 AMRAAM is a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It is commonly referred to as the ‘Slammer’ and is often deployed by the Norwegian-made air defense system NASAMS, which was also provided to Ukraine by the U.S.
The contract includes AIM-120 D-3 missiles, the latest variant of the AMRAAM, and C-8 AMRAAM missiles. These missiles are already in use with the U.S. Air Force and Navy Force, as well as 18 other countries.
SC @257, ah, so glad you are enjoying the desert landscape.
Reginald @268, “moderate Republicans” still haven’t found a candidate that can defeat the Orange Mango cult leader. Representative Will Hurd makes the 12th entry into the Republican presidential race, (I think … it’s hard to keep track). Hurd used to be a CIA official, and he served in the House of Congress. One good thing: Hurd says that if he is elected, he will not pardon Trump.
J. Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics said Hurd’s bipartisan record is likely to hurt him in the Republican primary.
“He’d be a very formidable general election candidate,” Coleman said, “which is part of the reason why I suspect he’s going to have a hard time getting the nomination.”
[…] After narrowly winning re-election in 2018, Hurd announced he would retire from Congress ahead of the 2020 election. He was the lone Black Republican in the House when he retired. […]
Craziest House Majority Evah?
It’s been a while since we checked in on the goings-on with the House GOP majority and … what in the holy hell, y’all?
– Voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for his role in investigating Donald Trump;
– Embroiled in internal fight over impeaching President Joe Biden;
– Rep. Marjorie Tayor Greene (R-GA) called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) a “[B-word]” or a “little [B-word]” (accounts vary) on the House floor; and
– Ripped into corrupt Special Counsel John Durham for not being corrupt enough.
And that was just another Wednesday on the House side on the Hill.
Let’s break it down.
House GOP Gets Its Schiff Revenge
The GOP-controlled House voted Wednesday to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) – a top-tier candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in California – for his role in investigating President Donald Trump. It also referred Schiff to the Ethics Committee for investigation. The final vote was 213-209, with Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) and the five GOP members of the House ethics panel voting “present.”
The censure resolution was sponsored by freshman Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL).
There was no legitimate basis for the censure or the Ethics Committee referral. This was pure political payback for Schiff’s role in the first Trump impeachment and other investigations.
“Adam Schiff launched an all-out political campaign built on baseless distortions against a sitting U.S. president,” Luna said.
Democrats rallied to Schiff’s defense, and House Republicans were an easy mark: [video at the link: "Goldman: One of my Republican colleagues says “we will hold members accountable.” You are the party of George Santos! Who are you holding accountable?!? Don’t lecture us with your projection.. It’s pathetic."]
For his part, Schiff took the political vengeance in stride: [video at the link: "Schiff: To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You flatter me with this falsehood. You who are the authors of the big lie about the last election must condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you."]
Schiff was required to stand in the well of the House chamber and receive a verbal rebuke, whereupon Democratic members surrounded him in support and started chanting “SHAME!” [video at the link: "McCarthy has lost control of the House Floor after the censure vote."]
[…] The Daily Beast reported some of the details of a kindergarten-level exchange, in which Boebert confronted Greene over mean things she said about her and Greene accused Boebert of copying her articles of impeachment against Biden.
All three of the sources said Greene called Boebert a “[B-word].” One of the sources said Greene called her “a little [B-word].” […]” You copied my articles of impeachment after I asked you to cosponsor them.”
Neither member denied the substance of the exchange when asked about it later by reporters. […]
The U.S. Coast Guard says an underwater vessel has located a debris field near the Titanic in the search for a missing submersible with five people aboard […]
The search passed the critical 96-hour mark Thursday morning when breathable air could have run out. […]
I have not seen anyone claim that the debris field is the (possibly imploded) submersible (not yet anyway. But I doubt that the Coast Guard would announce the finding if there were not strong suspicions that the debris is from the submersible.
To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You honor me with your enmity.
You flatter me with this falsehood. You, who are the authors of a big lie about the last election, must condemn the truth tellers, and I stand proudly before you.
Your words tell me that I have been effective in the defense of our democracy, and I am grateful.
And yet this false and defamatory resolution comes at a considerable cost to the country and to the Congress.
At a moment when millions of people in our home state of California are unable to find a place to live or afford a place to live, Speaker McCarthy chooses to occupy the resources of the Congress for two straight weeks on this hollow sop to the MAGA crowd.
He offers nothing to those who are homeless, or addicted to opioids, or to millions of college students mired in debt, but this paltry distraction.
Donald Trump is under indictment for actions that jeopardize our national security, and McCarthy would spend the nation’s time on petty political payback, thinking he can censure or fine Trump’s opposition into submission.
But I will not yield. Not one inch.
The cost to [the country of] the Speaker’s delinquency is high, but the cost to Congress of this frivolous and yet dangerous resolution may be even higher, as it represents another serious abuse of power.
Donald Trump has threatened that any of you that defy him, and vote against this partisan resolution, will be met by a primary challenge.
And he calls for my imprisonment. If a transient majority can punish and attempt to silence members who hold a corrupt president to account, there is no telling what further corruption of office will follow.
And I say this to Speaker McCarthy and others who wish to gratify Donald Trump with this act of subservience or bend to his demands — try as you might to expel me from Congress, or silence me with a $16 million dollar fine, you will not succeed. You might as well make it $160 million. You will never deter me from doing my duty.
No matter how many false justifications or slanders you level against me, you but indict yourselves. As Liz Cheney said, “there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
This resolution attacks me for initiating an investigation into Trump campaign solicitation and acceptance of Russian help in the 2016 election, even though the investigation was first led not by me, but by a Republican chairman.
It would hold that when you give internal campaign polling data to a Russian intelligence operative, while Russian intelligence is helping your campaign — as Trump’s campaign chairman did — that you must not call that collusion, though that is its proper name, as the country well knows.
It would fine me for the costs of the critically important Mueller investigation into Trump’s misconduct, even though the special counsel was appointed by Trump’s own attorney general.
It would reprimand me over a flawed FISA application, as if I were its author, or I was the director of the FBI, and over flaws only discovered years later and by the inspector general, not Mr. Durham.
In short, it would accuse me of omnipotence, the leader of some vast deep state conspiracy. And of course, it is nonsense.
But here is the real gravamen of my offense:
I led the first impeachment of Donald Trump for one of the most egregious presidential abuses of power in our history, and I led a trial which resulted in the first bipartisan vote to remove a president in history.
And I would do so again.
I warned that if Trump was not held accountable, he would go on to try to cheat in even worse ways in the next election, and HE DID, inciting a violent attack on this very Capitol.
And after that, I participated in some of the most important hearings in congressional history — hearings that exposed Donald Trump’s incitement of a dangerous insurrection to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
My colleagues, if there is cause for censure in this House — and there is — it should be directed at those in this body who sought to overturn a free and fair election.
The question, my Republican colleagues, is not why am I the subject of this false resolution for doing my constitutional duty, but why are you not? Why are you not standing beside me, the subject of a similar rebuke for speaking the truth?
Why did you not stand up to Donald Trump, why did you not reject his immorality, why did you not condemn his dishonesty, why did you not speak out when his horde attacked this Capitol, or now, when he treats the nation’s secrets with such carelessness, lawlessness and disdain, why did you hide from efforts to hold him accountable, why were you silent, afraid, unwilling to do your ethical, constitutional duty, why did you cower, why did you cower — and why do you still?
Will it be said of you that you lacked the courage to stand up to the most immoral, unlawful and unethical president in history, but consoled yourselves by attacking those who did?
Today, I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor. Knowing that I have lived my oath.
Knowing that I have done my duty, to hold a dangerous and out of control president accountable. And knowing that I would do so again — in a heartbeat — if the circumstances should ever require it. I thank you.
And I yield back.
“It would fine me for the costs of the critically important Mueller investigation into Trump’s misconduct, even though the special counsel was appointed by Trump’s own attorney general.” Utterly unethical and morally bankrupt actions by the Republicans.
Email to my Republican congresswoman: “I understand you voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff. Could you tell me how to contact his senatorial campaign? I need to make a contribution in your honor.”
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Donation has been made to Rep. Schiff’s senatorial campaign through ActBlue.
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Me too, from Virginia. Time to show gratitude for all he has done in the House. Donation made moments ago.
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All I could think was wow, what a strong, brave, honest and courageous American speaking to history
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Great speech — and an example of how to stand up to a wanabee lynch mob.
This update includes an interesting photo: “Searching for mines in flooded Kherson oblast. They were swept up after Russia destroyed the dam, and finding them is critical for civilian safety.”
[…] there is something going on that gives even better insight into Ukraine’s patience, and it’s reflected every day in Ukraine’s claims of Russian kills.
Early in the war, Ukraine would claim one to two daily artillery kills. It was frustrating, seeing Ukrainian defenders and its cities under relentless artillery bombardment, yet unable to strike back at the guns and rocket launchers causing that misery.
Over time, Ukraine developed better counter-battery fire: the ability to find Russian artillery and destroy it. Specialized counter-battery radars provided by its Western partners helped locate the guns; drones pin-pointed their position; and longer-ranged Western artillery, precision-guided artillery shells, HIMARS, and M270 rocket launchers finally became a deadly response. More recently, kamikaze drones have become another tool.
Remember, Russia’s is an artillery-based army. Without it, it has no offensive or defensive juice. A wall of explosive steel is the biggest impediment to any rapid Ukrainian gains. And Russia has lots and lots of guns. It has even pulled up old 1950s vintage tanks and is using them as artillery. It knows no other way to fight.
Thing is, it works. Here is Russian artillery making life miserable for Ukrainian forces in Pyatykhatky, which we’ve written about recently […] [Tweet and video at the link.]
It is suicidal to advance under that kind of barrage. NATO doctrine calls first for air superiority (which means destroying both enemy aircraft and their air defenses), then close air support to destroy that artillery, before any ground troops advance. Ukraine doesn’t have air superiority, and wouldn’t even if they had received their F-16s by now.
Russia’s air defense network is about their only thing that seems to (mostly) work in this war. There is no scenario in which Ukraine gets air superiority.
Until three or so weeks ago, the average number of claimed artillery kills averaged 10.5 per day. But as the Ukrainian counteroffensive ramped up in June, we saw something new altogether. Here’s the number of claimed artillery kills by Ukraine over the last two weeks:
June 6: 25
June 7: 22
June 8: 29
June 9: 38
June 10: 16
June 11: 20
June 12: 10
June 13: 20
June 14: 19
June 15: 11
June 16: 21
June 17: 25
June 18: 14
June 19: 18
June 20: 27
June 21: 33
June 22: 23
Ukraine claims it has destroyed 617 MLRS rocket artillery launchers since the start of the war. Russia reportedly had 900. Ukraine claims it has destroyed 3,941 tube artillery. Russia reportedly had 4,900 before the war.
Do we believe these numbers? I sure wouldn’t bet on Russia only having 1,000 guns left. But what I do believe is the increased targeting and killing of those Russian guns. In those 17 days above (3.5% of the 485 days since the war began), Ukraine claimed 371 tube and MLRS artillery kills, or 8.1% of their total claims. That is more than double their previous average.
What’s happening here makes perfect sense.
Ukraine advances to new positions, ejecting Russian forces. They counterattack, allowing Ukraine to destroy valuable men and equipment out in the open. Meanwhile, Russia does what Russia does best and puts up a wall of artillery. But it’s an ambush—Ukraine has clearly devoted extensive counterbattery resources to the front, immediately striking back at those Russian guns.
This is what it looks like: [Tweets, images and videos at the link]
The result is mass attrition of Russia’s greatest resource. The more Ukraine degrades Russia’s ability to hamper its forces with artillery, the easier it will be to break through those prepared Russian lines.
A lack of air superiority makes the task harder, but Ukraine’s ability to improvise given the tools it has available is unmatched.
———————–
I’ll let Wagner mercenary CEO Yevgeny Prihozhin give us the latest from Zaporizhzhya:
“P’yatykhatky is controlled by 🇺🇦 forces, as is the northern part of Robotyne. Urozhaine is also under Ukrainian control. Big parts have been given up by Russian forces. One day we will wake up and find out Crimea is given away.” [video at the link]
Not going to bust out the maps as none of this is much of a change from what we’ve already covered the last several days. There’s a great deal of see-sawing going on, but as noted, this isn’t bad for Ukraine: Better to fight Russian ground forces out in the open while counter-battery operations degrade Russian artillery.
Up north, around both Kreminna and Kupyansk (remember Kupyansk?), Russian forces are on the offensive. [Tweet and image at the link]
The general consensus is that Russia is attacking to draw Ukrainian forces away from Bakhmut, where they continue to make incremental headway in the city’s northern and southern flanks. Russia knows it can’t seriously threaten Kupyansk and Lyman, west of Kreminna. But what it can hopefully do is panic Ukraine enough that it abandons its counteroffensive efforts around their precious Bakhmut. [Not likely.]
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Logistics, logistics, logistics. [Tweets, images, and map related to Chonhar bridge, see Reginald’s comment 270] That looks like HIMARS damage we saw on the Kherson bridges before Ukraine liberated the area. But at 120 kilometers behind the front lines, that has to be a British-supplied Storm Shadow. Each one of those cruise missiles costs around $3.2 million, so that’s an expensive hole. And it looks relatively easily repairable (again, given what we saw in Kherson) unless the bridge is further degraded.
Also, it seems like the railroad bridge would be the juicier target. But anything that hinders Russian logistics to the Zaporizhzhia front is greatly appreciated.
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View from a Russian drone: [Tweet and video at the link:”Footage claimed to be from near the “Velyka Novosilka” Frontline in the Southwestern Donetsk Region showing a Ukrainian T-72B3 Tank appearing to Crush a International M1224 MaxxPro MRAP as its trying to prevent being Hit by a Russian “Lancet” Drone Strike.”]
View from the Ukrainians on the ground: [Tweet and video at the link: “Ukrainian tank T-72B3 hitting a MRAP MaxxPro. We previously saw this situation from a Russian drone, but now detailed footage has emerged. Both vehicles are in Ukrainian-controlled territory and are likely to be evacuated and restored.” Such difficult conditions. Holy shit.]
Holy crap that MaxxPro held up well, which makes me feel good as that’s what my son is currently riding as a top gunner in a deployment in the Middle East.
Also, the tank looks in great shape for having been hit by that Russian kamikaze drone. Looks like the damage was more from confusion or panic.
If you’re wondering what the Ukrainian soldier says in the video: “armor sex.” [LOL]
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[Tweet, image and map at the link: “An old island appeared in the Dnipro. According to wikimapia, this is an old flooded island called Tavan. There seems to be an old road visible. I think it might be slightly elevated due to the area being swampy, and therefore preserved (enough to be visible).”]
Holy crap. That’s just east of the Kakhovka dam, and it’s increasingly clear that Ukraine will be able to march across this land after it fully dries out, and maybe beforehand with lighter vehicles.
[…] Russia reconfigured the region’s geography by destroying the dam.
Update regarding Jack Smith’s prosecution team’s actions:
In a good sign, the prosecutors in the Trump classified documents case have turned over important discovery, including grand jury testimony from the witnesses who will testify against Trump in court.
This means Trump now knows (or will very soon). So keep an eye on Trump’s outbursts. LOL. […]
Renato Mariotti: “Prosecutors are required to turn over the grand jury testimony of witnesses. They often do so near the end of the discovery process, not the beginning.”
On MSNBC, Andrew Weissmann also said it is unusual to turn over this amount of discovery so early in a case.
Over the past couple of months, Republicans claimed — over and over again — that they will not propose cuts to Social Security and Medicare. But despite the promises, a new budget proposal, released last week by the Republican Study Committee, details the changes and cuts they would make to the entitlement programs some of the nation’s most vulnerable depend on.
The committee, made up largely of House GOP caucus members, details cuts to Social Security, partly through making so-called “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees.”
The 167-page document also proposes turning Medicare into a “premium support” system that would subsidize private insurance options that compete with traditional Medicare, a nod at the kind of privatization of the program that Republicans have pushed for years.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the plan a “devastating attack on Medicare, Social Security, and Americans’ access to health coverage and prescription drugs.”
“The Republican Study Committee is taking aim at the Medicare benefits all Americans pay to earn by repealing the new power President Biden gave it to negotiate lower drug costs, to address rapid drug price increases, and to cap the price of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries,” she added. “This is exactly what Republicans in Congress pledged not to do…”
Jean-Pierre is not wrong.
[…] In January, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said cuts to Medicare and Social Security were “off the table.”
A month later, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) echoed the sentiment, saying initiatives to sunset Social Security and Medicare are not a “Republican plan.”
Former President Donald Trump also joined in the rhetoric, repeatedly insisting he will not support entitlement cuts if he wins his third bid for the White House.
Similarly, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) promised not to touch Social Security programs, breaking from his past support for privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age back when he was a lawmaker.
[…] in a quick-witted maneuver, President Joe Biden got dozens of Republicans to collectively agree they would not cut funding for Medicare or Social Security during his State of the Union speech.
[…] Despite the several public declarations that cuts to entitlement programs are off the table, the RSC budget is clear in their proposal and messaging.
The committee has spent decades proposing cuts to entitlement programs with little hope of passing but some House Republicans think this year’s plan could make it to the House floor.
“The RSC Budget is more than just a financial statement. It is a statement of priorities,” the document reads.
Donald Trump has been having trouble finding attorneys. His previous batch not only dropped out of the case connected to his federal indictments over mishandling classified documents just one day after those charges were handed down, they abandoned Trumps’ lawsuit against CNN in midstream. Enough attorneys have run away from Trump that Forbes has prepared a handy timeline of the nine times Trump has changed out his legal team just since 2020. According to The Washington Post, Trump has swapped out 16 attorneys since 2016, making it an open question whether they last longer than his ketchup bottles.
Anyone who is standing too close to Mar-a-Lago today should be aware of the high probability of more attorneys departing at high speed, because Trump’s team was just handed the first batch of evidence collected by special counsel Jack Smith to prepare the 37 federal indictments leveled against Trump on June 8.
Included in the information are recordings of Trump speaking at Bedminster in which he brags about retaining a top secret document, explains how it was prepared, and admits that he can’t declassify it—a sort of all-in-one pre-packaged conviction for at least one charge of mishandling classified documents, lying to investigators, and obstructing justice. But the most interesting part of the statement that accompanies this release of information may be a very strong hint that there are still more Trump recordings in which he confesses to his crimes.
As CNN reports, this represents extremely swift movement on the part of Smith and the Department of Justice. It’s also another indication that Smith is ready for Trump’s trial to begin, which is the last thing that Trump wants to happen.
The next official date on the court calendar is July 24, which Judge Aileen Cannon has penciled in as the final day for getting in filings in advance of trial. It’s absolutely certain that at the last possible moment on that date, Trump’s attorney (assuming he has one at that point) will file for an extension, requesting more time for motions and a delay of the Aug. 14 court date. Such initial requests are often granted even with very little cause, and Trump can expect to move the goalposts back for several months, with the Trump-appointed Cannon determining just how much additional slack he will receive.
Additional requests for delay beyond that point should have to jump considerably higher hurdles, but again … Cannon. So we’ll have to wait and see.
But Smith is giving Trump’s team absolutely no reason to claim they haven’t had sufficient time to review the evidence by providing it early and in quantity. It’s another sign that what the government wants here is a swift movement toward the earliest possible court date. […]
[…] Another interesting point of the Wednesday filing is that it makes clear that the information has not been provided to the legal team of Trump’s “body man,” Walt Nauta. Nauta appears on several of the charges along with Trump, as well having one charge of lying to investigators on his own. Trump was forbidden from discussing the case with Nauta, one of the few conditions placed on his release following arraignment, but the indictments against both Trump and Nauta are currently being treated as a single case.
There have been several suggestions that, like Meadows, Nauta has or is considering cooperating with the special counsel’s office. Some analysts have taken how the discovery evidence was provided to Trump’s attorneys, but not Nauta’s attorneys in the Wednesday order as a signal that the Department of Justice is treating the two defendants differently, elevating claims that Nauta has agreed to a deal of some sort.
With both Nauta and Meadows, reports that they have flipped in exchange for reduced charges or sentencing are unconfirmed. […] This could be one of those months when the forecast for fleeing lawyers is considerably higher.
Wonkette: “Climate Change Deniers Chase Out Iowa Weather Man With Death Threats, As Is Normal And Healthy And Fine”
[…] A meteorologist has quit his job in Iowa, citing PTSD after being inundated with violent threats over his coverage of climate change.
In 2021, Chris Gloninger moved to Iowa for a job as the chief meteorologist at Des Moines news station KCCI. Previously, the New York native worked at NBC10 Boston, where he reported on weather events and hosted a weekly show on climate change and apparently did not receive any death threats at all — either because people in coastal areas understand that they are the ones who are going to have to deal with sea levels rising or because he never said anything complimentary about the Yankees.
While he was accustomed to receiving some complaints here and there from people who don’t believe in climate change, a few months into his tenure at KCCI, he started receiving a series of frightening emails, including at least one demanding to know what his address was. Police identified the sender as 63-year-old Danny H. Hancock of Lenox, Iowa, and ultimately fined him $150 for the threats.
Via Iowa Capital Dispatch:
Hancock wrote to Gloninger, “Getting sick and tired of your liberal conspiracy theory on the weather, climate changes every day, always has, always will, your pushing nothing but a Biden hoax, go back to where you came from.”
A few days later, Hancock wrote to Gloninger: “You are worthless Biden puppet, a liar, a conspiracy theorist, and an idiot!!! You give Iowa a bad name, GO HOME B—-.”
A few hours after that message was sent, Hancock sent another email in which he referenced Brett Kavanaugh, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: “What’s your address, we conservative Iowans would like to give you an Iowan welcome you will never forget, kinda like the l—— gave JUDGE KAVANAUGH!!!!!!!” […]
On July 15, Hancock wrote again, this time referencing Anthony Fauci, the immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has helped lead the fight against COVID-19, and told Gloninger to “go east and drown from the ice cap melting you dumbf—!!!!!!!”
This is a very normal thing to do to one’s local meteorologist.
It’s not clear if Hancock’s threats continued after that, but $150 doesn’t really seem like enough to discourage someone who is that intent on spreading the word that climate change is an evil plot concocted by Joe Biden to … do something? It’s not entirely clear from his emails, and frankly it’s always been a little unclear why the Right is so deeply disturbed by the concept of climate change to begin with. It seems like it should be something deeper than “We don’t want corporations to be inconvenienced by regulations meant to keep them from destroying the planet!” […] death threats are on the table […]
Gloninger shared some of the emails online last year, describing how mentally exhausting it had been to deal with. [Tweet with examples of threats available at the link]
“Eighteen years. Seven stations. Five states. I am bidding farewell to TV to embark on a new journey dedicated to helping solve the climate crisis,” Gloninger said in a statement to the Des Moines Register. “After a death threat stemming from my climate coverage last year and resulting PTSD, in addition to family health issues, I’ve decided to begin this journey now.”
Perhaps KCCI could replace him with Jeremy Kappell, the Rochester, New York, meteorologist who was fired from his job at NBC affiliate WHEC for saying a racial slur on air and has since become far more interested in The Storm than in storms — by which I mean he is now a QAnon person. […]
Alas, if this is the Iowa way to greet a meteorologist, they may end up with no meteorologists at all, and Iowans will just have to spend their lives guessing at whether or not to bring an umbrella or a sweater.
whheydtsays
Between the vote to censure Schiff and the clear plans to gut Social Security and Medicare, perhaps it is time for a Democrat to make a motion to vacate the chair and throw McCarthy to his own wolves. Maybe Congressman Schiff should file the motion…
[…] the New York Post yesterday translated the story [about the lost Titanic submersible] into a vernacular that we’ve become quite familiar with around here […] Gaze upon the Post’s work, ye mighty, and tremble! [Image showing New York Post headline]
You see, the Post found a 2020 video interview (which has since been removed from both the website and from YouTube, which is where it had the date attached) in which Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate and pilot of the lost submersible, discussed the business and the techie stuff about the machines, and his plans to do “adventure tourism” that would include not only trips to the Titanic wreck but also to deep sea thermal vents and to other, lesser-known shipwrecks. While most of the discussion was about the tech stuff, Rush also explained the image he wanted the company to project, and that’s what got the Post exercised.
When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there, but they typically have, uh, gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and they — you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys. […]
I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational and I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology, but a 25-year-old, uh, you know, who’s a sub pilot or a platform operator or one of our techs can be inspirational.
So we’ve really tried to get, um, very intelligent, motivated, younger individuals involved because we’re doing things that are completely new.
Most of us might read that as dopey marketing talk about having an adventurous, youthful image, like Richard Branson when he was still youthful 30 years ago. It’s also worth noting that Rush didn’t say he would never hire any 50-year-old white guys (he’s 61 himself now).
Ah, but he mentioned “white guys,” so the Post frames it as deliberate — and ultimately fatal — wokeness, because see what happens if you don’t have middle-aged white military veterans running things? So the story’s first two paragraphs very subtly imply that Rush has no one but his own anti-white racism to blame for the unfolding disaster:
The OceanGate CEO who is trapped on a 22-foot submersible on an ill-fated voyage to see the Titanic wreck once explained how he didn’t hire “50-year-old white guys” with military experience to captain his vessels because they weren’t “inspirational.”
Stockton Rush, 61, added that such expertise was unnecessary because “anybody can drive the sub” with a $30 video game controller.
The Post also made its own video, embedding the scary woke clips of Rush rejecting expertise if it came from white men: [video at the the link]
Now, the Post didn’t directly say that the submersible is in trouble because the foolish CEO may have hired women and minorities, but it didn’t have to. The accusation of “wokeness” made it to Fox News, where Jesse Watters complained [OMFG, Jesse Watters putting Fox News anti-woke spin on the whole story?] that the OceanGate CEO recklessly ignored “regulations” — but aren’t those burdensome, Jesse? — and then brought up the Post story:
He’s quoted as saying he didn’t hire a bunch of 50-year-old White guys with military experience because he didn’t want his vessels to be—not inspirational for a younger generation. I don’t care who is in these vessels, I just want them to be experienced and safe. And if you’re gonna be woke, you might have to—”
Watters stopped himself before finishing the thought that Wokeness Kills, adding “I don’t want to say it because I don’t want to put these people’s legacies through that, but, I don’t see how they’re ever going to find this thing again.”
Other rightwing media sources weren’t anywhere near as delicate as Jesse Watters. Wingnut podcaster Jeff Younger proclaimed on Twitter that “Being woke makes you stupid and deadly.” [JFC!] Some rightwing outfit calling itself the “Conservative Media Center” tut-tutted on Twitter that
even underwater Titanic submersible companies aren’t safe from ESG and woke hiring practices. One has to wonder if hiring based on “inspiration” instead of skill might have played a role in this tragedy.
Expanding on the theme, the linked article pointed out how stupid Rush was, because after all, “the most ‘inspirational’ person on the planet is an almost 52-year-old white guy. His name is Elon Musk.” [painful, head/desk]
[…] Gab founder Andrew Torba, who loves him some racist conspiracy theories because he is a Nazi, tweeted that the problem isn’t just one woke submersible, heavens no: All of America’s infrastructure is about to crumble because it’s not being planned and built by white men, we guess. Retweeting a short video about the Post story, Torba warned,
Wait until you find out how many critical infrastructure operations are doing the same thing. Buckle up, complex systems require meritocracy—not skin color quotas—to operate and maintain.
So when civilization falls apart next week, remember, it’s all because not enough old white men run things. [LOL]
Now, there’s lots of wider discussion suggesting that Rush may have ignored warnings from experts about the safety of his machines, and that he took entirely too many unnecessary risks in how he built and operated the submersible, and those are completely legitimate questions that are likely to be answered in the course of investigating what went wrong. They also have exactly fuck-all to do with “wokeness.”
Also, I should probably include a moderator note here: Our commenting rules remain in effect. […] you do not get to fantasize about who you would like to be dying two miles under the sea instead of the people aboard the Titan. […]
Debris from the Titan submersible, including its tail cone, was found on the ocean floor on Thursday morning, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, said Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard.
They also found parts identified as “parts of the pressure hull.”
ALASKA (The Borowitz Report)—The billionaire Paul Singer set a sport-fishing record by catching a Supreme Court Justice who weighed in at approximately two hundred pounds.
The Justice, who was estimated to measure over sixty inches, became Singer’s catch during a luxury fishing trip to Alaska in 2008.
Singer, who said that he kept his record catch a secret because he does not “like to brag,” revealed that the jurist was “much easier to catch” than he had anticipated.
“He required practically no bait whatsoever,” he said. “I’ve never caught something that seemed so happy to be flopping around on my boat.”
Okay, folks. Quiz time. Who do YOU think wrote THIS:
“Congress will hopefully now look at the ever continuing Witch Hunts and ELECTION INTERFERENCE against me on perfectly legal Boxes, where I have no doubt that information is being secretly ‘planted’ by the scoundrels in charge, the Perfect Phone Calls (Atlanta), the illegal DOJ/Pomerantz/Manhattan D.A. Hoax, where virtually EVERYONE agrees THERE IS NO CASE, and the NYSAG SCAM, where I have proven beyond a doubt that there is no case, but have a hostile Judge who should not be on this case!”
One of the enduring mysteries of the ongoing investigation into Donald Trump’s theft of scores of classified national security documents is why the FBI conducted a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort, a search that turned up highly classified documents that Trump and his lawyers had repeatedly asserted did not exist, but has not conducted similar searches of Trump’s other homes and properties.
That mystery has only deepened, now that we know that the FBI had a recording of Trump showing off some of those national security documents inside his Bedminster, New Jersey, club, and that the specific document he was caught on tape describing has not yet been found. And the FBI knows, for an absolute fact, that Trump has taken multiple steps to hide classified documents so that the government could not take them back. There’s no question that Trump and his lawyers would lie about there being no documents left to find in Bedminster; those lies are precisely why Trump and Walt Nauta, one of his aides, have now been booked on federal Espionage Act charges.
A brand new Guardian story clears up the mystery not one damn bit. The Guardian reports that prosecutors were, “within weeks” of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, already “alarmed” by the evidence that Trump had taken some of the most sensitive documents to Bedminster. […]
The Justice Department’s response? Just weeks after the FBI search found classified documents in Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors requested that Trump’s legal team conduct their own search of Bedminster and Trump’s other properties. From The Guardian:
Whether to acquiesce with the request split the Trump legal team. Trump in-house counsel Boris Epshteyn and Trump lawyer Chris Kise were uneasy about being ordered around by the government, while the other Trump lawyers Tim Parlatore and Jim Trusty suggested a cooperative approach.
This team of legal schmeagles eventually agreed to the request, and you’ll note, not for nothing, that both Parlatore and Trusty are now no longer working on Trump’s team, leaving the buffoonish crime magnet Epshteyn more firmly in charge of such things. But the Trump team hired “contractors” to search Bedminster. The contractors dutifully reported that they did not find any classified documents—we do not, of course, know what rooms they were even allowed to look inside—and that of course left the prosecutors “uneasy” since they already had evidence that documents were there. Because, once again for the record, Trump’s lawyers had already just tried to get away with lying their asses off about not being able to find classified documents that the FBI then had to go and “find” themselves.
And the Bedminster dodge must have looked, to prosecutors, almost exactly like the Mar-a-Lago dodge Trump and his lawyers had just tried to pull. The Guardian reports that prosecutors asked Trump’s legal team for a signature attesting that no such documents were found, via a legal custodian of records, and Trump’s legal team refused to provide such a statement. That refusal lead prosecutors to pursue new contempt proceedings.
What didn’t happen, though, is what happened at Mar-a-Lago when investigators became quite sure Trump was lying about turning over the classified documents he had instead hidden even from his own lawyers. There was no FBI search of Bedminster, and that remains an even more baffling decision now than it was then.
The absence of classified documents at Bedminster led prosecutors to suspect that Trump treated it like a vacation home, where he took boxes of things away from Mar-a-Lago at the start of the summer, and then returned with all of his things to Mar-a-Lago at the end of the season, the people said.
This is absolute nonsense, and surely even The Guardian’s sources know it. Whether or not Trump treats Bedminster as a “vacation home” has nothing to do with whether he might be intentionally hiding even more national security documents there, because Trump is already indicted for hiding classified documents in places even his own lawyers don’t have access to. Prosecutors know classified documents were moved to Bedminster. They know that some of the documents they’ve been looking for are still missing, like the document Trump showed off at Bedminster. They know that whatever Trump’s legal team did or didn’t do, they were not willing to do what they had just done in Florida: putting a lawyer’s signature to a piece of paper attesting that the search had been conducted and that nothing was found.
And the Department of Justice’s takeaway from all of that, with nuclear and national security secrets on the line, is to take that Trump team’s word for it and conclude that Bedminster was merely a “vacation home,” somewhere that Trump might take classified documents to but not someplace he would leave them?
Yeah, that’s bullshit. There’s definitely some reason that prosecutors are balking at forcibly searching the last known location of national security documents, but it isn’t because Boris Epshteyn and the ragged remnants of Trump’s legal team have been deemed just so damn trustworthy that such a search is no longer needed. […]
There’s been no search of Trump’s other properties for the missing documents, and no restrictions on Trump that might keep him from spiriting off still-hidden documents to new hiding places. Despite Trump owning his own private 757 and being a known brownnoser of numerous anti-American regimes worldwide that would be quite happy to host him in exchange for things, prosecutors aren’t even willing to concede that the orchestrator of an attempted coup might indeed be a flight risk.
That’s not how other people indicted for Espionage Act crimes get treated. […] The Justice Department is still giving such broad deference to Trump that they’re not willing to pursue the most obvious leads as to where still-missing documents might be.
The very worst explanation is also the most likely one. A recent story from The Washington Post described a culture of near-cowardice inside the Justice Department that left Trump’s role in attempting an overthrow of our elected government largely uninvestigated for over a year while DOJ leadership instead insisted on a bottom-up approach that would see individual Jan. 6 insurrectionists charged for violence while, for the most part, evading the investigation of how all those seditionist conspirators happened to be there in the first place. We’ve already seen the same reluctance in the ploddingly timid investigation into Trump storing nuclear secrets in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom and publicly accessible storage closet. The short of it is that the Justice Department bent over backwards to avoid investigating Trump’s role in either case until Trump was caught doing something so all-encompassingly stupid that there was no way to not prosecute him.
[…] Not conducting the search has been a massive hole in the investigation since the day the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and found what they expected to find, and there hasn’t been a single truly plausible explanation for why investigators aren’t covering that gap.
The notion that indicted criminals don’t get their “vacation homes” searched, though? That’s complete nonsense and everybody knows it. There’s going to have to be a better explanation than that.
Within two weeks of a fiery tanker-truck crash on June 11 that caused a stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia to collapse, the temporarily repaired roadway will be ready to reopen this weekend, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced today on Twitter. The weekend reopening had been contingent, however, on good weather. Instead, the forecast calls for rain.
So hey, how about a nice-time story where the local government gets things done quickly and efficiently? And with rain coming, the local-ish NASCAR racetrack, Pocono Raceway, 100 miles north of the city, was happy to loan the state the use of its “jet dryer” truck, which uses a turbine engine from a helicopter to blow air at around 1400 degrees Fahrenheit, to dry off the freshly laid asphalt so it can be painted.
Here’s your feel-good tweet from Gov. Shapiro:
To rebuild I-95 on time, we need 12 hours of dry weather to complete the paving and striping process.
With rain in the forecast, we reached out @PoconoRaceway for help — and they’re bringing their jet dryer to Philly to help dry this section of I-95 and keep us on schedule.
NASCAR racers can’t run safely on wet pavement, so every track has a jet-dryer system; in the ’70s and ’80s, most used literal jet engines like the one from Pocono Raceway, although faster technology using compressed air is the norm for on-track use, with the older jet trucks for backup.
State Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll called Pocono Raceway Wednesday to ask for help, and the track operators, who know Carroll from his time as state representative for the area, were happy to help, said Ricky Durst, the racetrack’s senior director of marketing.
WHYY explains how the process will work:
Paving on the six-lane segment reconnecting I-95 happened overnight on Wednesday, according to PennDOT. And this morning, after a Pa. State Police escort down to the construction site, the jet dryer starts the work of keeping the newly laid asphalt dry so construction crews can paint the lines on top of it, Durst said.
“All things being equal, I would anticipate it takes maybe a couple hours” to dry the segment, Durst told Billy Penn.
And once the temporary repairs are done, the state can shift money around from Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill to free up funding for a longer-term fix. And no, even though some NASCAR equipment was involved, you won’t be able to go 200 MPH on the repaired I-95.
You know, it’s almost as if effective local government and federal infrastructure funding are good things. The Heritage Foundation and the rest of them can go jump in a very wet lake. […]
So I started with a couple of live traps. Baited with peanut butter, candied cashews, and a little toast. Nothing. Went to snap traps. Same bait. Caught one. Two weeks later, we still have one mouse brazenly running across the living room floor, in the afternoon, under the nose of my daughter’s rescue dog. Gave up and bought sticky pads. Got the mouse. Released two miles away. Went out on my porch and discovered three attorneys representing Disney explaining that this harassment of Mickey’s relatives will cease. Same lawyers suing DeSantis. Oh, well. Hopefully that was the last one.
whheydtsays
Re: Oggie: Mathom @ #301..
You didn’t try a ball-bearing mousetrap?
Oggie: Mathomsays
NO, whheydt. Had I used ball-bearing mousetrap, I would have stated that I did. Live trap to spring trap to sticky pads. Honest, that is all.
The scientists worked with iron selenide (FeSe) – a material that reaches a superconductive state at a balmy 70 Kelvins (roughly -203° Celsius), making it the highest-temperature iron-based superconductor currently known. During their experiments the team discovered that FeSE reached the superconducting state – a process known as the nematic phase – not through spin polarization like other iron-based superconductors, but orbitally…
Special counsel John Durham, who was appointed by former Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the FBI’s probe into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 election, made false statements while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, legal experts say.
Durham, who House Republicans have heralded over his widely criticized report, misrepresented key parts of the Russia election scandal, “suggesting he was either unfamiliar with basic facts or was purposefully trying to mislead the committee and the American public,” according to Mother Jones…
For those who work in the field of political commentary, angry responses from disagreeable readers are a standard part of the job. Some published pieces, however, generate stronger reactions than others.
I made the case yesterday that the House Republicans’ decision to censure Rep. Adam Schiff was indefensible: For all intents and purposes, the far-right GOP majority was formally punishing the California Democrat for having the audacity to tell Republicans inconvenient truths about the Trump/Russia scandal that the party didn’t want to hear.
To understate matters, I heard from a great many conservatives who disagreed. Indeed, I lost count of how many hysterical reactions I received from those who insisted, with varying degrees of vitriol, that the entire controversy was an elaborate “hoax.” For Schiff to have said otherwise, these readers asserted, made him a villain for the ages.
It was against this backdrop that I was reminded of a terrific analysis The Washington Post’s Philip Bump wrote this week:
There are few areas of the political conversation where the partisan divide is wider than on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Many Democrats think that Donald Trump actively worked with Russian interests to aid his victory that year. Republicans often accept Trump’s own framing: The whole thing was a hoax, top to bottom. The reality is unquestionably closer to the former.
While there’s overwhelming — and to date, uncontested — evidence documenting the connections between Team Trump and its Russian benefactors, much of the right is absolutely convinced that the scandal has been thoroughly discredited. It has not.
They don’t care.
As Bump’s analysis added, for many conservatives, “the very idea that Russia sought to aid Trump’s election is ridiculous — however well-documented and however obviously aligned with the country’s interest in dividing the United States. The idea that it was ever worth investigating whether Trump assisted that effort therefore attains a new level of ludicrousness.”
At this point, I’m going to skip the usual part of this debate. I’m not going to dwell on the fact that the core elements of the Trump/Russia scandal have not been discredited. I’m not going to remind readers about the overwhelming evidence. I’m not going to reiterate the fact that a Senate Intelligence Committee’s report — written in part by the panel’s then-Republican majority — at one point literally described a “direct tie between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services.”
I am, however, going to raise a different kind of question: Just how much of the controversy do Republicans no longer believe?
The question is newly relevant because Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a video showing a variety of prominent Democrats talking about Russia trying to help elect Trump in 2016. For the panel’s GOP members, each of the featured Democratic claims should now be seen as a “lie.”
But as is always the case, the details matter. Each of the featured quotes were actually true, including the most basic claims: Viewers saw Hillary Clinton explain in August 2020, for example, that there’s “no question any longer the Russians actively interfered in our election to help Donald Trump. There is no hoax.”
Clinton was right, but congressional Republicans apparently now consider this a “lie.”
Taking a step back, let’s break down the broader controversy into a handful of component parts.
– Russia attacked our elections in order to help elect Trump.
– Team Trump consorted and conspired with Russia as part of the scheme.
– Team Trump lied about this and took steps to cover it up by obstructing investigations.
The evidence to support all three of these points is sound, as the Mueller report and the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report help prove. But in general, Republicans have nevertheless spent recent years rejecting #2 and #3.
This week, they’ve apparently rejected #1, too, which reflects a bizarre regression. It suggests much of the GOP isn’t just contesting the idea of “collusion,” Republicans are also comfortable denouncing the basics of the underlying attack itself.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies treated the Russian attack on our elections as the most serious domestic security breach since 9/11. And yet, seven years later, at least some GOP officials are choosing not to believe this basic detail.
As Timothy Snyder, a historian at Yale, summarized yesterday, “Moscow worked hard to get Trump elected in 2016. Choosing not to know that is choosing not to care about political reality and national security.”
In 2016, then-CIA Director John Brennan warned Alexander Bortnikov, the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service, that Moscow had made an important mistake when it targeted U.S. elections.
“I said that all Americans, regardless of political affiliation or whom they might support in the election, cherish their ability to elect their own leaders without outside interference or disruption,” Brennan explained. “I said American voters would be outraged by any Russian attempt to interfere in election.”
I wish that were true. Too many Republicans suggested this week that it was not.
Humans could be contributing to the spread of a cat-loving, mind-altering parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, new research this week suggests. The study found that domesticated and wild cats were more likely to carry the parasite in areas densely packed with humans…
The new ProPublica reporting about Justice Samuel Alito’s fishing trip to Alaska in 2008 makes perfectly clear that the justice did exactly what the reporters said he did—accepted a free flight on a private jet and a stay at a private resort, organized by the Federalist Society’s judicial kingmaker, Leonard Leo, and funded by Leo’s billionaire big donors. Justice Alito knew perfectly well that such gifts were to be reported, because he had reported others. He also knew that his relationship with Paul Singer, the hedge fund magnate with business before the court, might require recusal. Nothing in that reporting was in fact undermined by the justice’s response to ProPublica in the Wall Street Journal. He took the trip. He just also determined that a private jet was a “facility” for purposes of hospitality, and apparently he had no idea Singer was behind the Argentine debt case heard by the court in 2014, even though my cats knew it.
There’s no need for me to gild the lily in terms of debunking the justice’s textualist reading of the relevant disclosure provisions, as others have ably rebutted Alito’s prebuttal since it surfaced. If Leonard Leo’s risible “he’s a stand-up guy with unimpeachable integrity and nothing but nothing can influence him” defense were a real defense, nobody would need to follow ethics and anticorruption rules, ever. They could just be honorable. Same with the “but here’s a time he didn’t do what Paul Singer wanted” defense, which is Dr.-Pepper-out-your-nose funny, but not a defense. I won’t waste your time or mine on the this-is-all-just-a-“liberal-smear” defense, because it’s boring.
The problem with continuing to frame the Harlan Crow/Barre Seid/Paul Singer stories as “ethics” issues is that we tend to think of “ethics” scandals in league with failures to use the correct shrimp fork. This is kind of what happened when we framed the great pay-to-play Supreme Court Historical Society caper that permitted one couple, the Wrights, to purchase access to the Alitos and the Scalias for the price of $125,000, as a “leak” story. We keep centering the justices and their “ethics” misfires at the expense of the real grifting here: Billionaires being assigned, like something out of the Big Brothers program, to individual justices for the purposes of lavish gift giving and influence.
Look again at ProPublica’s photos of Paul Singer, Antonin Scalia, Leonard Leo, and Samuel Alito and the Big Shiny Fishes they netted. If you think the fish is the trophy in this picture, you’re making a galactic-category error. The trophy is the justice. The vital question here is not why did Justice Alito agree to take the trip, because the trip sounds quite awesome. The question is why did Leo pick him to go, empty seat on the private jet notwithstanding, and why was building a friendship with someone who was in the literal business of reshaping the court to favor his own business so urgently necessary?
As professor Steven Lubet points out, no justice wants to believe him- or herself to be a large salmon: “Justices would surely deny any such subtle influences, sincerely insisting that their judgment could never be affected by the generosity of their well-heeled friends.” But, as Lubet continues, “social science research has determined that the receipt of gifts can powerfully sway later decisions, often in ways unrealized by the recipients.” Research he cites shows that simply receiving a pen was associated with physicians’ increased prescription of a pharmaceutical company’s brand-name medication.
So long as we continue to think of Alito’s and Thomas’ failures to disclose expensive gifts in terms of ethical lapses, the focus stays on them. Look again at Harlan Crow’s now-infamous dogs-playing-poker portrait of himself, Leo, Mark Paoletta, and Clarence Thomas, smoking and Adirondacking, and not talking about anything that might come up before the court, ever. Why is Harlan Crow having that moment commemorated for all time in oils? A #protip that will no doubt make those justices who have been lured away to elaborate bear hunts and deer hunts and rabbit hunts and salmon hunts by wealthy oligarchs feel a bit sad: If your close personal friends who only just met you after you came onto the courts are memorializing your time together for posterity, there’s a decent chance you are, in fact, the thing being hunted.
Let me say it again, because it’s important: Justices and judges and all public servants are human beings who deserve to have friendships and love lives and families and cocktail parties and awards dinners and book clubs and fight clubs as they see fit. But the presumption that when other people seek access to public figures, they are currying favor and influence, but when they seek access to you, it’s because you’re just generally outstanding, well this formulation of facts cannot become the basis of recusal rules, or disclosure statutes, or your sense of self-worth in this world. And if you do the simple thing required of you, which is to disclose that it happened? The worst thing that would result is a clerk suggesting years later that you perhaps recuse yourself from hearing the case.
Finally, when the people mounting the most spirited defenses of your honor and integrity are the same exact folks who have been rendered in oils sitting next to you, well, let’s just ask ourselves whether they are indeed the objective finders of fact they purport to be. If it’s a contest between the objective good judgement of influence-seekers, or the many, many, many ethics experts who have weighed in to say that trips like this one are not OK, and they must be reported, and that recusal would be proper, I think I’m going with the experts, and not the guy who has the head of a powerful person more or less mounted on his wall.
Nobody in this world enjoys hearing that they are the salmon. But that is why we don’t allow the salmon be the sole arbiter of whether they are the salmon. Let’s please stop framing this issue in terms of “ethics” and “friendships” and “honor.” It is a big-game safari for access to powerful people, and this game has been played since power was first invented. Naming this as an influence scheme clarifies the rules and it clarifies the stakes, and most of all, it clarifies the stench.
Reginald Selkirksays
@310: Enough about how the conservative justices are all corrupt.
Tell us about how the liberal justices have been bought and paid for by Big Gay, or whatever the left wing money center is.
In a 2019 interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Stockton Rush, the “daredevil inventor” and “maverick CEO” of OceanGate, expressed his frustration about the limitations placed on the commercial submarine business.
“There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years. It’s obscenely safe, because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn’t innovated or grown—because they have all these regulations.”
Rush was on his invention, the submersible “Titan,” when it imploded roughly 10,000 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic last Sunday. For some days it was thought that the Titan might actually be on the surface somewhere, the passengers still alive but unable to communicate or make themselves known. Or that the boat had lost power as reportedly happened on multiple previous missions, and settled slowly to the bottom, in the absolute darkness, slowly growing colder as the air inside ran out over the space of days. However, we now know that the submersible failed abruptly at depth. Under such pressures, the entire event would have ended in milliseconds, water rushing in at thousands of miles an hour. The conversion of potential energy in the form of pressure into kinetic energy in the form of movement would have momentarily heated the area of the Titan to a temperature well above that of the surface of the sun. Those on board may have been aware that something was going wrong, but they did not have time to feel pain, or terror. It was just over. […]
In the case of OceanGate, it certainly appears that some of the regulations that had kept the commercial submarine business incident-free for over 35 years existed for a very good reason. Bypassing those regulations has a price much greater than the $250,000 price tag of a trip in the Titan. In another interview, Rush bragged about violating the rules against placing titanium next to carbon fiber. The reason that there is such a rule is that the difference in electrical potential between the two materials generates corrosion. It’s not just something someone dreamed up. Electrochemistry does not care if you’re a “maverick.”
Taking a submersible 2 miles beneath the ocean is only one of many opportunities that the extremely wealthy have to indulge in something unavailable to most people. A ride in either Jeff Bezos’ rocket or in Richard Branson’s air-dropped rocket plane will also reportedly cost between $200,000 and $250,000. (Tip: If you have pockets so deep you’re seriously considering one or the other, there are reasons to be concerned about Branson’s system that go beyond just the death of a pilot in the crash of an earlier model.)
A similar check will buy a ride to the stratosphere on Space Perspective’s giant high-altitude balloon, but if you really want to make it to space for more than a few minutes, prepare to add a couple of zeros. A ride on Soyuz used to cost as little as $20 million when video game developer Richard Garriott visited the International Space Station in 2008, but more recent tickets have run to over $80 million per seat. Prospective space visitors can do a little better on the flights Axiom Space arranges on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Those can reportedly deliver a week or more on the ISS for around $55 million.
Tech billionaire Jared Isaacman reportedly spent around $200 million to book an entire Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule for a four-person flight. How deep are Isaacman’s pockets? Deep enough that he has reportedly booked three more flights.
For the most part, these flights are exactly as safe as those being conducted on the same ship by NASA. They follow the same safety protocols, and they’re under some pretty intense scrutiny from agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration. That doesn’t make them by any means safe (see Challenger and Columbia), it just means they’re not notably less safe than their government-sanctioned counterparts.
But space is just the very lofty tip of the adventure travel iceberg. These days, just about anyone can visit Antarctica. (You can literally get there on a Disney cruise.) But if you want to pitch out $70,000, you can go to the actual South Pole for a six-day visit to the place so many explorers failed to reach in the previous two centuries.
For around $40,000 you can journey to Nepal, get taken up in a small plane, and then dropped from the same altitude as the top of Mount Everest to parachute above the Himalayas, although the drop may not be as long as expected since the landing zone is at an elevation of 15,000 feet.
And if just falling through the skies above the Goddess Mother of the World isn’t enough, $100,000 will buy you a spot on a guided expedition to reach the summit. Only three climbers died in 2022. That’s a good year. Outside Magazine set the average over the last 30 years at 6.2 climbers per year, with some years being much worse. The year 2023 is looking to shape up as one of the worst years, with at least 10 climbers dead just through mid-May.
When talking about these kinds of experiences, there’s probably no better reference than Jon Krakauer’s book “Into Thin Air.” Krakauer was sent to Everest by Outside in 1996 to cover the growing trend of guided trips up the mountain that all but promised to put wealthy clients on the summit. That year turned out to be a very bad year, with 15 climbers dying in a cascade of disasters.
Even though the guides on Krakauer’s expedition were both experienced and conscious of the danger, they—and their clients, including Krakauer—made some very bad decisions when caught between extreme circumstances and reaching their goals.
Those decisions might be best illustrated by the story of Doug Hansen, one of the few people on the expedition who was not extremely wealthy. Hansen worked for the Postal Service, sorting mail by night, and he picked up construction work during the day, saving up the tremendous cost necessary to satisfy his Everest dream. In 1995, Hansen made the trip to Nepal and joined a team lead by experienced New Zealand guide Rob Hall, paying $65,000 (the equivalent of $131,000 in 2023) for permits, supplies, and for Hall and a team of sherpas to lead him to the top. Then, at an altitude of 28,800 feet, less than 300 feet from the summit, the weather closed in and Hansen was forced to turn back.
Hall was so upset about Hansen’s near-miss that he called him repeatedly from New Zealand, urging him to join the 1996 expedition. He even offered Hansen a steep discount to make a second try on a team otherwise populated by lawyers, doctors, and corporate CEOs who could easily afford the hefty price. On May 10, 1996, as the team started its final ascent toward the summit, Hanson told the group he was not feeling well, hadn’t slept, and was thinking of going down. However, after a conversation with Hall, he decided to keep going.
The team started off in pre-dawn darkness with a “drop dead” time of 2 PM to reach the summit. But crowded conditions on the mountain, worsening weather, and Hansen’s own fading strength meant that when 2 PM came, he was still some distance from the summit. Hall then ignored the warnings he had given everyone just that morning. He put his arm around his client and helped Hansen reach the summit of Everest at 4 PM, May 10, 1996.
Neither man survived.
Out of oxygen and with Hansen both mentally and physically exhausted, Hall left him around 6 PM in an effort to reach supplies at a lower level. Hansen’s body was never discovered, but it’s speculated that he fell over 7,000 feet from the side of the mountain in his confusion. Hall reached the South Summit of the mountain, located oxygen, and was able to radio to people further down the mountain, who connected him by phone with his pregnant wife back in New Zealand. He spoke to her in a series of heartbreaking messages before dying, suffering from too much frostbite and hypothermia to make his way down the ropes.
Hall has often been put forward as the villain of some of the events on that disastrous day, but no one who knew him seems to feel that he set out to do harm, or even to take unnecessary risks. Hall loved the mountain. His trip to the top with Hansen was his fifth visit to the summit. There’s every indication that he only wanted to help Hansen fulfill his dream, to make his client happy. To have something to toast and cheer about when they were both safe down at base camp.
Those events on Everest make it all too easy to imagine something happening, not high up on the mountains, but a mile or more beneath the sea in the small passenger chamber of the submersible Titan. Maybe a light began to blink on the screen. Maybe there was a sound that didn’t seem quite right. But then … maybe they were only 300 feet from being down at the Titanic. Maybe Stockton Rush was so close to giving his clients what they wanted. Making them happy. Sharing with them an adventure they would all be excited to talk about when back aboard the surface ship.
It’s rarely malice that generates the events that lead to a safety regulation. Carelessness will do. So will pushing onward just one step too far because you want to show someone that you can deliver on your promises. That you can give them what they paid for. That you can make them happy.
Unfortunately, the high cost can be even higher. Learning of Hansen and Hall’s predicament on Everest, guide Andy Harris, who had already summitted the mountain hours earlier, took the extraordinary step of trying to go back up to find them and help them down. His ice ax and jacket were later discovered near Hall’s body. His own body was never recovered.
If the Titan had been discovered still intact somewhere beneath the sea, people would certainly have placed their own lives at risk in an effort to recover it. That’s okay. More than okay. The instinct to save those in extremis, even at risk to ourselves, should be cultivated, not repressed. That the people inside were capable of footing an enormous bill, and that the guy who was at the controls thought he was smarter than all those regulations may not make them lovable. It doesn’t make them less worth the effort of saving.
As someone who likes to take solo hikes, I’m certainly not going to complain when I know that on any given day a bad fall or a heart attack could have me drawing rescuers into the wilderness. I admire those people, even if I never need them.
But that’s another reason to never be incautious, never take unnecessary risks, and never try to skirt the safety rules, even if they are “obscene.” The cost can be not just your life or the lives of others who depend on you, but the lives of wonderful people who would try to save you, creating a cascade of costs that can’t be paid off … even for those who can afford to buy a space shot.
They could have asked a real expert like James Cameron who said that carbon fiber doesn’t do compression safely. That’s not what it was designed for. There’s a reason why every deep submersible puts passengers inside a titanium SPHERE because a cylinder with its ends glued on isn’t safe.
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Especially in extremes or where disaster is a potential, you want multiple “lines of defense.” Belt and suspenders. Never depend on some person always doing everything right. Every person has *derp* moments. Equipment does too.
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Guns are extreme inherently, disaster is a potential, yet safety depends on one person–the gun owner–(some random person with possibly no training), choosing to do everything right, and never having a *derp.* With the only safety net being EMS to collect the dead and/or wounded later.
I’d venture the collective cost of playing fast and loose with gun safety is at least as high as for billionaire excursions. Probably much higher.
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One of the four other passengers (Paul-Henri Nargeolet) was a French deep-sea diver known as “Mr. Titanic” because of the large number of dives he had done on the wreck. He had decades of experience in deep-sea diving
This leads me to believe that Stockton Rush must have had gift of gab good enough to sell sand to folks at the beach to be able to get Nargeolet into that tin can.
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Well, at the bottom of the ocean there now exists this century’s monument to engineering hubris, lying next to last century’s monument to engineering hubris.
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The GQP is all about abandoning regulations. They say that governments have no business stifling entrepreneurs and their dreams to make themselves even richer. They literally want all regulations to go away. Heck, who needs seat belts and air bags in cars, or why should there be airworthiness certificates issued for airliners? There were people who saw what Stockton was doing at OceanGate and blew the whistle. He had a lawsuit with an ex-employee over safety issues that were ignored. There was at least one passenger for this or an earlier dive, that pulled out after he found out how much Stockton flaunted regulations.
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And this is exactly why I get frustrated with people who think that we need to loosen restrictions on businesses. If they could be trusted to not cut corners and do the right thing, that would be one thing, but we all know that profit is more important than safety or protecting our planet.
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I have attempted to imagine events happening in a 6,000 lbs/sq inch environment. Milliseconds to oblivion but I did not understand or know about the heat involved. Ignorant reporters asked the Coast Guard Admiral about possible body recovery. There is nothing left to recover.
For decades, Americans had settled around an uneasy truce on abortion. Even if most people weren’t happy with the status quo, public opinion about the legality and morality of abortion remained relatively static. But the Supreme Court’s decision last summer overturning Roe v. Wade set off a seismic change, in one swoop striking down a federal right to abortion that had existed for 50 years, long enough that women of reproductive age had never lived in a world without it. As the decision triggered state bans and animated voters in the midterms, it shook complacency and forced many people to reconsider their positions.
In the year since, polling shows that what had been considered stable ground has begun to shift: For the first time, a majority of Americans say abortion is “morally acceptable.” A majority now believes abortion laws are too strict. They are significantly more likely to identify, in the language of polls, as “pro-choice” over “pro-life,” for the first time in two decades.
And more voters than ever say they will vote only for a candidate who shares their views on abortion, with a twist: While Republicans and those identifying as “pro-life” have historically been most likely to see abortion as a litmus test, now they are less motivated by it, while Democrats and those identifying as “pro-choice” are far more so.
One survey in the weeks after the court’s decision last June found that 92 percent of people had heard news coverage of abortion and 73 percent had one or more conversations about it. As people talked — at work, over family Zoom calls, even with strangers in grocery store aisles — they were forced to confront new medical realities and a disconnect between the status of women now and in 1973, when Roe was decided.
[…]
“This is a paradigm shift,” said Lydia Saad, director of United States social research for Gallup, the polling firm. “There’s still a lot of ambivalence, there aren’t a lot of all-or-nothing people. But there is much more support for abortion rights than there was, and that seems to be here to stay.”
Gallup happened to start its annual survey of American values just as the court’s decision in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, leaked last May. That was when the balance began to tilt toward voters identifying as “pro-choice.” And when the question was divided into whether abortion should be legal in the first, second or third trimester, the share of Americans who say it should be legal in each was the highest it has been since Gallup first asked in 1996.
The New York Times reviewed polls from groups that have been asking Americans about abortion for decades, including Gallup, Public Religion Research Institute, Pew Research, Ipsos, KFF and other nonpartisan polling organizations. All pointed to the same general trends: growing public support for legalized abortion and dissatisfaction with new laws that restrict it.
Pollsters say the biggest change was in political action around abortion, not necessarily in people’s core views. Polls regarding whether abortion should be legal or illegal in most or all cases — long the most widely-used metric — have remained relatively stable, with the percentage of voters saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases slowly ticking up over the past five years to somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent.
But there were sudden and significant jumps in support for legalized abortion post-Dobbs among some groups, including Republican men and Black Protestants. Polling by the Public Religion Research Institute found that the percentage of Hispanic Catholics saying abortion should be legal in all cases doubled between March and December of last year, from 16 percent to 31 percent. And the share of voters saying abortion should be illegal in all cases dropped significantly in several polls.
That largely reflected the dramatic change in abortion access. Fourteen states enacted near-total bans on abortion as a result of the court’s decision.
“While Roe was settled law, you kind of didn’t have to worry about the consequences,” said Mollie Wilson O’Reilly, a writer for Commonweal, the Catholic lay publication, and a mother of four. “You could say, ‘I think abortion should be illegal in all circumstances,’ if you didn’t really have to think about what it would mean for that to happen.”
[…]
“When people have the idea that abortion equals killing babies, it’s very easy to say, ‘Of course I’m against that,’” she said. “If you start seeing how reproductive health care is necessary to women, you start to see that if you’re supporting these policies that ban abortion, you’re going to end up killing women.”
[…]
Ms. Wilson O’Reilly now believes decisions on abortion should be up to women and their doctors, not governments. It’s impossible to draw a “bright line” around what exceptions to the bans should be allowed, she said.
[…]
“People will react to a once-in-a-generation event. That’s true, and it should be a wake-up call for Republicans,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which was founded to help elect lawmakers who oppose abortion rights. Republicans, she said, have to paint Democratic candidates as the extremists on abortion: “If they don’t, they may very well lose.”
[…]
High proportions of women ages 18 to 49, and especially Democrats, say they will vote only for candidates who support their views on abortion. On the flip side, Republicans are less enthusiastic. The Public Religion Research Institute found that the share of Republicans who think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases and who said they would vote only for a candidate whose view matched their own had dropped significantly, to 30 percent last December from 42 percent in December 2020.
“That’s a direct effect of Dobbs,” said Melissa Deckman, the chief executive of PRRI and a political scientist…..”this is an issue of salience and turnout.”
* Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Emily’s List — by most measures, the nation’s three leading reproductive rights organizations — are endorsing President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. [Associated Press source]
* The No Labels operation has the potential to dramatically affect the 2024 presidential election, but at least for now the organization insists on secrecy in response to questions about its finances. [Politico source]
* The newest member of the Republican Party’s presidential field, former Rep. Will Hurd, told CNN that he won’t sign the party’s loyalty pledge, which would require him to support the eventual Republican nominee, even if it’s not him. Unless he changes his mind, it means the Texan will not be eligible to participate in debates sponsored by the Republican National Committee. [The Hill source]
* The New York Times reported yesterday that Sen. Rick Scott is still considering jumping into the GOP’s 2024 race. The Florida Republican said soon after that he’s “not considering” a national campaign and remains focused on his Senate re-election bid, but a Times reporter responded to the denial by adding, “We’re really very confident in our sourcing.” [New York Times and Twitter sources] [I am reminded of a commentator on MSNBC who noted that most of the candidates in the overly stuffed Republican field are “delusional narcissists.”]
* A far-right group called Moms for Liberty, which is becoming more popular in Republican circles, came under fire this week after one of its local affiliates in Indiana quoted Adolf Hitler in a newsletter. The chapter apologized yesterday. [NBC News source. Can you just apologize for quoting Hitler and then assume all is well?]
* Stephen Richer, a top Republican election official in Arizona, filed a defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake yesterday. Richer said he’s faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of the conspiratorial lies spread by the failed GOP gubernatorial candidate. [NBC News source]
* Despite the fact that two leading South Carolina Republicans — Sen. Tim Scott and former Gov. Nikki Haley — are running for president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rolled out endorsements yesterday from 15 legislators in the state yesterday. [Associated Press source. Sigh. It’s going to be a long time before we are rid of the scourge of Ron DeSantis.]
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has personal ties to a leader of the legal clinic under the Notre Dame initiative that funded Justice Samuel Alito’s July 2022 speaking trip to Rome, CNN reports.
Just months after she was sworn in at the Supreme Court in 2020, Barrett, who had left her judgeship and job as a Notre Dame law professor, sold her private home in South Bend, Indiana, to a recently hired Notre Dame professor who was assuming a leadership role at the Religious Liberty Initiative, according to records discovered by the left-leaning non-profit watchdog group Accountable.US.
The initiative’s legal clinic has curried favor with the Supreme Court since its founding in 2020 and filed at least nine “friend-of-the-court” amicus briefs in religious liberty cases before the Court. Alito joined the majority in deciding in favor of the initiative’s conservative positions in several of those cases, including the one that reversed Roe v. Wade, and others on issues of school prayer and COVID-19 restrictions on churches…
A top Republican election official in Arizona filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against Kari Lake, who falsely claims she lost the 2022 race for governor because of fraud.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said he’s faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of lies spread by Lake, including death threats and the loss of friendships…
Despite her losses in court, she continues to claim that Richer and other Maricopa County officials interfered in the election to prevent her from winning…
The suit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names Lake, her campaign and her political fundraising group as defendants. In addition to unspecified monetary damages, Richer is seeking a court order declaring Lake’s statements false and requiring her to delete them from social media.
Fresh off their vote to censure Rep. Adam Schiff for the crime of noticing that Trump was corrupt, Trump’s House allies are proving that there is literally nothing they won’t do to kiss Donald Trump’s saggy, orange ass.
In a stunt which would be rejected by the Jackass franchise for being too pathetic, Reps. Elise Stefanik and Margie Greene have introduced a resolution to Hot Tub Time Machine themselves back to 2021 so they can expunge Trump’s impeachment for trying to overthrow the government. And then they’ll get back in the bubbles for a trip to 2019 to scrub away that impeachment for Trump’s effort to extort the president of Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden. After that, maybe they’ll go even further back to determine which came first — losing their consciences, or losing their goddamn minds.
The bill regarding the 2021 impeachment is especially ridiculous, namechecking every argle bargle conspiracy while conveniently sidestepping the total lack of evidence of any actual vote fraud, even as Marge and Lissy deride the impeachment resolution as a “subjective account” of the events of January 6, 2021.
What about “voting anomalies”? What about secretaries of state making it easier to vote in a pandemic? What about Trump winning “18 of the 19 bellwether counties across the country that have predicted the winner of every Presidential election since 1980”? What about Trump getting more votes in 2020 than in 2016? What about the wee feefees of all the MAGA heads who honestly believe in their hearts that the election was stolen? What about the fact that mean Nancy Pelosi just picked up the glass and scrubbed the blood and feces off the walls and then raced to a vote without letting Republicans obstruct for two months? What about the fact that Mitch McConnell refused to allow evidence to be presented and surrendered his chance to get rid of that orange menace once and for all?
IMPEACH THE IMPEACHMENT!
The resolution to disappear the Ukraine impeachment for “wrongfully accused” seems almost sane, if only by comparison.
You can’t “expunge” an act of Congress. It’s not like a criminal record which can be removed from official searches. Trump will still be the only president to have been impeached twice, although Margie is ready to cage fight Lauren Boebert for the opportunity to present weekly articles of impeachment of President Biden based on recycled Giuliani effluvia from 2019.
“The first impeachment of President Trump was a politically motivated sham. The Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, weaponized a perfect phone call with Ukraine to interfere with the 2020 election,” she shrieks. “Meanwhile, the FBI had credible evidence of Joe and Hunter Biden’s corrupt dealings, confirming their involvement in a foreign bribery pay-to-play scheme and receipt of over $5 million each.”
Gotta hand it to her, she does stay on her crazy, lie message.
“It’s clear that President Trump’s impeachment was nothing more than a witch hunt that needs to be expunged from our history. I’m proud to work with Chairwoman Elise Stefanik on our joint resolutions to correct the record and clear President Trump’s good name,” she continued.
For her part, Stefanik is clearly more concerned with using MAGA voters and Trump’s endorsement for her own ambitions — she is, after all, Republican Conference Chair, just three clicks below a notoriously weak speaker.
“The American people know Democrats weaponized the power of impeachment against President Donald Trump to advance their own extreme political agenda,” Stefanik lied. “From the beginning of this sham process, I stood up against Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff’s blatant attempt to shred the Constitution as House Democrats ignored the Constitution and failed to follow the legislative process. President Donald Trump was rightfully acquitted, and it is past time to expunge Democrats’ sham smear against not only President Trump’s name, but against millions of patriots across the country.”
[…] Anyway, it’s not clear if this attempt to take White Out to the Congressional Record will even get a vote. But Greene and Stefanik got a news cycle out of it, so, you know, they did their real jobs.
While much of America has been occupied this week with the Titanic-exploring submersible […], super-idiot lawyer John Eastman has been in a courtroom in California trying to explain why plotting to overthrow the elected government of the United States on January 6 should not result in him losing his law license.
Eastman is facing 11 disciplinary charges, and we’re going to try and sum up his week of his morality, his reputation, his worldview, and his general air of galactic dipshittery getting hammered by bar attorneys while Eastman’s lawyer Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, tried to put a bold new lip on this particular pig.
[…] the foot soldiers who stormed the Capitol on January 6 have been sentenced to prison, or are awaiting trial while enduring the indignity of recording their Grand Ole Opry audition tapes. The people who wound them up and pointed them in the direction of Congress shouldn’t get off without being flayed […] Metaphorically, of course.
Where were we? Oh right, the trial.
TUESDAY: Eastman’s lawyer tried to call a man named Joseph Fried as an expert witness. Fried is a Certified Public Accountant who wrote an ebook alleging that as a financial professional, he knows an audit when he sees one, and the audits where county election boards kept finding that Eastman and Donald Trump’s charges of vote fraud didn’t amount to a fart in a NASA wind tunnel were all a bunch of hooey.
What are Fried’s qualifications? According to Eastman lawyer Harvey Birdman, Fried’s 40-year career as a CPA means his expert knowledge of statistics makes him an expert in elections for some reason. Well shoot, in that case why not call our high school statistics teacher as an expert witness? Why not call our sainted father, who has also been a CPA for 40 years? Why not call Ben Affleck, he played an accountant in that movie The Accountant.
Also, Fried never actually identified a specific instance of fraud, just made a lot of assertions that, well, he knows numbers and these vote totals must be hinky for some reason. The judge ruled he could not testify.
Then Harvey Birdman tried to call someone named Jay Valentine, who appears to do some sort of work with data fraud and claimed he had run some sort of analysis proving widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The attorney for the state bar told the judge that Valentine has refused to turn over the database he used that he claims proves he is correct. The judge then decided Valentine couldn’t testify.
To sum up, Eastman tried to call a couple of charlatans to support his case, and the judge told the charlatans to take a long walk off a short pier and hug an octopus.
And that was just the first morning. The afternoon saw Eastman getting wrecked on the stand by the bar attorney. There was a lot of “I don’t know” and “I don’t recall” from Eastman. Then there was this: [Tweet and article excerpt at the link]
Eastman was so convinced of his case that he suggested everyone read an article in Time that appears to contradict him. Genius.
This trial was expected to last eight days but now might go a full two weeks. Worst. Hanukkah. Miracle. Ever.
WEDNESDAY: Testimony from Greg Jacob, counsel for Mike Pence, who infamously emailed Eastman in the middle of the Capitol being sacked to tell him “Thanks to your bullshit we’re now under siege.” Jacob patiently explains to Harvey Birdman that while Pence had some concerns about the changes in voting procedures made by Democratic state officials in 2020 (much of which was pandemic-related), there is a huge difference between that and deliberate voter fraud. Jacob (and Pence) did not see anywhere near enough of the latter to make a difference in the election outcome.
Also John Yoo is going to testify for Eastman at some point, we think? Presumably to say that Donald Trump would have been well within his rights to let John Eastman crush the testicles of every election administrator in Arizona until they admitted to voter fraud.
THURSDAY: Harvey Birdman tried to block the testimony of various election administrators about any audits that took place after January of 2021 on the grounds that it “post-dates the conduct at issue in the case.” This would of course eliminate any examination of, among others, the infamous Cyber Ninjas audits in Arizona that turned up bupkis after months and months of work.
It would also conveniently ignore the fact that Eastman himself didn’t stop spreading stolen election bullshit at midnight on January 7. All he did was change his tune to say all his theories had been, well, theoretical, and therefore well within the scope of giving the best advice he could to his client, the president. He’s not responsible if all the people he wound up were still listening to him, is he?
The judge managed to not laugh in Birdman’s face while turning him down.
We’ll try for more updates next week, assuming we haven’t hammered gold bricks into our ears so we don’t have to listen to anymore of Eastman’s prevaricating.
Everyone seems to be disappointed by the rate at which the Ukrainian counteroffensive is liberating territory … only it’s not clear that the Ukrainian military is actually part of that “everyone.” What’s happening right now could be so vital to their efforts that trying to change things by rapidly liberating more area could actually make things worse.
To understand why staying put might not be as much a necessity as it is a strategy, it helps to look at this message from a Ukrainian soldier taking part in the fighting around Pyatykhatky at the western end of the southern front.
“The Russians have been trying to drive us out of our positions for days. From the direction of Zherebyanky the Russians attack with tanks and IFV. The attacks are made across the open field, through their own minefields. By capturing high ground we have fire sovereignty over this sector.”
There’s an incident in America’s history that seems to mesh with the situation being described in this area—it was called “Pickett’s Charge.”
I’m not going to recount all the details of how Confederate commander Robert E. Lee’s arrogance and Gen. George Pickett’s complacency conspired to create a military disaster. Most readers of this series are probably well-versed in the events of that day, and if not, here you go.
I’m just going to say this: Gen. George Meade is not much remembered by history. Most Americans would be shocked to learn that he was the commander of Union forces at Gettysburg rather than some better known name like Ulysses S. Grant or William Tecumseh Sherman. Meade’s biggest accomplishment may have been how powerfully he pissed off Abraham Lincoln (and keeping the army running when Grant was too busy being Grant). But Meade knew enough to not abandon a strong tactical position when his enemy kept attacking from a weaker position.
Here’s more of that message from a Ukrainian soldier on the ground on the southern Ukrainian front:
“The Russian 429th Motor Rifle Division from Ossetia was virtually destroyed. The Russians are always pushing in new reserves instead of retreating in their well-developed positions. Attacking further forward doesn’t make sense at all, since the Russians send their reserves to the kill zone where they can be effectively fought by us.”
So long as the Russians are sending forces forward to Zherebyanky to be destroyed in a neatly constrained area of about three square kilometers, over which Ukraine has a superior tactical advantage … why stop them? Trying to take Zherebyanky under such conditions would be like telling the Union forces shooting from behind the elevated stone wall to stand up and charge out to meet Pickett’s men.
The quote “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake” has been attributed to everyone from Napoleon Bonaparte to Sun Tzu, but it was probably first said by someone with a name like Ugg. Because this is advice so obvious even a caveman can see the sense of it. [Tweet and images at the link]
It may seem like we keep hammering this point, because we keep hammering this point. But there are other ways to measure success than land changing hands in the first two weeks of fighting.
For example, just yesterday Markos wrote about the increased rate of Russian artillery being taken out through counter-battery fire since the counteroffensive began. Going into the last two weeks, Ukraine had been removing Russian guns from the field at a rate of about 10.5 a day. Over the last two weeks, that number jumped to an average of 21.8 guns a day. Then there was yesterday: [List at the link]
That was 44 tube artillery and eight MLRS being taken out in 24 hours. It almost doesn’t matter how many guns Russia can dig out of mothballs. If Ukraine can hold that rate of attrition, Russia is weeks away from being unable to field the kind of comprehensive artillery coverage that their tactics demand.
Somehow, just by moving a couple of kilometers, Ukraine has convinced Russia to try and recover “their” area no matter the cost. It’s a tactic so baffling that the same soldier on the ground admits he doesn’t know why they are doing it. He states that “the Russians are learning” and everyone worries that there is some bigger picture that they don’t understand. But for now, the Ukrainians at Pyatykhatky are sitting on their hills and shooting the Russians as they try again to cross all that open ground.
It’s understandable that Donald Trump and his allies have focused much of their rage of late on special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the classified documents scandal. After all, the former president has been charged with 37 felony counts — which is the sort of thing that tends to get one’s attention.
But Smith’s other investigation is advancing, too. NBC News reported yesterday on G. Michael Brown, whose name might not be familiar, but who’s perspective is highly relevant.
The deputy director of Election Day operations for Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign appeared before a federal grand jury Thursday as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Jan. 6 and efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of presidential power.
If you were to go through the MaddowBlog’s archives, you’d find Gary Michael Brown’s name just once: In February 2022, we discussed the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee’s interest in the former Trump campaign aide, when congressional investigators sought information on what Brown knew about the fake electors plot.
Months later, his name appeared in the panel’s final report:
“By early January, most of the fake elector votes had arrived in Washington, except those from Michigan and Wisconsin. Undeterred, the Trump team arranged to fly them to Washington and hand deliver them to Congress for the Vice President himself. ‘Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President…’ Wisconsin Republican Party official Mark Jefferson wrote to Party Chairman Hitt on January 4th. Hitt responded, ‘Ok I see I have a missed call from [Mike] Roman and a text from someone else. Did you talk to them already? This is just nuts….’ The next day, Trump Campaign Deputy Director for Election Day Operations G. Michael Brown sent a text message to other campaign staff suggesting that he was the person who delivered the fake votes to Congress.”
It helps explain why the House select committee concluded that it had “credible evidence” that Brown was “aware of, and participated in, efforts to promote unsupported allegations of fraud in the November 2020 Presidential election and encourage state legislators to alter the outcome of the November 2020 election by, among other things, appointing alternate slates of electors to send competing electoral votes to the United States Congress.”
This is the Brown who appeared yesterday before Smith’s Jan. 6 grand jury.
He’s hardly alone. As my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin recently noted, it was just 10 days ago when Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald, a close Trump political ally, as well as Jim DeGraffenreid, the state party’s vice chair, were also seen entering the room where the Jan. 6 grand jury is meeting. Both were among Trump’s fake electors in the wake of his 2020 defeat.
CNN reported today that the special counsel’s office “compelled” McDonald and DeGraffenreid to testify “by giving them limited immunity,” but that detail hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News.
The week before that, the federal grand jury subpoenaed far-right media personality Steve Bannon, who seemed to have insights into what would happen on Jan. 6 before the attack on the Capitol occurred.
I’m not prepared to make any predictions, and it’s certainly possible that this aspect of Smith’s investigation won’t lead to any new criminal charges for the former president.
But as the probe advances, and knowledgeable witnesses appear before the grand jury, Trump has every reason to be nervous.
One of the most confounding political aspects of the economy is the fact that public perception often doesn’t align with the actual data. [Not all that confounding. Like every other issue, Republicans and rightwing media pump out misleading propaganda about the economy constantly. Even Trump contributes.]
In fact, heading into last year’s midterms, reporting was riddled with doomsday predictions for Democrats due to polling showing inflation and the state of the economy consistently topping voter concerns. By November 2022, President Joe Biden had created more jobs in his first two years than any president in history, including 735,000 manufacturing jobs, and the average gas price had fallen from a peak of $4.99 in mid-June to slightly north of $3.80 by early November. Yet 61% of registered voters still viewed the economy as “getting worse” on Election Day, while just 17% said it was “getting better,” net -44 points in Civiqs tracking of the issue.
Fast forward to summer 2023 and Americans appear to finally be warming to the economy as U.S. economic indicators consistently improve: inflation continues to ease, the U.S. economy added a whopping 339,000 jobs in May, the unemployment rate remains at historic lows, and the White House managed to wrangle House Republicans into averting a U.S. debt default and the ensuing economic calamity.
Annual manufacturing construction is also on pace to be roughly $190 billion this year compared to less than $100 billion for the entirety of the 2010s. As CNN analyst Ronald Brownstein quipped of the news: “Coming to a swing state TV ad near you.” [Tweet and chart at the link]
In Civiqs tracking, perceptions of the economy have improved roughly 10 points since last November, and are trending in the right direction. Though 56% of voters still say the economy is getting worse, that’s the lowest the number has been in over a year and a half. [chart at the link]
Another measure of consumer confidence, the Michigan consumer sentiment index, shows increased optimism about the economy with the index rising 8 points in June to 63.9—its highest level in four months. Other Civiqs measures are also trending in a positive direction. Biden’s numbers on the question of whether he’s doing enough to create new jobs are the best of his entire presidency despite still being underwater at 39% yes-50% no, but again, moving in the right direction. [Chart at the link]
Another hopeful sign for Democrats: They’re besting Republicans by 9 points on the question of which party is “more concerned with the needs of people like you,” 42% Democrats-33% Republicans. […]
Perhaps the biggest problem for Democrats on the economy is that old habits die hard and voters seem to continue to have a clearer, if outdated, understanding of the Republican message on the economy. That dynamic really came through in several recent Navigator focus groups of independents and soft partisans represented by Republicans in swing districts in Arizona (AZ-1), New York (NY-19), and Wisconsin (WI-1). Navigator writes:
When asked about the Democratic position on the economy, there was a lack of clarity, with some participants citing spending or raising taxes on the “top one percent.” Conversely, the Republican vision on the economy was much more consistent: lower taxes, less regulation, and reducing government spending.
The most actionable insight from the focus groups was just how unpopular the voting records of vulnerable GOP members are. “Many participants described their representative as ‘crooked’ or ‘lacking empathy’ after reading about their actions and voting records over the past few years,” writes Navigator. WI-1 voters, for instance, were told their congressman, Rep. Bryan Steil, voted against capping the price of insulin; against giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices; and for massive cuts to law enforcement, public school, veterans’ benefits, and food for families who can’t afford it. When one WI-1 woman was asked what animal her representative would be if they were an animal, she stated: “I mean, obviously a snake.”
Pyatykhatky—a village it’s safe to say was unknown to most observers of Russia’s invasion until last week—is a long way from being the whole front line. While the fighting continues there, it’s also going on numerous other locations on the south, east, and north. [map at the link]
Robotyne: This area is best known for being the location at which Ukraine lost Leopard 2 tanks and Bradley IFVs in the opening days of the counteroffensive. However, on Friday there were reports that Ukraine was again advancing in this area. One unconfirmed Russian report indicates that Ukraine has pushed Russian troops out of their positions in this area and moved south. [Tweet and images at the link]
Makarivka: Fighting continues in the area between Makarivka and two towns just to the south, but Ukrainian forces have reportedly had success in moving west of the town, liberating several square kilometers of mostly open fields. [Tweet and maps at the link]
Rivnopil: The most notable thing about this location is the silence. After being the scene of fighting over the first week, there’s been almost nothing heard from this front-line location in days. There were early reports that Russia had fled the location, but these were later retracted. However, it now seems very possible that Russia has simply left and Ukraine took it without a lengthy fight. Waiting for confirmation. [Tweet and map at the link]
In areas not covered by this map: Reports claim that Ukraine has advanced east of Krasnohorivka centered on the rail lines there, Russia has reoccupied the small village of Sakko i Vantsetti north of Bakhmut, Ukraine has retaken areas in that forest near Kreminna, and Russia’s advance at Kupyansk doesn’t seem to be as extensive (or as close to the city) as previously claimed.
———————
CHONHAR BRIDGE
The bombing of the Chonhar Bridge may be a bigger deal than it seemed. Though the initial impression was that the damage could be swiftly repaired. It now seems that support structures could be out in a way that will limit traffic for weeks. [Tweet and image at the link]
Russia is taking the damage seriously enough to construct a pontoon crossing, but taking out the bridge appears to be part of a systematic effort to disrupt Russian lines of communication. [Tweet and map at the link: “In order to illustrate the impact of the (de facto) destruction of the Chonhar bridge we see the original path of a supply truck coming from the Dzhankoi to Melitopol in red and the remaining two alternatives in blue and yellow going through Armiansk. The supply lines have been almost doubled and they lead now through less useful roads then the main artery before.
Double the time or half the supply in the same time equals to strategic degradation, not mentioning Ukrainian partisans having now their chances doubled to interfere.”]
After months of negotiations, the IBEW’s Railroad members at four of the largest U.S. freight carriers finally have […] paid sick days.
[…]
nearly caused a nationwide shutdown of freight rail just before Christmas […] It was not part of last December’s congressionally implemented […] agreement
[…]
the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after […] Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and […] the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously
[…]
several other railroad-related unions have also seen success in negotiating for similar sick-day benefits. These 12 unions represent more than 105,000 railroad workers.
Is the Republican Freedom Caucus going to blow itself up by focusing on purity tests? Looks likely.
The latest blow-up in the House Freedom Caucus, pitting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene against Rep. Lauren Boebert in battle for the title of wingnuttiest of them all, is history repeating itself. Since the gang got together after the 2014 midterm blow-out that gave Republicans a big majority during Obama’s second term, the caucus has spent at least as much time on purity tests within its own ranks as it has blowing up everything else.
The group is currently squabbling over whether or not to have a purge, who gets credit for trying to impeach President Joe Biden, if or when they’re going to try to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and whether or not founding member Rep. Jim Jordan has been co-opted and can be trusted. It’s the old story of the gang that just can’t say “yes.”
They’ve arguably got the most power they’ve ever had since they put McCarthy in the speaker’s chair. They have high-profile seats, and sometimes control, over key committees. They’ve shown their ability to shut the House down and bend McCarthy to their will, but they just can’t stop turning on each other.
The Boebert-Greene kerfuffle is par for the course. Boebert is exploiting the fact that many of her colleagues don’t trust Greene since Greene cozied up to McCarthy. In fact, when they’re talking purges—and “at least two hardliners” are, according to Politico—Greene is at the top of the list, along with unnamed others who are “too aligned with GOP leaders and too outwardly critical of the group when it splits on certain issues.” [Oh, my. Fighting about who belongs in the family and who should be ousted.]
The current chair of the group, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, says he’s refused the purge request. That’s not going to stop the infighting. There are too many fracture points, as South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman was happy to explain. “The speaker’s race, there was some difference in opinion. The debt ceiling, there were differences of opinion. And we had to get 80 percent on any major issue that we take positions on,” he told Politico. “On some big issues, we have not been able to get there … We’re at a critical point right now.” Yes, they’re still fighting with each other over the speaker’s race and the debt ceiling deal.
Some of them are also looking sideways at Rep. Jim Jordan, one of the group’s founders. He was the choice of some of the members for speaker, but he was too focused on getting the powerful Judiciary Committee chair to consider it. He now has the power to hold all the hearings he wants on all the made-up issues he cares about and spend all his time yelling for the cameras, seemingly his goal in life. That’s causing “some conservative grumbling behind closed doors about his hand-in-glove work with McCarthy.”
It’s a good thing for the country that the extreme far-right in the House spend so much time fighting each other and leadership. […]
Remember the “grand bargain” of 2011, when Republicans were oh-so close to getting President Barack Obama to agree to cuts to Social Security and Medicare? The hardliners—the members who would come together in a few years to become the Freedom Caucus—balked, and wouldn’t let it happen because it came with some tax increases on the rich. The decades-long GOP goal of undermining Social Security and Medicare went down the drain. And with it, the speakership of John Boehner.
And then, in 2017, Republicans were on the brink of repealing the Affordable Care Act, the hated bill that gave Republicans such a big majority in 2014 and helped spawn the Freedom Caucus. The Freedom Caucus was so distrustful of then-Speaker Paul Ryan that they torpedoed the plan. Paul Ryan decided to retire rather than have to keep dealing with this group of misfits.
If the Freedom Caucus and fellow hardliners couldn’t be relied upon to trip over their own feet, Social Security and Medicare would be failing and Obamacare repealed. That’s the upside of their existence. Tha
Reginald Selkirk says
Turkey’s Erdogan says Sweden shouldn’t expect to join NATO any time soon
Reginald Selkirk says
Fox News issues statement on chyron calling Biden ‘wannabe dictator’
Their response seems to contain neither an apology nor a retraction.
Reginald Selkirk says
U.S. Senate confirms Nusrat Choudhury as first Muslim female federal judge
Reginald Selkirk says
US government agencies hit in global cyberattack
SC (Salty Current) says
Mark Sumner at DKos – “Trump’s indictments aren’t doing him any favors”:
SC (Salty Current) says
Noel on Twitter:
Videos at the link – one was just added a minute ago.
Oggie: Mathom says
This has been a truism among most news organizations, right or center, for decades. No matter how bad what a Republican has done, no matter how bad the news is for the GOP, no matter how good what a Democrat has done, no matter how good the news is for the Democratic Party, the talking heads, the opinion pieces, the editorials, all point to how bad this is for the Democrats.
Really low oil prices early in Biden’s term was bad for the Democrats (it will rise and the Dems will get the blame). Oil prices go up, bad news for Biden and the Democrats. Oil prices come down, bad news for Biden and the Democrats as it means the economy has collapsed. And, strangely, the pundits keep being wrong. And give the same opinion the next time.
Reginald Selkirk says
Jack Teixeira, alleged classified documents leaker, indicted by federal grand jury
SC (Salty Current) says
Steve Vladeck on Twitter:
Lynna, OM says
Ukraine Update: Ukraine understands ‘strategy.’ Russia does not
Lynna, OM says
This time, Trump is in trouble
SC (Salty Current) says
TPM – “Bernie Kerik Pitched Mark Meadows on ‘$5 to $8’ Million Plan To Reverse Trump 2020 Loss”:
SC (Salty Current) says
BBC – “Inside North Korea”:
SC (Salty Current) says
George Monbiot in the Guardian – “The hard right and climate catastrophe are intimately linked. This is how”:
Reginald Selkirk says
Republican questions legitimacy of Biden tapes he claimed existed
Time to retire.
Reginald Selkirk says
Trump declared ‘food for all’ in post-arrest stop at Miami cafe – but skipped the bill, report says
Reginald Selkirk says
Isle of Wight: New dinosaur species discovered
Oggie: Mathom says
When the idea of “greedflation” first showed up in mainstream media, it was mocked. It was described as a conspiracy theory. It was derided. Problem is, it was, and is, real. Even Fortune Magazine (obviously a haven for liberals and commies, right?) has come around.
Oggie: Mathom says
Another day, another childish tantrum. He really has no clue, does he?
Reginald Selkirk says
@19: Prosecutors will be carefully watching all of Trump’s tweets: “Is he confessing anything new today?”
Oggie: Mathom says
So if I were to go somewhere and steal some government property (I do know some places where it would be ridiculously easy (not classified shit, but other stuff)), and put it in my home, then, according to Trump, for law enforcement to remove the stolen goods from my home would violate the 4th Amendment? How is recovering stolen goods unreasonable search and seizure? By the Seven Levels of Purple Plupefect Hell, I think Trump really does believe that all the official papers from his Presidency (even the papers pulled out of the toilet, or the ones taped back together) actually belong to him.
Oggie: Mathom says
Ted Cruz Mercilessly Mocked For Bizarre Rant About Biden, Satan And Pat Benatar.
And he deserves to be mocked (the Twitter (bleah) captures in the article are good). Can you imagine the damage these asshats could do if they were actually smart and/or competent? Also, considering that most of these GOP asshats come from weathy/upper middle class families and have been to college, it makes me realize that, with enough money, any idiot can get a law degree.
Reginald Selkirk says
‘It was a mess’: Ugly U.S.-Mexico match halted after 4 ejections, brawls and anti-gay chant
(soccer)
Oggie: Mathom says
Cruz says stupid shit. Trump has a temper tantrum. Putin threatens the world. Typical day in the 2020s.
Reginald Selkirk says
High-speed rail tunnel to link Europe to Africa gets EU feasibility funding
Oggie: Mathom says
GOP lawmaker’s lawsuit against newspaper backfires and exposes damning 2020 election emails. Which, I guess, comes under the heading of, imagine what the GOP could do if they were competent and understood cause-and-effect relationships?
<
blockquote>© Raw Story
A series of damning emails about the 2020 election were exposed as a result of a lawsuit filed against a local newspaper by Pennsylvania State Sen. Dan Laughlin.
As the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, Laughlin filed a lawsuit last year against the Erie Reader alleging that he had been defamed in an opinion column published by the newspaper.
The lawsuit opened up Laughlin to discovery — and wound up churning up several emails related to former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to get Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in their state.
Among the most notable communications was between Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano and then-One America News anchor Christina Bobb, who has since become part of Trump’s legal team.
Mastriano, a staunch Trump ally who last year failed to win his race to become Pennsylvania’s governor despite Trump’s support, told Bobb that he was worried about Trump’s proposals to have state legislatures throw out certified election results, as other Republicans had told him such a scheme would be “illegal.”
The emails reveal that Trump personally called Mastriano to push him on the legality of the scheme and gave him materials that falsely accused Dominion Voting Systems of rigging the election for Biden.
Other emails show that Laughlin was not happy about some of the actions that fellow Republicans were taking to get Trump back into the White House, including an attempt by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) to get every single mail-in ballot thrown out.
“We’re not saying a word on this crap,” Laughlin wrote in December of 2020. “Mike Kelly is hurting our party right now.>/blockquote>
And I am gob smacked that even Mastriano, the poster child for Christian Nationalist Fascism, recognized that Trump’s election theft ideas may be illegal.
Lynna, OM says
NBC News:
In other news, this is a followup to Reginald @3: Nusrat Choudhury received zero votes from Senate Republicans, which is just a disgraceful showing on the part of Republicans. She was confirmed to the federal judgeship on a 50-49 vote.
Lynna, OM says
https://twitter.com/MikeSington/status/1668920327320260608
Video at the link.
More in the video, which is 2:56 long.
Lynna, OM says
OMFG.
GOP debt deal walk back
SC (Salty Current) says
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
There’s an issue with their plane (which flew into Poland) and they seem annoyed.
SC (Salty Current) says
The Guardian also has a liveblog about the release of the DoJ report into the Minneapolis police and other US news. From there:
SC (Salty Current) says
Guardian liveblog:
SC (Salty Current) says
Guardian – “Activists push for referendum to put ‘Cop City’ on ballot in Atlanta”:
SC (Salty Current) says
Guardian liveblog:
SC (Salty Current) says
From Reginald Selkirk’s #25:
That would be cool!
Needs a better name than that!
SC (Salty Current) says
Also in today’s Guardian:
Griff Ferris, Rivka Micklethwaite and Callum Lynch – “We took direct action against the UK’s racist policies, and a jury acquitted us. Resistance can succeed”:
Marina Hyde – “Are Tory MPs as deluded as Boris Johnson? It’s a tough act to follow, but they’re doing their best”:
“Indian court halts airing of documentary on Muslim minority”:
“‘More extreme, more violent’: experts’ warning over khaki-clad Patriot Front”:
(The India piece has the the “fueling fears” trope; in this one it’s the cut-&-paste “There has been a rise in white nationalism and far-right politics in countries around the world in recent years,” itself related to the dynamic described in #s 5 and 7 above.)
Lynna, OM says
What happened to Fox News staffer responsible for the “wannabe dictator” incident? The former Tucker Carlson staffer has parted ways with the network.
Lynna, OM says
Good news, as summarized by Steve Benen from an NBC News article:
More good news, as summarized by Steve Benen from a Washington Post article:
Lynna, OM says
The Iowa Supreme Court split 3-3 on reviving a six-week abortion ban Friday, blocking the ban and keeping the procedure legal in the state.
Lynna, OM says
Followup to SC’s comment #12:
Link
Lynna, OM says
Link
Trump has also offered the defense that he is a “very busy man.”
Lynna, OM says
Wow, Christian Hate Groups STILL Mad At Ted Cruz For Lightly Suggesting Uganda Shouldn’t Murder Gays
https://www.wonkette.com/jameson-taylor-ted-cruz-uganda-kill-the-gays
SC (Salty Current) says
Ben Hodges on Twitter:
SC (Salty Current) says
Guardian liveblog:
RIP.
Lynna, OM says
Followup to Reginald’s comment #16.
Wonkette: ‘Food For Everyone!’ Says Indicted Deadbeat.
birgerjohansson says
How (British) bombers got their crew killed in WWII.
“The deadliest British bombers”
https://youtu.be/RzjI6I7yntQ
or
https://youtu.be/RzjI6l7yntQ
or
https://youtu.be/Rzjl6I7yntQ
Oggie: Mathom says
Watching Bugs Life with the twins. I think I understand one of the reasons conservatives don’t like Disney — the workers rise up to overthrow the parasitic and powerful wealthy.
Lynna, OM says
DeSantis’ Bible lesson: Fishing, murder, and hanging with Jesus
birgerjohansson says
OK, it is this link
https://youtu.be/RzjI6l7yntQ
Those machines were mostly good for getting their own crew members killed.
Oggie: Mathom says
birgerjohansson:
To be fair, during WWII, all combat aircraftwere barely controllable death traps.,
Oggie: Mathom says
Actually, once in the air, the bombers were generally pretty stable, bit take offs and landings? Not easy.
birgerjohansson says
For your enjoyment:
Rutger Hauer in a really weird film
https://youtu.be/zM5Ob1K9IIM
or maybe
https://youtu.be/zM5Ob1K9IlM
or
https://youtu.be/zM5Ob1K9lIM
birgerjohansson says
OK the first link worked.
The film had the script changed during filming, and two directors. But the style is so cool the film is still watchable. The 1990s were weird.
Oggie: Mathom says
Lawyers are Dropping Like Flies
Oggie: Mathom says
Notice the last paragraph. This REALLY sounds, to me, like corruption.
Oggie: Mathom says
Sorry, third from last paragraph sounds like corruption.
Oggie: Mathom says
For those vacationing in National Parks this year, we have the <a href=https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/national-park-service-humorous-guide-to-petting-bison/ar-AA1cBa9p#image=1″>National Park Service Wildlife Petting Chart.
Oggie: Mathom says
All Hail Tpyos. Sorry.
For those vacationing in National Parks this year, we have the National Park Service Wildlife Petting Chart.
Reginald Selkirk says
Feds catch another LockBit hacker, Justice Department announces
SC (Salty Current) says
David Enrich, NYT, on Twitter:
Wow, I was just listening to the podcast – The 13th Step – yesterday! I’m about in the middle, and she’s just starting to talk about the retaliation and I thought it sounded extreme.
Link to a NYT background piece and more at the link.
Obviously there’s nothing amusing about this in general, but his name is funny and it’s funny that he purchased bricks to throw through someone’s window.
Reginald Selkirk says
The US Navy, NATO, and NASA are using a shady Chinese company’s encryption chips
Reginald Selkirk says
Scientists Find Cannabis Compound Inside a Totally Different Plant
Reginald Selkirk says
Sweden sending 250 mine detectors to search for landmines scattered after Kakhovka dam flooding
Oggie: Mathom says
Well, yeah, because there are no rocks in New Hampshire. No glacial cobbles. Not even granite. In the Granite State.
Reginald Selkirk says
Elon Musk asks: ‘If I’m so smart, why did I pay so much for Twitter?’
Who said you were smart?
Reginald Selkirk says
Man shoots his own leg while dreaming about intruder, Illinois cops say. He’s charged
“I am the NRA”
Reginald Selkirk says
Reginald Selkirk says
The Aces: US pop band comes of age after a reckoning with Mormonism
SC (Salty Current) says
Oggie @ #64, yes, it’s especially funny if you know the region! We have…no shortage of rocks. I just heard on the podcast that in one of the attacks they missed the window and the brick was found lying on the ground next to it. LOL.
SC (Salty Current) says
Tweet o’ the day.
Lynna, OM says
Ukraine Update: When is a tank not a tank?
Oggie: Mathom says
SC: Oh, I know the region. Went to college in Rindge. Was a ski instructor at Crotched Mountain. Lived in Peterborough. Yeah, rocks and frost heaves.
SC (Salty Current) says
Oggie @ #72, I know you know it! That’s what I meant! :)
SC (Salty Current) says
National Hurricane Center on Twitter:
Map at the link.
SC (Salty Current) says
NYT (Twitter link with gift link from Robert Ellsberg) – “Daniel Ellsberg, Who Leaked the Pentagon Papers, Is Dead at 92”:
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
TechCrunch – Reddit CEO lashes out
NBC – Reddit CEO praises Elon Musk’s cost-cutting
TechDirt – Reddit CEO […] whines about not making enough money
POLL: Decide on the future of /r/Pics!
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
HuffPo – Twitter halts promotion of campaign video due to ‘Abortion Advocacy’
StevoR says
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-17/protesters-rally-at-drag-queen-storytelling-event-maylands/102490866
StevoR says
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-17/tucker-carlon-producer-fired-for-dictator-chyron/102492100
Guessing McCaskil will be heading straight to QANN or Newsmaxx or joining the Trump campaign… But still.
KG says
Reginald Selkirk@66,
Further bad news for that guy: acting out dreams (which often involve fleeing from or retaliating against an attacker) is called RBD – REM sleep behaviour disorder – and appears often to be an early sign of developing Parkinson’s disease or other neurodegenerative illnesses (there are other causes such as certain drugs); see February 2023 Scientific American, pp.54-59. During REM sleep, most skeletal muscles are effectively paralysed, in RBD this inhibition fails. RBD should not be confused with sleepwalking and sleeptalking, which usually occur during non-REM sleep.
Reginald Selkirk says
@25 @35 “Tunnel of Hercules” ?
StevoR says
Spot on meme / quote seen on fb just now.
Reginald Selkirk says
@60,64,69 brickthrowing
1) They conspired.
2) They crossed state lines.
That’s why the feds are involved, and I doubt they will get off easy.
SC (Salty Current) says
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Reginald Selkirk says
Michigan man arrested for planning mass killing at synagogue
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite says
They didn’t post John Oliver’s sexy otter furry art he got done for a bit. I guess it was a bit too nsfw.
SC (Salty Current) says
Also in the Guardian:
“US rightwing group planned $6m for anti-trans messaging in 2022 midterms”:
“Finland’s ‘most rightwing government ever’ to cut spending and immigration”:
“‘Almost still shines’: 3,000-year-old sword unearthed in Germany”:
SC (Salty Current) says
Noel on Twitter:
Noel on Twitter:
Noel on Twitter:
Noel on Twitter:
Video at the link. It’s one of those taken by sunbathers on the beach.
Oggie: Mathom says
Reich: Trump and Republicans have embraced these ‘five elements of fascism’
Opinion by Brandon Gage
This list is from the Washington Monthly, back in 2917:
The only two the GOP hasn’t hit under Trump are 5 & 6. Well, control of mass media is partially done.
StevoR says
@82 Typos mine because of course. Sorry folks.
Lynna, OM says
Not a good idea:
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 91. Here is the link to the article.
Posted by readers of the article:
Reginald Selkirk says
GOP Rep. James Comer Says Another Biden Source Is Missing, Braces For MSNBC Mockery
Reginald Selkirk says
ibid:
Reginald Selkirk says
Pence on Trump: I don’t know why other GOP 2024 candidates ‘presume the president will be found guilty’
Because he is guilty, and the indictment indicates that the Justice Dept. has a bathroom-load of evidence, including Trump’s own words.
Reginald Selkirk says
US ambassador marches in Warsaw Pride parade, sending message to NATO ally
Lynna, OM says
Farm bill will provide fresh fodder for Republican dysfunction
Lynna, OM says
Reginald @96, nice photo. Ambassador with heart in the right place.
Lynna, OM says
Donald Trump and the promise of participatory violence
Lynna, OM says
Cartoon: The dangers of natural stupidity
Lynna, OM says
It matters after all:
Link
Reginald Selkirk says
Twitter Runs Ads for Disney, Microsoft, and the NBA Next to Neo-Nazi Propaganda
Lynna, OM says
The protest for Iranian women didn’t end: The world is ignoring it
Lynna, OM says
Eviction:
Link
Lynna, OM says
https://www.wonkette.com/dodgers-pride-night
Reginald Selkirk says
Danica Patrick Can’t Stop Inviting Alien Conspiracy Idiots On Her Podcast
Reginald Selkirk says
Kentucky Mom Forced to Leave State for Abortion After Fetus Diagnosed With Anencephaly
Reginald Selkirk says
Ok Sis! Rep. Jasmine Crockett Is First Black Woman Democrat To Play In Congressional Baseball Game
Lynna, OM says
Death for some, survival for others. Children survived a plane crash.
I snipped the rest of the story, which includes a custody battle.
Washington post link
Oggie: Mathom says
Narcissism on display. Amazingly, NOT in ALL CAPS.
Oggie: Mathom says
With all of the talk about Trump’s mishandling of documents, I think an important connection has been missed. By me. One of the most important reasons that many classified documents are classified is source protection. Just how accurate are our satellites? How deeply have we infiltrated Russian military computer systems? Who gave or sold us this information about a rival and/or enemy?
And that last one, if that information is compromised, people die. Generally, very secret information is only held by a few people. If that secret information suddenly shows up in a rival intelligence service’s briefing, then it can come down to a process of elimination (sometimes literally) to find out who leaked, or sold, the information.
It was niggling in the back of my mind for the last month or two and, once that niggling happened while I was on the computer (rather than lying in bed, or driving, or shopping . . .) I quickly found what I was looking for.
From The Hill, by BY MONIQUE BEALS – 10/05/21
Notice I left the date in the header. October of 2021. Trump left office in January of 2021. He took extremely sensitive documents with him, including, we now know, documents containing information that came from non-technical sources — people. And over the next nine months, enough foreign non-technical intelligence sources were captured or killed, that CIA Counter-Intel sent out a top secret, and very specific, memo.
At the time, the working theory was that other nations were becoming better at counterintelligence through AI, facial recognition, etc. Of course, the CIA has access to the same, or homologous, software. Perhaps the increase in NTI disappearances was through Trump’s insecure hoarding of National Security documents, at least one of which we know he shared with an ineligible person. Of course, Trump was also ineligible at the time, so . . .
Anyway, this is me, spit balling. And, through my study of history, I know that accidents, coincidences and outright stupidity have probably killed more spies and agents than counterintelligence operations (of course, CI gets the credit). Could Trump’s stupidity have killed valuable intelligence sources overseas?
Tethys says
Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum
Jack has your goose,
And a few of your chums.
Reginald Selkirk says
Pop stars influencing the economy:
Is Taylor Swift saving the economy?
Beyoncé shows blamed for fueling inflation in Sweden
johnson catman says
re Oggie @111:
Almost assuredly YES. But that will probably never come out in any of the public court proceedings. He should NEVER be allowed access to any sensitive information again, and he should absolutely NEVER be allowed to hold any public office again.
Reginald Selkirk says
Rare earthquake damages French homes, schools and churches
Reginald Selkirk says
Ecuadoran woman who knocked on coffin during her own wake has died
Reginald Selkirk says
Russian units in Kherson Oblast and Crimea, stricken in cholera outbreak, ‘losing combat effectiveness’
Lynna, OM says
Ukraine Update: Emptying Kakhovka reservoir redraws Ukraine’s topographical map
Lynna, OM says
Reginald @117, I wondered how long it would be before an infectious disease struck Russian units.
Reginald Selkirk says
RNC declines request to amend loyalty pledge to free candidates from supporting convicted felon
Reginald Selkirk says
A Utah city violated the First Amendment in denying a drag show permit, judge rules
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
Lead-up to p5 #476, from a former Twitter employee.
Mastodon Thread: Rod Hilton
Reginald Selkirk says
Collapsed stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia to reopen within 2 weeks, governor says
Lynna, OM says
A Newly Named Group of GRU Hackers Is Wreaking Havoc in Ukraine
WIRED link
StevoR says
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-15/saturn-moon-enceladus-key-building-block-of-life/102482336
Reginald Selkirk says
NCAA committee recommends dropping marijuana from banned drug list for athletes
StevoR says
Source : https://www.space.com/earth-formation-few-million-years
Reginald Selkirk says
More and More Americans Want to Attend Church Digitally, Study Finds
Oggie: Mathom says
Happy father’s day (US) to all fathers.
Reginald Selkirk says
Vienna Pride parade attack foiled, Austrian police say
Reginald Selkirk says
Ohio Supreme Court rules in favor of August election that could preserve abortion ban
Lynna, OM says
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trumpers-know-3rd-party-spoilers-are-trumps-only-shot
Reginald Selkirk says
TikTok videos of Mormon crickets wreaking havoc on Nevada homes are going viral
Oggie: Mathom says
Bill Barr:
<>blockquote>“He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. There’s no question about it. This is a perfect example of that. He’s like a 9-year-old — a defiant 9-year-old kid who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it. It’s a means of self-assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. And he’s a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s, his personal gratification of his ego. But our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.”
Lynna, OM says
Wonkette: “Greg Abbott Pretty Sure Texas Construction Workers Can Go Without Water”
birgerjohansson says
LGBTQ issues , the Ukraine war
Four LBTQ milbloggers get together and form the North Atlantic Friends Organisation (NAFO).
Here is their latest podcast.
https://youtu.be/6QsRuaWrsO8
Reginald Selkirk says
@134 Bill Barr:
Does have any regrets about having been an enabler for Trump when he served as attorney general? Because he was helping Trump to put his interest ahead of the country’s, and to gratify his ego.
#AdjacentCell
Reginald Selkirk says
@136:
I thought that was North Atlantic Fellas Organization
Lynna, OM says
Mali’s referendum can’t guarantee a democratic transition
The junta’s constitutional amendments could let it consolidate power over an unstable nation.
Reginald Selkirk says
Bluesky Has Problems
Lynna, OM says
Russia set to pass bill banning gender-affirming care. It’s even worse than Florida’s
Lynna, OM says
4 people killed, dozens injured in chaotic night of mass shootings across the country
Fatal shootings broke out in Illinois, Missouri and Washington on Sunday in a night of gun violence that has left more than 30 people injured.
Reginald Selkirk says
Armed with depleted-uranium ammo, Ukraine’s tank gunners could punch through tough Russian armor and set tanks on fire
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
SciAm – Insects have surprisingly rich inner lives
Many examples at the link.
Reginald Selkirk says
A Democratic congressman is pushing to allow reporters — and eventually lawmakers — to wear sneakers in the ornate and historic Speaker’s Lobby
Reginald Selkirk says
No Labels found an acceptable fascist Republican candidate
Lynna, OM says
Cartoon: Mike Luckovich on future Southern Baptists
Lynna, OM says
Huge explosion at Russian ammo dump, more than 50 reported to be killed
Lynna, OM says
Link
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 149.
“He’s like a nine-year-old, defiant nine-year-old kid, who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it. It’s a means of self-assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. And he’s a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s, his personal gratification of his ego, but our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this,” Barr [former Attorney General Bill Barr] said of Trump.
“Donald Trump, if you believe what he said when they left, that means he didn’t pick the very best people and doesn’t know how to pick personnel. If you believe what — about them what he said at the beginning, the great stuff, then this guy is the worst manager in the history of the American presidency,” Christie [Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R)] said of Trump.
“Either way, Republicans should listen to what he says. He’s a petulant child when someone disagrees with him … if you disagree with Donald Trump, the petulant child comes out and he calls you names,” Christie added.
Lynna, OM says
Mike Pence turns whiter shade of pale when asked if he’d pardon Trump
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
Video: SciShow – Can We Treat Alzheimer’s With Period Blood? (7:56)
Reginald Selkirk says
Duh. People who are found innocent don’t need to be pardoned.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
Clarification of the pyrex discussion from the previous page of comments.
Difference between Pyrex® USA and Pyrex®Europe
Corning Museum FAQ
I’ll paraphrase Wikipedia’s Pyrex History on the European lineage…
Corning had licensed out the Pyrex brand to Newell Cookware Europe. A soda-lime factory in Sunderland, UK had made Pyrex from 1922 to 2007. Arc International acquired Newell in 2006, and moved production to France (boro plant linked above?). They sold their Pyrex division to International Cookware group. Which was bought by private equity Kartesia in 2020. Duralex bought in 2021.
So US went boro-to-soda in the 1940s. And Europe went soda-to-boro in 2007.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
NYTimes – Why We’re Not Worried About Pyrex Bakeware “Exploding” (2020)
* From the works cited, the author seems to have done legwork interviewing folks who’d know what’s publicly knowable.
* Proper handling tips at the link. (TIL casserole dish + room temp baking sheet + oven rack.)
I had an ordinary Corelle bowl time-bomb in the cupboard from post-dishwasher stacking.
StevoR says
Truly scary graphs with implications here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-16/global-climate-records-breaking-rapid-rate/102484434
Also see :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/oceanoxia/2023/06/17/reckless-water-consumption-is-tilting-the-entire-planet/
Plus : https://phys.org/news/2023-06-white-communities-safer-diverse-neighborhoods.html
StevoR says
There’s a good (IMHON) article listing and debunking Putin’s propaganda linked here FWIW :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2023/06/08/here-we-go/comment-page-1/#comment-2183001
Reginald Selkirk says
@154
Corning Museum of Glass is highly recommended. If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Corning, New York give it a try.
Reginald Selkirk says
University of Minnesota study on how to get more cars through green lights shows promise
StevoR says
Spaaace neeeeewwwws! Watch this Mercurian space :
Source : https://www.space.com/mercury-flyby-bepicolombo-spacecraft-june-2023
Reginald Selkirk says
Apple Is Taking On Apples in a Truly Weird Trademark Battle
Reginald Selkirk says
How to Spot an App You Shouldn’t Trust
Lynna, OM says
Would a pardon for Donald Trump spare the country “the ordeal of a trial”? Maybe, but so would a guilty plea from the Republican defendant.
Reginald Selkirk says
Chrysler Sold A Car In Japan Called The Dodge Michigan
Lynna, OM says
Examples of former Trump admin officials now condemning Trump are available at the link.
Link
KG says
Reginald Selkirk@161,
The insolence of these corporate arseholes really knows no bounds.
Lynna, OM says
Why a misguided Republican ‘hearing’ on Jan. 6 rioters matters
Why did GOP leaders allow right-wing members to hold a fake hearing honoring Jan. 6 rioters, their family members, and their political allies?
Lynna, OM says
The New York Times makes an easy target, but this is absolutely appalling
StevoR says
Juneteenth today :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth
Oggie: Mathom says
June 19tj. I have now been retired exactly one year.
Lynna, OM says
And now for a Trump Confederate on Juneteenth, because we should always remember why we fight
Lynna, OM says
Inside a conservative confab for young women, where feminism is a lie.
Washington Post link
Lynna, OM says
Missing Submersible
New York Times link
Tourist Vessel Disappears in Area of Titanic Wreck.
A search-and-rescue mission is underway in the North Atlantic for the missing craft, the Coast Guard said. It is unclear how many people were on board.
Lynna, OM says
Fiercest fighting in years erupts in West Bank camp of Jenin, killing at least 5 Palestinians
More than 90 other Palestinians were wounded, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli army said seven of its soldiers were also wounded.
Lynna, OM says
Yahoo News link
Reginald Selkirk says
Talked to this Trump supporter who said Trump would have to be really stupid to keep secret documents in his bathroom. We agree.
Lynna, OM says
Cartoon: Heard it through the conspiracy grapevine
Cartoon: The War on Woke
Lynna, OM says
Link
Lynna, OM says
NBC News:
Lynna, OM says
NBC News:
Lynna, OM says
MSNBC:
Lynna, OM says
Associated Press:
Houston Chronicle:
Reginald Selkirk says
Sen. Josh Hawley Shares His Mindblowingly Stupid Thoughts on Juneteenth
Lynna, OM says
https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1670927924134920194
video at the link: Fox News’ Bret Baier eviscerates Donald Trump
See also: https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1670922502510452738
See also: https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1670917466036269057
Holy shit.
Lynna, OM says
Link
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite says
https://www.joemygod.com/2023/06/rep-paul-gosar-calls-for-bounties-on-january-6-antifa/
We’re back to pretending antifascists are why fascists went and did fascisms. This is bad, but it will be useful to see how a made up phantom gets used like bounties on abortions.
KG says
Hunter Biden will plead guilty to three federal offenses in a plea deal: two tax misdemeanours, one offense of illegally owning a firearm (lying about his drug use when he bought it). Thisapparently concludes the federal investigation into him.
Akira MacKenzie says
@ 187
That is, until the Republicans take Congress back.
Lynna, OM says
A bit of news summarized by Steve Benen:
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comments 187 and 188.
https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1671157205847130116
CNN headline and image are available at the link.
BTW, it was a Trump-appointed prosecutor who charged Hunter Biden.
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 190.
Commentary from Wonkette:
Reginald Selkirk says
It appears that Roscosmos really is recruiting soldiers for the Ukraine War
Tethys says
I expect it will be a very short trial after tfg helpfully explained how his golf shirts were stolen by the FBI.
https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1671133905263505408
Pierce R. Butler says
Lynna, OM @ # 171 quoting a Kossack: … he claims that there were also black slave owners who ultimately fought on the side of the Confederacy … Technically, he is correct but he also misses the point.
Last I heard, historians have failed to find any of the claimed “Blacks who fought for the CSA“. Lots of slaves did get dragged into Confederate military service, but they cooked, cleaned, dug, and drove – they didn’t receive or use weapons. Confederate law explicitly banned that (until about the last month of the war).
The Civil War had 300,000 casualties…
That’s only off by about half a million (if by “casualties” one means “fatalities”, not the standard usage).
It really bothers me when progressives get the facts wrong.
Reginald Selkirk says
Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite says
Use the sub to goad about regulations? There’s reciprocity in death and callousness. I’ll have have to think that for a bit though. I want an idea of what doing that wrong looks like.
Reginald Selkirk says
@196:
Submarine tourism is such a small market I don’t know if guidelines for safe operation exist.
This one operates in international waters, which brings up the question if jurisdiction.
whheydt says
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #197…
One might expect the regulations to go by country of registration (of the “mothership”…those small, deep submersibles, aren’t ocean-going vessels in their own right). That, of course, opens up the whole “flag of convenience” can of worms. The last recourse being to bar port calls if the ship and/or submersible fails to meet the standards of any country where they make port.
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite says
I figure negligence and callousness stands despite what the law is. Like not caring what the law say with abortion ultimately. But this group will have complicated empathy for one another.
Reginald Selkirk says
Judge Cannon Just Set an Incredible Trump Trial Date
Reginald Selkirk says
A restaurant must pay workers $140,000 after allegedly hiring a fake priest to extract confessions of workers’ ‘sins’
Reginald Selkirk says
North Carolina state House speaker sued for damages over alleged affair
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 200.
Judge Aileen Cannon sets a date for the trial of Donald Trump, but not really
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 203.
Posted by readers of the article:
Lynna, OM says
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/one-small-mystery
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 184.
Trump confessed to crimes in Fox interview
In that case, Fox News should fail financially. Trump should fail financially (and on every other level as well).
Lynna, OM says
Wonkette:
Link
Lynna, OM says
Trump Real Estate Deal in Oman Underscores Ethics Concerns
New York Times link
Details of the former president’s agreement to work with a Saudi firm to develop a hotel and golf complex overlooking the Gulf of Oman highlight the ways his business and political roles intersect.
Lots of photos and more details are available at the link.
Lynna, OM says
Satire written by Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
tomh says
WaPo:
Arkansas federal judge blocks first ban on gender-affirming care
U.S. district judge in Arkansas issued a permanent injunction against a state law that banned trans youth and their families from seeking gender-affirming medical care
By Anne Branigin / June 20, 2023
Reginald Selkirk says
Paul Simon contemplates faith, death and the existence of God
Paul Simon is a pretty good musician. Who gives a bleep what his theological positions are?
Reginald Selkirk says
Doctor who sold bogus COVID vaccination waiver to dog loses medical license
Reginald Selkirk says
Ukrainian MiG-29 Fighter Appears With Mystery Weapon Pylons
Reginald Selkirk says
Evangelicals supported Trump because he ‘gave voice’ to their
frustrationsbigotry, Pence saysFIFY
Reginald Selkirk says
Trump says his kids won’t serve in his administration if he wins a second term
Reginald Selkirk says
John Eastman faces disbarment proceedings in California over effort to reverse 2020 election
whheydt says
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #214…
I’m will to go with “frustrations”. The evangelicals are frustrated that the rest of the country doesn’t want the sort of restrictive laws that they are pushing. And to be fair, it’s likely that most of the evangelicals wouldn’t actually want to live under the sort of laws they claim to want.
Lynna, OM says
Ukraine Update: Pyatykhatky is a small place. The battle there may have a big effect
Lynna, OM says
Followup to Reginald @117, plus followup to speculation about Russia mining the cooling system of a nuclear plant.
Posted by readers of the Ukraine Update article quoted in comment 218:
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
TheVerge – Reddit removed moderators […] before restoring a few of them
KG says
One would think that if a frog had got over his sexual attraction to pigs, it might be considered a good thing for frogkind :-p. I don’t know the exact terms in which either Kennedy or Jones discussed this issue, but the effects of anthropogenic endocrine disruptors on both humans’ and other animals’ sexual development and reproductive functioning is a real and serious issue. One of my colleagues at my last permananet place of employment was a recognised expert in this area.
StevoR says
Great Sasha Velour interview and discussion of Drag here :
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/drag-performer-sasha-velour-explains-what-the-art-form-means-to-her
On PBS Newshour today.
Reginald Selkirk says
Parts of Florida’s Broward County are under quarantine after giant African land snails were detected
Reginald Selkirk says
Rep. Lauren Boebert to force House vote on impeaching Biden
I am surprised Boebert would have the knowledge and the power to do that.
Reginald Selkirk says
The sleeper legal strategy that could topple abortion bans
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite says
@Reginald Selkirk 224
I think that’s the kind of thing they’re better at than policy. Their habitual motivational instincts are better for sneaky ways of getting around things. And she probably had help.
Reginald Selkirk says
Justice Alito Writes Aggrieved Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Defending His Luxury Fishing Trip
Reginald Selkirk says
The Taliban threatens to ‘conquer Iran’ in a dispute over shared river
Hmmm. Whom to root for?
Reginald Selkirk says
Progressive ousts ‘pro-life’ Democrat Joe Morrissey in Virginia state Senate race
Reginald Selkirk says
Judge Shuts Down Trump ‘Coup Memo’ Scribe John Eastman’s ‘Expert’ Witness
Reginald Selkirk says
‘Trump in heels’ Amanda Chase loses GOP state Senate primary in Virginia
Reginald Selkirk says
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) announces run for Senate seat in Delaware
Reginald Selkirk says
Trump-backed Asheville, WNC House candidate sentenced for federal felony election crime
tomh says
Re: #227
That ProPublica piece on Alito has now been published here
Lynna, OM says
Asked for the top U.S. issue, Trump picks one of his weaknesses
Donald Trump says the nation’s global standing is one of our most important issues. If that’s true, he’s effectively telling voters not to support him.
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comments 227 and 234.
Sam Alito Is A Peevish, Self-Absorbed Piece Of Work
Reginald Selkirk says
Samuel L. Jackson says Brie Larson won’t be toppled by “incel dudes who hate strong women
Lynna, OM says
Ukraine Update: Why is Russia afraid of actually using its defensive trenches?
Lynna, OM says
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
May more staffing difficulties befall her until she finally gives up and leaves the race.
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 236.
Josh Marshall:
Link
Lynna, OM says
Democracy is not thriving in India:
Link
Much more at the link. I snipped a lot.
Lynna, OM says
Wonkette:
Reginald Selkirk says
Estonia legalizes same-sex marriage
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 238.
More Ukraine updates:
Link
Reginald Selkirk says
New Zealand: Four injured in axe attacks at Chinese restaurants
Reginald Selkirk says
Utah school board reverses Bible ban and calls out lawmakers who attacked the district
Reginald Selkirk says
146 dogs found dead at home of animal rescue group’s president, Ohio officials say
tomh says
Votebeat:
Gov. Abbott vetoes bill offering new mail voting option to people with disabilities
Reginald Selkirk says
Toxic algae kills hundreds of dolphins and sea lions on California coast
Reginald Selkirk says
Do scientists debate? Not like that they don’t
Lynna, OM says
J.D. Vance thinks the Hunter Biden case justifies his blanket hold on Justice Department nominees. Whether the senator realizes this or not, that’s absurd.
Okay, that does establish the absurdity factor. But wait, there’s more.
Lynna, OM says
https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1671284227885744128
A moment of confusion for Trump. You can see his brain break in real time … and then you can watch him try to recover by spouting a bunch of nonsense accompanied by a few wildly chopping hand gestures.
Video at the link.
Lynna, OM says
About that video, I watched it. The joyful women warriors featured in the video look like they are on some kind of drug that makes them higher than a kite … and very much all smiles, sparkling eyes and melodramatic intensity. We are promised that their conference will “knock your socks off.” Looking at their roster of mostly male, far rightwing political doofuses (and whatever Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is), I doubt that my socks would be knocked off even if I had a front row seat.
Wonkette link
Lynna, OM says
Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/antonin-scalia-alaska-fishing-ethics
Lynna, OM says
New York Times:
Lynna, OM says
Washington Post:
Washington Post link
SC (Salty Current) says
Hi from the desert! I’m in the complete other corner of the US. It’s so different and beautiful. Thanks to everyone for keeping up with events and analysis!
tomh says
NYT:
Man Who Assaulted Officer on Jan. 6 Is Sentenced to More Than 12 Years
By Glenn Thrush and Alan Feuer / June 21, 2023
Reginald Selkirk says
6 people accused of forging signatures of dead people to get a Republican candidate on the ballot in Colorado
birgerjohansson says
God Awful Movies just provided us with a 1961 film.
“GAM409 The Flight That Disappeared.”
Hypothetically, if the plane you are on gets teleported into a time vortex and people from the future put you on a trial for doing something (which is still in your future) that will cause the end of everything…
What specific thing is that likely to be?
.
I get that for P Z it will have something to do with spider development, but what about you?
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite says
I find Pandora’s box and take out forboding.
redwood says
@260 I find the switch in our brains to turn off empathy, which authoritarians all over the world then force the use of into law because they believe that everyone should think like they do.
redwood says
@260 Or, more simply, I find a magic potion that can turn everyone in the world into Trump. It then gets stolen from me and used.
Jean says
All these SCOTUS corruption talks make it look like the Federalist Society is like an “escort” agency with a madam (Leo), the Johns (billionaires) and the “escorts” (justices and other judges). The main difference with real escorts is that it’s the American democracy that gets screwed.
tomh says
Axios
Texas state Sen. Paxton blocked from voting in husband’s impeachment trial
Rebecca Falconer / June 21, 2023
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
@260
Establishing premeditation, eh? Nice try!
KG says
I feel impelled to defend Trump from the implicit charge of inconsistency here! Bullshit aside, there’s nothing Marxist or Communist about Xi Jinping’s regime, and it’s completely consistent for Trump to respect and admire it and him. China is reported now to have more billionaires than the USA, and higher levels of income inequality. Xi has made himself in effect dictator-for-life (he is as it happens the son of Xi Zhongxun, himself a senior CCP official – many of his most senior subordinates are similarly the children of the party aristocracy). Xi’s regime in many ways resembles classic fascism: capitalists can make huge profits and fortunes, and exploit their workers as much as they like (since there are no free trade unions), but are subordinate to the one-party state, and can be deprived of their wealth, liberty and lives if they offend the Great Leader. Corruption is rife, but whether it is punished is purely a matter of political convenience. Surveillance is probably the broadest and deepest of any state in world history; foreign policy is increasingly aggressive.
Incidentally, all the members of the 7-strong Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CCP, Xi’s immediate circle, are men, and all of them are Han Chinese. The same is true of the 24-member Politburo (of which the Standing Committee forms a subset). This Politburo is the first in 25 years to include no women. Han Chinese men make up around 30% of China’s adult population. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in action!
Reginald Selkirk says
Will Hurd, a moderate Texas Republican and Trump critic, announces run for president
1) Who?
2) “Moderate Texas Republican” sounds like an oxymoron.
Reginald Selkirk says
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to hold cage fight
That’s going to disappoint a lot of people who would like to see Musk get the @#$% beaten out of him. Best outcome would be they both lose.
Reginald Selkirk says
Ukraine strikes Chonhar bridge to Crimea, says Russia
Reginald Selkirk says
Republicans decide to forgo Biden impeachment vote after internal fighting
Reginald Selkirk says
Republican Group Taunts Trump With His Own Damning Words In Fox News Ad
Reginald Selkirk says
@218
Russia loses 5 Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters in as many days
Reginald Selkirk says
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Says Russia Acted In ‘Good Faith’ In Ukraine Invasion
Reginald Selkirk says
Pentagon orders AMRAAM missiles worth over $1 billion for Ukraine
Reginald Selkirk says
Sorry, Joe Rogan: Scientists should never ‘debate’ anti-vaccine quacks. Here’s why
Lynna, OM says
SC @257, ah, so glad you are enjoying the desert landscape.
Reginald @268, “moderate Republicans” still haven’t found a candidate that can defeat the Orange Mango cult leader. Representative Will Hurd makes the 12th entry into the Republican presidential race, (I think … it’s hard to keep track). Hurd used to be a CIA official, and he served in the House of Congress. One good thing: Hurd says that if he is elected, he will not pardon Trump.
NBC News link
Lynna, OM says
The House GOP Clown Show Rolls Right Off The Cliff
Lynna, OM says
Deep-sea robot found debris field possibly linked to missing Titan
I have not seen anyone claim that the debris field is the (possibly imploded) submersible (not yet anyway. But I doubt that the Coast Guard would announce the finding if there were not strong suspicions that the debris is from the submersible.
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 278.
What Schiff said, word for word:
“It would fine me for the costs of the critically important Mueller investigation into Trump’s misconduct, even though the special counsel was appointed by Trump’s own attorney general.” Utterly unethical and morally bankrupt actions by the Republicans.
Lynna, OM says
Follow up to comment 280.
Posted by readers of the article:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/22/2176875/-Full-transcript-of-CA-Rep-Adam-Schiff-s-response-to-his-censure-by-the-Trump-corrupted-GOP-House
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says
@280 Very impressive speech. He is definitely worth serious consideration in a future presidential race.
Lynna, OM says
Ukraine Update: The one war stat that tells us what’s happening with Ukraine’s counteroffensive
This update includes an interesting photo: “Searching for mines in flooded Kherson oblast. They were swept up after Russia destroyed the dam, and finding them is critical for civilian safety.”
Lynna, OM says
Cartoon: Mike Luckovich on jaywalking versus murder
Lynna, OM says
Update regarding Jack Smith’s prosecution team’s actions:
Link
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 285.
Jack Hopkins posted:
Looks to me like Jack Smith has all his ducks in a row. He is ready to proceed.
Lynna, OM says
Despite Repeated Vows Not To, House GOPers Are Again Proposing Social Security And Medicare Cuts
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 285.
Link
Lynna, OM says
Wonkette: “Climate Change Deniers Chase Out Iowa Weather Man With Death Threats, As Is Normal And Healthy And Fine”
whheydt says
Between the vote to censure Schiff and the clear plans to gut Social Security and Medicare, perhaps it is time for a Democrat to make a motion to vacate the chair and throw McCarthy to his own wolves. Maybe Congressman Schiff should file the motion…
Lynna, OM says
https://www.wonkette.com/new-york-post-lost-titanic-submersible-too-woke-to-float
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comments 279.
The Coast Guard announced that the debris field is consistent with a catastrophic event.
Lynna, OM says
New York Times:
They also found parts identified as “parts of the pressure hull.”
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comments 292 or 293.
More from the New York Times:
The phrase “catastrophic implosion” was also used.
Lynna, OM says
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Oggie: Mathom says
Okay, folks. Quiz time. Who do YOU think wrote THIS:
From Raw Story.<.a>
Lynna, OM says
Mystery: Why hasn’t the FBI searched Trump’s other properties?
Lynna, OM says
Cartoon: Trump crimes versus Whataboutism
Lynna, OM says
Feel good story:
Link
Reginald Selkirk says
Corporations Do Not Have Any Rights That We Don’t Give Them
Oggie: Mathom says
So I started with a couple of live traps. Baited with peanut butter, candied cashews, and a little toast. Nothing. Went to snap traps. Same bait. Caught one. Two weeks later, we still have one mouse brazenly running across the living room floor, in the afternoon, under the nose of my daughter’s rescue dog. Gave up and bought sticky pads. Got the mouse. Released two miles away. Went out on my porch and discovered three attorneys representing Disney explaining that this harassment of Mickey’s relatives will cease. Same lawyers suing DeSantis. Oh, well. Hopefully that was the last one.
whheydt says
Re: Oggie: Mathom @ #301..
You didn’t try a ball-bearing mousetrap?
Oggie: Mathom says
NO, whheydt. Had I used ball-bearing mousetrap, I would have stated that I did. Live trap to spring trap to sticky pads. Honest, that is all.
whheydt says
Re: Oggie: Mathom @ #303…
Can’t much more live a trap than a ball-bearing mousetrap. Here’s a description… https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ball%20bearing%20mousetrap
Reginald Selkirk says
MIT discovery suggests a new class of superconductors
Reginald Selkirk says
Republicans vote to cut University of Wisconsin System’s budget by $32M in diversity programs spat
Reginald Selkirk says
Legal experts: John Durham made false statements to Congress about Trump-Russia probe
Lynna, OM says
Much of the GOP isn’t just contesting the idea of “collusion,” Republicans are also rejecting the idea that Russia attacked our elections to help Trump.
Reginald Selkirk says
Humans Might Be Fueling the Spread of a Cat-Loving, Mind-Altering Parasite
Lynna, OM says
Justice Samuel Alito IS the Salmon, By Dahlia Lithwick
Calling this an ethics scandal misses the point.
Reginald Selkirk says
@310: Enough about how the conservative justices are all corrupt.
Tell us about how the liberal justices have been bought and paid for by Big Gay, or whatever the left wing money center is.
/s (do I need to do this?)
Lynna, OM says
Extreme adventure comes with a price tag in dollars and in safety
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 312.
Posted by readers of the article:
tomh says
NYT:
How a Year Without Roe Shifted American Views on Abortion
By Kate Zernike / June 23, 2023
Lynna, OM says
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Link
Reginald Selkirk says
“Shady and corrupt”: Watchdog group sounds the alarm over Amy Coney Barrett real estate deal
Lynna, OM says
Donald in the John With Boxes – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/23/2177125/-Randy-Rainbow-is-actually-a-stable-genius
Also available on YouTube.
Reginald Selkirk says
Arizona Republican election official sues Kari Lake for defamation
Reginald Selkirk says
Interstate 95 reopens to some traffic less than two weeks after deadly collapse in Philadelphia
Lynna, OM says
Wonkette
Lynna, OM says
Wonkette:
Heh, “galactic dipshittery.”
Lynna, OM says
Ukraine Update: Pyatykhatky and Pickett’s Charge
More Ukraine updates coming soon.
Lynna, OM says
Jan. 6 grand jury hears from Team Trump members as probe advances
Lynna, OM says
Good economic news might finally be sinking in
Lynna, OM says
Followup to comment 322.
More Ukraine updates:
Link. Scroll down to view updates.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says
IBEW – Hard-Fought Success on Rail Sick Days
Lynna, OM says
Is the Republican Freedom Caucus going to blow itself up by focusing on purity tests? Looks likely.